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BuyTestSeries.com is an e commerce portal which basically deals with buying and selling of testseries between Coaching classes/ Online TestSeries provider and students who want to buy it.
BuyTestSeries.com is an e commerce portal which basically deals with buying and selling of testseries between Coaching classes/ Online TestSeries provider and students who want to buy it.
BuyTestSeries.com is an e commerce portal which basically deals with buying and selling of testseries between Coaching classes/ Online TestSeries provider and students who want to buy it.
ON Market study & acceptability of an E-commerce portal in an Education domain
Submitted to
On 11 th July, 2014 In SIP report submitted in partial fulfillment of the Requirements for the PGDM programme By: Abhishek Panwala Roll no. : 2013190 Supervisors: Company Guide: Mr. Pravin Gadge Faculty Guide: Dr. Vinit Singh Chauhan Institute Of Management Technology, Nagpur 2013-15
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Acknowledgement
I take this opportunity to express my profound gratitude and deep regards to my guide Dr. Vinit Singh Chauhan for his exemplary guidance, monitoring and constant encouragement throughout the course of this thesis. The blessing, help and guidance given by him time to time shall carry me a long way in the journey of life on which I am about to embark. I also take this opportunity to express a deep sense of gratitude to my company guide Mr. Pravin Gadge, Sales Manager Pune, BuyTestSeries.com for his cordial support, valuable information and guidance, which helped me in completing this task through various stages. I am obliged to staff members of Camplace Pvt. Ltd., for the valuable information provided by them in their respective fields. I am grateful for their cooperation during the period of my project. Lastly, I thank almighty, my parents, brother, sisters and friends for their constant encouragement without which this project would not be possible. Abhishek Panwala
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Successful Completion Certificate
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Table of Contents Contents Page No. 1. Acknowledgments 2 2. Successful Completion Certificate 3 3. Executive summary 5 4. Introduction 7 5. Objectives of the study 8 6. About the organization 9 7. Target Customers 11 8. BuyTestSeries services Description 12 9. Features of BTS 13 10. Benefits of BTS 17 11. Pricing 19 12. Promotion 20 13. Registration form 20 14. Data Tabulation & Findings 22 15. Interpretations and Conclusions 27 16. Issues & Challenges 28 17. Recommendations 29 18. Limitations of the study 29 19. Future scope of improvements 30 20. Appendices 31 21. Bibliography 37
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Executive Summary
India is currently a major country which has a plethora of exams pertaining to admissions in various colleges, recruitments, scholarships etc. a total of around more than 1 crore to 2 crore students & people who are currently working appear for various competitive exams in India. Different types of exams consist of oral, offline & online exams. It is evident from this that students require some special guidance to succeed in these competitive examinations and thus various coaching centres which have specialized faculties that can guide and students for these competitive examinations come into picture. The coaching centres prepare students through not only teaching but also by taking regular mock tests so that students can adapt themselves to the real time environment of test. With the advent of technology the competitive exams sector is also not untouched and various competitive exams have become completely online. Common Admission Test (CAT), Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) are to name a few. Hence coaching centres which trains students for these entrance examinations have also undergone a change in their test taking processes so as to aid students in understanding the complexities of these online tests and also to make them adaptable to these new technologies. The main focus of this report is related to online entrance exams, which though slow but is growing steadily as already we can observe that various competitive exams like Common Admission Test (CAT), Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) already are fully conducted through online medium. There are many coaching centres in India which still do not have the resources to upgrade their processes to conduct online mock tests for their students as it requires a specific technical team which deals with these systems of test taking, hence this demands huge investments. Also there are many entrance examinations which are still pencil paper based and hence some coaching centres find it an added expense to make their testing processes online. To tap this opportunity which could cater to specific needs of the coaching centres pertaining to competitive examinations with very low or even zero investments from their end buytestseries.com launched an e- commerce portal which could provide these small coaching centres an opportunity to grow their revenues not only them, this portal can also cater to the needs of big players in the coaching sector market. The e-
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commerce portal of buytestseries.com not only caters to test series solutions but also provides a cluster of features to these coaching institutions.
