CA FINAL ASSESSEMENT

CONSTRUCTIVE ACTION PROJECT: PURPOSE 2

STRATEGIC PLANNING: E-Commerce Retail Store, Lowstop.com LLC

BY

NABIL SIROUM

CONSTRUCTIVE ACTION PROJECT: PURPOSE 2

FINAL ASSESSEMENT

STRATEGIC PLANNING: E-commerce Retail Store, LowStop.com LLC

Table of content

1. Constructive Action: Short and Long Term Goals2. Mission Statement, Vision, Company Description and Business Entity3. Final Plan of Action4. Work Setting Analysis5. Company Description and Core Competencies6. Competitive SWOT, Resources and Capabilities7. Needs Analysis8. Marketing Survey/Questionnaire9. Target Market, Customers and Needs10. Ethical Issues in the CA11. Competitor Analysis and Competitive SWOT12. Products and Services13. Tactical social media marketing plan14. Marketing Strategy15. Final Situational Analysis and Literature Review16. Pro Forma Financial Statements

Strategic Plan: E-Commerce Retail Store, Lowstop.com LLC

Constructive Action: Short and Long Term Goals

The combination of knowledge and skills gained from different dimensional inputs during the last months, analyzing the work setting, work situation, needs and opportunities, is the decisive and the rudder of forming a well-knitted and doable business plan foundation, this foundation would be propped by analytical studies, and practical data to shape a holistic perception of a business plan and a market strategy for my business venture.

As a startup business, having the appropriate physical resources to survive is crucial, this includes a proper workspace, working telephone line, adequate information systems and effective marketing materials etc. It’s a must to assess these needs before making any other steps and moving forward.

The purpose of the strategic planning venture during this semester is to analyze the feasibility, planning, and the implementation process of the e-commerce website in North African market.

Some of the short term goals are; to allocate and assess the startup fees related to the planning, these costs includes the cost of building a coherent website with a built in e-commerce platform, marketing fees, costs of acquiring assets( warehouse, shipping means, insurance...etc).

And since the business is targeting a foreign market, assuring compliance with laws and regulations governing that market, is a necessity, including competition laws, employment and Labor Laws and Policies, and Respect for Trade Secrets and Confidential Information laws.

Market study and segmentation is short goal too, in order to come out with the best marketing and pricing strategy for the targeted market that can generates revenues.

This set of short term goals would make us a road map to determine long-term goals, which is set up as follows;

Identify competition and set the right strategy to beat it and overtake the market, this needs a full detailed market study and segmentation, and by answering some question such as; Can you list your top five or ten direct and indirect competitors? Do you know what are the benefits of their products and how are they marketed? What are your competitors' strengths and weaknesses?

What do consumers think about your competitors' products? How do you position yourself among competitors...etc.

Having a funding strategy in place is crucial, and it’s one of the long term goal must be achieved to identify what the funding needs will be, and how those funds could be raised and used for the business launch.

Another long term goal is to prepare the SWOT analysis for my business in order to develop a strong business strategy by making sure you’ve considered all of your business’s strengths and weaknesses, as well as the opportunities and threats it faces in the marketplace, thus, position my business in a strongest spot in the market among its rivals.

Articulating short and long term goals gives the business plan a doable trait, and a road map to the implementation strategy process.

Mission Statement, Vision, Company Description and Business Entity

Company Name; www.Siroum.com

www.Siroum.com LLC.

Mission Statement;

Our mission is: ‘’To make online shopping fun, easy and trustful, for low prices and high-quality service everyday through a smart, searchable website, understandable instructions, easy and secure payment methods and fast quality delivery.”

Vision;

Our vision is ‘To be the iconic brand of online shopping in North Africa, where people can find anything they might want to buy online.’

We aim to achieve a top position in the online retail industry in our market by providing the most memorable shopping experience, where quality products and services are our priority, for an ever-happy customer.

Company Description;

Yawise.com is the iconic online retailer store in the North African market; our company is based in Algiers-Algeria, we offer reliable products and services for unbeatable prices. We hold safety as a value through our in-house culture of safety to protect the well-being of our employees and customers who use out company’s products and services.

Business Legal Entity;

www.LowStop.com LLC.

Our company has a legal entity as a Limited Liability Company.


Final Plan of Action

Nabil Siroum FIN 725 PCA/SEM/ Strategic Planning10/02/2015

Short-term Constructive Action Goals

Objectives Strategies Evaluation Plan

-To Allocate the startup fees related to the planning, and articulate the funds needed to launch the business.

-Assess the cost of building a website with e-commerce capability.

- Evaluate third party licensing fees and employees’ overheads.

-To work closely with web designers to evaluate the website building cost.

- To reach out for e-commerce solution companies to discuss the appropriate partnership.

-I have discussed the work procedures with seven web designers and I hired the wittiest designer; also I built two prototypes of the website to serve as a backup plan for exigencies.-I have done my research and I Have partnered with the suitable third party that provides top e-commerce solutions.



-Assuring compliance with laws and regulations governing my industry in the targeted market.

- Reaching out for the concerned parties related to commerce and e-commerce to outline the legal aspects of the business conduct.

-To patent and license

-Discuss the operational control of the business, policy on business regulations in our market.

- I will reach out to the U.S. patent and

- This is a challenging task, but the agreement that facilitates and helps the work is under processing.

-The process of patenting the business

my business, in both, the U.S., and Algeria.

trademark office, and the department of commerce in the Algeria.

was easy in the U.S., unlike in Algeria where we’re still working on it.



- To conduct a deep and comprehensive market study and segmentation for a strong market penetration and to market trends and evolving customer requirements.

-To analyze the potential market’s business culture, customers’ behaviors, business model and business environment.

-Segmenting the market after a detailed analysis, in order to capture the market trends and to target the right customers.

-Conduct surveys, using brochures, giveawaysAnd using social media for direct feedbacks from the customers.

-By partnering with local partners to facilitate grasping and reaching and penetrating the market.

