Digital Marketing in Pakistan

A Paradigm of Trust 

Dr. Shahid Bashir, PhD Digital Marketing

Daastan PVT LTD

House # A-41, Madni Street, Lala Rukh, Wah Cantt, Punjab 47040

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Text copyrights © Dr. Shahid Bashir

Book cover copyright © Dr. Shahid Bashir

The moral rights of the writer have been asserted.

All rights reserved

This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or distributed in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

ISBN 978-969-696-663-0

Printed and bound in Pakistan by Pixel Printing Solutions

This book is dedicated to my Dad; the most important person in my life. I admire his sacrifices for the entire family.

Contents

Preface

Overview of the Online Environment

The Digital Status of Pakistan in the World

The Online Consumer’s Purchase Intention in Pakistan

The Online Consumer’s Perceived Risk in Pakistan

The Online Consumer’s Trust in Pakistan

The Paradigm of Trust

The Concluding Remarks

Bibliography

Acknowledgement

About the Author

Preface

In the mid of second decade of 21st century, after I finished my PhD, my research supervisor asked me to design a paradigm of digital marketing for Pakistan. I called this paradigm “paradigm of trust”. Soon I had requests from other colleagues and scholars also, and my motivation of writing began to increase. Today, I am able to offer my knowledge as an addition to the research work in the field of digital marketing.       

Nearly a month after finishing my PhD degree, I started getting information from the people of Pakistan who are current users of the Internet and who use the Internet to shop for products or services. My idea was to involve them for the construction of a paradigm through the analysis of data. I was doing so as a result of my personal research work that “trust in a web vendor is an important determinant in the success or failure of e-business activities”; especially while explaining why the consumers of developing countries are less interested in online purchasing than the consumers in developed countries.

I hope that my book will extend learning beyond the restraints of a research paper in a similar field or context. Reading this book is recommended as the potential for online purchasing in the developing has yet to be fully realized and there are great opportunities for growth. The contents of this book do contain several practical implications:

First, this book would help e-businesses in developing strategies to reduce the specific types of perceived risk found to negatively influence trust, thereby engendering consumer trust in web vendors and ultimately increasing online sales in developing countries.

Second, marketing managers would be able to plan their marketing in the developing countries to cater to online consumer needs and increase consumer satisfaction by finding proper strategies and tactics to deal with the underpinning factors explored in this book.

Third, this book will provide useful input to assist web developers in the design of attractive and effective content and layout in websites and homepages to draw more business from consumers in the developing countries.

Finally, government and/or policy makers in Pakistan can use this information to promote online business by improving the infrastructure and regulation of the Internet, coverage, fraud prevention, and to address security and privacy issues. This will facilitate and encourage more consumer participation in buying and selling products online.

Early on in this book writing process, I began getting the help of my PhD research supervisor, Prof. Dr. Faridah Ibrahim. She is a first rated writer and a professional editor by herself. Both of us believe that rewriting is a solid demand for good writing, and one should preach only what him or her practice. Therefore, each of the topics in this book is firstly drafted by me and then revised and edited by Prof. Dr. Faridah Ibrahim. In fact, she supported me also to create and execute the layout and design of this book.

Lastly, I would like to acknowledge the support of Namal University Mianwali, Pakistan, and Infrastructure University Kuala Lumpur (IUKL), Malaysia. These organizations provided me enough resources to gain quality data of research.

Dr. Shahid Bashir

PhD (Digital Marketing)

Foundation of this Book

Following of my research papers have formed a base for writing this book. A worthwhile read for the audiences:

Bashir, S., Anwar, S., Awan, Z., Qureshi, T, W., Memon, A. B. (2018). A Holistic Understanding of the Prospects of Financial Loss to Enhance Shopper's Trust to Search, Recommend, Speak Positive and Frequently Visit an Online Shop. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 42 (2018), pp. 169–174.

Bashir, S., Khwaja, M. G., Mahmood, A., Turi, J. A., & Latif, K. F. (2021). Refining e-shoppers' perceived risks: Development and validation of new measurement scale. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 58, 102285. doi:10.1016/j.jretconser.2020.102285.

Chapter 1

Overview of the Online Environment

In the modern business era, major changes have occurred in terms of general marketing techniques, including the way firms advertise and sell their goods; how they convey information to their clients/suppliers/employees; how they achieve their target market profits/outputs; and how they supply their products and services. The core reason for these changes has been a dramatic evolution and improvement in the worldwide market. In this regard, the ‘Internet’ or ‘online environment’ is one of the most crucial advancements. Internet technology has modified how businesses market their products and services. Moreover, it has changed marketing standards by offering distinct features such as display of goods, exceptional sale offers, Visa card processing, etc. Furthermore, it has removed several communication hurdles, such as time zone and location barriers between client and employee. For that reason, Internet technology is becoming more popular in comparison to traditional media, i.e., TV and newspapers.

Internet-based, or electronic, marketing is a cheaper and more efficient way for businesses to target potential clients. The technology offers specific supply and demand features that offer mutual trade benefits to customers and suppliers. For business, however, the core benefits are: First, the trade with customers is more controlled in e-business, as vendors can collect money before delivering products. Such exchanges can be opposite to what happens in traditional businesses, as their customers can request a credit-based transaction. Second, e-businesses are more empowered to provide high-quality products at the lowest possible cost. This empowerment is due to overall cost-saving features such as the lack of need to pay rent, store inventory, etc. Third, e-businesses are precise in terms of positioning their customers. This precision comes from the fact that, unlike traditional businesses, e-vendors receive important customer information (e.g., their address, contact numbers, buying ability and interests, etc.) at the time of the transaction, which can be used to market their products and services in the future. Consequently, smart businesses generally use the Internet as their medium for marketing.

To précis, Internet technology facilitates both customers and service providers by enabling a successful target market. Therefore, the trade partners (i.e., sellers and buyers) are more likely to maintain a long-term relationship through mutual use of Internet marketing tools such as search engines, social media, classifieds, email and affiliates.

Online Marketing

The importance of good marketing scheme to a business has been emphasized widely. An accurate marketing strategy may contribute to business achievements, whereas a failed strategy may contribute to the business termination. For that reason, modern businesses usually have a separate marketing department where product valuation is given precise importance. The emergence of Internet technology has revolutionized marketing departments. The Internet has reconfigured all parts of the marketing department, including research, merchandise management, pricing and distribution strategy, and promotion.