Etsy e-commerce business has grown rapidly for the past ten years. It wasn’t not long ago that in 2005 Rob Kalin, Chris Maguire, and Haim Schoopik created the company in a Brooklyn apartment. Unfortunately in 2008 two of the co-founder left the company Chris Manguire and Haim Schoopik, because they were frustrated with the number of hours they putting and minimum profit were seen. Meanwhile and solitary owner Rob Kalin hire senior director of product at Yahoo Chad Dickerson. Dickerson main focus was to improve the growth and finance of the company. Dickerson determination lead to replace Rob Kalin and appointed as the new CEO of Etsy in 2013. With a new CEO the company became profitable and by 2015 Etsy IPO worth $100 million. What is Etsy?
The second part, “Why It Happened: Eighty-Five Years,” explains the origins of the firm and its founding and operating principles, and it sets the basics for why several deviations from these founding principles eventually led the firm astray.
One look at the common-size income statements for these companies can tell a story. While Jones Apparel Group was lagging at year ended 1998, even with a restructuring charge on Liz Claiborne’s income statement, 1999 was a different story. Huge growth at Jones lead to revenues double of that one year ago while Liz, while increasing, was quickly falling behind. The growth for both of these companies continued into the year ended 2000, but Jones Apparel Group’s results were brilliant compared to Liz Claiborne’s. One billion dollar growth in revenues as well as higher net income is making Jones Apparel Group the company of the future.
Facts of the Case: In 2008, Samantha Elauf applied for a job at Abercrombie & Fitch, Inc., who as part of their “Look Policy” prohibit the use of caps. Elauf, as part of her religious practice, wore a headscarf to the interview. She was interviewed by assistant manager Heather Cooke, who gave her a score that qualified her to be hired. Cooke, however, was worried that Elauf’s headscarf was against the store’s policy and called her district manager Randall Johnson. She informed Johnson of her belief that Elauf wore her headscarf because of her religion, and Johnson replied that headwear whether it was religious or not violated the “Look Policy” of the store. Elauf with the help of the EEOC sued Abercrombie on the grounds of religious discrimination. The U.S Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is an agency established by the government of the United States that imposes federal laws that make it
Best Buy, a 47 year old business, has faced countless challenges over the years. While Best Buy’s reputation has fluctuated, the company has presented several strategies to deal with these problems by creating plans to stabilize and promote growth. Through an in-depth analysis, the following areas were studied performance, environment, and organization. The analysis will assist in examining Best Buy’s strategies and core competences. The objective of this study is an understanding of the challenges and to figure out what makes the organization successful.
The ecommerce industry is growing faster than ever. TJ Maxx needs to start focusing more on ecommerce not only to keep up with competition, but also to make sure they do well during weak economic periods. ecommerce, overall, tends to do very well during lackluster economic times. TJ Maxx will be able to cut costs more easily the more they expand their ecommerce business. Our business idea will allow them to expand their ecommerce as we will take over their website and delivery. TJX Companies’ three ecommerce sites accounts for only about 1.0% of the company’s total sales. However, the online channel is a key growth driver and TJX is taking initiatives to improve its online business. The ecommerce sales
What core competencies do you think the company has and what is needed to exploit opportunity and counter threats.
Jeff Bezo’s began Amazon in his garage in July 1995 with three Sun workstations setting on wooden doors for tables and extension cords running from everywhere (Academy of Achievement, 2010). Right from the beginning he was a visionary leaving his well paying job as a senior vice president with D. E. Shaw to begin Amazon.com (Academy of Achievement, 2010). Being the visionary that he is he saw an opportunity prompted by the huge growth rate of internet use in a single year and ran with it never looking back. Jeff realized that the internet had “no real commerce to speak of” so he began researching possible businesses (Academy of Achievement, 2010). “After reviewing 20 mail order businesses and deciding which could be conducted more efficiently over the internet than by traditional means he decided on books” (Academy of Achievement, 2010). He thought books were perfect because attempting to send huge catalogs for all the available books would be expensive and cumbersome, but an online resource database that was easy to navigate would provide customers with easy access and a single point from which to shop. “In 30 days, with no press, Amazon had sold books in all 50 states and 45 foreign countries, obviously by the success of Amazon he was right (Academy of Achievement, 2010). In a case study written by Javad Kargar called “Amazon.com in 2003” he stated that “Amazon's online store was a big hit, with about $5 million in the first year of operations” (2004). This huge success so quickly would have confirmed for Jeff that his idea was viable and drove him to continue to strive for more. Jeff Bezo’s charismatic-visionary leadership is the key to his and Amazon’s success.
...ntinue to soar no matter what the economic situation may be. Jeffrey Bezos paved the way for e-commerce and continues to maximize in his creativity and innovation. Amazon is a company with millions of investors, and even though companies are bound to lose money every now and then, Amazon will always float to the top. Through the continuous innovation of products to the public, Amazon competes at it’s own pace staying relative to the rest of the competitive environment. The countless services and options that Amazon provides for the consumer are more than enough attractions to keep consumers flowing throughout the business. Jeffrey Bezos has started a business that has no choice but to flourish for many years to come. He simply made books available to the Internet public and now he has captured the hearts, minds, and most importantly dollars of the consumer market.
