Projected E-commerce Website Plan For Noosa Chocolate Factory

Primary Objective of the Report

This report aim to develop a projected e-commerce website plan for a start-up family business for manufacturing and delivery of confectionary products. The confectionary business shares the vision of “take home and share with the family”, rather than the creation of dazzling confectionary gifting products. In this context, the business chain is planning to immediately launch an e-commerce website. In B2C customer service industry, 70 to 80% of the start-ups are generally making a market launch in accompaniment to a customer sales and/or servicing online portal. This report would set out the outline based on which the layout of the website would be constructed. In this context, this report would emphatically highlight the business areas where the company would attempt to gain-on through the launch of their personal website. The report would also take up the necessary steps to indicate the immediate and long term deliverables of the personal website of the Noosa Chocolate factory.

The primary objective of this report is to provide a layout of an influencer type website that would boost the family pedigree of Chris Thompson in the chocolate manufacturing business. This report would primarily indicate a significant B2C business model based on which the website of the company would be created.

After the development of the model for the concerned website creation this report would undertake to lay out relevant marketing strategies for the promotion of the website. An important part of the website planning is to create multiple payment portals so that maximum flexibility can be offered to the customers in terms of payment.

Based on all the aspects discussed above, this report would also indicate the essential hardware, software as well as other requirement that would essential for the emergence of the website of Noosa Chocolate Factory.

Among others, one important objective of this report is also indicating legalities, privacy policy and other legislative factors that the company have to consider for the purpose of opening of their personal website.

Lastly, this report would indicate what benefits the entrepreneurs of the confectionary business would achieve out of the implementation of this website. The primary benefits that the start-up entrepreneurs would enjoy from this website is increased customer reach, no time restriction as profitable business hours, dramatic depreciation of start-up improvisation cost and also lower running costs (Holland 2016).

After the proper projection of this e-business plan, the target customer base would increase rapidly. There is high potential in the innovative recipe and the business making strategies of the confectioners. Since the inauguration of the business in 2015-16, the revenue generation in 10 fiscal quarters have been over $4.4 million. The business growth of the company have already been 136.1%. Under the light of the current circumstances, the company hopes that with the emergence of their ecommerce website, the customer segment of the company would increase by 250 to 260%.

Marketing Strategies for Website Promotion

The lack of expertise of the company is one major limitation of the company. Besides, since this is not corporate start-up, the funding sources are also less. As an outcome, the layout and service updating costs would be higher as they do not have an in-house IT set up which can handle the maintenance and designing aspects. Other than that lack of IT facilities and SEO analytics would also hinder them from addressing the queries and the issues raised by the customers. As an impact, even after sound implementation of the set-up plan for the website, the primary limitations would be faced by the company in terms of handling the website (Sigala 2016). Lack of instant gratification can directly outcome in depreciation of sales.

It is evident that for the business entrepreneurs, internet is the most viable and the cheapest advertising medium. As the company is spreading its business, they are gaining in the number of customers also. Now it is becoming impossible to manage the customers over the phone. As such, they are deviating from their primary business KPIs. They are unable to give optimum information to the customers about the products. The entrepreneurs also give suggestions to the customers to customise their dishes in the most interesting way at home. For Amy Sargeantson and Chris Thompson it is becoming increasingly difficult to manage customers over the phone. In this context, development of a website portal would help the family business owners to serve a larger lot of customers in a better and more convincing way.

At the present moment, the company have been constantly overshooting their projected sales limit and this have ensured the owners about the sustainability of the business. This is why they want to make a heavy investment for the development of an ecommerce website which can give their business a big boost.

Among the most feasible business models, the Noose Company should consider the development of a B2C business platform. So far as selling foods and services, parallely over the internet is concerned, personal website is the most feasible option that the organisation should consider. The organisation attempted to conduct their business over B2B platform. However, they cannot exhibit their potential business aspects over third party portals. The most essential weaponry that B2C entrepreneurs can eye for their growth is mobile computing. Smartphone apps have made it possible for the customers to surf which is the most feasible outlet for them. In this context, the company can count advantage over the fact that after the creation of an online portal, the company do not have to go on hunting for the customers. Rather the customers would seek and order online from their website. The company should pertain to the direct sales B2C model, by virtue of which they would be directly catering to the customers. The restaurant not only offers food products but also gives suggestions and offers various accessory products to the customers for garnishing or preparing professional style food.

Hardware, Software, and Other Requirements

It is essential to define the key eight strategies of marketing through personal direct sales website. The first strategy in this context is defining the sales cycle. It is essential to know how much tie the customer takes before making a purchase from the website. In this regard, the company can easily know at what point the company should post most of their offers so that the customers can understand the offerings of the customers.

