SEO Audit for a leading E-Commerce Company

Website : Jabong.com

Parameter	Description	Score(Out of 5)
URL	Jabong.com – 6 characters	4 – Short and easy to remember
Canonicalization	Testing redirection	5
Title (Home)	Online Shopping India: Shop Shoes, Clothing, Bags, Watches Online in India	4 – Description of all Items available. Though they can add Discounted Prices/ Affordable Rates
Sitemap	Go to the link www.jabong.com/sitemap.xml	0 – No sitemap Found
Meta Description	Online shopping in India for men, women & kids for shoes, clothing, watches, sunglasses at Jabong.com. ✓ Free Shipping ✓ Cash on Delivery ✓ 30 Days .	5
URL Structure	Checking how the URL’s in the website are structured for a good Search engine perspective Eg: Products under Men clothing of the Brand Lee http://www.jabong.com/men/clothing/Lee/new-products	4 As the each URL gives complete description of the page. Can discard get code given on some URLs
Images	Checking for Alt Tags on Images	3 – Though Alt Tags were present on most of the images, it would have been better if all of them had JABONG specified for better search engine rankings. Eg. SpringCollection_Jabong
Headings	For Homepage Analysis of Headings, found the following H1 – 2 ·         Hello There ·         Online Shopping: convenient, fast and affordable! H2 – 3 ·         Jabong.com: the online store for all fashionistas! ·         Avail added online shopping benefits ·         Jabong.com: the 24 x7 Online Fashion & Lifestyle Store for everyone H3 – 1 ·         You are just a click away from a whole new you!	4 – Appropriate use of H1, H2 and H3 Tags
Code Validation	Use W3C Validation Service	61 Errors
Anchor Text	Visible Characters and Words on Links	5
Link Title	It provides supplementary information and let the users know where the link will direct them to if they click on it	1 – Did not find Link Titles on most of the Links
Robots	http://www.jabong.com/robots.txt	5

 Overall Summary

Cache	Cache:jabong.com	16 Nov 2014 23:18:00 GMT was the last time crawler visited the website
Links	Link:jabong.com	7,57,000 results where jabong.com is present
Indexing	Site:jabong.com	15,10,000 results Gives the number of pages of a website that are indexed by Google’s database

Online Shopping: Impulse Purchase Habits of Consumers

With online retail sales steadily increasing, and projected to continue doing so, companies are trying to capitalize on the convenience of online shopping by incorporating strategies to encourage impulse purchases. With the continual evolution of technology and increased experience in online marketing, websites have become very innovative in encouraging impulse buying. Although there are challenges for retailers on the internet with many of the techniques still being in an experimental phase, there are also a lot of opportunities for growth and creativity.

In this research, three features drawn from previous and recent research are used to characterize impulse purchases. When buying on impulse, the consumer makes an

1) Unintended,

2) Unreflective, and

3) Immediate purchase ( Jones et al. 2003).

An article in PC World describes the members-only shopping experience as, “The ticking clock, the discounts, and the knowledge someone could grab an item before you do are a recipe for impulse buying. And in this economy, the temptation to buy discounted goods is especially strong – and dangerous” (Mies, 2009, p. 22). These types of quick sale websites have become very innovative in encouraging impulse buying and it has been interesting to see it develop over time.

Many customers are probably very aware of what they are doing, but they still rely on their emotions when seeing a good deal and wanting to buy it. Especially when the customer has the additional knowledge of limited quantity because they do not want the feeling that they missed out on buying something they would have liked after the item has been sold out online. Then, after making a quick purchase decision to avoid feeling like they missed out they may be left wondering if the product was really needed. Having the quick buy option really makes the impulse purchase so much easier because it takes away a lot of the decision making process.

When impulse buying in a store the customer can carry the item around and think about whether or not he/she wants to make the purchase. However, on these websites the customer cannot hold an item to think about it. The user either has to buy or risk the item being sold out if they take the time to think about it. Then, once they have paid the shipping they might as well buy something else. This is especially true for a smaller item that the customer does not think is worth the shipping cost, but if once they find one thing they like it is much easier to justify additional items since the shipping is the same.

