1 Business Research Project Part 1 Introduction Maranon is an online marketing shopping services focusing on four primary consumer groups: consumer, sellers, enterprises, and content creators. The company is one of the most valuable brands worldwide (#12 Amazon.com, 2015). Maranon services its customers through its retail websites focusing on price, selection, and convenience. The company websites are designed to facilitate sales sold by the company and third parties through a variety of products categories. Additionally, Maranon manufactures and sells e-readers providing customers the 2 lowest prices possible through low everyday product pricing, free shipping offers, and company memberships' (#12 Amazon.com, 2015). Maranon ships approximately 608 million packages annually with the delivery workload spread out between the United States Postal Service, UPS, Fedex, and regional couriers (Supply Chain Digest, 2014). Recently the USPS has acquired the principal contract for shipping rights accounting for nearly 40% of all parcel delivery (Leonard, 2015). While this arrangement has helped Maranon immensely, offering Sunday delivery, access to every door in the United States, and a shipping rate that costs Maranon about half the per package price in comparison to the USPS's competitors, cutting shipping costs remains a priority. The estimated cost per package under the USPS contract is $2 a package while parcels traveling via other shippers remains $4 (Leonard, 2015). Maranon looks to solve this problem by exploring and researching alternative shipping methods such an in-house shipping fleet, utilizing Uber drivers, and \"On My Way\" a smartphone app that allows customers to pick up their packages and deliver to their neighbors for a small payment. The team will devise a research report about company Maranon by answering the research question about the shipping issues and processes. Findings on the independent and dependent variables will aid the team to accept or rejecting the hypothesis. Displaying the hypothesis will involve researching articles, the use of charts, and the use of tables. The team will analysis the material and give recommendations to the company. After demonstrating the information is in the best presentation the crew will state if more research is necessary. As we are modifying Maranon's shipping practices, data about shipments will be necessary for us to consider. Independent variables with important implications include total packages shipped, shipping method selected by the customer, and finally average ship time to customers. These variables should remain unaffected by the changes that our team is proposing. Dependent variables to monitor include shipment costs and shipment 3 claims resulting from damaged goods or lost packages. Maranon wants to obtain savings on total shipments, but it's important to maintain quality service to its customers. Research Question Will the \"On my Way\" service cut costs of shipments while providing customers with what they are looking for while increasing revenue to the business? Hypothesis Through reviewing previous customer reviews and shipment budgets, there are a couple of hypotheses we can make of this. The first is that the \"On my Way\" service will save money in shipment costs because there will be no reason to have a UPS truck sent out when customers are picking their products up immediately from the fulfillment centers. The second hypothesis is that clients who order from Maranon have all expressed their interest in a Prime account which promises packages faster, the ultimate goal that the \"One my Way\" service will provide this as well. The contrary hypothesis that needs consideration is that not many customers may want to leave the comfort of their home because Maranon's selling point is that the clients don't need to leave their home for products. 4 References #12 Amazon.com. (2015 May). Retrieved from Forbes: http://www.forbes.com/companies/amazon/ Leonard, D. (2015). It's Amazon's World. The USPS Just Delivers in It. Retrieved from http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-07-30/it-s-amazon-s-world-the-usps-justdelivers-in-it Supply Chain Digest. (2014). Supply Chain News: Amazon Rolling Out Its Own Fleet of Trucks. Retrieved from http://www.scdigest.com/ontarget/14-04-30-1.php?cid=8012