Introduction
Every company, new or old, big or small, and profitable or unprofitable, has one thing in common the need to grow significantly and access as many clients as possible to aid its operation and, in return, offer impactful services that will make the client appreciate a recommend the benefits of the company to other personnel or business. The impactful service will cause the client to become loyal to one company and only utilize your company’s services despite being a hundred or more other companies providing the services. The client’s act ensures the company becomes profitable and quickly gains a competitive advantage in the industrial world. However, to ensure clients and businesses will always come back, companies must stay at the top of the line and utilize any new opportunity to aid customer satisfaction processes.
Saltbox company was recently launched in September 2019 to provide numerous business opportunities under one roof. The company majors in offering office space, e-commerce operators, private warehouse suites, and an entrepreneurial community that intends to assist importers, exporters, distributors, and makers. Saltbox company utilities include; a conference room, high-speed Wi-Fi, loading dock access, warehouse equipment, quiet booths, a parking area, and access to community events. The utilities provided by the company enable small and medium size businesses and e-commerce merchants efficiently conduct their operational duties to become impactful to society and grow their influence to acquire more clients. Saltbox’s goal is to grow and become highly impactful to the community and make a profit in the process. However, for Saltbox to survive in the competitive world, it needs deep analysis to identify its strength and weakness and recommendation to utilize available and newly emerging opportunities.
Company Overview and Opportunity Creation
Saltbox was initially started in Atlanta, Georgia, and has been operating since September 2019. The company currently has established a headquarters in New York City with an estimated number of employees being 92, as per the data collected in 2022. Saltbox offers logistics and warehousing services to eCommerce and small to medium-sized businesses. The company joined the observed gap to provide space and utilities for existing and new firms after observing the already established logistic company focusing on one field of their influence. The competitor included; Jiaguan Yangcho, whose financing status was Venture capital Backed, located in China with a headquarter in Shenzhen launched in 2017. The Amsterdam logistic city hub financing status is Formerly PE-Backed, established in the Netherlands with a headquarters in Amsterdam in 2018. Other logistic company includes Yidaichu and the Conestoga (Saltbox, 2022).
Saltbox, compared to the top three most influential companies, has an added advantage, mainly; Yiadaichu, Jiaguan Yangcho, and Amstardarm logistic city hub. Since companies such as Yidaichu only provide online warehouse operation and management platforms, Amsterdam provides zero-emmision logistic services, and Jiaguan only provides resutarant supply logistic services. Saltbox aims to be a significant logistic service provider across the country and expand overseas. The company is currently enlisted in the Limited Liability Company (LLC) to protect itself from company personal liability in case of unavoidable harm to the company during its operation. Saltbox is equipped with professional certifications such as the DAS certification and a Degree or Diploma for all its working staff, validating its competence in logistics. The company’s legal form includes a certificate of incorporation, Taxpayer ID, and non-discloser agreement.
Saltbox offers an opportunity to all businesses with ample space with chairs and desks.
Raising Fund
The company has been involved in numerous historical deals to raise funds for its effectiveness in operation. The deal includes; on September 4 2019the salt company made an agreement known as a seed round and generated 3.2 million dollars from when it was formulated till recently in the year 2022. The second fundraiser was done on December 31, 2019, known as Debt- General, and generated 3.69 million dollars. The third deal, a seed round on February 26, 2020, generated 5.79 million dollars; the fourth deal, the Early stage VC (Series A) on April 15, 2021, generated 16.39 million dollars; and on our current year, the company formulated a deal know as Early stage VC on March 1, 2022, and generated an approximated amount of 144.39 million dollars an outstanding amount since it starts raising fund through the deal process (Crunchbase. 2022).
