The Lee Kong Chian School of Business

Academic Year 2014/15

Term 2

MKTG 233 E-COMMERCE MARKETING

Instructor: Karen Ho
Title: Adjunct Faculty of Marketing
Email: karenho@smu.edu.sg
Office: LKCSB Level 5 Adjunct Office 1

COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course teaches the principles and practices of e-commerce marketing, with emphasis on the skills needed to plan,
launch, manage, market, and measure a Website that sells products and communicates with prospects and customers.
Students will learn the specific processes that constitute core competencies for site development, including
merchandising, pricing, and product display; best practices for maximizing click-through rate, stickiness, conversion of
site visits to sales, as well as minimizing shopping-cart abandonment. They will also learn how to develop and manage
the P&L and Operating Budgets for an e-commerce business and how to use the best practices of classic direct
marketing and the latest technology in digital marketing to test, track and measure for Return on Investment and
Customer Life Time Value. This course will provide students with a practical platform to understand, build and gain
experience in sustaining successful e-commerce marketing initiatives. Students will learn all aspects of e-commerce
marketing management. The course teaches them to employ a rigorous and holistic marketing methodology across
both traditional and new-emerging techniques.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
By the end of the course, students will be able to:
Understand the implications of e-commerce on the traditional dynamics of business and marketing
Develop frameworks to make informed marketing decisions concerning Internet and e-commerce strategies
Describe how increasing consumer/buyer control is changing the marketing landscape
Appreciate and discuss the merits of website design and development, product positioning, marketing, advertising,
order processing, fulfilment, customer service, and customer retention initiatives that e-commerce sales demand
Analyse and assess how these technology-led concepts work, and how they affect our decisions as Marketing
Managers in the e-commerce arena
Evaluate the various online customer acquisition tools (e.g. paid search and SEO) and engagement channels (e.g.
social media) to best engage with target audiences

PRE-REQUISITE/ CO-REQUISITE/ MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE COURSE(S)

Foundational Marketing: MKTG101, MKTG102 & MKTG103

ASSESSMENT METHODS
Class Participation 20% (Individual)
Research Assignment 20% (Random 2-Person Pairings)
Main Project 50% (Self-Selected 3/4-Person Group)
Individual Review 10%
Total: 100%

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY
All acts of academic dishonesty (including, but not limited to, plagiarism, cheating, fabrication, facilitation of acts of
academic dishonesty by others, unauthorized possession of exam questions, or tampering with the academic work of
other students) are serious offences.

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All work (whether oral or written) submitted for purposes of assessment must be the students own work. Penalties
for violation of the policy range from zero marks for the component assessment to expulsion, depending on the
nature of the offence.

When in doubt, students should consult the course instructor. Details on the SMU Code of Academic Integrity may
be accessed at http://www.smuscd.org/resources.html.

INSTRUCTIONAL METHODS AND EXPECTATIONS

This is a hands-on practical course. Students create online stores with ecommerce software, sell real products and cull
hard data from actual customers. Throughout the process, they receive guidance and insights from faculty and senior
practitioners from a range of industries in the e-commerce arena. The course combines hands-on online labs, lectures,
class discussions, case studies, industry guest speakers and student presentations.

Note: to accommodate our Guest Speaker(s) schedules, we may require 2-3 classes to be rescheduled to an
alternative timeslot. We will take a class vote in Week (1) to determine, by majority vote, the default class time for
the alternative window.

Class Participation
Participation is a central part of the learning process for this course and for you and your classmates. We will be
openly discussing the progress of our respective online stores throughout the semester. When you contribute, you
help others learn. Your participation mark reflects your contribution to your classmates' learning. This includes
attendance, full preparation prior to class including reading assigned materials and completion of assignments, and
active participation in class discussions and group activities.

Main Project and Presentation

There will be one primary project per group. The objective of the project is to allow you to apply what you have
learned from your Foundational Marketing courses to develop a marketing plan and budget to successfully develop,
launch, market and manage an online store. We will be working with SingTel Digital Media & Shopify* an
eCommerce platform vendor. At the end of the course, please provide me with two hard copies of the Report and
PowerPoint slides during class and a soft copy of the documents before your presentation.

CONSULTATIONS AND TEACHING ASSISTANTS

To be advised during Week (1) of term.

CLASS TIMINGS
This course will be taught in one 3-hour session, on Mondays from XXXX XXXX hrs. I will set aside 60mins (time
TBA) on the days we have class and will be available for student consultation during this window. If you need to see me
during the above window or at any other times, please contact my TA to make an appointment. My TAs contact
information is: XXXXX, #####. I am also available by email and will revert within a 48hr window.

RECOMMENDED TEXT AND READINGS

Text TBA. Additional Reading Materials will be provided.

*About Shopify Asia

SingTel Digital Media Pte Ltd is the Official reseller for Shopify in Singapore.
Shopify is a commerce platform that allows anyone to easily sell online or at their retail location or everywhere in
between. Shopify offers a professional online storefront, a payment solution to accept credit cards, and the Shopify
POS application to power retail sales. Shopify currently powers over 80,000 retailers in 100 different countries,
including Tesla Motors, Gatorade, Forbes, Amnesty International, Encyclopaedia Britannica, CrossFit. Shopify was
founded in 2006 and has received $22 million in Series A and B funding from Bessemer Venture Partners, FirstMark
Capital, Felicis Ventures, and Georgian Partners. http://www.shopify.com.sg

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WEEKLY LESSON PLAN (TBA)
A more detailed listing of topics and assignments and due dates will be uploaded on eLearn in the second week of the
term.