Group Members: NUR ATHIRAH BINTI MAT LAZIM, 2024974577 NURULAIN NAFISA BINTI SAINUDDIN, 2024736285 SITI AIDA SYAMIMI BINTI SAZALI, 2024554249 SITI NURAQILAH BINTI MD SABRI, 2024905213
Submission Date: 8 JULY 2024
Table of Contents 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Background of the Business ....................................................................................... 1 1.2 Information Systems in the Business ..................................................................... 2 2. Business Process Analysis ................................................................................................. 3 2.1 Business Process Activities .............................................................................................. 3 2.2 Porter’s Value Chain....................................................................................................... 5 2.3 Porter’s Competitive Forces Model ........................................................................... 6 3. Business Solutions ................................................................................................... 9 3.1 Proposed Business Solutions ...................................................................................... 9 3.2 Demonstration of Business Solutions ................................................................... 11 4.0 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................ 15 5. Presentation Slides ................................................................................................ 16 Total marks ....................................................................................................................... 16 1. Introduction 1.1 Background of the Business
Shara Othman is a local owned retail business that sell various selection of Muslimah wears for women and started in the year 2016. There are four categories which are Eid’24, women, kids and casual wear. Eid’24 is a limited collection and based on the “Raya” theme that was only sold specially in this year. Their collection provides a variety of clothes choices, including tops, dresses, set clothes, “abaya”, “baju kurung” and “baju kebaya”. They also sell matching clothes for mother and daughter which makes it easier for them to wear matching clothes without looking in other stores.
Shara Othman began their business in Bentong, Pahang, with a single modest premise. Founded by a team of mother and daughter. The business has grown steadily over the years due to ongoing innovations. By offering a large selection of modest apparel, Shara Othman was established. Shara Othman has 2 outlets which are located at Level 2 of Central i-City Mall, Shah Alam, Selangor which operates every day from 10am to 10pm. Another outlet is at Level 1 of East Coast Mall, Kuantan, Pahang.
The objective of this business is to come up with creative ways to make it simple for all ladies to wear modest clothing. The clothes are simple and great for everyday wear. They use the best quality materials and the most accurate design, they also use premium fabrics to provide the customer with the utmost comfort and confidence while still maintaining an effortlessly stylish style. The vision of Shara Othman is to fulfill the need for fashionable, high-quality apparel that is affordable and accessible for everyone. The mission is to provide clothing that encourages self- expression and enables people to show off their unique style through our clothes.
1 1.2 Information Systems in the Business
Shara Othman has been using multiple systems ever since they started their business. They have been using the systems for several functions such as sales, customer service and their boutique’s financial management. Implementing information systems in business brings vast advantages in terms of business’ efficiency, scalability and customer satisfaction.
Firstly, Shara Othman benefits the barcode scanners, receipt printer as well as tablets where the company uses as their mobile POS terminals. Therefore, they utilize point-of-sale (POS) system where the system is used by their company to handle their daily sales transactions by calculating total payment including discounts and taxes and emailing receipts for online purchases. Shara Othman delivers the details of customers’ payments by delivering printed receipts upon payment. Through our interview with the company’s staff, Shara Othman ensures customers’ satisfaction through Customer Relation Management (CRM) systems by integrating with their customer service email and social media like Instagram as their communication tools. Through social CRM, they can manage their customers’ contentment as it is direct and easier to engage compared to traditional CRM.
E-commerce platforms are also one of the information systems implemented in Shara Othman’s business where they make use of their developed website to support their online sales. Through the same website, they manage their available product listings based on their current stocks which differ every season especially festive seasons. Other than that, they also make good use of their website to process customers’ online payments using toyyibPay as their payment gateway and integrate with shipping systems.
2 2. Business Process Analysis 2.1 Business Process Activities
Shara Othman is a very competitive fashion industry in women's clothing collection. They become highly competitive due to a well-coordinated business process framework. A business process is an ongoing set that links together in providing value to an organization's products or services for its partners and customers. Here are several business processes that are been used by Shara Othman.
