Business assignment deconstructing Alice McCall business model identifying the critical success factors

Question

Task: You are required to prepare a business assignmentthat deconstructs a business model of an organisation of your choice and identifies the critical success factors that make the business sustainable.

Answer

1. Introduction
Alice McCall is a renowned fashion brand in Sydney, Australia, that deals in women's attires. It was launched in 2004, and now Alice McCall has become well-known in the community. Its 13 boutiques throughout Australia, 171 international stockists, and online store previously provided premium and feminine designers to customers around the world (Alicemccall.com.au, 2022). The company positions itself in the multiple device and channels touchpoints; it is able to provide customers with consistent brand reminders. Thus, an effort is made in the business assignmentto evaluate the hierarchy of business through a business model.

II. Discussion of Business modelin the business assignment
Alice McCall the organization considered in the business assignmentoperates in the country, which enables to bring a finished design that meets the current needs of the customers. It incorporates all relevant strategies that help to conduct its business operations smoothly. By looking at time consequences, it is nowhere behind in providing special offers and discount packages to the customers to increase its profitability.

A.Building Blocks
According to Osterwalder and Pigneur (2010), a business model canvas is defined as a "strategic management template" which aids an enterprise in describing, framing, and analysing its business models. The following in the business assignmentis an illustration of the business model Alice McCall through which she used to conduct its business

Figure 1: Business canvass model of Alice McCall
(Source: Self created)

1. Customer segment

The customers of Alice McCall are women. This business was developed to serve women aged 25-40 years. The main target of the business considered in the business assignmentis to provide a great shopping experience to women who have disposable income and belong to upper-middle class categories. The targeted customers hold a tertiary degree or its equivalent and are starting to settle down in their lives (Pixel, 2022). The customers are generally of Asian and Australian descent.

2. Key partners

Thriving business operations through social media is a key factor for the business to create awareness about its products offering and delivery to the individual and genre sales traffic (Growjo.com, 2022). This enterprise considered in thebusiness assignmentis itself built on providing an online shopping experience as the key partners involved, such as Airplay FinTech, enable this business to accept and accelerate all social media activities through the Shopify integration.

3. Value propositions
i.The values involve elegance, ambition, enjoyment, joy, optimism, energy, warmth, and harmony and ensure product quality via social media campaigns.

ii. Make it easy and wearable for women of the upper class (Pinterest.com, 2022).
iii. The boutique design is worn by a supermodel, which enhances its value to the customer, which is its targeted supermodels such as Kristen Stewart and Kate Moss.

4. Key activities
The key activities of the company involve advertising its products through online channels. Five of the illustrations are depicted below in the business assignment:
i.Brand unleashes stores around Australia:This enterprise opened five new stores in areas such as Claremont, Warringah Mall, Miranda, Bondi, and Miranda. Additionally, at the end of 2018, it operated 11 shops nationally.
ii.eCommerce: The activities involved in social media campaigns increased the online growth rate by about 40%.
iii. Global dominance is on the cards:Launching its brand in 2004, this enterprise has established a wholesale empire to span Moda Operandi, David Jones, Harvey Nichols and Liberty London (Alicemccall.com.au, 2022). The company considered in the business assignment is currently looking at Los Angeles retail spaces with the intention of opening a location the following year.

5. Channels
This company mentioned in the business assignmenthas multiple channels since it has collaborated with multiple retailers such as General Pants Co. and Topshop, along with artists Damon Downey, Alice Babich, and EugeniaLoli to establish standout, runaway shows and provide unique prints to the customers.

6. Revenue
The revenue of the company considered in thebusiness assignmentare major from women, and it is able to beat its competitors at a high level. It has increased its revenue by 312% and in terms of the transaction by 232% and decreased by 24 % in cost/ purchase (Pixel, 2022). The following is an illustration of revenue along with its competitors.

7. Cost structure
The cost structure of Alice McCallconsidered for this business assignmentis basically in the form of a premium and competitive pricing strategy. The stock costs are generally 30 percent of its price sale. The operating and selling costs estimate at about 20% of the revenue. It is observed that the majority of the expense is held while advertising through social media.

8. Key resources
Google ads and enrolling on Omni channels are the key sources that serve the company with multiple advantages (Vogue.com.au, 2022). This brand mentioned in thebusiness assignmentis able to provide customers with information through an email newsletter. Mailing lists and google ads infrastructure are important sources for direct mail advertising along with generating traffic at websites for orders.

9. Customer relationships
According to Guerola-Navarro et al. (2021), customer relationship entails the process of creating a strong bond with the customers and exchanging values and ideas about the products effectively. This company mentioned in the business assignmenthas a high reliance on technology that helps build strong customer relationships. Through email service, it is able to create a strong customer base and sell its products to those who demand and are satisfied with its services (Alicemccall.com.au, 2022). The customer service team of this company is created, which is available to provide service to the customers. It serves with chat facilities from Monday to Friday.

