Direct Sales Initiative For Apparel Brands Pty Ltd: Improving Market Share Through E-commerce

Value proposition

Value proposition

As necessitated by its recent poor performance in the market and threat to its existence, Apparel brands will need to invest in E-commerce both to reduce operational costs and improve its declining share in the market. Direct selling of is good and services will be an effective venture to achieve this. Through direct online sales we will offer an opportunity for our customers to make online purchases of all our current and future generic clothing and footwear products and have them delivered at their own cost (Ferrell & Hartline,2011).  Apart from the normal price of each product which is likely to be revised downwards as a form of promotion, a minimal shipping fee will be charged. High quality of products will need to be maintained to avoid any escalations from our customers that may affect our online reputation. The main benefit for this venture will be convenience associated with online shopping.

Target market

Our main customer base will be middle age and middle income earners who constitute a huge percentage of the population. This class is made up of people who have minimal disposable income and hence one of their considerations while making purchases is the price of a commodity (Pillai, Bagavathi & Kala, 2010). They are also a class that values convenience .They therefore desire making purchases that are convenient and whose price is affordable

Information about the venture will be gathered from within and outside the organization. The external sources will include the dealers, consumers, relevant government reports and publications, salesmen, newspapers and periodicals, published market surveys and international agencies. Data will also be collected from the company’s financial statements (Hutt, Speh & Mooney,2012).  

After all data has been gathered, the deliberations will be communicated in writing with various stakeholders with the aim of explaining and getting feedback from them to facilitate any necessary amendments. Apart from written communication, formal meetings with people from other expertises will be used for consultation purposes. Consultations will be with other employees, technical and it experts, market researchers and other business associates (Wild,Wild & Han, 2014).

Few steps will be required in setting up a platform to facilitate direct sales from the company.

Setting up a website will be the most crucial step, it will be important to choose the right web design that offers best experience to the users. Various shopping cart options will be considered to allow choosing of the most appropriate option (DuBrin, 2011). After the e commerce has been established, the next step will include designing the online store by adding pages, images, videos, products etc. Next will be setting up payments including how customers are going to pay for various products and how the payments are going to reach to the Company’s account. The success of this venture will however be dependent on a strong online presence for the company. The final step will be creating a strong online presence through search engine optimization.

The benefits of the e-commerce venture will be determined by a number of parameters. The most important will be in terms of profits. The profit margins for the company during the current period will be compared with margins of the previous to ascertain a decline or an improvement in the profitability of the company. In case of an improvement in the profitability of the venture it will be deemed beneficial to the company. The costs of the previous financial years including administrative costs and other associated costs will be compared with the current year costs to identify any positive or negative trends (Adekola  & Sergi,2016). The productivity levels of the previous periods will also be compared with the period after the initiation of the e-commerce to ascertain whether the venture has led to an increase or decline in the productivity levels of the organization.

Target market

Pricing of products is a very important consideration for any business, depending on the prices set for a product; the demand can be high or low, Customers majorly want prices that are fair as compared to the prices of goods and services offered by other competitors. the cost of various products will be determined through a number of considerations including prices offered by competing firms, the cost of production the purchasing power of the target market any government regulations regarding online business, the existing demand among other considerations (Yuece,2012).

	Action 1	Action 2	Action 3	Action 4
Description Improving the market share and minimizing the labor cost incurred by  Apparel brands pty ltd through e-commerce venture	Training and developing employees	Implementing the Use of effective communication at the workplace	Creating positive work environment	Generating sales through online website
Dependencies	Ø Competitors actions in training and developing their employees Ø  Available training and development options at the disposal of the of the organization Ø Available budget for employee training and development	Ø Available communication channels within the organization Ø Complexity of the communication channel identified Ø The cost of the various methods of communication available Ø The confidentiality involved  in the communication Ø The time that a message will take to be received under various methods Ø The distances that messages will be required to travel	The corporate culture of the organization	Ø Complexity of the website Ø Website domain name Ø Web hosting package   Ø Web security Ø Technical knowhow of the employees and potential Ø
Timeline	30 days	60 days	90 days	Monthly
Responsibility	This will be carried out by the Human resource manager and other officials from the HR department	It will be the responsibility of the top management to identify and approve most appropriate communication in collaboration with departmental heads	The management will be responsible for creating and promoting a positive organization culture to create a positive work environment	This will be a collaborative effort between the IT department, the marketing department , the management and selected employees
Resources	$10,000 to cater for capital and human resources	$5,000 to cater for capital and human resources	$10,000 to cater for capital and human resources	$5000
Review dates	Upon completion	After 30 days	After completion	After every months
Measurement: KPI; Outcome	Ø Increased in employee performance Ø Improved productivity Ø Increased employee satisfaction and morale Ø Reduced turnover Ø Increased efficiency in performance Ø Improvement in technological capabilities Ø Increased employee motivation	Ø Enhanced team work and team building Ø Reduced community related challenges Ø Reduced cultural and language barriers Ø Increased productivity Ø Increased employee satisfaction Ø Increased identification with the organization	Ø Increased productivity Ø Increased employee retention Ø Improvement in the quality of products and services Ø Increase in the rate of attracting new talents Ø Increased employee loyalty	Ø Increased online purchases by existing and new customers Ø Increased traffic on the company website Ø Increased customer satisfaction and retention Ø Reduced operational expenditure for the company Ø Increased client referrals   Ø Increased market share of the company Ø clients Ø Increased geographical coverage for the business Ø Reduced marketing costs Ø 24 hours operation Ø Reduced business overheads Ø Increased flexibility Ø Improved customer profiling Ø Increased visibility of the Business

