Bookstore Business Plan

This assignment focuses on developing a comprehensive business plan for a bookstore. It involves conducting market research, identifying target audiences, defining department structures with specific roles and responsibilities, and outlining key operational aspects such as logistics, ecommerce management, customer service, and finances. The plan also considers the current trends in the publishing industry and consumer behavior.

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A

E-Commerce Book Seller Business Plan
Table of Contents
Executive summary............................................................................................................3
Value proposition...............................................................................................................3
Market opportunity...........................................................................................................3
Cost structure and Revenue model.....................................................................................5
Market strategy.................................................................................................................7
Human Resources...............................................................................................................8
Mockups............................................................................................................................9
Reference.........................................................................................................................14

Executive summary
The e-commerce website would be developed for a Book store in India which would have the B2C
model and would sell the books directly to the consumers. The books sold would have both e-version
and the physical books including the new and used books as well as a library system through which
the reader would be able to gain access to physical books or online versions of the books. The e-
version of books would be made available through a book reader application that can be accessed on a
computer or laptop and can also be installed in the mobile phone. The application would be free to use
but books would be priced. The book seller is like a market place where books from different vendors
and authors would be listed for selling but the books that are available in the library would either be
purchased by the company or donated to by the owner.
Value proposition
The e-commerce website would provide a range of services to the end users of books including new
books for purchase, used books for purchase, e-version of the books for purchase, library to read
books online or offline, preview of the listed books, free application to read the books, connection
with third party applications like Goodreads that allow readers to connect with authors, recommender
system to suggest books to readers based on their browsing history, keyword based search to search
topics for finding books, and a feedback system that allows users to place request for books that are
not available in the store or the library for inclusion. The customer would be benefited by the
ecommerce website as it would have all the services related to the books in a single place whether it is
a purchase, reading of books, connecting with authors, getting recommendations, selling books,
donating books, finding right books or posting request for unlisted books. For the users who would be
registered on the website and would have their credit card or debit card saved on the website would
have a single click checkout option for purchase which would make the purchase fast and easy.
Online books, if purchased, would be made available instantly while the physical books would be
delivered based on the speed of the actual book seller who would be shipping the books. A huge
inventory is available for library users and the physical books that are given to users for the library
would be shipped within a week of the ordering. As the ecommerce platform is a marketplace, a large
number of book sellers are listed and thus, a huge number of books are available for sale.
Market opportunity
The website would cater to a large number of consumers including those fond of reading fiction
books, those looking for library services, those reading online books and regular book purchasers.
Indian book market is worth Rs.261 billion today as per Neilson India Book Market report 2015 and
the industry is growing at the rate of 19.3% annually. There are over 8000 publishers selling books in

India with 70% of them having the content digitized. There are over 1.3 billion people in India who
are buying books with school text books dominating the market and purchased by 72% of the buyers
(Marlow, 2017).
There are business models existing in the market in the same space such as Amazon.com,
Flipkart.com, and infibeam.com. Amazon brings convenience, low price, fast delivery and huge
amount of inventory to the customer. Flipkart is similar to Amazon and has similar services buts it’s
Cash on delivery services sell most. Infibeam is a regular online retailer of books.
In this market, the new ecommerce model would come up as a one stop solution for all book related
needs including new book purchase, used book purchase, used book selling, online library, physical
books library, connection with authors, book recommendations based on preferences, keyword
search to find books on specific subjects and information on latest happening like launch events,
festivals, book fairs, and exhibitions.
The book consumers make a huge number of buyers and Google Global Market Finder suggests that
there are over 135, 320 monthly online searches for books in India with 135,000 only for English
books. As the company would be in the digital space, it has to significantly spend on the online
advertising. Amazon and Flipkart spends around 150 crore in just the digital advertising for
promoting their ecommerce platform. As the current business is focused only on the book buyers,
which is 20% of their total advertising spend.
Book purchasers who prefer online shopping include 67% of Millennial, 56% en Xers, 41% Baby
Boomers, and 28% senior citizens. Younger population spends around 6 hours in online shopping in a
week while older people spend only 4 hours weekly. Among the young, the preference is for large
retailer sites s 76% of these shoppers prefers to shop from them while 48% prefer marketplaces.
Among Gen Xers and Baby boomers, 56% and 59% of them use marketplaces and 51% of seniors use
marketplaces for shopping. Among the online buyers across the world, parents spend online 61%
more than those who are not parents. Thus, the business being the marketplace can serve these
different segments (Wischenbart, 2015).
Segmentation can be done on the basis of demographics, consumption patterns and usage patterns.
Demographic segmentation: Demographics considerations can be used for dividing a consumer
population into different segments and these can include age, gender, race, religion, occupation,
income, family size, life cycle stage, and nationality. For instance, age divides the consumer
population into youngsters, adults, and old age people. Gender differences can also create
differential preferences such as fashion magazines or books preferred by the female while books on
technologies and automobiles may be preferred by the male. Income differences give differential

