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Научни трудове на Съюза на учените в България-Пловдив Серия A. Обществени науки, изкуство и култура том IV, ISSN 1311-9400 (Print); ISSN 2534-9368 (On-line), 2017, Scientific works of the Union of Scientists in Bulgaria-Plovdiv, seriesA. Public sciences, art and culture, Vol. IV, ISSN 1311-9400 (Print); ISSN 2534-9368 (On-line), 2017.
IMPLEMENTATIONOF E-MARKETING IN MACEDONIAN
AGRIBUSINESS Aneta Jankulovska, Martina Kochishka, Jiilija Petrevska Mentor: Katerina Bojkovska University "St. Kliment Ohridski"-Bitola, Republic of Macedonia
Abstract: The aim of this study was to determine to which degree the Internet and e-marketing are represented in the operation of Macedonian agribusiness, and also to explore the attitudes of employees to e-business. The results show that 63.4% of surveyed businesses have their own websites. Businesses with higher annual turnover (over 5.000.000 denars) in a greater proportion have their own websites. Websites of businesses mostly provide general information on the business and a catalogue of products, while online wholesale and e-payment are poorly represented. Only 18.3% of the surveyed businesses use e-commerce, and the majority of those have a lower annual turnover (<5.000.000 denars) and a small number of employees (up to 15). Among the businesses that offer the possibility of ecommerce, the majority are those whose e-commerce does not exceed 5% in total sales. The surveyed businesses consider indifference of customers for this kind of purchasing and higher payment risk during charging the most important reasons for not using e-commerce. Respondents believe that e-business is the necessary precondition for successful business in the future (mean 4.16) and that competition forces the use of e-business (mean 3.71). The results of this study provide guidance for the further development of e-marketing in Macedonian agribusiness. Key words: E-marketing, agribusiness, e-commerce. Introduction
The revolution in the information technology (IT) and communication have changed the way that people do business today. The dynamics of the today's business requires connecting of all the participants in the business processes and immediate response to the market. The business becomes business in the real sense of the word, in real time. Many agribusiness companies based on the customers' loyalty, improve the quality of e-services. (Chang, 2009). The E-marketing is defined as using the Internet and other digital technologies (eg. Mobile) along with the traditional methods in order to achieve the marketing objectives. (Skare, 2011b). The e-marketing covers a wide range of information technology with three major objectives: transfer of the marketing strategies to create more value through effective segmentation, targeting differentiation and positioning, effective planning and implementation of the distribution, promotion and products pricing, services and ideas and exchange that will satisfy the consumers as individuals and the organization's goals (Strauss et. all., 2003). The e-marketing is an integral part of the electronic commerce (Licul-MartinCiC, 2002). For products in agriculture and related activities, the Internet could be a valuable tool on the market that will supplement the commercial activities. The sector of agriculture and food is not fully competitive in relation to the use of new information technology (Kourgiantakis et.all., 2003). For this reason, the information technology, especially the Internet has the potential to promote economic characteristics of the agricultural sector. The e-marketing in the agribusiness brings many advantages such as reducing the cost of intermediation (related to the wholesale and retail), reduced time consumption, information gathering, selection and processing that leads to improved management of the supply chains, as well as expansion of the market involvement and / or expansion of new markets (Fraser, 2000). 120
Objectives of the research The main goal of this research is to identify the Internet and the e -marketing involvement in the agribusiness sector in Republic of Macedonia and explore the attitudes of the employees in the sector of agribusiness i.e. e-commerce. Methodology of the research
The data on the use of the Internet and the e-marketing in Macedonian companies in the agribusiness sector were collected from an on-line survey conducted in May 2017. The research involved 142 business entities engaged in agriculture. The questionnaire included general information about business entities, characteristics of the respondents, representing web sales and web page among business entities and views about the Internet business. For the analysis of the collected data were used one-variant (frequency and distribution) and two-variant (hi-square test) methods of data analysis. The data were analyzed in the program package SPSS. Research Results
Of the total number of respondents in the survey were included 97 limited liability companies, 23 family agricultural economies, 11 joint stock companies, 8 crafts and 3 cooperatives. Among the surveyed entities 96.5% are private, and only 3.5% are public companies. The businesses of the surveyed economic subjects are shown in Table 1. When the survey was conducted on businesses, they could respond with more answers. The main activity of the majority of the surveyed enterprises is manufacturing (77.5%). Trade as main business is stated within 26.1% of the enterprises, and providing services with 20.4%. Most businesses have between 1 and 15 employees (51.4%) and 16-50 employees (22.6%). 51 to 250 employees have 19.7% of the surveyed businesses and only 6.3% have more than 250 employees.
The research is dominated by businesses with annual turnover of 50.000.000 MKD (42%), followed by those with 10.000.000-50.000.000.00 MKD (28%). The businesses with an annual turnover of less than 850,000 MKD make 13% of the respondents, while those with an annual turnover from 850,000 MKD to 5000.000.00 earn 11% of the respondents. The lowest percentage earn from 5 million to 10 million MKD have annual turnover (6%). The survey included more men than women. Dominate respondents aged between 35 and 50 years old, while the lowest rates are those that are more than 50 years old. Almost 60% of the respondents have higher or college education, while 9% of the respondents have completed a master's degree or doctorate. Dominate respondents with less than 10 years of work experience in the current business entity (71.1%) while only 7.0% of the respondents in the current business entity work for more than 20 years.
Even 63.4% of the surveyed businesses have their own website, which is a smaller proportion compared to the results of the research conducted in Greece (Kourgiantakis isur., 2003), where 78% of the surveyed businesses have a website and in Zimbabwe (Mupemhi i sur., 2011), where even 90% of them have a website. Among those who do not have a website, most of them plan to make their own website in near future, while 23.1% of the respondents do not intend to make a website.
