CA FINAL ASSESSEMENT

CONSTRUCTIVE ACTION PROJECT: PURPOSE 2
STRATEGIC PLANNING: E-Commerce Retail Store, Lowstop.com LLC
BY
STRATEGIC PLANNING: E-commerce Retail Store, LowStop.com
LLC

Table of content
1. Constructive Action: Short and Long Term Goals
2. Mission Statement, Vision, Company Description and Business Entity
3. Final Plan of Action
4. Work Setting Analysis
5. Company Description and Core Competencies
6. Competitive SWOT, Resources and Capabilities
7. Needs Analysis
8. Marketing Survey/Questionnaire
9. Target Market, Customers and Needs
10. Ethical Issues in the CA
11. Competitor Analysis and Competitive SWOT
12. Products and Services
13. Tactical social media marketing plan
14. Marketing Strategy
15. Final Situational Analysis and Literature Review
16. Pro Forma Financial Statements

Strategic Plan:E-Commerce Retail Store, Lowstop.comLLC
Constructive Action: Short and Long Term Goals
The combination of knowledge and skills gained from different dimensional inputs during the
last months, analyzing the work setting, work situation, needs and opportunities, is the decisive
and the rudder of forming a well-knitted and doable business plan foundation, this foundation
would be propped by analytical studies, and practical data to shape a holistic perception of a
business plan and a market strategy for my business venture.
As a startup business, having the appropriate physical resources to survive is crucial, this
includes a proper workspace, working telephone line, adequate information systems and
effective marketing materials etc. It’s a must to assess these needs before making any other steps
and moving forward.
The purpose of the strategic planning venture during this semester is to analyze the feasibility,
planning, and the implementation process of the e-commerce website in North African market.
Some of the short term goals are; to allocate and assess the startup fees related to the planning,
these costs includes the cost of building a coherent website with a built in e-commerce platform,
marketing fees, costs of acquiring assets( warehouse, shipping means, insurance...etc).
And since the business is targeting a foreign market, assuring compliance with laws and
regulations governing that market, is a necessity, including competition laws, employment and
Labor Laws and Policies, and Respect for Trade Secrets and Confidential Information laws.
Market study and segmentation is short goal too, in order to come out with the best marketing
and pricing strategy for the targeted market that can generates revenues.
This set of short term goals would make us a road map to determine long-term goals, which is set
up as follows;
Identify competition and set the right strategy to beat it and overtake the market, this needs a full
detailed market study and segmentation, and by answering some question such as; Can you list
your top five or ten direct and indirect competitors? Do you know what are the benefits of their
products and how are they marketed? What are your competitors' strengths and weaknesses?
What do consumers think about your competitors' products? How do you position yourself
among competitors...etc.
Having a funding strategy in place is crucial, and it’s one of the long term goal must be achieved
to identify what the funding needs will be, and how those funds could be raised and used for the
business launch.

Another long term goal is to prepare the SWOT analysis for my business in order to develop a
strong business strategy by making sure you’ve considered all of your business’s strengths and
weaknesses, as well as the opportunities and threats it faces in the marketplace, thus, position my
business in a strongest spot in the market among its rivals.
Articulating short and long term goals gives the business plan a doable trait, and a road map to
the implementation strategy process.
Mission Statement, Vision, Company Description and Business Entity
Company Name; www.Siroum.com
www.Siroum.com LLC.
MissionStatement;
Our mission is: ‘’To make online shopping fun, easy and trustful, for low prices and high-quality
service everyday through a smart, searchable website, understandable instructions, easy and
secure payment methods and fast quality delivery.”
Vision;
Our vision is ‘To be the iconic brand of online shopping in North Africa, where people can find
anything they might want to buy online.’
We aim to achieve a top position in the online retail industry in our market by providing the most
memorable shopping experience, where quality products and services are our priority, for an
ever-happy customer.
Company Description;
Yawise.com is the iconic online retailer store in the North African market; our company is based
in Algiers-Algeria, we offer reliable products and services for unbeatable prices. We hold safety
as a value through our in-house culture of safety to protect the well-being of our employees and
customers who use out company’s products and services.
Business Legal Entity;
www.LowStop.com LLC.
Our company has a legal entity as a Limited Liability Company.

Final Plan of Action
Nabil Siroum FIN 725 PCA/SEM/ Strategic Planning
10/02/2015
Short-term
Constructive Action
Goals
Objectives Strategies Evaluation Plan
-Assuring compliance
with laws and
regulations governing
my industry in the
targeted market.
- Reaching out for the
concerned parties
related to commerce
and e-commerce to
outline the legal
aspects of the
business conduct.
-To patent and license
-Discuss the
operational control of
the business, policy
on business
regulations in our
market.
- I will reach out to
the U.S. patent and
- This is a challenging
task, but the
agreement that
facilitates and helps
the work is under
processing.
-The process of
patenting the business
Short-term
Constructive Action
Goals
-To Allocate the
startup fees related to
the planning, and
articulate the funds
needed to launch the
business.
-Assess the cost of
building a website with
e-commerce capability.
- Evaluate third party
licensing fees and
employees’ overheads.
-To work closely with
web designers to
evaluate the website
building cost.
- To reach out for e-
commerce solution
companies to discuss
the appropriate
partnership.
-I have discussed
the work procedures
with seven web
designers and I
hired the wittiest
designer; also I built
two prototypes of
the website to serve
as a backup plan for
exigencies.
-I have done my
research and I Have
partnered with the
suitable third party
that provides top e-
commerce solutions.

my business, in both,
the U.S., and Algeria.
trademark office, and
the department of
commerce in the
Algeria.
was easy in the U.S.,
unlike in Algeria
where we’re still
working on it.
Short-term
Constructive Action
Goals
- To conduct a deep
and comprehensive
market study and
segmentation for a
strong market
penetration and to
market trends and
evolving customer
requirements.
-To analyze the
potential market’s
business culture,
customers’ behaviors,
business model and
business environment.
-Segmenting the
market after a detailed
analysis, in order to
capture the market
trends and to target the
right customers.
-Conduct surveys,
using brochures,
giveaways
And using social
media for direct
feedbacks from the
customers.
-By partnering with
local partners to
facilitate grasping
and reaching and
penetrating the
market.
-Brochures option
did not work out
well, while social
media and giveaways
provided the most
direct and realistic
feedbacks from the
market.
-A local partner helps
us gaining customers
intimacy which is our
aim, thus, we will
execute our business
model alongside to
our customers’
culture.
Work Setting Analysis
Our Company offers a range of products and services through its websites. We serve our
consumers through a website that makes online shopping fun, easy and trustful, for low prices
and high-quality service everyday through a smart, searchable website, understandable
instructions, easy and secure payment methods and fast quality delivery.
Though out website, we aim to put our customer within the market with the convenience of their
computers or mobiles, and change the manner of shopping with a whole market and community,
this community that would experience this new, modern and safe shopping service our company
offers. Our website offers a membership option, and rewards for our resident customers.

