INTRODUCTION Sport Goods Industry, Located in Sialkot our sports goods industry has earned very good name for the country as well as foreign exchange. Our exports in year 2009 were than 35 million US$. Made in Pakistan footballs, soccer balls, gloves are famous all over the world. While the sports goods industry has reason to be proud of its achievements, SCCI sources said it was high time for the industry to modernise its base if it wants to remain competitive, to retain and increase its share in the world markets
PAKISTANS SPORTS INDUSTRY The sports goods industry of Sialkot, Sher Sports company, producing quality goods mainly for foreign markets, has over century old history.For this reason it needs to be decided that which country is the most attractive and less risky. We have three alternatives on which our decision based, 1. China 2. India 3. United Arab Emirates (UAE)
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In this project we conducted the PEST analysis of these countries and which is based on those figures the country would be selected and the mode of entry would be determined MODE OF ENTRY Direct Export Products Sher sports will sell the latest and most popular name-brand sporting goods, apparel, and accessories. Consumers will be educated as to the proper size, style, fit, and design needed for their particular use. Initially these sporting goods will be for the sports of baseball, softball, volleyball, basketball, and football, with the focus primarily on softball and baseball. The products are purchased from the top manufacturers in the world, such as Easton, Louisville Slugger, Wilson, Worth, Mizuno, Miken, Under Armour, Jugs, Adams, ATEC, Playmaker, TrueSports, Bike. Inventory is tracked through our POS cash register and computerized tracking system. Each day we will be aware of the style, size, and quantity of every item sold in the retail and internet stores. The general list of products initially to be offered includes the following: Baseball/Softball Equipment Baseball Bats, Baseball Gloves, Batting Helmets, Batting Tees, Bases, Catcher's Equipment, Bat Hangouts, Batting Gloves, Easy Toss Machine, Instant Screens/Nets, Hit-N-Stik, Equipment Bags, Hats, Training Aides, Sunglasses, Baseballs, Softballs, Shoes/Cleats, Umpire Equipment, Ball Buckets, Eye Black, Scorebooks, Pitching Machines, Backstop/Batting Cages, Ball Feeders, Protective Screens, Field Maintenance Equipment, Ankle/Knee Braces, Athletic Supporters, Sliding Shorts, Coaches' Shorts, Coaching/Training Aids & Videos, Wraps, Ice Packs, First Aid, Mouth/Lip Guards, and Protective Aids. Baseball/ Softball Uniforms & Apparel Uniforms for Men, Women and Youth. Uniform Jerseys, Uniform Pants, Uniform Hats, Socks, and Belts. Custom screen printing of uniform names and numbers. Under Armour Gear - Heat, Cold, All Season, Turf, Loose, Performance, and Street. Manufacturer T-shirts and caps. Volleyball Volleyballs, Volleyball Bags, Portable Scoreboard, Knee Pads, ClipBoard, Volleyball Carts.
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Basketball Basketballs, Basketball Systems/Hoops, Basketball Courts, Basketball Fencing, Lighting Systems. Football Footballs, Shoulder Pads, Knee Pads, Thigh Pads, Helmets, Gloves, and WristCoach. Golf Synthetic putting greens. Future Products After the assumption of the business, we will look to increase our product line laterally by offering additional product categories. Initially, this will be done to increase revenue in months that are historically slower for Sher sports. We will also significantly grow the existing Volleyball, Basketball, and Football lines in year 1. We will evaluate introducing products for the sports of Soccer, Field Hockey, Lacrosse, Hockey, Golf, Swimming, Tennis, Wrestling, Running and Cheerleading. We will also evaluate the introduction of Major League and College sports team logo apparel such as NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, NCAA and NHL. In addition, in order to serve the older and more affluent sports participant, we will evaluate less vigorous and more relaxing sports lines such as camping, fishing, and golf.