-Brochures option did not work out well, while social media and giveaways provided the most direct and realistic feedbacks from the market.-A local partner helps us gaining customers intimacy which is our aim, thus, we will execute our business model alongside to our customers’ culture.

Work Setting Analysis

Our Company offers a range of products and services through its websites. We serve our consumers through a website that makes online shopping fun, easy and trustful, for low prices and high-quality service everyday through a smart, searchable website, understandable instructions, easy and secure payment methods and fast quality delivery.

Though out website, we aim to put our customer within the market with the convenience of their computers or mobiles, and change the manner of shopping with a whole market and community, this community that would experience this new, modern and safe shopping service our company offers. Our website offers a membership option, and rewards for our resident customers.


The company through its website operates in two different segments, local market (Algeria), and the North African market (regional market), the Algerian segment of the company is engaged in the retail sale of consumer products ranged between $20 and $200 with free shipping feature for some sale categories, while the regional segment sells a range of products between $50 to $1000.

Since the ‘home page’ will receive 40% of all site visitors, it must give a positive impression about the rest of the website. For customers who seek to understand the entirety of the website range with minimal fuss, the website will be provided by a vehicle that shows off the whole lot without too many clicks, the best way of doing this is via “multi-layered dropdowns” in the website's top navigation bar, this would present top level categories as the top navigation banner. Moving to one of these will reveal its sub-categories and the sub-categories within it.

Along with navigation, my e-commerce website offers left-hand navigation and large content areas populated by product photographs or merchandising images, nowadays, left-hand navigation tends to come into play once the visitor is in the site on category pages.

The website visitor will have also the “sale” and “new “ categories menus which always get a lot of clicks and account for a big share of the clicks from the home page, and which enables the customer to take advantage of new offers and sales...etc. Besides the category page and its ability for costumed search, and since optimal navigation is brand specific, appears the product page which describes the products traits, size, color, price, similar products, shopping cart...etc. The website has an auto-completion option in its search box for better search accuracy, and it will use previous reviews as a navigational aid. Once in the cart and checkout, navigation options will be hidden away, and ideally replaced by a clear indication of where the customer is in the checkout process, this is a good way to ensure the customers to concentrate on completing the order and avoid distractions.

After the transaction is done, the customer will see a ‘’Thank you’’ pop up message, plus he receives an email with all his transaction details and special offers from us as a valuable customer so he will become a resident (loyal) customer.

Company Description and Core Competencies

Electronic commerce or e-commerce refers to the purchase and sale of goods and/or services via internet through a third party or middleman, which is the online payment processor company.

The global e-commerce industry saw impressive growth in 2014 with goods and services worth $1.5 trillion bought by shoppers via desktops, tablets and smartphones, advertisers are now spending an increasing proportion of their marketing budgets on Internet advertising, this ad spend is forecast to surpass $160 billion in 2015, of which more than $58 billion will be spent on Display advertising. (Source: e-Marketer).

E-commerce industry will be evolving in the next upcoming years, as mobile shopping further matures and consumer shopping behavior continues to fall into “Click to buy it” tendency. Some of the expected changes in this industry are; saturated price race will begin as this industry is booming and competition is raising, consumers will go global and can buy from international markets/stores, mobile buying, advertising and marketing will boom, social networks services will boom, and e-commerce companies will have a strong presence on them.

As aforementioned, ecommerce industry trends will evolve, and our company will embrace this trends, for instance; we will be on customers’ hands; through our mobile friendly website and the phone app, we’ll get closer to our customers than ever, we will also embrace QR codes and other barcode scanning tools to engage with in-store shoppers or shoppers on the go. We will be Social (to remain competitive); social media has changed the world, researches show that 83% of consumers’ opinions are influenced by comments on Facebook and Twitter. We will also consider using the two biggest ecommerce platforms eBay and Amazon as a source of generating extra demand, and reaching foreign customers.

Some of my company’s strengths are; very weak competition in our target market, thus we will have a market penetration and domination, also, localization is our strength since we primarily target the local market, and specifically the target the region where every client is located (based on preferences) as well as an up to date and easy payment system that allow shoppers to process and finish transactions readily.

As core competencies; creativity distinguishes us from competition due to strong branding that comes from a style manual which we execute. Merchandising through our flexibility to mark down products based on their selling season, for more demand, and our database marketing efforts, which is effective tools for customer transactions and a key to building long-term satisfaction.

What would ideally make our company succeed is the lack of competition; in a market of 90 million people, only about 10 e-commerce companies operate in the market, and by poorly designed business models, so bringing in a new business model to implement in a traditional market will be a good hit, bringing in new technologies, specifically being mobile; % 30 of our market uses mobile devices for shopping. As aforementioned, using mobile devices in ecommerce transactions, advertising and marketing, online story telling for ads is going to be our major competitive strength, and as a founder and being having experience in sales and marketing, accountancy and auditing would immensely help me rudder the daily business operations, and foster sales volumes, that lead to our business success.


Competitive SWOT, Resources and Capabilities

Internal Factors External FactorsStrengths Opportunities

-Lack of regional low cost online retailers.-Developing and booming market with high buying power.-Superior quality services and products, along with a unique business model.-Delivery network efficiency.-Low operational costs.-Wide variety of products which is not offered in the local market (monopolism).-High customer intimacy due to our rewarding and VIP customer policy.

-Growing base of mobile shoppers, which provides us growth opportunity.-Lower taxes and fees in our market.-Regional expansion; North African and middle eastern markets are developing and offer high growth opportunities.-Difficult barriers to entry, which offer us unique market dominance.-Changing trend toward online shopping.-Weak competitive rivalry.

Weaknesses Threats

-Technology malfunction (internet break-downs, data breaches, security..etc.)This is a factor for all online stores.- Poor of functionality of online and credit cards payment processors.-Lack of efficient and low cost suppliers.-Backward online shopping culture among our customers.Difficulty of educating new customers about our products and services.

- Online security threats due to piracy and lack of copyright legislations in our market.-Consistently changing legal and regulatory calends.-Competition from big e-sellers (Amazon & eBay) that undercuts our growth endeavors.-Bureaucracy, when it comes to dealing with legal and governmental parts.