The prevalence of Web pages within the business entities depend on the annual turnover of the enterprises. Businesses with higher incomes are more likely to own a website than people with low incomes. There is no connection to the other characteristics of the business entities (number of employees, business level, seat of the county, business sector) and the existence of a website by the business person (p>0,05).
Out of the 90 respondents who have a web page, more than half (51.1%) believe that the establishment of the website have a moderate impact on the recognition of the business entity among customers and their potential partners, 24.4% answered that this influence is significant, next are those who consider the impact of the web page as insignificant (15.6%). Only 8.9% of the respondents believe that the impact of the website is very important to create visibility of their business among customers and potential partners. Among the enterprises that have a web page, the most prevalent is general information for their businesses and catalog of their products, while online commerce and e-payment is underrepresented which is equivalent to the results of the research conducted in Crete (Kourgiantakis et. All., 2003) (Table 1).
Table 1 Website contents
Website content N %
General information on business 89 62,7
Catalogue of products 73 51,4
Information on the places/ stores where you can buy products 51 35,9
Professional advice for customers 32 22,5
Prices of products 19 13,4
On- line communication 17 12,0
Links to professional associations 15 10,6
Links to other useful information (statistics etc.) 13 9,2
Online retail 13 9,2
Sections with special facilities for specific costumers 11 7,7
Internal communication for employees 6 4,2
Online wholesale 5 3,5
E-payment 4 2,8
Source: Author's research
Almost 90% of the surveyed businesses believe that their websites cannot fully meet the needs of advertising. Among the surveyed businesses only 18.3% sell their products online, while the remaining 81.7% are unable to make e-sales. The results of the survey show that the annual turnover of the business entities is related to the sale of products online (p<0,05). Businesses with low annual incomes often offer the possibility of e-sales compared to enterprises with high annual revenue. The number of the employees is also associated with e-sales (p<0,05). Businesses with fewer employees often have e-sales. The reasons for not using e-sales were also examined. The surveyed businesses believe that the reluctance of the clients to that method of buying is because of the great risk of charging. The high price for such a service is considered as a less important reason. Some of the other reasons for not using e-sales are: the ignorance of the people, small number of products, inadequacy of the products for such form of sales, lack of time and staff. Among the businesses that offer the option of e-selling (N = 26) the biggest contribution hold those whose e-sales in their total sales do not exceed 5% (42.3%), while in 11.5% of the enterprises e-sales in their total sales participate with 31 and 50%. Within 23.1% of the enterprises the e-sales in the total sales participate with 6-15% equal to the proportion of businesses (23.1%), where the participation of e-sales in total sales is 16-30%.
Views on the e-commerce The respondents believe that e-commerce is essential for business development in future (average value of 4.16, on a scale of 5 degrees where 1 means strongly disagree and 5 means totally agree) and that the competition forces the use of e-sales (average value of 3.71). The respondents do not think that the information about complex products can hardly be presented via the Internet (average value of 2.90%) and that they cannot sell food products online. Also, the surveyed businesses believe that the Internet has a major impact on the companies' operation.
Table 2 Attitudes to e-business
Item N min max Mean Standard deviation
E-business is a necessary precondition for a successful business in the future 142 2 5 4,16 0,750
Competition forces the use of e- business 141 1 5 3,71 0,891
E- business will significantly reduce the importance of intermediaries in our sector in the next three years 141 1 5 3,19 0,917
Information on more complex products is difficult to present on the Internet 141 1 5 2,90 0,995
Food products cannot be sold via Internet 141 11 5 2,81 1,146
Internet will not have a very high impact on the business of my company/ family farm in the future 142 5 2,62 1,090
Source: Author's research
The results from the conducted survey showed that certain socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents and the characteristics of the business entity influence the opinion of e-commerce. Hence, there is a small percentage within the surveyed young people who believe that competition forces the use of e-commerce (p = 0,014). The businesses with low annual turnover in a large percentage believe that food products may be sold over the Internet, compared to enterprises with high annual turnover.
Conclusion
The Internet as a global medium has a major impact on today's business world. Given that 72% of the world population has access to the Internet, it is very obvious that the e-business is a necessary condition for successful work in the business world. Today we receive all the necessary product information via the Internet. From the e-marketing in the marketing strategic objectives the biggest part belongs to the creation of a website, which is the first step to attract new customers and keep the old ones. Pricing in the virtual market constantly requires observation and adjustment in order for buyers to enable easier comparison and decision-making about the product they want to buy. Businesses that use website enable customers shorter period of time to search, which nowadays, with the fast pace of life is a big advantage. Pricing on the virtual market is becoming a dynamic process that requires businesses continuous monitoring and adjustment, which on the other side allows customers immediate use and easy decision making. The costs of promotion through the Internet are significantly lower, and the availability to the customer is much more prevalent. Ecommerce, electronic publication and virtual communication with customers are some of the tools that the modern managers must learn to use in the on-line environment. In terms of distribution, the e-marketing reached the top, because it allows merging of both the offer and the demand in the same place. The respondents believe that e-commerce is a necessary prerequisite for successful business in future (average value of 4.16%) and competitive constraint on the use of e-commerce (average value of 3.71%). The results form the survey showed that the surveyed businesses are aware of the advantages and disadvantages of the Internet marketing, and the use of e-marketing is to be a target of this kind of trade. The basic limit, in the opinion of the respondents, is the ignorance of the business partners where occurs the need for education of the subjects of agriculture and related industries as well as within the consumers about the opportunities and advantages of the e-commerce.
References
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