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)

The mark will be awarded based on an overall judgement of both components. Both elements must be attempted and an overall mark of at least 40% must be achieved to pass the module.

Submission details

Component	Submission Date	Time
Individual Consultancy Report	Friday Week 10 of Term – see canvas for date	14:00

Module Learning Outcome Assessment Matrix

Learning Outcomes	Consultancy Report
Understand different models and approaches to consulting	P
Develop the skills required to manage a range of stakeholders in consulting situations	P
Develop the skills required to manage and evaluate the impact of consulting processes on organizational performance	P
Adopt behaviours that are aligned and promote ethical and professional codes of conduct paying particular attention to ethics, conflict resolution and confidentiality of information	P
Evaluate the costs and benefits of different personal professional development activities	P
Identify problems and business needs	P
Diagnosis and solution definition, as well as solution appraisal and evaluation (drawing on programme LO: “Plan and evaluate solutions exercising significant judgment and critical insight into key project management and business strategy models.”)	P

Section 1 Module Specific Assessment Briefs

Component 1: Individual Consultancy Report

Total Marks: 100

Word count: The overall word count is 4000 words (+/- 10 %)

Weighting: 100% of overall mark

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

Task : Design a project log (plan) with financial budgeting for Apps4All consultancy house. This should include: risk assessment; a set of strategic recommendations; and a timeline for the implementation of your proposed business strategy. (20% Marks)

Academic Conventions: Clarity of report structure (e.g. referencing using Harvard Reference style; spell check; proof reading; appropriate headings; numbered tables/figures with sources etc.) (10% Marks)

References

Fernandes, S., Venkatesh, V.G., Panda, R. and Shi, Y., 2021. Measurement of factors influencing online shopper buying decisions: A scale development and validation. Journal of Retailing and Customer Services, 59, p.102394.

Jung, N.Y., Seock, Y.K., 2017. Effect of service recovery on customers’ perceived justice, satisfaction, and word-of-mouth intentions on online shopping websites. Journal of Retailing Consumer Service. 37, 23–30.

Lagorio, A. and Pinto, R. (2020). “Food and fast fashion retail logistics issues: A systematic literature review”. Research in Transportation Economics. Forthcoming [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.retrec.2020.100841]

McKinsey and Company (2021), The state of Fashion 2021: In search of promise in perilous times: https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/retail/our-insights/state-of-fashion [Accessed 20 June 2021].

Septianto, F., Chiew, T.M., 2018. The effects of different, discrete positive emotions on electronic word-of-mouth. Journal of Retailing Consumer Service. 44, 1–10.

Stuppy, A., Mead, N.L., Van Osselaer, S.M., 2020. I am, therefore I buy: low self-esteem and the pursuit of self-verifying consumption. Journal of Customer Research. 46 (5), 956–973.

Youn, S.Y., Lee, J.E. and Ha-Brookshire, J., 2021. Fashion Consumers’ Channel Switching Behavior During the COVID-19: Protection Motivation Theory in the Extended Planned Behavior Framework. Clothing and Textiles Research Journal, 39(2), pp. 139-156.

Wood, W., Hayes, T., 2012. Social Influence on consumer decisions: motives, modes, and consequences. Journal of Consumer Psychology. 22 (3), 324–328.