A strategy is an action or plan that is made to achieve an aim or goal. Overstock.com came to be in the year 1999. It is an online shopping company that serves a certain niche of clientele. Its brands are very affordable. The aim of the company is to become the premier company selling excess inventory through the internet. The company has grown to become an online shopping company that is a force to reckon with in the market. Though the company has received major competition from other online shopping companies like EBay and Amazon, it still remains the most popular online shopping company. It has managed to remain at the top through the strategies that it has implemented through the years. For example, it has employed social media to advertise its products (Holden, 2011). This has given them the popularity they need. Another strategy that the company has employed is low pricing. This has attracted its clientele because its competitors charge higher prices.
However, the best strategy the company has used that has earned it popularity and, helped it achieve its aim is the use of social media. It has its brand name in Facebook. The Facebook page it has displays its products. It acts as an advertising platform. In addition, it uses this Facebook platform to dialog with its consumers and, any potential customer who is interested in its products. Additionally, it also has a Twitter account which it uses for advertisement. Another social media platform it uses is Spigit. The platform is specifically for its employees. Averagely, it has over 1500 employees. This has boosted its employee’s morale. Consequently, productivity has increased (Abromavich, 2012).
In addition, the company uses the analytic technology in Spigit’s Facebook to resonate well with its messaging and the contacts of both its employees and consumers. Another social media platform that the company uses is Tumblr. Its Tumblr page has coupon codes that helps the consumers to shop easier. Primarily, this platform pushes products.
The company’s implementation of the strategy concerns its daily use. People use social media all the time. In fact, there is no single second that passes without anybody on social media platform. That is its implementation tactic, per second logging in on social media. The company has employees who operate all the social media pages and platforms. Through this, the company exposes its products to the whole world. Since online shopping can be done at any time of day, another implementation tactic that the company has employed is its twenty four hours system presence. It operates the whole day and night. It has employees who work on shifts to implement this.
The strategy mentioned concerns budgetary control systems. This is because by using social media as an advertising strategy, the company is able to save on its advertising expenditure. Companies use a lot of resources to advertise their products. Overstock.com has reduced its advertising budget to a minimum by using social media. This strategy has worked very well for them. The budget has reduced to its minimum (BBC, 2008).
The strategy of using social media as an advertising platform has effectively worked. As said above, the budgetary allocations that the company uses for its product advertisement has greatly reduced. Being an online company, its products are visible to its clientele. In fact, the company is considering using Pinterest. It is also considering using Google Plus. An employee of the company describes Google Plus as a virtual ghost that the company is considering adding to its number of social media platforms. The strategy is very effective. In fact, unlike its competitors, the company does not use any other media to make its products visible. Social media has enabled it to become very profitable. When it started, the company was experiencing massive losses. However, presently, it is one of the most profitable online companies.
References
A Social Media Strategy Analysis: Overstock.com - 7Summits. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.7summitsagency.com/strategy/a-social-media-strategy-analysis-overstock-com/
BBC Worldwide Ltd, & Films for the Humanities & Sciences (Firm), Films Media Group (2008). Addicted to cheap shopping?: Why the real cost of goods keeps going down. New York, N.Y: Films Media Group.
Holden, G. (2011). Selling beyond eBay: Foolproof ways to reach more customers and make big money on rival online marketplaces. New York: American Management Association.
Abromavich, G. (2012, May 14). Inside Overstock's Social Strategy - Digiday. Digiday. Retrieved April 16, 2014, from http://digiday.com/brands/inside-overstocks-social-strategy/
