Diploma Thesis

8.4Investments and return

Returns from the website can be perceived either as a profit or as an economy, in any way it is participating in the overall performance of the company. It is useful to keep track on the returns from the commercial website to adequately estimate the effort put in the website. A formula of Return on Investment (ROI) can be used for the estimation of website returns.

Where return from investment is consisting from the determined amount of direct sales from the website, potential brought by the new partnership or future contribution of perspective employee. And cost of investment includes amount of money spent on the development and launch of the website and its promotion. It is important to remember that a website is bearing monthly technical maintenance and update and promotion costs.

It is obvious that the website is bringing profit when the monthly income from it is higher than the cost of maintenance, the difference can be called “website net income”. This ratio should be very carefully considered, taking into consideration that costs of promotion and updating are bringing new visitors, thus, potential clients. Therefore, it is necessary to balance between optimal amount of investments and optimal amount of visitors.

Conclusion

Based on the previous chapters where analysis of visitors attitude towards the international retailors’ websites and analysis of the blog, as the major force forming opinion in the Internet were investigates, a list of recommendations for the companies’ expanding online was created. Recommendations include a practical guide for enhancing design and usability of the website, managing sales and delivery, providing information for partners and visitors, branding and calculating return on investments.

Introduction of the Internet has changed the way people communicate and conduct business due to globalization. Modern companies understand the advantages brought by online market and are willing to expand online. Creation of online representation or website has become an ordinary practice, and the amount of the websites is increasing every minute. It raises the question of marketing on the Internet, its strategies and methods of implementation.

In the thesis, website had been investigated as the core tool of online marketing, as a customer oriented platform used for providing no-pressure sales environment and a thoughtful choice making process. To determine the return from the website, be it increase in visitors, brand strengthening or direct sales boost, a website should undergo a thorough assessment, methods of which were also previously discussed in the thesis.

Nevertheless, the primary objective was to analyze the Internet marketing strategies of international retailor companies and to investigate modern trends of Internet marketing, which was impossible to perform due to the limitations of studies. The risk of international retailor companies’ unwillingness of revealing the information about their performance online actually became true. This allowed only partial fulfillment of the primary thesis objective, as the analysis of Internet marketing strategies of international retailor companies was substituted by the analysis of users’ perception of the website as the core item of the marketing strategy.