Implications of E-banking in Entrepreneurial Marketing—Case From Albania

Abstract

The goal of this article is to determine the spread and use of e-banking technology in Albanian banks, to see the help and advantages that this service provides to the banks and to the customers, and of course to determine if our banking system is actually in the Internet era. In the last decade we notice that banks pay a growing attention to their marketing services and in particular to the use of the latest technologies for their promotions. The use of the Internet has influenced in the fact that customers now are closer to their banks, their number has increased, and of course through the Internet we have a more efficient exchange of products and services. A questionnaire was developed to help us understand the internet banking acceptance in Albania and other issues related to it. The questionnaire survey was conducted on 9 banks operating in Albania and from the evaluation of the collected data results that all banks that underwent questionnaire, have a separate marketing department. So marketing has an important role in the banking business. The importance of marketing rose by increased interbank competition in recent years. Crisis and economic and financial difficulties have shown that banks, which face these difficult periods, have been those which had not only a healthy bank policy, but also a strong commercial policy. These things depend on many factors, among which we can mention: the tradition, which has taught people to trust ”their financial secrets” only to someone who exercises the profession of banker; the cultural and infrastructural level of development of the population, which gives approval and insures the continuousness of any discovery or development in various fields; the ability of this kind of banking to be successful, that is and remains the basis on which to establish a trustful cooperation relationship of any kind. Strong policies to e-marketing have targeted to increase the percentage of elements such as banking and credit granting. E-banking also consists of counseling online with a bank employee or financial advisor. This kind of service is not only effective for the client, who saves his time, but also more economical for the bank, which reduces its costs in human resources (an adviser to the window only deals with a client, while he can handle online more than two credit cases simultaneously, so we decrease the number of employees in general). With its low-cost structure, direct consumer marketing and innovative services, the internet is going to present a real challenge to traditional forms of banking. E-banking is seen from the banks as an opportunity to create competitive advantage over its competitors. It offers a great deal of advantages both to the banks and to the customers. Clients are becoming more and more demanding and they are expecting even higher levels of service from their banks.