Paper Example: Zulily LLC Marketing Mix

Rahmani, Emamisaleh, and Yadegari (2015) defined a company's marketing mix as a combination of various tactics, actions, and strategies that the organization deploys to effectively promote and sell its products or brand to the target market. Marketing consists of four critical elements, including product, price, place, and promotion. Many business experts term a combination of these components as 4Ps (Goi, 2009). These elements help companies to reach their goals by producing high-quality products and selling them to their consumers through appropriate channels and at a cost-effective price. The management of Zulily has a comprehensive understanding of the need for these four elements. The company's effective use of the product, as well as price components of the marketing mix, explains why it is successful in the online retailing industry, as discussed below;

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Product

According to Dominici (2009), a product refers to the item that a company promotes and sells to its target customers to reach its goal of maximizing output. A company may sell a single item or a combination of different goods and services to create customer convenience and increase value. However, every product sold by the organization must have a certain minimum level of performance to meet the needs, preferences, and expectations of the target customers. Failing to develop high-quality products can be detrimental to the organization because they may render the remaining elements of the marketing mix, including place, price, and promotion useless. As a result, the management of Zulily responded appropriately to this challenge by developing high-quality products and services (Zulily, 2019). The company offers these products via multiple online channels and at convenience, prices to attract and retain clients.

Soper (2019) added that Zulily's product mix consists of numerous products, including home decor, children and women's apparel, infant gear, gifts, and toys, which generate remarkable sales and revenues in a typical financial period. The company targets explicitly women who admire unique products and brands for their children after its foundation in 2009 by Mark Vadon and Darrel Cavens. As a result, these products resonate with the growing needs of its customers across the global market while considering that child-rearing brings a unique experience to young women entering motherhood for the first time in their lives (Rahmani et al., 2015). Many business experts also consider Zulily as a company that produces high-quality products with a target of young mothers who like having cost-effective products purchased through the internet. The management of Zulily recognizes products as a significant depiction of the corporate image and the brand reputation of a company. Many consumers prefer purchasing women and children products sold by Zulily to other online retailing firms, such as Amazon and Walmart, for various reasons.

First, most of the products sold by the company are of high quality and provide a unique customer experience when used due to their convenience (Sheehan, 2014). Secondly, most of the products, including toys, sold by Zulily, are safe and caters to the needs of children and women of all ages. The ability to satisfy the needs of diverse age groups among children and women makes it appropriate to purchase products from Zulily. Thirdly, Zulily sales a wide range of products not only in its stores but also via numerous online platforms, including its official website, https://www.zulily.com/ (Zulily, 2019). The company also changes its sales daily, ranging from 6.am Pacific Time and does not hold any form of inventory to ensure that customers get what they want within 72 hours. Lastly, Zulily embraces high-level creativity and innovation in its product mix. For instance, the vice president of Zulily's studio operations, Jason Gruenig, posts more than 1,000 photos of different products on the company's official website to keep customers informed of the available inventory (Anderson, 2019). This strategy plays a crucial role in keeping the site fresh and visually vibrant.

Price

Dominici (2009) defined price as the amount of money that target customers must spend when buying a product sold by a particular company. Many companies set the prices of their goods and services depending on different factors. Some of these variables include production costs, the target market, and the ability of the predetermined consumers to pay. Therefore, pricing is a critical strategy in demarcating, differentiating, and enhancing the image and the quality of a product (Peterson, 2019). The price element of Zulily's marketing mix plays an essential role in defining and specifying various costs that consumers must undergo to purchase and utilize its high-quality products. This element helps Zulily to use different prices to maximize its sales, revenues, and profits in a particular financial year (Zulily, 2019). As a result, most of the transactions made by Zulily originate mainly from mobile devices despite its strategy to refresh and replenish its inventory after every 72 hours.

