On

“Marketing strategy of online book shops in

Bangladesh”

Mazharul Anwar
Assistant Professor
Department of Accounting & Information System
University of Dhaka.

Md. Amanat Ali

ID-18-148

Department of Accounting & Information System

University of Dhaka.

Date of Submission- 18 February, 2016

 LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL

18 February, 2016
Mazharul Anwar
Supervisor & Assistant Professor
Department of Accounting & Information System
University of Dhaka.

Subject: Submission of the Research Report.

Dear Sir,

With profound respect and honor I would like to inform you that, I have completed ‘Marketing
strategy of Online book shops in bangladesh’ to be the topic of my thesis which is a partial
requirement to fulfill my Bachelor of Business Administration degree.

Under your supervision, I assure you maximum level of efficiency that obtained through this
thesis. Moreover, this report helped to have an idea of how online book shops do their marketing,
strategy followed by them and limitations of it.

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to you for your guidance and suggestions in preparing
the report. I will be happy to provide any further explanation regarding this research paper if
necessary.

Sincerely yours,

Md. Amanat Ali

Id: 18-148

Department of Accounting & Information System

University of Dhaka.

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 ACCEPTENCE LETTER

It’s an immense pleasure for me to acclaim that Md. Amanat Ali, ID: 18-148, a student of BBA,
Department of Accounting & Information System, University of Dhaka, has completed his thesis
work on “Marketing strategy of online book shops in Bangladesh” under my supervision.

Md. Amanat Ali is intelligent, sincere and hardworking. He has put in lot of work and has also
brought forth his views and ideas which are being studied for implementation at appropriate time.

I wish him every success in his future endeavor.

Supervisor:

………………………..
Mazharul Anwar
Assistant Professor
Department of Accounting & Information System
University of Dhaka.

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The successful completion of this thesis is the outcome of the contribution of a number of people
to whom I’m grateful and thankful to them from deep of my heart. So, I would like to take this
opportunity to thank all those people who helped me in preparing this thesis on “Marketing strategy
of online book shops in Bangladesh”

First of all I would like to express my great respect to almighty for providing me the strength and
energy to prepare this report.

I would like to convey my sincere gratitude to my honorable Supervisor, Mazharul Anwar,

Assistant Professor, Department of Accounting & Information Systems, University of Dhaka. I
heartily thank all of my friends who directly or indirectly lend me their assistance in this regard. I
am also thankful to those who helped me anyalysing data by filling up the questionnaire.

Finally, I would like to thank my parents for giving me the mental as well as the financial support
for preparing this thesis.

Mazharul Anwar
Assistant Professor
Department of Accounting & Information System
University of Dhaka.

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 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Online book shop has become a buzzword in Bangladesh. As the number of internet users is
increasing to a great extent, so are the customers of online book shops. The world has been brought
to hand with the advancement of science and technology. E-commerce has assisted online book
shop to grow in a rapid manner.

People now do not want to waste their time going to physical bookstore, rather they want
convenience in their life, they want to lead their life in the easiest way. Besides, online book shop
has facilitated customers providing both e-books, and printed books. All a customer needs to do is
just a few click to place order.

Though the online book shopping has a great prospects in Bangladesh, its marketing has not
developed that much. In this thesis paper, I tried to show the marketing strategies followed by
online book shops of Banglaedsh to attract the prospective customers and what limitations they
faced in doing their marketing.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS
TOPICS PAGE NO.

Chapter-1: Introduction 6

Chapter-2 : Literature Review 22

Chapter-3 : Objectives 25
Chapter-4 : Research Methodology 28

Chapter-5 : Data Analysis 32

Chapter-6 : Findings 42

Chapter-7 : Limitations 44

Chapter-8 : Recommendations 47

Chapter-9 : Conclusions 49
 Appendix A
 Questionnaire
 Appendix B
 Bibliography

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Introduction:
Online book shopping has become a growing trend in the retail world today, particularly in
developed nations like Bangladesh. Statistics show that the amount of shoppers purchasing books
from online are rising and the quantity of their purchases is also increasing rapidly.This change
began in the 1990s when e-commerce blew up and significantly transformed the landscape of the
retail environment.

From the day internet has evolved in Bangladesh, the idea of printed text to digital text has come
to mind. Use of internet has started in in Bangladesh in the 90s. Since then, the number of internet
users has only increased to a great extent. Internet has brought a new dimension to the era of
information and technology. It has made our life easier and we can have our desired things staying
at home with just a command. As the internet has grown too fast, the thought of online book
shopping has also derived. Various products are sold through online book shopping like electronic
gadgets, bus ticket, tarin ticket,clothings, ornaments, gifts, computer software, CD/ Videos, hotel
rooms,toys,magazines, sporting goods and books which is now considered to be the most needed
item in online shoopping in Bangladesh.

Book is the best companion of human life. People consume most of their time reading books,
gaining knowledge from it, and enlighten their mind. In the earlier period, when e-commerce was
not emerged, people used to buy their necessary books going to bookshop themselves. But
bookshops are normally situated far away from local area and outskirts. So buying books going to
bookstore requires time and also gives much hassle. Hence, people had to find a different way by
which they can have their desired books at hand with just a click. In the mean time, e-commerce
began to develop which paved the way to online bookstore for the first time. Actually, the idea of
online bookstore was generated from the innovation of computer. E-commerce has turned the
dream of online bookstore into true.

Online bookstore is the web service where people can find their necessary books both in hard copy
and e-book format and order them in accordance with their needs. Online bookshop has brought
revolution in the reading behavior, it has transformed reading from printed text to digital text.