B. Interrelationships
The nine building blocks of the business mentioned in the business assignmentare sufficient in showing the way the business is able to connect each and every aspect and is able to generate profits. This brand is available to the customers by providing 24x5 services that keep them able to retain their intention for a long time. The Instagram followers and the online sales are able to generate millions of dollars and contribute to increasing its profitability at a high level. On the other hand, the value proposition is sufficient to express the link between its customers and the brands (Pinterest.com, 2022). This serves as a direct channel to the women where the supermodel used to wear its products and influence the demand of the customers through Omni channels. The key activities of the company depict in thebusiness assignmentthat it is able to expand its market all over the globe. For instance, the opening of markets in places such as Claremont, Warringah Mall, Miranda, Bondi, and Miranda shows the likeability of its products among women of 25-40. Moreover, the marketing success of the company is extremely interesting that depicts collaboration with General Pants Co., and Topshop is helpful in reaching a great audience.

C. Critical success factors
The digital procedure is essential since it connects the consumer attributes just on an outsourced email list which describes a predisposition to spend with the opportunity offered and the makeup of the transaction outcome. Alice McCall may increase execution speed while lowering costs and continual enhancement of processes and capital expenditures. A gantry crane that was recently put into service inside the distribution centre allows for the processing of requests daily by its workers (Alicemccall.com.au, 2022).

The company as per the business assignmentis in dealing with the premium price and mainly targets its customers, who are upper-class people. However, in the coming year, the brand can enrol into targeting the middle class or the younger groups of females. When it is able to target the middle-class people, it would essentially be able to enlarge its market share. Thus, in the coming years, new plans and ideas for new target audiences will be understood as critical success factors.

In terms of sustainability, moving towards organic clothes, which attracts many customers, will be another critical success factor for the business.

D. Downside risks
Despite the company achieving success, it is nowhere behind in facing challenges, the employee hierarchy is not well developed, and that creates difficulty in providing great customer service. It is apparent that hundreds of jobs were at risk due to failure in ideal administration (Alicemccall.com.au, 2022). Moreover, the company considered in thebusiness assignmentis able to provide customer service. However, it is failing to provide the effective service, which it should. The reviews of the customers reflect dissatisfaction.

E. Business model changes according to the business assignment
Concept of radical technologies that compete with low energy levels is significant. In the current business scenario where the technologies play a great role to enter into a new market web-based marketing is essential where the company needs to understand and go beyond using email, and Instagram only (Alicemccall.com.au, 2022). As per the business assignmentthe possible entries in many countries can be possible when it would enhance its social media propensity.

III. Conclusion
The customer's journey is difficult, and the enterprise has to face several ups and downs as per the findings of thebusiness assignment. It appears to be easy on the customer's part to get easily distracted and forget about the shopping cart when there is a lack of strategies present in the company. However, by bringing creativity and innovation to its production process, the company mentioned in the business assignmentmay be well established to provide the customer with a great shopping experience.

IV. Recommendations
o Increased propensity for online shopping for the women and tendency to communicate with them at a high level.
o Understand its competition and bring more creativity and innovative concepts in manufacturing clothes and apparels.

References
Pixel, T. (2022). Alice McCALL - Case Study | Alpha Digital. Retrieved 11 August 2022, from https://www.alphadigital.com.au/who-we-are/our-work/alice-mccall/ Osterwalder &Pigneur (2010) - https://assets.strategyzer.com/assets/resources/busines
s-model-generation-book-preview-2010.pdf
Guerola-Navarro, V., Gil-Gomez, H., Oltra-Badenes, R., &Sendra-García, J. (2021). Customer relationship management and its impact on innovation: A literature review. Journal of Business Research, 129, 83-87.https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296321001405
Growjo.com, (2022). Retrieved 11 August 2022, from https://growjo.com/company/Alice_McCALL Pinterest.com, (2022). Retrieved 11 August 2022, from https://www.pinterest.com/vixzenx/alice-mccall/ Vogue.com.au, (2022). Retrieved 11 August 2022, from https://www.vogue.com.au/fashion/fashion-shows/ready-to-wear/alice-mccall-resort-2022/image-gallery/d4eee2cde4a0232e52713e31207c8991

Alicemccall.com.au, (2022). Retrieved 11 August 2022, from https://www.alicemccall.com.au/pages/contact
Alicemccall.com.au, (2022). Retrieved 11 August 2022, from https://www.alicemccall.com.au/blogs/the-alice-edit/alice-in-studio