According to Sheehan (2014), Zulily uses a low-price model accompanied by flash sales to provide high-quality merchandise to its customers across the target market. Also, Zulily declared the launch of a new price comparison device that contrasts the cost of its products with Amazon and Walmart, which are its main competitors. The management of Zulily also guaranteed its customers that it has appropriate plans to match the prices of its products with those of Walmart and Amazon in case they appear to be considerably low (Anderson, 2019). The new pricing strategy also puts Zulily in a better position to increase its sales during the upcoming holiday season when compared to its competitors in the American and global retailing industry. Customers will, therefore, have an ample opportunity to visit the company's website and access their products via countable clicks. Zulily also believes that using a price-matching model to sell its products will help it to shape the perceptions of customers (Soper, 2019). This strategy will, in turn, convert them into regular buyers and consumers of its high-quality goods and products.

Anderson (2019) added that the management of Zulily claimed that a study conducted by Wakefield Research Company showed that the cost of its products was 24 to 30% lower than those offered by its chief rivals, Walmart and Amazon. These percentages apply to 16 distinct product categories collected and analyzed from the physical stores of Zulily in the United States at Seattle in the state of Washington (Peterson, 2019). The management of Zulily has a plan to integrate its price comparison tool on every page of its website as well as mobile applications by displaying products also sold by its major competitors, Walmart and Amazon. As a result, the company plans to combine its flash sales site with a unique UPC. The sales team of Zulily will match this code to identical products promoted and sold by the two global leading online retailers with their prices displayed alongside the products that it offers (Anderson, 2019). Lastly, the code will match the lowest offer from either rival in circumstances where Zulily appears to be charging higher prices.

On the other hand, the customers targeted by Zulily had mixed reactions concerning its decision to launch and use the new pricing strategy (Zulily, 2019). For instance, some customers claimed that the company needs to develop additional price differentiation strategies as opposed to exclusively relying on the current price-matching approach. Walmart and Amazon, which are the main competitors to QVC, an online company that acquired Zulily in 2015, have an excellent mastery of logistics (Sheehan, 2014). This outstanding comprehension of online retailing logistics allows Amazon and Walmart to keep their prices lower than their competitors. The strategy also plays a crucial role in keeping Amazon and Walmart as price-competitive firms that seek to unlock their market potentials across the world. Excellent execution of extensive assortments remains part of the value equation of these online retailing firms (Anderson, 2019). Therefore, Zulily will need a unique, sustainable competitive advantage to increase its market share.

References

Anderson, G. (2019 October). Low-price Leaders: Amazon, Walmart and ... Zulily? Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/retailwire/2019/10/09/low-price-leaders-amazon-walmart-and--zulily/#c1914f89ac89.

Dominici, G. (2009). From marketing mix to e-marketing mix: A literature overview and classification. International Journal of Business and Management, 4(9), 17-24. Retrieved from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/5714/9cdfa13b60edacdef6e09a08ac98cc3fc5b9.pdf.

Goi, C. L. (2009). A review of marketing mix: 4Ps or more? International Journal of Marketing Studies, 1(1), 2. Retrieved from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.656.1894&rep=rep1&type=pdf.

Peterson, H. (2019 October). Zulily says it's cheaper than Walmart and Amazon on 97% of items, and it's launching a new pricing tool to prove it. Business Insider. Retrieved from https://www.pulse.com.gh/bi/strategy/zulily-says-its-cheaper-than-walmart-and-amazon-on-97-of-items-and-its-launching-a/gplg2ek.

Rahmani, K., Emamisaleh, K., & Yadegari, R. (2015). Quality function deployment and new product development with a focus on marketing mix 4P model. Asian Journal of Research in Marketing, 4(2), 98-108. Retrieved from https://aijsh.com/shop/articlepdf/2015/04/14281994369%20abstract.pdf.

Sheehan, J. (2014 October). Zulily shopping experience: pros and cons. The Morning Call. Retrieved from https://www.mcall.com/entertainment/mc-zulily-bethlehem-shopping-experience-20141031-story.html.

Soper, T. (2019 October). As its revenue dips, Zulily unveils price comparison feature to compete with Amazon and Walmart. Geekwire. Retrieved from https://www.geekwire.com/2019/revenue-dips-zulily-unveils-price-comparison-feature-compete-amazon-walmart/.

Zulily (2019). We have more. [Online]. Retrieved from https://www.zulily.com/brand/nifty-home-products.html.