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Background:

Online bookshops are a form of multi-channel retailing which can now be used to gain access to a
wider market. Opening up online bookshops brings about great advantages as many consumers are
leaning towards online book shopping. It provides a very flexible way to sell a wide range of
books. People are finding it more convenient to buy books from online bookstore instead of going
out and doing it physically. They can buy almost any kind of books they desire just by clicking on
their computers or phones. In Bangladesh the economy is growing very fast and the buying pattern
of the consumer has changed. The people of Bangladesh are now using internet for their economic
transaction and this tendency is growing very fast. Online bookstore has paves the way to
communicate customers with marketer in an easiest way than before which has created a new era
in the business world, on the other hand customers also trying to adopt with this new method of
transactional system and there is a good response coming from the customers. In previous period,
when internet was not introduced in Bangladesh, people had no choice of buying books except
going to physical store of books. Now time has changed a lot. Now it’s the age of information and
technology. Everything has come to hand with the progress of technology. People now are not
needed to go physical bookshop to buy books, all that need is just a few clicks. Both digital text
and printed books are available at online bookstore. Those do not want to go to physical store or
do not have enough time can buy their desired books from online bookshop at a very reasonable
price since they have option of comparing the price. Besides, physical store may not always have
all collection of books but a online bookshop does have a huge collection of books from which
people can have their necessary books in a very convenient way.

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Marketing:

Marketing is a way by which sellers communicate with customers with the goal of promoting or
selling their propducts. The main aspect of marketing is to communicate the value of product with
customers.

Maketing is the combination of four elements which are called 4P’s of marketing:

1. Product
2. price
3. Place
4. Promotion

Marketing startegy:

Marketing startegy of an organization is the combination of all marketing goals which is drawn
from market research and focuses on the right product mix so that the company can achieve the
maximum profit potentials and can also sustain the business.

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Marketing and online book shopping in Bangladesh:

The total number of Internet Subscribers as per January, 2016 is 56.167 million which is only a
small portion of total population of Bangladesh and huge portion of the people using internet do
not have the idea that books can be purchased through online or the people who know about it, do
not have trust on online book shopping. This is why, marketing of online book shop is very much
necessary.If people are introduced with online bookshop, then both sellers and customers will be
benefitted.

In the context of Bangladesh, online book shop is very much prospective, so it needs to be
introduced to all the internet users. They should be made understand the advantages of online book
shooping. Online bopok shopping has been introduced in Bangladesh in 1995 by Rubibook
enterprise. Since then, many years have passed, yet it has not grown that much what it should have
been. Internet was introduced in Bangladesh in the early 90s when the number of subscribers was
not more than 500. Now the number of internet subscribers has grown to be nearly 49 million. But
the number of online book buyers has not grown as equally as the increase in the number of internet
subscribers. It is only because marketing in the online book shopping sector has not been done
vigorously. Marketing in this sector was not given emphasis. Hence, if sellers of online bookshop
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want to flourish their business widespreadly, they are urgently required to pose some innovative
marketing idea so that they can draw attention to the buyers who are still leaned towards physical
book shop.

Target Customers:

In case of selecting target customers, book shops normally target young and middle age people
whose age is from 15 to 45. They target these people because they would like to cover the
maximum people who are involved in book shopping directly and who have the potentiality to use
online medium for book shopping. As we all know that online book shopping in Bangladesh is
increasing rapidly yet it is constrained mainly within urban areas because of lack of physical
communication facility but yet in many suburban areas and also some rural areas the online book
shopping facilities has been spread.

Process of online book shopping:

Normally, customers who want no hassle go for online book shopping. To purchase from online
bookstore, customers need to place an order in book shop website. A given procedure is to follow
to order and get the desired books at hand.

Books are usually sold at fixed prices. So when customers see what they like, they place an online
order, they buy it, pay for it and await it to reach their doors.If they stay in Dhaka, they usually
get home deliveries and many sellers pay cash on delivery even outside Dhaka (meaning customers
can pay after receiving the product).

How to order:

Some online bookstore want customers to be registered and ask them to open an account. After
crating an account in their book shop, they are ready for book shopping. Customers can use

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shopping cart system or via email to place order. Customers can simply search for the book they
are looking for and when they find it, they need to click on the add to cart button. This will take
them to the Shopping Cart page from where they can either proceed to check-out or continue with
more selections.
Once they have selected all the books that they wish to order, they can press the Check Out button
from the Shopping Cart page.

The ordering system adds one book as their default order quantity, however if they wish to order
more copies of the same book, they need to enter the required quantity in the Shopping Cart page
and have to press the Update button. Their order will then reflect their new selection.

Payment procedure:

Customers can pay for books to online book shop using a variety of methods, including cash on
delivery (this is available only in few cities at the seller's discretion), bank deposit, bKash or other
mobile banking methods, etc. Unfortunately, online payment gateway has not yet been installed
by all the online bookshop though you may be glad to know that Rubibook enterprise has started
online payment gateway system as they have started Paypal as their alternate payment system.
Cusomers even outside Bangladesh can now buy books using Paypal.

How online bookshops do their marketing?