Needs Analysis

Our ecommerce store is the centerpiece of my online business. This is where visitors are converted into customers, credit card information is submitted, and money is made. There are two keys to winning customers;

First, winning their minds, by making a customer think less, it will be easier to win his mind. This will be through organizing the website in the way my customers want to shop, providing

specific details and clear pricing, making the process of discovery, purchase and checkout as simple and intuitive as possible.

The information architecture, or how the content in the website is organized, page by page, has to make sense to visitors. Website visitors are either lasers or browsers: The laser knows exactly what they want, and they expect to be taken to it as quickly as possible while the browser doesn’t know specifically what they want, they peruse and poke around, they want to be led.

Second, winning their hearts, by using visuals and messaging to make them fall in love with our brand, we want our customers to be excited and feel something special when they think of our brand and shopping our e-commerce store. Our brand is the heart of our business, so the look and feel of the website need to fit with our brand in order to win our visitor’s heart, for instance; are the colors and fonts consistent with the logo? Do the personality and emotions conveyed by our store match the brand?

Our messaging throughout the entire business must be in line with our brand voice whether it’s a tagline, social media post, blog post…even ads and banners – online and offline – would reinforce our brand voice. When we deliver customers experience that wins their minds and hearts, we develop an emotional and mental connection between them and our brand. Therefore, our brand gains value in the eyes of the customer, value that’s worthy of their time and money.

In terms of our e-business needs analysis as a valuable analytical technique to gauge the marketability of our products or/and services to a potential consumer, we consider few principals to determine these needs: The opinion of end users (customers) to identify and improve the best way of providing goods and services. Market research is another essential method to unify customers' opinions, and to use quantitative and qualitative research to find the best direction for product or service designs. Appealing to the lowest common denominator in customers’ needs, marketing to the lowest skill levels results in the largest potential market, by following the KISS principle “keep it simple, stupid”!. Monitoring user feedbacks after the new product launch, addressing defects quickly and keep an accurate record to be applied to future releases.

Lastly, we ought to provide elegant designs, which are the end product of successful needs analysis, which will put our website products above industry peers.

Marketing Survey/Questionnaire

Our Marketing Survey/Questionnaire for our online store will include the following questions: 1. How did you hear about/get to our website?2. What changes and/or improvements would most improve our new website?3. What do you like most about competing products currently offered by other websites?


4. What changes would most consider to beat our competing products and services currently offered by other websites?5. What would make you more likely to buy from our website?6. How likely would you be to recommend our website to others?

o Very likelyo Moderately likelyo Slightly likelyo Not at all likely

7. If you are not likely to buy from our website, why not?o Do not shop onlineo Do not fine your website easy to navigate o Satisfied with competing websites currently availableo Don not feel safe about my privacy o Not willing to pay high shipping feeso Other (please specify)

8. How do you usually buy online?o Using desktop computero Using mobile deviceso Other

9. How important is price to you when chopping online?o Extremely importanto Quite importanto Slightly importanto Not at all important

10. When was the last time you purchased a product or service from us?

o Within the last montho Between one month and 3 monthso Between 3 and 6 monthso Between 6 months and one yearo Never

11. What types of products do you purchase online? o Books or magazineso Home Electronics and accessories o Music & DVDso Clothingo Other (Please explain)

12. Overall, are you satisfied with your experience using our website, dissatisfied with it, or neither satisfied or dissatisfied with it?

o Extremely satisfiedo Quite satisfiedo Somewhat satisfiedo Neither satisfied nor dissatisfiedo Somewhat dissatisfiedo Quite dissatisfiedo Extremely dissatisfied

13. How likely would you be to buy our offered products instead of what’s currently available on other websites?

o Very likelyo Moderately likelyo Slightly likelyo Not at all likely

14. What do you like/dislike most about our website?15. What do you like most about competing products and/or services currently offered by other websites?17. What are the strengths and weaknesses of other competing websites you buy from?18. How important is convenience when choosing this type of service?

o Extremely importanto Quite importanto Moderately importanto Slightly importanto Not at all important

19. Overall, what is your satisfaction level with our website?o Extremely satisfiedo Moderately satisfiedo Slightly satisfiedo Neither satisfied nor dissatisfiedo Slightly dissatisfiedo Moderately dissatisfiedo Extremely dissatisfied


20. If we were to provide a new service today, how likely would you be to use it or recommended it instead of competing services currently available from other websites?

o Extremely likelyo Quite likelyo Moderately likelyo Slightly likelyo Not at all likelyo Other(Please explain)

21. Any final suggestions you may offer?

*Gratitude and thankfulness*

As a recap;

By conducting this marketing survey, we are trying to obtain information to help with decision-making, we to understand our customers' shopping, spending and consuming behavior is, also we aim to educate our customer base and market space about our offered products and services, to create a customer touch point, to obtain sales leads, to sell product (in case of phone surveys), as well as giving customers the perception that we are listening to them. This questionnaire/survey we're conducting has a lot to do with achieving my business objective, the credibility a survey provides and its legitimacy and fundamentality for research and data gathering. Therefore, the result of this data analysis would facilitate our decision making/implementation and leads to better resources allocation.

Target Market, Customers and Needs

Our market comprised of approximately 8 million customers born between 1970 and 1988, characterized with a good earning level and moderate spending power. They're tech-savvy and love the convenience of online shopping. They have a high value for education and knowledge.

The customers our company deal with usually have more money to spend when buying online more than on physical shopping ,due to the competitive prices and safety we offer on our website. This business strategic planning is designed for a business that operates in a particular geographic region which is North Africa, and its principal target is the customer base ranged from 17 to 5o years old who have passion to end enjoy online shopping.

