Suggested Answers

 E-commerce

E-commerce (electronic commerce) is the buying and selling of goods and services, or the
transmitting of funds or data, over an electronic network, primarily the internet. These business
transactions occur either as business-to-business (B2B), business-to-consumer (B2C), consumer-to-
consumer or consumer-to-business.

 Major application of E-commerce

1. Retail: E-retailing, often known as online retailing, is the sale of products and services by
businesses to customers via online stores. This is done through the use of tools such as virtual
shopping carts and e-catalogs. There are several e-commerce applications in this industry.
2. Accounting: Finance and e-commerce are more intertwined than ever before. Banks and stock
exchanges make extensive use of e-commerce in their operations. Balance checks, bill payments,
money transfers, and more services are available through online banking. Online stock trading
allows users to trade stocks online by providing information about equities such as performance
reports, analysis, charts, and so on via websites.
3. Production: In the manufacturing industry, e-commerce serves as a platform for firms to conduct
electronic transactions. Groups of firms can carry out their activities more smoothly by combining
purchasing and selling, exchanging market conditions, inventory check information, etc.
4. Trade: Applying e-commerce to trade elevates it to a higher level, allowing individuals to
participate without regard for geographical borders. This encourages more participation, more
bargaining and contributes to the success of the trade.
5. Advertising: Development and commercialization strategies like pricing, product characterization,
and customer relationship can be boosted by utilizing e-commerce. This will give consumers a
more enriched and personalized purchasing experience. Digital marketing tactics have grown in
importance as a means of promoting enterprises.
6. Digital Shopping: People's buying habits have shifted dramatically in the previous several years.
"Go online" has become a success mantra for all enterprises. Online shopping is easy, pleasant,
and, in most cases, inexpensive. The success of online shopping applications like Flipkart and
Amazon demonstrates this.
7. Web and mobile applications: Mobile commerce or m-commerce application is a subset of retail
e-commerce. Mobile or web application development has become a must-have for companies
looking to showcase their skills. Purchases are made by the consumer using mobile or web
applications that are optimized for the merchant. These programs also provide payment security
by utilizing secure e-payment mechanisms.
8. Digital Reservations: Travel and tourism is a flourishing sector today, and online booking is a
developing e-commerce application. Online booking allows customers to buy travel necessities
such as train/flight tickets, book hotel rooms, get tourism packages, transportation services, and so
on. It makes people's trips comfortable and easy because everything can be set at the tip of their
fingertips.

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9. Digital Media: E-books and digital periodicals are gradually displacing traditional printed
publications. It has numerous advantages, including portability, lightweight, accessibility from
anywhere, and so on. They are also environmentally friendly because they assist in reducing paper
use and saving forests. Because of these factors, internet publication, often known as e-publishing,
has grown in popularity.
10. Internet Banking: E-Banking, often known as online banking, is an e-commerce program that has
streamlined people's time-consuming and complex banking operations. It allows bank customers
to do transactions online without having to wait in lengthy lines at banks. To provide virtual
banking services to their consumers, most of the banks now have their web applications.

 Types of E-commerce

1. B2C (Business-to-consumer): B2C businesses sell directly to their end-users. Anything you buy in
an online store as a consumer — from wardrobe and household supplies to entertainment — is
done as part of a B2C transaction.
2. B2B (Business-to-business) In a B2B business model, a business sells its product or service to
another business. Sometimes the buyer is the end-user, but often the buyer resells to the
consumer. B2B transactions generally have a longer sales cycle, but higher-order value and more
recurring purchases. In 2021, 60% of B2B buyers were millennials — nearly double the amount
from 2012. As younger generations enter the age of making business transactions, B2B selling in
the online space is becoming more important.
3. B2B2C (Business-to-business-to-consumer): B2B2C stands for Business-to-Business-to-
Consumer. It is a business model where a company sells its product or service in partnership with
another organization to an end customer. Unlike when you white label a product — where a
company rebrands an item to present it as its own — the end customer understands that they are
buying a product or using a service from the original company.
4. B2G (Business-to-government): Business-to-government (B2G) is an ecommerce model where a
business sells and markets its products to government entities or public administrations —
whether local, county, state or federal. This model relies on the successful bidding of government
contracts. A government agency will typically put up a request for proposal (RFP) and ecommerce
businesses will have to bid on these projects.
5. C2B (Consumer-to-business): C2B businesses allow individuals to sell goods and services to
companies. In this ecommerce model, a site might enable customers to post the work they want to
be completed and have businesses bid for the opportunity. Affiliate marketing services would also
be considered C2B. Recent innovators have used this model creatively to connect companies to
social media influencers to market their products.
6. D2C (Direct-to-consumer): A direct-to-consumer business sells its own product directly to its end
customers, without the help of third-party wholesalers or online retailers. As opposed to other
business models such as B2B2C, there is no middle man between the consumer and a business.
7. C2C (Consumer-to-consumer): C2C ecommerce businesses — sometimes referred to as online
marketplaces — connect consumers to exchange goods and services and typically make their
money by charging transaction or listing fees. C2C businesses benefit from self-propelled growth

