This text is a study on the strategic challenges faced by The Cliptomania Web Store in the creation and launch of their e-commerce venture. The Santo family, who own and operate Cliptomania, LLC, are in the business of selling clip-on earrings across multiple countries including the United States, Canada, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand (Brown, DeHayes, Hoffer, Martin, & Perkins, 2012). The Santos have identified a market niche that has been overlooked and transformed it into a successful e-business. The initial obstacle encountered by the Santo family was the establishment of their online store.
The Santos family was lacking the expertise and funds to contract with an internet service provider for computer resources, software packages, and site design. To overcome this challenge, they decided to partner with Yahoo! as their vendor. By doing so, Yahoo! provided the necessary computer resources, integrated software, and a customizable template for the Santos family to personalize their site. Paymentech was also integrated with Yahoo! to validate credit cards and process payments for their online store, Cliptomania. Additionally, marketing proved to be another issue they faced.
During the dot-com bust in the early 2000s, the Santos noticed that listing their website in search engines became more expensive due to the number of clicks. However, they discovered that this increased cost actually led to higher sales and now view it as a cost of acquiring customers. Cliptomania also started advertising on search engines and paying for searches based on specific keywords chosen by the company. In 2006, when the Santos switched web service providers, they faced problems with their website becoming less visible in major search engines.
The Santos operated the store as cliptomania.com. They then changed to cliptomania.et which caused confusion in search engines. They made some changes to fix the problem but eventually moved the content back to cliptomania.com. This solved the issue. I agree with the Santos’ decisions in setting up their e-business. They researched and explored options, making reasonable conclusions. They implemented processes for company growth and maintained profitability while maintaining their web presence.
Despite the family’s lack of industry or web-based sales experience, I am confident that the company has achieved success. However, it would be wise to bring in a consultant who can perform an audit to gain valuable insights on how to improve their website, advertising strategies, and operational processes for increased profitability.
References
The book “Managing Information Technology” was published in 2012 by Prentice Hall in Upper Saddle River, NJ. It is the 7th edition and the authors are Brown, C. V., DeHayes, D. W., Hoffer, J. A., Martin, E. W., & Perkins, W. C.