Marketing of online bookshop differs from bookshop to book shop a little bit. But in most cases,
their marketing strategy is same. Their main motto is to convince the customers to purchase the
books or to promote the books to customers. Most of the online bookshops are seen to follow the
following strategies:

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Online marketing:

Online marketing has become a popular form of marketing for all kinds of online book shopping.
Especially, for online book shop, its prospect is huge. Teams of Online book shops mostly focus
on how well they can focus the books to their target customers. they want to have their book’s
exposure on their own websites first because customers will have their look on their websites first
and want to to know about the books and the procedure how they can get their desired books at
hand with just a few clicks. Online book shops then focus on marketing their books on all premium
online channels (mainly Facebook, Google Search Engine, and newsletters). Most of the online
book shops have their own facebok pages by which they communiocate with customers and know
their satisfaction, complaints, and feedbacks about their book shop. Besides, online book shop are
now-a-days seen to make video of their book shops mentioning all the features, huge collection of
books, quick delivery and many more advantages.

Creating Apps:

One of the most attracting ways of marketing that now online book shops in Bangladesh are doing
is making online apps of their book shops. It facilitates them a lot giving a quick access to the
information to their website, order and purchase books. Customers do not need to go search the
websites in order to have access to information. All the details information about the books are
given along with good image quality and price of the books. It also faciliates cusomers to compare
the price and quality of the books wanted.

Newspapers and magazines:

People are used to starting their morning reading newspapers. Thus it has become a good media
of advertising the online book shops. In the newspapers, they normally mention easy purchase as
online book shopping and also mention that they are offering books at low cost with minimum
hassle. Leaflets, magzines and periodicals are also chosen as ways of marketing of online book
shops.

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Discounts, coupons and free delivery charges:

The Teams of online book shop have the data which customers most often visit their book shop,
which customers more often buy books from their book shops. On the basis of these information,
they offer discounts, and somtimes free delivery charges in case of selling books to those
customers. Being inspired, customers lean towards the book shop and the book shop gets its
familiarity. On every February, Ekushe Boi Mela is held in Bangladseh. In this fair, some book
shop offer discounts and coupon in selling their books in order to promote and accelerate the sale
of the book shop.

SMS to mobile subscribers:

Texting to mobile phone subscribers has become recently a popular way of marketing for online
book shopping. Many online book shops such as rokomari send messages, especially during
Ekushe Boi Mela to mobile users to give the update of the books of popular writers and also good
ones of less prominent writers to promote their book shop and increase the sales.

Statement of problem

01. There is plenty of statistical and economic study about marketing strategy for physical
bookshop, but there is not enough research on measuring the marketing strategy of online
bookstore in Bangladesh.
02. There are lots of differences in strategy formulation between online bookstore and
physical bookstore.

03. There are lots of differences in communication strategy between online and physical
bookshop purchasing system.

04. There need lots of adaptation when a company go online from traditional purchasing
system.

05. Strategic change of online purchasing system is much faster than traditional one.

06. Now a days, there are rapid and fast developments in information technologies industry and
competition increases day by day due to increase attention of consumers towards online bookstore.

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07. It is very important to know that what kind of things and strategies help to increase sales in
this fierce competition in market with high expectation of online consumers.

08. To enhance and attract online customer it is very important to know about their behavior and
understand what they require and need.

Therefore in this thesis, I will show somen probable solution to online sellers in Bangladesh to
promote their goods and services in the light of consumer behavior theories with the help of survey.

Some online bookshop sites in Bangladesh:

Rubibook enterprise is the first online book shop in Bangladesh which started its journey in 1995
when e-book was not yet been developed though recently it has launched selling e-books alongside
printed books. After this book shop, many online bookstore has emerged. Among them, rokomari
book shop has got its popularity, even it outreached Rubibook.
The following online book shops are conducting their online book shop business in Bangladesh:

www.rubibook.com
www.rokomari.com
www.bookshopbd.com
www.nilkhet.co
www.boi-mela.com
www.sorbonam.com
www.books.karigor.com
www.akhoni.com

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www.eboighor.com
www.bookshelfbd.com

Issues that trigger the growth of online bookshop in Bangladesh :

 Increase in the number of internet users

 Access to Information
 The increase in number of computer users
 Easy order and purchase
 Reduction of wastage of time and hassle
 Smart phone available at a cheap rate

Online vs. Physical book shopping:

 In traditional book shopping, it does not matter whether consumer is finding the book
shopping experience pleasurable or not. In contrast, in online book shopping retailer needs
to think about the convenience of the consumer.
 In case of buying books from physical stores, customer is not needed to have technological
knowledge whereas in online book shopping, customers need to have minimum
technological knowledge of operating computer and surfing internet.
 Some people do not trust or find it it safe and secured to have transaction on internet. They
are familiar with book shopping in traditional way and find it safe.
 Online shoppers are more willing to take risks compared to physical shoppers. There is
insufficient legal material for online retailing which could prove risky if something goes
wrong during the online purchase.

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Advantages of online book shopping:
Online bookstores have become very popular in the recent years.This is because online bookshops
have some distinct advantages which physical bookshops can not offer. Some of those advantages
are:

Cheap price:

One of the major reasons of customer’s preference to choose online store is online bookshops offer
comparatively cheap price than physical stores. The main attraction of online bookshop is their
offering of lower prices. Online bookshop offers lower prices because they do not have to rent or
buy a space whaereas the physical stores have to invest a great portion in buying or paying rent for
a space as bookshop.

Comfort:
Convenience is another reason which made online book shops more popular. People do not require
to watch for opening and closings hours of physical book shop where salesmen tries their heart
and soul to sale their books at any cost. But in case of online bookshop, all we need is to tip on the
fingers to click. Moreover, we can communicate and purchase books from online bookshop 24
hours a day. It is easy to order the desired books at online bookstore and have books at hand within
very short time. As internet has become much cheaper, we can have access to internet at any
convenient time. A visit to a conventional retail store requires travel and must take place during
business hours.
In case of a problem with the books such as page missing, bad printing, buyers need to go to
physical bookshop,it requires much time and gives hassle too whereas in case of online bookshop
purchase, buyers will just need to contact with online bookshop and asked them to replace the
books.

