Plan Outline |
Maternity Clothing Online Business PlanExpectingUcomThis sample business plan can be edited directly in Business Plan Pro software.
  Strategy and Implementation SummaryOur marketing strategy is to create product awareness among expecting women and their families by strategically placing Internet ads, using direct mail tactics sold and generating PR. We offer a unique product that we feel confident expecting women will find fun to wear during their pregnancy. It will be a novelty item that will allow them to stay connected to their interest in their collegiate team both at games and around town. 5.1 Marketing StrategyExpectingU.com's marketing strategy is crucial to the success of our business. We must create awareness of our product to our primary target market, as our products are of little use to anyone outside of this group. We will do this by:
5.2 Competitive EdgeThe competitive edge offered by ExpectingU.com is our unique product. Currently, no major maternity retailer and few online stores offer collegiate maternity t-shirts. We will position ourselves as a specialty online store catering to expecting moms who want to maintain their support of their favorite team through their pregnancy. Because of our niche, we can effectively choose targeted sources to market our product to our customers. Our primary weakness is that we are a new business and we offer a new product. To generate sales, we must first create awareness that our product exists, and make it easy for potential customers to locate our online store. By offering a fun product that many expecting women would like to have, we feel we an quickly establish our presence in the maternity wear industry. 5.3 Sales StrategySales are dependent upon creating awareness of collegiate maternity wear within our target markets, and therefore the sales strategy for ExpectingU.com is based on driving business to our website. Because we are a new product line, we understand that we will have to generate excitement about our apparel in order to generate business. We will strategically place pop-up and banner ads on web-sites relevant to both expecting mothers and sports fans, we will use direct mail and e-mail lists and we will seek public relations coverage in relevant media sources. ExpectingU.com will fulfill orders from our website store, as well as offer customers an option to fax in orders to our company. E-orders: Customer can purchase online 24-hours a day, seven days a week. Fax orders: Customers can fax in an order 24-hours a day, seven days a week. As the company grows, we will leave the option open to using a fulfillment center to take orders via the telephone. 5.3.1 Sales ForecastThe sales forecast for FY 2006 takes into account slower sales at the beginning as we create awareness of our product and website. Initially we will be selling one style of t-shirt, but will offer it with the logos of up to 132 different Division 1 universities. As the company grows, we will explore the demand for other types of collegiate maternity wear such as tank tops, sweatshirts and long-sleeved shirts. The following table illustrates unit sales of 36,500 t-shirts for the first year. This would require us to sell to less than 1% of our primary target market. The Monthly Sales Chart that follows indicates that we have some seasonality in our business. We expect sales to increase during the Fall, which is when football season occurs and when sales for collegiate goods are the highest. 
5.4 MilestonesThe following are the key milestones for the first year of operations:
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