Shopping online or in Person

SHOPPING ONLINE OR IN PERSON

1. Using an on-line retailer of your choice, find what you are looking for. What was this experience like? Use the 4 P's of the marketing mix as a framework for your discussion.

The on-line retailer that I selected for this Assignment was Victoria’s Secret. I basically looked for three items from this retailer which included the following:

• Evening dress

• Shoes &

• Sleepwear

In just five minutes I had the perfect evening dress picked out along with shoes to make the perfect outfit. I was really impressed with what this on-line retailer did, they let me view the dress from a couple different views but as I scrolled down Victoria’s secret also included shoes that would match along with a necklace to complete the outfit. With the click of a few buttons and a total of five minutes I had two of my three items checked off my list. The same could be said for the sleepwear, I clicked on sleepwear and when that screen appeared I was given a list of several categories such as babydolls, pajama sets, pj separates, loungewear etc. In just a few minutes and a few clicks I had three different sets picked out and I was ready to “checkout.”

One of the promotions that were easy to find throughout the sight was: $15 off an order $100.00+, $30 off an order $150.00+, and so on. If you receive the catalogs from this retailer there is also promotions they run in there and when you buy on-line you enter the code from your book to get additional percents or monies off.

I found that there was a lot of promotional pricing, some of the offers included “buy a velour outfit and receive a free tank (shirt),” and “buy this sweater and receive a free lip kit.” I also found that there was a lot of bundle pricing on this site primarily pertaining toward their body care, skin care, makeup etc.

2. Visit a large book retailer such as Chapters, Indigo Books or Barnes & Noble. Describe the experience using the same framework, but also from a sensory perspective.

I visited Barnes & Noble and found that one pricing strategy this retailer uses is economy pricing. The prices seen here are prices that I would see for a similar product somewhere else. Another pricing strategy utilized by this retailer was bundle pricing, they offered gift baskets full of fun stuff for kids all for only one price. Promotional pricing was also used, $5.00 off a purchase of $50.00 or more.

I noticed that they use direct channels; item goes ‘direct’ to the consumer