Saltbox has several investors that have been observed to be growing every year since the business lunch in 2019. Increasing the amount of funding every year, new investors join the company. Currently, there are 16 investors in the company, with Cox Enterprises and Lincoln Property Company being the new investors. The investors include Village Globes, which has 292 shares, and Kapor Capital, with 255 shares. Meta prop has 144 shares; Playground Global has 102 shares chronologically, among others whose firms exist in different parts of the United States. Equity financing allows a business to receive money from an investor or bank with an agreement to pay it the moment the company starts making a profit. It is a good motive with pros and cons in it. The pros are that the money lender what be involved in any part of the operation of the business, while the con entails an interest to be added on the money return. Raising investor money during the pandemic was difficult (Equity Financing, 2022).
Businesses should set funds aside to aid their expenses on bad days
The company should invest in other companies to raise funds respectively
Business Model and Revenue Model
Saltbox may discover new clients by concentrating on the demands of their existing consumers and knowing some other marketing variables such as location, social media content management systems, or even developing an online platform for those in the industry who have things to offer an example such as eBay. Saltbox must understand how to consistently interest new clients by mastering marketing. Understanding the requirements and desires of the present consumer is the most critical marketing component. The act of understanding entails assessing who Saltbox already do business with to determine what they want, need, or anticipate from the company as their logistics provider (Verhoeven et al., 2018).
Based on the home page platform, Saltbox generates money by assisting organizations in the scheduling, employment, and performance of the transportation and storage of products, materials, and services from the point of origin to the point of consumption along the supply chain. Complex, worldwide supply chains have boosted demand for these services as e-commerce has grown. However, Saltbox generates money by providing the following services to customers. Storage: With many variables, warehousing is becoming increasingly complex and costly for enterprises. As a result, Saltbox company creates income by offering enough good storage space in a proper location and saving their clients the worry and effort of doing so themselves. Listening is crucial for a logistics company to understand its customers personally and adhere to their needs as they arise. The company should ensure it has up-to-date technology to raise its revenue (Bigger Investing, 2021) efficiently.
Collaborative transportation management software allows the automation of load schedules.
The world is evolving around technology, and the company’s focus on new technology might benefit its operation. Creation of an online platform.
Marketing and Customer Acquisition
E-commerce entrepreneurs occasionally face firsthand difficulties of beginning a small business: living rooms crammed with inventory, kitchen countertops used as offices. Saltbox recognized that, while office spaces were a welcome change from garages crammed with merchandise, they were not designed to manage the particular demands of a physical product-based firm. Hence the creation of Saltbox offers a workspace that provides fulfillment and logistical help to e-commerce entrepreneurs worldwide. The company design brand is formulated to provide workspace: an infrastructural space to run a business, Fulfillment: generation of fulfillment plans, and Hybrid: acquisition for a client of a combination of space with fulfillment design to ensure one business grows profitably.
For any logistics company to run and operate, it needs customers to employ the services provided by the logistics company on the daily running and operation of their business. However, logistic companies need a strategy to consistently identify and provide service to emerging clients who need space to start a business or venture into an activity requiring space for their product. Hence, to ensure Saltbox never miss potential clients, they deploy logistic agents to work on the field, avail network platform, and motivate their already available client to promote their business by word of mouth if they are satisfied and enjoy the services served by Saltbox company. The study has shown that responding to a lead within the first five minutes increases the likelihood of converting a potential client into a paying client by 21 times. Saltbox, however, reaches out to the customer within 24 hours as a strategy to find new exciting customers through the website, which acts as a tool in their acquisition (Mohd et al., 2019).
Tracking software on companies to enable an identified potential client.
Providing a website that allows customers in Saltbox to exchange ideas.
Growth Strategy
Saltbox’s mission is to give e-commerce entrepreneurs the adaptable infrastructure they need to start, grow, and scale their businesses, going beyond infrastructure to contribute to the development of a flourishing community for company owners that feels like a second home and allow a new generation of entrepreneurs to manage the business of their dreams. The goal ensures the company continues to grow significantly due to its devotion to always performing based on the mission. Based on its mission, the company has future goals, which include; Increased efficiency, improved customer service, Increased sales and acquisition of clients, and Improved relationships (Zhao et al., 2020).