The company through its website operates in two different segments, local market (Algeria), and
the North African market (regional market), the Algerian segment of the company is engaged in
the retail sale of consumer products ranged between $20 and $200 with free shipping feature for
some sale categories, while the regional segment sells a range of products between $50 to $1000.
Since the ‘home page’ will receive 40% of all site visitors, it must give a positive impression
about the rest of the website. For customers who seek to understand the entirety of the website
range with minimal fuss, the website will be provided by a vehicle that shows off the whole lot
without too many clicks, the best way of doing this is via “multi-layered dropdowns” in the
website's top navigation bar, this would present top level categories as the top navigation banner.
Moving to one of these will reveal its sub-categories and the sub-categories within it.
Along with navigation, my e-commerce website offers left-hand navigation and large content
areas populated by product photographs or merchandising images, nowadays, left-hand
navigation tends to come into play once the visitor is in the site on category pages.
The website visitor will have also the “sale” and “new “ categories menus which always get a lot
of clicks and account for a big share of the clicks from the home page, and which enables the
customer to take advantage of new offers and sales...etc. Besides the category page and its ability
for costumed search, and since optimal navigation is brand specific, appears the product page
which describes the products traits, size, color, price, similar products, shopping cart...etc. The
website has an auto-completion option in its search box for better search accuracy, and it will use
previous reviews as a navigational aid. Once in the cart and checkout, navigation options will be
hidden away, and ideally replaced by a clear indication of where the customer is in the checkout
process, this is a good way to ensure the customers to concentrate on completing the order and
avoid distractions.
After the transaction is done, the customer will see a ‘’Thank you’’ pop up message, plus he
receives an email with all his transaction details and special offers from us as a valuable
customer so he will become a resident (loyal) customer.
Company Description and Core Competencies
Electronic commerce or e-commerce refers to the purchase and sale of goods and/or services via
internet through a third party or middleman, which is the online payment processor company.
The global e-commerce industry saw impressive growth in 2014 with goods and services worth
$1.5 trillion bought by shoppers via desktops, tablets and smartphones, advertisers are now
spending an increasing proportion of their marketing budgets on Internet advertising, this ad
spend is forecast to surpass $160 billion in 2015, of which more than $58 billion will be spent on
Display advertising. (Source: e-Marketer).

E-commerce industry will be evolving in the next upcoming years, as mobile shopping further
matures and consumer shopping behavior continues to fall into “Click to buy it” tendency. Some
of the expected changes in this industry are; saturated price race will begin as this industry is
booming and competition is raising, consumers will go global and can buy from international
markets/stores, mobile buying, advertising and marketing will boom, social networks services
will boom, and e-commerce companies will have a strong presence on them.
As aforementioned, ecommerce industry trends will evolve, and our company will embrace this
trends, for instance; we will be on customers’ hands; through our mobile friendly website and the
phone app, we’ll get closer to our customers than ever, we will also embrace QR codes and other
barcode scanning tools to engage with in-store shoppers or shoppers on the go. We will be Social
(to remain competitive); social media has changed the world, researches show that 83% of
consumers’ opinions are influenced by comments on Facebook and Twitter. We will also
consider using the two biggest ecommerce platforms eBay and Amazon as a source of generating
extra demand, and reaching foreign customers.
Some of my company’s strengths are; very weak competition in our target market, thus we will
have a market penetration and domination, also, localization is our strength since we primarily
target the local market, and specifically the target the region where every client is located (based
on preferences) as well as an up to date and easy payment system that allow shoppers to process
and finish transactions readily.
As core competencies; creativity distinguishes us from competition due to strong branding that
comes from a style manual which we execute. Merchandising through our flexibility to mark
down products based on their selling season, for more demand, and our database marketing
efforts, which is effective tools for customer transactions and a key to building long-term
satisfaction.
What would ideally make our company succeed is the lack of competition; in a market of 90
million people, only about 10 e-commerce companies operate in the market, and by poorly
designed business models, so bringing in a new business model to implement in a traditional
market will be a good hit, bringing in new technologies, specifically being mobile; % 30 of our
market uses mobile devices for shopping. As aforementioned, using mobile devices in
ecommerce transactions, advertising and marketing, online story telling for ads is going to be our
major competitive strength, and as a founder and being having experience in sales and
marketing, accountancy and auditing would immensely help me rudder the daily business
operations, and foster sales volumes, that lead to our business success.

Competitive SWOT, Resources and Capabilities
Internal Factors External Factors
Strengths Opportunities
-Lack of regional low cost online retailers.
-Developing and booming market with high
buying power.
-Superior quality services and products, along
with a unique business model.
-Delivery network efficiency.
-Low operational costs.
-Wide variety of products which is not offered
in the local market (monopolism).
-High customer intimacy due to our rewarding
and VIP customer policy.
-Growing base of mobile shoppers, which
provides us growth opportunity.
-Lower taxes and fees in our market.
-Regional expansion; North African and
middle eastern markets are developing and
offer high growth opportunities.
-Difficult barriers to entry, which offer us
unique market dominance.
-Changing trend toward online shopping.
-Weak competitive rivalry.
Weaknesses Threats
-Technology malfunction (internet break-
downs, data breaches, security..etc.)This is a
factor for all online stores.
- Poor of functionality of online and credit
cards payment processors.
-Lack of efficient and low cost suppliers.
-Backward online shopping culture among our
customers.
Difficulty of educating new customers about
our products and services.
- Online security threats due to piracy and lack
of copyright legislations in our market.
-Consistently changing legal and regulatory
calends.
-Competition from big e-sellers (Amazon &
eBay) that undercuts our growth endeavors.
-Bureaucracy, when it comes to dealing with
legal and governmental parts.
Needs Analysis
Our ecommerce store is the centerpiece of my online business. This is where visitors are
converted into customers, credit card information is submitted, and money is made. There are
two keys to winning customers;
First, winning their minds, by making a customer think less, it will be easier to win his mind.
This will be through organizing the website in the way my customers want to shop, providing

