E-Commerce Business Plan for Top End Farming - Example

E-COMMERCE BUSINESS PLAN FOR TOP END FARMING Student’s Name Professor Course Date Executive Summary Business Description The Top-End Farming is an e-commerce retail company, which is designed to be a market leader in the sales of web-based Agricultural items such as fertilizers, seeds and many others in Northern Territory, Darwin Australia. The company is located in the Northern Territory, Darwin Australia. According to Jung-Chi and Chi-Hung, (2008, p. 681), many e-commerce companies have failed because of factors, such as use of untested business models, and too easy access among others. However, according to Matopoulos, Vlachopoulou and Manthou (2009, p. 855), despite that many e-commerce businesses have recently failed, some which consider and integrate all the possible success factors such as competition do very well. Therefore, Top-End Framing is a business, which aims to consider all the relevant factors affecting e-businesses and utilize an easy-to-access web appropriately, in order to become a market leader in the sales of agricultural items in Darwin. Industry Analysis Agriculture related retail e-businesses in Darwin, Australia have become diverse and complex. Agribusiness in Australia is a high-tech industry with many managers lately embracing internet to sell agricultural outputs and items. Recent research indicates that e-retail agricultural related businesses in Australia are growing at a high rate than any other time in history. Using the Internet, the industry is attracting more business interest than ever before. It is argued that despite much competition, many companies are doing well with a steady annual growth. The main market leaders in the industry include: AWB Limited: This is an agricultural business, which is a market leader in marketing various types of grains. Dairy Farmers: It is one of the oldest Agricultural-related businesses in Australia manufacturing various agricultural products and supplies them both to the local and international markets. Elders Limited: It is an Australian-based agriculture business, which mainly deals with sales of agricultural products such as wool to Britain and other countries. Norco Co-operative Limited: This is an agricultural supply and marketing company, which mainly sells products and other agricultural items at the local level and internationally. There are various channels of distribution in this market such as: Market retailers Organizations that deal with direct sales of Agricultural items Agricultural output stores The internet Business goals 1. The first and hence the main goal of Top-End Farming is to creatively and appropriately use the Internet to make agricultural items easily accessible by as many customers as possible at affordable prices. Just as James et al, (1999, p. 355) argue, the use of the Internet has made it possible for many businesses to reach out to many customers and more easily compared to all other marketing strategies. Harrison, Mykytyn, and Riemenschneider (n.d, p. 179) explain that using information technology, small retail businesses can attract and maintain many customers and hence realize much profit. Therefore, for Top-End Framing to realize its goal, it ensures that it uses the Internet to reach its customers to provide the best products in order to not only attract them but also retain them. 2. To create a free e-commerce site for marketing affordable agricultural items to local farmers, this will in turn attract even the large-scale farmers nationally and internationally. Top-End Farming aims to reach out to all farmers both small and large scale, which is the main reason for developing a free-access site that will be utilized by all customers and hence gain easy access to agricultural items. According to Pirakatheeswarip (2009, par. 3), the most important factor to be considered in electronic retailing is the accessibility and affordability of the site, which is used in selling the business goods and services. 3. To ensure that local farmers in Darwin have easy access to quality agricultural items It is clear that most of the agriculture related companies established in Darwin focus on selling new agricultural items without considering their quality and prices that can be affordable by the local, small-scale farmers. Therefore, Top-End Farming evaluates the quality and prices of all its agricultural items before advertising and supplying them to its customers. Value preposition With many customers in Darwin struggling to access agricultural items such as fertilizers, seeds, chemicals etc, Top-End Farming can effectively utilize the Internet to improve the efficiency and availability of these products in the markets. Many of the already existing agriculture-related business in Darwin only focus on attracting customers by introducing new agricultural items, without considering their quality and price. Top-End Farming aims in not only supplying new agricultural items but also, items of good quality, easily accessible and at an affordable price. The e-retail business ensures that all its customers are updated on all the available agricultural items in the market, their quality, and prices. Top-End Farming typically saves about 40-50% on accessibility costs as it identifies the best agricultural items for the customers using the Internet and delivers them at their doorsteps upon request. Marketing Plan Market Analysis Summary Recent research shows that market for agricultural items and products has grown steadily in Australia since the year 2000. Companies, such as Dairy farmers and Norco co-operative limited, lead the market. The growing need for agricultural outputs, such as seeds and fertilizers is mainly because many people residing in the rural parts of Australia have adopted farming as the main means of livelihood. Market Segmentation In Australia, agro-based markets are mainly divided into two, geographically and demographically. Top-End Farming aims to integrate itself in the already existing market segments by mainly focusing on the small-scale farmers. Geographical segmentation Geographically, the market is divided into local consumers who reside mainly in rural parts of Australia, and national and international consumers, who are mainly the large-scale farmers. Most of the local consumers are small-scale farmers who purchase agricultural items in retail scale. Research shows that these consumers are many of the times left out by big companies, as they do not have enough purchasing power. Top-End Farming aims to reach out to these local consumers by supplying them with quality agricultural items at affordable retail prices. According to Elizabeth and Hugh (2003, p. 289), e-tailing managers can easily realize huge profits by targeting small-scale consumers who have limited purchasing power. The large-scale farmers, both national and international that have high purchasing power form, the other group under this segmentation. These consumers mainly come from other countries such as Britain and import agricultural items from Australian markets at high prices since they have enough income. The large companies such as Norco Co-operative Limited mainly target these consumers. Demographic segmentation Under this category, the market is divided according to consumers’ income and their farm sizes. This is because the farm sizes determine the income received and hence the needs for agricultural items. Most of the local consumers are small-scale farmers, whose farm sizes are small and hence have limited income. Therefore, they