Entrepreneurship assignment developing a business model and plan for a new Australian-based venture

Question

Task: You are required to write an entrepreneurship assignment preparing a business model and plan for a new entrepreneurial venture in Australia. Critically evaluate all aspects of the business model and the plan.

Answer

1. Introduction
The business that has been proposed within this entrepreneurship assignmentplan is named as “G-Cart” which includes the concept of both grocery market as well as logistics company serving its consumers with groceries at their door step within 30minutes after the order is place.

1.1. Product Features considered in the entrepreneurship assignment
The business considered in the entrepreneurship assignmentis regarding providing the customers with groceries that they want at their door step. The customers will not have to move from one place to another in search of groceries and related products and shall be getting the items delivered at their door step through the use of a click. The product and services shall be made available to the consumers through a mobile application where the consumers will just choose the groceries that they require and place an order in the mobile application. After getting an order placed the company considered in the entrepreneurship assignmentrepresentatives will arrange all the products which shall be available in their stock and shall hand over to the logistics partner who shall deliver the items to the consumer.

1.2. Benefits
The business is beneficial from the point of view of both consumers and entrepreneurs. E-commerce has been tremendously growing all over Australia (Iddris,2012). The industry had a lack of progress before the Covid19.But in the present situation, it has been found in the entrepreneurship assignmentthat the retailers who are not willing or does not have the capability to enter into the business of e-commerce have been left behind. Over the last two years the e-commerce business in Australia has been growing at the rate of 103% with respect to the value. Retailers who have made arrangement to grab the opportunity of making an entry into the e-commerce have been benefitted. For instance, Woolworths have made an evolution in the online ecosystem and have found gains with respect to shifting towards online business during the pandemic as against Aldi which had opposed to make an entry into the e-commerce and has been struggling for growth (Neo, 2022).

1.3. Experiences
Australian’s often likes online entertainment, online payments and e-commerce which has developed to be one of the most attractive markets in the world through the use of digital platforms. The level of profitability, expenditure along with engagement in e-commerce business has increased significantly over the last year (Niranjanamurthy et al., 2013). International surveys as per the entrepreneurship assignmenthave revealed that Australia has been a top performer in the e-commerce industry. Moreover, the country has ranked 4th all over the world as declared by Euromonitor in terms of its attractive market for online consumers (Brosnan, 2021).

1.4. Target Customers
Groceries are required at every household in Australia. Therefore, the target consumers of the company considered in the entrepreneurship assignmentinclude large segment of household workers or homemakers who have been looking after their household and preparing foods. The consumer segment includeslower, middle- and higher-incomepeopleandsmall-scale fast food retailers in the market those may require regular items to prepare their products.

2. Innovation and Differentiation in the entrepreneurship assignment
2.1. Research & Development (R&D)/Innovation Activities
The research and development activities of the entrepreneurship assignmentmust include the development of the e-commerce platform that requires to be consumer friendly and should also make offers based on the consumer’s requirements. The mobile application shall also provide notification regarding the offers with respect to specific products which are made available to the consumers regularly or on a daily basis so that the consumers can be benefitted easily (Mehrotra et al., 2015).The online payment system needs to be secured in a proper manner by taking into account the confidentiality with respect to the consumer data. The business as per the entrepreneurship assignmenthas planned to allocate $20,000 annually at the initial stage of development and for the maintenance of the e-commerce mobile application through which the consumers can order any kind of grocery products (Bhaskaran, 2006).

2.2. Market Position
As per the entrepreneurship assignment the products must be provided to the consumers at a reasonable pricing that needs to suit both the lower income and lowermiddle-income groups of consumers. It has been found that after the emergence of the pandemic the economies with respect to various markets all over the world have suffered severely. Additionally, in relation to the after-effects that is the inflation ratehad further resulted in increase the pricing of food and groceries (Cavallo,2020). There have been various factors which have been reflecting the economic uncertainty that has further impacted the FMCG industry. This include decrease in the household savings, pressure on the supply chain along with the scarcity of labor that have contributed towards the cost of living. Therefore, to reduce the crunch in cost of living, the business considered in the entrepreneurship assignmentrequires to offer its consumers with reasonable pricing that must suit the household budget of the consumers (Neo, 2022). Moreover, the focus of the competitors in the market is on the high-end consumers. Therefore, the planning to aim at low income group consumers in the market should be able to differentiate the business from its consumers in the global market (Dixon, 2007).

