Customer Discovery Approach as The First Essential Step for Successful Business Development (E-Commerce Case Study: Bibikost)
Kezia Clara Bellaa), Noer Azam Achsani, and Suhendi

School of Business, IPB University, Bogor, Indonesia


a)Corresponding author: bellakezia0[at]gmail.com

Abstract

The new challenges caused by globalization and technological advancements cause companies and entrepreneurs to think of new ways to compile a business marketing strategy or steps to build products. With the openness of the information, customers have formed their expectations over quality, service, and flexibility of supply. This causes businesses to no longer only offer products to solve customer problems but switches to offering products that understand consumers^ real desires and needs as a starting point then in the end adjusted to the company^s values and strategies. Although there have been several studies about Customer Development, this study is one of the few that focus only on Customer Discovery. As the first step of Customer Development, Customer Discovery focuses on understanding the customer problems, getting their feedback, and revising the business ideas to create customer-needed products. We propose a framework that outlines the steps of customer discovery in developing new products that can be followed by company. Based on a case study of e-commerce in Bogor, Bibikost, this paper illustrates the framework and benefits of implementing Customer Discovery in building business success strategies.

Keywords: Customer discovery, e-commerce, framework

Topic: Economic, Business and Technology