Company
Princess Polly is an online Australian ladies online fashion boutique. The company Princess Polly started as a fashion boutique in 2005 in Surfers Paradise and launched an online store in 2010 (Anchor, 2015). For Wez Bryett and his wife Eirin Princess Polly started as one of Bryett’s clients but hey noticed the loyal customer base the business had built in Brisbane which only had one store at that time, but they decided to take a chance (“How social media helped us build a 10m fashion business”, 2013). When you visit the website you will find that Princess Polly stocks a large range of ladies clothing, accessories, shoes and beauty products. Princess Polly stocks a large range of Australian and popular international brands including; Bondi Sands, Minkpink, Dr Martens, Havaianas and Butter London (http://www.princesspolly.com/brands). Princess Polly not only has a Facebook page with 411, 348 likes (Polly boutique, ca 2016) but it also has an Instagram account, Twitter account and a blog (http://www.princesspolly.com/). When you shop with Princess Polly Australian customers can enjoy free express shipping on order over $50 and all deliveries are made by Australia Post (http://www.princesspolly.com/help-faq/shipping-information/#aus). Princess Polly is a 100% online fashion boutique, however they did have brick and mortar stores in the past (http://www.princesspolly.com/contacts/). One feature that Princess Polly has over some other online fashion boutiques is that they use afterpay, a payment option that lets you pay for your purchase in a few smaller amounts. The customer will still receive the goods straight away after they chosen the afterpay option but it allows customers to buy what they like knowing that they do not need to pay for the goods straight away (http://www.princesspolly.com/afterpay). This feature that Princess Polly has adopted would definitely encourage more customers to shop with them as customers now have more flexibility when it comes to their finances and may be able to afford items they may not have been able to straight away in the past.
Competitors
Princess Polly’s target market is 16 – 26 year old females that are interested in all things social media, all things fashion and anything to do with brands (“Good golly polly proves size isn’t everything in retail world”, 2013). When it comes to direct competitors two main competitors are; Showpo and Beginning Boutique.Showpo is also an Australia online fashion boutique which has migrated from brick and mortar stores to purely online. The target market for Showpo are 18 – 28 year old females who live in Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane and the US, who like to look good but are price conscious (“The super fast delivery trend Showpo”, 2014). Showpo has the same shipping conditions as Princess Polly with free express shipping for any Australian order over $50 (https://www.showpo.com/shipping-info). Showpo definitely is a direct competitor as they sell very similar items and provide goods solely from an online website. T
he advantages that Showpo has over Princess Polly include having more Facebook “likes”, they currently have 739,512 (I love Showpo, ca. 2016). As Facebook seems to be the first stop for many businesses to start marketing their company and products Showpo also has an Instagram account, Twitter account as Princess Polly, however they also use YouTube, Pinterest and Snapchat to reach their customer base (https://www.showpo.com/). It is clear that Showpo have a large share of the target market of 18 – 28 year old females that have an interest in fashion on both Facebook and Instagram, with followers at 1.1 million on the photo sharing social media app (https://www.instagram.com/showpo/). The main factor that Showpo is a main competitor is because they provide similar products that Princess Polly offer and they are also a fully online business with no physical stores. The strengths of Showpo compared to Princess Polly is the social media impact that they have. With over 1 million followers on Instagram it makes the task of reaching out to the desired target market a lot easier. According to Social Media Week blog 53% of people that use Instagram say that the platform helps them define who they are. Discovering new interests, following role models and digging deeper into communities is simple in Instagram and 13 to 24 year olds are among the most active users doing all three (Social media week, 2016). When it comes to young people wanting to define who they are, following fashion role models or fashion trends in general is the first avenue they take and Showpo is clearly leading the way.
The other direct competitor is Beginning Boutique also an online Australian ladies fashion boutique. They like Princess Polly and Showpo do not have any physical stores and is fully online (https://beginningboutique.com.au/help). Beginning Boutique stocks a large range of Australian and international brands and offers shoppers free shipping on orders over $50. One of the differences between Princess Polly and Beginning Boutique is that when you shop with them they give you a free gift with each purchase, this could be a strategy to differentiate them from the market given that they stock and sell very similar goods and they also offer payment methods through afterpay (https://beginningboutique.com.au/afterpay). Beginning Boutique uses social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube and Google Plus to promote the company as well as a blog post (https://beginningboutique.com.au/). As both online stores Showpo and Beginning Boutique sell similar items and use very similar social media tools to promote their companies they are both regarded as direct competitors.
Princess Polly Report 