Business to consumer web-site under the financial crisis

Abstract: Global financial crisis, triggered by the U.S. sub-prime mortgage crisis, is now the hot issue all over the world. The crisis has already slowed down the world economy and brought great shocks to almost every industry. For B2C companies all over the world, the crisis is more of an opportunity than a threat and therefore these companies should use marketing techniques to further boost their revenue and profit. In view of this situation, this thesis is dedicated to discuss the price and promotion strategies used by B2C companies during the crisis. Through case studies of four B2C companies, that is, TaoBao.com, DangDang.com, EBay.com and Amazon.com, we conclude that discount, pricing leadership and penetration pricing are the universal price strategies used, while they also use nearly similar promotion strategies: advertising, public relation and sales promotion. Considering the current crisis, we also think that current price and promotion strategies are insufficient in face of global financial crisis in that they are not flexible enough to adapt themselves to the changing consumer behaviors and economic surroundings. Consequently, to seek to address these problems, we here bring forward three suggestions: strengthened segment-based pricing Strategy, innovative promotion strategy and flexible marketing mix.