specific details and clear pricing, making the process of discovery, purchase and checkout as
simple and intuitive as possible.
The information architecture, or how the content in the website is organized, page by page, has
to make sense to visitors. Website visitors are either lasers or browsers: The laser knows exactly
what they want, and they expect to be taken to it as quickly as possible while the browser doesn’t
know specifically what they want, they peruse and poke around, they want to be led.
Second, winning their hearts, by using visuals and messaging to make them fall in love with our
brand, we want our customers to be excited and feel something special when they think of our
brand and shopping our e-commerce store. Our brand is the heart of our business, so the look and
feel of the website need to fit with our brand in order to win our visitor’s heart, for instance; are
the colors and fonts consistent with the logo? Do the personality and emotions conveyed by our
store match the brand?
Our messaging throughout the entire business must be in line with our brand voice whether it’s a
tagline, social media post, blog post…even ads and banners – online and offline – would
reinforce our brand voice. When we deliver customers experience that wins their minds and
hearts, we develop an emotional and mental connection between them and our brand. Therefore,
our brand gains value in the eyes of the customer, value that’s worthy of their time and money.
In terms of our e-business needs analysis as a valuable analytical technique to gauge the
marketability of our products or/and services to a potential consumer, we consider few principals
to determine these needs: The opinion of end users (customers) to identify and improve the best
way of providing goods and services. Market research is another essential method to unify
customers' opinions, and to use quantitative and qualitative research to find the best direction for
product or service designs. Appealing to the lowest common denominator in customers’ needs,
marketing to the lowest skill levels results in the largest potential market, by following the KISS
principle “keep it simple, stupid”!. Monitoring user feedbacks after the new product launch,
addressing defects quickly and keep an accurate record to be applied to future releases.
Lastly, we ought to provide elegant designs, which are the end product of successful needs
analysis, which will put our website products above industry peers.
Marketing Survey/Questionnaire
Our Marketing Survey/Questionnaire for our online store will include the following questions:
1. How did you hear about/get to our website?
2. What changes and/or improvements would most improve our new website?
3. What do you like most about competing products currently offered by other websites?
4. What changes would most consider to beat our competing products and services currently
offered by other websites?
5. What would make you more likely to buy from our website?

6. How likely would you be to recommend our website to others?
o Very likely
o Moderately likely
o Slightly likely
o Not at all likely
7. If you are not likely to buy from our website, why not?
o Do not shop online
o Do not fine your website easy to navigate
o Satisfied with competing websites currently available
o Don not feel safe about my privacy
o Not willing to pay high shipping fees
o Other (please specify)
8. How do you usually buy online?
o Using desktop computer
o Using mobile devices
o Other
9. How important is price to you when chopping online?
o Extremely important
o Quite important
o Slightly important
o Not at all important
10. When was the last time you purchased a product or service from us?
o Within the last month
o Between one month and 3 months
o Between 3 and 6 months
o Between 6 months and one year
o Never
11. What types of products do you purchase online?
o Books or magazines
o Home Electronics and accessories
o Music & DVDs
o Clothing
o Other (Please explain)
12. Overall, are you satisfied with your experience using our website, dissatisfied with it, or
neither satisfied or dissatisfied with it?
o Extremely satisfied
o Quite satisfied

o Somewhat satisfied
o Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied
o Somewhat dissatisfied
o Quite dissatisfied
o Extremely dissatisfied
13. How likely would you be to buy our offered products instead of what’s currently available on
other websites?
o Very likely
o Moderately likely
o Slightly likely
o Not at all likely
14. What do you like/dislike most about our website?
15. What do you like most about competing products and/or services currently offered by other
websites?
17. What are the strengths and weaknesses of other competing websites you buy from?
18. How important is convenience when choosing this type of service?
o Extremely important
o Quite important
o Moderately important
o Slightly important
o Not at all important
19. Overall, what is your satisfaction level with our website?
o Extremely satisfied
o Moderately satisfied
o Slightly satisfied
o Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied
o Slightly dissatisfied
o Moderately dissatisfied
o Extremely dissatisfied
20. If we were to provide a new service today, how likely would you be to use it or
recommended it instead of competing services currently available from other websites?
o Extremely likely
o Quite likely
o Moderately likely
o Slightly likely
o Not at all likely
o Other(Please explain)
21. Any final suggestions you may offer?

*Gratitude and thankfulness*
As a recap;
By conducting this marketing survey, we are trying to obtain information to help with decision-
making, we to understand our customers' shopping, spending and consuming behavior is, also we
aim to educate our customer base and market space about our offered products and services, to
create a customer touch point, to obtain sales leads, to sell product (in case of phone surveys), as
well as giving customers the perception that we are listening to them. This questionnaire/survey
we're conducting has a lot to do with achieving my business objective, the credibility a survey
provides and its legitimacy and fundamentality for research and data gathering. Therefore, the
result of this data analysis would facilitate our decision making/implementation and leads to
better resources allocation.
Target Market, Customers and Needs
Our market comprised of approximately 8 million customers born between 1970 and 1988,
characterized with a good earning level and moderate spending power. They're tech-savvy and
love the convenience of online shopping. They have a high value for education and knowledge.
The customers our company deal with usually have more money to spend when buying online
more than on physical shopping ,due to the competitive prices and safety we offer on our
website. This business strategic planning is designed for a business that operates in a particular
geographic region which is North Africa, and its principal target is the customer base ranged
from 17 to 5o years old who have passion to end enjoy online shopping.
The segmentation of our customers’ base appears to be majority male shoppers with a less
female portion, this has a lot to do with the cultural background and mores of that market (men
are generally in charge of spending and shopping), customers are ranging from 20-50 years old,
%40 of them are single and do not have kids, with an average educational level. The majority of
customers have an average to good household income. From a Psycho-graphical perspective,
majority of our customers are fairly young and appreciative of that prestige of ordering online
while enjoying quality service, this young portion of our customers is a “tech-maniac” portion
who we primarily promote to our latest technology equipment and accessories products.
The e-commerce industry is still in its early ages in our target market, however,” online retailing
has increased by 74% in current value terms in Algeria in 2014, an extremely strong rate of
growth which can be attributed to the fact that the channel is still rising from a low base. Non-
store retailing only became a significant retail distribution channel in Algeria from 2011 onwards
and 3G mobile internet coverage was only introduced in the country at the end of December
2013 and 3G was only properly operative in 2014, e-commerce in Algeria is expected to register
impressive growth rates during the forecast period, increasing in value at a CAGR of 47% in
constant 2014 terms.”1.