Secondly, the checkout process should be most simple. A progress bar should be flashing clearly at the bottom of the app screen so that the customers know clearly how they can complete the payment gateway. The company should have a multi-step payment completion process directly under the banner of the e-wallet they are using (Wang, Liu and Wang 2018). At best the company should try to post pictures of the specialised food items they are trying to sell. Since most of the products are signature dishes, the company should try to include as much product information as possible so that the customers can understand the significance of the customised dishes of the company. The company also have to include a page dedicated to testimonials or customer feedbacks. The shipping cost should also be properly exhibited. Hidden costs always enrages the customers. I case if there is any offer available that should be clearly indicated also.

The foremost requirement is a web server. This server would store the host links to all the Html, PHP or JavaScript that are required for the web ages of the website. A powerful Linux or Windows operating system is required to be purchased for that purpose. The next requirement is a server software. A server software would help the customers to redirect or revert to the desired webpages. Hence a software server acts like a vendor which shuffles the webpage and provides the clients with the right information.  The company can consider installing a virtual cloud based software. This would allow the company to save time and cost. The third requirement is of web tools. An authoring tool is required to create the front UI of the website or the application. A whole range of web tools starting from HTML text editing tools to Notepad ++ should be used. Again, Content management tools with self-built frameworks are also required. For the purpose of enhancement of the visual appearance, the Dreamweaver software along with the CSS software can be used (Brewer 2016). This can add a cascading effect to the application. Again, a database is an integral part of a mobile application. The database stores information such as pricing and description of the products along with sales invoices. Along with that Networking as well as IP ports are also required. Lastly Firewall installations complete a good website.

Benefits and Limitations

The proposed model will have few major elements including advancement of the technology, effective payment systems, retail optimization and effective merchant mechanism. The portal will always be driven by latest technologies and continuous process of up gradation of technologies will be initiated to maintain the leadership in the market. Technological advancement will include offering newer features to the customers and adding more conveniences to them (Veit et al. 2014). Furthermore, retail optimization will focus on delivering the highest level of service experience to the users by means of better interface, more product varieties and better visibilities. This will further enhance the customer experience in surfing the proposed online site. Merchant management system will focus on evaluating the market trend and determining the customer taste and preference pattern. This will further help in providing more effective service to the customers in the long term (Enkel and Mezger 2013). The last element is the payment system that will focus on offering different payment modes to the customers. This will aim at covering maximum customer segments by means of offering different payment modes. Providence of safe and secure payment mode is also the objective of this element (Apavaloaie 2014).

There are number of payment systems available in the current scenario of the online processes. With the development of the online systems in the recent time, a number of new payment modes are being introduced in the market (Roy and Venkateswaran 2014). For the small business organizations such as Noosa Chocolate factory, these payment options can help in having safe, secured and convenient money transactions with the customers. However, on the other hand, it is also important for the small business organizations to consider the usage pattern of their traditional customers who are not willing to use the online payment gateways (Zhou 2013). Therefore, it can be identified that an effective and ideal online site should have different payment mode and options for different type of customers. The following sections will discuss about these different payment modes and their applicability.

Online payment gateways are an important and integral part of the current scenario of the e-commerce systems due to the reason that it helps the customers to directly the pay the exact amount to the merchant in the most convenient way. Typically, online payment gateways are the third party vendors though which the merchants accept the payment from the buyers. Thus, the effectiveness and efficiency of the payment gateways will determine the satisfaction level of the customers in paying in minimal time (El Ismaili, Houmani and Madroumi 2014). Thus, in the case of Noosa Chocolate factory, online payment gateways should be used to enable more convenience to the customers. On the other hand, the payment gateway to be used by Noosa Chocolate factory will have provision for different payment modes such as credit card, debit card and direct transaction from the bank account (Niranjanamurthy 2014). The more will be the provisions for different payment modes, the more will be target customer segments for Noosa Chocolate factory. This is due to the reason that certain sections of the customers are may not have credit card and they are only using debit card. These customers cannot be targeted if all types of payment modes cannot be involved in the gateway system.

Conclusion

Noosa Chocolate factory’s online site will have the access to different bank links and this will be done by coming in to partnership with different banks. This will help the customers in having the advantage of payment without the use of any cards. They can pay directly from their respective bank accounts to Noosa Chocolate factory. In addition, another recent mode of payment will be included in their online site, which is e-wallet. In the recent time, there are number of e-wallets are launched in the market (Rathore 2016). Therefore, online site of Noosa Chocolate factory will have the provision of access to e-wallets to pay money directly from there.

The last payment mode that will be included in the online site will cash payment option. Though it is one of the most age old systems of payment but this provision should also be offered in the online site. This is due to the reason that still there are large number of customers who still prefers to pay in cash. Thus, the online site of Noosa Chocolate factory should have the provision of cash on delivery for the customers (Wang and Zhu 2013). This will help to tap the traditionalist type of customers apart from the updated customers. This can be concluded that providing different options of payment modes will help Noosa Chocolate factory to target the different customer segments and providing them the options to pay in their most convenient way.