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 by motivated buyers and sellers, but face a key challenge in quality control and technology
maintenance.

 Difference between E-commerce and E-business

Basis for E-COMMERCE E-BUSINESS

comparison
Meaning Trading of merchandise, over the Running business using the
internet is known as E-commerce. internet is known as E-business.
What is it? Subset Superset
Is it limited to Yes No
monetary
transactions?
What they carry Commercial transactions Business transactions
out?
Approach Extroverted Ambivert
Requires Website Website, ERP, CRM etc.
Which network is Internet Internet, Intranet & Extranet
used?

 Difference between Traditional commerce and E-commerce

Basis for
TRADITIONAL COMMERCE E-COMMERCE
comparison
Meaning Traditional commerce is a branch of e-Commerce means carryng out
business which focuses on the commercial transactions or
exchange of products and services, exchange of information,
and includes all those activities electronically on the internet.
which encourages exchange, in
some way or the other.
Processing of Manual Automatic
Transactions
Accessibility Limited Time 24*7*365
Physical Goods can be inspected physically Goods cannot be inspected
inspection before purchase physically before purchase.
Customer Face-to-face Screen-to-face
interaction
Scope of Limited to particular area Worldwide reach
business
Information No uniform platform for exchange Provides a uniform platform for
exchange of information. information exchange.
Resource focus Supply side Demand side
Business Linear End-to-end
Relationship
Marketing One way marketing One-to-one marketing
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 Payment Cash, cheque, credit card, etc. Credit card, fund transfer etc.
Delivery of Instantly Takes time
goods
 E-commerce security

E-commerce security refers to a set of globally accepted guidelines that ensure safe purchasing
experiences on the internet. These include protocols that protect both the businesses selling their
products online, as well as the customers sharing their personal information to purchase these goods.

 E Commerce Security threats

1. Financial Frauds: Financial fraud has afflicted online businesses since their inception. Hackers
make unauthorized transactions and wipe out the trail costing businesses significant amounts of
losses.
2. Spam: Where emails are known as a strong medium for higher sales, it also remains one of the
highly used mediums for spamming. Nonetheless, comments on your blog or contact forms are
also an open invitation for online spammers where they leave infected links in order to harm you.
They often send them via social media inbox and wait for you to click on such messages.
Moreover, spamming not only affects your website’s security, but it also damages your website
speed too.
3. Phishing: It is one of the common security threats of ecommerce where hackers masquerade as
legitimate businesses and send emails to your clients to trick them into revealing their sensitive
information by simply presenting them with a fake copy of your legitimate website or anything
that allows the customer to believe the request is coming from the business.
4. Bots: You may recognize bots from your good books such as those that crawl the web and help
you rank your website in Search Engine Result Pages. However, there are exclusive bots developed
to scrape websites for their pricing and inventory information. The hackers use such information to
change the pricing of your online store, or to garner the best-selling inventory in shopping carts,
resulting in a decline in sales and revenue.
5. DDoS Attacks: Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks and DOS (Denial of Service) attacks
aim to disrupt your website and affect overall sales. These attacks flood your servers with
numerous requests until they succumb to them and your website crashes.
6. Brute Force Attacks: These attacks target your online store’s admin panel in an attempt to figure
out your password by brute-force. It uses programs that establish a connection to your website
and use every possible combination to crack your password. You can protect yourself against such
attacks by using a strong, complex password. Do remember to change it regularly.
7. SQL Injections: SQL injections are cyber-attacks intended to access your database by targeting
your query submission forms. They inject malicious code in your database, collect the data and
then delete it later on.
8. XSS: Hackers target your website visitors by infecting your online store with malign code. You can
safeguard yourself against it by implementing Content Security Policy.

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9. Trojan Horses: Admins and customers might have Trojan Horses downloaded on their systems. It
is one amongst the worst network security threats where attackers use these programs to swipe
sensitive information from their computers with ease.

