Essay Example: Yuan on the Taobao

The Taobao forms the largest online marketing platform of products within the Peoples Republic of China. The commerce platform will form the basis upon which the Yuan product will build its product and market it for sales. This paper is the business plan that outlines the financial plans and statements for the Yuan line of products as is aimed to be showcased on the website.

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Background Information

The e-commerce platform has had a growing significance and increase in revenues over the last ten years in an encouraging trend. Business investors in all sectors have employed the strategies in this platform to expand their businesses to an ever-growing customer base that can be accessed on the online platform. With the insistence on the application of technology in businesses, the majority of businesses also have found themselves on the online platform in a bid to make themselves more competitive to their rivals (Zixiang & Ouyang, 2010). The result has been that there has been a huge move to the online platform and an increase in business activities. The online platform has provided ease of transacting business that is necessary in any environment where there is insistence of diversified business practices (Thompson & Liu, 2007).

Yuan is a product line that aims to capitalize on this diversity noting that the business realm in the area of womens clothing in the Peoples Republic has some loopholes that need addressing. With a continually changing atmosphere in the area of dressing for women, there is need to capitalize on the changing trends and open-mindedness of Chinese women on the kind of clothing that they are wearing. Yuan is looking to capitalize on the developing infrastructure that is getting into place within the Chinese market in order to tap into the exponential customer base that it would bring through the Taobao (Haley, 2004).

With this in mind, the Yuan enterprise decided that this would be the first stop of the business where there would be much of the set-up that was required. As a start-up business in the Peoples Republic, and especially in the online platform, there was need to ensure that a lot of things were in place before the actual beginning of the business. We realize that setting up a business on the online platform can be a very lucrative way of ensuring that customer needs are met, as well as being able to regularly sample the feedback of the clients concerning the quality of service. Furthermore, the online platform provides an unlimited number of views and clients from all over the globe, allowing the business to expand into other countries within a relatively shorter time of launching. However, while first setting up in china, we look at some of the market factors to consider while one is beginning the online business here.

Market Analysis

Globalization in fashion has become one of the main driving factors in the change of fashion trends in the PCR. The globalization process has become one of the main factors that have caused changes within the world at large so that traditional dressing trends are no longer applicable. This is what has characterized the trend in china for the last few years (Sinopoli, 2015). Chinese clothes have now begun to gain much ground in the global scene. An example of this can be seen in the Met Gala where pop singer was the highlight of the day. A yellow fur trim dress with a long train and this was made by Chinese designer Guo Pei (Sinopoli, 2015). Therefore, the previous view of Chinese clothes as a cheap option to other products from other parts of the world is slowly being eradicated. Furthermore, the incidences of workers rights abuses within the Chinese manufacturing industry are reducing, ensuring that the industry now has some reputation. This has ensured that the Chinese ladies are now more willing to engage in the buying and selling of goods that are not necessarily cheap, but that there will be insistence on quality and a diversified product base.

The Chinese market presents 2 billion people with the smaller part of this population being women. These women account for 667 million of the populous nation (Ping, 2013), accounting for a significant part of the market that the online platform is targeting. Of this people, 44.9% of the users are female and thus, this presents a very significant portion of the population that can be targeted by this platform. The possibilities are endless. Furthermore, a majority of the women are now capable of having some spending power. A large part of the Chinese population now has some disposable income that has been characterized by a strengthening economy in the East, as well as socio-political stability. This has ensured that the area of business can easily thrive without interruptions from the political divide. The Chinese middle class is expected to do a jump to 340 million people by the year 2016, and with this kinds of figures, there will be a bigger customer base, offering a large market for the products that we offer.

Market analysis of the Chinese market also exposes that there are some unique characteristic that the Chinese market is looking for. Some of these characteristics include a brand story, exclusivity to the specific product, authenticity and reputation. This presents quite the opportunity for our online organization because of the various strong points that the company has and could engage in order to ensure that were on track in the Chinese market. In terms of quality, it is noted with concern that a lot of counterfeit goods have been circulating in the Chinese market creating a need for creative and authentic goods. The increasing number of affluent Chinese and members of the middle class is increasing the demand for the authentic goods. Furthermore, the Chinese market is looking for impeccable standards in the products that are circulating. Not only is the quality in question, but also the mode of customer interaction and service. This would make the Chinese people pay a certain handsome premium to ensure that thee needs are met. In addition, in a country of close to 1.6 billion people, the Chinese are looking for products that will distinguish them from the rest of the crowd. The customizable products in clothing that we will offer, as well as new designs from upcoming western culture will offer the Chinese the choice in variety that they have been looking for. In this market, the exclusivity of a product can be bought despite its cost.

