I am required to conduct a feasibility study fro the e-cmmerce website needed by Sports warehouse in order to increase their online sales

Conduct a feasibility study and discuss the results of your feasibility study of the project in the following areas: a. Technical capability b. Financial resources c. Legal requirements d. Operational e. Scheduling

please find below the outline of the company and the project(e-commerce website) and the outcome

Sports Warehouse Project Outline

Overview

Sports Warehouse is based in the Illawarra Region in NSW, Australia. It is a reseller of athletic clothing, sports equipment, and accessories sourced from local Australian manufacturers as well as big global brands. It was established in 2001 as a family business and has since grown in popularity around the Illawarra due to their emphasis on budget friendly quality products, as well as the support of local community sports organisations.

1. The company would like to add more products over time, particularly from Australian manufacturers to expand their reach and help support Australian businesses.

The company currently has a range of products:

• Australian made clothing and accessories - these are locally sourced, Australian designed and manufactured sports apparel and accessories intended to support Australian businesses and communities.
• Branded sports apparel - these are a collection of men's, women's and children's sports apparel manufactured by the big brands. Clothing covers both activewear and lifestyle wear.
• Sporting equipment - these products cover sporting equipment for a range of sports including soccer, cricket, basketball, netball, surfing, skateboarding, boxing, and CrossFit.

Project outline

Currently Sports Warehouse is selling its products through a limited number of retail stores in the Illawarra, but would like to expand into Sydney, as well as interstate. It has a basic website with no shopping cart. The website does not appear to be frequently visited, possibly due to a lack of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). Any sales that come via the website are made through phone calls to the head office in Wollongong. This has been an issue as customers aren't always able to make their purchases during standard business hours.

These issues are hindering business growth and Sports Warehouse is struggling to keep up with its numerous competitors. The aim of this project is to implement an online sales platform, as per their strategic plan.

The company's target customers are families and those involved in casual sporting activities. The consumer profile identified for the target group is parents aged 30 - 55 with children aged 5 - 15. The intended strategy of the company, as identified in its marketing plan, is price and people-based marketing to the target group based on positioning the products as budget friendly and high-quality with a percentage of the profits flowing back into community sports organisations.

As products are only sold in a few stores in the Illawarra, total sales are currently fairly small. However, Sports Warehouse wishes to increase awareness of its products among consumers and to position itself as a family and community friendly supplier against its competitors, who are large established brands.

The company employs a number of staff, all of whose roles and responsibilities are documented in the Sports Warehouse job profiles document.

Sports Warehouse has engaged Inspired Architech for assistance with achieving their strategic plans via the implementation of an ecommerce website.

Project Budget and Timeline

The total budget for the project is $50,000 and they would like to go live with their ecommerce website in three months from today.

As part of the ecommerce website development, they require training for their staff on how to use the platform including adding products to the catalogue as well as reporting on website sales and traffic.

Sports Warehouse have requested an initial photography package to capture their range for the new website launch to ensure high quality and consistent images across the site.

They would like support for the first 6 weeks of operation so that their staff can ask questions as needed and Inspired Architech is on hand, should there be any technical issues with the site.

Project Objectives

To be high performing, profitable and accountable

• Ensure that all financial operations, performance indicators and results support the strategic policies.
• Identify new and expand existing sources of revenue.
• Increase the total sales by about 40%.
• Provide community sport development grants of at least 30% of net profit.

Develop services to meet customer needs and aspirations

• Increase range of products offered to better meet a wider range of customer needs.
• Diversify into all Australian markets to meet domestic consumer needs.
• Offer diverse options for purchase of products, for example, retail, online and phone

Continue building deeper customer relationships

• Customer-centred practice, with a focus on meeting their total needs for affordability and quality.
• Strengthen the skills of our people, to better support customers.
• Drive community engagement of sport through sponsorship and grant programs.

Attract, engage and develop talented staff members

• Continuing the drive to a customer centred, high performance workforce and culture.
• Strengthening the skills of our people, to better support customer needs.
• Empowering people through innovation and service.
• Continuing to enhance the diversity of our workforce.
• Employing additional consultants to help meet strategic objectives.