 Difference between private key and public key encryption

Key Private Key Public Key

Algorithm Private key is used for both encrypting and Public key is used only for the
decrypting the sensitive data. It is shared purpose of encrypting the data.
between the sender and receiver of
encrypted data.
Performanc The private key mechanism is faster. The public key mechanism is
e slower.
Secrecy The private key is kept secret and not The public key is free to use and
public to anyone apart from the sender and the private key is kept secret only.
the receiver.
Type The private key mechanism is called The public key mechanism is
"symmetric" because a single key is shared called "asymmetric" because there
between two parties. are two keys for different
purposes.
Sharing The private key is to be shared between The public key can be used by
two parties. anyone but the private key is to be
shared between two parties only.
Targets Performance testing checks the reliability, Load testing checks the
scalability, and speed of the system. sustainability of the system.
 Cryptography

Cryptography is associated with the process of converting ordinary plain text into unintelligible text
and vice-versa. It is a method of storing and transmitting data in a particular form so that only those
for whom it is intended can read and process it. Cryptography not only protects data from theft or
alteration, but can also be used for user authentication.

 How public key cryptography solves the drawback of private key cryptography.

Private key cryptography also known as symmetric key cryptography, employs identical private keys
for users, while they also hold unique public keys. “Symmetric key” refers to the identical private keys
shared by users. A big disadvantage of symmetric key algorithms is the requirement of shared secret
key, with one copy at each end.

 Since keys are subject to potential discovery by a cryptographic adversary, they need to be
changed often and kept secure during distribution and in service.
 Choosing, distributing and storing keys without error and without loss is difficult to reliably
achieve.

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On the other hand, public key cryptography involves a pair of keys known as a public key and a
private key (a public key pair), which are associated with an entity that needs o authenticate its identity
electronically or to sign or encrypt data. Each public key is published and the corresponding private
key is kept secret. Data that is encrypted with the public key can be decrypted only with the
corresponding private key. The asymmetric key algorithms. The unique private and public keys
provided to each other allows them to conduct secure exchanges of information without first needing
to devise some way to secretly swap keys.

 Firewall

A firewall is a network security device that monitors incoming and outgoing network traffic and
permits or blocks data packets based on a set of security rules. Its purpose is to establish a barrier
between your internal network and incoming traffic from external sources (such as the internet) in
order to block malicious traffic like viruses and hackers.

 Uses of firewall

A firewall is an essential component of the system. It can be present in any form, software, hardware
or as a cloud-computing mechanism. The following are the uses of a firewall that a user must
understand to guard her/his system.

1. Prevents the Passage of Unwanted Content

2. Prevents Unauthorized Remote Access
3. Prevents Indecent Content
4. Guarantees Security Based on Protocol and IP Address
5. Protects Seamless Operations in Enterprises
6. Protects Conversations and Coordination Contents
7. Prevents Destructive Content from Online Videos and Games

 Importance of Using a Firewall

The following points listed below are the most relevant in explaining the importance of firewalls is as
follows:

1. Monitoring Network Traffic: Firewall security starts with effective monitoring of network traffic
based on pre-established rules and filters to keep the systems protected. Monitoring of network
traffic involves the following security measures.
a. Source or destination-based blocking of incoming network traffic: This is the most
common feature of most firewalls, whereby the firewalls block the incoming traffic by
looking into the source of the traffic.
b. Outgoing network traffic can be blocked based on the source or destination: Many
firewalls can also filter data between your internal network and the Internet. You might, for
example, want to keep employees from visiting inappropriate websites.
c. Block network traffic based on content: More modern firewalls can screen network
traffic for inappropriate content and block traffic depending on that. A firewall that is
integrated with a virus scanner, for example, can prevent virus-infected files from entering
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 your network. Other firewalls work in tandem with e-mail services to filter out unwanted
messages.
d. Report on network traffic and firewall activities: When filtering network traffic to and
from the Internet, it’s also crucial to know what your firewall is doing, who tried to break
into your network, and who tried to view prohibited information on the Internet. A
reporting mechanism of some sort is included in almost all firewalls.
2. Stops Virus Attacks and spyware: With cyber thieves creating hundreds of thousands of new
threats every day, including spyware, viruses, and other attacks like email bombs, denial of
service, and malicious macros, it’s critical that you put protections in place to keep your
systems safe. The number of entry points criminals can exploit to get access to your systems
grows as your systems become more complicated and stronger. Spyware and malware
programs designed to penetrate your networks, manage your devices, and steal your data are
one of the most common ways unwelcome persons obtain access. Firewalls are a crucial line
of defense against malicious software.
3. Preventing Hacks: Cyber threats are evolving at a fast pace and are widespread. Firewalls
keep hackers out of your data, emails, systems, and other sensitive information. A firewall can
either entirely block a hacker or push them to choose a more vulnerable target.
4. Promotes Privacy: Having a firewall keeps the data safe and builds an environment of privacy
that is trustworthy and a system without a firewall is accepting every connection into the
network from anyone. Without a firewall, there would be no way to detect incoming threats. As
a result, malicious users may be able to gain access to your devices and thereby compromising
privacy. It’s critical to take advantage of existing defenses to safeguard your network and the
personal information stored on your computer against cybercrime.

