Starting a new business can be an especially strenuous task given the competitive environment of the current industries. To successfully create a strong foundation for the intended corporation, the future owner must account for the numerous factors that might impede the establishment of a proper enterprise and the attainment of necessary profits (Pearson, 2016). In this regard, it becomes essential to consider the audience that the created organization will target and which competitors must be overcome to achieve success. My personal preference in starting a business would be launching a convenience store that follows the modern vegan trends in purchasing everyday items. Thus, it would be possible to cater to a wide range of individuals interested in this tendency. Providing merchandise to consumers following a vegetarian or vegan-based style is a promising opportunity in the current age due to the popularity of this trend.
The growth of the vegetarian and vegan population is one of the prominent tendencies in the contemporary age. As more people switch to this way of life, the demand for animal-free products continues to rise, leading to the production of various merchandise to sustain the needs of such consumers (Costa et al., 2019). Nevertheless, modern convenience stores do not always provide an appropriate range of items for vegans or vegetarians. The majority of the shops focus on distributing food-related items rather than other products that are created using cruelty-free merchandise (Pimentel et al., 2021). For instance, common household items, cleaning supplies, and clothes can also be produced following the vegan or vegetarian way of life (Costa et al., 2019). However, as convenience stores attend to a variety of customers, such products are usually not present.
Given the described demand for vegan and vegetarian items and the lack of access, a convenience store focused specifically on the provision of such merchandise could be a potentially successful business idea. This concept is especially interesting to me as I often struggle to find products other than food aimed at the vegan and vegetarian audience. Therefore, my potential customers would be the people following a vegan or vegetarian lifestyle, seeking everyday merchandise produced using cruelty-free methods. From this perspective, my competitors are large-scale convenience stores offering the same items at lower prices, as well as other shops that are focused on distributing such products. For example, the Vegan Store, a convenience store that sells plant-based food and household items, has become exceptionally popular in the last two years (Ho, 2019). In this regard, if more enterprises were to integrate this idea into their business practices, they would become competitors in this field.
It is also crucial to determine how I could uphold the consumers’ expectations while battling the pressure from competing organizations. Considering that shops offering solely cruelty-free merchandise are rather rare, this business idea could help avoid extreme competition usually present in the convenience store sector (Graves, 2017). Moreover, the lack of alternatives could be a tremendous opportunity for fulfilling the vegan and vegetarian customers’ needs. For instance, presenting consumers with items whose production processes were already checked on the use of animal resources can promote the validity of the store for the customers interested in such merchandise (Costa et al., 2019). In this regard, opening a shop that caters to the needs of a vegan and vegetarian audience could satisfy the population’s purchasing desires.
To conclude, a business idea that I would like to develop is the creation of a convenience store focused entirely on the provision of vegan and vegetarian merchandise that can fulfill the consumers’ everyday needs. Although such products are already offered by large-scale convenience stores, they are usually small in numbers in comparison with traditionally produced items, meaning that the customers cannot enjoy a variety of choices. The uniqueness of the store could be my advantage against potential competitors and an attractive attribute for future customers.
References
Costa, I., Gill, P. R., Morda, R., & Ali, L. (2019). “More than a diet”: A qualitative investigation of young vegan women’s relationship to food. Appetite, 143. Web.
Graves, S. M. (2017). Convenience stores: A landscape perspective. Yearbook of the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers, 79, 134–152.
Pearson, S. (2016). Building brands directly: Creating business value from customer relationships. Springer.
Pimentel, T. C., Costa, W. K. A. da, Barão, C. E., Rosset, M., & Magnani, M. (2021). Vegan probiotic products: A modern tendency or the newest challenge in functional foods. Food Research International, 140. Web.
Ho, Sally. (2019). Vegan Store: Japan’s first plant-based convenience store opens in Tokyo’s Asakusa ’hood. Green Queen. Web.