China Shopping Mall - Entrepreneur Skill and Leadership Style - Essay Example

China Shopping Mall Faculty Table of Contents I. Introduction II. Business Viability III. Marketing Mix IV. Entrepreneur Skill and Leadership Style V. HR Strategies i. Recruitment ii. Training and Development iii. Compensation, Rewards and Recognition iv. Handling Grievances VI. Conclusion VII. Reference I. Introduction Retailing sector in United States have grown in fast pace in last few years. Stores like Wal-Mart, ASDA, Home Depot, Starbucks, Forever 21, Abercrombie & Fitch, the Gap and others have been serving the US consumers from many years. With the change in technology and time these stores have gone changed and developed there technologies and interfaces to attract and sustain customers. The strategies these follow is to offer value of money to the consumers. All these companies have effective web presence where consumer can visit 24/7 and find do online shopping. However there have been various gaps in the service standards of online shopping. This paper is about a business plan of Online China Shopping Mall. The first section deals with the business viability of the proposal. Marketing mix is explained in the next section where the product, pricing, place and promotional strategies will be discussed. Entrepreneur skills and leadership styles are the next section which is followed by the human resource strategies. The supply chain management is another important factor of the online retailing that is discussed in the last section followed by conclusion of the paper. II. Business Viability There is a good scope within the retail segment for variety of goods and products. These include clothing, fashion and apparel marketing, grocery stores, pharmacy, electronics, fast food and many others. There are number of organization offering these services. These organizations are superstores like Wal-Mart or smaller neighborhood retail outlet. The strategies of these organizations are based on their target customer base, location and company. The average household wealth is higher in the metro areas. In the recent studies inner city areas have indicated a large consumer base and high concentration of wealth and buying power. These areas have low competition, lower operating cost, real estate prices and others which make these areas a good prospect for business. According to a study completed by ICIC and the Boston Consulting Group of the more than $85 billion in retail spending per year that inner cities represent (over 7% of all U.S. retail spending), $21 billion of this demand is going unmet. 1 According to Kalakotas and Robinson (1999) this Internet-based technology, allow the online application to integrate several business functions such as accounting, banking, finance, management and administrative control, supply chain management, selling chain management, data collection system, marketing, and also fund transfer. . E-commerce has become the medium for trade of manufacturing and retail industries. According to Kessler (2003) of Forrester Research, electronic commerce generated sales worth of $12.2 billion in 2003. The internet users have increased in last few decades and it is predicted that the number will continue to increase worldwide. As indicated in the table the number of internet user worldwide is estimated to grow to 1,781 million by 2010. In every thousand people there will be 262 internet users. This indicates the future of e-commerce activities. More people will be user friendly to the computer and internet services better will be the prospects for business through this channel. 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2007 2010 Worldwide Internet Users (#M) 0.021 2.13 45.1 420 1,081 1,362 1,781 Worldwide Internet Users/1,000 People (#) 0.004 0.40 7.91 68.8 167 206 262 China goods are available to meet range of consumer needs and requirement. These products are available at lower prices. As evident from the growing number of internet users and growing demand in retail sector an online retailing business will be a profitable segment to serve. III. Marketing Mix: The marketing mix for the Online China Shopping Mall will be based on the 7 Ps of Online marketing, which is as follows: 7 P’s of Online Marketing Packaging – Packaging of products online is challenging task for any marketer. Marketers apply same knowledge for different/customized packages and offerings. Some online marketers provide good details of products and offerings to the consumers or the viewers. Information required for each prospect and consumer group can be segregated and presented in simple and attractive ways. This information will contain the product descriptions, subsections of products, range available and other details. These information will help customers for their decision making process. Positioning – The positioning of product is very important. The product can be placed under different themes and categories based upon its quality, pricing and value it offers to the consumer. For instance the designer products can be placed under the designer section. Different sections would be made for different categories of products Portals and Pathways – The decision of portals and pathways are important as it is something where online marketer decides from where customers will go first. Like the pages and their inter linking and other aspects would be taken care of under this segment. Page impression(s) – The page impression strategies would primarily be informative. It should be helpful for the consumer for his/her purchase decision making. The page will have aesthetic values and elegant color scheme which will be influenced by the Chinese culture. This will help in creating stickiness for