 Processes involved in handling credit card

1. Making the purchase: The customer finds a product that he or she likes and decides to make the
purchase. The customer can use a credit card to pay for the item in the store, through an online
payment gateway, by phone, or by mail.
2. Entering the transaction: The credit card is swiped or dipped using a secure credit card reader, or
the card and transaction information is manually entered using a virtual terminal. For eCommerce
transactions, the cardholder keys in the payment details on a hosted payment form on the
website.
3. Transmitting the data: The credit card data is encrypted and transmitted for approval as the
terminal, POS system, or secure payment gateway is connected to the processing network. Point-
to-point encryption (P2PE) can help protect the sensitive payment information from the moment
the card is swiped or dipped all the way through to authorization and approval. This security
method can help maintain compliance with PCI security standards.
4. Authorizing the transaction: Once the data is transmitted, the credit card issuer can approve or
decline the transaction. This is based on the validity of the card, the amount of the transaction, as
well as the cardholder’s available funds.
5. Responding to processor and merchant: If the transaction is approved, the processor and the
merchant receive an authorization response.
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6. Completing the transaction: The merchant completes the transaction by issuing a receipt to the
customer. For eCommerce orders, the merchant then prepares to ship the items to the customer.
7. Submitting a batch closure: The merchant completes the credit card payment process with a
batch closure. This closes out the transactions that have been processed on that day. The
processor’s acquiring bank then collects the funds from the credit card issuers.
8. Depositing the funds: The processor’s acquiring bank then deposits the funds into the
merchant’s business account. This typically takes up to 48 hours.

 Different types of e-payment system

Credit Card: The most popular form of payment for e-commerce transactions is through credit cards.
It is simple to use; the customer has to just enter their credit card number and date of expiry in the
appropriate area on the seller’s web page. To improve the security system, increased security
measures, such as the use of a card verification number (CVN), have been introduced to on-line credit
card payments. The CVN system helps detect fraud by comparing the CVN number with the
cardholder's information

Debit Card: Debit cards are the second largest e-commerce payment medium in India. Customers
who want to spend online within their financial limits prefer to pay with their Debit cards. With the
debit card, the customer can only pay for purchased goods with the money that is already there in
his/her bank account as opposed to the credit card where the amounts that the buyer spends are
billed to him/her and payments are made at the end of the billing period.

Smart Card: It is a plastic card embedded with a microprocessor that has the customer’s personal
information stored in it and can be loaded with funds to make online transactions and instant
payment of bills. The money that is loaded in the smart card reduces as per the usage by the customer
and has to be reloaded from his/her bank account.

E-Wallet: E-Wallet is a prepaid account that allows the customer to store multiple credit cards, debit
card and bank account numbers in a secure environment. This eliminates the need to key in account
information every time while making payments. Once the customer has registered and created E-
Wallet profile, he/she can make payments faster.

Net banking: This is another popular way of making e-commerce payments. It is a simple way of
paying for online purchases directly from the customer’s bank. It uses a similar method to the debit
card of paying money that is already there in the customer’s bank. Net banking does not require the
user to have a card for payment purposes but the user needs to register with his/her bank for the net
banking facility. While completing the purchase the customer just needs to put in their net banking id
and pin.

Mobile Payment: One of the latest ways of making online payments are through mobile phones.
Instead of using a credit card or cash, all the customer has to do is send a payment request to his/her
service provider via text message; the customer’s mobile account or credit card is charged for the
purchase. To set up the mobile payment system, the customer just has to download a software from

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his/her service provider’s website and then link the credit card or mobile billing information to the
software.

