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This case is about “Red”, a cross-border e-commerce platform developed from a community which was built to share overseas shopping experience. With sharp insights into the consumption behavior of urban white-collar women and riding on its community e-commerce advantage, “Red”, a cross-border e-commerce startup, pulled in three rounds of financing within just 16 months regardless of increasingly competitive market. On the other hand, well-established platforms such as T-mall International and Joybuy also stepped in, and their involvement will also speed up the industry integration and usher in a reshuffling period. Confronted with the “price war” started by those e-commerce giants, in what ways can “Red” adjust its shopping experience and after-sales services to enhance the brand value and sharpen its edge?

After completing the case study, the students will be able to explore, create and capture the dilemmas of a platform strategy; compare, contrast and configure strategies for successful platform adoption; develop fitting configurations for marketplace design; and use temple framework to evaluate the dilemma of the element of time (do it sooner, delay for later or dismiss forever) in launching a new marketplace.

Shoppre was a parcel-forwarding firm established in 2017. In a short period, Shoppre turned out to be one of the best parcel forwarding and cross-border commerce companies in India, thanks to the first-mover advantage it enjoyed. Shoppre had offerings of shopping and shipping of cross-border e-commerce. As a new firm looking forward to increasing its market power, Shoppre faced the dilemma of whether to launch the marketplace, and if yes, whether to do it soon or delay it for the future. There was also confusion in the marketplace’s design and implementation. Nikkitha Shankar’s (she/her) worry was that if Shoppre did not decide quickly on this, there would be possible crises in managing the partners and their financial performance. Shankar was brainstorming the issues with the founding partner and was gauging the dimensions. This case study presented new marketplaces’ dilemmas along with managing sellers, customers, markets, finance, logistics and digital transformation.

The case study is suitable for undergraduate- and graduate-level students pursuing courses in business programmes and senior management professionals participating in executive education programmes. The case study will also fit well for courses such as the “Platform strategy: building and thriving in a vibrant ecosystem” course [1], digital business models [2] and digital business strategy [3].

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 11: Strategy.

Marketing.

The courses in which this case can be used include e-business, e-commerce, digital marketing, retailing and marketing strategy. This case can be used to teach MBA students. This case is also having the equal relevance for the executive programmes.

AaramShop is digitizing the Grocery General Trade ecosystem. There are of millions of neighbourhood kirana stores spread across all the cities of India. AaramShop is bringing these neighbourhood kirana stores online, and making them not only e-commerce-ready but also capable of using technology to take their stores to the next level in terms of service and delivery. The case lists out the issues and challenges faced by AaramShop.

This case challenges the participants to understand the new business model in the e-commerce space. The participants can look at the different angles of the business model proposition, namely, how AaramShop approach delivers on the retailer proposition, consumer proposition and the brands proposition. The participants can also be sensitized about the obstacles in making the business model more successful. These obstacles can be posed by the retailers, consumers or brands. The case will lead to a discussion about the logistics model opportunity available to Aaramshop.com.

Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

CSS 8: Marketing

Brand management, marketing management and retail.

This case is applicable to postgraduate business management students.

Mr Rajesh Jain promoted Miraaya chain of stores in the year 2010. Currently, Miraaya is a fast-evolving retail chain selling women's wear, and this case describes Miraaya's journey since its inception and its attempt to build a brand with limited resources and to carve a place for itself amidst growing competition and fast-growing customer awareness. Though Rajesh almost singlehandedly led the brand, the organization has professionals in each function and there has been process orientation – both for front-end functions as well as back-end functions, right from the beginning. In the second year of operation, the revenue grew very rapidly, but in the third year, when faced with the challenge of stagnant revenue, the organization could still increase the profitability. With a focus on product innovation, he and his team have been able to retain the customers' interest, which is at a premium with widespread competition from both organized and unorganized women's apparel retailers. With innovations like salwars in knitted fabric and cropped trousers with elastic waistband, Miraaya remained ahead of the pack. To keep the costs low, Rajesh and his team worked constantly on expanding via franchising and shop-in-shop formats as well as on online sales, thus also increasing the brand awareness. Students might come to the class with an understanding that brand building is done mainly through active communication in the media, while this case would create an opportunity for the students to appreciate that word-of-mouth, online media and building customer relationships via product innovation can be very exciting, affordable and successful media.