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PEST ANALYSIS Pest Analysis is a tool which identifies the best country to be selected, which includes the analysis of Political factors, Economic Factors, Social Factors, Technological and Legal Factors. POLITICAL FACTORS The political PESTLE dimension relates to the key political drivers which could influence an organisation. JISC infoNet advise that for the HE and FE sector these are likely to include worldwide, European and government directives, funding council policies, national and local organisations' requirements and institutional policy (JISC infoNet 2009). The Work-with-IT PES(T)LE investigation identified four broad categories of political factors currently influencing or likely to influence institutions in the near future: central or devolved government policies; local policies; efficiency drives; European Union and other international policies. Political policies are of course intertwined with associated economic factors and together political/economic funding drivers can have a major effect upon institutions. While funding policies could also be attributed to the political dimension, they are dealt with under the economic dimension. Political analysis includes the study of the government system in countries, the taxation system and the applied tariffs set by the governments which need to be analyzed before entering a state. China is basically a communist country. The leadership of the Communist Party is stated in the Constitution of the People's Republic of China. State power within China is exercised through the Communist Party of China, the Central People's Government and their provincial and local counterparts. Nowadays, China has become one of the worlds most attractive locations and Chinas rise carries enormous significant for the international business communities. The Chinese government is one of the most investor friendly governments however its major focus is towards FDI inflows as the about 88% of the inflows are green field inflows and the applied tariff accounts to 8.36%.
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Secondly India, the biggest democracy in the World. Based on English common law, separate personal law codes apply to Muslims, Christians, and Hindus. The government system of India is such that it is always striving to attract foreign investors and promoting trade. The Indian government has developed different models to promote trade and to become a central hub for commerce round the globe. As per the models the government supported Liberalization, Privatization and Globalization. India has a well-developed tax structure with a three-tier federal structure, comprising the Union Government, the State Governments and the Urban & Rural Local Bodies. The power to levy taxes and duties are distributed among the three tiers of Governments, in accordance with the provisions of the Indian Constitution. Last comes UAE, is a federation of seven constitutional monarchies: the Emirates of Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai, and Fujairah, Ras al-Khaimah, Sharjah and Umm al-Qaiwain. Each emirate has its own government institution and each member of the ruling family is involved in the policy making of United Arab Emirates. Thus the courts preceding are very time consuming due to lack of unity of command. UAE has also been in the struggle of promoting trade and has developed 34 free trade zones to encourage FDI. Dubais open economic policy, minimal government control and private sector regulation have played an instrumental role in attracting (FDI).Liberal visa policies permit easy import of expatriate labour of various skill levels from almost anywhere in the world. ECONOMIC FACTORS There are several economic factors that change prior to, during, or simultaneously with the business cycle. These factors are examined by analysts to determine the current state of the economy. In terms of Economic Growth (GDP) or growth rate, China has the edge over both alternate countries since it has the highest GDP among all. This shows that there are fewer variations between the growth rates of China and due to constant growth a rise in the spending power
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of the gaining countrys residents is also seen. The Chinese Yuan exchange rate depreciated 0.05 percent against the US Dollar during April 2012 and during the last year; the Chinese Yuan exchange rate appreciated 2.82 percent against the US Dollar which makes it a very favorable scenario for investors. The Indian economy is also experiencing rapid growth in the countrys GDP and most of the contribution is of the services sector industry of India because of cheap labor. India has a significantly good growth rate yet the growth is not consistent and is risky for investors to invest in India. In recent time Indias GDP in the first half of fiscal year 2012 was estimated to be at 9% and later on the estimate was reduced to 7.5% which reflects the inconsistency in growth. Last comes the economy of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) who dont has much of the market share in the worlds exports and have a good GDP and most of the contribution is from the technological industry in which UAE has an edge.The GDP of UAE is not very consistent which may be a result of many factors such as inherently rich Arabs usually rely on Oil exports and avoid work. However UAE has been the largest importer of Pakistani products in the entire Arab region since 2008. Due to Oil resources the residents of UAE have a very high score in terms of per capita income which according to the IMF is US $ 48158 per year with inflation rate equal to 0.6% as of March 2012. Ranked at the 7 th
spot UAE is among the 10 richest countries of the world. The UAE Dirham exchange rate remained unchanged against the US Dollar during the April 2012 and during the last year; the UAE Dirham exchange rate depreciated 0.01 percent against the US Dollar which is favorable for investors since less fluctuations in currency value makes it easy to forecast the future of a business. SOCIAL FACTORS In case of social factors we have accounted for the age, health and population growth within a country, the health consciousness and the population growth rate which effects a businesss operations and determines its future potential to grow. We all live in either a multicultural or self society so this means there are many factors that affect or direct our lifestyle. These factors are called social factors. some important social actors are:
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1. Religion 2. Ethnicity 3. Family 4. Physical attributes 5. Economic Status 6. Education 7. Locality( Location) 8. Life Partner and children 9. Political System Despite the high Chinese GDP, governments spending on health care is low. Chinese population currently equals 1.3 billion and is projected to grow to 1.5 billion in 2020. According to the China Chamber of Commerce for Import Export of sports goods, The Chinese market for sport goods has registered steady growth at the annual average rate of 28% in the last five years. Demand for sports goods in China is expected to climb 13 percent annually through 2012. This rising demand and boost in growth of the market is due to many Chinese paying increasing attention to their appearance. India's population is very young, as more than a third is younger than 15-years old, and more than half are under the age of 25, which is India's median age. It is estimated that about 95% of Indian population can afford only very low quality sports goods .On the other hand, a small 1-2% of the population is rich enough to access European-standard sports equipment, while a general 5% of the population can potentially afford to pay for some Sports goods. However, Indias exports of sport goods are turning favorable, UAE has a population of 8.2 million out of which 81% is urban population. Its population is very young: 81.9% is aged between 15 and 59 years, while only 1.3% is over 60. It is estimated that about 77% of population can afford only very low quality sports goods .On the other hand, a small % of the population is rich enough to access European-standard
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sports equipment, while a general 5% of the population can potentially afford to pay for some Sports goods.
