Nico's Properties: Developing A New Business Opportunity Using Digital Platform, Essay.

1. Analysis of two themes of the student’s choice: first, of entrepreneurial opportunity for sourcing the student’s idea, and second, of entrepreneurial development for developing the chosen idea, including an explanation of why the chosen literature is important to the student.
2. Explanation of the idea’s value proposition in the market by drawing on literature to support students’ remarks.
3. Evidence of imagination in drawing on elements of the literature to produce an interesting and plausible account of their choice of idea and one or more ways in which the idea may be developed.
4. Structure and content in evaluating and presenting the student’s analysis, including relevant application of diagrams, tables and appendices, as appropriate. Preparation and presentation (length, use of academic conventions, grammar, paragraphing, layout, and proofreading).

Advantages of E-commerce Business

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 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).

Features of E-commerce Website and Mobile Application

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 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).       

Target Market and Value Proposition

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 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). 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.   

Opportunity Creation and Recognition

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 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.  

Business Development Idea for the E-commerce Website and Application

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 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).

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.

References

Ling, D.C. and Archer, W.R., (2017) Real estate principles: a value approach. U.K: McGraw-Hill Education.

Buguin, J., Dobbs, R., Bisson, P., & Marrs, A. (2013) Disruptive technologies: Advances that will transform life, business, and the global economy. Journal of real estate business idea.15(2).       

Goffee, R. and Scase, R., (2015) The Real World of the Small Business Owner (Routledge Revivals). U.K: Routledge.

Cherif, E. and Grant, D., (2014) Analysis of e-business models in real estate. Journal of Electronic Commerce Research, 14(1), pp.25-50.

Turban, E., Outland, J., King, D., Lee, J.K., Liang, T.P. and Turban, D.C., (2017) Electronic Commerce 2018: A Managerial and Social Networks Perspective. N.Y:Springer.

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Lieser, K. and Groh, A.P., (2014) The determinants of international commercial real estate investment. The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, 48(4), pp.611-659.

Manganelli, B., (2014) Real Estate Investing: Market Analysis, Valuation Techniques, and Risk Management. N.Y: Springer.

Katyal, K. and Dawra, J., (2016) Capturing Heterogeneity in Preference for a Real Estate Offering Using a Hierarchical Bayesian Regression Model. Journal of Real Estate Research, 38(2), pp.291-319.

Huang, R. and Sarigollu, E., (2014) How brand awareness relates to market outcome, brand equity, and the marketing mix. In Fashion Branding and Consumer Behaviors (pp. 113-132). N.Y: Springer.

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Nico, (2018) About us. [Online] Available from https://www.nicoproperties.co.uk /[ Accessed on 21-06-2018].

Bushery, M. (2017) 12 Outside-the-Box Real Estate Marketing Ideas That Can Spark Engagement. [Online] Available from https://placester.com/real-estate-marketing-academy/12-outside-the-box-real-estate-marketing-ideas/ [Accessed on 21-06-2018].

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Chan, V.S., Khusial, D. and Mirlas, L., (2013) Journal of Multiple identity management in an electronic commerce site. U.S. Patent 8,359,396.

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