DesiFirangi.com: Building a Niche E-commerce Portal SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of DesiFirangi.com: Building a Niche E-commerce Portal
DesiFirangi.com was an online women's apparel retailer in India. Started in November 2014, DesiFirangi catered to the fashion needs of modern Indian women with international style. Within the short span of its operations, the company had established itself as a niche electronic retailer of lingerie, nightwear, and clubwear. However, the online apparel market in India was highly crowded, and the fledging company faced stiff competition from a number of established and upcoming players. Given this intense competition in the market, DesiFirangi was incurring high marketing and customer acquisition costs, which were hurting the company's bottom line. In order to increase revenues, DesiFirangi's founders needed to find ways to increase the number of unique visitors to the site, and convert more visitors to buyers. Krishna Akalamkam is affiliated with Birla Institute of Management Technology.
Swot Analysis of "DesiFirangi.com: Building a Niche E-commerce Portal" written by Krishna Akalamkam includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Desifirangi Desifirangi.com facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in DesiFirangi.com: Building a Niche E-commerce Portal case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Social platforms and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the DesiFirangi.com: Building a Niche E-commerce Portal casestudy better are - – customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, geopolitical disruptions, there is backlash against globalization, increasing transportation and logistics costs, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing commodity prices,
supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of DesiFirangi.com: Building a Niche E-commerce Portal
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in DesiFirangi.com: Building a Niche E-commerce Portal case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Desifirangi Desifirangi.com, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Desifirangi Desifirangi.com operates in.
According to Harvard Business Review, 75% of the managers use SWOT analysis for various purposes such as – evaluating current scenario, strategic planning, new venture feasibility, personal growth goals, new market entry, Go To market strategies, portfolio management and strategic trade-off assessment, organizational restructuring, etc.
SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix
SWOT analysis of DesiFirangi.com: Building a Niche E-commerce Portal can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in DesiFirangi.com: Building a Niche E-commerce Portal case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Desifirangi Desifirangi.com
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Sales & Marketing field.
4. Making a Sales & Marketing topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Desifirangi Desifirangi.com
Strengths DesiFirangi.com: Building a Niche E-commerce Portal | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Desifirangi Desifirangi.com in DesiFirangi.com: Building a Niche E-commerce Portal Harvard Business Review case study are -
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Desifirangi Desifirangi.com has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in, as mentioned in case study DesiFirangi.com: Building a Niche E-commerce Portal - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Desifirangi Desifirangi.com in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
High brand equity
– Desifirangi Desifirangi.com has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Desifirangi Desifirangi.com to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Desifirangi Desifirangi.com has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive segment. Secondly the value chain collaborators of the firm in DesiFirangi.com: Building a Niche E-commerce Portal HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Desifirangi Desifirangi.com has built up over years in its products and services combo offer has resulted in high retention of customers, lower marketing costs, and greater ability of the firm to focus on its customers.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Desifirangi Desifirangi.com are driving operational speed, building greater agility, and keeping the organization nimble to compete with new competitors. It helps are organization to ideate new ideas, and execute them swiftly in the marketplace.
Strong track record of project management
– Desifirangi Desifirangi.com is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Desifirangi Desifirangi.com in the sector have low bargaining power. DesiFirangi.com: Building a Niche E-commerce Portal has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Desifirangi Desifirangi.com to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Training and development
– Desifirangi Desifirangi.com has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in DesiFirangi.com: Building a Niche E-commerce Portal Harvard Business Review case study by analyzing – employees retention, in-house promotion, loyalty, new venture initiation, lack of conflict, and high level of both employees and customer engagement.
Organizational Resilience of Desifirangi Desifirangi.com
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Desifirangi Desifirangi.com does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry
– DesiFirangi.com: Building a Niche E-commerce Portal firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Desifirangi Desifirangi.com to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Desifirangi Desifirangi.com to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the DesiFirangi.com: Building a Niche E-commerce Portal Harvard Business Review case study comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the industry, building diversified operations across different geographies so that disruption in one part of the world doesn’t impact the overall performance of the firm, and integrating the various business operations and processes through its digital transformation drive.
