Building an online global community through online shopping
Design Innovation Development and Marketing Strategies
Fall 2017
Team: 3 Design Management Students
Main roles and responsibilities:
- Project planning
- Research
- Analysis for the development of strategies
Design brief: During a 9 week quarter we developed an original design concept forming it to become a profitable and successful new business entity. We developed a feasible business plan through principles of project planning and implementation. The main objective of this course was to understand and explain the creative process as a method that can be integrated into a business culture by applying creativity as an equal partner of analytical planning practices.
The process of this project was divided into three stages:
1) RESEARCH
2) Development of Innovation Concept and Strategies
3) Business Plan
RESEARCH QUESTION:
How might we create a social community in an interactive online shopping experience?
Process:
1) RESEARCH
Secondary:
- Objective: To understand the meaning and purpose of a social network. To understand the overall process of online shopping and trends. and the relation to social networks.
- Main takeaway: There is a misconception regarding social networks. People tend to relate social networks to online. Social networks can be either physical or virtual. We want to bring back the meaning of social networks as people gathering. Creating relationships and connections with social communities.
- Definitions: Social Network: "A network of individuals (such as friends, acquaintances, and coworkers) connected by interpersonal relationships". Social Media: "Forms of electronic communication (such as websites for social networking and microblogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (such as videos)." (Merriam-Webster. Web)
Primary:
- Objective: To understand what are the current needs and wants of the online shopping users and to address the pain points in the experience.
- Process: This was an on going process as we defined our company we went back to primary research to validate the need of our idea.
- Methodologies: Survey and interviews.
- Analysis: Our main way to analyze the qualitative data was through a journey map. For the quantitative data from surveys, we summarized the information on graphs and defined the users use of social networks and online shopping platforms by percentages.
- Interesting results: We linked our survey results back to secondary research. It validated that Generation Z spend less on online shopping due to less money compared to other generations. Millennials, consumers (18 to 34yrs), remain the key age demographic for online commerce, spending more money online in a given year than any other age group.
Source: Pew research (2016), Business Insider (2017), Experian, U.S. Census (2013), Pew Research (2015)
2) DEVELOPMENT OF INNOVATION CONCEPT AND STRATEGIES
3) BUSINESS PLAN
After the generation of strategies, we developed the business plan, financial plan and the outline of the brand. We used a business model matrix to plan each stage based on a specific goals. For the financial plan, we used a financial statement of show our quarterly expenses for the upcoming tear to justify our needs in the process of the business plan. Additionally, we analyzed our risk factors taken from the business plan in order to plan for the range of possible outcomes in relation to the project. Finally, we created an outline of the brand in agreement to our brand attributes.
About the final outcome:
‘Go for it’ is an add-on feature that is activated when a buyer spends more than 10 minutes while browsing a product. It suggests you to be added in an online community. This community is formed of all the digital buyers who are looking at the product at the same time. Everyone present in this community can connect with each other and discuss the specifications of the product. Through these global communities, digital buyers from all over the world can interact, build personal connections and share in real time; forming one big global family with similar interests!