Saltbox company must plan and develop cost-effective transportation rates to increase efficiency while reducing overhead, total inventory, and overall cost-per-order processing. The company can actualize the plan by working closely with your transportation provider by improving its warehouse operations, including processes, layout, and flow. Where else for improvement of customer service Saltbox plan to incorporate In direct marketing enterprises, fulfillment operations which are in partnership with marketing and merchandising. The three processes will ensure Fulfillment operations’ inbound and outbound transportation. The act is essential to delivering marketing’s promise to the customer to deliver the shipment on time and in virtuous condition. For the increase of sales, customer acquisition, and improved relationships, the company plans to increase promotion and advertisement with a two-way collaboration between retailer and carrier with two respectively. The plan, however, needs money for the plan to work efficiently.
Increasing its promotion and advertisement to raise awareness.
Getting efficient inbound logistics systems and vendor compliance in place to foreseen challenges addressed appropriately with little time.
External Analysis
To understand the external analysis of the Saltbox, we deploy Porter’s five Forces mainly; Competition in the industry, Potential of new entrants into the industry, Power of suppliers, Power of customers, and Threat of substitute products. To exist, Saltbox company must be competitive. The company balance should aim at placing the price of their services to be cheap enough to ensure that potential customers can afford them and pricing them high enough to produce a profit. The leading company competitor in the industrial field for a long time has proven to be crucial for its survival and offers very stiff competition for the company. The recent pandemic saw all business halted, which is what happened to Saltbox. It stopped operating.
The stop of operation saw a rise in numerous problems, such as damage to movable and fragile products and warehouses. The cost of fuel has also been recorded to be rising daily. Although the epidemic reduced prices, this was only a relief (Twinn et al., 2020). Saltbox company is now dealing with increased operating expenses while unable to raise the prices of its services. Government rules are gradually becoming more stringent. They are explicitly targeting emissions (Winkelhaus & Grosse, 2020). That is directly significant to logistic firms such as our very own Saltbox, who constantly rely on track to transport products from their warehouse. It may surprise one, but truck drivers are becoming increasingly scared in society due to the younger generation’s stereotype of truck driving as an occupation of older adults. Making Saltbox overuse driver or significantly gets affected if a driver falls sick.
Employ electrically driven trucks to reduce expenses spent on a fuel truck.
Start Truck driving school to educate young people and, in exchange, make some money.
Conclusion
Saltbox is a logistics company that offers business space under one room. It was lance in 2019 to fill gaps produced by existing logistic companies such as Yidaichu, Amsterdam logistic city hub, and Jiaguan Yangshuo. The company was seen to be involved in one field of logistics; hence to fill the gap, Saltbox came to play to offer office space, an e-commerce operator, private warehouse suits, and an entrepreneurial community to assist importers and exporters, distributors, and makers. Along with utilities such as high-speed Wi-Fi, and warehouse equipment, among others.
The company is under the Limited liability Company (LLC). The company relies heavily on investors as a source of funds for its business and has 16 investors currently at its disposal. The company heavily relay on its platform to pass information and acquire new potential customers. The company has faced much adversity since the pandemic strick among them being; the rise of fuel costs, lack of drivers, and government regulation. However, despite the adversity, Saltbox company is still striving to provide the best service for its customer. And to help the company on its journey to becoming the best logistic company on the planet, I recommend that;
Businesses should set funds aside to aid their expenses on bad days. The company should invest in other companies to raise funds respectively .collaborative transportation management software lets the automation of load schedule. The world is evolving around technology, and the company’s focus on new technology might benefit its operation. Creation of an online platform.Tracking software on companies to enable an identified potential client. It provides a website that allows customers in Saltbox to exchange ideas—increasing its promotion and advertisement to raise awareness. Get efficient inbound logistics systems and vendor compliance in place to foresee challenges appropriately, with little time to employ electric-driven trucks to reduce the expense spent on a fuel truck. Start Truck driving school to educate young people and, in exchange, make some money.