purchasing power to people and thus, their purchasing power can serve as a base for creating
segments.
Current consumption patterns: Consumers of books include those who purchase physical books to
read, those who prefer to read online by purchase or in a library and those who do not purchase but
like to read through a library. So, the consumers would be segmented as physical book purchasers,
library uses and eBook users (Jisana, 2014).
Digital usage patterns: Digital users include those using online library, online books, or
recommendations to explore books for purchase to get deliveries of physical books.
Demand Curve: The demand for the books would keep increasing in the market with changes in
prices but in this paper, we have assumed no price fluctuations in books for four years and thus,
there would be a stagnant demand calculation (Nilsson, 2007).
Content creation preferences: Content needs to be created to attract buyers on the online portal for
which the digital marketing would be used through social media advertisements and blog posts. This
would include use of platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and PInterest. These would be
chosen as they are cost effective and would help the company reach more buyers.
Buyer personas:
A typical buyer can include:
 Young online book user who may be between 20 to 25 years of age, studying or
working at junior level position and well versed with technologies, purchases fiction
mostly
 An adult male buyer between the age 26-35 who prefers to purchase physical books
and or join a physical books library, purchases fiction books mostly
 Female home maker who may be between 30 to 40 years of age, purchases physical
books including fiction and magazine mostly
Cost structure and Revenue model
The amount that would be required for funding the establishment would be $100,000
which would be needed for the development of the ecommerce website, procurement of
back end IT systems, and licensed software needed for integration or managing the
interfaces. For maintaining these systems, the costs incurred per year would be $10,000.

The company would get revenue from the buyers of the books on regular purchases and the
library users who would be paying a specific amount monthly for the subscription. Besides
these, the portal would also generate ad revenues from the publishers and authors who would
be putting advertisements on the portal for which they would pay.
To make the website popular so that more consumers are attracted to it, digital marketing
would be used on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Google, Emails and Pinterest, each costing as
below:
Advertisement or Marketing Channel Cost - Monthly
Google Adwords $230
Facebook Targeting $300
Twitter Feeds $200
LinkedIn Ads $500
Pinterest Posts $150
Email Marketing $200
TOTAL $1570
The total investment in marketing would be $1570
The investment in the deliveries of the products would be as follows:
Products Packaging & Delivery Cost
New Physical Books $1500
Old Physical Books $1000
Library Books and Magazines $900
$3400
Total cost would be $4970 monthly.
The revenues would be obtained from book sales, library subscription, and ad revenues as
follows:
Source of revenue Revenue
Physical Book purchase $2400
EBook purchase $2000
Library subscription $1500
Ad revenues $2000
$7900
ROI = ($7900-$4970)/ $4970 = 58.9%

58.9% ROI would be received which means for every $1 expenditure, the company would get
back $1.58.
Considering these expenses and the first year investment of $80,000 and $10,000 yearly
maintenance expenditure, the break even would be achieved in the 4th year of establishment
post which the company would start earning profits from the 2nd month in the 4th year after
establishment.
Years Year 0 Year 1 Year 2 Year 3
Expenditure $149,640 $69,640 $69,640 $69,640
Revenues $94,800 $94,800 $94,800 $94,800
Balance -$54,840 -$29,680 -$4520 $20,640
Market strategy
Ecommerce Company would be recognized as the most innovate and one stop solution for all book
related needs. The company would be operating primarily on the ecommerce model.
Target Market: The Company would be targeting the book buyers in all over Asia. 67% of the online
buyers in the world purchase books including those in Asia. In the year 2016, the ecommerce sales in
Asia was $855.7 and considering the 67% of this figures as the book sales, the target market of the
company would give the revenue potential of $573 (Go-Globe, 2016).
Target Customers: Target customers would include the book lovers, parents who purchase books for
their kids, students and learners who make a purchase for specific needs.
Brand Positioning: The ecommerce store would be an exclusive book store that would have all the
books and related services for book buyers (Lavinsky, 2013).
Pricing Strategy: The price for each book would be the same as the market price but slightly lower
than the competitive websites have to offer while delivery charges would be added as per location.
The buyers who register online as subscribers of the website loyalty scheme would be provided with
a free delivery. People subscribing to the library services would be charged a small monthly amount
which would be further reduced if the buyer takes a subscription for a longer duration. People
opting for home delivery in library would be charged the delivery fees.
Marketing Channels: For marketing online, the company would be using following methods:
 Social Media marketing on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and PInterest
 SEO on the website and Google Ad Words for paid marketing