Amazon Pay: Another convenient, secure and quick way to pay for online purchases is through
Amazon Pay. Use your information which is already stored in your Amazon account credentials to log
in and pay at leading merchant websites and apps. Your payment information is safely stored with
Amazon and accessible on thousands of websites and apps where you love to shop.

Cryptocurrencies: Though not popular yet, cryptocurrencies are rapidly but surely gaining a spot as a
favorable payment method, particularly with generation Z.

 E-mail marketing

Email marketing is a powerful marketing channel, a form of direct marketing as well as digital
marketing, that uses email to promote your business’s products or services. It can help make your
customers aware of your latest items or offers by integrating it into your marketing automation
efforts.

 Methods/ Strategies of email marketing

1. Design your emails: A good email marketing strategy is incomplete without an email design.
Sending a plain text email works, but an HTML email has more appeal to persuade the customer
to click on the CTA. To design your emails, layout the key elements you want to include in the
email. Like the subject line, body text, graphics, CTA, and the footer.
2. Include a catchy email signature: An email signature makes your emails look professional,
helping you build trust, connect with your audience, and show subscribers a glimpse of your
brand’s personality. Consider these tips when creating your email signature.
3. Segment your audience: Since your subscribers differ in levels of readiness to convert, segment
them based on their interests, unique characteristics, etc., to send appropriate content to the right
people. Determine your critical segments as well and target them with relevant campaigns.
4. Personalize your content: Email marketing personalization targets your email campaigns to
specific audiences based on their last purchased product, demographics, etc. Tailor your content
to your customers’ needs and provide offers relevant to their interests to give them personalized
experiences.
5. Use short subject lines: Did you know that almost 47% of email recipients' open rates are
because of the subject lines? Whereas a personalized email campaign is more likely to have open
rates by 22%. A subject can either make or break the email campaign’s success. Despite being a
simple one-liner, it takes good crafting skills to conjure catchy words with a better chance of
email subscribers opening their emails.
6. Automate your campaigns: Effective email marketing campaigns for small businesses require
aligning aspects of your campaign, but this takes time and effort. Use email automation software
to automate your campaigns, including setting up pre-set conditions and triggers, such as

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 particular times and subscriber actions. For example, set campaign triggers to send welcome
emails to new subscribers.
7. Leverage social media: Social media networks are powerful ways to build your email list and
continue to engage your audience. According to an Ipsos study, nearly 85% of people who use
the web use email instead of 62% who use social media networks. It is worth noting that all social
media networks are included in the 62%. Privy conducted tests on driving subscribers to their
landing page and found that Facebook boosted posts increased traffic by 46.7%.
8. Optimize for mobile: Based on statistics, 42.3% of users will delete emails that are not optimized
for mobile, and that’s significant conversion and sales opportunities down the drain. Make your
email campaigns mobile-friendly to provide an excellent user experience for your subscribers and
increase engagement.
9. Track the right metrics: Identify your metrics to assess your email marketing campaigns’
performance and uncover areas of improvement.
10. Optimize CTA's: Marketing Experiments ran tests on calls to action in email marketing. They
found that CTAs that offer high value at low cost to the recipient get more clicks. One study
found that using CTA that were button-based increased click-through rates compared to link-
based CTAs by 28%.
11. A/B Testing: Don’t send emails without split testing. You need to make sure the email version
you want works. Some email marketing services or tools like Mail munch provide A/B testing
tools so that users can test the landing pages and emails before finalizing the version. Also,
consider how you can collect data from campaigns to test elements and find out how you can
create better future campaigns by noting what works well and what does not so well.
12. Add visuals: According to HubSpot, 65%of users prefer emails that contain mostly images vs.
35% who prefer text mostly. Constant Contact surveyed over 2 million customer emails to find
out if there was a correlation between the number of images in an email and audience
engagement. They found that – With some industry-specific exceptions — emails with three or
fewer images and approximately 20 lines of text result in the highest click-through rates.
13. Focus on the best time to send emails: One of the most common blunders amateurs do?
Sending an email at the worst time. What good is an email if you send it late at night when your
customer is sleeping? Focusing on the timings matters the most. Choose the best time to send
emails wisely to improve the open and click-through rate. A customer’s loyalty towards your
brand increases once you reach them at the right time.
14. Address inactive subscribers: Research shows that 63% of an email list is inactive on average. In
other words, these people are less likely to follow up with your follow-up emails. So how can you
re-engage these subscribers? Re-engagement campaigns are a good place to start.
15. Contests and Giveaways: Developing on the previous point - a referral contest is a great way to
build your email list, and you should consider it a part of your email marketing strategy. The
principles are very simple. You say to your audience that you will choose one (or more) email that
will subscribe to your list in the next three weeks and give the owner of that email a prize. Free 6
months on your platform, $50 credit in your online store - whatever fits your overall business
strategy.