This project gave me a great learning experience and at the same time it gave me enough scope to analyse the market and apply various marketing concepts which I have learned. The analysis and advice presented in this Project Report is based on needs and wants as well as the customers behaviour mainly based in Mumbai, Pune & Surat and their requirements and expectations from the product which buytestseries.com is offering i.e. which type of services they prefer, their queries related to services or what are their requirements pertaining to e-commerce portal. This project report will also give some valuable insights on how buytestseries.com can improve its services in order to increase its profits. The project as a whole is divided into two parts. The first part gives an insight about competitive exams coaching centres and their various aspects, the Company Profile, Objectives of the study, Methodology used. Also it will give a brief idea to the reader as how coaching class sector can use e-commerce portal as a powerful sales and marketing tool to increase their revenue. The second part of the report contains qualitative research as how the value addition was done by me in companies current processes to improve its services, opportunities, future prospects recommendations for coaching class & the issues and challenges faced by me while conducting project.
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Introduction As already discussed the coaching class sector provides guidance to students in India as per the exams they are appearing for. But not only this, the coaching classes are also involved in school levels where students are being taught on the basis of syllabus as per various educational boards of India like Central Board Of Secondary Education (CBSE), Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE) etc. these coaching classes also take mock test of students for competitive exams like JEE, NTSE Olympiads etc. Other category of coaching classes include language classes, corporate training classes, UPSC, MPSC, Personality Development etc. Students appearing for competitive exams generally join these coaching classes at three different stages of their career. 1) Students preparing for entrance exams at graduation level: Students from 10 th to 12 th
standards come into this segment. Depending on the types of classes available and time which these students think is suitable for them they join the coaching classes for competitive exams preparation. For example many JEE coaching classes provide 2 Year foundation course to students which require students to join these coaching classes from 10th standard itself, or they also provide provision of 1- year classroom coaching to students who have passed 12 th standard and are planning to give entrance exam after preparation of 1 year .
2) Students/professionals preparing for entrances at post-graduation level: students/working professionals which are either currently pursuing graduation or completed graduation and are now appearing for entrance exams or those who are currently holding a job and want to go for higher education of various educational institutions which provide post-graduation degree/diploma for various courses fall under this segment. For example entrance examination like CAT which is being conducted every year for entrance in Indias premium B-schools.
3) Students/working professionals preparing for recruitment exams: This category of students/working professionals include those which want to appear for recruitment exams and want to work for those firms or organizations which conduct those recruitment exams. For example Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) exams are being conducted in India for jobs in civil and administrative services of public sector. Similarly many private sectors also conduct recruitment exams for recruiting candidates for their various posts.
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Objectives:
1) To acquire new prospects for buytestseries.com from Mumbai, Pune & Surat region. 2) To understand the customers expectations regarding e-commerce services and also providing ways to help them increase their revenue by offering powerful and comprehensive online sales & marketing services. 3) To revise the schemes offered by buytestseries.com after analysis on data and findings, keeping in view to increase organizations profitability and improved customer satisfaction level. 4) To recommend the organization business strategies and plans that could help in acquisition of new customers.
Methodology Used
To achieve the above objectives several concepts of sales and marketing were used. The following methods were practised to obtain these objectives:
1) Rigorous brainstorming sessions were conducted on the business processes of buytestseries.com in order to deeply understand the features offered by buytestseries.com 2) In order to understand the customer behaviour towards adoption of online marketing and e- commerce portal several qualitative research techniques like structured questionnaire and open ended unstructured questionnaire was conducted amongst the registered customers. 3) Weekly updates were shared with the company guide to share the queries generated during sales calls and also to discuss how to work on those queries. 4) With the focus on value addition for the organization, various qualitative data collected through questionnaire were analyzed and brainstorming was done in order to substantiate the analysis which could increase the organizations profitability.
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About organization
Camplace Pvt. Ltd. was a dream of a two very good friends just out of engineering colleges to do something about the challenges students faced during Campus recruitment. Having been a part of the system themselves, they set it upon themselves to do something to change the system through the use of technology. That is how Camplace was born.