 Display ads over social media
 E-mail marketing using the buyer database
 Affiliate marketing by involving sellers in the network and sharing revenues with them
against purchases made through their efforts
 Viral marketing through blog articles and social media posts.
Human Resources
The company would follow a hierarchical structure with four levels including senior
managers, junior managers, executives and the staff.
The work in the company would be divided into departments including sales & marketing,
logistics & Delivery, ecommerce website management, customer service department,
accounts department, and HR department. In each of the department, following profiles
would be generated:
CEO
Area Sales
Manager
Business
Development
Executive
Marketing
Manager
Marketing
Executive
Supply Chain
Manager
Logistics
Manager
Packaging
Manager
Delivery
Manager
Website
Manager
Webmaster Content
Manager
Developer Graphic
Designer
Content
Writer Copywriter
Customer
Relationship
Manager
Customer
Care
Executive
Finance
Manager
Accounts
Manager
Accountant
HR Manager
Others

Department Profiles Responsibilities
Sales &
Marketing
Business Development
Executive
Area Sales Manager
Marketing Executive
Marketing Manager
Managing sales for Ads and for library subscriptions.
Approaching companies for sales
Monitoring and reporting area sales
Running & monitoring marketing campaigns
Guiding executives and planning marketing campaigns
Logistics &
Delivery
Supply Chain Manager
Packaging Manager
Logistics Manager
Delivery Manager
Ensure smooth functioning of supply chain activities
Ensure proper packaging of ordered books
Manage loading, unloading and transportation
Coordinating to ensure timely deliveries of books
Ecommerce
Website
management
Webmaster
Content Manager
Content Writer
Copywriter
Developer
Graphic Designer
Manage website posts and content placement
Ensure required content is delivered and published
Write content wherever needed for the company
Write advertisement copies for the ecommerce seller
Develop website patches and plugins as needed
Develop graphics for the website and advertisements
Customer
Service
department
Customer Care
executive
Customer relationship
manager
Response to customer inquiries and queries to resolve
them
Ensure good service is given to consumers and work to
get loyalty in customers
Accounts
Department
Accountant
Finance manager
Manage the daily accounts records and reporting
Manage the finances and maintain financial statements
HR Department HR Manager Recruitment and selection of candidates for jobs and
training of employees on company practices. Ensuring
their welfare and device policies and strategies to retain
them
Other Office Boy
Peon
Security Staff
Housekeeping staff
Help managers with office supplies maintenance
Help managers with personal support
Ensure security of personnel and things in office
Ensure cleanliness in the office and washrooms
Mockups

Reference

Go-Globe. (2016, December). E-Commerce in Asia. Retrieved September 19, 2017, from Go Globe:
https://www.go-globe.com/blog/ecommerce-in-asia/
Jisana, T. K. (2014). Consumption Pattern and Buying Behavior of consumers in Kerala. INternational
Jurnal of economic and Busienss Review , 93-98.
Lavinsky, D. (2013, September 30). Marketing Plan Template: Exactly What To Include. Retrieved
September 19, 2017, from Forbes.com: Marketing Plan Template: Exactly What To Include
Marlow, L. (2017). India's Book-Buying Habits Say A Lot About The Country's Economy. Retrieved
September 17, 2017, from https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-05-22/india-s-book-
buying-habits-say-a-lot-about-the-country-s-economy
Nilsson. (2007). Demand and the demand curve. CSUSB.
Wischenbart, R. (2015). The Business of Books 2015. Business Club.