The Business Plan 189year, often only blocks apart. Catalog sales have been very successful for some ventures.
The marketers that have succeeded with clothing sales over the Internet have fallen primarily
into one of two groups: (1) those that sell standard items customers are already familiar with, and
(2) those that sell specialty items that customers aren’t likely to find in local stores. Many compa-
nies use the Internet merely as a resource for sharing product specifications and messaging, sim-
ply as a way to entice customers into their bricks-and-mortar locations. There is strong and con-
vincing evidence of a continuing trend: Americans are gravitating toward Internet purchasing.
Internet retail sales alone increased from about $20 billion in 1999 to $141 billion in 2004. 2004’s
numbers are a 24 percent increase over 2003’s, and according to Forrester Research predictions,
online sales will increase another 20 percent in 2005. Even with these gaudy growth numbers,
Internet sales as a whole still comprise only 2 percent of retail sales, indicating that there is plen-
ty of room to run in this expanding market. This encouraging market growth was a significant
factor in our decision to focus initially on an online delivery of our babyyourway.com model.
In addition to leveraging the rapid growth in the Internet retail landscape, we also believe that
Babyyourway.com targets a rapidly growing market, the baby boomers. From 2000 to 2010, the
population of the United States will grow 10 percent. The 5 to 19 and 19 to 24 age groups won’t
grow at all. The strongest growth will be in the large and affluent 45 to 64 age group, which will
grow 30 percent. Since parents and grandparents with disposable incomes are our target cus-
tomers, we are confident that by targeting this demographic we are placing babyyourway.com in
the best position to take advantage of growth opportunities in our customer base. On the sur-
face this data may seem discouraging. After all, children are the users of our products and their
population growth will be flat, but the success of Babyyourway.com depends on the people
whose names appear on the credit cards. Due to a relatively small initial capital investment, only
a tiny segment of these markets is needed in order for Babyyourway.com to generate the cash
flow necessary to survive and flourish.
Development & Production
Production. Babyyourway.com’s production will revolve around the DuPont Artistri digital
printer. Digital printing technology, essentially a large inkjet printer with textile capability, is the
only way to make individually customized printing economically feasible. The setup costs are
very small compared to traditional silkscreen printing. We believe consumers will be delighted
with the results since our unique digital printing technology chemically fuses the ink with the
fabric molecules for superior feel and durability. This method is far superior to both silkscreen-
ing and heat transfer.
The production process begins with the purchase of raw apparel. Initial expenses will be high
for obtaining this incoming material inventory. Materials will be received by logistics personnel
and racked in the incoming material warehouse. As orders are received from the Web site, the
master printer will set up for the next day by uploading patterns into the machine’s software. The
master printer will always be working on the next day’s production. The print tender will load
apparel onto the printer’s blanket based on the queue generated the day before by the master
printer. As each shirt (bib, onesie) is loaded, the order number will be attached to the apparel,
somewhat like a department store price tag. At any stage in the process the clothing can be
checked against the order in the computer. The tender will also be responsible for offloading the
printed apparel, performing periodic online pass/fail quality checks, and bringing any question-
able results to the master printer. A logistics employee will take the printed apparel to shipping