Dreamcast African Market

Dreamcast African Market

My project is based on an Africa market called Dreamcast African Market located at 7125 Georgetown Road, Indianapolis IN 46268.  It is known by many as Blessed market. It was established in 2017 and is owned by a Nigerian immigrant. The main focus of the market is to provide African food items to the people of Indianapolis and its environs. The market presently has 4 workers and they have a special farm where they grow perishable items like vegetables and leaves, which cannot be found here in Massachusetts. The market partnered with five local wholesale shops in Lagos, Nigeria because the goods are significantly cheaper — making it more cost effective to import the goods directly from Africa and cheaper for the customer to purchase. The goods purchased include African butter bread, yams, noodles, dried fish, powder peak milk, cassava, and red oil etc. The business model has a B2C structure, which stands for business to customer, meaning goods from Bless market will be marketed and sold directly to the customer. The goal of the business presently is to maintain profit and revenue and give good customer satisfaction. The business operates as a brick and mortar store, with no online presence which is a major problem if the business is looking to expand and attract more non-African consumers. At the moment, the on-ground customers mostly come from around Indianapolis, and a few other areas inside Indiana and they are mostly Africans. The future ambition of the market is to expand their target market so other race can be interested in their food items and products. They want to move into a more central location and hopefully within the year they open an online platform which will help them achieve these goals with more customers, efficiency and profit maximization. It is a small-scale business with three persons on each cash machine and about five persons helping with the arranging of the items and two standing by helping customers sort out what they want to purchase if they need any help. In order to cultivate and help foster an online presence for the African market, we must take into consideration the following technological solutions, such as social computing, big data, cloud computing and mobile commerce. Social computing is changing management fundamentals, how you motivate people and how a sense of purpose is established. As one of the marketing strategy, the market will be focused on the utilization of several social media platforms such as Facebook. Instagram, twitter and blogs. Social computing will help the market to start campaigns, share pictures of product, and also connect with social media influencers who can help promote and widen their customer scope. Another technological solution example is Big Data. It is more suited for small business because of its agility and its ability to quickly act on information that is data-driven. Engaging and better interacting with customers through feedback can help improve a product or service, this can be achieved with Big Data. To increase efficiency in the market, improvement can be achieved through big data for increase in efficiency. There can be exciting new ways for the market to generate revenue with big data collaboration with the business model. Cloud computing gives small business a technological advantage because the market will have all its information stored in the cloud through AWS using DaaS (Data as a service) instead of having it stored with server stacks and racks. Transitioning of the market data into the cloud will save the market more money and maintain its competitive edge while still able to maintain productivity and efficiency.

BUSINESS REQUIREMENTS

The main aim is to move the business from an offline to an online business. The on-ground sales are not encouraging. The various methods and technology to spike up the sales of the market in both the store and online includes to empower prospective customers, improve the product catalogue which in this scenario is making it better –with the sole aim to improve efficiency and profit maximization. The plan is to propose a full-fledged e-commerce site which can access customer information, store, customization and can offer a better customer experience that what the market presently has, using amazon, eBay can be costly, but compared to using retail online sites such as amazon, eBay where customer’s information can be restricted from business owners. I will also create my personal website by getting the domain name, a personalized business email, business website builder such as wix, square space because I want my customers to get the same experience when buying from the store. The website will make navigation and purchasing of item very easy to understand. Since online customers can’t touch or feel the item, online customers get to see a clear detailed picture quality of the item for the customer to decide what they want to purchase. I also plan to make sure the online platform and the on-ground platform work together because when customers shop through multiple channels they always tend to love it. Better experience and happier customers can be achieved when physical and digital stores are linked and integrated where items can be bought online and picked up from the store. I think picking up is a smart move because when the customers come to the store to pick up, they might decide to make an additional option to buy (always worked on me in Macys).

Implementing these various ideas will help reach our goals to empower prospective customers, improve product catalogue, improve efficiency and maximum profit. The market will invest in bloggers to help advertise their products to prospective consumers, especially millennia women, from different demographics other than Africa. Since there is a market for Caribbean food, the goal is to expand so customers can also view African food as a necessary alternative. In addition, there will be monthly imports from Africa, which enables workflow, as follows— products can be ordered 24/7 depending on the products quantity, delivery can take up to 3 to 7 days, and for express shipping, which will be delivered within 24-48 hours, there will be an extra fee.

