Industry Challenges and Policy Barriers †Free Samples to Students

Question: Discuss about the Industry Challenges and Policy Barriers. Answer: Introduction: Easeurshopping.com is a start-up company that shall offer various products including electronic items such as mobiles, tablets, television and other entertainment devices, cameras, home and kitchen appliances, men and women apparels, personal and health devices, home dcor items, beauty products and all kinds of grocery items. In short, the company aims at providing a complete shopping experience through a single app. The mission of the company is to provide the best quality certified products at comparatively cheaper price than the competitors. The company aims at prompt and safe delivery of products as per the convenience of the customers. The company plans to raise annual revenue of AUD $5 million by the end of the third financial year by investing AUD $1.45 million. Based upon the financial projections, the company shall reach break-even point within one year. The company shall develop its own app namely Easeurshopping through which the users can easily view products and place ord ers using their smartphones. Various reports have shown that the households in Australia are increasingly engaging themselves in online shopping. Australians have been reported to be frequent online shoppers. Approximately three out of ten Australians shop online on a weekly or more often basis. The consumers are embracing new entrants into this channel due to which online retailing is strengthening with every passing day. The retailers of physical offline stores have reported a continuous weak performance due to the price advantage of the online retailers. Since, the online retailers have lesser costs to incur by avoiding rental costs, labor costs and many other expenses therefore, the online retailers are able to provide the products are a comparatively cheaper price than the traditional retailers. Amazon.com and Ebay Inc are reported to be the biggest players in the online retailing business in Australia. However, increased penetration of internet especially in mobile devices shall give massive scope to the n ew entrants in this channel. The increasing confidence of people in online transactions is also to become a favorable aspect for the success of new online businesses. The e-commerce sales in Australia had crossed $37 billion in the year 2014 and it has been forecasted that the sales shall increase by $3 to $4 billion every year. Various statistics have shown that 53% of the shopping done by the Australians is through online shopping sites. The addition of m-commerce has added opportunities for the online retailers. It has been reported that more than 57% of the shoppers have purchased more online products via smartphones. The growth of e-commerce has lesser adverse impacts on the environment as there is no requirement of setting up a physical store that shall prevent further deterioration of land. The shoppers are no longer required to travel and reach the stores. This would help in reducing the carbon emissions from the vehicles. Sustainable marketing strategies: The following shall be the sustainable marketing strategies for the company: Low-cost marketing: Using social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram for the advertising purpose shall be very cost effective. Through these social media sites, the company will be able to attract the attention of large number of people both nationally and internationally. These social media sites would prove to be very useful in expanding the business internationally in future. Using electric delivery vehicles: The major highlight of our business shall be the use of electric vehicles for the purpose of delivery. These vehicles shall be environmental friendly and shall help in reducing the carbon emission levels in the atmosphere. Optimizing the website for search engines: The various search engines remain major method of finding any information online. Therefore, we shall optimize our website for search engines especially Google. Attractive app with special discounts to mobile shoppers: An attractive app shall be designed for the smartphones that will allow the users to shop from any place and anytime. This shall add to the convenience. Special discounts shall be offered to the customers who use the app for shopping purpose. This shall indirectly advertise the Easeurshopping app. The Easeurshopping app shall serve as a central location where the customers would get access to place an order, make payments, return products, give feedbacks and lodge complaints and queries. The app shall be compatible with android, windows as well as ios smartphones. A toll free number shall also be provided to the customers so that they can directly contact our executives. The return policies shall be kept simple and convenient for the customers. The organizational structure shall comprise of the Board of Directors, President, Chief executive officer, Finance and Operations manager, IT manager and Sales and marketing manager. In the first year we shall hire 10 employees for various job roles that shall exceed to 40 in the second year and 100 in the