TECHNOLOGICAL FACTORS Technological factors comprises of the automation of traditional work and lastly the rate of change in technology in a country which greatly influences the countrys ability to become more competitive in the global arena. Chinese have acknowledged the importance of research and development as China during the past ten years has dramatically increased the number of students in tertiary education and provided more funding for R&D, not only in absolute terms but also in relation to its GDP. China is emerging as the new center for Knowledge production because of its increased spending on R&D as between 1995 to 2004 the R&D budget. and now its overtaking major counties like USA, is currently ranked as the 2 nd country who spends most on R&D and is expected to have the most researchers and scientists till 2015. China is also focusing much on innovation and automation especially in sport industry. Many chinese industries in china have increased their market share with the introduction of innovative products. Indias sports industry is also diverse and includes what is known as the modern system of medicine as well as multiple traditional systems. India is fast emerging as a global. This rising trend has resulted in an increase in investors. Indian companies have long been criticized for their low level of investment in R&D, both in India and other parts of the world. Today, situations are changing in India a few sectors like sports goods and automobiles are leading the charge in the R&D field, with expenditures rising disproportionately to sales growth.
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The UAE is second globally for "government success in ICT promotion" and earned third place for government procurement of advanced technology, importance of ICT to government vision, and for government readiness. UAE is moving very fast in advance technology of sports goods making.
LEGAL FACTOR The legal system of a country is also of importance in terms of business enterprises. The legal factors comprise of a countrys Legal system how strong/weak it is, Consumer laws and Anti-Trust laws. Legal PESTLE factors, described by JISC infoNet as European and national proposed and passed legislation (JISC infoNet 2009), have also been impacting upon HE and FE. As JISC Legal (JISC Legal 2009) advise, areas of consideration include: Copyright / IPR, Data Protection, Freedom of Information, Human Rights e-Commerce, Accessibility Law, Defamation, Harassment, Computer Misuse, Terrorism, Interception and Monitoring, Hosting Liability, Employment Law. Factors emerging from the Work-with-IT PES(T)LE investigation in general correlate with this, the addition being the identification of more general consumer rights issues arising from the increasing trend of students as consumers. The PES(T)LE investigation suggested that the fear of litigation relating to compliance and consumer rights is of significant concern to many institutions. In term of China, The legal system is a mixture of both the Chinese traditional Law and West Law. Chinese Legal system is based on five pillars which are National laws, which are issued by the National People's Congress Administrative regulations, which are issued by the State Council Local decrees, which are issued by local People's Congresses Administrative and local rules, which are issued by an administrative agency or by a local People's Government
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However the Chinese have a weak legal system where most of their laws are outdated and China faces many issues. Also the foreign investors are constantly pressurizing the Chinese government to adopt standard laws for the security of their investments. The Indian Legal system is based on Civil Law which is a very flexible. For an investor the most important thing is the security of his/her investment and safeguard against the unfair competition of multinationals in that economy. To address this issue the Indian government has introduced The Competition Act 2002, which ensures free market competition and in case any firm is developing any sort of monopoly then that is tackled as per the law. The government always intervenes whenever the consumers are getting hurt from any products of a company or the quality of the product falls below the promised standards. Lastly comes the legal system of UAE, the law in practice is the Theocratic law based on Muslim civilization. However the court system is still inefficient as reports indicate that hearings of the court of UAE take very long time, also the evidences that are acceptable by the court should be in Arabic only. There are no juries; only a single judge or a panel of 3 judges address the cases based on the intensity. To protect the consumers and investors the UAEs government has introduced certain laws which are as follows Consumer Protect Laws Consumer Protection Department, who monitors prices of products to avoid monopolistic behavior in the market and to promote fair competition,. Consumer Code of Rights which ensures that the goods produced is up to the standard mark. Insurance Laws for investors security.