This paragraph talks briefly about the history of Amazon and Yahoo and the strategies used by the two companies and their respective core business. Amazon is a Fortune 500 e-commerce company founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994 and launched in 1995 in Seattle, Washington. It was one of the first big companies to sell goods over the Internet. Its mission was offering million books to its customers. Amazon has grown relatively fast and its CEO Bezos has introduced variety of innovations as source of competitive advantage to strive and create the most successful company by adding most value to its customers and shareholders. Bezos continued to diversify Amazon’s offerings with the sale of CDs and videos in 1998, and later clothes, electronics, toys and more through major retail partnerships. Right in 1997, Amazon’s stock began trading in NASDAQ stock exchange. It boomed with yearly sales that jumped from $510,000 in 1995 to over $17 billion in 2011. Amazon’s mission changed to leverage technology and expertise in invaluable employees to provide customers the best shopping experience on internet and became the “Earth most customer-centric company”. The company introduced a new strategy called “Associate Program” which the goal was attracted new customers to its retail storefront and grows sales. This new strategy proves to be the most important advantage and the company’s sales revenue produced by the associates reached 40%. Another innovation announced by CEO Bezos in 2011 was shifted Amazon to tablet marketplace with the introduction of the Kindle Fire. CEO Bezos has invested aggressively to expand and leverage the customer base. By October 25, 2011 Amazon third quarter pr...
The Body Shop International case is an interesting case study into the miscommunication of owners and stockholder interests with regard to financial conditions. Anita Roddick, the founder of The Body Shop had no financial experience and thought that all she needed to do was expand her business and the financing would take shape as she developed her business. While Anita’s product concept of a natural skin-care line was good; her lack of experience in financial matters took its toll on her business.
In an interview with James Wetherbe, Richard M. Schulze tells of how at eleven-years-old he became an entrepreneur in St. Paul, Minnesota as a paperboy. This newspaper boy would grow up to be founder of the world’s largest consumer electronics chain store, Best Buy Co. Inc. (Schulze, 2014). As an adult in 1966 Schulze partnered up with Gary Smoliak and opened the company called Sound of Music until 1986 (Bailey, 2015). Schulze bought out Smoliak around 1970 and by 1983 he had changed the name of the company to Best Buy Co., Inc. Four years later Best Buy Co., Inc. secures an entry on the New York Stock Exchange. During the early 1990’s Best Buy Co., Inc., had become the largest consumer electronics store in the United States.
Hoffman Estates, Illinois-based Sears Holdings Corporation was formed as a result of Kmart Holdings Corporation’s acquisition of Sears & Roebuck Company. It was incorporated on November 23, 2004. It is an integrated retailer and holdings company to a variety of well-known, highly-quality consumer brands.
Apart from its astonishing CEO, Amazon’s managers proved to be qualified for their positions in the company. Thomas J. Szkutak, the Chief Fina...
In the 21st century, small and large, private and public businesses are all aiming towards economic growth. The small business marketplace is extremely dynamic and the changes are fast. Here are some facts from the US Small Business Administration on small businesses. There are about 30 million small businesses in the United States and employ just over half of the country’s private workforce. They employ a staggering 40% of high tech workers such as computer professionals, scientists and engineers. More than half of the small businesses are home-based businesses and two percent of them are franchises. One of the most important aspects is the fact that a majority of innovations in the United States come from small businesses. In 2008, there were 627,200 new businesses that started, 596,600 businesses that were closed and 43,546 companies that filed for bankruptcy. According to business experts, of all the small business startups, one-third of them are profitable and successful, a third of them just about break-even and the rest of them are down with negative earnings Some buyer’s develops as independent business owners, while others are more likely to prosper as franchise owners. According to a recent report by the Small Business Administration (2007), the United States had approximately 26.8 million small business firms in 2006. In fact, as recently reported by Moutray (2006), most firms in the U.S., are very small and account for about half of the country's non-farm real GDP. Over the past decade small business has generated 60–80% of new jobs annually. In reality, there are easy answers to the independent business versus franchise dilemma. Although, a franchise system offers benefits to owners such as brand recognition, to inc...
After my days of selling postage meters were long over, and I was in my senior year of college, I decided to start my own company. I wrote two books on college admission and college life and marketed them through the internet. After three month of diligent work, I sold over 500 books and expanded the company to five employees. Since selling only two books was proving so successful, I decided to branch out and try my hands at an affiliate driven superstore. I partnered with web sites like Amazon.com and Reel.com and became officially licensed to sell their merchandise. My time and effort resulted in many visitors to my on-line superstore, but sales were few and far between. The business needed a change of direction.