Our market volume implies a customer base of 8 million users, and an economic market value of
$20 million which equals 200 billion DZD. Our consumers buy our products and services to
fulfill their needs of different sophisticated electronic goods and accessories which they use on a
daily basis for an easier life, moreover, in a fast technologically developing world, we offer our
customers the most advanced products through our website; we also carry imported high-tech
equipment and gadgets...etc. So common benefits our customers gain is the accessibility to a
source or market that gives them the ability of accompaniment of the fast developing foreign
world. Our monopolism of this market portion maintains us returning and happy customers.
Ethical Issues in the CA
Since e-commerce is emerging as an important tool to ensure inclusive growth, the traditional
business model is about to change and to reduce the prominence of the physical stores as an
essential condition for smooth business functionality. My e-commerce business will contribute in
providing job positions for the local community, taxes for the state, the convenience of shopping
like never before with the ease of fulfilling personal needs.
Due to cultural and traditional reasons, in our target market, shopping is frequently done by men
more than women and minority classes, with the fact that women love shopping, and thanks to
our online website, this theory may soon approach an end and realizes equality. Giving a
freedom to women to shop online will fulfill their needs and preferences, widen our customer's
base and will raise our revenue. We are excited to provide the opportunity to market our products
globally on the click of a mouse and empower every society's segment to enjoy this easy-modern
business model. Another important positive impact will be on changing the young entrepreneurs’
perceptions concerning launching similar business ventures.
However, we need to mention that an online store would have some negative effects on the local
physical business, it could lead to job losses, recession etc.
My business model will improve lives of my customers as well as my employees, how? many
people seek and prefer and enjoy the convenience and easiness of e-commerce, and so would do
my customers, they will enjoy their online shopping due to easiness and convenience of the
experience, through buying products or services from their home at any time of day or night.
Since our online store offers different options and preferences for buying, that would give the
customers a freedom and ability to meet their needs and preferences. Some products cannot be
found selling in the physical store, so we monopolize those products and expose them to
customers. Usually online stores offer lower prices than physical ones, and so is our store; we
attract customers by offering affordable low prices, which makes customers happy and contents.
Also by providing sufficient information on the website, we will contribute in customer
education, thus implanting a new business model within our community.

Concerning our employees, they would be exposed to a high volume of information that could be
turned into careers opportunities. Also, since the business is online, they will have the possibility
of working from home, another benefit is having a discount of %20 for our employees.
In order to incorporate a sense of social responsibility in the development and planning of our
venture, we are taking corporate social responsibility into account, for instance, the corporate
policy which includes our company’s policy will include a bylaw to hire minorities, disabled
people and veterans. We take a stance on social and political issues that benefit the community.
We will build corporate charitable business contributions and expands on this common social
business practices by invoking social initiatives, events, sponsors etc.
The shaping of a corporate social framework to be in implied in our general corporate policy is
being undergoing, in order to incorporate a sense of social responsibility partner.
Segmentation Plan
In order for us to conduct market segmentation we need to divide consumers into different
categories based on distinguishing characteristics. Segmentation could be a geographical,
behavioral or lifestyle…etc. related-segmentation. This helps us identify customers who are most
likely to buy my products. We will primarily focus on demographics, personalities and needs to
segment our market; this allows us to better reach non-buying consumers and customers through
advertising and marketing efforts.
Based on the results of the marketing survey we conducted in earlier stage, we can go further
and use the data the survey provided us to segment our market into different categories based on
different characteristics. We must consider all the ways our potential customers differ, as well as
how current customers differ. Our segmentations should include the following:
Current customers by products being used: Our customers can be our best opportunities for
cross-promotional product offerings, if targeted correctly such as providing opportunities for
accessory or complementary products with these same consumers. So we will preserve this type
of customers by offering them promotional and informational offers, through emails or
marketing phone calls.
Consumers by behaviors/interests: One of the easiest segmentation strategies is to separate
consumers based on their interests in our products, then for us to gauge interests in different
products, we will try offering guides or other downloadable information about different subjects
through various forms requesting a name and email address on our website. By tying a form to
these types of downloads, we will segment our consumers into different interest groups, allowing
us to send targeted messages about those products.

Consumers by rejection/cancel reasons: This is an overlooked segmentation opportunity which
lies in our rejection/cancel lists of our consumers. Segmenting these consumers by the reason
they decided not to do business with us can lead to timely and mind-changing emails that counter
the reasons they rejected us and work the issue out from there and turn this reluctant customers
into potential ones.
Technology solutions for segmenting, targeting and positioning products: We will involve a
complex technology system that segments consumers with little effort by using software that
automates the process. This software monitors its website visitors, their behaviors on the site,
what products they buy and what information they download. As consumers navigate and
interact with the website, information from their visit is recorded and provides updated content
based on their actions. Amazon.com for instance uses this software and it’s the reason they
managed to segment and deeply understand their market, thus having a precise customer
targeting which increases sales.
Moreover, as a startup business owner, my solid knowing of the target market’s cultural and
behavioral characteristics would help us comprehend how to best comprehend, categorize and
approach our customers.
Competitor Analysis and Competitive SWOT
For our online retail store, an accurate and current competitive analysis provides a significant
advantage or identifying opportunities through a regular, qualitative review of our competitors’
websites, prices, product mix, customer service, policies, and marketing. We can use these data
both offensively and defensively to improve our bottom line strategy. As an online business, we
view our competition as the sites ranking around us organically and those sites that are bidding
on similar keywords via pay-per-click marketing. However, we also consider larger sites and e-
commerce marketplaces like Amazon.com, E-Bay and the sellers on those platforms that focus
on our product niche mad market. Our competitors could be any company that can affect our
market share and profit, and by considering several norms of analyzing competitors, we have
come to narrow down our top competitors as follows;
The top competition we are currently facing comes from the website Jumia.com, this Nigerian
online retail company has a heaving presence in the African online retail market, has warehouses
in ten different countries including Europe and sells a variety of products including electronics,
fashion and home appliances. Jumia.com now operates in our target market which poses a heavy
competitive burden on our website. From an aesthetic perspective, Jumia.com operates on a nice
looking website, easy to navigate and detailed products descriptions, the website offers
membership option, deals and promotions for returning customers. In 2014, Jumia.com reached a
45% market share on online retail in Africa including our target market. It is a competitor