have limited purchasing power and hence cannot purchase in large scale. Therefore, the already established large companies that target large-scale farmers do not fulfill most of their needs. Top-End Farming aims to reach out to this category of consumers by supplying them with agricultural items at affordable retail prices. The other class of consumers under this category is the large-scale farmers, who own large pieces of farms and hence have adequate income for purchasing agricultural items in large scale. Despite the fact that the already established companies meet most of the needs of this class of consumers, Top-End Farming aims to attract them by supplying quality agricultural items at affordable prices. This will be possible using the Internet to reach out to many of these customers. According to Sharma (2012, par. 2), many e-tailing managers have an advantage over traditional-based retailers because they do not face obstacles such as local marketing. Therefore, Top-End Farming aims to utilize such privileges in attracting and retaining both large scale and small-scale consumers in this market. Target Market Top-End Farming is located and operated in Australia, Northern Territory, Darwin. Many factors such as, availability of markets for the agricultural items, types of consumers and other competitor companies located in the area were considered before choosing the location. According to Akers (1999, par. 1), various factors should be considered when choosing a location for a retail store. The most important factor to be considered in choosing a location for any retail store is the availability of ready markets for the goods and services. Darwin is an area characterized by growing number of agriculture-based companies. However, most of these companies have not embraced the Internet in selling their products. Most of these companies also target large-scale farmers in the area and leave out small-scale farmers, who are the majority in the region. Therefore, the main target market for Top-End Framing is the small-scale farmers mainly in Darwin region and other rural parts in Australia. Competitor Analysis Recent research indicates that Agro-based businesses in Australia are growing at an alarming rate because of the increasing needs of the ever-growing number of both small-scale and large-scale farmers. Therefore, there is stiff competition in the industry with many companies trying to utilize the most appropriate marketing strategies to overwhelm their rivals. The three main competitors in this market are as follows: Norco Co-operative Limited: This is an Australian based agri-business, which mainly sells agricultural items both at local and international markets. It is a large company with a large proportion of the agriculture market share. The company has registered a steady annual growth since its inception and has enough resources in terms of finance and human resources. However, it mainly focuses on introducing new agricultural items without considering their high prices that affect the local farmers who fail to afford them. Its major target markets are the large-scale farmers who can afford their expensive goods. Therefore, many small-scale farmers are left out by this business. Its major marketing strategy is through advertisement but lately, the company is embracing the Internet in selling its goods. The business has a good co-operate image, especially to the large-scale farmers. Considering all the strengths and weaknesses of Norco Co-operative Limited, Top-End Framing aims to take advantage of its loopholes in order to become almost an equal competitor in the market. Top-End Framing targets small-scale framers that have been left out by such big businesses by supplying cheap and quality agricultural items. The company also ensures that its website is free in order to attract all consumers both small and large scale. The company aims to create a good co-operate image to all consumers by ensuring the items and other goods supplied are of high quality, easily accessible and affordable. The main marketing strategy that will be utilized by Top-End Farming is the Internet as it has proven to be highly useful and efficient if the right business model is used. AWB Limited: This is another Australian based agricultural business, which is a market leader in marketing various types of grains and other items such as agro-chemical and fertilizers. It is a large company, well established, and nourished in terms of human and financial resources. It targets large-scale farmers as it mostly sells its products in large scale. AWB Limited has a good co-operate image both at local, national, and international level. Since its inception, the company has registered a steady annual growth rate. However, its main weakness is the fact that it has not yet embraced the Internet in marketing its produces, as it mainly uses the other traditional marketing strategies. Therefore, Top-End Farming aims to outdo this company mainly using the Internet to reach out to as many consumers as possible. Just as Norco Co-operative Limited, this company has also left out many small-scale consumers who do not purchase agricultural items in wholesale. Therefore, Top-End Farming aims to reach out and fulfil the needs of most small –scale consumers, who in turn will attract even the large-scale farmers. Dairy Farmers: Being an old company, Dairy Farmers is a well established and has enough resources to execute all its business endeavours. It has a good co-operate image both at the local and international market. However, just like all big companies, it mainly targets the large-scale consumers who purchase in wholesale. Its main marketing strategy is through companies and advertisements, especially through the electronic media such as television. Recently, the company has embraced the use of internet in selling some of its goods to its customers. Therefore, this company is a stiff competitor in this market. However, Top-End Framing aims to establish a free-access e-commerce site that will be convenient and affordable by many customers, and hence be able to compete equally with this well-established company. Reference List Akers, H 1999, What are key decision factors for determining the best retail store locations? Available at: Elizabeth, M.D & Hugh, N.W 2003, The role of dynamic capabilities in e-business transformation. European Journal of Information Systems, vol. 12, no. 4, pp. 282-296, Harrison, D., Mykytyn, P & Riemenschneider, C n.d, Executive decisions about adoption of information technology in small business: theory and empirical tests, Information Systems Research, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 171-195 James, R., Marsden, Y., Alex, T & Ralph, L.K 1999, The Value of Internet Commerce to the Customer. Management Science, vol. 45, no. 4, pp. 533-542   Jung-Chi, P & Chi-Hung, Y 2008, "Factors affecting the implementation of e-business strategies: An empirical study in Taiwan," Management Decision, vol. 46, no. 5, pp. 681 – 690 Matopoulos. A.,Vlachopoulou M & Manthou, V 2009, "Understanding the factors affecting e-business adoption and impact on logistics processes," Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, vol. 20, no. 6, pp. 853 – 865 Pirakatheeswarip, P 2009, Introduction to electronic retailing, Available at: Raghavendra, R. K 2005, E-tailing - benefits, problems and the future, Available at: Sharma, A 2012, What is e-tailing? Available at: Turban, E., King, D & Lang, J n.d, Introduction to electronic commerce, Third Edition, Pearson 201, Read More