Executive Summary

Interior Views is a retail store offering home decorator fabrics and complementary home accessories and resources. It is now approaching its fifth year in business. This destination store offers the advantages of providing fabrics specifically designed for home decorator use in fabric widths of 54 inches and greater. Over 900 fabrics are available on the floor at any time with more than 10,000 sample fabrics for custom “cut” orders. Customers see, touch, feel, and take the fabric to their home as they work through with their purchasing decision.

Interior Views has learned much from the past years of operation, the market has changed, and will be making key decisions, including the upcoming 5-year lease. Now is the time to step back, look at the past, and attempt to set a strategic direction for the future. This is the primary purpose of this business plan. It will address location, finance, product, and service issues that will be key to the future success of the business.

Interior Views currently has a local informational content website but has not given it the attention or focus needed to assess its marketing potential. The site offers information content, but it does little to produce revenue or enhance the image of the business.

Market research indicates a specific and growing need in and beyond the local area for the products and services Interior Views offers in the local retail market it serves and there are indications that Web sales will play an increasing role in connecting customers with sellers. The most significant challenge is that the core target customer, women between the ages of 35 and 50, are some of the least likely of groups to shop on the Web. Shopping for decorator fabric presents an additional challenge.

The online marketing objective is to actively support continued growth and profitability of Interior Views through effective implementation of the strategy. The online marketing and sales strategy will be based on a cost effective approach to reach additional customers over the Web through the use of an eBay website to generate attention and revenue for the business. The Web target groups will include the more Web-savvy younger customer base that the store currently serves (women between the ages of 25 and 35) and out-of-area potential customers that are already shopping on the Web for the products Interior Views offers. The eBay website will focus on its selection, competitive pricing, and customer service to differentiate itself among other Internet options.