because they own a market share with a wide customer base in Algeria and North Africa, they
know our market’s characteristics and have expansion potentials.
Our second competitor is ouedkniss.com, and although it is not an online store, it is ranked 8 (on
alexa.com in Algeria) as a most visited website which offers listings and intermediation services,
and linkage to various foreign retail websites. The high volume of traffic this website got
reflexes a domination of a big market share that implies the customer characteristics our business
targets. Ouedkniss.com has an easy to navigate and good looking website, detailed products
listing descriptions, relevant prices to the market and heavy social media presence. All these
strengths made Ouedkniss.com a direct competitor and treat to our market share.
Besides the severe competition posed by online retailers in the region, we face an increasing
competition from the world biggest retail platforms such as Amazon, EBay and even Alibaba.
These three retail giants manipulate the competition due to their high competitive standards, the
high quality service they offer and the heaviness of their brand names. These three platforms are
our competitors because they have a strong social media presence in our market; they offer free
shipping, email marketing and trade shows sponsorship (Amazon).
Amid this competition and relying on our SWOT analysis, we would come out with an updated
SWOT implementation approach would be as follows;
Strengths; usually our competition doesn’t offer affordable or low prices compared to our
developing markets’ spending power, thus, we will be offering as low prices as to beat the
competitors.
Also, we will capitalize on business segment that is backed by cultural and religious sense to
trigger the customers to buy, and we will have to consider compensations and gift discounts
under certain conditions. As for opportunities, we can focus on mobile shopping as a growing
business model, and by targeting young people who like to fit into modernity and convenience.
Another opportunity is to focus on selling products that is not selling by the competitors. Our
weaknesses so far are the poor functionality and insecurity of online payment system in the
target market as well as piracy. Also the lack of efficient-low cost suppliers would lead to
customers loathing us.
Besides piracy and cyber-attacks, bureaucracy when it comes to dealing with legal and
governmental parties is another unsecure side of surviving among the competitors, thus we might
consider merging or getting acquired by a bigger operator if no other strategy works out, but this
would be the very least approach we would discuss.
Products and Services
Our online store will sell a variety of quality merchandise. The types of merchandise we will
carry will include items such as electronic equipment, home appliances, accessories, toys,

cosmetics, and a list of items too exhausted to list here. A dedicated staff is committed to
providing quality customer service.
The merchandise will be directly shipped for the products sold out of our warehouse, and
through drop-shipping when it's shipped by one of our suppliers. Our inventory is purchased
from a variety of local well-known manufacturers and other generic branded companies, as well
as a small portion of imported products. As our business starts growing, we will continue to find
new product lines that can be added to our inventory.
We are able to sell products at very low/competitive prices, because we will purchase items from
discontinued lines, manufacturers, and overstocks, etc.,
The strategy we will follow is to set up prices with a low profit margin in order to maximize
sales volume. Since the operating costs we bear are not high and tax on sales is low for a startup
business we would be able to afford a low-profit margin. Also a deep study of our competitor's
pricing strategy and sales volume, and the size of our customer base that is willing or able to buy
frequently helps in determining a good pricing strategy.
In order to better evaluate our pricing strategy, product quality, and customer service efficiency,
we will conduct a customer survey to sense the market’s feedbacks and impressions. This survey
will involve the following questions; what does our product do for our ideal customers? What
problems does our product solve for our customers? What needs of our customer do our products
satisfy? How do our products improve the customer's life or work? Some of these questions were
answered through our precedent marketing survey/questionnaire we conducted earlier, and the
feedback was that our customers believe that not do we simply offer modern/sophisticated
electronics and appliances but at affordable prices along with pleasant customer service support,
these two traits of our business were the most important for our customers as the survey showed.
Since the online retail industry is so competitive, and to grow our customer base and our
business as a whole, our focus is on implementing the most efficient, attention-pulling marketing
policy in order to gain a place in the market, also we do capitalize on a quality customer service
and after sale services, which include free delivery, customer service follow-up for trouble
shooting and a refund policy and gift cards.

Tactical social media marketing plan
This plan includes the tactical objective to be used to accomplish two primary goals of social
media; first, to increase unique traffic to LowStop.com and second, to convert anonymous traffic
to known visitors by promoting premium content to visitors from social media sites via free
content.
Blog- Weekly
Short term objectives
 Increase recognition
o Maximize the number of posts
o Blog publication everyday
o RSS button addition
o Increase engagement To encourage comment, forums and posts
Key Metrics
o Maximize the number of posts
o Consider audience growth, unique and returns
o Conversion rate
o Subscribers volume
o Measure SEO improvement
Social networks- 4 hours daily
 Facebook fan page
 To increase recognition
o To create groups, encourage interaction, create content
o Interact with other groups
o Conduct surveys and polls
 LinkedIn
 Create professional groups, encourage interaction, create and post content
 Participate in other groups, and Q&A, etc.
Key Metrics
 Generate referrals from other pages and drive traffic towards our website
 Word of mouth of friends on social networks.