the website viewers. Payment mechanisms – The payment mechanism should be simple and easy for the customer. The Online China Shopping Mall has taken care of the consumer and registrant information and security concerns of data theft. The payment mechanism is simple and easy for the consumers. Progression – Consumer will get incentives on each of his/her sales. For the purchase of every 100$ consumer will get one point. Each 10 point will be redeemable with the product worth of 100$. Apart from it there will be offerings and gifts on various categories depending on calendar of year and purchase amount. Performance Website is attractive, payment option is easy and it will cater the target market with variety of products. The overall performance is predicted to be good for the Online China Shopping Mall. IV. Entrepreneur Skill and Leadership Style A successful entrepreneur is good at planning, budgeting and organizational skills. S/he has ability to take risk and sell the ideas and products to others. Her/his knowledge of products and services offered and time to time evaluation of her/his company’s performance against set performance standards helps to improve the organization and its performance. Even in the slow financial rewards entrepreneur is able to work and motivate others and establishes standards for performances. Leadership Styles from Blake and Mouton Managerial Grid2 The leadership quality utilized is usually based on the particular time and situation but for the Online China Shopping Mall the leadership style is by in large Team Style. The concern for production that is sales here is high as well as the concern of people is also high for the leaders in the organization. Organization encourages people to come up with new and feasible ideas and take decisions based on their level of performance and time in the organization. V. HR Strategies The Human Resource requirement for the online China Shopping Mall is least as it is an online mall. The technical team, administrative team, procurement and delivery channel is the requirement of the organization. Since it’s a technological interface the technical team needs to be very strong. For the fast delivery of goods and products delivery channels are outsourced from other organizations like FedEx etc. The procurement team establishes the relationship with suppliers of various goods and products and the products are usually purchased on the customer demand. i. Recruitment The recruitment process starts with the identification of the need generated in particular area. For instance for the display of images on the website Graphic designer would be required and there is an instant need of graphic designer to change and update images on the website time to time. Once identified this need, job profile and description will be prepared and on the basis of that and current package in the industry the remuneration package would be decided. This will be flexible with upper and lower limits set. The candidates will be contacted by advertisement or recruitment agencies. Based on their past experience and performance in the interviews the most appropriate candidate will be chosen and offered the job. ii. Training and Development Once a candidate joins the company s/he will be provided adequate training about the organizational goals, organization’s history and philosophy. The candidate will also give technical and product training so that s/he has knowledge of all the organizational functions and goals. iii. Compensation, Rewards and Recognition Compensation will be based on the profile and industry standard. The performance standard for each level employee will be set by the HR manager and management. Each employee will be recognized and rewarded for his or her good performance. iv. Handling Grievances As any other organization the grievances can be in Online China Shopping Mall as well. Effective and open communication will help to address the grievances in the budding stage. Apart from it, the employees will be encouraged to communicate and talk about various issues to their subordinates and superiors so that any situation of grievance can be handled effectively. Even if the grievances are there it will be handled by the concerned department head. VI. Conclusion The growth in number of internet user and the retailing industry together offers good prospects for any kind of online retailing business provided that organization is able to serve the customer as it promises over the internet. The Online China Shopping Mall will be an effort towards the similar direction to serve the customer best via virtual shopping mall. VII. Reference E-Commerce - Overview retrieved on 17 October 2006 http://wiki.media-culture.org.au/index.php?title=E-Commerce_-_Overview&printable=yes#Management_of_E-Commerce Hofmann, D.L. and Novak, T.P. (1996) Marketing in Hypermedia Computer-mediated environments: conceptual foundations. Journal of Marketing, Vol. 60 No.3 INTERNET USER FORECAST BY COUNTRY retrieved on 17 October 2006 from http://www.etforecasts.com/products/ES_intusersv2.htm#list Kalakota, R., & Robinson, M. e-Business: Roadmap for Success. USA: Addison Wesley Longman, Inc., 1999 Kotler, Philip: 2000 Marketing Management, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall Inc., 10th Edition Thomson, Jennifer and Eibisch, James (2005) Responsive Retailing: IP and the High-Street Retailer IDC http://www.zeromillion.com/business/starting/entrepreneur.html accessed on 17 October 2006. Piercy, Nigel F, Market Led Strategic Change, Butterworth Heinemann, 3 e, Charted Institute of Marketing Zeithaml Valarie A. and Mary Jo Bitner, 2002 ‘Services Marketing-Integrating Customer Focus Across the Firm’ 2nd Ed., New York: Tata McGraw-Hill Read More