third year. The company shall abide by all the local laws and shall commence its operations by the end of 2017. The major highlight of the company shall be that it will be engaged in the recycling of the products purchased from the company app. The customers will be allowed to return the products purchased from the site once they become obsolete or of no use to the customers. The customers will be allowed to post a query related to the return in the comment box of the app. On posting such a query, the company shall call the customers to confirm the return and the deliverymen shall reach out to them and collect the products. The customers who return such products shall be provided with discount coupons for their next purchase. This shall enable sustainable development of the company. The foremost important task is to find a supplier. The company shall allow the local as well as branded retailers to showcase their products through our app. The sales and marketing team shall be responsible for finding interested suppliers and convincing them to sell their products through the company app. A certain percentage of profit shall be charged from the suppliers but the final price of the products shall remain lower to the market price. This shall benefit both supplier and the customer. The finance manager shall be responsible for managing the finances and the human resource manager shall be responsible for hiring potential employees. The managers shall report directly to the Chief Executive Officer. Expenses Cost Legal expenses AUD $50000 Development of app and website AUD $100000 Consultant AUD $100000 Advertisement costs AUD $200000 Salaries and wages AUD $500000 Other variable costs AUD $500000 The major risk involved is the fear factor that the e-commerce might go wrong. Another risk is the incapability to develop online strategies. Some massive technological changes can also incur extra costs to the company. The biggest risk involved is the non-acceptance of the customers. Another critical risk is the risk arising from the competitors. Since, setting up an online business is comparatively cheaper than setting up a physical store therefore; it encourages many entrepreneurs to invest in online businesses. Presence of too many competitors is always a potential risk to the similar kind of businesses. Harvest strategy: The company shall issue its shares after reaching the break-even point so that it could invest more for the expansion of the business on an international basis. The company aims to be listed at Australian Securities Exchange within a year of its commencement. This shall ensure the investors of their repayment. Activity Months M May M June M July M August M September M October M November Finalizing the topic Collecting data from secondary sources Forming a layout of the research work Conducting Literature review Forming the research plan Selecting appropriate research methodologies Collecting data from primary sources Analysis of collected data sets Interpretation of collected data sets Concluding the Study Designing a rough draft Submitting the Final Work Figure 1 Time series Gnatt Chart (Source: Authors work) The first month shall be used in selecting the topic using several secondary books and articles. This is the time period when the researcher shall indulge himself in collecting the information and knowledge of the related topic. The second month shall be used completely in researching the chosen topic. The second month shall also be utilized in conducting a suitable literature review. The third month shall be used by the researchers in forming the plan of the research and the steps in which the research shall be conducted. In the fourth month, the primary data is collected. This is the time when the secondary as well as the primary data collected shall be obtained by the researcher. The research process shall continue up to the fifth month. This is the time when proper conclusions can be derived from the research process. Bibliography: Ashraf, A.R., Thongpapanl, N., Menguc, B. and Northey, G., 2016. The Role of M-commerce Readiness in Emerging and Developed Markets.Journal of International Marketing. Barnes, S. and Hunt, B. eds., 2013.E-commerce and v-business. Routledge. Cavusgil, S.T., Knight, G., Riesenberger, J.R., Rammal, H.G. and Rose, E.L., 2014.International business. Pearson Australia. Chitura, T., Mupemhi, S., Dube, T. and Bolongkikit, J., 2015. 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Impact of online product reviews on purchasing decisions. Sathye, M., Prasad, B.C., Sharma, D., Sharma, P. and Sathye, S., 2014. Mobile Value Added Services and Micro Enterprises: Industry Challenges and Policy Barriers in a Small Pacific Island Country. Sohaib, O. and Kang, K., 2014. Cultural aspects of business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce: a comparative analysis of Pakistan and Australia.The Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries,61. Sugumaran, V., Yoon, V. and Shaw, M. eds., 2016.E-Life: Web-Enabled Convergence of Commerce, Work, and Social Life: 15th Workshop on e-Business, WEB 2015, Fort Worth, Texas, USA, December 12, 2015, Revised Selected Papers(Vol. 258). Springer.