 Twitter
 Promote company blog posts through corporate account
 To communicate the support issues from social media to support team
 Build reputation
 To promote other social media accounts’ activities through twitter
Key Metrics
 Volume of referrals from other sites, friends and followers
 Third party operators and contributors
 Measure how much influence in invested in a certain number of followers
 Pages ranking on key terms from microblogging sites
Online videos
 To post constantly updated videos and infomercial on video sites such as
YouTube and Facebook
 To sponsor top video makers on video sites.
Key Metrics
 To measure referral rate from precedent media networks.
 Videos views volume is an important analytical data.
 Key terms ranking on YouTube.
Photo sharing sites
o Encouraging employees to post and share any picture related to social marketing
and sales events
o To rely on photo sharing sites to share pictures with blogs and social network sites
o Focus on Facebook, Flickr and our own blog
Key Metrics
o Referrals from our podcast directories, and number of views if
pictures if hosted on podcast sites
Presentation sharing
o To list all presentations on Slideshare and keep it updated.
Key Metrics
o Referrals from Slideshare
o Number of views on Slideshare

o Pages ranking on key terms from Slideshare.
Marketing Strategy
LowStop.com is focused on the merging/redefined Internet marketplace. The users will mostly
be Baby Boomers, which represent approximately 40% of the discretionary revenue of the
company. These customers are looking for affordable, new products to fulfill their needs.
LowStop.com can offer those customers these cutting-edge products coupled with convenience
and service.
Mission
To make online shopping fun, easy and trustful, for low prices and high-quality service everyday
through a smart, searchable website, understandable instructions, easy and secure payment
methods and fast quality delivery.
Marketing Objectives
 Increase retuned customers by 8% per quarter.
 Decrease customer acquisition costs by 10% per year.
 Maintain positive, steady growth each month.
Financial Objectives
 Pro-forma profitability by year two.
 Decrease variable costs by 4% a year.
 Profitability on 90% of the listed items, no lost leaders.
Besides the continuing technological development of, our target market's young population is a
significant trend driving the use of online shopping to a new level. The Baby Boomers are now
reaching middle age and their mortality is becoming a focus. This demographic segment of our
market is comprised of 10 million people, and represents over 40% of our company's
discretionary income. Another global trend is the emergence and popularity of e-commerce
Brand-focused retailers that can provide good products, customer service, information, and an
intangible emotional the customer.
LowStop.com will position itself as an Internet purveyor of high-quality, reasonably-priced
products retail. NC will leverage its competitive edges to achieve the desired positioning:
Our company's competitive edge will be its easy to navigate website and quality customer
service that significantly increases sales, while the other competitive edge is superior customer
service. The mantra of the customer service department is to serve the customer in any way
required.

The marketing strategy will first focus on creating customer awareness regarding our products,
grow the customer base, and gain customer loyalty and referrals. The long-term goal of
LowStop.com is to not only dominate the online retail industry in our target market, but to also
create an icon brand. Initially, the company will:
 Engage in Web-based marketing for the next year to generate awareness of the company
and product information. Because Internet-based advertising has declined in recent year,
the prices for advertising have consequently significantly dropped making the
expenditure more cost effective.
 Engage in outdoor advertising providing general awareness to the public at large and
direct individuals to the company's website.
Marketing Mix
 Pricing: The pricing structure will slightly undercut the local competition through
leveraging our business model along with efficient suply chain
 Distribution: All products will be distributed from our warehouse and drop-shipped,
accessed via the website, and delivered throughout our market
 Advertising and Promotion: Internet-based marketing and outdoor ads.
 Customer Service: following industry models like Amazon.com and eBay.
Sales Forecast
LowStop.com is a 100% online revenue generator store. Customers are often putting products in
their basket and leave without placing any order. By making our website easy to navigate and
simple to order from, we will ensure more orders placement.
There will be no sales in the first two months since it will be used to develop and ready the site,
and from month two on, LowStop.com will expect gradually increasing sales
Expense Forecast
The marketing expenses are budgeted so that they ramp up significantly in the first six months as
means for generating visibility for our website. Marketing expenses will be decreased in the
second half of year just to measure its effect on performance.
Marketing Expense Budget 2016 2017 2018
Internet advertising $7,000 $9,000 $13,000
Other $4,400 $10,000 $14,500
………. ------------ ------------ ------------
Total Sales and Marketing Expenses $11,400 $19,000 $27,500
Percent of Sales % % %

Milestones
Advertising Start Date End Date Budget Manager
Marketing plan completion 1/1/2016 2/1/2016 $xxxx x
Internet ads campaign #1 1/1/2016 4/30/2016 $xxxx x
Outdoor ads campaign #1 1/1/2016 4/30/2016 $xxxx x
Internet ads campaign #2 8/1/2016 12/30/2016 $xxxx x
Outdoor ads campaign #2 8/1/2017 12/30/2016 $xxxx x
Profitability 1/1/2016 9/30/2016 $x x
Other 1/1/2016 1/15/2016 $x x
Total Advertising Budget $xxxx
PR Start Date End Date Budget Manager
Approach name 1/1/2016 1/15/2016 $x x
xxxx 1/1/2016 1/15/2016 $x X
xxxx 1/1/2016 1/15/2016 $x X
Other 1/1/2016 1/15/2016 $x x
Total PR Budget $x
Direct Marketing Start Date End Date Budget Manager
xxxx 1/1/2006 1/15/2006 $x X
xxxx 1/1/2006 1/15/2006 $x X
xxxx 1/1/2006 1/15/2006 $x X
Other 1/1/2006 1/15/2006 $x x
Total Direct Marketing Budget $x
Web Development Start Date End Date Budget Manager
xxxx 1/1/2006 1/15/2006 $x X
Other 1/1/2006 1/15/2006 $x X
Total Web Development Budget $x
Other Start Date End Date Budget Manager
xxxx 1/1/2006 1/15/2006 $x x
Total Other Budget $x
Totals $ xxxxxxx
Our marketing strategy must fit into our company’s PEST analysis we conducted previously,
therefore we will take into consideration the political sphere in our market, policies, tax and
trading policy and market regulations, also the economic variables exchange rate, interest rate
etc. Social side of the market will be considered such as lifestyle and social trends, media views
etc., and most importantly is to us as online business is the technological side such as the volume
of R&D activity in our market, licensing and the maturity and reliability of technology.