2.3. Unique Selling Proposition
The unique selling proposition includes a single feature or characteristics of the products or services that create a difference between the products and services offered by the business as compared to the competitors (Niu& Wang, 2016). The unique selling proposition for present e-commerce grocery business considered for this entrepreneurship assignmentis to provide the consumers with farm fresh organic grocery products at reasonable pricing. The business shall provide additional discounts to consumers ordering large quantities. This offering shall be considered as the major USP of the business and shall help in achieving competitive advantage in the market (Ng'Ang'A, 2017).

2.4. Pricing Strategy
Understanding the objectives is a key consideration that is required to develop pricing strategy from the products and services of a business.One of the objectives in developing a pricing strategy is to make profits. However, making pricing decision the business should take into account the market position, position of the competitors and the ability of the business to supply when demand increases. The present business considered in the entrepreneurship assignmenthas considered competitive pricing strategy which is safe for a start-up business so that it can remain competitive without targeting on profit margins (Kienzler&Kowalkowski, 2017). This strategy includes pricing the products and service close to the price that has been set by the market leader (business.gov.au., 2021).

3. Industry and Market Analysis
The B2C market has been estimated to grow in the year 2022 by 11.66% annually so that it can reach to about US$52,257.4 million in the year 2022. The medium to long-term growth of the e-commerce industry in Australia has been attractive and has been expected to have a steady growth over the period which records a CAGR of 11.14% during the year 2022 to 2026. In Australia the B2C e-commerce sector has increased over the last five years. There have been new shopping habits that have been firmly ingrained within the consumers in the e-commerce industry. With regard to the e-commerce market place Amazonreferred to in the entrepreneurship assignmenthas been leading the industry with respect to its B2C e-commerce segments. 55% of the consumers in e-commerce industry have been using Amazon for browsing the products within Australia (ibisworld., 2022).

Figure 1: Online Sales of Grocery in Australia from 2012-2022
(Source: ibisworld., 2022)

The above figure shows that the size of the market with respect to the online sales of groceries in Australia has been increased significantly. In the year 2022, the market size has reached around $10,000 million. Therefore, in order to increase the requirement for providing between experiences to the consumers, the online retailers have been focusing on the process of improving the experience of the consumers for acquiring the market sharesand enhancing revenues. Consumers have been looking towards innovative methods of payment that couldbenefit them in increasing their power of expenditure without affective the cash flows (globenewswire., 2022).

4. Product, Market and Economic Feasibility
4.1. Product

Table 1: Details of products and services
(Source: developed by author)

Comparing with the competitors, the G-Cart has been trying to keep its pricing strategy lower with respect to the products. The business addressed in the entrepreneurship assignmentshall use effective and innovative tactics for promoting the products in the competitive market. The business must make advertisements in digital platforms or through social media to promote the products and services that are being offered by the business to its consumers. The company has the strategy of not opening any physical stores as it shall have fixed overhead costs on the business which may also affect the profitability of the business along with increasing the pricing of the products. The business considered in the entrepreneurship assignmentshall operate through mobile application and warehouses that is to be leased by the business for its operation to keep fresh vegetable and other grocery items stored in a healthy and hygienic condition.

4.2. Market Feasibility
There have been huge markets with respect to fresh organic vegetables and other grocery products that are offered by the business to its consumers. But as the business has been providing healthy food products at reasonable pricing which is not offered by majority of the competitors in the market. Therefore, this cansupport the business to gain competitive advantage over its competitors in the market. Groceries are purchased by every household consumer regularly and not on a monthly basis. Therefore, there has been high anticipated demand for the product offered by the business considered in the entrepreneurship assignment. Moreover, the business shall also provide value to its consumers by providing them free delivery services within a certain range of territory (Dixon, 2007).

4.3. Financial Feasibility

Table 2: Start-up Expenses
(Source: developed by author)

Table 2: Cash Flow Projection
(Source: developed by author)

The above table in the entrepreneurship assignmentshows the amount that is being required for the start-up business of G-Cart. Looking at the costs and the anticipated demand, pricing and profitability of the company, it can be said that there has been financial feasibility of the business.