Sports Warehouse 3-year strategic plan

Executive Summary:

Established in 2001, Sports Warehouse is a family and community friendly company specialising in the sale of high-quality and budget friendly sportswear, equipment, and accessories.

We cater to consumer demand for quality products that won't break the bank and that also give back to the sports community to help Aussies get more active, fit, and healthy.

Mission Statement:

Our mission is to meet our client's needs for affordable, quality products, and also give back to the community.

Vision Statement:

To be an Australian market leader and a household name for providing affordable and quality sports products.

Values:

The core values underpinning our activities are:

• Quality
• Social responsibility
• Respect
• Reliability

Marketing Strategies:

Our marketing strategies aim to:

• build our brand
• generate new leads
• help to convert those leads quickly
• form the basis of ongoing relationships and referrals.

We plan to develop our market share by:

• improving our marketing and advertising
• continually improving the quality of service given to clients
• maintaining effective communication channels with all customers to ascertain their needs and then manage inventory accordingly
• continually improving communication channels with all our stakeholders, ensuring a flow of timely and accurate information to facilitate effective planning and decision making
• targeting identified growth markets with planned, market appropriate campaigns employing a variety of promotional strategies and advertising mediums
• offering attractive prices to customers
• continually improving the skills, knowledge and effectiveness of Sports Warehouse through our commitment to training and development
• regularly reviewing the effectiveness of all our operations and making improvements when and where necessary
• partnering with community organisations to develop brand awareness and engagement.

Situation Analysis:

Table1Situation Analysis

Strengths	Weaknesses
Value and quality Strong management Customer loyalty Friendly organisational culture Level of available finance for investment	Brand name not developed as yet Small organisation Small range of products No online store (not many customers want to complete sales by phone)
Opportunities	Threats
Extend product range Diversify markets Social media marketing Online sales Retail outlets	High level of competition Fluctuating consumer preferences in relation to outdoor sports impacted by adverse weather conditions Failing to satisfy clients demands

Sports Warehouse Computer Infrastructure

• The company has a Head Office with a Unix Server environment where all connected peripherals including the printer and scanner are connected to the office network.
• Mail is hosted externally through Google Workspace for Business.
• The company has two methods of document storage, with secure documents such as client and inventory lists stored on the local network. All collaborative documents such as sales reports, calendars, and supplier presentations are saved externally on Google Drive.
• All employees in the office have Macs, internet access and email accounts.
• Employees in retail stores have two central iMacs and one 'floating' iPad Pro.
• There are no IT or technical staff employed by the company.
• The company already has web hosting which is a Linux server running Apache (v2.4+), PHP (v8.1+).
• The company also utilises a MySQL database (v8.0+).

Website Outcome

Project closure

The project is now complete, with the project team leader reporting the outcomes as follows:

Dear project manager,

Here is an update on the project to assist you in your handover report:

• It is five months since the project commenced and the web site is now live and has been operational for 4 weeks.
• There has been very positive feedback amongst all staff about the look and content of the web site.
• The photoshoot had to be outsourced to an external supplier as our internal photographer was unavailable. This caused a delay but also impacted the budget as the external photographer was $4500 for the shoot.
• The training has been completed with the Sports Warehouse staff and while they were at first overwhelmed by the extra work, they have found a way to make time throughout the day to manage the site.
• So far, the website has made $4500 in sales since the launch 4 weeks ago.
• There were some minor shopping cart issues with regards to shipping costs, but these were rectified during testing and there have been no new issues reported since launch.
• So far, the website has seen on average 400 transactions per week. This week it's looking to hit 700.
• Recently another bug was identified when someone tried to purchase a product to be delivered to Tanzania. Sports Warehouse is unable to ship to that geographic location and it was quite a process to refund the money to an international credit card. They want to know that this will be resolved moving forward as that was not listed on the original shipping country list. So, it is our error.
• The client has reported that they are overall quite pleased with the project and are very excited to see initial sales coming through.

If you have any questions regarding the above, please don't hesitate to reach out.

Regards,

Project team member