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 EDI (Electronic Data Interchange)

EDI, which stands for electronic data interchange, is the intercompany communication of business
documents in a standard format. The simple definition of EDI is a standard electronic format that
replaces paper-based documents such as purchase orders or invoices. By automating paper-based
transactions, organizations can save time and eliminate costly errors caused by manual processing.

 Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is an advertising model in which a company compensates third-party publishers to

generate traffic or leads to the company’s products and services. The third-party publishers are
affiliates, and the commission fee incentivizes them to find ways to promote the company.

 Strategies of affiliate marketing

1. Choose the Right Affiliates: Affiliate marketing allows you to leverage the power of influence to
get people to buy from you. If you want to influence consumers' buying decisions, you should
choose to work with someone who has an engaged audience that trusts them. The best way to
start finding good-fit affiliates is by using Affiliate Recruitment Software. These tools can help you
build processes for discovering and recruiting high-performing affiliates at scale.
2. Attract Sales with Coupons, Deals, and Promotions: Everybody loves a great deal. Leveraging
coupons and deals is one of the best affiliate marketing strategies to boost sales. That’s because
many consumers love the savings power of coupons. They often search for discount vouchers on
various coupon and deals sites before shopping for any product. Check out these statistics to
understand consumers’ love for coupons and deals.
3. Leverage the Power of Niche Influencers: Influencer marketing has become much more than a
buzzword in recent years. And brands are continuously learning to tap into this source of referrals
effectively. Many brands choose to work with a large number of social influencers and bloggers in
their niches. Influencers have more authentic relationships with their followers. They can effectively
get their audience to trust your brand and convince them to use your products or services.
Influencers may not send you huge amounts of traffic compared to coupon sites. But the audience
they send is targeted and more likely to be interested in your product.
4. Build a Robust Affiliate Network: Instead of tapping into various affiliate networks, build your
own. It can be really difficult to recruit your first few affiliates. But expanding your affiliate network
is comparatively easier. To attract affiliates, you should follow a clear, to-the-point approach.
Provide your potential affiliates with all of the necessary information such as what to do, how it
works, and the commission you’ll pay. You should also encourage your affiliates to recruit more
sub-affiliates. You can offer them a small commission of the sales that their sub-affiliates drive.
That can be quite encouraging.
5. Leverage Affiliate Promotions from Multiple Sources: Instead of focusing on just Instagram
influencers or coupon sites, spend the time to reach out to your audience through affiliates from

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 multiple sources. You can test a variety of affiliate marketing strategies to see which audience
responds the best and is the easiest to reach.
6. Optimize Your Product Pages for Conversions: Many brands invest in affiliate marketing
strategies and expect their affiliates to drive conversions on their own. You can't rely completely
on your affiliates and sit back to watch sales come in. Affiliate marketing can help you to drive
interested consumers to your product pages. But it’s your job to make sure that they buy your
product once they reach there.
7. Keep an Eye on Trending Influencers: It’s not easy to know who will be trending next, but if you
work with an influencer that starts trending, you’ll see a significant increase in leads and sales. The
best way to find trending influencers is by following trends. Go on social media apps like
Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter and look at what’s trending and which influencers are actively
posting with hashtags related to the trend.
8. Run Ads Around Peak Shopping Times: Holiday times see a large increase in spending,
especially if those products are related to the holiday. Retail sales figures show that certain
markets like jewelry, electronics, and toys/hobbies have a larger last-quarter percentage than the
rest of the year.
9. Leverage micro-influencers: Mega influencers, influencers with more than 1 million followers,
might sound like an enticing venture, but they can be costly. This is especially true for mega
influencers who have over 100 million followers. Someone like Christiano Ronaldo, who has over
400 million followers on Instagram is getting paid up to $1 million USD for a sponsored post.

 Viral Marketing

Viral marketing is a sales technique that involves organic or word-of-mouth information about a
product or service to spread at an ever-increasing rate. The internet and the advent of social media
have greatly increased the number of viral messages in the form of memes, shares, likes, and forwards.

