Clothes Rent: E-commerce Business Plan: Market Analysis and Strategy

This report details the e-commerce business plan for "Clothes Rent," a novel online platform specializing in renting clothes to customers in Malta. The introduction highlights the innovative nature of renting rather than selling, emphasizing the need for a robust e-commerce strategy. The business profile outlines the company's mission to provide access to branded clothing and its vision to fulfill this need for the people of Malta. The report then outlines the seven stages of e-commerce website development, including product identification, platform selection, hosting, partner selection, testing, marketing, and adaptation. A market analysis and environmental scan examine target demographics, the rise of internet and mobile usage in Malta, and employment rates. The report assesses the competitive landscape, identifying the lack of direct competition while acknowledging the threat of new entrants. Finally, it addresses revenue models, ethical and legal issues, privacy, security, strategic e-marketing, alternative approaches, and applications for the e-commerce site, offering a comprehensive overview of the business plan.

Running heads: CLOTHES RENT: RENTING CLOTHES ONLINE IN MALTA
CLOTHES RENT: RENTING CLOTHES ONLINE IN MALTA

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Table of contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Business Profile..........................................................................................................................3
Stages for the creation of an e-commerce site along with the management issues involved.....4
Market analysis and environmental scanning............................................................................7
Revenue models.......................................................................................................................10
Ethical and legal issues............................................................................................................14
Privacy and security.................................................................................................................15
The strategic e-marketing planning process.............................................................................17
Two alternative approaches......................................................................................................18
Applications to be added in the e-commerce site.....................................................................20
References................................................................................................................................22

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Introduction
In modern business environment E commerce has become an evident business
approach which has ensured success within the market. Online sales purchase and renting has
been a next generation way of conducting retail business. Now for the purpose of conducting
any business online it is important that the company creates a Ecommerce plan which will
ensure success in business of the firm on the digital platform. Clothes Rent is an innovative
business idea which is going to start it's Ecommerce website and conduct its operation using
the model of renting Clothes to the customers. It is important to consider that the firm is
renting product and not selling it which is innovative in nature. The company will operates its
business in Malta which is new place in which the company is operating in. This is a fresh
start to the company’s E commerce operation hence the firm will ensure that it has proper
plans and strategy which it implements in order to achieve success in its new operations. In
the current assessment there will be discussion over such plans and the ways in which the
company will develop and operate its website to achieve operational, strategic and financial
goals set by the firm in the initial phase of the business.
Business Profile
The business will aim at providing opportunity bro every people in Malta to enjoy
trending and branded clothes without buying. The lack of employment among the
people of Malta may cause issue upon their purchasing power. This very issue will be
solved by the e-commerce website “Clothes Rent”. The mission of the ecommerce
site is to play an important role in the daily life of people of Malta. The vision of the
organisation is to see every people in Malta fulfilling their dream of using branded
clothing.

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Stages for the creation of an e-commerce site along with the management
issues involved
There are 7 stages for the development of e-commerce website and they are mentioned as
follows:
1. Identification of product and services: Now in this stage determination of products
and service which will be rendered by the company on the website is decided. For the
current E commerce website the company is looking forward to rent clothes to the
customers. This is an innovative move on the E commerce site which means there will
be renting of products to the customers based on which website will be developed.
Clothes and apparels will be the product which will be rented on the website. Hence
the website of the company will be developed on this basis of rent procedure and
interface which will be used in this website will support the idea of renting products
to the customer. Now the problem with this is that as the trade pattern is innovative
nature there may be problem in describing on what are sales platform which the
company will use for their operations.
2. Determining correct ecommerce website development platform: In this stage the
company will try and determine the right website development platform for
developing there Ecommerce website. This is because it will help the company in
developing a website which is suitable for trade and conducting financial transactions
for both the firm and the customers. The company can use hosted and self hosted
platform for the website development. Although hosted website platform will be more
convenient for operation and maintenance as this decreases errors within website
operations. The problem again lies with the innovative idea in which rent of product
will be done hence it is hard to create a hosted platform website which is renting
product rather than selling it to the customer. Database compatibility is also

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important for the purpose which the company will have render the best data storage
system in between ERP, SAP and CRM to ensure that a lot of data can be stored as
the renting procedure will require high data transmission procedure.
3. Determination of right smoove website hosting platform: Now this stage is important
as the server for running the website is determined by the company. Making a
responsible choice for better server which helps in efficient operations of the firm will
be effective decision to help the company in operating efficiently within the firm.
Now as the renting of clothes will require a good supply chain and better flow of
information the challenge is to setup a proper system which is easy to use, monitor
and control from the viewpoint of the ecommerce strategy. This is why the company
will choose a server which can host servers which are easy to operate, are scalable,
are secure and are easy to maintain which will benefit the company in their e
commerce trade activities.
4. Choosing right E commerce development partner: Now partnership with supplier
for effective supply chain is very important to running the E commerce site of the
firm efficiently now the company has to make correct choices with suppliers so that
new brand and apparels are available at the site helping better operational activities of
the firm. The main problem which the company will have is that the company will
have to buy products from the supplies to rent it because currently there are no
supplier which will rent their products. Hence buying products from the supplier will
be choice which the company has although the company should move on to look for
supplier who would be willing to rent there products which will benefit the
company’s operations in an efficient manner.
5. Ecommerce website testing: Now the company after development of website and its
supplier will have to test the quality and operation of the company’s website to ensure