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Market Segmentation Sher sports' market is both nationwide (even some international) via the internet store, and local, via the retail store, in the local metropolitan region. Market segmentation for Sher sports has several layers and can be analyzed and targeted from many different angles. The targeted customer market will be segmented in multiple layers as follows: Sports Participation - These customers have needs based on the specific sport(s) in which they participate. For example Baseball participants are looking specifically for baseball equipment, uniforms, training aids, etc Customer Type - These customers have needs based upon the type of role they play in regards to the sports participants. For example, many times those making sporting goods purchases are not those actually participating in the sport, but instead are parents, athletic directors, and coaches. Individual Participants - These are the actual sports participants. Typically, these would be adult participants or older youths who have the technical knowledge and disposable income to purchase sporting goods equipment and apparel on their own. Parents - Parents buy on their own, or are present during the purchase of over 90% of sporting goods purchases for youths ages 5-18. This segment can be heavily influenced by their children in regards to the "hot" or best products. They are also the segment in most need of technical assistance from sporting goods store staff. League Representatives - Members of adult and youth athletic associations are responsible for league equipment and uniform purchases to outfit league teams. Long-term relationships and sponsorship participation are important to this segment. They usually have technical proficiency and want to deal with someone that is on or above their technical level of expertise. This segment is usually well informed about recent product offerings and can be a solid channel for introducing new products. They are also a marketing channel to all the participants and parents involved with their league. Independent Team Coaches - Typically those organizing and coaching adult sports teams, or individual advanced youth teams (such as AAU teams), they are responsible for the design and purchase of their individual team uniforms. School Athletic Coaches and Directors - Public and private middle and high school athletic directors must outfit their teams with high quality sporting goods equipment and uniforms. Establishing ;relationships with this segment is difficult, but can be lucrative if all of the school's sporting goods needs can be met. Sports Performance Businesses - These are organizations that sell services to enhance the participant's performance in his or her sport. Many times, they operate recreational/training
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facilities and offer individual or team training programs. Selling equipment to these facilities provides a channel, not only to the facilities' customers, but also to the many area school and league coaches, who are typically part-time employees of these companies. National - The demographic for the internet store is truly nationwide. The potential customer segment is all of the:
Volleyball Participants -1% 10,400,000 10,296,000 10,193,040 10,091,110 9,990,199 -1.00% Basketball Participants 1% 27,900,000 28,179,000 28,460,790 28,745,398 29,032,852 1.00% Other Sports Participants 11% 173,000,000 192,030,000 213,153,300 236,600,163 262,626,181 11.00% Total 7.78% 255,700,000 274,641,000 295,681,770 319,052,564 345,008,966 7.78% Target Market Segment Strategy The focus will initially be on the Baseball and Softball participant segment, because this is current Sher sports current core competency and because the number of participants, both nationally and locally, is quite large. We will look to leverage current Sher sports relationships in this segment and move aggressively to increase sales and margins through a targeted marketing campaign. We will then strategically target other participation segments to try and increase sales during the non-peak baseball/softball sales months. This is a huge opportunity for growth for the company, as evidenced by the large number of participants present in the other participant segments. Changing tastes in sports and strong sales of sporting goods in recent years partly reflect the changing composition of the U.AE. population. In particular, the number of older (and more affluent) people has increased rapidly in the past decade. As the Baby Boomers age, they participate less in vigorous sports like baseball, basketball, and tennis, and more in relaxed sports like camping, fishing, and golf. We believe quickly moving into at least one sport that serves this aging market to be critical to meeting sales goals. The "customer type" segments are currently-under served by current Sher sports. Although the company does have some relationships with various leagues and organizations - such as the U.S.S.A. (U.S. Softball Association) - there is room for significant segment penetration with the addition of targeted sales efforts and the staffing of a sales team. Due to the fact that the company has both an internet store and a retail store it is important to understand the market segmentation and demographics on both a national and local level. The internet store has made substantial sales (almost 1.3 million in 2003) with a weak user presentation experience and basically no Web marketing strategy. The analysis of the number of sports participants nationwide, not to mention internationally, illuminates the fact that attacking this nationwide segment through a focused Web strategy could bring significant returns.