It is important that the employer adopt the new technology because internet has drastically changed and affected the way people do their shopping and business interaction. Customers tend to do their shopping online instead of going to the shops for their own convenience, which in this case is African restaurant and Boston has a few of them. Customers will not want to drive all the way to the store rather they can lay down in the comfort of their houses and make the order. If one of the goal of the business is profit maximization and increasing the customer demographics, it is advisable the owner of the business switch to online retailing and they find very few reasons to shop in stores. From interviewing the owner of the business, he was skeptical at first because he wasn’t too sure how the demographic and profit was going to change. I advised the business owner that investing in ecommerce software platform will help attract customers and give them their targeted profit. I had to use Big Data to explain to the business owner why the trend of business will change if he invested in ecommerce online platform will attract one in three persons to go back and make their purchases online for convenience. I explained the chart below for the business owner and he was convinced to give it a try with the help of Big Data.

????????????????????

Figure 1: Big Data Technological Solution Chat

The technology (cloud computing) should not be allowed to shut down, because customers need to be able to access the online platform, so they will not be restricted from purchasing any product. If it shuts down, it can have a negative effect on the business such as loss of profit for the business and customers might go and sign up with the rivals. Security is important because customers need to feel secure while on the website, so purchases can be made with a sense of ease, without the threat of their financial information being stolen. There must be enough processing power for servers intended for big data analytics to support the website, since the African market will be operating on big data networks, the big data initiative must require a robust network hardware and big data can simulate and accelerate the development of cloud computing. Mobile commerce is also very vital because its terminals are developing, and new features enhanced, with the LTE speed, customers can be able to access our website at a fast internet speed and allow shopping mobile at their own convenience.

COMPETITORS USE OF TECHNOLOGY- case study

I will be focusing on two International markets. One is situated in Indianapolis Indiana called Saraga International Grocery Indianapolis IN (www.saragaindy.com), while the second is situated outside of Indiana, called the Wazobia African market situated Houston, Texas (http://wazobia.market). Wazobia market designed its website and consists of African heritage of Animals in the Kalahari or Elephants in Kruger National Park in Limpopo province. They have identified that they need to give their online customers the feel of the African tourism on their website. That idea will prompt customers to visit the site and see what they offer. It is a full-fledged website that is keeping tabs with its competitors in terms of price amongst African markets. They only sell what is drastically in need which explains the use of big data. They have used Big Data to provide customers individual and optimized shopping experience online. They used Big data to get a complete understanding of their customers need for example, what makes them tick, why they buy, how they prefer to shop, why they switch and what they will but next. They have tailored their website to interest prospective online customers and have left a customer service review, so they can do better next time. They have an African kitchen and restaurant where buyers can order African food (cooked) online and it will be delivered. They are basically using big data to maximize profit from every angle. Their profit has grown drastically with its delivery service only in the community. After speaking to the owner of the business on phone, he told me the secret of the business success is always aware of what customers need and using different ways to give the same product. I thought about it and came to the conclusion that he has just used big data to his advantage, big data is not just about numbers, its about interaction and innovation.

The other African shop is called J & B African market which is situated in Seattle. They also make use of Big Data as its technology solution. They do not just focus on just food items they also focus on clothes, African plastic chairs, electronics and web design. They have used Big Data to conclude that Immigrants do not always want to buy food, but they also want to explore other things that can’t be purchased here. For example, they also sell African movies, which is rare anywhere around the united states. They have used Big data to conclude that a lot of Africans will want to watch their movies from back home and they have made that possible, this will help the business maximize profit and increase customer satisfaction. They also offer web designs, this is because Africans or Immigrants will rather prefer to patronize businesses they can identify with culturally Its all about having needs and wants that are in common and Big data will help you achieve it.

If both markets have used big data to improve customer service and maximized profit for their various businesses, it is imperative that I adopt the same technology. Both African markets have used Big data to open more markets and grow their business nationally. I also proposed these two examples for the owner of Bless Market here in Boston and he bought the idea easily, but he was worried about the implementation. If we use Big Data the right way, the goals and objectives of the business (African Market) will be achieved as I have mentioned before, big data is meant for small businesses and it can help the market to better interact and engage customers to know what they need and what they do not. It meets the big data technological requirements which include storage of big data initiative and a robust network hardware in which the African market is already operating on. The benefits that will be achieved from implementing Big Data in the business includes optimized portfolio, optimized profit, optimized prices, optimized online store, optimized online advertising and optimized customer service.

TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS

Social computing: Social computing in the past has always been on the outside of the organization, presently it is now at the core of every business and changing the way people view management fundamentals, establish a sense of purpose and motivate people to act.. Social computing has played a major role in mobile big data which will beneficial for the business. Social computing is one of the strategies used by the business to attract prospective customers to purchase from the website. The African market established social computing as its main form of marketing for business growth and the online platform with the help of social computing redesigned their online market around mobile devices and application. We believe social computing using mobile, enables marketing department to instill, and cultivate a relationship with consumers, which in turn leads to more productivity. Ultimately, if a stronger relationship is made with consumers, it allows for a partnership that is stronger and employee collaboration. Social computing tools such as LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, is already creating a major impact in workplace. The African market will use social computing technology to create websites (Internal and External) with engaging personalized experiences that will improve the loyalty of the brand and interaction, advance connection between customer and seller and keep the business competitive.

Big Data: Small business is more suited for bug data due to its ability and quick act on data-driven insights. The African market will use Big Data to get a complete picture of their customers, what makes them tick, why they buy, how they prefer to shop, why they switch, what they’ll buy next and what factors leads them to recommend the company. Customers feedback is very important for improved services and products; this will be achieved by the market with the help of big data. Everyday operation of the business can be optimized with the help of big data, for example the data can be used to make improvements on the ways to increase efficiency in the market. The stocked food items and stock keeping in the market can be optimized by big data based on predictions generated from social media data used in social computing. The popular items can then be stocked making sure the market doesn’t miss out on sales and reducing the stocks that won’t not be needed lying around. Lastly, the business model can be correlated with Big Data, leading to exciting new ways for revenue generation. Hadoop, MapReduce, Apache Spark are Big Data technology tools that can be used to achieve this goal.

Cloud Computing: It has become an incredibly accessible technology for small business, Storing the market online platform with server’s stacks and racks will not be as effective as transitioning to a cloud computing platform because the cloud provider will take over maintaining of the business online infrastructure. The market does not have to worry about repairs, updates, and upgrades. Cloud computing is less expensive and offers flexibility for the business therefore saving money, improves competitive edge while still maintaining high productivity and efficiency. Whether the cloud is public or private, cloud computing tool such as AWS using DaaS (Data as a service).

IT PROFESSIONAL ON BIG DATA

As an IT professional, there are a combination of several techniques and processing methods supports big data analytics, and they are effective when used collectively by the business to obtain important results for strategic management and implementation. I will be using Predictive analysis which is an important tool for the business in making decisions and avoiding risk. It will help the company to be prepared for what is to come and support in solving problems by understanding and analyzing them. Secondly, NoSQL Databases are utilized for data management that will be reliable and efficient across a scalable number of storage nodes for keeping stock of the business items and itemizing them. Another technology for big Data will be the In-Memory Data Fabric which will help in distributing across system resources like Dynamic RAM and flash storage large quantities of data. It will help the business to store product items and storing product information incase of any form of Disaster recovery.

RECOMMENDATIONS

I recommend the use of Big Data as a technology solution for the African market. It will always play an important role in e-commerce. With tools such as Apache Hive, Apache Pig, Hadoop to provide customers individual and optimized shopping experience for both online customers and the on-ground customers, it will be helping with optimizing the shopping experience for customers and can help improvements in the following areas of the business:

Optimized Product portfolio: Big Data involves analyzing large amount of structured customer data which will allow the business to detail analysis of the target group. The online business portfolio is always made user specific based on the results. Customers’ needs can be predicted and product portfolio is enables for future optimization. Therefore, the stock costs can be optimized with the help of big data.

Optimized prices: It is now possible to carry out data mining real time analyses, this is thanks to big data. I plan to adjust the prices of the products because due to the internet having high transparency, I must put my competitors under observation, so the business can remain competitive. Comprehensive market analysis for dynamic pricing policy can be offered by big data.

Optimized Online Store: Due to the use of big data, it is possible to provide dynamic websites and fast web server technologies. I plan on programming the background of the website to always change based on the location customers will be logged in. Furthermore, a variety of products will be displayed on the landing pages for a quick view of what our business offer and sell online. The websites can be changed to any preference of my choice and it can also be optimized due to the influence of big data.