Weaknesses DesiFirangi.com: Building a Niche E-commerce Portal | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of DesiFirangi.com: Building a Niche E-commerce Portal are -
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study DesiFirangi.com: Building a Niche E-commerce Portal, it seems that the employees of Desifirangi Desifirangi.com don’t have comprehensive understanding of the firm’s strategy. This is reflected in number of promotional campaigns over the last few years that had mixed messaging and competing priorities. Some of the strategic activities and services promoted in the promotional campaigns were not consistent with the organization’s strategy.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study DesiFirangi.com: Building a Niche E-commerce Portal has high operating costs in the. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Desifirangi Desifirangi.com 's lucrative customers.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study DesiFirangi.com: Building a Niche E-commerce Portal, in the dynamic environment Desifirangi Desifirangi.com has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Desifirangi Desifirangi.com has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As DesiFirangi.com: Building a Niche E-commerce Portal HBR case study mentions - Desifirangi Desifirangi.com takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the industry in last five years.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Desifirangi Desifirangi.com is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Sales & Marketing segment. Desifirangi Desifirangi.com needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Desifirangi Desifirangi.com to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the DesiFirangi.com: Building a Niche E-commerce Portal HBR case study still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Desifirangi Desifirangi.com has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Desifirangi Desifirangi.com has some of the most successful products in the industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. firm in the HBR case study - DesiFirangi.com: Building a Niche E-commerce Portal should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study DesiFirangi.com: Building a Niche E-commerce Portal that the firm needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department in the case DesiFirangi.com: Building a Niche E-commerce Portal can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Desifirangi Desifirangi.com is planning to shift buying processes online.
High dependence on existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Desifirangi Desifirangi.com supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - DesiFirangi.com: Building a Niche E-commerce Portal, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Desifirangi Desifirangi.com vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Desifirangi Desifirangi.com has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study DesiFirangi.com: Building a Niche E-commerce Portal, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Sales & Marketing strategy. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
Opportunities DesiFirangi.com: Building a Niche E-commerce Portal | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities highlighted in the Harvard Business Review case study DesiFirangi.com: Building a Niche E-commerce Portal are -
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Desifirangi Desifirangi.com can still utilize the low interest rates to borrow money for capital investment. Secondly it can also use the increase of government spending in infrastructure projects to get new business.
Buying journey improvements
– Desifirangi Desifirangi.com can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. DesiFirangi.com: Building a Niche E-commerce Portal suggest that firm can provide automated chats to help consumers solve their own problems, provide online suggestions to get maximum out of the products and services, and help consumers to build a community where they can interact with each other to develop new features and uses.
Identify volunteer opportunities
– Covid-19 has impacted working population in two ways – it has led to people soul searching about their professional choices, resulting in mass resignation. Secondly it has encouraged people to do things that they are passionate about. This has opened opportunities for businesses to build volunteer oriented socially driven projects. Desifirangi Desifirangi.com can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Desifirangi Desifirangi.com to expand its talent hiring zone. According to McKinsey Global Institute, 20% of the high end workforce in fields such as finance, information technology, can continously work from remote local post Covid-19. This presents a really great opportunity for Desifirangi Desifirangi.com to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Desifirangi Desifirangi.com in the consumer business. Now Desifirangi Desifirangi.com can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Loyalty marketing
– Desifirangi Desifirangi.com has focused on building a highly responsive customer relationship management platform. This platform is built on in-house data and driven by analytics and artificial intelligence. The customer analytics can help the organization to fine tune its loyalty marketing efforts, increase the wallet share of the organization, reduce wastage on mainstream advertising spending, build better pricing strategies using personalization, etc.
Manufacturing automation
– Desifirangi Desifirangi.com can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Sales & Marketing segment. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Desifirangi Desifirangi.com can build a diversified supply chain model across various countries in - South East Asia, India, and other parts of the world. This reconfiguration of global supply chain can help, as suggested in case study, DesiFirangi.com: Building a Niche E-commerce Portal, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Reconfiguring business model
– The expansion of digital payment system, the bringing down of international transactions costs using Bitcoin and other blockchain based currencies, etc can help Desifirangi Desifirangi.com to reconfigure its entire business model. For example it can used blockchain based technologies to reduce piracy of its products in the big markets such as China. Secondly it can use the popularity of e-commerce in various developing markets to build a Direct to Customer business model rather than the current Channel Heavy distribution network.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Desifirangi Desifirangi.com to increase its market reach. Desifirangi Desifirangi.com will be able to reach out to new customers. Secondly 5G will also provide technology framework to build new tools and products that can help more immersive consumer experience and faster consumer journey.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Desifirangi Desifirangi.com has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in the sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled, as illustrated in the Harvard case study DesiFirangi.com: Building a Niche E-commerce Portal - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Desifirangi Desifirangi.com to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Desifirangi Desifirangi.com can make experimentation a productive activity and build a culture of innovation using approaches such as – mining transaction data, A/B testing of websites and selling platforms, engaging potential customers over various needs, and building on small ideas in the Sales & Marketing segment.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Sales & Marketing industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Desifirangi Desifirangi.com can take advantage of these changes in consumer behavior to build a far more efficient business model. For example consumer regular ordering of products can reduce both last mile delivery costs and market penetration costs. Desifirangi Desifirangi.com can further use this consumer data to build better customer loyalty, provide better products and service collection, and improve the value proposition in inflationary times.