Final Situational Analysis and Literature Review
Situational analysis: where are we now?
Our situational analysis will include a thorough examination of internal and external factors
affecting our business. It will create an overview of the company that will lead to a better
understanding of the factors that will influence its future.
 Internal Analysis: This is an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses within our
company which will be reflected in the company's culture and image, organizational
structure, staff, operational efficiency and capacity, brand awareness, financial resources,
etc.
 External Analysis: This includes opportunities and threats that can occur when things
happen in the external environment that may require a change within our business
(market trends, suppliers, partners, customers, competitors, new technology and
economic environment)
The 5 C’s: include; Company, Collaborators, Customers, Competitors, and Climate.
Company
What does my business do? Our company is an online retail store that sells products and
services over the internet through an integral e-commerce platform
What are we selling? We are specialize is selling electronics, accessories, home appliances and
toys.
What unique position do we have in the marketplace? We are a startup company at its early
stages of business and that has a strategic conception of its future market.
How do people think of my company? People admire our company’s business model due to its
convenience and efficiency.
What are my strengths and weaknesses? Some of our strengths are; superior quality services
and products, along with a unique business model, delivery network efficiency, low operational
costs, diversity of products that is not offered in the local market (monopolism) and high
customer intimacy.
Where do we want to be in the future? In the upcoming 5 to 7 years, we aim to dominate the
retail industry in North Africa and the Middle East.
Collaborators
Who am I working with to make my business operate? Our company is an LLC legal entity;
however, thus far we are two partners and will hire more personals in the future. From an
operational perspective, we’ve teamed up with local manufacturers, wholesalers, distributers and
an insurance company.
Who is my shipping provider? Our shipping provider is the local Algerian postal service for
domestic and regional shipping, and UPS for international shipping.
Who is helping me process credit cards? We use bluepay.com services.

Who is providing my shopping cart software? We are using Shopify’s ecommerce platform
shopping cart software.
What partners am I currently working with? We’re currently at a startup phase, thus we are
collaborating with Oedkniss.com to promote our website in North Africa, also with our
perspective supply chain to set up a future strategy of collaboration.
Customers
Who is my target audience? 17 to 45 years old people in general, and young ‘tech-maniacs’
people in particular.
Who is currently purchasing from me? We’re not a stage of selling at this point, but the
surveys show a promising audience of young shoppers in the future of business.
How do my customers behave? Our customers are obsessed with new technologies and gears,
not easy to please due to competition and choices they have but good spenders when convinced.
What is important to their purchasing decision? Prices and service quality is something our
customers are so sensitive to, therefore we ought to master that.
What type of people are buying and not buying? Usually the buyers are the young portion,
educated and online shopping persistent.
Competitors
Who are my primary competitors? Few local online stores (juma.com, oudkniss.com,
ardiss.com…etc) beside the ecommerce giants (amazon and eBay)
Are there any substitutes for my products? Yes there is, but offered in physical stores which
don’t offer suitability for a vast portion of customers, and that’s what we try to fulfill.
Are there any emerging businesses that might impact me? No
How do customers think of other companies? Customers these days are so picky, and they
spend for the better service and the lower price, thus we must be though in competition.
Climate
What’s going on in the industry? Online shopping is not a big industry in our market, but it is
coming as new entrepreneurs’ best business model. Difficult barriers to entry which offer us
unique market dominance, changing trend toward online shopping and weak competitive rivalry.
Are there new technologies or trends that will impact me? Mobile shopping is booming
globally and our market is no exception.
How is the current economic situation affecting customers’ buying behavior? There is an
economic instability situation (DGP fluctuation affects small businesses and buying power)

Pro Forma Financial Statements
For us to assure the start-up funds lender that the owners are financially stable, a personal
financial statement is enclosed illustrating other sources of income that include interest and
dividend income from investments, salary income and commission income, General assumptions
of some financial factors in our market are;
Projected Cash Flow
We expect to manage cash flow over the next three years simply by the growth of the cash flow
of the business. The business will generate more than enough cash flow to cover all of its
expenses by year two. The actual Pro format cash flow statement is as follow;
GENERAL ASSUMPTIONS
YEAR 1 YEAR 2 YEAR 3
Plan Month 1 2 3
Current Interest Rate 9.00% 9.00% 9.00%
Long-term Interest Rate 10.00% 10.00% 10.00%
Tax Rate 7.50% 7.50% 7.50%
Other 0 0 0
PRO FORMA CASH FLOW
Cash Received 0 0 0
Cash from Operations 0 0 0
Cash Sales $166,400 $211,022 $239,975
SUBTOTAL CASH FROM OPERATIONS $166,400 $211,022 $239,975
Additional Cash Received
Sales Tax, VAT, HST/GST Received $0 $0 $0
New Current Borrowing $0 $0 $0
New Other Liabilities (interest-free) $0 $0 $0
New Long-term Liabilities $0 $0 $0
Sales of Other Current Assets $0 $0 $0
Sales of Long-term Assets $0 $0 $0
New Investment Received $0 $0 $0
SUBTOTAL CASH RECEIVED $166,400 $211,022 $239,975

Services are a minimal part of our market. We are not quite sure how much revenue will be
derived from services, so we took a low-ball approach and estimated sales of $800 a month.
Income Statement:
PRO FORMA PROFIT AND LOSS
Sales $166,400 $211,022 $239,975
Direct Cost of Sales $4,320 $4,300 $4,400
Other Costs of Sales $0 $0 $0
Expenditures Year 1 Year 2 Year 3
Expenditures from Operations
Cash Spending $46,400 $52,520 $54,876
Bill Payments $99,540 $128,730 $147,285
SUBTOTAL SPENT ON OPERATIONS $145,940 $181,250 $202,161
Additional Cash Spent
Sales Tax, VAT Paid Out $0 $0 $0
Principal Repayment of Current Borrowing $0 $0 $0
Other Liabilities Principal Repayment $0 $0 $0
Long-term Liabilities Principal Repayment $12,000 $12,000 $12,000
Purchase Other Current Assets $0 $0 $0
Purchase Long-term Assets $0 $0 $0
Dividends $0 $0 $0
SUBTOTAL CASH SPENT $157,940 $193,250 $214,161
Net Cash Flow $8,460 $17,772 $25,814
Cash Balance $8,960 $26,733 $52,547
TOTAL COST OF SALES $4,320 $4,300 $4,400
Gross Margin $162,080 $206,722 $235,575
Gross Margin % 97.40% 97.96% 98.17%
Expenses
Payroll $46,400 $52,520 $54,876
Marketing/Promotion $22,800 $24,000 $26,000
Depreciation $8,146 $8,146 $8,146
Rent $22,740 $22,740 $22,740
Utilities $4,200 $4,200 $4,200
Insurance $1,200 $1,200 $1,200
Payroll Taxes $0 $0 $0

