New Business Opportunity: Digital Transformation in Real Estate Sector

This essay discusses a new business opportunity for Nico’s Properties, a commercial real estate investment company, through the introduction of a digital platform. The primary goal is to leverage e-commerce sites and mobile applications to increase sales, profits, and competitive advantage. The essay covers various aspects, including the uniqueness of the idea, target market identification (individuals looking to buy or rent residential homes), value proposition (benefits for customers such as saving time and cost through virtual property tours), opportunity creation, recognition, and discovery to address gaps in the proposed idea. It also delves into market research, marketing planning (including digital marketing strategies), financial planning, and profit generation methods. The e-commerce platform will feature property pictures, videos, and detailed descriptions, enabling customers to filter and sort properties based on their requirements. The essay highlights the importance of opportunity creation, discovery, and recognition in developing new business ideas and concludes by addressing how the website will reduce workload and improve customer satisfaction.

Real Estate: New Business Opportunity

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Nico’s Properties is a privately held commercial real estate investment company in the
business for over fifteen years. Principal activities are acquiring, developing, managing,
renting and selling residential homes. Main priority of company is to provide renting facilities
to customers with no or poor credit history based on their income (Nico, 2018). To increase
sale, to get more profits and to get advantage over competitors the company can use the
digital platform. The introduction of E-commerce sites and mobile application will really
help the real estate business to attain new heights in the market and will create new
opportunities. This essay is designed to develop a new business opportunity for the business
by using digital platform. The process will include uniqueness of idea, target market, value
proposition, target customers, service provided by the company to its customers, opportunity
creation, recognition and discovery to fill the gaps of proposed idea, market research,
marketing planning and marketing mix, financial plan, and ways through which company will
make profits.
There are numerous advantages are associated with the E-commerce business like the e-
commerce websites overcome the Geographical limits people all around the world can access
the site to fulfil their requirements, it also helps in gaining new customers with search engine
visibility the customers who are not aware about the company, will come to know about it
and its business. The e-commerce site also reduce down the cost, eliminate the time of travel
and cost, also provide comparison, enable company to introduce new offers, deals and group
buying offers, create targeted communication, remain open all the time as per demand of
customers and create market for niche products (Ling and Archer, 2017). The E-commerce
website and Mobile application will contain various options for individuals who are willing
to buy residential homes or individuals who want to take house on rent. The E-commerce site
and application will contain pictures and short video with description of property with its

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rates or rates with offers for both renting and selling. After selecting the property the
customer can make call to the agent and agent will take charge from there.
Every individuals who are looking to buy a property or individuals who are looking to take
house on rent are the target audience of companies E-commerce website. More importantly
the individuals who have knowledge of using computers, laptops and mobile phone are the
main target audience for the company. In the current conditions almost every person use
mobile phone and other electronic devices for shopping online and all those people are the
target audience for the company (Buguin, Bisson, and Marrs, 2013).
Value proposition defines the benefits provided by the company to its customer with the help
of its products or services. The value proportion will state the strong difference between the
company and its competitors. By introduction of e commerce website the company will get
an edge over its competitors, the e commerce website will extend the number of customers
for the company and will also attract the customers of the company’s competitors. As the
website and mobile app are providing the facility of featuring pictures and short videos that
will save the time and cost of the customers by just watching the pictures and video they will
get the idea that which particular home is fulfilling their requirement
(Manela, 2016). Website and app will also show the price and rent of properties which allow
customers to select the property allowed by their pocket. The customer needs not to go to
each and every house or apartment to select their dream home. The website and app will also
show the offers on the special occasions and to their special or loyal customers they will offer
special discount offers on sale property and rented property. And one more special feature the
company will offer through the website and app is the customers can insert their requirement
through portal and the company will offer the property as per their requirement. There will
filter and sort option will be there in the website and app with the help of this feature
customers can search the desired property on the bases of price, rent, area, city and document

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required. The e-commerce site will really helpful in identifying the wants of customers and
with the help of website and app to fulfil the wants of customers.
The target customers for the company will those people who are willing to buy the house, the
target customers include married couple, active military person and individual with family
the respective age group for the target customers are from 25 to 50 around. And target
customers who want house on rent will be single boys and girls or couple who move in
together and the respective age will be 19 to 35. There are various sources available in the
market to reach the target customers or the promotional strategies to reach the target market
will be advertisement. Advertisement will take the significant portion of the company’s
budget but it is very effective tool of marketing the E-commerce site and app which will let
the customers know there is something is launched in the market to make their work easy.
The various ways of Advertisements are radio, newspaper, television and magazine and
digital marketing. Digital marketing is the newest and effective way of promotion (Goffee,
and Scase, 2015).
Opportunity creation refers to the set of beliefs, ideas and actions the enables the creation of
future goods and services in the absence of current market. The opportunity arises from
perceptions and behaviours combined in an attempt to create new economic articles. The
emphasis is on actions taken in a situation of true entrepreneurial uncertainty. Creation
opportunities do not exist independently of social construction. Opportunity creation enacted
through human imagination and social interaction as a continuous process. The opportunity
appears in the flexible activity of creating meaning, sense-making and sense-giving in an
ambiguous social context. Created opportunities are connected with true uncertainty, in
which neither supply nor demand exists nor future is unknowable. The opportunity discovery
defines as situations in which new goods, services, raw materials, markets and organising
methods can be introduced thought formation of new means-ends relationship (Cherif and