Established in 2012, Camplace Pvt Ltd has been at the forefront of Campus Recruitment and Automation. Started by a team of 3 visionaries who dreamt of changing the recruitment landscape of campus recruitment in India - Camplace has come a long way in a short span of time.
In the last 2 years, Camplace has been featured on Bloomberg TV as one of the most promising start-ups in India. Camplace has also been the 1st runner up in the Microsoft BizSpark India Start-up Challenge held in 2013. As of today, Camplace has tie ups with more than 200 companies and 90+ colleges comprising 10,000+ students with an aim of increasing its reach all over the world.
Through perseverance and complete focus Camplace grew in size and reach. Today with close to 4000+ opportunities provided and more than 200+ companies associated Camplace is on its path to the dream it was envisaged to be.
Directors :
Shirish Bhatt Himanshu Jain Surendra Sancheti
Their Clients: Their clients are the most important stakeholders for them. Complete client satisfaction is the goal that ever member of Camplace aims to achieve. The team always aims to 'Wow' its users with the experience of using Camplace.
Management: Camplace is owned & managed by a team of highly reputed and focused individuals from different walks of life. They aim to achieve utmost professionalism and the highest quality in all deliverables in Camplace.
Community: Camplace is dedicated to giving back to the society as and when it can. As a part of ITI initiative, Camplace offers free services to different ITIs across India to assist the weaker sections of the society to get a placement opportunity.
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After achieved a huge success, Camplace felt a need to help students prepare for competitive examinations through guidance of best coaching centres which are spread across the industry. Hence, BuyTestSeries.com was born with the aim of helping them to choose among the best series providers and coaching classes across all over India.
Overview - Competitive Exams: An examination where candidates are ranked according to their marks or grades. To get Merit List To get Good Candidates / Students for a specific purpose To get Admissions To get Job To get Scholarships
Recruitment Exams:
Flowchart 1: Types of exams Entrance Exam To get admission JEE-Main(AIEEE),JEE Advanced, CAT, BITSAT,AIPMT, MH-CET, CMAT, GATE, NMAT, XAT, Recruitment Exams To get admission( Private or Government) IBPS Bank Po, Bank Clerk, SCRA, MPSC, NDA Other Exams To get Topper, Merit List, Scholar Ships NTSE, MTSE
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What is Test Series :
Test: A series of questions, problems, or physical responses designed to determine knowledge, intelligence or ability.
Test Series: Set of Tests i. For Classes I to PG ii. Competitive Exams
Target Customers:
Buytestseries.com identified its customer base so that to clearly target those customers which are relevant to offerings it provides. Before starting any project it is a matter of prime importance to identify the target segments which are suitable for product and services we are offering. Below are the target markets which were identified by BuyTestSeries.com :
1.) Online TestSeries provider: Test providers whose test series can be attempted by aspirants of various competitive examinations through online mode. These test providers may/may not provide the formal coaching to students but will always provide practice test series to students for preparations of their entrance examinations. Ex. Aakash, MyOraangeSlate.com, Test Funda, Practice Guru.
2.) Coaching Class and Online TestSeries Provider: Coaching class who provides the formal coaching to aspirants and also TestSeries (either their own or they are using some other test providers online platform) for the competitive examinations. Ex. IMS, Endeavor, Zignasa, CET-King, Global Careers, GEE-BEE, Futurism, Vidyamandir
3.) Coaching Class and Offline TestSeries Provider: Those Coaching class who provides the formal coaching to aspirants and also Off-line TestSeries (Pen-Paper based) for the competitive examinations. Ex. Aspirations Infinite, Modulus, Focus Academy
4.) Only Coaching Classes: Those Coaching class who provides the formal coaching to aspirants on the basic of syllabus of various educational boards or universities. Ex. Engineering Coaching, Commerce Coaching, Specific Subject Coaching (Maths, Chemistry, Physics), Spoken English.
