ExpectingU.com – A new online business that offers collegiate maternity wear through our website and an ebay store.
Mary Lenton is a business manager with over 10 years’ experience. She also has extensive knowledge in channel marketing and sales. Because she believes in the product, Mary Lenton will finance the business with her own personal capital. ExpectingU.com was born out of her own search for the product while she was pregnant. Market research among over 500 expecting mothers shows that there is a demand for such products. ExpectingU.com holds a number of ad spaces commitments from various online expecting sites. There are also dozens leads for direct sale and public relations.
Our targeted market includes pregnant women who are either sports fans or married sports fans as well as friends and relatives of women who plan to buy the shirts for gifts.
In the first year, sales projections for ExpectingU.com are estimated at $1,094,635 for the first year and net profit is projected at $343,517.
Our website expects a gross margin around 71.5% for products that are sold directly, and 67.2% when items are sold through our eBay shop. This is significantly more than the Industry standard gross margin for maternitywear. Because our product’s simple design allows outsourced manufacturing to be easy (and cheap) while we charge a premium because of its innovative concept, it allows us to charge a higher price.
While we will be paying $48,000 in eBay fees (roughly $1.30 for each item sold), this amount will be more than offset by the savings we make in marketing and expenses for web development and maintenance. The popularity and brand success of eBay, combined with its built-in tools for new merchants, will help us to build a solid customer base for our new product.
1.1 Objectives
- By the end of year 1, create a unique maternitywear product and offer it in 75% DIVISION 1 football schools’#8217’ collegiate logos.
- Over $1,000,000 in retail sales generated on our site and via our eBay store during the first year.
- A gross margin of at least 65% is acceptable.
- To reach 100 positive feedback comments from eBay customers within a year.
1.2 Mission
To offer fun, comfortable and readily available maternity collegiate wear for women who want to show their support for their favorite college team, even while pregnant.
1.3 Keys To Success
- ExpectingU.com will launch a new line of maternity shirts featuring the logo and/or mascot from NCAA Division I football teams. These products are in high demand but not available in mainstream commerce.
- ExpectingU.com will satisfy the demand of maternity collegiate shirts by maintaining inventory levels that will allow for immediate shipping to customers.
- ExpectingU.com plans to launch a targeted campaign to promote the website, products and services.