5. Business Model Canvas

6. Conclusion
It can be concluded from the entrepreneurship assignmentthat the main goal of the business is to deliver the groceries based on the customers want right to their doorstep.Customers will no longer have to move around to find groceries and other food-related items because they will be able to click a button and have them delivered to their door.It has been also discovered that customers will be able to access the goods and services via a mobile application, where they can simply select the groceries they require and place an order through the application.After the customer places an order, the representatives of the company considered in the entrepreneurship assignmentwill arrange all of the products that are in stock and hand them over to the logistics partner, who will deliver the items to the customer.

Reference List:
Bhaskaran, S., (2006). Incremental innovation and business performance: small and medium size food enterprises in a concentrated industry environment. Journal of Small Business Management, 44(1), pp.64-80.
Brosnan, A. (2021). Enthusiastic consumer engagement makes Australia a top market for e-commerce and online platforms. Retrieved 9 October 2022, from https://www.austrade.gov.au/news/economic-analysis/
enthusiastic-consumer-engagement-makes-australia-a-top-market-for-e-commerce-and-online-platforms business.gov.au. (2021). Develop a pricing strategy. Retrieved 9 October 2022, from https://business.gov.au/products-and-services/develop-a-pricing-strategy

Cavallo, A. (2020). Inflation with Covid consumption baskets (No. w27352). National Bureau of Economic Research.https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w27352/w27352.pdf Dixon, J., (2007). Supermarkets as new food authorities. In Supermarkets and agri-food supply chains: Transformations in the production and consumption of foods. Edward Elgar Publishing.

globenewswire. (2022). Australia B2C Ecommerce Market Databook 2022: Ecommerce Verticals, Share by Key Players, Sales Channel Analysis, Payment Instrument, Consumer Demographics 2017-2026. Retrieved 9 October 2022, from https://www.globenewswire.com/en/news-release/2022/09/15/2516699/28124/en/Australia-B2C-Ecommerce-Market-Databook-2022-Ecommerce-Verticals-Share-by-Key-Players-Sales-Channel-Analysis-Payment-Instrument-Consumer-Demographics-2017-2026.html
ibisworld. (2022). Online Sales of Grocery in Australia. Retrieved 9 October 2022, from https://www.ibisworld.com/au/market-size/online-grocery-sales/#:~:text=The%20market%20size%2C%20measured%20by,to%20increase%2028.2%25%20in%202022. Iddris, F. (2012). Adoption of E-Commerce solutions in small and medium-sized enterprises in Ghana. European journal of business and management, 4(10), 48-57.https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/downloaddoi=10.1.1.735.4633&rep=rep1&type=pdf Kienzler, M., &Kowalkowski, C. (2017). Pricing strategy: A review of 22 years of marketing research. Journal of Business Research, 78, 101-110. https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1095413/FULLTEXT01.pdf

Mehrotra, A., Musolesi, M., Hendley, R., &Pejovic, V. (2015, September). Designing content-driven intelligent notification mechanisms for mobile applications. In Proceedings of the 2015 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing (pp. 813-824). https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/2750858.2807544casa_token=ZsFI6waIffgAAAAA:LgNsoFR_DjCaPKjuynN hXd9NKqeFjkc8pRjZ0EmVAo7D0tKGBAgjJWbZS6vTLKeDWTG8s8kB95w_1g

Neo, P. (2022). Conscious costing: How Aussie supermarkets can tweak pricing, products and e-commerce strategies to tackle inflation. Retrieved 9 October 2022, from https://www.foodnavigator-asia.com/Article/2022/09/14/how-aussie-supermarkets-can-tweak-pricing-products-and-e-commerce-strategies-to-tackle-inflation Ng'Ang'A, D. (2017). The Significance of Unique Selling Proposition on Consumer Purchasing Decisions in Hotels. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/84799958.pdf

Niranjanamurthy, M., Kavyashree, N., Jagannath, S., &Chahar, D. (2013). Analysis of e-commerce and m-commerce: advantages, limitations and security issues. International Journal of Advanced Research in Computer and Communication Engineering, 2(6), 2360-2370. https://www.academia.edu/download/49518931/7-Niranjanamurthy-Analysis_of_E-Commerce_and_M-Commerce_Advantages.pdf

Niu, Y., & Wang, C. L. (2016). Revised unique selling proposition: scale development, validation, and application. Journal of promotion management, 22(6), 874-896.https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Yongge-Niu/publication/307614399_Revised_Unique_Selling_Proposition_Scale_Development_Validation_and_ Application/links/5b5c988eaca272a2d6726e67/Revised-Unique-Selling-Proposition-Scale-Development-Validation-and-Application.pdf