The Cliptomania

Strategic Issues (Name) (University) (Course) (Tutor) (Date) Cliptomania, a family-owned limited liability web store, specializes in online selling of clip-on earrings. Despite its humble beginnings and the numerous strategic challenges the company has encountered, its founders have managed to develop the firm into one of the most enduring and successful online jewelry stores CITATION EWM10 \l 1033 (Martin, 2010). This paper seeks to explore and analyze the strategic challenges that Cliptomania has encountered in its start up and growth as an e-business venture. To begin with, the founders of Cliptomania encountered difficulties setting up a viable website due to lack of information technology know-how required to build a website and inadequate capital to hire an expert web designer. Consequently, the service was outsourced from a webhosting services vendor, thereby leading to loss of flexibility and control that comes with a privately developed website. Secondly, the company has had to deal with high costs which drained its profits. For instance, Yahoo! and Paymentech charged Cliptomania exorbitant monthly and transaction fees for the webhosting and credit card support services respectively, compelling the firm to seek less costly alternatives. Thirdly, the firm has encountered difficulties accessing and acquiring earrings manufacturers and suppliers, a challenge that had negative implications on the availability and quality of the items the company sold. Nevertheless, the issue was overcome when the founders gained access to IFJAG CITATION EWM10 \l 1033 (Martin, 2010). Fourthly, the dynamic nature of the earrings and the fashion market has also been a major issue. The constantly changing tastes of the consumers have required the firm to regularly review its stock to ensure the available items appeal to the market. Fifth, Cliptomania has over-relied on manufacturers to determine which types of earrings a...