The advent of the internet has made it possible for businesses to conduct their marketing, sales, and customer service through the internet. Conducting any parts of business operations via the internet is part of the e-business model. However, when the business starts selling its products online, it becomes an ecommerce. With the advent of the internet, almost all products and services are being offered online through ecommerce. Businesses that run online can ensure success by having a proper strategic planning process. Fashion Feet is a prospective women-only shoe store that sells its products online. This paper analyzes the prospects of an ecommerce business by performing a strategic planning process for Fashion Feet, a small ecommerce business.
Fashion Feet
Fashion Feet is an online shoe sales company that sells shoes for women via its ecommerce platform. The business will have a wide and extensive selection of different shoes for women. Fashion Feet will offer different sizes of special pairs of fashion and styled-up shoes for women. The ecommerce will have a unique business model which allows for selection of products according to cost and style. The store will have a customized relationship with customers by delivering their products in a maximum time of two days. Overnight shipping will be available at an additional cost for products that should be delivered in a day.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Strategic Plan
The strategic planning process involves a series of steps that define the road map for a business. It entails the mission, objectives and targets, an environment scan, strategy formulation, action plans, and performance tracking and control (Wheelen et al., 4). The mission, objectives, and target will be analyzed by identifying the mission statement. An environment scan will be performed by analyzing its key competitors. A strategy formulation and action plan will be established by considering the nature of business ownership and entrepreneurship.
Mission Statement and Target Market
The mission of Fashion Feet is to provide the most fashionable selection of shoes for women and to deliver customer service that is second to none. The main objective of the company is to draw, keep, and hold its customers. By adhering to exemplary customer service, the company believes that everything else will fall into place. The company aims at providing services that exceed the expectation of customers. The target market for the customers are women aged between 15 and 60 years that are looking for fashion shoes in the United States. The company will outsource the services of a shipping company to send its products to customers in different parts of the US.
Key competitors
The three key competitors for the shoes for women are Zappos, Shoes.com and Foot Locker. Zappos offers a wide selection of different kinds of shoes and additional services such as free shipping and free return policy. Shoes.com offers a wide selection of specialty shoes that are eco-friendly, orthotic, vegan, and diabetic friendly. The shoes offered are quality shoes and have an advantage of having a healthy alternative. Foot Locker is an online shoe company that offers athletic footwear. Women’s shoes are organized through brand, price, and category for shoes and one can find fashion shoes (Noel, 3).
While these companies offer products online, they do not offer a personalized shopping experience with a pleasant experience. They also have a weakness in having a poor customer service. For instance, there have been several complaints regarding the response time to its customers. Fashion Feet will outdo its competition by offering product differentiation. This will be accomplished through offering better services for customers. Fast response time will be offered to customers in case they have any complaints or questions.
Business ownership
Fashion Feet will operate as a limited partnership where it has three co-owners. The business operates as a general partnership where all owners of the business will have an unlimited liability in the business. The limited partnership will be easy to create and will be cheap to operate. It will have few government regulations and will be taxed only once. There is no taxation at the partnership level since taxation will be achieved through income and deductions at the individual level. Another benefit of the business is that it will have a combination of knowledge and resources brought about by having additional owners. Due to the increased input of knowledge and resources, the business expects to yield a higher growth rate. The business will be managed and operated by a unified decision from the three owners. Profits will be shared among the three owners depending on the level of contribution.
Nature of entrepreneurship for success
Fashion Feet will ensure success by having a strong vision and proper leadership traits. The vision of Fashion Feet is to become a recognized brand in the fashion shoe business for women. The company should accomplish its vision by offering exemplary customer service. The owners of the business will take the necessary risks through the investment of time and resources to ensure the success of the business. To put the vision into reality, the business will make use of proper leadership to propel the business. While the business will have three partners, one partner will be responsible for leadership activities. The aim of the leadership is through proper employee treatment of employees to ensure that they offer the best customer service.
Business Ethics
The success of Fashion Feet will be made possible by following business ethics and running the business in a morally correct way. Ethical behavior will involve proper treatment of staff in the workplace. Employees will be valued, protected and made to work in a safe environment. Proper treatment of employees will ensure that that they work harder and that they are more efficient in business operations (Crane, 1). The business will also ensure that it is run ethically by the protection of intellectual property rights from other businesses. The business will ensure that its ideas, literary works, and designs are unique and not copied from other businesses.
Social Responsibility
Fashion Feet will be involved in social responsibility endeavors to ensure that the business participates in community development. Shoes sold by the company will be made through eco-friendly means. This will ensure that sales from the company do not contribute negatively to the climate. Additionally, Fashion Feet will engage in community service and community campaigns. Business employees will participate in providing various services for the community. Incentives will be provided for employees that show active participation in the community service (Linda and Nelson, 3). Participating in such community events will build the company’s brand and popularity.
Creativity and innovation for competitive advantage
Fashion Feet will seek to gain a competitive advantage by ensuring that the products and nature of service are creative and innovative. The company will be innovative by having a unique selling position for its products by focusing on better customer care and customer service. The company will have a lightning-fast response by offering a response in five minutes or even less. The company should be able to track its response times after any question has been raised from the customer. Customers will be treated personally and as part of the business. The company will understand that there will be problems that could occur when packaging or shipping its shoes. Employees should understand and deal with all the problems that customers face.
In conclusion, Fashion Feet will be an ecommerce business that sales fashion shoes for women. The mission of Fashion Feet is to provide the most fashionable selection of shoes for women and to deliver customer service that is second to none. The business has several competitors and will outdo its competition by providing exemplary customer service. The target market for the business are women above the age of 15 that are interested in fashion shoes. The company will be run in the form of partnership to ensure pulled resources and knowledge. It will also undertake business ethics and social responsibilities, and creativity and innovation to ensure a competitive advantage.
Sources
Crane Anderson. 2016. Business ethics: Management of corporate citizenship and sustainability within the Globalization Age . Oxford University Press.
Linda Trevino and Nelson Katherine. 2016 Managing business ethics: Straight talk about how to do it right . John Wiley & Sons.
Noel Case. 2018. Best Shoe Stores. Retrieved from https://www.toptenreviews.com/services/home/best-shoe-stores/
Wheelen Thomas L., David Hunger, Alan N. Hoffman, and Charles E. Bamford. 2017. Strategic management and business policy . Pearson.