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Marketing Strategy The marketing strategy of current Sher sports centers on defining our market niche in terms that benefit our customer. Retail and internet store marketing will be integrated and synchronized. We plan to establish a consistent and coherent marketing plan and calendar that take into account and utilize all effective forms of publicity, advertising, and other marketing tools. Specific strategies that will potentially be used are as follows: Newspaper/Print Ads - It will be necessary to keep the current Sher sports name in front of the customer while getting established will be necessary. We plan on running limited- space ads in the local newspapers to keep our name and phone number in front of the consumer. We may offer clip out coupons as an incentive to visit the store and also as a way to track revenue from the ads. Use of magazine print ads is deemed to have little potential return.
Press Releases - The local paper has regular sections that highlight business purchases and new business openings. We will make sure they give coverage to the grand opening when the store relocates and any time we sponsor or are involved with local nonprofit organizations.
Team/Tournament Sponsorship - We will selectively sponsor local teams and leagues, preferably by providing equipment or uniforms versus cash. We will encourage links to/from our Web site with these entities. We will look to sponsor a " current Sher sports " softball and/or baseball tournament once a year.
Event Sponsorship - We will investigate opportunities for being sponsors of large area events, especially those managed by the local sports facilitation group, such as a marathon, and biking or ironman events.
Decals - We will have decals/stickers manufactured with the current Sher sports logo. We will include these with all of the orders that we ship. Children in particular enjoy displaying decals/stickers on just about everything.
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Apparel - We will outfit our retail staff with current Sher sports branded shirts and have shirts, hats, and other apparel available for event and sales giveaways.
Grand Opening - A Grand Opening is the most successful of any in-store promotions. With manufacturer support, a large number of door prizes can be given away while instantly building a mailing list. Loss leader pricing on a few high volume consumable products will attract in-store traffic. Vendors will subsidize loss leader pricing with a rebate. Appearances by local celebrities would also expose potential customers to current Sher sports. A planned series of events, such as demonstrations, free clinics, celebrity appearances, registration for free prize giveaways, and competitions can all be utilized to extend the grand opening and continually draw customers back so they become familiar and comfortable with the store.
Trade Shows - We will attend industry trade shows in order to keep abreast of new products and trends. This will also allow us to make and maintain industry contacts.
Word of Mouth - By giving first-time customers great service and a fair price, the word is sure to spread. Also, the many sports contacts that we already have in the area will prove to be most beneficial in spreading the word.
Yellow Pages - We will advertise in the local yellow pages.
Flyers - Flyers will be distributed to all local leagues at season start. These flyers will offer discounts for purchasing from the retail and internet stores. These discounts could be structured so that a certain percentage of the discount goes directly to the customer and other percentages go to the customer's league or a nonprofit entity being sponsored by current Sher sports.
Customer Discount Card - The implementation of a customer discount program and card will be investigated to entice customers to shop repeatedly with current Sher sports.
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Information gathered through this program can be utilized to feed direct mail and email campaigns for special program discounts or information.
Business Networking - Business networking organizations, such as Business Network International, will be visited and potentially joined as a way to increase awareness and create a virtual sales force.
Direct Mail - A direct mail program utilizing low-cost postcards or other mechanism will be evaluated.
Radio - A radio campaign will be investigated. Happy Sports recently ran a campaign with some success.
Catalog - The creation and distribution of a product catalog will be evaluated.
Web Marketing - A variety of Web marketing channels and vehicles will be researched and tested.
Press releases, articles, and/or advertising on local internet sites. Search engine marketing Banner Ads URL Links to/from organizations, teams, leagues, co-marketers Email marketing Trivia questions with weekly winners Sports Tickers Retail store event publicity and schedule
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All marketing decisions with regard to specific media choices, frequency, size, and expenditures will be conducted on an on-going basis with careful considerations of returns generated. All marketing vehicles and channels will be tracked for results. 5.4 Competitive Edge Current Sher sports looks to establish itself competitively as a unique sporting goods provider in the local metropolitan area and internet sports market through its product offerings, the scope and level of services it provides, and the expertise of its employees. Products: The products offered provide a high level of quality and value to the consumer. The depth and range of products will be extensive, separating us from others in the marketplace. Services: Connecting with the customer is a key focus for current Sher sports. It is our desire that customers look to us as their valued resource to obtain the equipment, apparel and accessories that meet their needs. Our internet store will provide prompt courteous service, and deliver products at reasonable shipping rates within expected time frames. Employees: Employees of current Sher sports will enjoy a friendly, fair and creative work environment, which respects diversity, new ideas and hard work. Development through experience and training will be a primary focus. It is our desire that employees are long-term, ensuring an expertise that will support the customer experience. Our employees will be a competitive advantage because their technical product knowledge will be superior to that of the competition. We want customers to form a relationship with a salesperson and ask for them by name when they return for a subsequent purchase.