Reference
Logistic Solutions for eCommerce | Saltbox. (2022). Saltbox.com. https://www.saltbox.com
A Saltbox company platform that provides information on what the company offers, along with an example of staff and pictures of the space available. Along with the message for the company’s leaders and the company mission.
Crunchbase. (2022). Crunchbase. https://www.crunchbase.com/ organization/saltbox-com/company_financials
The saltbox company has been involved with various business deals since its formulation. The deals help the company to raise funds which are seen to almost double every year.
Equity Financing – The Pros And Cons Of It All. (2022). Grasshopper. https://grasshopper.com /resources/business-equity-for-entrepreneurs/equity-financing/
An introduction to the pros and cons of Saltbox if it was to choose equity financing in its operation.
The company has 16 prominent investors, with Lincoln property company and Cox Enterprise being the most recent investors. Investors play a crucial role in funding the company.
How Do Logistics Companies Get Clients? – Bigger Investing. (2021, April 22). Bigger Investing. https://www.biggerinvesting.com/how-do-logistics-companies-get-clients/
For Saltbox to effectively reach its client and on time, various practices should be observed. Some of it is to avail its company services in the platform to allow the client to understand the services offered quickly.
Mohd Satar, N. S., Dastane, D. O., & Ma’arif, M. Y. (2019). Customer value proposition for E-Commerce: A case study approach. International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications (IJACSA), 10(2), 454-458. https://ssrn.com/abstract=3428500
The article gives a classic example of how the Salt business can improve customer relationships. To make the customer stop being potential customers and start paying for services provided.
Porter’s 5 Forces Explained and How to Use the Model. (2022). Investopedia. https://www.investopedia.com/ terms/p/porter.asp
Porter unveils five strategies to use to understand the internal weakness and strengths of the business. The five forces include Competition in the industry, Potential of new entrants into the industry, Power of suppliers, Power of customers, and Threat of substitute products.
Verhoeven, P., Sinn, F., & Herden, T. T. (2018). Examples from blockchain implementations in logistics and supply chain management: exploring the mindful use of new technology. Logistics, 2(3), 20. https://doi.org/10.3390/logistics2030020
The article involves a deep analysis of how the Logistic company can utilize the internet to offer the best services for its customer.
Zhao, Z., Zhang, M., Xu, G., Zhang, D., & Huang, G. Q. (2020). Logistics sustainability practices: an IoT-enabled smart indoor parking system for industrial hazardous chemical vehicles. International Journal of Production Research, 58(24), 7490–7506. https://doi.org/10.1080/00207543.2020.1720928
Across examination of how logistic companies’ mission is to help in the company’s future growth. The logistics company’s mission is to provide the best service for their available and new customers.
Twinn, C. I., Qureshi, N. A., Conde, M. L., Guinea, C. G., Perea Rojas, D. S., Gupta, H., & Luo, J. (2020). The impact of COVID-19 on logistics. The Impact of COVID-19 on Logistics | Policy Commons
The covid 19 pandemic caused the world by stopping every business to stop, and logistics company was affected significantly.
Winkelhaus, S., & Grosse, E. H. (2020). Logistics 4.0: a systematic review towards a new logistics system. International Journal of Production Research, 58(1), 18-43. https://doi.org/10.1080/00207543.2019.1612964
The external challenge is seen to reduce logistics effectiveness, such as government regulation of zero-emission.
Hopkins, D., & Akyelken, N. (2022). MotherTruckers? The Gendered Work of Freight and Logistics. In Women, Work and Transport (Vol. 16, pp. 71-86). Emerald Publishing Limited. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2044-994120220000016006
More and more youth are refusing to take truck driving, significantly affecting the logistic company.
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