Their journey begins with the production and operation business, which is research for the best quality fabrics and materials that are extremely comfortable and confident while looking effortlessly stunning. The design teams need to create something that is with the highest precision and unique, identifying trends or an innovation solution to ensure that they are easier to wear. Moreover, processing the physical inventory, receiving, inspecting the stocking parts and material. As well as handling shipping using "Pos Laju".
Apart from that, the business process of finance and accounting, finance management, will monitor the company's budget and ensure that the financial resources are utilized efficiently. To track the financial performance of the company, prepare financial reports. Additionally, applying the credit approval and terms to customers and managing their payments. Payroll, tax compliance, and accounts payable and receivable will be handled by accounting management.
Finally, in the procurement process, they need to nurture and maintain good relationships with the suppliers to consistently buy materials of superior quality that are cozy for customers to wear. Shaza Othman supplier in Kuantan is a local manufactory. Thus, inventory or stock management will keep an eye on and regulate inventory levels to keep costs down and guarantee availability.
3 Based on the flowchart, the Shara Othman website will begin by displaying their products. The products will be displayed according to the sections such as eid’24, women, kids, and casual wear. If the customers want to select any product they are interested in, they can simply click on it. Otherwise, the customers can continue to view the products. After the customers select the product, they can choose their size and quantity and then click on the ‘Add to cart’ button. The order will be added to the cart. If the customers want to order more, they can go back to the display product page. If not, they will redirect to the display order page where it will display the order that has been added to the cart. If they want to update their order, it will redirect to the selected product page to make any changes to it. Otherwise, the customers will be redirected to the payment page to pay for their order by using either a debit card or any online banking. Lastly, the customers’ order will be placed.
4 2.2 Porter’s Value Chain
5 2.3 Porter’s Competitive Forces Model
Threat of Entry of New Competitors
Shara Othman is influenced by the force of new entrance to its market according to its location within the mall, the quality of the clothing as well as the creativity of the fashion. However, the clothes industry has a relatively high barrier to entry due to the high startup costs of the fashion retail business including real estate or renting a store, inventory, and marketing can be a significant obstacle to entry of new competitors because of the low profit in the early stages of the business to bear the operation and business costs. It also requires a lot of capital to open a business. It can be stated that the retail industry has a low threat of new entrants.
Bargaining Power of Suppliers
The bargaining power of suppliers is low. Fashion stores usually have a wide selection of suppliers, enabling them to bargain for better prices given the high material quality. Furthermore, suppliers are under pressure to produce products faster at lower prices, which has reduced their negotiating power due to the fast fashion trend. Shara Othman has its supplier for each raw material. For instance, all the fabrics they get are the supplier’s stock from Kuantan, Pahang.
Bargaining Power of Customers
The bargaining power of customers is high due to an excessive number of retailers in the market. Firstly, customers can simply switch brands and stores according to preferences like price, quality and design because there are a lot of options available. Shara Othman aims to satisfy buyers’ demands by updating their products following the latest trends in fashion. Secondly, customers are frequently concerned about price as it is a big factor in purchasing decisions. Customers usually don’t negotiate because Shara Othman currently offers clothing at a lower price than its rivals without downgrading its quality. Furthermore, customers have access to a variety of information to help them make wise choices and look for better offers through social media and Instagram or TikTok reviews about the brand.
Threat of Substitute Products or Services
Since Shara Othman Central i-City branch is practically located in a mall, the threat of substitute products is clearly high due to there being many options for women’s clothes in that mall other than the Shara Othman’s products. Besides that, online retailers also somehow can be a threat to Shara Othman as they offer more convenient alternatives to the retail customers. Nevertheless, the prices and qualities play a crucial role in attracting the customers. Therefore, Shara Othman has opened their own online shop website as well as sell their products on Shopee and TikTok Shop where
6 the customers can browse from the comfort of their homes. Other than that, Shara Othman also keeps promoting their products on social media and releases more products with reasonable prices and qualities to attract customers and lower their threat of substitute products.