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Detail Information of books:
In case of physical bookstores, only the books are available, no more information is given except
the price. Somnetimes, the written price tagged on the books are too high by which books are not
sold. So, there’s lot of chance to get cheated by paying more than actual price of the books whereas
in online bookshops, a description about books, its photos, and many more information, by which
customers can have an idea about the books at a glance, are given.

Some online stores provide background information, advice, or how-to guides designed to help
consumers decide whether to buy. Some stores even allow customers to comment or rate their
books. There are also dedicated review sites that host user reviews for different products. Reviews
and now blogs gives customers the option of book shopping cheaper.
In a traditional book store, clerks are generally available to answer questions. Some online
bookstores have real-time chat features, but most rely on e-mail or phone calls to handle customer
questions. online bookstores typically offer customer reviews which reveal more about the book
than its physical appearance and a quick glance of its content.

Variety of books:
People wants variety of books while buying but traditional physiacal bookstores are not able to
offer so much variety of books with both prominent writers and less known writers as online. Every
customer’s wants are not same; everybody has their own preferences so if the marketers are not
able to arrange variety of books then customers will not be attracted. So product variety plays an
important role in determining the customer satisfaction.

Space:
Another important advantage of buying books from online book shop is the stock. Physical stores
are constrained by its space limitations and budgets whereas online bookshops do not have these
limitations. Online book shop offers a great variety of authors and titles, it does not have the
collection of only popular author’s books but also it has collection of lesser familliar writer’s
books. We can find books on any genre at an online bookstore, whether be it fantasy, science
fiction, cookery books or novels. At a physical bookstore, finding an uncommon book may be

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difficult or ordering for a rare one could take weeks for it to arrive, while the same book can easily
be ordered online and delivered to your doorstep within a couple of days.

Reviews feedback:
Another advantage of buying books online is that we can view the comments, feedback and book
reviews posted by other customers. This allows us to research books and also go read the reviews
before making a purchase, thus making book shopping an interactive and informative buying
experience.

Energy consumption:
Online book shopping requires less energy consumption and hassle than physicall book shopping.
In case of online book shopping a person can shop from home without going outside and minimum
energy is lost in purchasing activities.

Travel necessity:
In case of buying books from online, a person needs not to travel from one place to another place.
So it is a big determinant for customer satisfaction. In case of online shopping people need not to
get in the hassle of travel so it creates a value for the online shopping. So it is an important factor
for customer satisfaction. In the context of Bangladesh where every day so many traffic jam kills
people’s important time, there it will determine customer satisfaction.

Switch suppliers and vendors:

Another major advantage for retailers is the ability to rapidly switch suppliers and vendors without
disrupting users' book shopping experience.

With the plethora of advantages of an online bookstore over a physical book shop, buying books
online has become a booming trend now-a-days, and the number of takers for an online book
shopping experience is only getting larger.

DISADVANTAGES:

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Hidden cost:
Most online book book shopping websites are full of pictures.Those who have unlimited data or
internet packages do not require to worry. But people having limited will incur heavy charges on
their online book shopping. Sometimes these costs cover more than travelling costs.

Proper condition of the books:

Retailers alaways have the intention to sell the faulty books first. They may display fresh books at
online bookshop and then deliver the faulty one. Books may not show up in the condition that we
thought it would (pages missing, used book when you wanted new, etc.).

Harm local bookstores:

As the online bookshop is growing too fast, sales of physical local bookstore continued to reduce.
Customers are offered all the benefits and there are so many advantages of buying from online
bookshop Downsides are that all transactions involve harming the environment due to shipping
and packing costs, and that buying from large, national, online retailers can harm small local
bookstores.
Hands-on inspection:
In case of buying books from online book shops, customers can only see pictures and description;
they do not have the scope to touch and feel the product and inspect how the product is, how the
quality of the books is unless they do not have prior exposure to the book’s handling qualities
though these barrier has been reduced to a great extent since many online bookshops are now
giving consumers the option of looking over the books before payment, that is, if consumers like
the books after having a close look at it, only then they can pay for the books.

Shipping Costs or delivery charges:

One of the major disadvantages of online book shopping is shipping cost or delivery charges. Very
often delivery charge is not mentioned so that they can make customers understand that they are
offering books at lower price than physical stores. But if customers observe concentratedly, they
may find that sometimes the delivery charges exceed the travelling cost.

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Security and fraud concerns:
Since consumers do not have the options to inspect books before purchase, consumers are at higher
risk of fraud on the part of the merchant than in a physical store. Customers may use credit cards
or fraudulent repudiation in making online purchase.

Phishing is another danger in which consumers are fooled into thinking they are dealing with a
reputable retailer, when they have actually been manipulated into feeding private information to a
system operated by a malicious party. Denial of service attacks are a minor risk for merchants, as
are server and network outages.

The problem of credit card numbers has generally been solved by Secure Sockets Layer (SSL).
Another major concern for consumers is Identity theft when hackers break into a merchant's web
site and steal names, addresses and credit card numbers.

Privacy:

The biggest problem of online book shopping is that privacy may not be maintained by the
merchant. Privacy is a significant issue for the consumer. Most of the consumers do not want to
be contacted by telemarketers. Many websites keep track of consumer’s book shopping habits in
order to suggest books and other websites to view. Brick-and-mortar stores also collect consumer
information. Some ask for address and phone number at checkout, though consumers may refuse
to provide it.

