Jewelstar – A Jewellery Start-up Empowering Indigenous Women In Australia

External environment of jewellery business in Australia

Discuss about the Culture and Structure on Strategic Flexibility.

The business that I intend to begin is that of a jewellery start-up in Perth, Australia. My motivation behind choosing a jewellery business is that it brings back memories of the family heirloom that was gifted to me my grandmother on my last birthday. This paper discusses about the jewellery start-up that I would begin through the clicks and bricks model. I would also discuss on the aspects of why this business would be an innovation, external environment of the business, external business environment, proposed business model, critical success factors and evaluation of feasibility.

I was raised by my mother who is divorced and throughput his life she had to bear the burden of stigma for being a single mother. My mother had been committed in raising money for providing women from the marginalized communities with the platform of earning their own livelihood. Being an independent and ambitious woman, she always wanted to start her own business, however due to family responsibilities she had to opt for a government job believing that it would provide her with a secured future for the family. As were graduating from B-school and planning on what to do next with our career, the unfulfilled desires of my mother and her vision for the autonomy of women all inspired me to commence with my own entrepreneurial venture. My aim was to create business that would be of the women, for the women and by the women. This led me to come up with the idea of establishing my handcrafted jewellery start-up that would sell indigenous handcrafted jewellery produced by the indigenous women who have great potential however their rate of employment in Australia is quite low. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (2013), whilst half of the indigenous population in Australia aged between 15-64 were employed, the rate of employment among the indigenous women is only 43 per cent (Avery, J., Steenburgh, Deighton & Caravella, 2012). Reports have shown that indigenous women face multiple barriers in doing business. Some of these barriers include poverty, lack of education and white exclusionary policies against indigenous women. To flag off my business I would deploy the bricks and click business model. This kind of business model has been adopted with the aim of selling my products through e retail outlet (physical location) and through online location (www.jewelstar.com) (Bock, Opsahl, George, & Gann, 2012). Initially the business would operate through the retail store in a shopping mall and later would expand as a standalone store based on the popularity and annual turnover. I will name mu entrepreneurial venture as jewelstar.

Proposed business model

External environment of jewellery business in Australia- According to the reports the market of fashion jewellery in Australia is expected to reach a saturation point in the by 2022. Since there is an ever increasing demand of fashion jewellery, this gives me an opportunity to provide something innovative to the customers in the form of local handcrafted jewellery exuding the essence of local culture.

The benefits that I would be able to generate are revenue as discussed in the external environment of the jewellery business. Secondly, I would be able to gain popularity and build my brand name among the millenials.

Branding- The advantage of using the bricks and click model is that it would allow my jewellery retail business to leverage the advantages developed in business through an entirely physical presence. It would my jewellery business jewelstar to establish a brand name and build up its reputation that would translate to the internet. In case of the retail outlet. I would be able to meet my customer and would be able to communicate to them about the vision of the brand. On the other hand the online store would allow me to reach to customers who would not be in a position to visit the store.

Supplier Networks- On the aspect of the supplier network, the bricks and click model would allow me to improve on the supplier networks (Amit & Zott, 2012). The internet space would allow me a wide a range of suppliers that would enable the ordering of new products and equipment. In addition, it would generate competitive pricing. As observed by the scholars an offline business would be in a position to leverage the existing relationship with the suppliers through trust and goodwill.

Distribution- The bricks and click business model for the jewellery business would be effective as it would allow in reaching to a wider customer base and transcend beyond the local community (Carrigan, McEachern, Moraes & Bosangit, 2017).

Costs- However, in terms of cost, the bricks and clicks business model will be problematic as it has a change of increasing the overhead cost of the jewellery business (Kanjanajootha, 2014). This is because maintaining a business through a physical space as well as through the Internet would make me bear extra cost for the physical space as well as for the website.