Face to face meetings with individual employees

For any performance related challenge affecting an employee, there is usually a reason behind it. Performance challenges can be as a result of conflicts between different employee’s .Such conflicts can have a significant impact on the productivity of the organization. Face to face meetings are an important avenue for getting first hand information regarding an issue facing an employee (Csikszentmihalyi,2014).  The rationale behind this approach was that it would allow me as the leader of the team to have an in depth conversation with members of my team to understand the issues facing them so that together we can brainstorm possible solutions or in other cases allow me to suggest ways in which the individual employee can use effective communication to facilitate the elimination of the performance challenge. I view this as an appropriate strategy because it made it possible listen and seek clarification where necessary.

Team building exercises  

Sometimes working in teams can be a problematic undertaking especially where members from different departments or organizations are put to work together in a given project. Diversity existing among such members might make it relatively hard t achieve group bonding (Müller & Vaagaasar, 2017). This therefore requires that interactive sessions such as team building are put in place to enable different members to understand and appreciate each other’s diversities. My rationale for choosing team building approach is that it enables to solve communication related problems among the team members by breaking barriers that exist between group members and allowing effective communication through participation in group activities (Gallo,2011).  Allowing team members to participate together in team building activities make it possible for each member of the team to start on a common ground with regard to the knowledge about their tasks. It also allows employees to work together because of the challenges associated with a new experience hence contributing to better relationships among the group members. The approach taken to solve performance related challenges can be focused on the long term or short term benefit .In most cases performance related challenges require long-term solutions. Team building exercises help to create strong teams in organizations which can lead to numerous benefits in the long run including maximization of profits, ability to respond quickly to challenges among other benefits (Hatten,2015).

It also instils a sense of responsibility where each employee makes sure that they have satisfactorily fulfilled the roles assigned to them by reinforcing the importance of each individual employee’s role in the achievement of group objectives. Help in reinforcing an organization culture by enforcing the values and vision of an organization. Team building also help in improving the morale of individual team members which translates to their improved performance (Goetsch & Davis, 2014). The numerous benefits associated with team building exercises made it a priority in resolving group performance challenges.

Gathering information about the venture

Coaching

Employee coaching is a process where an experienced member of an organization supports less experienced members of the organization to achieve specific goals through training and offering guidance .This is one of the method that were used to solve performance related challenges among the team members . The rationale for adopting this process is because of the fact that it directly contributes to the improvement in the productivity and engagement of an employee, improves their well being and job satisfaction which improves overall productivity, improving their innovative ability which can facilitate their ability to address performance related challenges through innovation (Brewster & Mayrhofer,2012).  Coaching also enables individuals to acquire valuable knowledge and skills which they can use to improve their performance thus eliminating initial performance related challenges.

Improving motivation

In some instances performance related challenges among individual team members can be as a result of low motivation. The approach applied here was working closely with members of the team to establish a motivating work environment. This approach involved three aspects encompassing goal setting where every employee was familiarized with what was expected of them, through this it was able for them to understand on what they needed in order to improve( Doye? & Verlag,2016). The next approach was providing performance assistance through provision of necessary training and resources as well as encouraging cooperation with others .Finally feedback was used to familiarize then on their standing with regard to their current performance. The rationale behind using motivation was the fact that it is an effective approach for dealing with performance related problems on a long term basis.

Reference List

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Brewster, C., & Mayrhofer, W. (2012). Handbook of research on comparative human resource management. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar.

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2014). Good business: leadership, flow, and the making of meaning. New York, Penguin Books.

Doye?, T., & Springer-Verlag GmbH. (2016). CSR und Human Resources Management: Die Relevanz von CSR fu?r modernes Personalmanagement. s.l.: Springer Berlin Heidelberg.

DuBrin, A. J. (2011). Leadership: Research findings, practice, and skills. Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning.

Ferrell, O. C., & Hartline, M. D. (2011). Marketing management strategies. Australia: South-Western, Cengage Learning

Gallo, F. T. (2011). Business leadership in China: How to blend best Western practice with Chinese wisdom. Singapore: Wiley.

Gallos, J. V. (2008). Business leadership: A Jossey-Bass reader. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Goetsch, D. L., & Davis, S. B. (2014). Quality management for organizational excellence. Upper Saddle River, NJ: pearson.

Hatten, T. S. (2015). Small business management: Entrepreneurship and beyond. Nelson Education.

Hutt, M. D., Speh, T. W., & Mooney, H. (2012). Business Marketing Management: B2B. Belmont, CA: Cengage.

Müller, R., & Vaagaasar, A. L. (2017). Balanced Leadership in Projects.

Pillai, R. S. N., Bagavathi, ., & Kala, S. (2010). Marketing management. New Delhi: S Chand.

Yuece, I. (2012). Impact and Role of Market Research in New Product Launch Process. Mu?nchen: GRIN Verlag GmbH.

Wild, J. J., Wild, K. L., & Han, J. C. (2014). International business. Pearson Education Limited.