FREE ESSAY ON ECAMPUS.COM

ECAMPUS.COM

Ecampus.com
q Product- Ecampus.com is an internet company that offers a wide variety of college
supplies and other related items online. However, the primary product that is being
marketed is college textbooks and books. In fact Ecampus.com claims to be the largest
college bookstore online, and to have all books in print available to customers. 
q Price- In terms of price, Ecampus.com offers their product at an affordable, discounted
price compared to the typical bookstore price. Having books available at an affordable
price for college students is one of the company's main concern and is evident in their
mission statement, as it claims to provide the easiest, fastest and cheapest way for
college and university students to buy textbooks and stuff. On the web site the company
also displays the actual price of the book being bought and the price they offer it at,
in order let the students be aware of how much they are saving.
q Promotion- Ecampus.com have gone through great lengths to promote their company,
especially during the summer of 1999, which around the time when they officially launched
their company to the public. Their promotion efforts during the period were extremely
vital to the company's growth since they had just recently entered the market and also
because the school period was soon the start shortly. On July 2, 1999, Ecampus.com
officially went live with their web site, during a press conference, which was held in
order to introduce their company to the public. Their promotion efforts continued to
reach the public through, the internet and mass media. Various commercials for instance,
began to surface nationwide, directed primarily for their target market, which were
college students. Ecampus.com also chose other channels of promoting their service, which
includes flyers on college campuses and magazine ads.
q Place- The great thing about Ecampus.com is an internet company and is accessible via
the computer, which makes it all the more convenient for the customers to shop. This
aspect of the company gives them the advantage over other retail bookstores that are not
online and are limited to only a small portion of the market. By making Ecampus.com
strictly and internet company, they are able grab a large part of the market share since
they are open to the public at a global scale, rather than on a local scale.
Target Market-College students
q Demographically/Psychographically- Ecampus.com target their market on the demographic
basis of sex, age, occupation and income. Ecampus.com chose their target market to be
male and female college students who are in the lower brackets of income. On a
psychographical basis, the company focuses on college students who are always looking for
cheap and affordable college supplies.
Trends
q The one major trend in retail bookstores is that the many bookstores are expanding
their businesses into the internet. Some like Ecampus.com for instance, are entirely
setup for the sole purpose to sell their product online. This growing trend have gotten
big competitors in the market to enter the eCommerce market, largely due to the
advantages in selling books online to customers around the world and not only around
their local regions. Another reason the popularity of online bookstores is growing is
that companies can cut down on large amounts of expenses that they would have incurred if
they had set up physical locations. This cost-effective approach have had businesses
rapidly restructuring their marketing strategies.
Competition
The growing trend of online bookstores have had many new and already existing bookstores
to enter into the online market. Right now Ecampus.com is facing many competitors who
basically selling the same service and product as Ecampus.com. Some big competitors are,
efollet.com, textbooks.com, barnesandnoble.com, bigword.com, and amazon.com.