Busi0011 Business Faculty Management Answers Assessment Answers

Answer:

Background 

The business organization named as Swim Diva is considered here. It deals in swimwear related products. It basically provides an online platform where the swim products are passed on to the consumers (Monireh Hosseini, 2018). Consumers directly contact the Swim Diva which places the order with manufacturing company so that manufacturing company supplies products to the customer with suitable packaging. So the products do not reach to the office of Swim Diva. They directly reach to customer from the manufacturing company. The Swim Diva owns a website where the customer signs up and register themselves (Mahgoub et al., 2018). Once the customer is registered, he or she is provided information through promotional emails. The customer can opt out of getting emails. The customer places an order on the website which is then processed by the company. The company deals in fashionable and stylish products so its services are taken by affluent people and those who are concerned about fitness. The products are supplied according to the choice of customers. There are valuable products dealing with many manufacturing companies and supply chain management is provided by the company itself. The website works as an online platform for manufacturers and customers (Kurucu, 2017).

There are quality services provided to the customers and client. This e-business formula deals in the retail sector so the small local shops are in direct competition with the Swim Diva. But the company provides stylish products which give its competitive advantage. The company is firmly established in markets and has a wide variety of clients (manufacturing companies) and customers. The customers have advised a relevant fit for their need; this makes the company unique in the market and fascinates the customers. Free advisors help customers choose among hundreds of products. The customers can register their problem over the website; their matter is taken into consideration within 2 hours (Müller & Hundahl, 2018).

Experiences and lessons learned in setting up an enterprise 

Case study from similar industry 

The similar case study considered here is the Amazon which provides an online platform to local and multinational business retailers and supplies the products to the customers without actually dealing in manufacturing. This generates revenue for Amazon and its online platform competes with some of the biggest corporations in retail e-business like Flipkart. There are numerous manufacturers registered on the platform which supplies manufactured products to consumers (Jiang, 2018). This kind of e-business will definitely be considered by Swim Diva. In the beginning, SwimDiva deals at the regional and local level but for expansion of the business and truly become a global business organization, it needs to imitate Amazon. The Black Friday deals of the retailer giant are fascinating for customers. The online platform provides means for the customers to get registered on it. One signed up, the customer can use that particular account for all orders purchased through Amazon. The sign-up account maintains the record of deals made by the customers with different manufacturers. But at no point, the customers interact with direct manufactures (Charron & Redondo, 2018). The products are displayed on the site which is updated from time to time. A local retailer can become the seller on the platform by registering on the site. The products of sellers are displayed on the web pages of the site; if the customers like the product they are directly bought by customers using Amazon site without any actual interaction with the retailer. This is the reason many local retailers are afraid of online business companies and argue that these companies are getting their market share. But, these companies provide the same retailers to access a number of customers and expand the business by dealing with offshore customers. There is a difference between the online enterprise Swim Diva and Amazon (Hazarika et al., 2018). While Amazon does not aid customers in making choice directly, the advisors of Swim Diva provide valuable advice to customers so that they can make a sound decision for themselves. The Swim Diva would definitely like to imitate Amazon but it would not rely totally on the organizational structure of Amazon. It will have own provisions according to its exclusive needs. The customers will be able to feel the difference in dealing between both online retailers.

CRM software proposal

There is a need to have a Customer Relationship Management software to make the plans ground reality (Didiek et al., 2018). CRM software helps business organizations manage many of the business processes like customers’ data, customer interaction, access business information, automate sales. The software of Salesforce has already been evaluated in the group discussion. Here one more software namely Zoho online will be considered. The Zoho Online is one of the best software in the market for customer retention, automation, and analytics. It makes the business processes related to customer relationship easy and hurdle free. Zoho also has a sign-up process where business organizations need to sign up and customers’ leads are provided to the business organization (Brzozowsk & Bubel, 2015). There are more than 30 million users on the software, provides deals to be executed in the least time possible. Through the software, the business organizations can engage with customers, predict and analyze the customers’ behavior, make scalable deals, sell the exclusive products and get insights about their business. CRM is very essential for e-business organization. It increases the revenue per sale or customer and makes a profit big in amount. Through CRM leads can be efficiently converted into sales and it decreases the sales cycle (Aydin, 2018). The customer retention rate is increased and operational cost, especially the marketing cost is reduced. One size does not fit all businesses, so Swim Diva needs to have its own CRM suitable to its exclusive needs. This will help generate more traffic and lead to more number of customer retention. The site visitors will be converted into potential buyers which will lead to an increase in sales, thus increase in revenue, ultimately resulting in an increase in profit. The CRM software would be used according to the unique needs of the organization. There will be facility od Automate Repetitive Tasks which will ensure that sales team pays attention and give time to managing customer relationship, instead of maintaining records (Amron, 2018). This will ensure efficiency in the working of the organization. The Swim Diva must choose then CRM suitable to its own needs and the one which makes a good deal with the company. It must act in interests of its own organization without harming interests of any associated person or thing (Olaleye et al., 2018).