The segmentation of our customers’ base appears to be majority male shoppers with a less female portion, this has a lot to do with the cultural background and mores of that market (men are generally in charge of spending and shopping), customers are ranging from 20-50 years old, %40 of them are single and do not have kids, with an average educational level. The majority of customers have an average to good household income. From a Psycho-graphical perspective,

majority of our customers are fairly young and appreciative of that prestige of ordering online while enjoying quality service, this young portion of our customers is a “tech-maniac” portion who we primarily promote to our latest technology equipment and accessories products.

The e-commerce industry is still in its early ages in our target market, however,” online retailing has increased by 74% in current value terms in Algeria in 2014, an extremely strong rate of growth which can be attributed to the fact that the channel is still rising from a low base. Non-store retailing only became a significant retail distribution channel in Algeria from 2011 onwards and 3G mobile internet coverage was only introduced in the country at the end of December 2013 and 3G was only properly operative in 2014, e-commerce in Algeria is expected to register impressive growth rates during the forecast period, increasing in value at a CAGR of 47% in constant 2014 terms.”1.

Our market volume implies a customer base of 8 million users, and an economic market value of $20 million which equals 200 billion DZD. Our consumers buy our products and services to fulfill their needs of different sophisticated electronic goods and accessories which they use on a daily basis for an easier life, moreover, in a fast technologically developing world, we offer our customers the most advanced products through our website; we also carry imported high-tech equipment and gadgets...etc. So common benefits our customers gain is the accessibility to a source or market that gives them the ability of accompaniment of the fast developing foreign world. Our monopolism of this market portion maintains us returning and happy customers.

Ethical Issues in the CA

Since e-commerce is emerging as an important tool to ensure inclusive growth, the traditional business model is about to change and to reduce the prominence of the physical stores as an essential condition for smooth business functionality. My e-commerce business will contribute in providing job positions for the local community, taxes for the state, the convenience of shopping like never before with the ease of fulfilling personal needs.

Due to cultural and traditional reasons, in our target market, shopping is frequently done by men more than women and minority classes, with the fact that women love shopping, and thanks to our online website, this theory may soon approach an end and realizes equality. Giving a freedom to women to shop online will fulfill their needs and preferences, widen our customer's base and will raise our revenue. We are excited to provide the opportunity to market our products globally on the click of a mouse and empower every society's segment to enjoy this easy-modern business model. Another important positive impact will be on changing the young entrepreneurs’ perceptions concerning launching similar business ventures.

However, we need to mention that an online store would have some negative effects on the local physical business, it could lead to job losses, recession etc.


My business model will improve lives of my customers as well as my employees, how? many people seek and prefer and enjoy the convenience and easiness of e-commerce, and so would do my customers, they will enjoy their online shopping due to easiness and convenience of the experience, through buying products or services from their home at any time of day or night.

Since our online store offers different options and preferences for buying, that would give the customers a freedom and ability to meet their needs and preferences. Some products cannot be found selling in the physical store, so we monopolize those products and expose them to customers. Usually online stores offer lower prices than physical ones, and so is our store; we attract customers by offering affordable low prices, which makes customers happy and contents.

Also by providing sufficient information on the website, we will contribute in customer education, thus implanting a new business model within our community.

Concerning our employees, they would be exposed to a high volume of information that could be turned into careers opportunities. Also, since the business is online, they will have the possibility of working from home, another benefit is having a discount of %20 for our employees.

In order to incorporate a sense of social responsibility in the development and planning of our venture, we are taking corporate social responsibility into account, for instance, the corporate policy which includes our company’s policy will include a bylaw to hire minorities, disabled people and veterans. We take a stance on social and political issues that benefit the community.

We will build corporate charitable business contributions and expands on this common social business practices by invoking social initiatives, events, sponsors etc.

The shaping of a corporate social framework to be in implied in our general corporate policy is being undergoing, in order to incorporate a sense of social responsibility partner.

Segmentation Plan

In order for us to conduct market segmentation we need to divide consumers into different categories based on distinguishing characteristics. Segmentation could be a geographical, behavioral or lifestyle…etc. related-segmentation. This helps us identify customers who are most likely to buy my products. We will primarily focus on demographics, personalities and needs to segment our market; this allows us to better reach non-buying consumers and customers through advertising and marketing efforts.

Based on the results of the marketing survey we conducted in earlier stage, we can go further and use the data the survey provided us to segment our market into different categories based on different characteristics. We must consider all the ways our potential customers differ, as well as how current customers differ. Our segmentations should include the following:

Current customers by products being used: Our customers can be our best opportunities for cross-promotional product offerings, if targeted correctly such as providing opportunities for accessory or complementary products with these same consumers. So we will preserve this type of customers by offering them promotional and informational offers, through emails or marketing phone calls.

Consumers by behaviors/interests: One of the easiest segmentation strategies is to separate consumers based on their interests in our products, then for us to gauge interests in different products, we will try offering guides or other downloadable information about different subjects through various forms requesting a name and email address on our website. By tying a form to these types of downloads, we will segment our consumers into different interest groups, allowing us to send targeted messages about those products.

Consumers by rejection/cancel reasons: This is an overlooked segmentation opportunity which lies in our rejection/cancel lists of our consumers. Segmenting these consumers by the reason they decided not to do business with us can lead to timely and mind-changing emails that counter the reasons they rejected us and work the issue out from there and turn this reluctant customers into potential ones.

Technology solutions for segmenting, targeting and positioning products: We will involve a complex technology system that segments consumers with little effort by using software that automates the process. This software monitors its website visitors, their behaviors on the site, what products they buy and what information they download. As consumers navigate and interact with the website, information from their visit is recorded and provides updated content based on their actions. Amazon.com for instance uses this software and it’s the reason they managed to segment and deeply understand their market, thus having a precise customer targeting which increases sales.

Moreover, as a startup business owner, my solid knowing of the target market’s cultural and behavioral characteristics would help us comprehend how to best comprehend, categorize and approach our customers.