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Literature review:
While doing research into online book shopping, online has become much more widespread in the
recent years. Nevertheless, research on online book shopping is very rare. In particular, an
examination of the preferences and experiences of consumers in an online book sahopping
environment has been undertaken to date, inspite of the significant economic contribution made
by online bookshop to Bangladesh retailing and the potential for findings for further research on
online book shopping. Research examining online book shopping has tended to online book
shopping setting as a conduit for studying other aspects of consumer expectations rather than
examining bookshops and consumers’ experiences. Studies have been undertaken examining the
impact of marketing of online book shops.

Online book shopping has become a popular form of buying books these days. This first came
about due to consumers leading busier lives with both parents going out to work. Convenience is
important for book shopping. It is claimed that it is the activity that consumers hate the most
besides going to the dentist. In a research it was found that convenience and time-saving were the
main reasons for them to opt for online book shopping. Other such online consumers included

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handicapped people who found it convenient to shop books from online. A similar study looked
into whether situational factors such as charges for delivery and time constraints affect a
consumer’s decision to shop online for books. It was found that, on an average, consumers cared
more about the travelling time to go to the shop than they did about paying fees for online book
shop delivery.

A study on consumers in Greece looked into the existing differences between online and physical
book shoppers. It was found that Greek consumers are highly concerned with using their time
proficiently, being able to shop any time of the day, and avoiding long queues. Therefore these
factors lead them to book shopping from online book shops. Relatively, another research found
that online book shoppers are also influenced by the actual website, if it appeals them and puts
them in the mood to shop. Emotions are a critical aspect because respondents showed preference
for websites with a hedonic value.

Another study carried out in 2005 evaluated how college students approach online book shopping.
17 percent of the students said they do not like book shopping from online book shop, 28 percent
were unsure and 55 percent said they like book shopping from online bookstore. This shows that
the younger generation is growing a preference for online book shopping. Many years have passed
since this research was conducted in 2005, so with the rising importance of the internet in our lives
today, the preference for online book shopping has increased. Another research done in Pakistan
in 2009 on online book shopping stated that consumers are roughly comfortable in purchasing from
online book shop. Trust is an important factor that hinders their purchasing online.

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Objective of the Study:

The objective of this research is to provide an ins and outs scenario about the online bookstore as
well as its prospects and shortcomiongs of marketing in the perspective of Bangladesh. The
specific objectives of this study are:

1. To analyze consumer attitude to buy at online bookstore in Bangladesh.

2. To know about motivational factors and customer satisfaction level of online bookstore in
Bangladesh.

3. To know about growth of online bookstore in Bangladesh.

4. To know about barriers and threats of online bookstore in Bangladesh

5. To know about the prospects of online bookstore in Bangladseh.

6. To study the prospects and effectiveness of online marketing in the context of Bangladesh.

7. To know what marketing strategies are followed by online book shops in Bangladesh.

8. To know the shortcomings of marketing of online book shops in the perspective of Bangladesh.

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Scope of the Study:

This thesis paper covers the followings and is based upon the following things:

1. The study was based on a Schedule of Questions.

2. The study was conducted among the Internet users.

3. This study covers marketing strategy and customers satisfaction of online book shops in
Bangladesh.

Rationale of Study:
The number of online bookstores is growing by leaps and bounds in Bangladesh. In every year,
ekushe boi mela is held and new online bookshops are emerged.It is only because selling on
internet has a large potential due to the very high targeting possibilities.,especially in the region of
dhaka city. People of dhaka city are to suffer a lot to buy books from physical bookshop because
they are to stuck in huge trafic jam to reach bookshop. Hence, a better understanding of online
book shopping is critical to the effective use of this channel of approach to the consumer. It is
especially important to know what the consumer’s perceptions towards online bookshop are,
benefits perceived by them and what factors attract them towards online bookshop.Though online
bookstore has great potentials, it has some shortcomings as well. For this reason, online book shops
in bangladesh need to give more emphasis on their marketing strategy.In this research paper, both
prospects and pitfalls will be shown in equitable manner.

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Research objective:
The prime objective of this research is to know whether the marketing strategy of online book
shops in Bangladesh is strong enough to attract customer’s attention.To know the customers’
perception,awareness,and expectation towards online bookstore in bangladesh. Also to know what
factors affect the consumers’s perception towards online book shopping.

Data collection method:

Data will be collected through two process.
1. Primary data
2. Secondary data

Primary data collection:

Primary data is the main data which will be collected for the first time and on the basis of which
data analysis segment will done. In my research, primary data has been collected through a
questionnaire.

Questionnaire:
Perparing a standard questionnaire is the most crucial issue for data collection method. For this
purpose, I have prepared questionnare in a way which will be able to provide all the information
required regarding the thesis. The respondents were asked to fill up the questionnaire and return it
immediately. Basically open ended questions were set for the survey purpose.

The questionnaire has been set in such a way so that it can extract information of the following
questions:
 Is the established marketing strategy strong enough to attract new customers?
 What is the customer’s perception towards online bookstorte?
 To what extent customer’s are satisfied purchasing from online bookstore?
 What are the major concerns that affect their purchasing decisions?

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Secondary Data:
Secondary data were collected so that it could add the value to the primary data. This data was
collected from different magazines, websites, journals, annual reports, newspapers, and reference
books etc.

Sample Design:
Sample Unit:
The respondents are subscribers of differnet facebook pages.
Sample Media:
The survey was conducted through personal survey and online survey.
Sample size:
A total of 100 survey questionnaires are collected and used for data analysis.
Sample Design:
I have presented this paper as descriptive type so that we can analyze the data well and can predict
something from the findings.

