Assignment 2: Executive Summary of M3: Assignment 2

Marketting

Hakim Callahan

Argosy University

Marketting

Alibaba has become one of the most popular business platforms in the modern business. It provides an online marketplace where individuals and businesses sell and buy products both locally and internationally. Whether the customer is buying in bulk or purchasing individual items, Alibaba has modified its operations in such a manner that the consumer searches for the desired product, verifies the supplier and makes the required payment safely. Buying a phone from the platform has become highly popular because of the convenience involved as well as the reduced risk of loss of the paid amount. This paper evaluates Alibaba’s buying process from the marketer’s point of view based on the five stages of the buying decision process.

Problem Recognition

The starting point of making a purchasing decision is identification of a problem. For instance, in this case herein, the customer is interested in buying a phone of their choice. Before the customer is able to gain access to the products and as well view the kind of services that are offered by Alibaba, they are required to create an Alibaba Account. The second stage herein is to search for the products one is interested in. Alibaba has offered a variety of approaches of doing this. However, the most basic method of doing it is entering the key phrases or words into the products search bar.

The products can further be searched based on specific categories. For instance, products such as screens, television, phones and other related technology items are evident in Alibaba.com. It hence follows that filtering these items makes it easy for the customer to select from a specific category of the product they are interested in. This is especially applicable if the consumer is not sure about the kind of products or services they might be requiring at the moment. For instance, there are customers who would be interested in buying the latest phones offered by a specific company. This is one of the reasons that has made Alibaba.com categorize its items into these specific groups. It is aimed at giving the customer an incredible experience to choose from a wide pool of items that best addresses their interests (Dholakia, 2016). It is also one of the most effective approaches aimed at enhancing customer experience and satisfaction.

Search and Determination of Alternatives

Once the problem has been identified, the customer is interested in understanding the best available product in the market. It hence follows that similar products could be stocked by different supplies by varying in a variety of dynamics (Dholakia, 2016). These include quality, price and product features such as quality of the camera, memory among other things. It hence follows that one of the ways of achieving this in Alibaba.com is enabling the customer to filter the results and narrow them as much as possible. For instance, if they are interested in iPhone 5, the customer is keen to evaluate the alternatives stocked by different suppliers of this product. As mentioned earlier, despite the fact that the product features could be the same, it could be differing in a number of respects.

Alibaba.com has provided the customer with the discretion to navigate their searches through customized options. For instance, instead of making a search of the phone by the product name, the search can be narrowed further so that the results are based on the suppliers who have the product in store. This makes the customer have knowledge of the suppliers having the product they are interested in. The freedom of offering varied options of customizing search is key to customer satisfaction. According to Iman (2017), the customer is keen to buy the product that best satisfies their needs in terms of quality, price and other related metrics that influence consumer buying behaviors. Secondly, the consumer is keen to get the fairest deal. This is why Alibaba has made iteasy for the customers to use the criteria they find convenient to establish the kind of products and services offered by these companies.

Evaluation of Alternatives

Once the search is made, the customer now has a variety of phone models that they have seen alluring and have captured their attention. In order to make purchasing decision, they will need to compare the deals associated with different suppliers. It is for this reason that Alibaba.com gives the customers a chance to post a request for quotation of the specific products. For instance, a customer could request for a quotation specifying their needs and comparing the products offered by multiple suppliers in the effort to find out which supplier gives the best deal (Iman, 2017).

There are different ways in which the company has facilitated the process of addressing the confusion that comes with a wide variety of alternatives. The stating point is entering the specific name of the product as well as the desired quantity. This is based on the rationale that bulk buying is more advantageous as compared to buying individual items (Lamb, 2018). Bulk buying comes with hefty discounts as compared to the approach of purchasing a specific item. This is why the customer has all the metrics required to influence their purchasing decisions installed in the platform. Other relevant product specifications such as the shipping destination could influence the price of the products. Automation of the buying process makes purchasing of a phone, for instance, very easy.