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Buytestseries.com Services Description:
BuyTestSeries.com a.k.a. BTS, is an ecommerce portal dedicated for the online sale and purchase of test series for competitive exams. It also provides all information about coaching institutes / online test providers in different cities across India to increase visibility and enrolments.
The portal connects different types of providers like coaching institutes, individuals, authors and companies with students, working professionals or any individual appearing for competitive exams. Also the providers can attract more individuals to enroll for their coaching facilities.
Figure 1: BuyTestSeries.com Homepage
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Features of BTS:
The portal provides features for Coaching Classes / Individuals / Test Preparation companies who want to multiply their revenue by selling their test series practice material to the students across India. It can be used by any type of providers small, medium or large, known as a big brand or just an initial starter. The only thing you need to possess is good number of questions which can be marketed to a larger audience.
Sell your Test/Test series: Bring your business online and leverage the power of the internet and reach out to millions of students across India through BuyTestSeries.com and our distribution partners. Upload and configure your Test Series / Tests with easy to use tools to start selling immediately. If you already have your own testing platform, then just list your products to start getting orders.
Figure 2: Types of exams
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Get Online Admission: Class providers can upload information about their courses and batches which will be visible to students of any region. Students will be able to search their preferred batch and can book their admission by making the payments online. This way our platform helps students to identify right batch based on their convenience.
Figure 3: Online Admission Support featured on buytestseries.com
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Distributor and Partners: A large distribution chain offers BuyTestSeries.com coupons to students who can purchase products online. The sales that take place using these discount coupons helps in earning additional revenue for the distributor and builds visibility among students.
Generate Sales with Revenue: Real time reviews for your Tests / Tests Series and Coaching Classes / Individuals / Test preparation companies direct from customers; help further improve and refine your services. Capture the ratings and feedback which generate additional sales of test series and ensures more admissions for your institute.
Figure 4: Customer Feedback
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Promote Your Brand: You will be able to promote yourself as a superstar with your detailed profile pages. Highlight your unique features and showcase your Brand to a large number of customers. Your online gallery allows you to showcase your infrastructure, demo lectures or any moments of joy and happiness.
Figure 5: Mini website on BTS portal
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Benefits of Product: The portal provides various benefits to provider which can increase the sales of the test series and also increase the number of enrollments for the coaching facilities. Benefits are as below. Build Online Visibility:
Their online advertising tools promote your brand among students to get more sales. Build your presence before the right target audience in a highly competitive online space.
Increase your Admissions:
Fill your seats faster by displaying your proposed batches online. Book admissions of students at a click of a button and save on your marketing expenses. With Buytestseries.com we ensure you get end to end services with direct admissions.
Increase Product sales:
BuyTestSeries.com is a website with dedicated and strong focus on test series and coaching facilities for effective marketing of your products. This results in better sales and enquiries as our efforts are concentrated on your facilities. Branding for your Profile:
Our smart profile pages make it easier for students to discover your brand and your offerings which generate real time sales and enquiries.
Get reviews and ratings:
With real reviews directly from your customers you have the best marketing team on board. Happy customers are your best brand ambassadors.
Large distribution network: Join the distribution network by handing over the discount coupons to students. Purchases made with these coupons helps you earn sales commission. Promote Among Students: The more visitors you can get the more will be the growth of your business. Get advertising tools to promote your brand among students to get more sales.
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Process Simple Flow:
3. After Successful Payment: Online Test Series Benefits / Features: Online Visibility Online Global Sale Reviews Online Marketing For Coaching Class Discount Coupons, Online Admission Platform. 2. Provides: Online Test Series Test Providers Features Options to choose best Online Payment facility Online Store for Sale & Purchase of Practice Test Series for Various Competitive Exams Classes / Company Students 1. Registration on
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Plans- Options Available:
PRICING: Features / Plans FREE BASIC (Rs. 25,000) / Yr PREMIUM (Rs. 40,000) / Yr Online Listing with Detailed Profile Page
Online Reviews and Feedback Online Admissions Online Test Series Discount Coupon for students 10% 15% 20% Sales Commission on Disc. Coupons 5% 7.5% 10% Revenue Share of Provider 40% 50% 60% Technology Platform Control Panel with Login Analytical Reports 5 Promotional Emails in a year
Table 1: buytestseries.com plans and various packages for coaching classes
The features are available to you at ZERO initial investment. All you need to do is set up your profile on BuyTestSeries.com and list you products. Based on sale of your products, you have to pay 50% commission to BuyTestSeries.com. For e.g.: If your product is listed for Rs. 1000/-, then for every sale you will earn Rs. 500/- and our share will be Rs. 500/-.