E-business environment for online enterprise

E-business environment for the online enterprise is basically the selling of products online by placing orders through internet network. The internet has revolutionized the way the man used to purchase (Abdullah & Siraj, 2018). Now, the business deals related to the retail sector are made online without actually interacting with the manufacturer or selling company. The e-business environment, therefore, must be customer friendly and easy to use for everyone. Starting with website design, the website should be fascinating for customers with easily available options. There must be easy visibility of the relevant buttons related to customer use. Swim Diva believes in a long-time relationship with the customers so it needs to pay attention to the complex relationship existing between customers and sellers. In addition to this, the live chat option must be there so that the customers can easily contact the company and make suggestions as well as complaints (Abbasi et al., 2018).

The online platform discussed above has a live chat option for addressing the customers’ grievances though there is no chat option on the page displaying products itself. There are different grievance redressal mechanisms which address the genuine needs of the customers. Swim Diva can have an online chat system on the site itself instead of creating a different page so that the instant problems can be addressed and the site is made user-friendly. There must be different payment systems so that the customer from each region can access the products economically and physically. In addition to all this, there must be sound marketing ideas to promote the services of Swim Diva (Amron, 2018). The fashionable and stylish products sold by the company through e-business platform must be promoted by sound digital and non-digital marketing techniques. In addition to this, there must be other relevant facilities like cookies, easy return, data encryption, privacy of consumers etc. the knowledge management policy of the organization should be in line with overall business strategy so that transparency is maintained along with the security of user information. No information must be passed to the third party without relevant authority. There must be sound decision-making models so that the decisions related to the website can be taken effectively. There must be effective strategies to make the e-business environment as friendly to the customer as possible (Nagraj & Singh, 2018).

Lessons learned 

There are many lessons I have learned from this project. I came to know about the importance of CRM. Customer relationship management is a vital aspect of the overall customer management strategy. There is a need to generate effective traffic., then the site must be able to tackle that much traffic. There must be sound digital marketing techniques. In addition to this I learned that from the traditional simple relationship between the customers and seller, the modern era has made this relationship complex. Thus, this complex relationship must be maintained by the seller (Shi & Gao, 2018). It is seller’s duty to convert the site visitors in potential buyers and potential buyers into loyal customers. The effective deals made as a start-up will attract the customers. Once enough customers or traffic is generated on site, eventually and accordingly the price can be increased. There must be sound provisions with regard to customer relationship management. The CRM software can be useful for this (Sumathi & Sangeetha, 2018). In addition to this, I came to know about the technical needs of the site like virtual private network, firewall securities, cookies, captcha work, WordPress etc (Hazarika et al., 2018).

Next, I came to know about the different business strategies. In this project, the business to customer relationship is used to generate the profit, which has become new normal in the 21st century. These developments have been possible in the last few years only. So there is a dearth of relevant case studies (Wijaya et al., 2018). The knowledge about the latest business model can be gained by the real-time experience only. I am glad that I have been part of this project. I have gained valuable insights into the sector of e-business. It has given me real time experience and made be better prepared to tackle the challenges (Valsamidis et al., 2017). The skills of entrepreneurship are imbibed in me due to this project. In addition to this, there has been sound development of practical values which are ethical and complementary to the basic nature of the organization. the ethical principles and morality are necessary to maintain the viability of the organization. in addition to the generation of profit, the corporate world has a certain responsibility towards society (Aydin, 2018). So in nutshell, I have gained valuable insight over the topic and I have understood real tenets of the business.