Competitor Analysis and Competitive SWOT

For our online retail store, an accurate and current competitive analysis provides a significant advantage or identifying opportunities through a regular, qualitative review of our competitors’ websites, prices, product mix, customer service, policies, and marketing. We can use these data both offensively and defensively to improve our bottom line strategy. As an online business, we view our competition as the sites ranking around us organically and those sites that are bidding on similar keywords via pay-per-click marketing. However, we also consider larger sites and e-commerce marketplaces like Amazon.com, E-Bay and the sellers on those platforms that focus on our product niche mad market. Our competitors could be any company that can affect our


market share and profit, and by considering several norms of analyzing competitors, we have come to narrow down our top competitors as follows;

The top competition we are currently facing comes from the website Jumia.com, this Nigerian online retail company has a heaving presence in the African online retail market, has warehouses in ten different countries including Europe and sells a variety of products including electronics, fashion and home appliances. Jumia.com now operates in our target market which poses a heavy competitive burden on our website. From an aesthetic perspective, Jumia.com operates on a nice looking website, easy to navigate and detailed products descriptions, the website offers membership option, deals and promotions for returning customers. In 2014, Jumia.com reached a 45% market share on online retail in Africa including our target market. It is a competitor because they own a market share with a wide customer base in Algeria and North Africa, they know our market’s characteristics and have expansion potentials.

Our second competitor is ouedkniss.com, and although it is not an online store, it is ranked 8 (on alexa.com in Algeria) as a most visited website which offers listings and intermediation services, and linkage to various foreign retail websites. The high volume of traffic this website got reflexes a domination of a big market share that implies the customer characteristics our business targets. Ouedkniss.com has an easy to navigate and good looking website, detailed products listing descriptions, relevant prices to the market and heavy social media presence. All these strengths made Ouedkniss.com a direct competitor and treat to our market share.

Besides the severe competition posed by online retailers in the region, we face an increasing competition from the world biggest retail platforms such as Amazon, EBay and even Alibaba. These three retail giants manipulate the competition due to their high competitive standards, the high quality service they offer and the heaviness of their brand names. These three platforms are our competitors because they have a strong social media presence in our market; they offer free shipping, email marketing and trade shows sponsorship (Amazon).

Amid this competition and relying on our SWOT analysis, we would come out with an updated SWOT implementation approach would be as follows;

Strengths; usually our competition doesn’t offer affordable or low prices compared to our developing markets’ spending power, thus, we will be offering as low prices as to beat the competitors.

Also, we will capitalize on business segment that is backed by cultural and religious sense to trigger the customers to buy, and we will have to consider compensations and gift discounts under certain conditions. As for opportunities, we can focus on mobile shopping as a growing business model, and by targeting young people who like to fit into modernity and convenience. Another opportunity is to focus on selling products that is not selling by the competitors. Our weaknesses so far are the poor functionality and insecurity of online payment system in the

target market as well as piracy. Also the lack of efficient-low cost suppliers would lead to customers loathing us.

Besides piracy and cyber-attacks, bureaucracy when it comes to dealing with legal and governmental parties is another unsecure side of surviving among the competitors, thus we might consider merging or getting acquired by a bigger operator if no other strategy works out, but this would be the very least approach we would discuss.

Products and ServicesOur online store will sell a variety of quality merchandise. The types of merchandise we will carry will include items such as electronic equipment, home appliances, accessories, toys, cosmetics, and a list of items too exhausted to list here. A dedicated staff is committed to providing quality customer service.

The merchandise will be directly shipped for the products sold out of our warehouse, and through drop-shipping when it's shipped by one of our suppliers. Our inventory is purchased from a variety of local well-known manufacturers and other generic branded companies, as well as a small portion of imported products. As our business starts growing, we will continue to find new product lines that can be added to our inventory.

We are able to sell products at very low/competitive prices, because we will purchase items from discontinued lines, manufacturers, and overstocks, etc.,

The strategy we will follow is to set up prices with a low profit margin in order to maximize sales volume. Since the operating costs we bear are not high and tax on sales is low for a startup business we would be able to afford a low-profit margin. Also a deep study of our competitor's pricing strategy and sales volume, and the size of our customer base that is willing or able to buy frequently helps in determining a good pricing strategy.

In order to better evaluate our pricing strategy, product quality, and customer service efficiency, we will conduct a customer survey to sense the market’s feedbacks and impressions. This survey will involve the following questions; what does our product do for our ideal customers? What problems does our product solve for our customers? What needs of our customer do our products satisfy? How do our products improve the customer's life or work? Some of these questions were answered through our precedent marketing survey/questionnaire we conducted earlier, and the feedback was that our customers believe that not do we simply offer modern/sophisticated electronics and appliances but at affordable prices along with pleasant customer service support, these two traits of our business were the most important for our customers as the survey showed.

Since the online retail industry is so competitive, and to grow our customer base and our business as a whole, our focus is on implementing the most efficient, attention-pulling marketing policy in order to gain a place in the market, also we do capitalize on a quality customer service


and after sale services, which include free delivery, customer service follow-up for trouble shooting and a refund policy and gift cards.

Tactical social media marketing plan

This plan includes the tactical objective to be used to accomplish two primary goals of social media; first, to increase unique traffic to LowStop.com and second, to convert anonymous traffic to known visitors by promoting premium content to visitors from social media sites via free content.

Blog- Weekly

Short term objectives Increase recognition o Maximize the number of posts o Blog publication everyday o RSS button addition o Increase engagement To encourage comment, forums and posts

Key Metricso Maximize the number of postso Consider audience growth, unique and returnso Conversion rateo Subscribers volumeo Measure SEO improvement

Social networks- 4 hours daily

Short term objectives Facebook fan page

To increase recognition o To create groups, encourage interaction, create contento Interact with other groupso Conduct surveys and polls

LinkedIn Create professional groups, encourage interaction, create and post content Participate in other groups, and Q&A, etc.

Key Metrics Generate referrals from other pages and drive traffic towards our website Word of mouth of friends on social networks.

Twitter Short term objectives

Promote company blog posts through corporate account To communicate the support issues from social media to support team Build reputation To promote other social media accounts’ activities through twitter

Key Metrics Volume of referrals from other sites, friends and followers Third party operators and contributors Measure how much influence in invested in a certain number of

followers Pages ranking on key terms from microblogging sites

Online videos

Short term objectives To post constantly updated videos and infomercial on video sites such as

YouTube and Facebook To sponsor top video makers on video sites.