Website Marketing Strategy The basis for our website marketing strategy is to utilize search engine optimization, keyword density, direct navigation, targeted link popularity and systematic submissions. Our Website marketing strategy will adhere to each search engine's no-Spam policies, while generating highly-qualified web traffic. We believe a successful marketing system is much more than simply optimizing our website to be search-engine friendly. The system should also provide support for other strategies, such as link popularity, site design and content, the "stickiness" of our site, consistent search engine submissions, and ethical marketing practices. It is extremely important to gain and maintain a high search engine placement. A December 2002 study by DoubleClick revealed that people prefer to use search engines almost 2 to 1 over any other source to find products and services on the Internet. 85% of all searches on the internet start on search engines.
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In addition, we will implement the following mechanisms to make our website URL and domain name visible and effective: We will place our Web address on every form of literature that goes out of our business, such as letterhead, business cards, envelopes, invoices, payments, etc. We will place our Web address in all print advertising, such as newspaper ads, magazine ads, professional trade magazines, etc. Our internet Web address will be part of our on-hold or answering systems for both the internet 800 numbers and the retail store phone. Electronic advertisements such as radio ads will feature our Web address. We will develop our new website from inception, and modify the existing one as practical, with Web marketing as a key objective. There are huge advantages to developing the site with marketing in mind. Position of keyword phrases in the text, the alt tag description, the titles of the pages, the page URL, and Meta Tags in the heading area all have a role to play. We will avoid using frames on our website because many browsers do not support frames and many search engines do not rank sites with frames very high. Although we need pictures to display our many products, we will try to avoid putting too many graphics on a page, so we don't reduce the page load time to a crawl. If a site does not start to download within 8 seconds a prospective customer will go to another site, and customers with dial-up links find sites with too many images make it painfully slow to load pages.
Development Requirements A full development plan will be generated as documented in the milestones. Costs that current Sher sports will expect to incur with development of its new website in UAE include: Development Costs User interface design - $3,000. Site development and testing - $6,000. Site Implementation - $1,000. This development will be outsourced. Ongoing Costs Website name registration - $70 per year. Site Hosting - $30 or less per month. Site design changes, updates and maintenance are considered part of Marketing.
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CONCLUSION On the basis of PESTL analysis and considering that our company is not a large scale producer of sports goods. We have chosen to enter the market of UAE via directly exporting our products. Since exporting is the least risky method to go global and besides this other factors contributing in the decision are as follows. UAE grounds use as home grounds for Pakistan this is one of the biggest reason why we are exporting sports goods to UAE. It is also quite easy to export to UAE through sea, which is more cost effective and more safe. The residents of UAE are blessed with natural resources and are inherently rich thus in comparison with the available countries UAE is preferable due to highest per capital income of US $ 48,158 per year almost 6 times more than China and 15 times more than India. UAE dirham is the most stable currency comparatively since only it depreciated by 0.01% against US dollar in the last year. Of the population of 8.2 million prevailing in UAE more than 80% of people reside in urban areas and young generation are actively participating in sports. As the people of UAE are inherently rich they aim towards getting world class facilities and mostly rely on imported products and thus no local competition is involved. Another significant reason of selecting UAE is that it comes in the top exporting markets where exports to UAE rose to about 50% in 2008 with a figure of US $ 1.8 billion. UAE is spreading awareness in the entire region about sports. UAE also has a cutting edge on technology which may have a spillover effect in other technology based industries such as dental instrument manufacturing.
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Consumer and Investor laws are both very prominent in UAE and comparatively much better than India and China where laws have been outdated or are based on historic traditions not abiding to international standards. Also there are cultural similarities between Pakistan and UAE which makes it easy for us to operate there if in the future we think of doing FDI.