?The Success Of Craftmania.Com? Essay, Research Paper

?The success of craftmania.com?

I started off a web site for handicrafts from Saudi Arabia and certain other

eastern countries like India and Pakistan. The idea came to me as I went on

different web sites for other products, so I thought why not try out something

more creative like this. I always noticed how my American friend visited my

house and loved the little figurines I had from my country and all the little

traditional decoration pieces, also the rugs and vases. So that was basically my

target market. I aimed for people who were unaware of my culture and liked the

difference it made in their houses.

I talked the idea over with some of my other friends, two of them being

web designers set to work immediately. Second step was to place an order,

evaluate prices and then put up the pictures of the handicrafts that we had

shipped. In all the business started off with a team of 5 people working on it.

We decided that every week the web page would go through changes like

markdowns and addition of new products.

Since it was a web based business I didn?t really need to segment my

market but I sent out flyers to schools and hospitals for mentally disabled

because I reckon that they require different handicrafts to make their institutions

look cheerful and healthy. Also, I advertised on popular sites like Yahoo!, excite,

hotmail, mailcity etc.

My main competitors were certain other handicraft web dealers like

craftskool.com and handishuffel.com but I handled it by differentiating. Adding

new features to the site and also offering incentives, which was a whole new

concept in ?web sales?.

I discovered that to remain competitive in a technology driven economy,

successful companies must respond to and master changes in the technological

environment. Failing in doing so results in falling behind.

In today?s technology-hungry culture almost everyone uses innovations.

Technology has created opportunities to forge competitive advantage in

everything from product development to global market place. This is exactly

what we made use of.

Also, the use of technology has reduced costs by speeding up production

cycles, streamlining administration and ordering processes and facilitating

communications.

I became an instant direct marketer through the website as it offered an

ideal medium for one-to-one marketing and sales of customized products.

Electronic commerce is becoming increasingly important as marketing goods and

services through computers by exchanging information between buyers and

sellers, minimizing paperwork and simplifying payment procedures. The whole

process involves a chain of events for customer and seller, starting with product

information and ending with customer service.

To find the right balance between cost control and productivity

improvements, I analyzed the benefits and costs of implementing new

technology. The main idea was what would be the financial plan? First I set up a

regular savings plan what we earned through the net was mainly 10% profit and

rest was the commissions. Later I considered investing in stocks and also I

developed a balanced portfolio that included stocks, bonds, and mutual funds.

My management style was easy and ongoing. Once I had the whole idea

set up, I had several people hooked up with web designing. Later we hired some

MIS experts. Also, we had to set up alliances with UPS for faster delivery and

shipment of our goods. Keeping in touch with partners overseas, that provided

the handicrafts, was another part of the business. As the company developed I

added shipment, overseas, and control managers titles/positions to my company.

The strategy used was basically promotion of the products/web site in this

case. I put up ads in papers creating an awareness of the web site. Also, added

it to different search engines as links. Advertisement is a major factor in starting

off any business on the Internet. My goal was to make people visit my site and

buy things off it.

My corporate philosophy is that all entrepreneurs need to pay attention to

their goals and work towards them, building sales and maintaining strong

customer ties comes side by side. To develop a highly successful enterprise focus

on what your customer wants and present your products in such a way that you

convert those wants into needsJ

?The success of craftmania.com?

I started off a web site for handicrafts from Saudi Arabia and certain other

eastern countries like India and Pakistan. The idea came to me as I went on

different web sites for other products, so I thought why not try out something

more creative like this. I always noticed how my American friend visited my

house and loved the little figurines I had from my country and all the little

traditional decoration pieces, also the rugs and vases. So that was basically my

target market. I aimed for people who were unaware of my culture and liked the

difference it made in their houses.

I talked the idea over with some of my other friends, two of them being

web designers set to work immediately. Second step was to place an order,

evaluate prices and then put up the pictures of the handicrafts that we had

shipped. In all the business started off with a team of 5 people working on it.

We decided that every week the web page would go through changes like

markdowns and addition of new products.

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