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Structure of the thesis:
As I am doing the thesis on marketing strategy of online book shopping, I will do the following
activities like making literature review, collecting secondary data, preparing questionnaire,
conducting a survey, result analysis and finally preparing a report. I hope that I will be able to
make a good report and can be able to do all the activities efficiently and effectively.

Research on
Customers’

Literature Selection of
Secondary
review variables
data

Questionnaire
preparation

Conduct Primary data

survey through

Data Analysis

Report
preparation

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Data analysis:
I have tried to collect data from the people whose age ranging from 15 to 45 because the aged
people take their purchase decision independently and this aged people have the possibility to use
online shopping most. So for that reason, I have decided to take my sample from this age range
and I also keep in mind that my sample must be representative. I have tried best to collect the data
most authentically and I am very much optimistic that my data is very much authentic and
trustworthy. I have designed a structured questionnaire so that I get structured outcome as I am
doing descriptive research. Respondents of my survey are from many geographical areas who are
subscribers of different facebook pages so that data becomes representative. Questionnaire has
been posted in different facebook pages, websites and some questionnnaire are given to
respondents and are asked to give it back at that moment immediately.

The demographic characteristics of the sample is given below-

Demographic profile of respondents (n=100)

Characteristic Percentage (%)

Gender

Male 45.5

Female 54.5

Marital Status

Single 68.2

Married 31.8

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Age

18-25 45.6

26-35 35.1

36-40 15.1

41-45 4.2

Hypothesis:

H1: Marketing startegy of online book shops is very roughly strong.

H2: Online book shopping has a great potential in Bangladesh.

H3: Customers are satisfied with service of online book shops.

Frequency of online book shopping:

In order to know the number of times customers are engeaged with online book shopping, we will
need to know the frequency of online purchase. Some people find online book shopping more
advantageous than others and some people choose both online bookstore and physical store for
purchasing books depending on their convenience, books availability and so on. It is frequently
observed that some books are not avilable in a brick-mortar shop but it is available online either
may be in e-book format or in printed text. That is what sometimes make us buy books from online.
This is why, frquency of online purchase also varies.

Frequency of online book shopping

60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Never only once 2-4 times More than 5
times

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This diagram shows that about 15% percent of the total respondents surveyed purchased books
from online book shops never in their life, 25% purchased only once, 50% purchased ranging from
2-4 times and remaining 10% purchased more than 5 times. This conludes that customer has a
strong tendency towards online bookshop as they are satisfied buying from online book shop.

Variety of books & online bookstore:

Beacuse of space and other limitations, brick-mortar stores do not have all types of books; they
usually have collection of one or two categories of books. But in online book shop, they do not
have these limitations, so they have a huge collection and wide range of books. Most of the online
book shops furnish their book shops categorically by authors name or genrewise like academic
books, story books, fiction books, and so on.

Types of books purchased online

Others

Poem

Novel

Literary books

Fiction

Story books

Academic

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45%

This chart shows that online purchase has been made at it its peak in the category of story books,
academic books, and novel. This implies that customers tend to purchase books online more
because they get their desired books in these categories online at first place.

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Comfort of online purchase:

One of the most important advantages of online purchase of books is its convenience. It relieves
customers from unnecessray hassle since they can have their desired books staying at home. In the
context of bangladesh, people are to stuck in huge traffic jam wherever they go. It gives them
physical and mental pressure.So, online book shopping is the best way of purchasing books for
those who want comfort in transaction.

Comfortness of customers

10%

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Quitely Moderately Slightly Not at all

This piechart shopws that customer’s comfort level has been divided into 4 categories:quitely,
moderately, slightly, and not at all comfortable. From the survey , it has been found that percentage
of moderately comfortable respondents is high. This implies that customers are roughly
comfortable with online purchase of books. This is because there may be some privacy and security
issues that hinder in their comfortness.

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Privacy and security in online book shopping:

The online thing that concerns most cunsumers is the pricvacy and security. Every time they go
for purchasing, they are worried and think aboout it.

Privacy concern
45%
40%
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
Always Most of the time About half of Once in a while Never
time

This bar chart shows that at least once in a while costomers think about their privacy and security
while purchasing online.

Time saving & online shopping:

Since customers are not required to go to book shops to purchase their desired books, it saves thier
time a lot.

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 Online book shopping saves time

25% Yes
No

75%

Motivational factors of online book shopping:

There have been some factors which motivate customers towards online book shop. These are the
factors which differentiate online book shops from physical bookstore.

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Best marketing approach:
Online book shops needs marketing to make their book shops familiar, promote their book shop,
and above all needs help to increase the sales. In the context of bangladesh, online bookshop has
a gerat potential to expand its business, so they should focus more marketing i.e advertisement of
online book shops focusing its so many advantages.

Marketing approach of onlne book shop

Newspapers Magazines Online media Search engines Others

This chart clearly shows that customers get to be attracted mostly by online media, to be more
precise, from facebook. This is why, online book shops have their facebook pages and they
enriched it with updated books of prominent authors.

Payment system of online book shops:

Now online book shops have come up with various ways of payment system so that customers can
use any of the payment system they find convenient. In Bangladesh, most of the online book shops
have the payment systems like bKash, debit/credit card, cash, master cards etc. Rubibook
enterprise, the first online book shop in Bangladesh, has now recently started Paypal system so
that customers all over the world can purchase from their book shops as well as the local buyers
are also facilitated.