The brand story is equally an important tool when introducing a product to the Chinese. This can be seen as the first marketing platform that we are going to use in making the brand a popular household brand within the country. With a proper story of ensuring customer satisfaction and quality of clothes even through the online platform, we can get the Chinese to believe in the products that we offer and ensure that we have the clients that we need for the startup. The brand story will eventually build up to the brand name and reputation. With impeccable services and a strong customer care support tam, we can ensure that the clients are always satisfied when dealing with the Yuan in a bid to ensure that we have retention in terms of the client base.

Theoretical Framework

The e-commerce platform is yet a relatively new and untapped resource within the PCR. As such, an analysis into its workings is important in order to determine the kind of work environment that we will be experiencing as a start-up venturing in this country. The above has sampled the internet connectivity of the Chinese population, especially the ladies who are the main target of the business. It has shown that there is exponential potential to tap into the basic resource, that is the market, and sell our products.

E-commerce Platform

E-commerce in china is a growing part of the infrastructure that the country is putting in place in order to ensure that there is maximum trade and expansion of the economy via ways that are not considered conventional (Zixiang & Ouyang, 2010). The online business forum is a system that plays by many rules, including those of ensuring that customer details are safely kept within the used systems. As a result, there is often a big correlation between the customer propensity to buy on the internet with the kind of trust that they place on the service provider to ensure security of their personal information, and delivery of the goods purchased on time and in good condition.

As we consider the e-commerce platform as the place where this business begins, it is important to note that there are certain factors that have been found to influence the Chinese from just being lookers online to bookers. This was done through a survey of Chinese online users on sites that sold travel tickets to Europe and America. The age, type of website mostly visited for the purpose, time spent on the internet, self-efficacy, perceptions of the user to the internet, innovativeness of the advertiser and area of residence were important factors to consider when placing an item online for sale (Li & Buhalis, 2003). As discussed above then, the way the customers see the product is important in how the product sells. Furthermore, we have chosen to host on the biggest online business in the whole of china for the purpose of ensuring that visibility is at its maximum. The other factors are upon us to ensure that we maintain an innovative work presentation to ensure that customers will more likely respond to us as opposed to competitors (Haley, 2004).

It is also important to note that the national culture of the international phenomenon of e-commerce could affect trends within any market. Online shoppers in china were tested using the Hofstedes cultural dimensions as moderators to test the response they had to trends. These include distance, individualism, long-term orientation, masculinity and uncertainty avoidance within the transaction. Masculinity has average effects on the intended use of the product and the actual use of product after purchase. Because we are dealing with the female population of the country, it is less likely that this relationship will have a significant effect on the transformation of lookers to buyers. Distance and individualism have a negligible effect on the e-commerce enterprise as a whole. Uncertainty avoidance as well as long-term orientation were, however, high ranking in terms of having an effect on the relationship between the trust of the client and the intention to use the products being sold. As a result, this laid out the foundations of the kind of priorities that as an online enterprise, we need to have (Yoon, 2009).

Fashion entrepreneurship

The fashion entrepreneurship arena in china is one facing large-scale changes. As opposed to the previous approach where china was a place where there was the large-scale production of low price products, values such as functionality, efficiency and value for the purpose intended have come in to change prevailing attitudes in the clothing industry in china. Honorific practices have now been embraced in a move that is aimed to bring development, change, value and quality to the Chinese economy. Social network markets have become the baseline for these honorific values. Therefore, coupled with the online enterprise, the changing trends within the Chinese business in fashion in order to satisfy craved relationships and connections to the individual choice (Hartley & Montgomery, 2009). This has seen the launch of various products such as the Vogue in china, as well as the setting up of exquisite brands within the country.