Consultancy Report E-Business Management. Cranvilles Department Store

Table of Content

1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

2. PROJECT OUTLINE
2.1 Aims
2.2 Objectives

3. SOLUTION
3.1 Website
3.2 Social Media Marketing
3.3 Internal system

4. EFFECTS ON THE BUSINESS

5. JUSTIFICATION

6. IMPLEMENTATION PLAN

7. BIBLIOGRAPHY

appendix 1

APPENDIX 2

1. Executive Summary

The Cranvilles Department store has a fine reputation for the distribution of high quality products in Manhattan, New York. The in-store experience provided to the customers by the highly trained sales staff is of an exceptionally high standard. To ensure that the first class in-store experience can be translated to an online presence the CEO, Mark Cranville, will be presented with an end-to-end e­business strategy.

The consultancy report on Cranvilles Department store will point out the necessary tasks to develop and implement an E-Business strategy for Cranvilles, furthermore explaining the aims and objectives that the strategy will pursue in order to make sure that the customers are able to experience a contemporary shopping experience. At the end of the report an analysis of the potential risks will be completed, in order to see if the benefits can overweigh the risks.

2. Project Outline

2.1 Aims

The overall objective is the successful implementation of a working E-Business strategy, to increase the shopping experience for the customers and with that also the sales and profits of Cranvilles.

The following part of the report will propose actions and that have to be taken in order to guarantee a successful implementation of the e-business strategy.

The first and most important aim should be the development of a website. The website is the key factor of the new e-business strategy and it should include an online store, as well as a part of the website in which the company can express their key values and a mission statement.

Another factor, closely linked to the website, is the implementation of social media marketing. Cranvilles should use the most common social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

To increase the productivity within company the different department of the company, it is important to implement a system which connects the departments and helps to simplify certain processes.

2.2 Objectives

To ensure the effectiveness of the above described activities it is important to set specific objectives to monitor the process. In order to be sure that the set objectives are suitable and realistic the so called SMART process was used to specify the objectives (Chaffey, 2014, p.210)

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The website will launch on the 1st of July in 2016. By the end of 2017 the website will be providing 25% of the total revenue.

The social media accounts should aim to have 300k followers in total by the end of 2016.

The internal system will reduce the time that is needed for the administrative work on payrolls to 50% by the end of 2016.

3. Solution

3.1 Website

For the development of a company website I would suggest to use the domain: cranvilles.com, which is not registered yet (Domaincheck, 2015) and therefore available to be used by the company.

Thepicture has been removedfor thepublication due to copyright reasons To make the website more useful for online shoppers a cooperation with fits.me should be approached. Fits.me lets customers input their measurements and based on that will create an avatar showing how the clothes will fit (FitsMe, 2015). Many retailers already use the platform to provide better service to their customers. The screenshot below is taken from the HUGO BOSS website. As you can see the system tells you exactly how the shirt fits and where it might be too tight. This feature could be helpful to attract customers, which are not able to come to the store in Manhattan. If customers already know that the clothes they order online will fit, Cranvilles will have an advantage over many other department stores and is therefore able to expand its business. If this new technology is combined with the offer of global shipping customers outside the United States can be acquired as new shoppers.

Another aspect the website should focus on is storytelling. Cranvilles needs to create a history about the way the family owned business grew and give customers reasons to identify themselves with the way the department store formed over the last decades. This form of building a relationship to the customers will help to increase customer loyalty, resulting in regular customers.

3.2 Social Media Marketing

Social Media is a strongly growing phenomenon which more and more businesses use as a cheap and very effective way to market their products.

Statistics show that in 2015 an average of 27,1% (Statista, 2015) of the world's population actively uses a social media platform. This number will grow to 32,7% in 2018 (Statista, 2015), making social media even more important for businesses.

Cranvilles should aim to directly communicate with their customers through social media, forming a stronger bond between customer and company.

One of Cranvilles main competitors, Macy's, has been using Instagram for quiet a long time and was able to gain almost 500k followers on their account (Instagram, 2015)

3.3 Internal system

The case study describes the working environment at Cranvilles as complicated. It is in the interest of the CEO, as well as the staff, that some of the complicated processes need to be simplified in order to make sure that the employees can focus on their actual tasks, instead of dealing with complicated processes. It seems like many spreadsheets are used and tasks are not automated. Cranvilles can implemented a software solution, e.g. FusionRetail (FusionRetail, 2015). The software helps to connect the departments and automates tasks like paying the employees.

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