CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION
According to Webopedia, Internet marketing, or online marketing, refers to advertising and
marketing efforts that use the Web and email to drive direct sales via electronic commerce, in
addition to sales leads from websites or emails. Internet marketing is a word that refers to the
different ways of promoting goods and/or services to reach target customers through internet
technologies. It uses the internet as a core promotional medium in conjunction with traditional
types of advertising such as radio, television, newspapers and magazines. Internet marketing
includes specialized areas such as; Web marketing, E-mail marketing, social media marketing
and Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
Marketing executives love the idea of Internet Marketing, because of the ability to easily track
and measure results of marketing communication. The result of an Internet marketing efforts can
be tracked by views, clicks, reach, response rates, visits, purchase made, feedbacks, referrals and
so on. The use of Internet technologies to create a targeted and measurable which helps to
acquire and retain customers while building deeper relationships with them is Internet marketing.
In 2018, Nigerian Communications commission reveled that Nigeria’s internet users hit 103
million. The expected internet users will reach 134 million by 2020. Nigeria therefore has a
tremendous internet growth with customers getting used to e-commerce. Nigeria’s internet
payment channel transactions hit an all-time high of ₦86.1 trillion in 2017 according to the data
from the National Bureau of Statistics. This number is set to increase with time. Also to note that
Jumia’s customers use internet from their devices to order goods.
The use of the Internet as a marketing tool in business industry offers great benefits. The internet
offers benefits that can help consumers be more efficient and effective, as they search out,
evaluate, purchase and use products (Duglin,1996; Janal, 1996, Slofstra,1996). Consumer
efficiency can be enhanced by the internet’s potential to provide rapid access to product related
information, saving customers’ efforts, time and money. Cybermarketing will be critical to many
companies in the 21st Century as they search for ways to gain, sustain and combat competitive
advantage (Ronald & Kevin, 1998). The Internet provides opportunities for an organization to
enhance its‟ business in a cost-effective and practical manner. That is, the Internet can be used to
conduct marketing research, reach new markets, better serve customers, distribute products
faster, solve customer problems, and communicate more efficiently with business partners. The
Internet is also a useful tool for gathering intelligence on consumers, competitors, and potential
markets, as well as communicating information about companies and/or products (Honeycutt et
al., 1998: 63). Marketing executives are mostly supportive of digital marketing because of the
ability to easily track and measure results of the marketing communication (Jeevan, 2015).
The introduction of social media technology is accelerating and we can expect it to have a
similar impact on businesses now and into the future. As new technologies became available,
businesses that learn to use new technologies gain great benefits. Some of the best-known
examples include technology-driven companies such as Microsoft, eBay, Amazon and Google.
(Abu, Irshad & Mohammad, 2012). Chaffey (2017) simply define internet marketing as “the
application of the internet and related digital technologies to achieve marketing objectives”. This
definition is a simple definition which, unlike the following ones, does not touch the important
aspect of customer relationship. According to Kotler (2014), online marketing consists of
measures and activities to promote products and services and build relationships with customers
over the Internet. Burrett (2018) understands online marketing as – carefully targeting users and
getting them to interact with you while they‘re engaged with the most personal, intimate medium
ever invented. The most comprehensive definition has been articulated by Chaffey (2017), he
defines online marketing as – Applying Digital technologies which form online channels (Web,
e-mail, databases, plus mobile/wireless & digital TV) to contribute to marketing activities aimed
at achieving profitable acquisition and retention of customers (within a multi-channel buying
process and customer lifecycle) through improving our customer knowledge (of their profiles,
behavior, value and loyalty drivers), then delivering integrated targeted communications and
online services that match their individual needs. As this relationship concept definitions show
online marketing revolve around interaction and building relationship with customers, a point
which discriminates it from traditional, offline marketing.

1.2 Statement of Problem

Some of the problem observed in the existing system are:
 Poor information circulation: Poor information circulation leads to loss of customers, as
they could not obtain most of the time, the quantity of product they need.
 Difficult in the determining when the branch is running out of stock.
 Mistakes are made in the invoice given to customer
 Data loss to simple accidents like rodent attacks, fire outbreaks etc. due to lack of backup.

1.3 Aim and Objectives of the Study

The principles aim of this project is to develop and implement an online marketing
information management system that will be useful to business owners, with the
following objectives:
To create a platform for wider audience and increase sales and profits.
To gather sort, analyze, evaluate, and distribute needed, timely, and accurate information
to marketing decision makers.
To implement an online virtual store on the Internet where customers can browse the
catalog and select products of interest.
To ensure data security by restricting access to the program and to the database.
To ensure easy access and retrieval of data in the program.
1.4 Significance of Study

The essence of the design and implementation of an online marketing information

management system are as follows;
It would help managers to forecast changes in product demand, increase selling
productivity and exercise control over sales and distribution expenses.
The newly design system would interact with the marketing managers or rather
information users to assess information needs.
It would help managers to analyze information to put in the right from making marketing
decisions and managing customer relationship.
The design of the system would provide jobs for system analyst and programmers
contacted to build the system for companies.

1.5 Scope and Limitation of the Study

This research project is restricted to the “implementation of online marketing information

management system” using JUMIA STORE, as a case study. Data used for the study were
gathered from this source.
1.6 Limitations of Study
In the course of carrying out this research work a number of problems were encountered;
Lack of adequate fund to finance the project: this was another limitation to this work
because much money is needed to carry out a detailed research work which is not easily
borne by every student.
The limited knowledge of ASP.net and Visual Basic programming was great challenge to
this project. However, more research was made to complete this project successfully.

1.7 Definition of Terms

 Market Research: Is a formal systematic collection recording, analyzing and reporting of

data aimed at solving problem.
 Marketing Intelligence: Is a set of procedures and data sources used by marketing
managers to gift information from the environment that they can sue in their decision
making.
 Marketing: Marketing is the process of teaching consumers why they should choose your
product or service over those of your competitors, and is a form of persuasive
communication.
 Promotion Channels: In marketing, promotion refers to any type of marketing
communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a
product, service, brand or issue.
 Customer Relation: Customer relations describe the ways that a company will engage
with its customers to improve the customer experience.
 Virtual Store: The virtual store is an online store that displays merchandise and an order
form.
REFERENCES
Abu B, Irshad A, Mohammad W, (2012). Effectiveness of Social Media As A Marketing Tool:
An Empirical Study
Jeevan, P. (2015). A study of digital marketing – A case study with special reference to
Flipkart.com
Essays, UK. (November 2018). The advantages and disadvantages of internet marketing.
Retrieved from https://www.ukessays.com/essays/marketing/the-advantages-and-disadvantages-
of-internet-marketing-marketing-essay.php?vref=1
Constantinides, E. (2004). Influencing online consumer’s behavior: The web experience.
Internet Research, 14(2), 111-126.