Threats DesiFirangi.com: Building a Niche E-commerce Portal External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study DesiFirangi.com: Building a Niche E-commerce Portal are -
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Desifirangi Desifirangi.com in the Sales & Marketing industry. The Sales & Marketing industry is already at various protected from local competition in China, with the rise of trade war the protection levels may go up. This presents a clear threat of current business model in Chinese market.
High level of anxiety and lack of motivation
– the Great Resignation in United States is the sign of broader dissatisfaction among the workforce in United States. Desifirangi Desifirangi.com needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Desifirangi Desifirangi.com can face downward pressure on margins from increasing competition from international players. The international players have stable revenue in their home market and can use those resources to penetrate prominent markets illustrated in HBR case study DesiFirangi.com: Building a Niche E-commerce Portal .
Backlash against dominant players
– US Congress and other legislative arms of the government are getting tough on big business especially technology companies. The digital arm of Desifirangi Desifirangi.com business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Desifirangi Desifirangi.com has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Sales & Marketing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Desifirangi Desifirangi.com needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Sales & Marketing sector. According to Mckinsey study top managers believe that the adoption of technology in operations, communications is 20-25 times faster than what they planned in the beginning of 2019.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Desifirangi Desifirangi.com is facing in Sales & Marketing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study DesiFirangi.com: Building a Niche E-commerce Portal, Desifirangi Desifirangi.com may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Sales & Marketing .
Environmental challenges
– Desifirangi Desifirangi.com needs to have a robust strategy against the disruptions arising from climate change and energy requirements. EU has identified it as key priority area and spending 30% of its 880 billion Euros European post Covid-19 recovery funds on green technology. Desifirangi Desifirangi.com can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
Technology disruption because of hacks, piracy etc
– The colonial pipeline illustrated, how vulnerable modern organization are to international hackers, miscreants, and disruptors. The cyber security interruption, data leaks, etc can seriously jeopardize the future growth of the organization.
Capital market disruption
– During the Covid-19, Dow Jones has touched record high. The valuations of a number of companies are way beyond their existing business model potential. This can lead to capital market correction which can put a number of suppliers, collaborators, value chain partners in great financial difficulty. It will directly impact the business of Desifirangi Desifirangi.com.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Desifirangi Desifirangi.com can face lack of demand in the market place because of Fed actions to reduce inflation. This can lead to sluggish growth in the economy, lower demands, lower investments, higher borrowing costs, and consolidation in the field.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Desifirangi Desifirangi.com with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Regulatory challenges
– Desifirangi Desifirangi.com needs to prepare for regulatory challenges as consumer protection groups and other pressure groups are vigorously advocating for more regulations on big business - to reduce inequality, to create a level playing field, to product data privacy and consumer privacy, to reduce the influence of big money on democratic institutions, etc. This can lead to significant changes in the Sales & Marketing industry regulations.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of DesiFirangi.com: Building a Niche E-commerce Portal Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers in the HBR case study DesiFirangi.com: Building a Niche E-commerce Portal needs to zero down on the relative importance of each factor mentioned in the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants.
We can provide the relative importance to each factor by assigning relative weights. Weighted SWOT analysis process is a three stage process –
First stage for doing weighted SWOT analysis of the case study DesiFirangi.com: Building a Niche E-commerce Portal is to rank the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. This will help you to assess the most important strengths and weaknesses of the firm and which one of the strengths and weaknesses mentioned in the initial lists are marginal and can be left out.
Second stage for conducting weighted SWOT analysis of the Harvard case study DesiFirangi.com: Building a Niche E-commerce Portal is to give probabilities to the external strategic factors thus better understanding the opportunities and threats arising out of macro environment changes and developments.
Third stage of constructing weighted SWOT analysis of DesiFirangi.com: Building a Niche E-commerce Portal is to provide strategic recommendations includes – joining likelihood of external strategic factors such as opportunities and threats to the internal strategic factors – strengths and weaknesses. You should start with external factors as they will provide the direction of the overall industry. Secondly by joining probabilities with internal strategic factors can help the company not only strategic fit but also the most probably strategic trade-off that Desifirangi Desifirangi.com needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
