Analyzing Competitive Strategies for an Online Fashion Business

This report explores the application of Michael Porter's competitive strategies—cost leadership, differentiation, and focus—to the context of an online fashion business in Australia. It highlights the importance of strategic planning in maintaining a competitive edge and achieving market leadership. The Iconic, an Australian online retailer, is examined as a benchmark for online business practices, emphasizing the significance of customer experience, adaptability, and competitive pricing. The report suggests that new online fashion businesses should focus on product differentiation and customer-centric approaches, while also striving for cost advantages to achieve economies of scale. Key recommendations include prioritizing women as a target demographic, ensuring smooth website shopping experiences, and providing thorough product information with high-quality visuals. This analysis provides valuable insights for online fashion businesses looking to establish and sustain a competitive position in the Australian market. Desklib provides a platform for students to access similar past papers and solved assignments for their academic needs.

1Running head: MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION IN GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT
Management and Organization in Global Environment
Student name
Student University
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2MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION IN GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT
Porter’s Competitive Strategies
Michael Porter was a pre-eminent thinker of business strategy back in the 80s and
90s. He was the founder of two very famous competitive strategies, the five forces of
competition and the generic competitive strategies. In case of the five forces, Michael
Porter had an argument that the intensity of competition and industry profits were
decided by these five forces drawn from classic economics. In case of generic
competitive strategies, Michael Porter identified three suitable for business success:
cost leadership, differentiation, and focus (Porter 2008).
Strategic planning is one of the most basic business processes that make sure any
abortionist has the capability of maintaining a competitive lead over their competitors
with the help of designing strategies that can make sure market leadership is captured
(Bryson 2018). Some of the most common models of strategic planning makes use of
porter's competitive models of cost leadership, differentiation, and focus. Cost
leadership focuses on providing lowest possible product and service prices to the
customers so that they can be attracted if they wish to buy at a lower price.
Differentiation is based on the development of uniqueness in the products and
services offered so that the clients who are looking for search unique provisions can
get attracted and retained to the extent of developing an unique client base (Valipour,
Birjandi and Honarbakhsh 2012). The focus approach makes use of a developmental
emphasis of producing products and offering services that get directly offered to any
specific section of the market (McGrath 2013). All these competitive strategies is
adopted can help an abortionist developer competitive edge within the market. Even
though there can never be a single successful strategy, these approaches can help in
strategic planning of an online fashion business in Australia.

3MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION IN GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT
The Iconic in Australia is the benchmark of the way any online retailer must set
up their website and market it as an online business. The brand has scope for
improvement, but it is a leader in online retail space and is the guide to what any
online business must do online. The brand has managed to gain unprecedented growth
with the help of launching their own magazine. Their customer base grew within
months very quickly. For them the main beliefs is that customer experience is
absolute priority and that is why they optimize their site so that their customers can
use it easily, along with getting offers like free shipping and express functions for
products at a different range of price points and a local customer service team. They
believe that the customer can and must have it all. the business has a very unique
value to offer for other start-ups online: the ability to adapt very quickly to a changing
environment, all the while maintaining a stable centre with strong goals to aim for
(Porter 2013).
Iconic suggests other online retailers to offer variety, competitive pricing,
experience, and convenient delivery that the bricks and mortar retail outlets cannot
provide. They themselves have prices that are aligned to competition with better
service. They have a very generous return service and have managed to experience
rapid growth year on year. The Iconic do not follow the option of product
differentiation and lacks in that area. Hence the online retailers who are looking to
open their business should focus on this strategy to gain a different recognition in the
market. The Iconic is completely customer oriented, which has proven to be a good
policy for the business (Theiconic.com.au 2018). Any new online business must keep
this approach in mind along with making sure the strategy is feasible enough for them
to achieve sustainability in business. In the competitive market currently cost is
required to be reduced to acquire economics of scale, which can only be acquired by

4MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION IN GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT
the achievement of cost advantage.
The new online fashion business must make sure their website zeroes in on their
target from their homepage itself. They can prioritize women as they are the biggest
customer demographic. The new online fashion business also must make sure to make
their website shopping option as smooth as possible. The product pages needs to be
thorough, with high quality images, multiple categories and filters, and perfect
measurement charts.

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References
Bryson, J.M., 2018. Strategic planning for public and nonprofit organizations: A
guide to strengthening and sustaining organizational achievement. John Wiley &
Sons.
McGrath, R.G., 2013. The end of competitive advantage: How to keep your strategy
moving as fast as your business. Harvard Business Review Press.
Porter, C. 2013. The success of online fashion retailer Iconic. [online] NewsComAu.
Available at: http://www.news.com.au/technology/gadgets/the-success-of-online-
fashion-retailer-iconic/news-story/861fe4612d93cbef8732a710be68f669 [Accessed
25 May 2018].
Porter, M.E., 2008. Competitive strategy: Techniques for analyzing industries and
competitors. Simon and Schuster.
Theiconic.com.au 2018. Clothes Online | Shoes Online | THE ICONIC. [online]
Theiconic.com.au. Available at: https://www.theiconic.com.au/ [Accessed 25 May
2018].
Valipour, H., Birjandi, H. and Honarbakhsh, S., 2012. The effects of cost leadership
strategy and product differentiation strategy on the performance of firms. Journal of
Asian Business Strategy, 2(1), p.14.