Consumer Tech Company

C: Okay, just to reiterate my client is a consumer tech company whose user base has stagnated. We are expected to diagnose the problem and figure out ways to improve net user base?

I : Yes, that’s right.

C: Do we have a timeline since when the stagnation in user base has been observed?

I: Yes, the user base has stagnated in the last 6 months

C: I would like to know a little bit about my client to understand the situation better. I would like to know what is the business model of the company. Also, does the company have a single revenue stream or multiple sources of revenue?

I: So, our client is an online e commerce company. It sells products that are consistent with the product catalogue of your average online retailers. The client has multiple sources of revenue like financial services, hotels etc. but the user base decline is concentrated primarily in the e commerce business.

C: Understood. Who are the target customers- B2B, B2C for our client?   

I: It focuses mostly on B2C customers

C: Sure. Do we have any information on the geographical location which the client caters to and the competitive landscape in that market?   

I: Yes, so the client is based out of India and the competitive landscape is fragmented and the competitors are facing low growth like our client.

C: I would like to start further investigating the decline by dividing the causes by into the existing market landscape and the value proposition of the company. Does this seem like a fair approach

I: Yes, please go ahead with this.

C: Right. I’d like to breakup the market landscape into market size, share, growth and risks. Do you want me to go ahead and do a market sizing to ascertain what %age of the target customers have we been able to convert before moving to the company value proposition?

I: So, the company has a very low market share at 5% and hence we know that there is a significant portion of the target population that can be attained. Can we investigate the value proposition of our client that can get our client those customers?

C: Okay, understood. In this case I would like to draw value chain for the app/website of our client to see what improvements we can do to distinguish ourselves. Does this seem like a correct approach?

I: Yes, you may proceed with this approach. 

C: As I understand the major heads that can be there are as follows: Competitive pricing, Technology and interface, Delivery of the goods, Quality of the goods and as an add on maybe product positioning. Do you want me to go one by one or focus on anything particular?

I: Can we deep dive into the technology and interface part?

C: Okay, I would like to create a a user journey for this analysis. It starts with the downloading of the app which depends on the app availability. Moving on to the sign-up process which needs to be as easy as possible to attract customers for all age group. Next up comes the browsing, cataloguing experience and the ease of placing the order and making the payment. Finally, we have the returns section which plays a very important role in building customer confidence. Should I focus on any of these which might have been adversely affected by internal/external factors?

I: Okay so great breakdown of the journey and the potential part that each of them might play. It seemed self explanatory. Can you elaborate a little on the product positioning aspect before we close this interview?

C: Sure, so product positioning can be further divided into Price based positioning, quality-based positioning, lifestyle-based positioning and characteristics-based positioning. Product positioning can be leveraged to highlight the unique features of your product line-up to achieve high acquisition rate of target audience by designing the product lineup for their needs.  

I:  Okay. I think we can end the case here. It was good speaking to you.