Factors encouraging or discouraging impulse buying on the Internet

Impulse Buying on the Internet: Encouraging and Discouraging Factors ( Nina Koski , 2002 ) aims to reduce that research gap by analyzing which features of the Internet as a shopping environment encourage and discourage impulse buying. Anonymity, easy access, greater variety of goods available, marketing promotions and direct marketing, as well as use of credit cards were found to be the factors encouraging impulse buying on the Internet. On the other hand, delayed gratification, easy access, increased consumer control, perceptually poor environment, and price and product comparisons were suggested as factors discouraging impulse buying on the Internet.

Table 1 : Factors encouraging Online Buying

Encouraging Factors	Explanation
Anonymity	The shopper can buy impulsively without embarrassment.
Easy access	The Internet is available as the shopping urge comes. Also the purchase of an item is just a few mouse clicks away.
Greater variety of goods available	Greater variety resulting in complex information load may encourage impulse purchases.
Marketing promotions and direct marketing	Increased possibilities for directing and personalizing marketing messages.

Table 2 : Factors discouraging Online buying 

Discouraging Factors	Explanation
Delayed gratification	Except for downloadable products, consumers cannot get the product immediately after buying it.
Easy access	Consumer can think about the purchase for a while and easily return to the store.
Increased consumer control	Consumers are more in control of what they see and do
Perceptually poor environment	Limits the type of possible impulses in the shopping environment

IS THE CASH ON DELIVERY MODEL BRINGING IN CASH FOR E-TAILING COMPANIES?

We are living in a time , where we can have a selection of our favourite shopping items right at our doorstep and we can buy only what we like. Gone are the days, when only people who possessed a credit/debit card or netbanking facilities could shop online. The cash on delivery model incorporated by e-commerce companies, where the buyer needs to pay the money only after the order is delivered, has brought smiles to the faces of many consumers. But has it done the same for the e-commerce companies?

More than 60 per cent of all e-tailing transactions in India are based on COD. While this model has led to the boom in e-commerce in India, it may not be sustainable in the long run. The e-commerce industry was based on a model of negative working capital, wherein the vendor uses the capital provided by the buyer to purchase the goods desired by him. But with the advent of the COD model, the risk exposure for e-commerce companies has become extremely high. Still, the companies can’t think of scrapping this model, as it has helped them overcome some of the stigma associated with online buying.

Several e-tailers are not very popular, unlike Flipkart or Snapdeal, who advertise extensively. For the new companies who are trying to capture the market, cash-on-delivery proves to be a boon. It has provided them with an opportunity to build confidence amongst the consumers, who generally fear that their order may not be delivered, if paid for in advance.

But the delivery system does have its own limitations. Firstly, chances of reverse logistics are very high .If the customer has a change of mind about the product by the time it is delivered or does not like the “touch and feel” of it, he is free to send it back. As revealed by industry sources, about 30-50 per cent orders where the customer has opted to pay cash on delivery (COD) are returned. Another important problem is money collection and sending it back to the seller. For Indian courier companies, who are as it is not used to the package delivery system, the sudden boom in sales for the e-tailing companies has caught them unaware. On top of it, an additional layer of communication with the customer has only added to the complexity of the process.

Even though the COD option is availed by many, there are still a substantial amount of consumers who would want to complete their transaction at one time by paying online itself. By availing COD, the customer has to wait at home for the delivery person to come, keep cash and change in hand and complete the transaction. Also he/she has to be available at the time of delivery of the product. On the other hand, online payments make the transaction very convenient.

Though some companies are taking extra care in mitigating these problems caused by COD. Fashion and You ,quoted in Economic Times recently ,that they were making their logistics partner call the customer before delivering the product to avoid multiple trips due to non payment. If a customer defaults on the order often, he or she is blacklisted by the company.

Such measures can be taken by all the companies to exercise the COD effectively. The companies could also grant the COD option only upto a certain billing amount. The other option which could be exercised is to have the COD option only for a certain range of products like apparels, shoes and electronics and items like books need not use this option. Customers should be educated to use online payment more. They should be lured with discounts if they choose online payment over COD. But these techniques would only work if all the companies decide to introduce them , else the one not imposing any restrictions would have an advantage

The mindsets of the customers have to change and Industry itself has to drive the initiative. Only one who is making money out of COD are the logistics providers. Before COD becomes a loss making activity for the whole industry, measures have to be taken to make it profitable.