Strategic plan for an e-commerce project

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to present an innovative strategic plan for a technologic start-up with the mission of making buying goods faster and more convenient by finding them in the closest physical shop possible. It combines the benefits of traditional shopping with the convenience of online shopping. The current e-commerce project provides the consumers with a wide range of clothing items from numerous local retailers, filtering them according to price, size, colour, material, style etc. The shoppers have the possibility to reserve the desired item and pick it up later in the shop, or order it online and receive it within 1-2 business days. Additionally, the current project aims to support small local retailers, enabling them to compete with aggressive campaigns of international brands and big online retailers by using technology and social media. The methodology used in the development of strategic plan covers research in consumer behaviour and growing trends in consumer lifestyles, strategy and technologic entrepreneurship. For acquiring more specific and local trends about shopping for clothes online and traditionally - online survey was performed with 226 respondents. The analysis of data and the conclusions drawn about online and traditional shopping habits of Portuguese consumers have been applied in different business development tools – PEST, Porter’s Five Forces, SWOT, TOWS, as well as 7P’s marketing mix – in order to specify the target audience, determine the positioning of the company’s service, and formulate further business strategy. Finally, implementation plan for the future company will be developed and the conclusions from all the analyses will be outlined