In order for us to evaluate the company’s assets, based on the previous data we put together a
ratio analysis:
RATIO ANALYSIS
YEAR 1 YEAR 2 YEAR 3 INDUSTRY
PROFILE
Sales Growth - 26.82% 13.72% 7.35%
Percent of Total Assets
Other Current Assets 0.98% 0.85% 0.68% 50.11%
Total Current Assets 15.69% 38.75% 60.25% 64.74%
Long-term Assets 84.31% 61.25% 39.75% 35.26%
TOTAL ASSETS 100.00% 100.00% 100.00% 100.00%
Long-term Liabilities 81.95% 53.75% 29.38% 25.39%
Total Liabilities 96.82% 68.94% 43.25% 47.10%
NET WORTH 3.18% 31.06% 56.75% 52.90%
Risk Management plan
 Purpose of the risk analysis plan:
Risk analysis helps us in identifying, assessing, monitoring, and reporting risks related to our
business. This Risk analysis Plan defines how risks associated with the LowStop.com project
will be identified, analyzed, and managed. It outlines how risk management activities will be
performed, recorded, and monitored throughout the lifecycle of the project.
The intended audience of this document is the project team, project sponsor and management.
Independently contracted stylists $40,400 $55,000 $69,000
Supplies $6,000 $6,000 $6,000
Other $0 $0 $0
Total Operating Expenses $151,886 $173,806 $192,162
Profit Before Interest and Taxes $10,194 $32,916 $43,413
EBITDA $18,340 $41,062 $51,559
Interest Expense $5,542 $4,392 $3,192
Taxes Incurred $1,396 $8,557 $12,066
Net Profit $3,257 $19,967 $28,155
Net Profit/Sales 1.96% 9.46% 11.73%

What are our operational risks? Some of these operational risks are ever present and
frequently out of our control:
o Search engine optimization risk; Google and other search engines sometimes
change their search engine algorithms which would cause our website’s traffic to
drop.
o Hosting risk; our website’s hosting company suffers a series of failures which
could put our store offline for hours.
o Price competition risk; if our bigger competitors drop prices by a big percentage
then our sales would suffer.
o Supplier risk; when our top-selling product line is suddenly pulled from the market
which could cause a huge loss of revenue.
o Shipping risk; a container load of products from an overseas supplier is stuck in
customs because of a change in policy or an error in the shipping manifest, this can
cause an inventory shortage.
o Marketplace risk; in case of us selling products on Amazon that it does not carry,
but it suddenly sources the products itself, at a much lower price, this would limit
our sales and revenues.
Risk Management Procedures
Process: As an owner/business manager, I will be working with the team and
project sponsors to ensure that risks are actively identified, analyzed, and managed
throughout the life of the business. Following are the considerations when it comes
to risk analysis process:
o Each person involved in the process of planning needs to identify and understand
the risks pertaining to the business.
o Once the team members have given their list of risks, the risks should be
consolidated to a single list in order to remove the duplications.
o Assessing the probability and impact of the risks involved with the help of a matrix.
o Split the team into subgroups where each group will identify the triggers that lead
to the business-related risks.
o The teams need to come up with a contingency plan whereby to strategically
eliminate the risks involved or identified.
o Next we plan the risk management process. Each person involved in the project is
assigned a risk in which he/she looks out for any triggers and then finds a suitable
solution for it.
Risk Identification: This phase will involve the project team, appropriate
stakeholders, and will include an evaluation of environmental factors,
organizational culture and the project management plan including the project scope.
A risk analysis log will be issued and saved.

Risk analysis: All identified risks will be assessed to identify the range of possible
business outcomes. Qualification will be used to determine which risks are the top
risks to pursue and which to be ignored.
 Qualitative Risk Analysis: The probability and impact of occurrence for each
identified risk will be assessed by the business manager, with input from the project
team using the following approach:
Probability
• High – Greater than 70% probability of occurrence.
• Medium – Between 30% and 70% probability of occurrence.
• Low – Below 30% probability of occurrence.
Impact
• High: Risk that has the potential to greatly impact business cost, schedule or
performance.
• Medium: Risk that has the potential to slightly impact project cost, project
schedule or performance.
• Low: Risk that has little impact on cost, schedule or performance.
Risks that fall within the red and yellow zones will have risk response planning which may
include both risk mitigation and a risk contingency plan.
 Quantitative Risk Analysis
Analysis of risk events that have been prioritized using the qualitative risk
analysis process and their effect on business activities will be estimated, a
numerical rating applied to each risk based on this analysis, then documented
in this section of the risk management plan.
Risk response planning
For each major risk, one of the following approaches will be selected to address it:
• Avoid: eliminate the threat by eliminating the cause
• Mitigate: Identify ways to reduce the probability or the impact of the risk
• Accept: Nothing will be done
• Transfer: Make another party responsible for the risk (buy insurance, outsourcing, etc.)
For each mitigated risk, the project team will identify ways to prevent the risk from occurring or
reduce its impact or probability of occurring. This may include prototyping, adding tasks to the
project schedule, adding resources, etc.
Risk monitoring, controlling and reporting

The level of risk on a project will be tracked, monitored and reported throughout the project
lifecycle. A “Top 10 Risk List” will be maintained by the project team and will be reported as a
component of the project status reporting process for this project.
1. Tools and practices
A Risk log will be maintained by the project manager and will be reviewed as a standing agenda
item for project team meetings.
Conclusion
As a company, we will not be able to fully eliminate or eradicate risks. The risk analysis
process is a procedure that cannot be compromised. However, every business
engagement will have its own set of risks to be dealt with.

CA FINAL ASSESSEMENT

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