 Internet marketing examples

1. Search engine optimization (SEO): Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of optimizing
your website to rank higher in search results. This strategy helps you appear in more relevant
search results, so you can drive more qualified traffic to your site.
2. Content marketing: Content marketing strategy focuses on sharing valuable, industry-relevant
information with your audience. With quality, relevant content, you can build up an attentive
audience and get them to check out your business.
3. Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising: Online paid advertising generally involves paid search ads and
display ads. Most online paid advertising functions on a pay-per-click basis, where businesses pay
for the ad only when users click.
4. Social media advertising: Social media advertising is also another cost-effective Internet
marketing strategy to start generating an online presence.
5. Social media marketing: Social media networks provide a great opportunity to market online
because of how easy it is to use the networks to share information. That’s why social media
marketing is a great option for your business.

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6. Email marketing: Email marketing enables you to connect one-on-one with leads interested in
your products or services.
7. Web design: The web design of your site is vital for online marketing. Your website acts as your
business’s central hub. Your presence and activities on other online platforms most often lead your
customers to your website where they can convert.

 Mobile marketing

Mobile marketing is any advertising activity that promotes products and services via mobile devices,
such as tablets and smartphones. It makes use of features of modern mobile technology, including
location services, to tailor marketing campaigns based on an individual's location.

 How people use mobile devices

1. People Own Smartphones: There are currently 6.4 billion smartphone users worldwide (Statista,
2021). Considering the global population is at 7.9 billion, that means a smartphone penetration of
over 80 percent. The number of smartphone users is also rising rapidly over time, evidenced by the
fact that just five years ago in 2016, there were just 3.7 billion smartphone users. In other words,
the number of smartphone users has increased by a whopping 73.9 percent in just half a decade.
2. Time Spent on Mobile Devices: Now that we have an idea of how many people own
smartphones, the next thing you need to know is how much time is spent using them. In 2019, the
average US adult spent 3 hours and 43 minutes a day on mobile devices. That marked the first
time that the time spent on mobile exceeded the time spent watching television, which came in at
3 hours and 35 minutes. This divide is expected to further widen over the next two years, with time
spent on mobile devices forecast to hit just under four hours (3 hours and 54 minutes) by 2021,
compared to 3 hours and 22 minutes of television time.
3. People Using Phones for Product Research: The latest mobile usage statistics show that nearly
seven out of ten internet users in the US say they would look for customer reviews on their phones
while in-store before approaching an employee (eMarketer, 2019). And researching product
reviews isn’t the only thing mobile users are doing in-store. 58 percent of them are also looking
for other products similar to the ones they’re thinking about purchasing, and 55 percent are
looking up product specifications.
4. Mobile Shopping: The latest mobile statistics hint at a high reliance on online shopping on
mobile devices and, in particular, through apps. More than half (55.4 percent) of internet users use
their mobile phones to purchase products online and seven in ten (69.4 percent) say they use
shopping apps on their mobile devices – be it a phone or a tablet (Data Reporter, 2021). Of all the
internet users worldwide, females aged between 16 and 24 shop on their mobiles the most, with
63 percent of them having purchased a product online with their mobile devices in the past
month. On the other hand, males between 25 and 34 years old carry out mobile commerce the
most at 58.1 percent. In comparison, just 35.8 percent of male internet users between 55 and 64
have done so.
5. The Option of Mobile Shopping: Given the ease and commodity of online shopping and the
widespread use of mobile devices by consumers, many shoppers consider the lack of the option of
mobile shopping to be a dealbreaker. So if you’re still not convinced of the benefits of setting up
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 your ecommerce store for mobile commerce, consider this statistic: Almost six out of every ten
shoppers say that being able to purchase products on mobile devices is a key factor when it
comes to choosing brands or retailers to buy from (Google, 2019).
6. Mobile Device Statistics: Traffic: Here’s another statistic to highlight the growing popularity of
mobile usage and it revolves around the increasing share of website traffic from mobile devices. At
the start of 2015, less than one-third (31.16 percent) of the global web traffic came from mobile
devices. Fast forward to just six years later to the start of 2021 and that number has skyrocketed to
54.8 percent, marking a 75.9 percent jump (Statista, 2021). In fact, since the third quarter of 2019,
mobile traffic has consistently accounted for more than half of the total website traffic worldwide.
7. Mobile Time Spent with Digital Media: With the above mobile usage statistics, we have
established that many consumers are spending a significant amount of their internet time with
mobile devices. In this statistic, we’ll break down the mediums through which they’re consuming
digital media. Smartphones currently account for 70 percent of the total digital media time in the
US (ComScore, 2019). That’s a 22.8 percent increase from the 57 percent registered in 2017. Of
total time spent consuming digital media on smartphones, we see a stark difference between time
spent on the mobile web and on apps. While the former has stayed the same at seven percent
from 2017, US consumers are now spending 63 percent of their time on digital media via
smartphone apps, up from 50 percent in 2017.
8. Digital Ad Spend on Mobile: Focusing on just digital ads, the latest mobile marketing statistics
show that digital ad spend on mobile amounted to $87.06 in 2019, which is more than two-thirds
of the total digital ad spend of $129.34 billion (eMarketer, 2019).
9. Mobile Retail Conversion Rate: According to the latest mobile statistics, the global retail
conversion rate for mobile phones is 1.82 percent (Smart insights, 2019). It’s significantly higher for
tablets, at 3.49 percent, but still shy of desktops’ conversion rate of 3.90 percent. A similar
distribution is seen among consumers in the US, with conversion rates for mobile phones and
tablets at 1.53 percent and 3.36 percent respectively, while that of desktops stands at 4.14 percent.
10. Voice Search on Mobile: Aside from the fact that, already, more than a quarter of the online
population is using their mobile devices’ voice search feature, its usage looks to be increasing. As
many as 60 percent of smartphone users claim to have tried voice search at least once in the past
12 months (Quora creative, 2019). Though it’s more popular among the younger crowd, with over
half of all teenagers using voice search every day, you may be surprised to know that around nine
percent of those aged between 55 and 64 also do so.