Rivalry among Existing Competitors
Shara Othman faces a very tough competition for being a retail shop in a huge mall due to the high number of rivals around them. Cala Qisya, Sogo, Panda Eyes, M&B are Shara Othman’s rivals. These businesses compete in various ways. For instance, Panda Eyes and M&B offer much cheaper women’s clothes but not exclusive ones. Thus, the rivalry between them and Shara Othman is very strong as they are all in the same industry. Hence, Shara Othman still stands strong because they are popular with their products’ design and comfort.
7 Porter’s Competitive Forces Diagram
8 3. Business Solutions 3.1 Proposed Business Solutions
Based on Porter’s Competitive Forces, we can see that the bargaining power of customers of Shara Othman is high. Other than that, through our interview with one of the employees of Shara Othman, there are some areas that they should improve, especially in Customer Relationship Management which is a customer-focus and customer-driven organizational strategy. The main reason we find that Shara Othman is lacking in CRM is that they do not have a proper system for the customer to share their feedback and channel their inquiries as their customer service platform is mainly based on social media platforms. We consider this as an issue as Shara Othman’s target customers include the elders who may not own any social media accounts. Although customers can send their inquiries through email, Instagram, or Facebook, they somehow need to wait an extended length of time for their inquiries to be answered mainly during the festive season. Besides that, potential new customers may also want to look for past customers’ feedback before purchasing any products from Shara Othman.
To improve customer intimacy, we proposed a Customer Feedback and Services System to
solve the problems faced by Shara Othman. It is a website that will be a channel for the customers to share their feedback about the products as well as for them to channel their inquiries as the website will have a customer service live chat. The website will display past customers’ feedback which will help to attract potential customers. It also allows the customers to submit their feedback and communicate with the customer service regarding any curiosities about the products. The customer service will provide a live chat with any staff and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ). It also has a new menu page which will guide the customer through to return and refund process.
As for the staff side of the website, there will be a return and refund page where the staff can view all the issues report regarding the products from the customers. The staff can approve the customer’s return or refund request based on the report they received. Besides that, the staff also can add more questions and answers for Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for the customer references.
All the benefits of the solution mentioned will achieve the CRM primarily in improving the process of managing interactions with existing, past and potential customers. Through the customer service live chat feature on the website, Shara Othman will be able to provide high-quality and responsive customer service by assessing the customers with a prepared FAQ and one-to-one conversation between a customer and a customer service staff. In addition, the submitted feedback by the customer will give Shara Othman an insight into their customer satisfaction levels which will benefit them in building a base of loyal customers. Furthermore, the development of the website will allow Shara Othman to grow wider and larger as the website can be a digital marketing strategy at the same time because everyone can access it anywhere at any time. Therefore, investing in developing
9 a website to build a good CRM is beneficial as it will build sustainable long-term customer relationships for the business and customers.
10 3.2 Demonstration of Business Solutions
11 12 13 14 4.0 CONCLUSION
Through this project, we observed that Shara Othman possesses a thorough understanding of applying information systems and strategic framework including Porter’s value chain and competitive forces model within the retail sector. However, we found a noticeable gap exists in their approach to Customer Relationship Management (CRM) which has become one of the challenges in their business.
In response to these findings, we have proposed a customer feedback and service system that is aimed at enhancing current service offerings at Shara Othman. This system will include interactive features such as real-time chat support with knowledgeable staff and a platform for displaying customer feedback. These enhancements are designed not only to improve customer satisfaction but also to attract potential customers by showcasing the company’s commitment to responsive service.
In conclusion, this project has deepened our understanding of how business information systems function within the context of Shara Othman. Moreover, it is vital to maintain strong customer relationships as one of the ways to grow the business. By developing this system, we aim to empower Shara Othman with the necessary tools to succeed in a competitive market by improving their CRM strategies and proposing a solution which is the customer feedback and service system.