With the help of this case, students would learn about customer-based brand equity model and its factors. The case would also help to understand the challenges of brand building in retail in a country like India. It also defines the latest buying behaviour of Indian women and their aspirations.

The case illustrates the challenges and opportunities for a retail entrepreneur in an Indian environment. The case is a nice piece of work to showcase how a new retailer should build the brand in a highly competitive market. This case can be a source of inspiration among budding entrepreneurs.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

After reading and discussing the case, the participants would be able to: apply 7S and VRIO framework for online furniture retail; evaluate the profitability of horizontal versus vertical marketplaces for selling furniture online; articulate the challenges faced by online furniture retailers; discuss the applicability of technology to enhance customer experience in online furniture retail; and discuss the omni-channel strategy which online furniture companies can adopt.

Although furniture has traditionally been an unorganized category, the online furniture platforms have been on an upward curve since past few years. Digitization of economy and usage of smartphones to access internet had given a thrust to online purchases. This case on Wakefit Innovations Private Limited is intended to provide the readers with the business and marketing insights of selling furniture using online platform. The readers will be able to understand how retailing furniture using e-commerce is full of challenges and how various marketing activities have helped Wakefit improve their customer base. The readers can discuss the advantages and disadvantages of horizontal versus vertical e-commerce marketplaces and various challenges associated with online furniture retailing. Whether Wakefit should continue setting up experience centres and the benefits that could accrue by usage of virtual reality, augmented reality and data analytics are additional dimensions which can be discussed by the readers. The case will benefit the professionals in understanding the challenges and marketing strategies used by online furniture retailers and the same can be replicated by other players in this sector.

This case is suitable for students enrolled for full credit course on e-commerce at post graduate level. The case can be discussed towards the middle of the course once the students have studied different formats of e-commerce marketplace.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 8: Marketing.

Through the analysis of the case, the students will be able to: 1. appreciate the dynamics in a multi-channel environment especially in the relatively new ecommerce space in India; 2. understand the decision-making process and the impact on various stakeholders in adopting a new ecommerce sales channel; and 3. evaluate financial implications of channel profitability and its implication on the decision.

Philadelphia Home Products (PHP) India was facing a sales slowdown and was looking at a foray into the e-commerce channel, as an answer for business growth. The decision was not an easy one, as it had implications on existing channel partnerships and the organization. Channel choice decisions had acquired a new dimension with the proliferation of ecommerce platforms and changing online consumer buying habits. It was January 2015 and Nandini Devgan, CEO of PHP India was with her experienced team, who clearly had differing points of view. She needed to put the organization back on a growth trajectory, but how does she balance the various differing views put forth by her team? Was entering the ecommerce channel the best option?

This case is designed for use at the postgraduate level in courses, such as sales management, channel management, e-commerce and strategic marketing courses, as well as in executive management programs. The case is relevant from the context of channel management of a Consumer-Packaged Goods company in India, where e-commerce is nascent yet growing. It gives students a practical hands-on decision-making situation, where there are complexities of quantitative and qualitative nature. It triggers a discussion where the chief executive officer (CEO) and her team are facing growth and profitability issues, and have to take a decision on whether or not to adopt the e-commerce channel while managing the existing channels.

Teaching note is available for educators only.

CSS 8: Marketing.

Describes the winning formula at Neiman Marcus that has made it the No. 1 luxury retailer in the United States in terms of sales per square foot and profitability. Highlights Neiman Marcus' efforts to define who its customers are and are not and to achieve superior focus on its customers by aligning location, price, service, and merchandise to fulfill these customers' every need. Describes ways in which Neiman Marcus prevents typical silo behavior between merchandising and selling and how it ensures that the right merchandise gets to the right customer, despite the challenge of doing this in 36 micromarkets.