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Online Seats Booking For Your Coaching Class / Classes : This is also available to you at ZERO initial investment. All you need to do is to provide your branches, courses, batches & fees details to us. Based on online booking of the seats, you have to pay 15% commission (Per Seat Basis) to BuyTestSeries.com. For e.g. If your Fees for Course A is of Rs. 5000/-, then for every online seats bookings, our share will be Rs. 750/-. You do not need to do any marketing or allied activity at your end. The entire promotion and sale takes place on our website. You are earning at absolutely ZERO investment and paying us only when we perform. Promotion:
We will be promoting our portal through social media like Facebook where we are connected to multiple groups. We have our products like Camplace and Talentick. Camplace is a product for Campus recruitment automation. Through this we get connected to students from Engineering, Management, Diploma, Arts, Commerce, Science colleges. There are many students who want to go to higher education and buytestseries.com will provide them assistance. We are already connected to more than 20000 candidates and 100+ colleges. We have a tie up with Institute of Company Secretaries of India through which are connected to more than 15000 candidates. We have a large distribution network for marketing your online products at different colleges and student dominant areas.
Registration-cum- Questionnaire Form: Everyone knows the importance of Questionnaire. It contains lot of data for the segment on which we are doing market research. BTS has come up with a Registration-cum- Questionnaire Form which contains all details about the coaching classes as well as Online TestSeries providers. It contains maximum information of the customers for BTS. It includes their name, address, their branches names, what they are (Coaching classes/Online TestSeries provider), what types of facilities they are providing, their payment modes, contact person information and all things. It will help BTS to create their mini website on e-commerce portal.
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Data Tabulation and Findings: After the plan was designed, sales calls were made in Pune, Mumbai and Surat locations where various coaching classes dealing with different types of competitive examinations coaching were visited and data was collected as per the companies prescribed format. It is to be noted that all these calls were cold calls which implies that customer was unaware of the product and they require a demonstration of the services which are being provided by buytestseries.com. The data of customers collected is tabulated as below:
Figure 6: Sample Size
Out of the total calls, I succeeded in registering 45 customers at buytestseries.com to avail its various services (see appendices). The data entries of registered customers were made in this separate format which was a
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prescribed format of buytestseries.com, this data keeps track of the various details of clients required by buytestseries.com which are yet to be received from them, these details includes details such as faculty details, test series in MS word format, online admissions batch details format etc. to keep status up to date and also helps in rigorous follow-ups for collection of these details. Kindly check appendices for the detailed data of registered customers. Rows filled with Red colour in table in appendices section shows that all details of customers were received as per the plan selection. The unfilled rows show that there are still some details to be collected from registered customers. Various queries of customers were taken into account so that further work can be done to improve the services of buytestseries.com. The questionnaire from registration form which was close ended question, it is to be noted that only the relevant questions which relates to the findings are being tabulated below and the corresponding data is tabulated as below:
S. No. Question Yes No 1 Do you provide course study material? 45 0 2 Do you Provide Video Study Material? 20 25 3 Do you provide test series? 45 0 4 Do you have online payment facility? 2 43
Table 2: Questions from registration-cum-questionnaire form
Unstructured questionnaire included the below questions which were being asked from all the registered customers during one to one interview to find their awareness level pertaining to e-commerce portal & online technology platform for test series.
