Business planning for an e-commerce business model

Initial Situation

An e-commerce provider has successfully positioned itself as a leading retailer of sporting goods in performance sports and team sports since its founding in 1998, while maintaining the character of a start-up company. Through targeted and successful exploitation of market opportunities and via differently oriented sales channels in four business segments, the target customer segments end customers, clubs/companies and online store operators, could be specifically addressed and self-financed exponential growth realized.

With a sales volume of € 45 million, the customer has reached a critical size that requires a well-founded evaluation and orientation of further business development.

The analysis phase focused on the following questions in particular:

• How is the customer currently positioned in the market and competitive environment? What is its USP? Where are the opportunities and risks in the market environment?
• Which success factors and competencies are decisive for the success to date? What are the strengths and weaknesses of the current organization?
• What business development can be forecast for the business units? What dependencies exist? Which strategic guard rails must be adhered to? What structural prerequisites are necessary for this?
• Which strategic courses of action should the client pursue to not only secure but also accelerate further growth?

GP+S Services

• Structured interviews to assess the current situation.
• Consolidation of all findings for the description and evaluation
  • of the individual business areas (online store and marketplaces, retail, team sports / clubs and companies, fulfillment sales partners) and presentation of cross-sectional functions
    o the success factors
    o the strengths and challenges of the management and organization
    o of the ecosystem: market and competitive environment, stakeholders, shareholding structure
• SWOT: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats
• Derivation of strategic advances for business planning.

Results

The analysis phase delivered the following findings and concrete results:

• Structured overall view of the maturity and importance of the individual business areas as a basis for planning further business development.
• Structural and organizational optimization approaches in the status quo
• Sharpening of positioning vis-à-vis the various target groups
• Clearly defined goals and strategic guidelines for the business units
• Consolidation into a business plan with sales and revenue planning for the next 3 years
• Excel model with a detailed breakdown of revenue sources and drivers as a tool for planning, controlling and measuring the success of the business development