Business Idea

This paper provides a general discussion of transforming traditional business ventures into modern e-commerce business ventures by taking advantage of the current trend of e-commerce business. The paper discusses the business idea and why it is viable to be implemented as an e-commerce business. This is achieved by conducting an in depth SWOT analysis to get all aspects of the business that could lead to its success and the challenges it might face during the operation. The business idea is analyzed in all aspects from doing target audience analysis to designing the application the customers will use to buy different products sold by the business. For this paper I have chosen an online grocery store called ByNature Groceries from where users will buy groceries and the groceries are delivered to them within the shortest time possible.

ByNature groceries is an online e-commerce store from where customers will be able to buy fresh groceries and the groceries are delivered within the shortest time possible  to make sure the groceries are still fresh by the time the customer gets them. An online grocery store is a viable business idea because groceries are needed in every household in most places. Transforming this business from the typical business model where customers visit a grocery store for groceries to an online store can succeed because groceries are consumed almost on a daily basis by customers so instead of the customer having to visit the grocery store every time he or she needs groceries, the customer can just use their mobile phone to order the groceries and the groceries are delivered to their doorstep with the least time possible. The application will be easy to use to make it easy for the user to order groceries easily. The business will partner with grocery farms producing groceries and will deliver them to the nearest store in their proximity. Customer orders near that store are then processed and the groceries delivered to the customers who have made their orders. To make the order, the customer will have to create an account and login to access their account and then proceed making an order. After registration, the application will determine the customer location while giving the user the option to change to their preferred location. The app will then determine if the there is a store near the customer to make sure the customer’s orders are processed using the least time possible.

Value Proposition

Value proposition is what makes customers prefer the business to other existing businesses in the market (Laja, 2018). Most people customers buy groceries almost on a daily basis or on a constant basis. Most grocery customers use a specific pattern to buy groceries for example you can find a customer who buys groceries daily or a customer who buys groceries maybe three to four days a week. The application takes advantage of this customer pattern by adding a subscription based feature where customers that follow a specific pattern can subscribe and receive groceries based on their subscription. Every customer will have the option of customizing the type of subscription where by the customer will select the groceries they want to receive and which days of the week they want the groceries to be delivered to them. The customers then pay for the orders on a weekly basis. A customer will not receive a week’s orders if he or she has not cleared the previous week’s balance. This is will make the business stand out among other businesses operating in the same field.

To identify the business model adapted by the ByNature Online Grocery store, the business is first classified (Demartrs, 2018). ByNature is a Business to Consumer (B2C) E-commerce type of business. This is the typical retail type of business except that the sales take place through an e-commerce store instead of a physical store.

ByNature E-commerce store will adapt two types of business models that will work interchangeably as one business model. ByNature will adapt white labelling business model where by the produces sold to different by different farms will be delivered to the business and the business will deliver to the customers. For customers with a constant purchase pattern willing to subscribe to get groceries based on their subscription will use the subscription business model. The two business models are combined to form the business model that the ByNature application will operate under.

ByNature application will operate under the sales revenue model. The sales revenue model involves wholesalers or retailers selling their products online (Hoffman,2017). The sales revenue model fits perfectly for this business as the business will be the retailer delivering goods to customers who have made their orders through the application. This model will be the main revenue generator for the business (McLaughlin, 2016). Although the application adapts the subscription revenue model because of the ability of customers to make subscriptions based on their purchasing pattern, the business cannot be said to be operating under this model since there is no subscription fees but the model is just adapted to facilitate the sales revenue model by making sure there is a constant demand-supply created between the customers and the business. The business will be getting produces from different farms who will be delivering their produce to the closest warehouse near the location. The business will then package the produce depending on the orders made by customers through the application. The orders are then delivered to the customers where by customers living in close proximity will be served by one delivery van. The application will have a backend part that will run and determine which orders can be combined in one delivery before the delivery is made. This will help to reduce the cost that will be incurred by the business while making deliveries.

Business Model

If the sales revenue model fails to sustain the business, the application can fully adopt the subscription model (Paawa, 2016) where by customers who have paid to get grocery deliveries according to their specified subscriptions will have to pay a certain subscription fee per month. This will help the business to generate a bit more revenue which will in turn help sustain the business.

The other type of revenue model that the business may adapt if the sales revenue model fails channel sales or indirect sales. Channel sales model will involve getting resellers who get the grocery supplies through the application and then sell them to the customers. This will help reach more customers as the agents will be well distributed and will reach more customers.

The ByNature application targets by a large extent all types of people but mostly grownups be it male or female. However, the application will be most suited for people with homes who cook on a regular basis. The application will target the working class people who have no time to do grocery shopping so by just subscribing to their specified plan, the customers will receive depending on their preference. These type of customers are the primary focus for this application (Kappel, 2017) because if more of these type of people subscribe to get grocery deliveries then the application will be able to generate revenue to sustain the business.

The targeted audience for this business are people that are in close proximity to a warehouse near their location as the business will have different warehouses located in different positions thus paper close to a warehouse will be eligible to make orders.

Market analysis involves doing an in depth SWOT analysis to determine the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that the business may have or experience (Shewan, 2016). The ByNature Online store has a lot of strengths that make it a viable business to succeed amidst of its competitors. One of those strengths is that the application has been designed to make very easy for the user to place an order to get groceries delivered at their doorstep using the least time possible. The application also makes it easy for the customers with a constant purchasing pattern to create a custom subscription for which they will get groceries. This feature is what stands out most for the application as it will make it easy for customers to get groceries. By maintaining a constant supply of groceries depending on the customer’s subscription the business will be assured of continuity in the business. Delivering of the groceries is also another strength because not many businesses in the same field sharing the same model with ByNature.

Revenue Model

Although the business is likely to succeed there are few weaknesses that might hinders its growth (Boag, 2018). One of the weaknesses is the problem of dealing with the suppliers of the groceries who are the farms. This is a weakness because the business is depending on this suppliers to make supplies to the business. If the suppliers fail to make supplies it means there will be no groceries to deliver to the customers thus making the application unreliable to the customers. Another weakness that might be faced with the problem of getting products from the farm suppliers is the issue of decline in quality of the produce. If farms compromise the quality of their produce this might lead to loss of customers as customers expect the best. The other issue that might be experienced by the business is making of deliveries. Deliveries to customers who are not near the warehouse can be costly to the business. Deliveries can also be a problem if they are not consistent in such a way that multiple deliveries can be made together. Making single deliveries can be costly to the business because it would mean the business would have to hire more delivery people to make the deliveries as the customers are supposed to get the delivery within the least time possible.

Despite the weaknesses faced by the business the future presents some opportunities that might help the business grow even more. Currently, there is a high growth in the logistics industry where by many logistics businesses are coming up to take advantage of the growing e-commerce business where by most e-commerce businesses do not have the infrastructure to make deliveries. These new logistics firms are making it easy for e-commerce businesses to make deliveries by using services provided by these businesses at a lower cost as compared to building a logistics department to take care of growth in the businesses.

One threat that the business might experience in the future is a scenario where the customers might decide to get the grocery supplies directly from the firm meaning that the business will lose many of its customers forcing it to close down or to start its own farms so as to maintain its customers.

The application will be designed with the user in mind to make it a user-centric design. This means that the all factors that make it easy for the user to use the application will be evaluated and considered in order to come up with the design of the application. The application will mostly be used by users who are busy and need to get work done using the least amount of time thus it’s important to make it easy to make an order by reducing the steps through which the user will have to go through before completing an order.

The following high level design interfaces shows how the user will interact with the ByNature application.