Ethical and sustainable practice

There have been many ethical considerations which need to be considered here. They are in line with fair business practice norms. These are as follows:

1. a)    There must be good corporate governance so that the customers and retailers using the platform maintain a long-term relationship with the company. This long-term relationship building takes time so there is a need to have effective policies for the long run. There must be trust and believe along with sound management skills (Wan & Wang, 2018)
2. b)    Women must be given equal wages to men for the same work. Women will be provided with equal wages for the same kind of work. Plus, they will be provided maternity leave according to legal and ethical considerations. There will be a cache for women employees so that they can easily feed their newborns (Samala Nagaraj, 2018). There must be sound management skills and grievance redressal mechanisms so as to hear and address the partisan issues related to women, gender stereotyping must be curtailed and women must get equal opportunity in the economic sphere (Wijaya et al., 2018). In addition to this, the equal number of women will be present at the highest authority. This will lead to complying with legal norms as well as a benefit for the company as the women will be able to present sound ideas regarding women customers like what the women consider most applicable for purchasing a swimsuit from an online company.

Sustainability 

Along with maximizing the profit, the corporate organizations have obligation and responsibility related to environment or sustainability (Yu, 2018). This has become a major issue in the 21st century. Each organization must strive hard to cut their carbon emissions; Swim Diva has the obligation to reduce minimum resources with maximum productivity. Swim Diva can contribute to environmental sustainability in a number of ways like there must be SMART building consuming less energy (Mahgoub et al., 2018). In addition to this, the latest technology use like robo warehouse used by the AB InBev will lead to a cut in carbon emissions. The company has the plan to reach at the global level in this regard. Swim Diva can imitate the same. Along with environmental sustainability, it will give a competitive advantage to the company. Robo-warehouse will faster the work, reduce the workload on employers and increase productivity. There will be no transportation cost as the transportation will be done by Rob. This will be equal to taking millions of cars off the road if the annual figures are calculated. The use of latest technology in supply chain management will decrease the operational cost and increase productivity.

B2B online strategies 

As discussed above, the company is client-oriented so there is need to have sound B2B online strategies (Müller & Hundahl, 2018). It is proved beyond doubt that customers consider social media trends to buy online products so tapping that potential is very much necessary. In addition to this B2B online strategies must be aligned with the overall strategy of the organization. The retailers dealing with the company must be given ample and equal opportunity on the basis of the quality of their products instead of practicing any kind of unethical behavior like nepotism. All retailers must be count upon an equal basis. Small enterprises should not be discriminated against; many small enterprises can have a big cumulative effect. Thus, MSMEs and other local level retailers must be dealt with sound strategies. There must be effective strategies to deal with contingencies arising from B2B online client relationship. The clients must get ample space on the online platform to sponsor their products and there should be no bias while presenting the products of different sellers on the online platform (Swapana & Padmavathy, 2018).

Conclusion 

Summary of the report

The online business strategy of the organization named Swim Diva has the potential to do the best in the market. The company is based on sound ethical and moral principles. The company understands its responsibility towards the environment and society and concentrate on women empowerment. The company has all the pre-requisites to start a business but the long-term viability to sustain the business depends on the sound strategy made by the company at various points of time. The company deals as an intermediary between sellers and buyers. It sells the products of different companies related to swimwears on its online platform. Thus, it provides an online facility to customers as well as sellers. The company works on the principle of trust among all the associated persons (Didiek et al., 2018).

The company uses the CRM software to effectively deal with the clients. The software helps retain the customers and provide leads to the organization. The company has a sound fiscal position and firmly established in the market. It can imitate the retailer giant Amazon which is doing very well in the same segment of the industry. The company can also expand the product portfolio to get more profit and increase sales. The company has a sign-up provision on the site where the customers register themselves. They can log in their account using a password. This information is protected and data related to customers is encrypted. There is the provision of record of all the orders made by the customers. The website designing and digital marketing are heeded upon. It provides a sound e-business environment to associated persons. It sells quality and stylish products which can be purchased by affluent persons. The company has an effective knowledge management strategy which maintain the privacy of the customers and sellers both, at the same time the knowledge management provides adequate transparency and promotes the principle of knowledge sharing among employees. This ensures coordination among different departments (Monireh Hosseini, 2018).

Views on the future of e-business

The digital revolution has brought many changes in our daily lives. These changes are further going to be accentuated with the ushering of the humanity in the era of the Fourth Industrial revolution (Brzozowsk & Bubel, 2015). The online business has a bright future and there are opportunities which claim that in future there will be greater involvement in communication technology. Already 30% population of the world use social media; this is going to be increased in the future leading to more productivity and less labor cost with the availability of the internet to every individual. Not the technology itself, but the communication opportunities brought out by the technology will revolutionize the world in the way it has never done before. So the online business is the future with the advent of an era of Fourth industrial revolution

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