There are number of legal issues that can be generated from the e-commerce business. One of the major issues will be the protection of the trademark and logo. This is due to the fact that online site are vulnerable towards hacking and as long as the trademark used in the online site is protected, risk of infringement of the protection will be there (Grant et al. 2014). In this case, the proposed online site for Noosa Chocolate factory will abide by the rules and regulations by the Australian Customer Law. They are watchdog of all online transactions made in Australia. Thus, copyrighting the trademark and logo of Noosa Chocolate factory will help to prevent the risk of violations (camarinha-Matos, Afsarmanesh and Rabelo 2013). Another major legal issue that can be generated from the online site of Noosa Chocolate factory is lawsuits from the side of the customers. There are number of reasons of attracting lawsuits from the side of the customers with one being the delivery of wrong and inferior products to them. In the current time, this is one of the most common issues generated from the online business transaction. There are number of instances initiated in the recent time where the online sites are accused of delivering wrong items. Thus, it is important for Noosa Chocolate factory to have effective business model for their online site to avoid these types of issues.

In terms of the IT security, there are number of issues can be generated from the online site. Vulnerable to hacking and slowdown of the portal is one of the most common IT issues. The IT elements of the online site of Noosa Chocolate factory should be made full proofed against all types of hacking possibilities. This will help Noosa Chocolate factory to prevent the security issues as well as the legal issues that may get generated from it. In addition, the more effective will be the IT elements of the online site, the more secured will be the payment process for the customers (Aigbe and Akpojaro 2014). In this case also, effective infrastructure of IT will help Noosa Chocolate factory to prevent the lawsuits from the side of the customers.

Privacy of the customers is another major issue in the e-commerce sector due to the reason that private details and information of the customers ranging from their personal details to payment information are stored in the portal. Thus, risk of breach of privacy and leakage of the details is there and this will lead to mayhem for the organization (Charaborty et al.2016). On the other hand, it should also be noted that Noosa Chocolate factory will cater to the mass market customers from their online site and thus the traffic of the customers will be high along with their personal details. Reach of this privacy will attract legal steps along with adverse impact on the goodwill of the company (Benson, Saridakis and Tennakoon 2015). Thus, continuous up gradation of the portal and installing security patch should be made to prevent the potential possibilities of hacking and breach of data.

One of the major benefits from the implementation of e-business is increase in the target customer segments. This is due to the reason that currently, Noosa Chocolate factory is operating as a small business organization and is catering to limited number of customers through their offline channel partners (Janita and Chong 2013). In addition, their market presence in limited to a pat of Australia and with the implementation of the e-business concept, they will be able to expand their market across Australia and will have the access to more number of customers. The more will be the number of customers, the more will be the sales revenue and this will lead to increase in the production level. Average cost of production will get lowered for Noosa Chocolate factory with the increase in the rate of production.

Another major benefit from the implementation of the e-business is determination of the feedback of the customers and using it their future business strategy. In the case of the online site, customers will have the opportunity of providing their views and feedbacks that will further help Noosa Chocolate factory to identify the preference pattern of the customers and designing the product strategy accordingly. Alignment between the customers and the brand will get more effective with the help of e-business (Lai, Kan and Ulhas 2013). The brand value of Noosa Chocolate factory will also get enhanced with the help of the e-business due to the reason that brand name will get more exposure among the target customers and customers will have higher level of satisfaction due to the increased level of convenience. This will further help Noosa Chocolate factory to enter in the foreign markets by having the access to greater brand value and identity.

Conclusion 

This report concludes that initiation of the e-business will have number of advantages for Noosa Chocolate factory in their business operation. However, there are number of potential issues that may get emerged from the implementation of the e-business concepts and these issues are being identified in this report. The proposed e-business model is also being designed in this report along with its different elements. Issues in terms of legal, security and privacy are being discussed along with the benefits that may be gained by them. This report concluded that there are number of benefits to be gained by Noosa Chocolate Factory from the initiation of the e-business concept. This report will recommend a few steps in the following section that will further help Noosa Chocolate factory to enhance their future business operation.

• It is recommended that PayPal should be used by Noosa Chocolate factory as their online payment gateway. This is due to the reason that PayPal is the most widely used payment system in the world and this gateway is having access to different payment modes such as credit card and debit card. In addition, PayPal is free to use for the buyers and thus the customers will not incur any extra costs in their online transactions. From the point of view of Noosa Chocolate factory, they do not have to pay in periodical basis; rather they have to pay only after making a sale. This will help them to prevent any added cost in the transactions.
• It is also recommended that maintenance of the online portal should be given to any third party IT specialists in order to maintain the security of the portal. This process should be outsourced due to the reason that it will help in having specialist knowledge in securing the site. Moreover, periodical up gradation of the site is also important to provide newer features to the customers and avoiding technical bugs.
• It is also recommended that hardware availability of the online site of Noosa Chocolate factory should be made widely available ranging from personal computer to mobile application. This will increase the visibility and customer convenience and will help Noosa Chocolate factory to have more market penetration.

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