Key Metrics To measure referral rate from precedent media networks. Videos views volume is an important analytical data. Key terms ranking on YouTube.

Photo sharing sites

Short term objectives


o Encouraging employees to post and share any picture related to social marketing and sales events

o To rely on photo sharing sites to share pictures with blogs and social network siteso Focus on Facebook, Flickr and our own blog

Key Metrics o Referrals from our podcast directories, and number of views if pictures if hosted

on podcast sites

Presentation sharing

Short term objectiveso To list all presentations on Slideshare and keep it updated.

Key Metricso Referrals from Slideshareo Number of views on Slideshare o Pages ranking on key terms from Slideshare.

Marketing Strategy

LowStop.com is focused on the merging/redefined Internet marketplace. The users will mostly be Baby Boomers, which represent approximately 40% of the discretionary revenue of the company. These customers are looking for affordable, new products to fulfill their needs. LowStop.com can offer those customers these cutting-edge products coupled with convenience and service.

Mission

To make online shopping fun, easy and trustful, for low prices and high-quality service everyday through a smart, searchable website, understandable instructions, easy and secure payment methods and fast quality delivery.

Marketing Objectives

Increase retuned customers by 8% per quarter. Decrease customer acquisition costs by 10% per year. Maintain positive, steady growth each month.

Financial Objectives

Pro-forma profitability by year two. Decrease variable costs by 4% a year. Profitability on 90% of the listed items, no lost leaders.

Besides the continuing technological development of, our target market's young population is a significant trend driving the use of online shopping to a new level. The Baby Boomers are now reaching middle age and their mortality is becoming a focus. This demographic segment of our market is comprised of 10 million people, and represents over 40% of our company's discretionary income. Another global trend is the emergence and popularity of e-commerce Brand-focused retailers that can provide good products, customer service, information, and an intangible emotional the customer.

LowStop.com will position itself as an Internet purveyor of high-quality, reasonably-priced products retail. NC will leverage its competitive edges to achieve the desired positioning:

Our company's competitive edge will be its easy to navigate website and quality customer service that significantly increases sales, while the other competitive edge is superior customer service. The mantra of the customer service department is to serve the customer in any way required.

The marketing strategy will first focus on creating customer awareness regarding our products, grow the customer base, and gain customer loyalty and referrals. The long-term goal of LowStop.com is to not only dominate the online retail industry in our target market, but to also create an icon brand. Initially, the company will:

Engage in Web-based marketing for the next year to generate awareness of the company and product information. Because Internet-based advertising has declined in recent year, the prices for advertising have consequently significantly dropped making the expenditure more cost effective.

Engage in outdoor advertising providing general awareness to the public at large and direct individuals to the company's website.

Marketing Mix

Pricing: The pricing structure will slightly undercut the local competition through leveraging our business model along with efficient suply chain

Distribution: All products will be distributed from our warehouse and drop-shipped, accessed via the website, and delivered throughout our market

Advertising and Promotion: Internet-based marketing and outdoor ads. Customer Service: following industry models like Amazon.com and eBay.

Sales Forecast

LowStop.com is a 100% online revenue generator store. Customers are often putting products in their basket and leave without placing any order. By making our website easy to navigate and simple to order from, we will ensure more orders placement.


There will be no sales in the first two months since it will be used to develop and ready the site, and from month two on, LowStop.com will expect gradually increasing sales

Expense Forecast

The marketing expenses are budgeted so that they ramp up significantly in the first six months as means for generating visibility for our website. Marketing expenses will be decreased in the second half of year just to measure its effect on performance.

Marketing Expense Budget 2016 2017 2018Internet advertising $7,000 $9,000 $13,000Other $4,400 $10,000 $14,500 ………. ------------ ------------ ------------Total Sales and Marketing Expenses $11,400 $19,000 $27,500Percent of Sales % % %

MilestonesAdvertising Start Date End Date Budget ManagerMarketing plan completion 1/1/2016 2/1/2016 $xxxx xInternet ads campaign #1 1/1/2016 4/30/2016 $xxxx xOutdoor ads campaign #1 1/1/2016 4/30/2016 $xxxx xInternet ads campaign #2 8/1/2016 12/30/2016 $xxxx xOutdoor ads campaign #2 8/1/2017 12/30/2016 $xxxx xProfitability 1/1/2016 9/30/2016 $x xOther 1/1/2016 1/15/2016 $x xTotal Advertising Budget $xxxxPR Start Date End Date Budget ManagerApproach name 1/1/2016 1/15/2016 $x xxxxx 1/1/2016 1/15/2016 $x Xxxxx 1/1/2016 1/15/2016 $x XOther 1/1/2016 1/15/2016 $x xTotal PR Budget $xDirect Marketing Start Date End Date Budget Managerxxxx 1/1/2006 1/15/2006 $x Xxxxx 1/1/2006 1/15/2006 $x Xxxxx 1/1/2006 1/15/2006 $x XOther 1/1/2006 1/15/2006 $x xTotal Direct Marketing Budget $xWeb Development Start Date End Date Budget Managerxxxx 1/1/2006 1/15/2006 $x XOther 1/1/2006 1/15/2006 $x X

Total Web Development Budget $xOther Start Date End Date Budget Managerxxxx 1/1/2006 1/15/2006 $x xTotal Other Budget $xTotals $ xxxxxxx

Our marketing strategy must fit into our company’s PEST analysis we conducted previously, therefore we will take into consideration the political sphere in our market, policies, tax and trading policy and market regulations, also the economic variables exchange rate, interest rate etc. Social side of the market will be considered such as lifestyle and social trends, media views etc., and most importantly is to us as online business is the technological side such as the volume of R&D activity in our market, licensing and the maturity and reliability of technology.

Final Situational Analysis and Literature Review

Situational analysis: where are we now?Our situational analysis will include a thorough examination of internal and external factors affecting our business. It will create an overview of the company that will lead to a better understanding of the factors that will influence its future.