It is important to underscore the fact that scammers are numerous over the internet. One of the ways in which Alibaba has succeeded to overcome their operations is the issuance of the verification badges. It hence follows that in the process to determine alternatives, the customer could find a supplier who gives the best deal. It is important that they go ahead and search for their profiles for the purposes of ascertaining their verification badges. Verifying legitimacy of the suppliers reduces financial fraud (Lamb, 2018). Scammers could subtly trick the customer to have the best deal so as to lure them to make payment. Once the payment is made, the deal is already sealed and no product is delivered to the customer.

Verification badges are a significant way to ensure that the supplier has fulfilled all the authentication and verification inspection requirements by Alibaba as well as from a third-party verification service. Alibaba has also established an Onsite Check feature. This plays a major role in verifying the premises of the suppliers to make sure that onsite operations of the said supplier actually exist. Internet fraud and especially when it comes to making purchases over the internet requires comprehensive measures to seal all the loopholes that could be used by criminals to lure customers to enter into illegitimate deals.

Purchase Decision

Evaluation of the alternatives of different phone models in Alibaba pushes the customer to making a final decision. There are other key considerations to make in making purchasing decisions. To start with is the type of supplier who will supply the product. The second factor is the acceptable mode of payment and the third consideration is the warehouse from which the product will be collected based on the country where the customer situated. This is why it is of great importance that the supplier is contacted for verification of such details before the purchase is made and the delivery process initiated.

It is important to underscore the fact that Alibaba purchasing is typically conducted in different languages. However, English is the default language used when making communications with the client. Language preferences of the customers limited to the internationally recognized languages could be accepted in the effort to help the customer to make the best purchase decision. The customer is required to verify the posted price and as well engage the supplier to find out whether a price reduction is possible based on key metrics such as discounts. Once this is solved, Alibaba directs the customer to negotiate the payment price as well as the method. This include on various finance logistics including the payment currency as well as the preferred method of payment.

Once all pending issues above are resolved, the final step in the purchasing decision is completing a secure payment. It is important to underscore the fact that the customers should be keen to choose the low risk payment method. Trusted international companies such as Paypal are used in making payments. If this is not possible, Alibaba allows the customers to see a third-party escrow service. Alibaba has established a secure payment service where funds are held until parties, that is, the buyer and supplier, confirms delivery of the product in good quality, quantity and size as ordered. This is a new feature that Alibaba is striving to adopt in order to enhance customer service. It hence follows that its success is evident in key countries such as Taiwan, Hong Kong and China. Alibaba allows the customer to dispute the purchase if any mistake is made.

Post-Purchase Evaluation

Once the purchase is made, the final step of the phone buying process at Alibaba is inspecting the product to make sure that all the conditions agreed upon have been fulfilled. It is for this reason that the customers are advised to inspect the products thoroughly to verify quality and other related metrics. If something goes wrong, the customer can make a claim of having received a product of wrong quantity or low quality than advertised. Alibaba’s help center is established to address such issues. The customer is required to provide sufficient evidence as to why they are not satisfied with the product and the case is then carried forward by Alibaba to the supplier.

Post-evaluation process at Alibaba enables the customer to assess whether they are satisfied or dissatisfied with the purchase in question (Blythe, 2018). It is founded on the basis that how the customers feel about the products offered significantly influences whether they will consider buying or referring someone to purchase the same product or service in future. Ensuring the customer has a chance to give feedback is also targeted to eradicate issues of cognitive dissonance triggered by post-purchase psychological anxiety and tension (Blythe, 2018). The customer ought to be satisfied that they truly made the right decision.

References

Blythe, J. (2018). Consumer behaviour. London: SAGE.

Dholakia, N. (2016). Global e-commerce and online marketing: Watching the evolution. Westport (Connecticut): Quorum Books.

Iman, A. H. (2017). Basic aspects of property market research. Skudai, Johor: Penerbit University Teknologi Malaysia.

Lamb, C. W. (2018). Essentials of marketing. Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning