This paper aims to deliver an analysis of a company on how to improve its operations and consequently its revenue using theories and tools of Data Analytics. As part of the assessment of the subject MBA504 Data Analysis, Problem Solving and Digital Operations, it will be start introducing the company chosen to be analysed, an overview of its market and costumer engagement approach, further, it will be shown possible inefficiencies identified in the company’s strategy when using data to engage costumers and, also, it will be made an attempt to recommend techniques covered in the subject to develop the business.
Presenting the company (story and currently situation)
SHOWPO – online shop, female clothes, shoes and accessories.
Showpo was a result of an entrepreneurship dream which came true for the founder of the company, Jane Lu. Jane Lu quit her cubicle job and wanted to try her hand in the art of entrepreneurship (Morrison, 2015). Her first venture failed drastically and a month later she came up with the idea of Showpo. The company was founded from the garage of Jane L’s parent in the year 2010. She had started the company with a single laptop and two shelves of clothes which has now grown to company who is catering to over 80 countries around the world (Showpo.com, 2017). Showpo now has a social following of over 2.8 million people. Jane Lu has won several awards over the years for her contribution to the field of entrepreneurship. She was determined which helped her to build a highly passionate and skilled team who share the same belief as her. The company sells women’s clothes shoes and accessories which are in high demand in the world. Her being a lady helps in understanding the mindset of the other women around the world.
Having understood the story of Showpo, its target costumers and how currently they operate this great success online business, the questions are “Is Showpo maximising the use of the data available?” and “Is it possible to Showpo improve its costumer experience and increase customers using data analysis?”.
Firstly, one of the hypotheses to be considered is that being a young business, the company is still developing maturity and infra-structure to deal with all the information gathered from current and potential customers that visit the website. Thus, it is supposed that that company still have to keep optimising the usage of the data accumulated in order to anticipate future sales offering products and deals assertively.
A small dashboard has been created using a data set which stores the following information
There is data from the years 2003 to 2016. All data is in million dollars. The dataset analysis has been done on the data and the following results has been found:
Dashboard 1
Figure 1: Dashboard 1 from Tableau Software
Year vs Revenue from the sale of products
For the graph representation it can be seen that the revenue collected from the sale of the different products by the company has increased gradually over the years. From the initial data collected in 2003 there has been an increase in the revenue by an amount of $664661. This shows that the organization has a positive profit probability from the sale of the products. There has been a gradual increase in the collection of revenue from the sales. A slight decrease in the revenue was seen in the year 2013 but it gradually increased for 2014 onwards.
Year vs Revenue from the sale of products as principal
From the representative graph created it can be seen that the revenue collected from the sale of products as principal there is a fluctuation in the amount of money collected. The highest revenue collected was in 2004 and the lowest collected was in 2005. The fluctuation was $ 1190276.7. over the years of working in the market there has been a fluctuation in the revenue collected. There was an increase till the year 2004 after which it decreased a great deal. There was a high increase during the period of 2005 and 2010. After 2010 there was a gradual increase till the end of 2016.
Year vs other revenue
The other revenues which are collected from different sources like discounts from raw material retailer and promotional offers. Form the bar diagram it can be seen that there is a gradual decrease in the other revenue collection of the company. There was a slight increase in the revenue collected in the year 2012 but later on it started to drop again. This shows that the company has the power to increase the relative revenue gain of the company.
Year vs Cost of raw materials as principal
The bar chart diagram has been drawn against for the cost of raw materials which has been incurred by the company for the production of their products. From the graph it can be seen that the highest cost was incurred in the year 2012 while the lowest cost incurred was in 2013. This means that there was a huge fall in the cost of the raw materials which was being used by the company. From the start of 2003 it can be seen that the price of the raw materials has gradually increased which is basically the best method due to the change in the value of money over the course of time. After 2013 it can be seen that there was a fall in the cost of the raw materials and it again started to increase gradually till 2016.
Dashboard 2
Figure 1: Dashboard 2 from Tableau Software
Year vs selling expenses
The cost incurred by the sales department of the organization which includes the salaries and wages of the sales persons and the employees of the company. Over the years the company was able to recruit more and more employees and thus the cost which was to be incurred for the wages of the employees increased. This can be seen form the graph drawn using the data. The graph shows the constant rise in the amount of money incurred by the company for the employees of the organization. Though there can be seen a slight drop in the expenses in the year 2013 but later on it increased. This might suggest the resigning of the employees of the organization.
Year vs Administration / support expenses
The salaries and the extra benefits, which the employees require from time to time during their time at the organization corresponds to the Administration / support expenses. From the bar chart it can be seen that there is no fixed rise in the expenses of the employees. It differs from time to time. A steep fall in the expenses can be seen in the year 2006 and 2013. Apart from that the corresponding years the values of the expenses increased: 2013 to 2016 or decreased: 2007 to 2011.
Year vs Total current assets
The term Total current assets refer to the total amount of liquid cash, accounts and inventory materials and the supplies under process. These assets have a shorter life span and can get exhausted easily. From the bar chart developed it can be derived that there has been a constant rise in the amount of money which the company had from the year 2003 to the year 2009. After that there was a huge fall in the assets in the year 2010. Later after that fall the chart shows a constant rise in the accumulation of the cash in the accounts of the company.
Year vs Total non-current asset
The term Total non-current asset can be defined as the total sum of the assets which the company currently hold but are not likely to turn into cash with in the current year of the balance sheet assessment. For this property there is no surety of the fact that there would always be a constant rise in the table but a fluctuation suggest that the company has all the possible financial departs corrected out. There was a rise in the data and a little fall after the year 2005. After that they are always able to develop form they loss until the year 2013. Later in 2014 after there is a small drop in the amount of assets but it is again recovered in the following years.
Dashboard 3
Figure 1: Dashboard 3 from Tableau Software
Year vs Total current liabilities
The liabilities is the sum of all the amount of money which is company currently owns to other companies in terms of debt. From the graph it can be seen that the maximum debt which the company had faced was in the year 2008. This was reduced instantly the next year to a very low point which helped the organization to get hand son more materials for the development of the products. There is a gradual increase in the total liabilities of the company from 2003 up to 2008 after which there is a sharp fall and again another fall in the year 2011. After this there was a constant rise in the total liabilities of the company up to the year 2013. Later then the points started to rise up.
Year vs Total non-current liabilities
The non-current liabilities is the amount of money which the company has invested in a product acquirement for a long term. This money is not due in the recent time and can be paid off in the future. From the graph it can be seen that there is a lot of fluctuation in the amount of money listed under the non-current liability category. This suggest that they have acquired new items yearly and again paid off the older ones on a regular basis. Keeping the correct balance between the paid ones and the non-paid ones means that the company has the best assessment of their accounts.
Identifying inefficiencies.
The company has not done any innovative creation in the field of fashion and new trends in the clothing industry (Williams, 2014). The designs have become and old are not able to attract new customers. The work efficiency of the employees should also be improved by the company. The company also produces clothes for a specific target audience. They cater to a certain age group in the world and this leaves out the rest of the age groups which could be composed of some potential high valued customers. The absence of feedback and review form on the company’s webpage weakens the strong hold of the market. The new customers are not able to understand the quality and the assessment of the product if they are not able to understand the problems the other customers who have bought the same product has faced or not (Showpo.com, 2017).
Recommendations on how to treat data from consumers using their website, information on social media and tools to offer best deals of group of products from different categories bought together (usually these websites show similar products while you are browsing, Showpo should start offering shoes and accessories that go with the dress searched for example instead of only showing in the bottom other dresses that the consumer could be interested in). VIP groups not only newsletter, option of showing the client the statistics of each product (level of exclusivity, cheaper if more people are buying each item, more expensive the more exclusive the item is – considering quality naturally). And more.
The company needs to identify the issues which they are facing in the market competition and assess them one by one before moving forward. They should plan out mission and goals for a financial year to make a better grip on the market and following the goals help them to achieve the profit they would be willing to get. After placing out the goals and the problems in the organization it is recommended for the company to develop a strategy for the company to follow which would help them to achieve the goals.
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