To show how a company integrates two strong high-performance functions—merchandising and sales—to get the right merchandise to each customer in more than 30 diverse selling locations while consistently providing exceptional customer service.

Target Corporation is concerned that the company might be left out of one of its most lucrative and attractive product categories, video games and game players, as these products increasingly migrate to digital distribution models. What steps should the company take to maintain its relevance and build sustainable competitive advantage as these trends play out? What are the implications for the company's multi-channel online and offline format portfolio going forward?

Students will develop a keen understanding of the challenges faced by contemporary retailers as consumer needs change, new product innovations emerge, market structures evolve, and format pressures escalate.

Marketing plan; virtual shopping; consumer behavior.

Undergraduate.

This case discusses the e-commerce plan of new online grocery company in Mexico, MexGro, which is planning to emerge as low-cost outlet as compared to the brick-and-mortar establishments in the market. MexGro is an online grocer with a round-the-clock call center to process phone-based orders and to provide customer support. The grocery online company is aimed at setting up a virtual grocery shop by the name of MexGro S.A de C.V to serve cross-cultural products to the Hispanic and Asian communities in Mexico. The MexGro, being a virtual shop, need not pay for checkout clerks; display cases, or parking lots, online grocers can drop prices below those of retail stores and remain profitable. This case explores online consumer-shopping behavior, the economics of online and offline grocery distribution, and the challenges of uniting a pure information business with a mundane package delivery service.

This case may be discussed towards learning developing effective online marketing planning strategy for the niche markets. The specific learning objectives of the case are: to analyze the virtual marketing planning constituents for developing customer-centric marketing within a niche and explore the possibilities of sustainable business growth to encourage strategic thinking towards developing online marketing plan and develop effective communications among the consumers and to address the critical online planning issues, such as what are the prospects for grocery shopping on the internet. The case allows students to grapple with the strategic and tactical decisions on planning for the online marketing companies. Students will also become familiar with key questions/issues raised by the various executives of the company in formulating the online marketing plan for ethnic grocery in a niche business environment: the case challenges students to think about how online grocer creates the most value for customers and how grocer will likely be able to overcome the competition from the brick-and-mortar grocers. Should Wal-Mart be aggressive in launching its grocery brand? The case raises issues to debate on how the organizational and system decisions are faced by managers in developing a virtual shopping culture in Mexico as the company has the goal to move among more efficient competitors in the supermarket industry, and How the online marketing plan can be implemented within a niche. This case study would take students through the rise of a private brand to the strategies of its sustainability in the competitive marketplace. This case illustrates the importance of using new variables in developing an effective marketing plan when companies reinforce their products in the niche markets. The discussion in the case allows students an opportunity to evaluate online marketing planning and their brands in a niche as well as in a competitive marketplace.

Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

A consulting team to an international food packaging company (SDYesBox) is attempting to decide which algorithm is the most useful for selecting two national markets in Central America and the Caribbean. SDYesBox wants to work closely with its immediate customers – manufacturers in the dairy and food industry and their customers (retailers) – to develop and market innovative products to low-income consumers in emerging markets; the “next big opportunity for the dairy industry” according to SDYesBox.

New product development and market selection in emerging markets in Latin America.

Five algorithms are “on the table” for assessing 14 countries by 12 performance indicators: weighted-benchmarking each country by the country leader's indicator scores; tallying by ignoring indicator weights and selecting the countries having the greatest number of positive standardized scores; applying a conjunctive and lexicographic combination algorithm; and using a “fluency metric” of how quickly consumers can say each country aloud. At least one member of the consulting team is championing one of these five algorithms. Which algorithm do you recommend? Why?

Learners gain skills, insights, and experience in alternative decision tools for evaluating and selecting choices among emerging markets to enter with new products for low-income (bottom of the pyramid) products ands services.

Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.