STR/581

Running head: ONLINE RETAILING VALUES AND STRATEGY

1

ONLINE RETAILING VALUES AND STRATEGY

Regina Snedecor

STR/581 Strategic Planning & Implementation

May 1, 2017

ALEJANDRO MEDINA

Online Retailing Values and Strategy

The growth of the online retail industry has been steady over the past few years and is projected to grow even more in the coming years. For this reason, I intend to join the venture with a startup online retail store shortly. The main idea behind the business is to allow the consumer to purchase products directly from the producer using the internet as a platform. The technological advancements have been the driving factor for online sales and marketing.

For the venture to be successful, a strategic management process has to be in place throughout the formation and running of the business. The major strategic management components that will apply to this particular business will include goal setting, analysis, strategy formulation, implementation, and evaluation and control of the firm(Stevenson&Jarillo, 2007). When operating in a very competitive industry, the short and long-term goals of the organization must be clearly defined and established during every step of the business. Specifically, the primary purpose of the firm would be to develop a niche market for itself and a unique product that will satisfy the needs of this niche market. For example, the company may choose to deal in fashion items and accessories hence the goal would be to establish a niche market for such products and their unique needs (Cravens & Piercy, 2006). However, for the company to achieve such a goal, it must create and implement a comprehensive strategy that will facilitate the target attainment. The plan may include advertising and marketing techniques aimed at reaching the specific audience. For example, the use of social media and strategies such as the search engine optimization (SEO) may significantly help with the targeting of the particular niche market. With regards to evaluation, the same tools can be evaluated to establish their effectiveness in the attainment of the overall goal. That is, for social media and SEO, instruments such as Google analytics can significantly assist with determining the impact of the company’s online activities as far as the overall goal is concerned. Additionally, the way the actual business will implement will determine whether the firm will be successful in the long run. For instance, the business must have an efficient website, which will be easy to access and use for the consumer. Therefore, the actual design of the online store has to be nicely done, with the principal features that support the actions of the user online. For example, the website must have an integrated payment system, including a shopping cart that calculates the shopper’s total purchases and supports credit card payments. Finally, the analysis is also important in the strategic management process as the business can gain valuable insights into this process. For example, different products can be analyzed to determine the product that will comprehensively address the needs of the selected niche. Additionally, the various wholesale companies can be pitted against each other to find out the ones with the best quality products at the most reasonable rates. At this step, the research on logistics such as shipping may help the company determine the most convenient method for getting the product from the wholesaler to the consumer upon purchasing.

The ever-increasing competition in the industry will consequently lead to the company adopting an innovative strategy that will assist it in its efforts to remain on top of the communication. Innovation is important in the industry as the business that fails to create new approaches and ideas to solve the common problems they face are in most cases left behind regarding competition. The business will, for this reason, sought to be a trendsetter in the industry to avoid the consequences that come with lack of innovation. New services will, therefore, be consistently created, in addition to the constant improvements made to the existing products and services offered by the business (Cassiman & Veugelers, 2006). However, in cases where the competition appears to have the edge on new goods and services, the business will ensure it catches up by not only keeping up with the trends in the industry but also by adjusting the newly developed services and products to align them with the company’s goals and objectives. Specifically, the innovations tailored to the likes and preferences of the specific users of the website for online shopping (Adner, 2006).

Ethics and social responsibility are important when it comes to the development of a strategic plan for any business. Strategic planning lays the foundation for the achievement of success by assisting the company to attain the goals and objectives of the firm. Therefore, the incorporation of ethics would ensure that the corporation enjoys lasting success. The primary function of corporate social responsibility in business is to ensure that the company fulfills the societal expectations from the enterprise (Singhapakdi, Vitell, Rallapalli & Kraft, 1996). That is, CSR influences the decisions made by the business, as the decision must consider the different stakeholders including the society. About ethics, it also plays a key role in the formulation of the plans of business as ethical principles regulate actions of the firm. Therefore, the business has to balance the moral and societal demands with its interests such as maximizing profits (Robin & Reidenbach, 1987). For example, when making plans for excavating raw material for producing the goods for business, the impact of this action on the environment must be assessed. Similarly, if the piece of the land is of other benefits to the community, for example, a recreational park, then moral values will come into play in this scenario; this will, in turn, determine how the company will go about with the entire process.

In conclusion, the success of any business venture is based primarily on the strategic management components such goal setting, analysis, strategy formulation, implementation, and evaluation and control of the firm. Social responsibility and ethics ought to be upheld to achieve sustainable success and the public loyalty.

References

Stevenson, H. H., & Jarillo, J. C. (2007). A paradigm of entrepreneurship: Entrepreneurial management. In Entrepreneurship (pp. 155-170). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.

Cravens, D. W., & Piercy, N. (2006). Strategic marketing (Vol. 7). New York: McGraw-Hill.

Cassiman, B., & Veugelers, R. (2006). In search of complementarity in innovation strategy: Internal R&D and external knowledge acquisition. Management science, 52(1), 68-82.

Adner, R. (2006). Match your innovation strategy to your innovation ecosystem. Harvard business review, 84(4), 98.

Singhapakdi, A., Vitell, S. J., Rallapalli, K. C., & Kraft, K. L. (1996). The perceived role of ethics and social responsibility: A scale development. Journal of Business Ethics, 15(11), 1131-1140.

Robin, D. P., & Reidenbach, R. E. (1987). Social responsibility, ethics, and marketing strategy: closing the gap between concept and application. The Journal of Marketing, 44-58.