Case Study Of Stylerunner

Introduction

The company under study is one of the leading digital destinations for premium activewear. It is a perfect hub for the people who love to lead an active lifestyle as it delivers the latest on-trend style to the fashion devotees around the globe. The report will be focusing on the marketing objectives, cultural flexibility and company growth. Prior to it, a brief description will be given on the company’s background. Light will also be given on the changes and development of the company in recent years. The report also highlights company’s interest and challenges they face. SWOT analysis will be used to have an in-depth idea about the company’s strengths and weaknesses.

Background

The company was established in the year 2012 by the twin sisters with one employee. Currently the company is operating in a global level offering over 30 stylish brands including popular brands such as adidas and Nike. Their headquarters are based in Sydney, which enables them to offer a delivery with 3 hours anywhere with in Sydney. This is a part of their “community first” approach, which also offers their customers a shopping experience with each package meticulously hand-wrapped. Stylerunner’s latest innovation is named as Deloitte’s TECH Top 50 in 2016 for its rapid adaptation of new technology to deliver unrivaled customer experiences in the luxury activewear market (Stylerunner, 2017).

Challenges faced by the company

Like every other startups, Stylerunner also faced the challenge making budget. It was difficult for the Stevanja sisters to cope up with the budget at first which eventually paid off. Hiring employees in the starting days was another hurdle they had to face. It was difficult to recruit someone based on their paper, as many of them showed incompetence to keep up with the pace and culture of the startup.

Business Interest

The Stevanja sisters started the company as a passionate customers, hence they gives their customers the top most priority. They realized the gap in Australian market and committed of creating the world’s first premier online sports supplier. Their primary interest is to deliver the most fashionable curation of active and off-duty to their global audience in a unique, innovative and personal way. Passion for the product, customer experience and authencity in their marketing style helped the stylerunner grow by 1736% in just 3 years. Their goal is to operate in a global level and offer their customers a wide range of activewear in a single place (the entourage, 2017).

Flexibility of Cultures

The company works hard to foster a creative, inspiring and rewarding company culture and seeks to become the best company to work for. They have put a lot of effort to implement a positive culture for the success of their business. Julie states that they are investing in creating an organization that is healthy, happy and a great place to work at and think that is crucial to long term success (Stylerunner's success, 2017). For the Stevanja sisters, culture is the paramount of their business. It is mandatory for the team members to live and breathe the Stylerunner ethos, which will reflect the passion of the workers about their work.

Key use of Branding

Branding is represented by how one positions their products to their customers. Different companies use different branding strategies. Stylerunner is unique in the industry with their mission to deliver fashionable activewear to their global customers. They use instagram to promote their products. They share aspiration content attached with their products to attract the right customers. Stylerunner has influential friends in social media which is an advantage for them. They send out products to the celebrities, who often promote the products in social media (the entourage, 2017; Chaffey, 2015).

Managing Strategy

Julie Stevanja often offers advices for managing the employees where she said that, team’s emotions need to be considered especially around the growth and change. Different approaches were taken by her depending on the personality of her employees. It resulted her break the ice and bridges the gap that allowed her business to grow rapidly (management tips, 2017).

SWOT Analysis

The SWOT analysis is a key tool used to analyze the strength, weakness, opportunity and threats faced by any organization. Stylerunner is a startup e-commerce business based in Australia which has show a remarkable growth in past few years.

Strength

Being an e-commerce business, they are able to operate in global level. This is the primary reason behind their fast success

They offer premium sportswear to their customers with quality assurance. They are currently selling different well established companies like Nike, adidas along with their home brand. Currently they are selling over 30 brands in their sites (Hill, Jones and Schilling 2014).

They offer a delivery with 3 hours anywhere in Sydney as their headquarter is situated there.

Their unique style in packaging and delivering the product differentiate them from other similar business.

Weakness

Long delivery timing outside Sydney can be considered as a weakness of the company. As they are operating in a global level, it is hard for them to manage the particular part.

As the company is dealing only in activewear, it is hard for them to keep up with other similar brands that cover all the categories.

Like all other ecommerce businesses, Stylerunner also face the limitation in personal services.

Shipping cost potentially increased as they started operating in global market.

Opportunities

Stylerunner is currently enjoying their wide business growth as they aimed to have. The local competition has been cut down as they are operating online.

Being an online organization, they can operate 24x7 which is an opportunity for them to grow fast (Sutrisno, 2016).

They managed a wide range of brand to come under their company. Customers can choose from this vast collection in one single place (Consoli, 2016).

They are promoting their company over social Medias and online marketing. Instagram is an integral part in their marketing. It enables them to reach out more customers. This is also a cost effective approach than offline advertising.

Threat

Competition is constantly growing as the popular brands now have their own portal to sell their product which possesses threat for Stylerunner.

Stylerunner is now operating in global market. Every country has different laws for marketing which needs to be kept under consideration. It also affects the charges for delivering the products (Cooper, 2014).     

Solution

The rapid growth of the company over past few years made them headline of many newspapers. They now are operating in global market which created the necessity of a competent manager. As a startup company, they face the problem of hiring staffs who will understand the culture and pace which needs to be resolved. The company should also measure the external factors of the global market and focus on promoting and adaptability of the products sold.

Conclusion

The report represents clearly analyze the background of the company and the challenges they faced in the starting years. Focus is also given on the business interest of the company and the cultural flexibility that they maintain to keep the work atmosphere health. The report also highlights the managing strategy adopted by the twin sisters which help them to run the business smooth. A SWOT analysis report is also presented that helps to identify the potential strength, weakness, opportunity and threat that the company might face in near future and to help them plan accordingly.

References

Chaffey, D. (2015). Digital business and E-commerce management. Pearsoyn Education Limited.

Consoli, D. (2016). The Global Market Of Small Businesses By E-Commerce Platforms. Challenges Of The Knowledge Society, 966.

Cooper, T. (2014). Digital technologies and the future of the Australian fashion industry.

forbes advocate. (2017). forbesadvocate.com.au. Retrieved 1 August 2017, from https://www.forbesadvocate.com.au/story/2313054/is-this-the-new-lululemon/

Hill, C.W., Jones, G.R. and Schilling, M.A., 2014. Strategic management: theory: an integrated approach. Cengage Learning.

management tips. (2017). powerretail.com.au. Retrieved 1 August 2017, from https://www.powerretail.com.au/insights/management-tips-stylerunner/

Stylerunner. (2017). stylerunner.com. Retrieved 1 August 2017, from https://www.stylerunner.com/about-stylerunner

Stylerunner's success. (2017). smartcompany.com.au. Retrieved 1 August 2017, from https://www.smartcompany.com.au/partner-content/article-series/growing-up-in-business-series/a-fashionable-influence-stylerunner-s-success-story/

Sutrisno, A., Kwon, H. M., Gunawan, I., Eldridge, S., & Lee, T. R. (2016). Integrating SWOT analysis into the FMEA methodology to improve corrective action decision making. International Journal of Productivity and Quality Management, 17(1), 104-126.

the entourage. (2017). the-entourage.edu.au. Retrieved 1 August 2017, from https://www.the-entourage.edu.au/blog/how-stylerunner-grew-by-1736-in-just-3-years/#.WYDujojyvIU