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S. No. Question Yes No 1 Do you know the concept of online seat booking? 5 40 2 Do you know the concept of e- commerce shopping? 35 10 3 Do you know how online testing platform works? 15 30 4 Do you provide free demo lectures? 43 2 5 Are you interested in converting your offline test series to online and selling it across India through our portal? 10 35
Table 3: Questions from unstructured questionnaire
Analysis: During my sales-calls, I met different-different types of customers as well as students. I interacted with them and have found different mind-set they are having about e-commerce portal. They just know that e-commerce portal is only for online shopping. We have to make them understand about e- commerce portal for education sector that BTS launched for Competitive exams. The roles assigned to me were, 1. Identifying market leads for the sales of products and generate revenue. 2. Schedule demo with colleges / companies / classes for the various products of company 3. Follow up on the closure of the deals 4. Build online visibility about the products to generate inbound queries Market research was conducted in Pune, Mumbai as well as Surat region about e-commerce portal in education sector. It was observed that majority of customers were aware of the services offered by justdial.com, Snapdeal.com which was free listing of various kinds of institutions, businesses etc.. Their awareness level was restricted to that, it was important to make customers understand that an e-commerce portal which pertains to education sector can be a powerful tool for sales, marketing and promotions for their businesses. As we open Filpkart.com, there is a list of segregation about what we want to shop. Whether we want to shop for Men, Women or Children. Then there are subcategories for Men/Women/Children for their clothing, footwear, watches, and fragrances. So using the concept of flipkart and relating it to the offerings of buytestseries.com customers were being educated of how they can utilize the services of our company.
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Ex. If a student/aspirant wants to search for the coaching classes for CAT in Mumbai-Maharashtra, will follow the below steps: a) Open BuyTestSeries.com b) click on Coaching Class tab on the top c) one page will open which is a combination of justdial.com and Flipcart.com d) Select state, then select city in that state from the location filter available on website e) Click on competitive exam for which student/aspirant is interested in. f) If facilities provided by coaching classes suits the student need, student can contact the coaching class by using details from contact us tab displayed in the coaching class profile page. When a student follows all the steps mentioned above, he/she will get a list of coaching classes of his/her choice. Then after student needs to choose the best class amongst all of them. That can be chosen by rating given to them or by the Image that particular class is having on students mind. When a student select any of the classes, one mini website will open of particular class which is created on the basis of Registration form as well as details given by particular classes. It would be very easier for students to get their favourable classes through it.
Flipkart
Figure 7: Flipkart.com
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BuyTestSeries.com
Figure 7: BuyTestSeries.com
Findings Enormous findings related to Level of awareness among e-commerce, their interests in their classes marketing, online admission which leads to increase their revenue etc. were captured through registration cum questionnaire form and also through unstructured questionnaire during the sales call, the following interpretation were derived from Questionnaire: 1. Level Of Awareness Among Prospects The main interpretation was Customers were aware of only Justdial.com, i.e. free listing and they dont want to accept any facilities beyond it though BTS is providing these facilities on a free basis. After explaining them all the facilities to them, they found this concept more beneficial than Just dial. The reasons were: a) Buytestseries.com gives customers an opportunity to create their mini web-site on a free basis. b) BTS is not only offering customers details on its portal like Justdial but only gives them a chance to put their faculty details along with their photographs, photos of their classes, facilities they are proving to students and many more things on a Zero base investment
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c) The major advantage of buytestseries.com as compared to services of justdial.com was that buytestseries.com free listing services caters to exclusively coaching classes sector rather then listing of every business on website as is the case with Justdial.com
2. Video lectures selling online Customers observations was also captured through the videos study material under the facilities provided section. The major finding or more precisely the suggestion given by customers was to start selling their video lectures through online e-commerce services of buytestseries.com. This was a major finding as it gives both the clients as well buytestseries.com a new business dimension. 3. Selling Of Study Materials Online Through the question of Do you provide study material major finding captured was to start selling the study material of coaching classes also through buytestseries.com. This could also be a new business prospect for the clients as well as buytestseries.com 4. Online payment facility All the customers werent having online payment facility for students where students can pay tuition fee through online mode. This was also an important finding as buytestseries.com can exploit this concept in future to attract more coaching classes, this is because these facilities are being provided by buytestseries.com without any hassles and coaching classes just have to pay a minimal percentage of commission to buytestseries.com on every seat registered for their institution. 5. Consumer Behaviour
Qualitative finding related to consumer behaviour towards a startup service was also captured. Clients are not willing to invest on a start up as they believe it is a risky business proposition. But at the same time they are willing to use the services when provided free of cost. This gives a valuable marketing insight that Indians are value seeking customers and they believe in getting higher returns on investment of minimal amount.
