Research Proposal

Research Objectives

This research was designed with the intention of giving us an idea of whether or not we should begin producing these shelves. If we received a majority of positive answers, then we would proceed with production, and if we received mostly negative feedback then we would call off the whole operation. Our qualitative approach to our research is also important because it answers our two most important questions: will you buy it and would you pay extra for a handmade shelf.

Importance/Benefits

If we find that many people are willing to pay extra for handmade shelves then we could do something other than mass production. We may still want to mass produce but we could make the shelves by hand rather than running them off of an assembly line and making them from cheap materials in a factory overseas. We would produce the shelves out of high quality wood and stain it to a color of the customer’s choosing. But, if the majority does not want to pay extra for a handmade product, we will have to find a more affordable wood and give them an inexpensive lacquer to save on costs, while still adding a polished finish to the shelves.

Research Design: Pilot Test

Web-based Questionnaire: We used a Google survey to find out what type of products customers are likely to be interested in purchasing on an online store at Etsy. The survey collected data electronically through a Google form, linking it to a spreadsheet. The survey was sent by several channels to get high volume of responses for better results to use for analyzing purposes. Potential respondents received an email, requesting the completion of the survey. After getting the results of the survey questions, we now know what products and services to offer the customers.

Our survey was sent to 100 people with only two questions included. The two questions were, “Would you buy a jewelry shelf on Etsy.com?” and “Would you pay extra for said shelf to be handmade from wood and stained?” After we submitted the surveys and they were returned to us, we compiled all the data from them to record the responses. The purpose of only having these two questions was to make sure we did not scare the survey takers away because we could tell them in advance it is only two questions. Also, from only asking those two questions we learned everything we needed to form a consumer-demand perspective.

Data Analysis

From our research we discovered that 71 people would actually buy our jewelry shelf and 29 said that they would not. Out of those 71 people, 46 of them said that they would opt for the handmade option. This is great news for our company, because based on these results, we should begin producing the shelves. The results showed that a majority of people surveyed would buy the product, and out of that pool enough people said they would like a handmade shelf to push us in the direction of making all the shelves by hand and thus charging a higher price for the finished good.

Results/Deliverables

Our qualitative research did exactly what we were hoping that it would do. All we wanted to gain from this research was the knowledge of whether or not we could sell a jewelry shelf on Etsy.com. Even better than that, though, our research showed us that we should sell our shelf and all we had to do was ask two simple questions.

NameNumber of Times Chosen As BestNumber of Times Chosen as WorstNumber of Times it Appeared as 1st in the list

OrderBestWorstEvolution Fresh14142

Juicey Juice41Liquiteria18121

Pyramid15Juicey Juice17172

Evolution Fresh23Pyramid12182

Liquiteria316161

Pyramid32

Juicey Juice24

Liquiteria31

Evolution Fresh23

Evolution Fresh21

Pyramid12

Juicey Juice02

Liquiteria31

Juicey Juice41

Evolution Fresh33

Liquiteria23

Pyramid13

Pyramid21

Liquiteria41

Evolution Fresh12

Juicey Juice03

Evolution Fresh00

Juicey Juice52

Pyramid22

Liquiteria03

Liquiteria32

Evolution Fresh42

Pyramid23

Juicey Juice24

Raw Data