Optimized Online advertising: In the past, displaying adverts was not really successful, now due to the influence of big data, my adverts can be targeted precisely towards my target customers. I also plan to reach new customers with a look-alike modelling and real time advertising tends to be cheaper and more effective compared to what it was in the past. I also plan to reduce advertising cost and increase my media reach with the help pf big data and its tools.

Optimized Customer Service: Customer will have the ability to make a complaint to customer service by phone and not by email when they are unsatisfied with our product Employee can use the complete history of the customer and some social media information during the call and this process can only be achieved by big data. The customer support team can improve customer relation significantly because of the access to different background information. The competitive advantage is also the quality of support.

BENEFIT OF TECHNOLOGY SOLUTION

The business and the customer tend to connect and communicate better with the help of big data thereby taking the idea of online shopping to a whole new level of accomplishment and also Innovation. Intelligent selling can be encouraged by Big Data, for example, big data will allow the business to gather data related to the behavior of the customer to strategically use them for displaying results. Personalized interaction can be offered by big data which includes African market tracking all the activities by referring to the purchases the customer has made in the past to allow more personalized result. This basically means offering suggestions that are smart and interactive reminders anticipating the interest if the customers based on how they interact with the website. Accurate predictions can be made by big data because it allows the business to pre-estimate and a stock arrangement and also, plan for the presentation resources, scheme merchandize and advance sales. Online threats and risk can be controlled by big data because of the significant role it plays in detecting and controlling possible threats and risks that the customers will have to experience by preventing identity breaches and payment fraud in real time by combining and tallying customer data from geo data, social feeds, and live transmission. Lastly, Big data can help to receive real-time analytics because we in the business like to know about the base of our customers, the online customer experience can be customized on the website based on the demographics and how they ended up on the website gives a lot of awareness towards making profit. I plan to use information such as gender, nationality, and age towards the creation of the personalized experience.

It will enhance efficiency in the sense that business is all about making profits, and to make profits, you need customers. With the help of big data as I have mentioned above it will help the business to attract more customers to our online platform to shop. We projected a 30% increase in customers in the next 6 months when the market moves online and adopts the method. The question is how?

The result turned out to be positive because customers found out that it was more convenient to purchase online than driving all the way to the store. Customers will be satisfied with the same day delivery service and were willing to pay more because they were guaranteed their order will arrive the same day. The demographic increased from just African to other races such as white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, Hawaiian etc. The goal of the market was achieved because profit maximization, efficiency and customer satisfaction were achieved through the different proposal.

With big data, there is a change in customer profile and how to figure out what he/she is interested in. That is why it is important to get a dynamic and comprehensive view of your target audience. Thereby giving you the ability to interact with the customers and customer intelligence will help as an entrepreneur to improve customer experience and therefore efficiency.

Secondly, in terms of customer call service, one of the biggest way in which big data helps in boosting business growth is the ability to use unstructured data like voice recordings. The pitch of the voice, sentiments and tone tend to be evaluated carefully, and the customer service employee can obtain real-time options to communicate better with callers.

Thirdly, we can predict what and when buyers are buying with the help of data analytics, for example if the budget for marketing is less, you may not want to deliver advert message to those who are your clients already and this is mentioned earlier known as optimized online advertising which in this case, Africans. Dynamic marketing campaigns can link customer intelligence to market campaigns to focus adverts for demographic who really need it. This can help the business is to save money and campaign unnecessarily.

REFERENCES:

[1] Contributor, T. (2018). 4 Reasons Why an Online Business is the Best Investment You Will Ever Make. Entrepreneur. Retrieved 25 January 2018, from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/241759

[2] J&b African-market in Seattle, Wa. (2018). J&B African-Market. Retrieved 25 January 2018, from http://www.jbafricanmarket.com/

[3] Markey, J. (2018). How to Manage Big Data’s Big Security Challenges. Data Informed. Retrieved 7 February 2018, from http://data-informed.com/manage-big-datas-big-security-challenges/

[4] 5 Benefits of Big Data for E-Commerce Companies and Shoppers – Konstantinfo. (2018). Konstantinfo. Retrieved 7 February 2018, from https://www.konstantinfo.com/blog/5-benefits-of-big-data-for-ecommerce-companies-and-shoppers/

[5] Staff. (2018). 4 Infrastructure Requirements for Any Big Data Initiative. Technology Solutions That Drive Government. Retrieved 7 February 2018, from https://fedtechmagazine.com/article/2016/12/4-infrastructure-requirements-any-big-data-initiative