 In-app advertising

In-app advertising is a revenue stream for mobile apps that seek to leverage their real-estate to show
ads to their users. In other words, ad buyers pay them for displaying ads within their app. Genres such
as Gaming, Social, Utility, and Entertainment rely heavily on IAA (alongside IAP revenue).

 5 Core Pillars of Social Media Marketing

1. Strategy: Consider your business goals before you begin making social media marketing
strategies. What are your prime objectives? How can you accomplish your business goals with the
assistance of social media? A myriad number of businesses utilize social media to boost their
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 brand awareness, while others use it for driving website traffic and sales. Social media can likewise
generate engagement around your brand, build a community, and serve as a customer support
channel for your audience. Which social media platforms would be best for marketing? These days,
most utilized social media platforms are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and Pinterest.
There are also some smaller platforms, such as Tumblr, Anchor, etc and social messaging
platforms, such as WhatsApp, Messenger, and WeChat. It is better to choose a few platforms that
you believe your target audience is on than being on all platforms. What sort of content would be
beneficial for you? Various kinds of content include business, educational, entertaining content,
etc. And it can be in the form of images, videos, or links. First, you have to comprehend what kind
of content will attract your target audience. A decent place to begin is to create a brand identity
that will allow you to answer these questions. And you can always change your strategy according
to how your social media posts perform.
2. Planning and publishing: Social media marketing for small businesses starts with having a
consistent presence on social media. About three billion individuals utilize social media.
Subsequently, by being active on social media platforms, you are allowing your brand to be found
by your future customers. Posting a blog post, an image, or a video on a social media platform is
very easy and popular these days. It is much the same as posting on your own Facebook profile.
But instead of posting content arbitrarily, you should schedule the content ahead of time.
3. Listening and engagement: When your business and social media keep on growing, a
conversation about your brand will grow as well. Individuals are going to comment on your social
media posts, tag you in their social media posts, or send you messages directly. Also, people on
social media could speak about your brand without letting you. So you will have to monitor the
discussions about your company on social media. If it is a positive comment, you get a chance to
delight them. Otherwise, you can offer support and fix an issue before it gets worse. To expand
your reach on social media, you also need to publish great content that your audience likes, at the
right timing and frequency.
4. Analytics: Regardless of whether you are posting content or engaging on social media, you will
need to learn how your social media marketing is performing. Are you reaching more people on
social media than you did the last month? What number of good mentions will you get every
month? How many users have utilized the hashtag of your brand name on their social media
posts? A fundamental degree of such data is given by the social media platforms themselves. You
can utilize the wide range of social media analytics tools available to get more in-depth analytics
information or to easily compare it across social media platforms.
5. Advertising: At the point you have more funds to expand your social media marketing, social
media advertising is one area that you can consider. Ads on social media help you to reach a wider
audience than those who follow you. Nowadays, social media advertising platforms are so
powerful that you can determine precisely who you want to show your ads to. Depending on their
backgrounds, interests, attitudes, and more you can create target audiences.

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