Critical Evaluation of an E-entrepreneur Australian Business - Essay Example

Title: Critical evaluation of an e entrepreneur Australian business Name Class Unit Introduction E-entrepreneurship refers to establishing business that relies on net economy. This requires utilizing data networks to offer products. The development of internet has led to rise of e-entrepreneurship. In Australia, the shift have been witnessed where there have been rise in e-entrepreneurs. The main aim of the online entrepreneurs is inversion of innovation into economic activities. E-entrepreneurs markets and sells their produce over the internet. Small enterprises have become very important in the Australian economy. This is due to creation of employment and revenue generation. The entrepreneurs have innovative ideas and energy which they use in establishing their business. The success of e-entrepreneurs depends on the entrepreneur. The knowledge of the entrepreneur plays an important role in achieving success. Most of the e-entrepreneurs in Australia have made it in their business. Of the successful e-entrepreneurs in Australia is Booktopia. The book store has expanded to become among the most successful e entrepreneurs in Australia. The book store deals with books, e books, magazines, DVDs and gift ideas. Booktopia is fully owned by Australia and its main purpose is retailing with books online. The company is based in Sydney Australia and has the capability to offer more than 4 million books. The e-entrepreneur has offered the Australian market with books from different publishers both local and international. The business is owned by Tony Nash and other co-founders who have built the business to exceed the revenue to more than 20 million dollars (Booktopia, 2014). This essay will critically analyze Booktopia and look at the extent in which important elements in formulating and evaluating business have been achieved. In order to market products and services, a well established marketing plan should be availed. Booktopia have a well detailed marketing plan that has enabled them to succeed on their online sales. Booktopia have been able to identify their market, market location and timing of their purchases. This has enabled them to satisfy their customers. The repeat sales have been an evidence of Booktopia having a well drafted marketing plan. Marketing is an activity that helps in revenue generation. To establish whether marketing have succeeded, sales have to be generated. This can be further elaborated by marketing concept. This is a philosophy that looks at all the aspects that the business is involved in. for e-entrepreneurs, the business have to satisfy the customers’ needs while at the same time they are able to help in attaining the business objectives. A successful e-entrepreneur has to ensure their plans are directed toward achieving customer satisfaction. Booktopia have been able to direct all their efforts in ensuring that they satisfy their customers. Booktopia have made a strategic online marketing planning. This has been evidenced by their website where they advertise their products. Their marketing plan has targets which are aimed in customer and business benefit (Booktopia, 2009). Situational analysis involves looking at the business position and the expected future position. The e-entrepreneurship requires the business to gauge its position and determine its next move. This helps in determining how effective the business planning process is. By looking at the Booktopia situation, the business has been doing well. The e-business has been able to expand their market share gaining more customers and generating higher revenue. There are a lot of opportunities for the e-business due to the rapid growth of internet. Booktopia have been on the frontline in taking advantage of technology change. This gives the business a great chance to continue expanding in future (Booktopia, 2014). E entrepreneur is borderless which makes it possible to market across the world. Booktopia have been able to gain borderless presence which have helped them to reach more customers. The use of internet has made it possible for the business to reach customers from different parts of the world. Ease of transactions has also been enabled by the business. This has been achieved through ease of navigation on the business website. Lack of a physical business is another way in which the company has benefited. It’s possible for a customer to order for a product from any part of the world. This is due to the fact that it leads to low operating costs (Miller, 2008). In order to differentiate the business from their competitors, Booktopia have developed a quality service culture. Giving quality service to the customers has been proved to help in retaining the market share. Booktopia have been cited to provide quality services to the customers. This has helped the business to retain their customers who are satisfied with their services. Booktopia offers delivery of their products within a specified time. This has made the customers to place their deliveries within the set time. The ability of a business to retain customers is the measure of the e business ability to survive and maintain the customers. Most of the service industry invests on delivering quality service. The main aim is delivering high quality service to the customers irrespective of the type of service offered. The business continually communicates with their customers during the delivery time. This ensures that the customers are not kept uninformed during delivery period. This is due to fact that online delivery takes time from ordering to delivery (Sheehan, 2010). The customers are kept informed during the e-fulfillment period. The information is passed to the customer through text or email so that they are aware of the dispatch and delivery time. This is due to fact that online shopping requires the customers to have adequate information concerning their product condition and delivery time. Looking critically at the Booktopia communication to the customers, the business management has enabled a clear channel of communication. The customers are informed on the dispatch time and are kept updated as they wait for their order. The time for waiting for the order is the most difficult time for the customers. Online shoppers are concerned with getting exact dates and delivery times. This has been achieved by Booktopia in their operations (Miller, 2008). Communication, reliability and competency are aspects that lead to customer satisfaction. Making sure that the customer is fully aware of the processes being undertaken is a task that the business has to perform. These aspects help in ensuring that e- business is successful. Customers experience matters on the business. In the case of Booktopia, this is an area that they have excelled. The customer experience has been positive where they have been highly rated by their customers. For e-business to be successful, the-e entrepreneur should make sure that the services offered are reliable and of high quality. This has been achieved by Booktopia (Miller, 2008). Being in leadership of e-business is a task that requires the manager to be trained so as to have skills on e business. The management is expected to have skills on management, sales promotions and marketing. Booktopia management has managed the business to become a success. Tony Nash has the ability to manage the business. The e-entrepreneur has the required skills such as marketing and management which have enabled him to achieve business objectives. The management has been keen on technology change and innovation. The business site have been optimized and arranged in way which is easy to use (Sheehan, 2010). The management does not require change in their approach to e-entrepreneurship though there is need for continuous improvement. This is due to fact that the internet has been evolving very fast in the global arena. The e-entrepreneur is expected to move with the current technology. This means that the management should participate regularly in upgrading their skills to meet market changes. E-entrepreneurship success depends on quality, speed and flexibility of their services and products (Booktopia, 2014). The management should ensure that they put more efforts on achieving quality e-services to their customers. The CEO should also be more vigilant to address issue of cyber crime. Data security is a major threat to e-entrepreneur and the leadership should put measures in place to curb it. The CEO has adequate business administration skills as demonstrated by their performance. They should however make more efforts in utilizing the skills to make sure that they build their business to achieve more market share (Sheehan, 2010). In conclusion, Booktopia have managed to succeed in the E-entrepreneurship business. This has been achieved through use of solid management skills, technology and appropriate marketing. Booktopia have a well laid marketing plan that has enabled them to reach their target market. Critically examining the business position reveals that Booktopia are in a stable phase having achieved their market share and good returns. Their online advertising has enabled them to achieve good results. The e business are bounder less, this enables them to transact globally. The business has managed to give quality services to their customers which have enabled to build trust. This is through appropriate relationship to the customers that is managed through constant communication. The customers experience has rate the business as satisfactory. There is need for continuous improvement among the management; this will enable them to cope with changes in technology. Critical evaluating of Booktopia has revealed that E-entrepreneurship succeeds where the business has appropriate management and skills. References Booktopia, 2014, About us, Viewed 18 April 2014, http://www.booktopia.com.au/ Booktopia, 2009, Booktopia blog, Sydney, Booktopia Sheehan, B. 2010, Online marketing. Lausanne, AVA Academia. Miller, M. 2008, Online marketing heroes: interviews with 25 successful online marketing gurus, Indianapolis, IN, Wiley Pub. Read More