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 Payment system

9% 3%
cash
bKash
27%
Debit/Credit card
61%
Paypal

From the survey, it has been found that most of the respondents who purchased books from online
book shops used cash. Payment on cash, bKash, Debit/credit card, Paypal was made about 61%,
27%, 9% & 3% respectively. Customers pay on cash, that is, they think cash on delivery is most
trustworthy and most importantly, after inspecting the book, they can either pay for the books or
they can refuse if they do not like the books on inspection.

Most renowned book shops:

In bangladesh, online book shop has flourished recently so much, so many online book shops are
out there. But customers are not well-known to all the book shops. On the basis of their preference
to book shops, I tried to show their percentage.

Online book shop

9%
4% 22%
13%

52%

Rubibook rokomari bookshopbd nilkhet.co Others

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This diagram shows that people purchase books mostly from rokomari book shop though rubibook
enterprise was the first established online book shop in Bangladesh.

Format of books:
Books are found in online book shop both in printed and digital text format. E-books are typically
sold at cheap rate. Customers can buy their convenient format books from online book shop with
just a few clicks.

Format of books

18%

Printed books
e-books

82%

From the survey, it has been demonstrated that people usually buy printed books from online book
shops. Only 18% of the total respondents bought e-books. The reason may be that books in e-book
format are sometimes avilable on internet which can be downloaded free.

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Findings:
On July 2015, the number of internet users in Bangladesh was 50.107 while on January 2016, it
has increased to 56.167. It has been found that with the growth of internet usage, people are getting
to know about the online book shop much than before.

Customers are choosing online book shop for a number of reasons. The most motivating factors
that work behind choosing online book shop are convenience, cheap price, no travelling necessity,
comparison of product, and so on. It can be said that customers are roughly satisfied with the
service of online book shops.To draw attention of the customers who still count on physical stores,
online book shop targets them to lean towards online book shop by showing them the greater
advantages of purchasing from online book shops. And it is only possible by formulating
influential marketing strategy for online book shopping. The online marketers should attempt to
differentiate their products or services making the comparison easier. The marketers should bring
out innovative ways so that the consumers can do more online book shopping while taking the full
advantage of rich information, easy access and convenience of the internet.The online marketers
do their marketing through newspapers, magazines, facebook, search engines etc. From analysing
the data,it has been found that marketing strategy of online book shops are roughly strong.

In Bangladresh, there has been a huge prospects of flourishing online book shops in the coming
days. But there are some shortcomings of online book shop which make customers worried.The
major concerns for customers are privacy and security. Online book shops do their marketing
focusing on the bright side of online book shopping. They have started also giving emphasis on
overcoming the limitations of online book shopping.

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Limitations:
Each and every study has to face some limitations and problems during the preparation of the
project. This research is not beyond that. This study is accomplished in a descriptive way, so no
statistical tools have been applied in the data analysis part. Another major limitation may be
samples taken may not represent the whole population. And respondents of the sample unit may
be biased. They may not have given the right information asked. Lack of access to the appropriate
individual in some cases for collection of data through personal interview survey is another
limitation.

Due to time limitation, I have not been able to search and study all the studies regarding this thesis.
This thesis may discard some empirical study which might be really significant.

Limitations of marketing strategies followed by online book shop in Bangladesh:

Poor internet knowledge:

The reason for choosing physical bookstore may be that customers do not have enough knowledge
of operating computers or surfing internet. They may not have idea about how to go to the desired
websites.

Trust on online book shopping:

The marketing of online book shops are done in a way to increase the trust on online book
shopping, rather it focuses on promoting their book shops.

Internet fraud:
It’s not a new news in the internet world. Internet scammers are grabbing millions of innocent
people. The frauders may hack the marketer’s or customer’s information and making lose a huge
amount both to customers and sellers.

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Poor network:
For the developing countries like Bangladesh, internet connection is not too fast. So customers
have to waste their valuable time to go to desired pages. Some book shop website’s pages are too
heavy to load quickly.

Not deliver in time:

Sometimes it is not possible for the online book shops to deliver books in time. It may be due to
huge traffic jam, blocade, strike and other reasons which are unavoidable.

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Recommendations:
 Online book shop should give more focus on security and privacy concerns. Customers
feel unsafe to communicate with online book shop, this is why, many online book shops
are loosing their prospective customers. In case of security, online book shops in
Bangladesh can follow what foreign countries’ online book shops intiatives are about
security issues.

 Since a lot of people still do not have sufficient IT knowledge, online book shops can
arrange for training on basic learning on internet and computer usages. This will boost up
their number of customers purchasing from online book shop.

 Online book shops should deliver their books in proper time lest it should pose bad
impression of existing and prospective customers as well on their book shops. They can
ask for a wide span of of delivery time so that they can deliver products within asked time.

 Online book shops should not make their website pages heavy unnecessarily so that
customers are not to face loading problem which takes huge time to load their page and
they should ensure that the server consume minimum amount of data.