Marketing strategies for the jewellery business- To ensure that my business the necessary mileage, I would deploy fashion bloggers by sending them statement pieces from the jewellery line. The idea behind deploying fashion bloggers instead of a known celebrity is to cut down the cost of paying the celebrity. I will offer monthly subscription box that would comprise of customizable jewelleries for our lucky customers on every Friday. Another marketing strategy that I aim to adopt is encouraging customers to click selfie with the jewelleries worn by them and offering them discount in their next purchase. We are planning to introduce special birthday editions and jewellery editions for with the aim to make our customers feel valued and thereby retaining the loyalty of the customers.

Business model canvass

Some of the critical success factors are being consistent with the brand image and strategy, being innovative, producing new products, investing in retail, and maintaining the distribution channels. Another critical factor would be maintaining the gross margin.

This refers to the evaluation of the business through research and thorough understanding of the market. I need to assess the franchise potential for the business and understand the scope of the business for a national template (Fernández-Sabiote & Román, 2012). I would choose for an independent business as it would less expensive considering that I my company is a start-up. I would also need to analyse the market and identify potential competitors for the business. This would enable me to strategize my business accordingly.

Conclusion:

The paper focussed on my business plan on establishing the jewellery start-up  business through the application of the bricks-and-click model. I have found that this would be an innovative venture, as it would provide sustainable livelihood options to indigenous women through the production of local handcrafted indigenous jewellery.

Problem identification: I aim to sell handcrafted jewellery produced by the indigenous women in Australia. This would provide them with sustainable livelihood options considering that the rate of employment among indigenous women is lower compared to their male counterparts. Apart from this, the external environment analysis of the jewellery business reveals that there would be saturation in fashion jewellery market, therefore handcrafted jewellery has a potential for good market growth.

Benefits generated: The benefits that will be generated from the jewellery business would generate revenue and at the same time would help in marinating the brand value of the start-up brand (Casadesus?Masanell, & Zhu, 2013).

Proposed business model: The clicks-and-brick business model for my jewellery start-up would allow me to reach a wider market by tapping in the customers who are beyond the geographical space of Perth and secondly through physical interaction with the customers. This would enable me to understand the concerns of the customers along with their opinions regarding the product. This business model would enable me to maintain a cordial relationship with the suppliers. However, the downside of this model is the expenditure of cost in marinating the online store as well as the physical space.

Critical success factor: I would need to maintain the gross margin and continue to remain innovative for the business to have a competitive advantage. To have leverage I would incorporate innovative marketing strategies and bring out new collections of jewelleries every month.

Evaluation of feasibility: I would not have any franchise and rather be an independent investor in the business to cut down cost. At the same time, I would conduct a SWOT analysis to understand my position in the market.

References

Amit, R., & Zott, C. (2012). Creating value through business model innovation. MIT Sloan Management Review, 53(3), 41.

Avery, J., Steenburgh, T. J., Deighton, J., & Caravella, M. (2012). Adding bricks to clicks: Predicting the patterns of cross-channel elasticities over time. Journal of Marketing, 76(3), 96-111.

Bock, A. J., Opsahl, T., George, G., & Gann, D. M. (2012). The effects of culture and structure on strategic flexibility during business model innovation. Journal of Management Studies, 49(2), 279-305.

Carrigan, M., McEachern, M., Moraes, C., & Bosangit, C. (2017). The fine jewellery industry: Corporate responsibility challenges and institutional forces facing SMEs. Journal of Business Ethics, 143(4), 681-699.

Casadesus?Masanell, R., & Zhu, F. (2013). Business model innovation and competitive imitation: The case of sponsor?based business models. Strategic management journal, 34(4), 464-482.

Fernández-Sabiote, E., & Román, S. (2012). Adding clicks to bricks: A study of the consequences on customer loyalty in a service context. Electronic Commerce Research and Applications, 11(1), 36-48.

Kacen, J. J., Hess, J. D., & Chiang, W. Y. K. (2013). Bricks or clicks? Consumer attitudes toward traditional stores and online stores. Global Economics and Management Review, 18(1), 12-21.

Kanjanajootha, T. (2014). Development of purchasing contract strategy for supply materials in jewellery business.

Toufaily, E., Souiden, N., & Ladhari, R. (2013). Consumer trust toward retail websites: Comparison between pure click and click-and-brick retailers. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 20(6), 538-548.

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