Internal Analysis: This is an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses within our company which will be reflected in the company's culture and image, organizational structure, staff, operational efficiency and capacity, brand awareness, financial resources, etc.

External Analysis: This includes opportunities and threats that can occur when things happen in the external environment that may require a change within our business (market trends, suppliers, partners, customers, competitors, new technology and economic environment)

The 5 C’s: include; Company, Collaborators, Customers, Competitors, and Climate. Company

What does my business do? Our company is an online retail store that sells products and services over the internet through an integral e-commerce platform What are we selling? We are specialize is selling electronics, accessories, home appliances and toys. What unique position do we have in the marketplace? We are a startup company at its early stages of business and that has a strategic conception of its future market. How do people think of my company? People admire our company’s business model due to its convenience and efficiency.


What are my strengths and weaknesses? Some of our strengths are; superior quality services and products, along with a unique business model, delivery network efficiency, low operational costs, diversity of products that is not offered in the local market (monopolism) and high customer intimacy.Where do we want to be in the future? In the upcoming 5 to 7 years, we aim to dominate the retail industry in North Africa and the Middle East.

Collaborators

Who am I working with to make my business operate? Our company is an LLC legal entity; however, thus far we are two partners and will hire more personals in the future. From an operational perspective, we’ve teamed up with local manufacturers, wholesalers, distributers and an insurance company.

Who is my shipping provider? Our shipping provider is the local Algerian postal service for domestic and regional shipping, and UPS for international shipping.

Who is helping me process credit cards? We use bluepay.com services.

Who is providing my shopping cart software? We are using Shopify’s ecommerce platform shopping cart software.

What partners am I currently working with? We’re currently at a startup phase, thus we are collaborating with Oedkniss.com to promote our website in North Africa, also with our perspective supply chain to set up a future strategy of collaboration.

Customers Who is my target audience? 17 to 45 years old people in general, and young ‘tech-maniacs’ people in particular. Who is currently purchasing from me? We’re not a stage of selling at this point, but the surveys show a promising audience of young shoppers in the future of business. How do my customers behave? Our customers are obsessed with new technologies and gears, not easy to please due to competition and choices they have but good spenders when convinced.

What is important to their purchasing decision? Prices and service quality is something our customers are so sensitive to, therefore we ought to master that.

What type of people are buying and not buying? Usually the buyers are the young portion, educated and online shopping persistent.

Competitors

Who are my primary competitors? Few local online stores (juma.com, oudkniss.com, ardiss.com…etc) beside the ecommerce giants (amazon and eBay)

Are there any substitutes for my products? Yes there is, but offered in physical stores which don’t offer suitability for a vast portion of customers, and that’s what we try to fulfill.

Are there any emerging businesses that might impact me? No

How do customers think of other companies? Customers these days are so picky, and they spend for the better service and the lower price, thus we must be though in competition.

Climate

What’s going on in the industry? Online shopping is not a big industry in our market, but it is coming as new entrepreneurs’ best business model. Difficult barriers to entry which offer us unique market dominance, changing trend toward online shopping and weak competitive rivalry.

Are there new technologies or trends that will impact me? Mobile shopping is booming globally and our market is no exception.

How is the current economic situation affecting customers’ buying behavior? There is an economic instability situation (DGP fluctuation affects small businesses and buying power)

Pro Forma Financial Statements

GENERAL ASSUMPTIONSYEAR 1 YEAR 2 YEAR 3

Plan Month 1 2 3Current Interest Rate 9.00% 9.00% 9.00%Long-term Interest Rate 10.00% 10.00% 10.00%Tax Rate 7.50% 7.50% 7.50%Other 0 0 0

For us to assure the start-up funds lender that the owners are financially stable, a personal financial statement is enclosed illustrating other sources of income that include interest and dividend income from investments, salary income and commission income, General assumptions of some financial factors in our market are;

Projected Cash FlowWe expect to manage cash flow over the next three years simply by the growth of the cash flow of the business. The business will generate more than enough cash flow to cover all of its expenses by year two. The actual Pro format cash flow statement is as follow;

PRO FORMA CASH FLOW


YEAR 1 YEAR 2 YEAR 3Cash Received 0 0 0Cash from Operations 0 0 0Cash Sales $166,400 $211,022 $239,975

SUBTOTAL CASH FROM OPERATIONS $166,400 $211,022 $239,975Additional Cash ReceivedSales Tax, VAT, HST/GST Received $0 $0 $0New Current Borrowing $0 $0 $0New Other Liabilities (interest-free) $0 $0 $0New Long-term Liabilities $0 $0 $0Sales of Other Current Assets $0 $0 $0Sales of Long-term Assets $0 $0 $0New Investment Received $0 $0 $0SUBTOTAL CASH RECEIVED $166,400 $211,022 $239,975

Expenditures Year 1 Year 2 Year 3Expenditures from OperationsCash Spending $46,400 $52,520 $54,876Bill Payments $99,540 $128,730 $147,285SUBTOTAL SPENT ON OPERATIONS $145,940 $181,250 $202,161Additional Cash SpentSales Tax, VAT Paid Out $0 $0 $0Principal Repayment of Current Borrowing $0 $0 $0Other Liabilities Principal Repayment $0 $0 $0Long-term Liabilities Principal Repayment $12,000 $12,000 $12,000Purchase Other Current Assets $0 $0 $0Purchase Long-term Assets $0 $0 $0Dividends $0 $0 $0SUBTOTAL CASH SPENT $157,940 $193,250 $214,161Net Cash Flow $8,460 $17,772 $25,814Cash Balance $8,960 $26,733 $52,547

Services are a minimal part of our market. We are not quite sure how much revenue will be derived from services, so we took a low-ball approach and estimated sales of $800 a month. Income Statement:

PRO FORMA PROFIT AND LOSS

YEAR 1 YEAR 2 YEAR 3Sales $166,400 $211,022 $239,975Direct Cost of Sales $4,320 $4,300 $4,400Other Costs of Sales $0 $0 $0TOTAL COST OF SALES $4,320 $4,300 $4,400Gross Margin $162,080 $206,722 $235,575Gross Margin % 97.40% 97.96% 98.17%ExpensesPayroll $46,400 $52,520 $54,876Marketing/Promotion $22,800 $24,000 $26,000Depreciation $8,146 $8,146 $8,146Rent $22,740 $22,740 $22,740Utilities $4,200 $4,200 $4,200Insurance $1,200 $1,200 $1,200Payroll Taxes $0 $0 $0Independently contracted stylists $40,400 $55,000 $69,000Supplies $6,000 $6,000 $6,000Other $0 $0 $0Total Operating Expenses $151,886 $173,806 $192,162Profit Before Interest and Taxes $10,194 $32,916 $43,413EBITDA $18,340 $41,062 $51,559Interest Expense $5,542 $4,392 $3,192Taxes Incurred $1,396 $8,557 $12,066Net Profit $3,257 $19,967 $28,155Net Profit/Sales 1.96% 9.46% 11.73%

In order for us to evaluate the company’s assets, based on the previous data we put together a ratio analysis:

RATIO ANALYSIS

YEAR 1 YEAR 2 YEAR 3 INDUSTRY PROFILE

Sales Growth - 26.82% 13.72% 7.35%Percent of Total AssetsOther Current Assets 0.98% 0.85% 0.68% 50.11%Total Current Assets 15.69% 38.75% 60.25% 64.74%Long-term Assets 84.31% 61.25% 39.75% 35.26%TOTAL ASSETS 100.00% 100.00% 100.00% 100.00%

Long-term Liabilities 81.95% 53.75% 29.38% 25.39%


Total Liabilities 96.82% 68.94% 43.25% 47.10%NET WORTH 3.18% 31.06% 56.75% 52.90%

Risk Management plan

Purpose of the risk analysis plan: Risk analysis helps us in identifying, assessing, monitoring, and reporting risks related to our business. This Risk analysis Plan defines how risks associated with the LowStop.com project will be identified, analyzed, and managed. It outlines how risk management activities will be performed, recorded, and monitored throughout the lifecycle of the project.

The intended audience of this document is the project team, project sponsor and management.

What are our operational risks? Some of these operational risks are ever present and frequently out of our control:

o Search engine optimization risk; Google and other search engines sometimes change their search engine algorithms which would cause our website’s traffic to drop.

o Hosting risk; our website’s hosting company suffers a series of failures which could put our store offline for hours.

o Price competition risk; if our bigger competitors drop prices by a big percentage then our sales would suffer.

o Supplier risk; when our top-selling product line is suddenly pulled from the market which could cause a huge loss of revenue.

o Shipping risk; a container load of products from an overseas supplier is stuck in customs because of a change in policy or an error in the shipping manifest, this can cause an inventory shortage.

o Marketplace risk; in case of us selling products on Amazon that it does not carry, but it suddenly sources the products itself, at a much lower price, this would limit our sales and revenues.

Risk Management Procedures

Process: As an owner/business manager, I will be working with the team and project sponsors to ensure that risks are actively identified, analyzed, and managed throughout the life of the business. Following are the considerations when it comes to risk analysis process:

o Each person involved in the process of planning needs to identify and understand the risks pertaining to the business.

o Once the team members have given their list of risks, the risks should be consolidated to a single list in order to remove the duplications.

o Assessing the probability and impact of the risks involved with the help of a matrix.o Split the team into subgroups where each group will identify the triggers that lead

to the business-related risks.o The teams need to come up with a contingency plan whereby to strategically

eliminate the risks involved or identified.o Next we plan the risk management process. Each person involved in the project is

assigned a risk in which he/she looks out for any triggers and then finds a suitable solution for it.Risk Identification: This phase will involve the project team, appropriate stakeholders, and will include an evaluation of environmental factors, organizational culture and the project management plan including the project scope. A risk analysis log will be issued and saved.Risk analysis: All identified risks will be assessed to identify the range of possible business outcomes. Qualification will be used to determine which risks are the top risks to pursue and which to be ignored.

Qualitative Risk Analysis: The probability and impact of occurrence for each identified risk will be assessed by the business manager, with input from the project team using the following approach:Probability• High – Greater than 70% probability of occurrence.• Medium – Between 30% and 70% probability of occurrence.• Low – Below 30% probability of occurrence.Impact• High: Risk that has the potential to greatly impact business cost, schedule or performance.• Medium: Risk that has the potential to slightly impact project cost, project schedule or performance.• Low: Risk that has little impact on cost, schedule or performance.

Risks that fall within the red and yellow zones will have risk response planning which may include both risk mitigation and a risk contingency plan.

Quantitative Risk AnalysisAnalysis of risk events that have been prioritized using the qualitative risk analysis process and their effect on business activities will be estimated, a numerical rating applied to each risk based on this analysis, then documented in this section of the risk management plan.

Risk response planningFor each major risk, one of the following approaches will be selected to address it:


• Avoid: eliminate the threat by eliminating the cause

• Mitigate: Identify ways to reduce the probability or the impact of the risk

• Accept: Nothing will be done

• Transfer: Make another party responsible for the risk (buy insurance, outsourcing, etc.)

For each mitigated risk, the project team will identify ways to prevent the risk from occurring or reduce its impact or probability of occurring. This may include prototyping, adding tasks to the project schedule, adding resources, etc.

Risk monitoring, controlling and reportingThe level of risk on a project will be tracked, monitored and reported throughout the project lifecycle. A “Top 10 Risk List” will be maintained by the project team and will be reported as a component of the project status reporting process for this project.

1. Tools and practices A Risk log will be maintained by the project manager and will be reviewed as a standing agenda item for project team meetings.

Conclusion

As a company, we will not be able to fully eliminate or eradicate risks. The risk analysis process is a procedure that cannot be compromised. However, every business engagement will have its own set of risks to be dealt with.

CA FINAL ASSESSEMENT

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