Assessment Brief

This assessment brief provides details of the overall assessment for your module. Where a module has multiple components, these are listed below. It will provide outline details of the Coursework and instructions for individual presentation. Section 1 provides the clarity for the assessment component 1 and Section 2 provides details to support your assessment.

Component 1: Consultancy Portfolio: 4000 words (Weighting 100% of the module) Summative)

Scenario

The online fast fashion apparel sector is currently undergoing a deep transformation fuelled by customers’ changing habits and new digital technologies (Fernandez et al., 2021). With online fast fashion delivery, customers can stay home and have their orders delivered right to their doorstep using a wide range of delivery services [Lagorio and Pinto, 2020]. With the increasing use of e-commerce, there are a number of number of factors that influence customers’ choice of brands when shopping online for fast fashion apparel. For example:

Family, social class, cultures, and subculture contribute towards purchasing decisions of online fast fashion apparel customers (Wood and Hayes, 2012).
Sources of online information also influence product and customer characteristics leading to purchase decision-making of online fast fashion apparel customers (Septianto et al., 2018).
Marketers have realized the effectiveness of word of mouth (WOM) being an influencing factor in fostering online fast fashion apparel customers’ choice and purchase decisions (Jung and Seock, 2017).
More recently, Covid_19 has had a major impact on the purchasing behaviour of online fast fashion apparel sector customers (McKinsey and Company, 2021).

Because of these influencing factors, online fast fashion apparel companies are finding it increasingly challenging to develop a loyal customer base (Lagorio and Pinto, 2020) as the online fast fashion sector is witnessing frequent switching of customers between the fast fashion brands (Youn et al., 2021).

The purpose of this project is to develop a software solution that will enable the online fast fashion apparel companies to overcome these industry issues by satisfying their customers’ purchasing and delivery needs and thereby consolidate their customer base. More specifically, the project seeks to design a software solution with a suitable user interface and options (functions) that will help fast fashion apparel customers’ to make informed decisions about their purchasing and delivery options.

As a result, Apps4All consultancy house [http://www.apps4all.online/] has assigned you as an external consultant to provide a critical review of new opportunities and a complete business proposal for an online fast fashion software solution project. Apps4All seeks to expand its consultancy services to include the fast fashion apparel sector in order to facilitate online fast fashion apparel providers in addressing their customers’ needs regarding product and delivery options.

Task

To achieve these business objectives as an external consultant, you need to write a consultancy report focusing on the following task.

Task : Apply micro and macro level theoretical frameworks and analytical tools to evaluate the potential factors that influence existing online fast fashion apparel sector. The analysis should be supported by real-world examples and case studies.