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Conclusions:
Online book shopping in Bangladesh is spreading very fast in Bangladesh. Bangladesh government
is determined for making Bangladesh digital where every person will use internet for their day to
day work. Now this thinking of Bangladesh government will help the online marketer a lot in order
to spread their business. There are lots of online book shopping websites that have been developed
in Bangladesh like rubibook.com, rokomari.com, bookshopbd.com etc. In the last decade, there
has been a drastic change in the way consumers have altered their way of shopping, although
consumers continue to purchase from a physical store, consumers feel very convenient to shop
online since it frees the customer from personally visiting the store. Online book shopping has lots
of advantages such as it saves time, energy of the consumer while buying. In case of online book
shopping, purchasing decision can be made at home by comparing the products with the
competitor’s products with lots of variety. There is a lot of difference between the online marketing
and traditional marketing because online marketing renders one to one communication which
means that the marketer will market the product to one customer round the clock on the other hand,
traditional marketing is done through one to many communication systems. In case of online
marketing marketer must be trained because traditional marketing and online marketing is not
same as I mentioned before. As we all know internet has made our life easy and innovative so
online book shopping will also makes our life easy and comfortable as online book shopping is
done through internet. In the 21st century, trade and commerce has been so diversified that if
marketers want to do business they must be diversified. Online book shopping has increased the
amount of trade throughout the whole world. As I have mentioned earlier internet is the source of
innovation so online book shopping will pave the way to make innovative idea. In online book
shopping marketers do their business through different website as a result it’s become important
to design an attractive website. Internet paves the way to come different company and the
customer in one place. It is one type of virtual market. To make customers more online book shop
oriented, online book shops in Bangladesh should come up with some innovative marketing
strategies to make the customers conviced that online book shops are the best place for purchasing
books.

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Appendix:
Part A: Questionnaire:

Dear Respondent,

I am a student of BBA from the department of AIS at University of Dhaka. I am undergoing an

academic research on “Marketing strategy of online book shops in Bangladesh”. For this
reason, I need the following questionnaire to be filled up by your sincere participation. It is ensured
that all the information including personal information of the respondents will be kept secret and
will not be provied to any third parties at any situtaion. This survey is soley accomplished on
academic purpose. Please, spare a few minutes of your valuable time and answer the following
querstions.

BBA, Dept. of AIS

University of Dhaka

Part A: Basic information

Name: ………………………… Gender:

E-mail:....................................... Cell no:
Age:
Education:
□ SSC □ HSC □ Graduate □ Post- Graduate □ Others
Profession:
□ Students □ service holder □ businessman

Part B: Research based information

1.How often do you buy books online?
□ Extremely often □ Quite often □ Moderately often □ Slightly often □ Not at all

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2. What types of books do you typically buy online?

□ Academic □ Story books □ Literary books □ FIction □ Novel □ Poems □ Others

3.How comfortable are you buying books from online bookshop?

□ Extremely comfortable □ Quite comfortable □ Moderately comfortable □ Slightly comfortable

4. Which website are you most comfortable in buying books?

□ Rubibook.com □ rokomari.com □ bookshopbd.com □ nilkhet.co □ Other (please specify)

5. Do you consider time is a great factor in your buying pattren?

□ Yes □ No

6. How many times you have bought books from online bookshop?
□ Never □ Only once □ 2-4 tomes □ More than 5 times

7. What is your efficiency level in using internet?

□ Novice □ Intermediate □ Advanced

8. Online book shopping is more advantageous than physical book shopping.

□ Agree □ Disagree

9. What do you think is the major problems in buying from online bookshop?
□ Privacy is not maintained
□ Payment system is not fully secured
□ Delivery charges exceeds travelling costs
□ All the above

10. To what extent are you satisfied in online book shopping?

□ Highly Satisfied □ Satisfied □ Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied □ Dissatisfied
□ Highly Dissatisfied

11. What factors boost up your buying decision from online bookshop?

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□Convenience
□ Price
□ Saves time
□ Superior selection/Availability
□ Comparison
□ Any other, specify………………
12. How would you rate the service of online shopping?
□ Bad □ Good □ Very good □ Excellent

13. How often do you visit online book shop?

□ Daily □ Weekly □ Monthly □ Annually

14. How did you get to know about the online book shop you communicated?

□ Bill Boards □ Magazines □ Newspapers □ Search engines □ If others, specify

15. What would be your best payment method if you buy online?

□ Paypal □ Debit/Credit card □ Cash (on delivery) □ bKash

16. Does online book shops consistently meet your requirements?

□ Yes □ No

17. Have you had any bad experiences whilst using online book shop websites?
□ If yes, please specify..............
□ No, never had any

18. Which format books do you typically buy online?

□ Printed books □ e-books

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Part B:Bilbliography:

1. Armstrong, G &Kotler, P 2009, Marketing An Introduction (9th ed.), Pearson Prentice

Hall,New Jersey.

2. Best,RJ (2005), Market-based management: Strategies for Growing customer value and
profitability, Pearson Prentice Hall, New Jersey, P 7-20.

3. Ali, Pervaiz Sankaran,Sudha. ‘Online Shopping’ Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty in

Norway.(2010)

4. Comegys, C., Hannula, M., & Vaisanen, J. (2006). Finnish and US online shopping
behavior among university students : The five buying decission process.

5. Carroll, J &Broadhead, R 2001, Selling online: how to become a successful e commerce

merchant, Dearborn Trade, Canada.

6. Journal of targeting measurement and analysis for marketing, 14 (4), 336-356. 21.KEYS,
T.P(2011).The painter’s Keys. Retrieved from
http://quote.robertgenn.com/auth search.php?authid=6466

7. Kuester, Sabine (2012): MKT 301: Strategic Marketing & Marketing in Specific Industry
Contexts, University of Mannheim, p-110.

8. Wan, Y. (2009). Comparison-Shopping Services and Agent Designs.USA: Idea Group Inc
(IGI).

9. Tonita Perea Monsuwe, Benedict G. C. Dellaut and KodeRuyter, What Drives Consumers
to shop Online? A literature review, PP- 765-789.

10. Donthu, Naveen and Adriana Garcia (1999), The Internet Shopper, Journal of Advertising
Research, V39 (3), 52-5.

11. www.rokomari.com

12. www.rubibook.com

13. http://www.btrc.gov.bd/content/internet-subscribers-bangladesh-january-2016

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