Interpretations/Conclusions:
Interpretations were formulated on the basis of the study conducted and discussions & meetings were held with management team on how to improve the existing services of buytestseries.com in order to provide high value to customer. It is to be noted that not only value proposition for customers was important during the discussions but increasing buytestseries.com profitability was also a major agenda of the meetings. Based on the above inputs from my study the previously shown plan (Refer table 1) was revised and designed in such a manner so that customer value as well as buytestseries.com profitability both aspects can be covered. Below is the detailed pricings of revised offerings of buytestseries.com
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Table 4: Revised plans and package of buytestseries.com Previous Plan and new plan comparison: To increase cost effectiveness free conversion of test series service was terminated and conversion was made paid. Basic plan of 25000/- was changed to 5000 and questions limit was put on the test providers.
Relationship manager assigned to premium package clients to ensure responsiveness and customer satisfaction. For customer acquisition, sales commission to people who refers the test series of a particular institute is adopted. This strategy will aid buytestseries.com to gain traffic on website, which in long term can increase profitability. Other than the offered service, buytestseries.com also started a service for advertising the coaching class on their website which coaching classes can use as an online marketing tool to attract students.
Issues & Challenges:
There were many issues faced by me while conducting this study, these issues pertain to consumer behavior towards the services, issues in searching for target customers etc. all these issues are listed below:
1) Unawareness about e-commerce platform: Customers inability to understand an e-commerce platform functioning was a major hurdle. To make them understand the concept of e-commerce platform catering to education domain examples of services offered by justdial.com, flipkart.com and bookmyshow.com were given.
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2) Problem in acquiring appointments: As my major job was to find out a target customer through online and then I have to make cold call. Many times it happens that during my visit of the classes, they did not entertain me as they think I would be a salesman and they wont let me meet a concern person over there. This was a major issue that I have to meet a concern person/ decision maker to discuss the offerings about BuyTestSeries.com and I wont get any appointment.
3) Target customers data: As BuyTestSeries.com is a start-up, there was no specific database of coaching classes with BuyTestSeries.com. This can be counted as another major issue as I have to search for coaching classes in different area on a daily basis. I have to search about coaching classs location, address, contact persons name on Justdial.com or Sulekha.com or Yellowpages.com.
4) Formats collection: Format collection was the most challenging task in the project. I have to collect formats from the registered customers like their faculty details, their photographs, their educational qualification, their designation, coaching classs photos, their batch details along with fees structure and that need to be uploaded on BuyTestSeriess online portal.
Recommendations:
1. For online seat booking, BuyTestSeries.com charges 15% on total fees to coaching classes. Rather than fix a percentage, they can decide a fix amount per student reason being high fees charged by coaching classes. 2. They can have a tie-up with their registered customers to publish their adverts (i.e. Logo that Facebook and Twitter has) in coaching classes brochure so that it will create awareness amongst students. 3. As they are not into business of selling of online study material or video lectures, they should come up with new offerings that will help coaching class and students Mutually. 4. After getting an adequate awareness in market about BTS, they should make free listing of a coaching classes a paid service as Justdial do. Those who pays higher they will be on the top when students search on BuyTestSeriess portal.
1) They should generate a system with target customers database which will help employee and save human resources that can utilized for sales. 2) Hyderabad, Delhi, Rajasthan-Kota, are known as the hubs for the best coaching institutes who provides the best coaching for competitive exams. So they should target these customers first to attract more customers. . 3) They should approach Individual/authors because these individuals/authors generally are short of investments and they always search for a publication house who sponsor their articles/stories. So BuyTestSeries.com should come up with offerings that will be mutually beneficial in term of revenue generation..