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that there are no problems with the website. This will help the company in checking
the functionality of website, security, performance and compatibility which the
following website has in accordance to the vision of the company. The challenge will
be to ensure that the website is working the same way in the real world as it was
working in the testing as the website may behave separately. Although testing will
ensure that the website is operable (Webfx.com, 2019).
6. Marketing: After the launch of the website after its testing the marketing of website
will be done to ensure that E commerce trade gains effective customer base for the
operational activities. The marketing will be done on the basis of the innovative idea
which the company has in regards of renting the products instead of selling them.
This will ensure that people needing special clothes for small period of time are
visiting the site to rent products at an specific rate which will be determined over the
demand of the product. Now the challenge will be that there may be low customer for
the company in the initial days but through the use of Word of Mouth the company
will increase there potential in E commerce trade.
7. Adapt and Grow: Now after there is operations over the firm’s website the company
will have to give attention towards the adapting and growing of their website platform
for larger operation as the demand and operation will increase with the customer
base of the firm. Adapting to newer technology and to new trends will help the
website to upgrade in an continuous manner. Whereas the company will also see that
the website grown in terms of inventory and supplies which its offers in its
Ecommerce operations.

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Market analysis and environmental scanning
a. Market segment
Business of renting the clothes in Malta the organisation will be targeting age
group, local business people and local consumers. There is a rise in the
utilisation of electronic devices in Malta as per report of 2017 we can clearly
justify that there is a huge chunk of money making in the E-commerce website
success in Malta.
Figure 1: Laptop tablet and mobile usage in malta
(Source:MCA, 2019)
It was noticed that internet usage and users in Malta along with Smartphones and Tablets are
growing with huge popularity. 29 percentage of the people in Malta over 2 years have
increased their usage of internet which is why the establishment of the internet website of
renting the clothes seems to be operational in high ground. Mobile phone users have

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increased by 17% in over 2 years (MCA, 2019). It interestingly shows that 70% out of those
are first port user of Internet who like searching products retail products and favours brick
and mortar environment.
Figure 2: Internet usage frequency of Malta Individual in 2018
(Source: Statista, 2019)
As per statistics the frequency of internet usage among individuals in 2018 were 80% once a
week and 77% daily (Statista ,2019). This very information suggest that there is a huge
opportunity for the website” Clothes Rent” to flourish in their internet rapport.
The employment rate in Malta has decrease 72.30 % in the fourth quarter of 2018 which was
72.80 percentage 3rd quarter of 2018. The average employment rate in Malta from 2000 to
2018 is 58.4 percentage return all time high of 72.80 in 3rd quarter of 2018
(Tradingeconomics, 2019). This certainly design that your organisation code target employed
people for having rented clothes for week which day do not have to buy but can enjoy a
quality of Wellness and business mindedness

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b. Competitors
Now looking at the business idea of the company it can be said that the business type is
innovative in nature and currently there is no direct competition to the firm in terms of
renting clothes to the customer through Ecommerce websites. This shows that the
competition within the market is very low in the current moment. It can be said that there are
indirect competitor like Amazon which sell clothes although the the concept of trading is
different and there is no direct competition to Clothes Rent at the current moment. As there
is no competition in the market it can be said that the form is enjoying monopoly within its
own industry and ecommerce trade type. However it is to be considered that there is a major
threat of new entry which will affect the company’s market share in an evident manner. This
means that the market for Clothes Rent is prone to entry of a new company which is doing
the same trade within the digital platform this will Erase the monopoly of the firm and divide
the market share of the firm in Malta. Due to direct competition there will more choices and
price trends in the market and this will directly affect the company's operation within there
ecommerce operations.
c. Competitive advantages and current business limitations
As mentioned above there are no competition to the firm innovation business on the digital
platform. This demonstrates the challenge inside the market is low in the present minute. It
very well may be said that there are backhanded contender like Amazon which sell garments
despite the fact that the idea of exchanging is unique and there is no immediate challenge to
Clothes Rent at the present minute. As there is no challenge in the market it tends to be said
that the structure is getting a charge out of syndication inside its very own industry and web
based business exchange type. Anyway it is to be viewed as that there is a noteworthy risk of
new section which will influence the organization's piece of the overall industry in an
obvious way. This implies the market for Clothes Rent is inclined to passage of another

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organization which is doing likewise exchange inside the computerized stage this will Erase
the syndication of the firm and separation the piece of the overall industry of the firm in
Malta. The current business limitations of the firm is that customer base of the firm is low
due to which the firm will have to create fceu customer which regularly rent products from
online store of the firm.
Revenue models
The term revenue model itself suggest the definition of the word procedure. Revenue
model is a format by which a company gathers the revenue stream for operation in
daily organisational life. There are different types of revenue model which would be
utilised for a Startup organisation like “Clothes Rent”. Some of the revenue model
those could be taken into consideration for the website to operate properly are as
follows. The Revenue model along with their advantages and disadvantages are also
presented to understand the best suited revenue model (DeMatas, 2019).
Affiliate revenue model

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Figure 3:Affiliate Revenue Model
(Source: Embitel, 2019 )
Affiliate revenue model is one of the most discussed revenue model for promoting
revenue to new startup organizations around the world. Affiliate model is mostly
utilised by E-Commerce startup business which is why it is one of the primary
suggested revenue model for The E-Commerce business website in Malta named as

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“Clothes Rent”. This web based revenue model is is utilised for promoting links of
relevant product in order to collect Commission on sales of those products from the
customer end. BF Elite revenue model is quite flexible since it is quite applicable in
terms of working in conjunction with ads or separately being provided on touch and
click. On discussion of the advantages from affiliate revenue model VC that it can be
utilised for for making more money than advised revenue model since they have been
employing benefits through affiliation of other products which can be related to that
of being invented by “Clothes Rent”. In terms of disadvantages of affiliate revenue
model the amount of money will be limited to the size of the industry which means
that the types of product the organisation will sell to the audience needs to be similar
to that of the product being linked for the affiliate revenue model.
Ad-Based revenue model