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Grant, 2014). Opportunity recognition is a proactive brainstorming a new business venture or
expansion idea. The owners of business typically engage in opportunity recognition where
they realise that the particular idea, strength or capability are matching with the particular
target market. The entrepreneurial business owners constantly seek new revenue streams. For
long-term viability and success, a company need some ability to recognise opportunities.
Opportunity creation, opportunity discovery and opportunity recognition the themes of
entrepreneur will help the company in developing the new business idea (Turban, et.al.
2017). The opportunity creation will help the management in generating new and innovative
business ideas which expend the opportunities for business. The management will evaluate
the new market trends and the new methods which can help the business in creating new
opportunity as per the market trends. The opportunity recognition will help the company in
recognising new business idea through brainstorming sessions (Manganelli, 2014). The
owners of the business will mainly engage in the process of opportunity recognition. The
company will analyse the business and business opportunities properly and then they will
match the business conditions or business idea, capacity and strength in the market which
they are going to target. If both business conditions and target market will match then the
company will create the opportunity and expand their business in that particular target market
(Crowe, et.al. 2013).
While doing the business many time situations arrive in front of management and agents that,
in search of houses for rent and purchase the customers need to come again and again when
the agents call, sometimes the customers take off from their jobs for just inspecting the
property this process is consuming lots of time and cost of the consumer plus the time and
cost of company also. The individuals who are living in other city and they want to move to
another city they have to come to the particular city just to inspect the house, this process
may take place many times which involve huge cost and time (Huang and Sarigollu, 2014).

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From past few months the company is seeking ideas to reduce down the efforts of the agents
and the customers, there are few team meeting was conducted but no desired solution was
received. While one day the management has decided to conduct a brainstorming session of
the team, while brainstorming session many ideas have generated but the idea which whole
team and management selected to be best among the rest is developing an E-commerce
website for the business. But when the option was selected by the whole team the main issue
rise is how the website will help the customers as well will reduce down the work load of
their agents and other staff members (Lieser and Groh, 2014). Then the company again held a
group meeting where the conclusion arrive about the functioning of the Website and app and
what all features the website and app will be there. The idea of developing the website is
really useful in filling gaps between the company and customers. Many time it is been
noticed that the customers get really frustrated when they don’t find their desires or dream
house and still they have to come again and again to see the property, in the end they just end
up the agreement with the company and shift to other competitor company. And due to that
the company face loss. This gap will be filled by the company through the introduction of
new website and app.
The business development idea for the E-commerce website and application will include
various steps the first and foremost steps which will the company need to take will be the
planning, an operational plan will involve the clear picture of the of how Nico’s team will
contribute to achieving the desired goals of the company. The planning will include the
effective and efficient way to introduce the E-commerce website (Katyal and Dawra, 2016).
There are various sources required by the company to introduce the new business opportunity
while developing the E-commerce website and mobile application the need Web server
software it can be in form of hardware or software it will help the company in delivering web
content that can be accessed through internet. Browser is software which will help the user to

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access the World Wide Web. The browsers will interprets the HTML code into image text
etc. the will also requires a Database system which help in managing the data model and
database management system. IP, protocols and Ports will also be useful in website
development, the IP address is a special list of numbers that identifies each computer using
the internet to communicate. A Domain Name is also required by the company, domain name
is a unique name which will help the users in identifying a company’s website. Each website
has a unique domain name that will be consider as an address which is used to access the
website. After developing the website the company will need Instinctual Design because a it
will play an important role in attracting the customer an attractive website and application
will provide a good impact on the customers. Security of the website and application need to
be very strong as the online sites and app demand lots of personal information from
customers to keep that information safe the security of the said website and app should be
strong (Chan, Khusial, and Mirlas, 2013). The website will work by showing great and
impressive images and videos of the property for sale and for rent. The company need to
upload good pictures of the property and the video should cover each part of the property. It
is very important for every company to answer the questions ask by the people on the site and
app this will build a positive image of the company. And most importantly is that the site and
app should be handy that every individual can easily use it. The staff members require by the
company will be the web developer and application developer, the members who can handle
the requirements and questions of customers and agents who will take the customer to the
property selected by them.
The idea of developing the website and app is develop when the company goes into the roots
of the problem and will the customers are facing. The company has conducted a market
survey which contains the questions regarding the positive and negative aspects of the real

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estate business and after getting the results the company has decided to design and develop
the website and application (Wasserman, 2017).
The marketing strategy includes the four P’s, product, price, place and promotion. The
product in case of e-commerce website and application will be intangible in nature. For
company the product is the site and app designed by the company for their customers. And
the service of site and app is free for the customers the company will not charge any fee from
their customers at the initial stage but after the deal is been finalised the company will charge
there commission. For the use of site and app the user just need to log in into a website for
free in case of website and for app they just need to download and log in for free (Solomon,
2013). The place for business is the site and app developed by the company. Promotion is
very important aspect for the company as without promotion the customers will not be aware
about the site. There are various ways with the help of which the site and app can be
promoted. Various ways of promotions are television commercial, radio, newspaper, digital
marketing. TV commercial involve the huge cost the company will not entertain this method,
the newspaper, magazine and radio are the best option for the company. Digital marketing
involve very low cost so the company will choose this option also (Bushery, 2017). The new
business opportunity will involve very less cost, website and app development involve $
5000, advertisement involve $ 3000 and the other activities related to the process involve $
6000, so the aggregate finance involve in this business opportunity will be $ 14000.
The company will get profits when the customers will start using the website and by
watching the images and videos the customers will select their property they are interested in
and when deal will be finalised the company will get their profits. There are other benefits
attached with the site and app, the company need not to appoint more agents that will reduce
the cost of the company. And the app and site will save the time and efforts of customers and
company (Pelet and Papadopoulou, 2013).

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The new opportunity in the business which is created by the company by developing website
and mobile application will provide advantage by getting edge over competitors. As this site
will really helpful for the customers who are searching the property for purchase and for rent.
Other companies are not providing this type of benefits to their customers that will shift the
preference of the customers towards Nico’s.

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References
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