A New E-Commerce Enterprise Plan

ISOM5320 Group Project

The business we established for the class is called True Weaver. True Weaver is a brand of clothing that is sourced using fair trade. The brand is intended for the more socially responsible consumer. By advocating for fair trade, True Weaver intends to ensure that all points in the fashion value chain are benefitted. We clearly communicate in our website that the True Weaver philosophy is to support cotton farmers, weavers, and seamstresses. Our tagline encapsulates our philosophy “good for everyone”.

When our team was in the process of designing our business. We wanted to select a product that was not dominated by giants in the industry, and something that appealed to our interests. We found that fair and sustainably sourced fashion fit this bill. The market is quite niche, but this was intentional on our part. We knew that if we had chosen just fashion in general, our brand would be overshadowed by bigger players, especially with the highly competitive and saturated nature of the fashion industry.

In addition, our choice was influenced by the increasing consumer demand for responsibly produced products. Consumer social responsibility is on the rise, and Nielsen (2014) published an article evidencing the same “Fifty-five percent of global online consumers across 60 countries say they are willing to pay more for products and services provided by companies that are committed to positive social and environmental impact”, in addition it was also mentioned that “The propensity to buy socially responsible brands is strongest in Asia-Pacific (64%), Latin America (63%) and Middle East/Africa (63%). The numbers for North America and Europe are 42 and 40 percent, respectively”.  True Weaver as “good for everyone” captures our value proposition and appeals to our target market. We sell clothing to the consumer that wants to be socially responsible.

Our business is primarily a retail business (Exhibit 1: True Weaver Business Model). We will source clothing that aligns with our company values, and we will have an active partnership with the manufacturer to create the design. Our business is asset light, we will not own any manufacturing facilities. For the storage facility, we will have an arrangement with the manufacturer that includes inventory storage. Our manufacturing partner will be located in Hunan or Hubei, China. Our main sales channel is our website (https://trueweaverltd.wixsite.com/naturalclothing). Our business model is buy and sell, and our average mark-up will be 18% of cost. Our mark-up is modest since our business values espouse fair dealings with the manufacturer and raw materials source. Delivery of the items ordered will be done by a 3rd party logistics firm, for example this could be UPS, DHL, or FedEx, the delivery cost will be added upon online check-out. We anticipate low overhead costs since the business will not have any brick and mortar store. The website is also currently being managed by the team. The team has agreed on an annual profit splitting mechanism. The amount that the team members earn individually will be determined by year-end and is hinged on the performance of the business.