Back ground of the study:

In the recent times the role of social media has increased significantly in most of the areas especially in marketing and business activities. Sales funnel refers to the set of steps a customer goes through to become a loyal customer to the products of a particular company. A sales funnel helps companies to understand where they are losing the customers and why. Due to the emergence of social media and digital marketing methods of sales, the role of social media in a sales funnel has gained importance as part of the marketing strategies. Marketers are using social networking sites to win customers to fit into their own sales funnel especially in retail sector. With the presence of multiple social media and social networking venues more and more retail stores are adopting online platforms to meet customers when ever and where ever they want..

TESCO is one of the largest retail chain stores in the world that has also adopted online platform to attract customers around the global. The traditional sales funnel of TESCO customers was walking in to the store, picking up the product, putting in the cart, purchasing it and checkout of the store. With the introduction of online stores of TESCO, it has adopted an online sales funnel of TESCO that undergoes process of creating awareness among customers through digital marketing in various platforms and through word of mouth, customer visits the ecommerce site, views various product pages of TESCO, adds the item in cart, customers finishes the process by checking out and clicking on the purchase of the product.

Problem statement:

The main problem of today’s retail industry is growing competition from the local and international companies in the world. Therefore in order to survive and increase its customer base more and more companies are adopting online stores that do not require heavy investments and also convenient to interact and build relationship with customers around the globe. To curb competition on the local and international market TESCO has adopted ecommerce method to reach to customers worldwide however the online sales of TESCO have not increased as expected by the company one of the main reasons for declining profits as per the management is less conversion rate of customers from leads generated through the social media platforms used and also no customer retention or brand loyalty was found that ensures customer revisits. This study will help TESCO understand the areas where there is a need to improve to increase its online sales and build customer relationship worldwide.

Research objectives and Research questions

Research Objectives:

The Primary objective of the study is to identify the stages of sales funnel of the company TESCO in which social media plays a more effective and predominant role.

The secondary objective of the study is to understand the effectiveness of the role of social media platforms such as Facebook, twitter,

Scope of the study

The study focuses on the role of the social media on the sales funnel of retail industry and in specific on TESCO Company. Most popular social networking sites will be included namely FACEBOOK, TWITTER and YOUTUBE.  Lead generation data and the conversion into customers’ data of TESCO will be analysed along with the determining which stage of sales process of TESCO, social media is most effective.

Significance of the study

TESCO is one of the largest retail chain companies with good reputation worldwide however their online sales have been declining and fewer customers are inclined towards buying from TESCO ecommerce site. TESCO has invested in advanced digital marketing strategies part of it is in the social media platforms such as Facebook, twitter and YouTube however this marketing strategy also did not yield many results. This study will aim at adding to the discussion of the effectiveness of the social media role in the sales funnel of TESCO and the areas that needs improvement.

References:

Andzulis, J.M., Panagopoulos, N.G. and Rapp, A., 2012. A review of social media and implications for the sales process. Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, 32(3), pp.305-316.

Armstrong, A.B., Vance, T.J., Gorman, R.E., Gambogi, T.A., Topel, R.A., Simmons, J.A. and Janes, J.P., Caterpillar Inc., 2006. Sales funnel management method and system. U.S. Patent Application 11/646,429.

Hoffman, D.L. and Fodor, M., 2010. Can you measure the ROI of your social media marketing?. MIT Sloan Management Review, 52(1), p.41.

Kaplan, A.M. and Haenlein, M., 2010. Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media. Business horizons, 53(1), pp.59-68.

Kotler, P., Rackham, N. and Krishnaswamy, S., 2006. Ending the war between sales and marketing. Harvard Business Review, 84(7/8), p.68.