Category: Retailing

Introduction

This paper focuses on investigating the technological use and support in the US retail industry by analyzing the industry’s general overview, its dependence on technology, IT expenditures, etc.

Investigation of the typical technology use and support in the industry:

Typical technologies used that give advantages to the retail industry

Table 1: Technology use and support

Source: Kulkarni (2014)

How technology makes retail businesses work facilitating them

It is hard to imagine a retail business today without the use of technology because it helps businesses to offer customers enhanced service quality, appropriateness, personalization, swiftness, and flexibility (Kulkarni, 2014).

General industry analysis overview:

Financial and other relevant business factors

The charts below show the financial performance of the industry; it is notable that the net sales growth in the domestic market is showing an upward trend, but EBIT growth is falling down (PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2015):

Return on sales remained quite stable until last year, but the gross margin has dropped on the domestic market; moreover, since 2013, return on invested capital is recovering, whilst return on market capital is dropping:

Competitive environment

The US retail industry confronts great competition, and the bargaining power of customers is huge because a large number of companies like Wal-Mart, Big Lots, Burlington Stores, Dillard’s, Cencosud, Costco, etc. persistently contest for market share.

The size of the retail industry

According to Farfan (2015), the size of the US retail industry has been boosted by four and a half percent from 1993 to 2015; however, such a conclusion has been drawn by considering the units of retail sales per month:

Table 2: Size of retail sales. Source: Farfan (2015).

Sales trends, seasonality, economic sensitivity

The sales trends of the retail industry from 2000 to 2014 demonstrate that gradually the amount of sales is increasing (Statista, 2015):

According to Hoovers (2015), the sales trends vary throughout the year, depending on different seasons to encourage customers to purchase all the time and especially in spring, summer, and winter. The industry is very much inclined to economic sensitivity; therefore, it depends on the economic conditions, with issues like employment trends, interest rates, taxation fluctuations, etc. determining its fate (Statista, 2015).

The sub-industries/ segments

Food, beverage, and household products are some essential segments of the retail industry; however, retail businesses can be broadly classified into the following segments:

The roles in the market

Retail industry in the US has major roles to play in the market – it has great influence in lowering unemployment rates in the job market; for example, Bureau of Labor Statistics (2015) suggested that employments continued to rise in 2015:

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics (2015).

The leaders and their market shares

Catala (2012) stated that Wal-Mart is the market leader in the industry, whereas Costco, Meijer, and BJ Wholesale are also leading retailers in the US market; the pie chart below shows their relevant market shares:

Industry Environment

The primary customers

The retail industry fundamentally consists of companies that offer “Business to Consumer” services, and the principal customer bases are the common individuals.

Key suppliers

Suppliers tend to have low bargaining power in this industry; however, the foremost suppliers are the wholesalers of food, drinks, and domestic items:

The market stability

The retail industry is very susceptible to market conditions; therefore, PricewaterhouseCoopers (2015) noted that in 2014, the economic atmosphere further recovered from the recession and gained stable growth, which was advantageous for the industry.

Key issues and regulatory concerns and affects on technology

The retail industry constantly faces many regulatory concerns, which adversely affect its use of technology; for example, retailers use data storage software that raises customers’ data security and privacy concerns; moreover, if they build custom software for commercial use, licensing issues arise.

Financial Aspects

Average annual expenditures in the industry for IT

The table below demonstrates the IT expenditure of the retail trade industry in comparison to other industries:

Expenditures as a percentage of revenues

The IT expenditure of the retail industry slightly rose as a percentage of revenues in recent years:

Applications and technologies

It is notable that mobility-trade, such as WiFi, mobile applications, and social media, are highly familiar applications; however, smarter technologies are used in inventory-management, online payment, e-commerce sites, etc.

Commonly deployed systems

Email, SMS, social media (such as Facebook, Twitter, Skype) are the most commonly deployed systems; conversely, most retailers now own corporate websites, hybrid clouds, etc.

Industry-specific applications and technologies

Industry-specific technologies are those, which are used in inventory management, promotional tools, and supply chain; however, many companies are inventing customized technologies.

Leading developers of applications

Presently, Wal-Mart is the pioneering developer in the US retail industry to invent industry-specific applications with the help of in-house IT specialists; however, Costco is also trying to adopt the latest user-friendly applications.

Standards

Use of standards in the industry, standard bodies, and working groups

It is noteworthy that GS1 oversees buyers’ goods with Universal Product Code, which is a ubiquitous-barcode; moreover, ANSI ASC X12 is also responsible for constructing and improving the benchmarks of the retail trade; whereas eCOM includes a group of benchmarks, which keeps the supply chain in thorough check. On the other hand, GSMP (another forum) clarifies and manages the GS1 benchmarks, whilst EPCglobal offers supplementary data, which helps exclusive recognition and tracking of products easier; in addition, GDSN facilitates safe and incessant data-harmonization of manufactured goods. It must be noted that GCI, an international user-group, includes the largest transnational producers and retailers that help to maintain the industry standards; on the other hand, VICS checks and enhances the competence and efficacy of the distribution system of the industry.

Trends and innovation

The trends of technology usage in the retail industry have been discussed earlier; however, here, it must be stated that the largest US retailers are now endowing significant amounts of funds in research and development for innovation.

Recent innovations and game-changers

It is important to state that, according to Kulkarni (2014), ‘omnichannel buyer experience’ is one of the foremost disruptive-technologies used amongst the retail competitors, making trade between various channels easier; moreover, it also allows better orchestration throughout the industry and its tiny segments.

The hotspots

There are numerous hotspots in the retail industry, for example, slow growth of the market, strict laws and conventions, incapability to manage expenses, lack of ability to profit from e-commerce, disorders of distribution channel, failure to pierce the promising markets, and continuously changing buyer behavior.

Conclusion

Irrespective of the various troubles and challenges, the retail industry is gradually becoming increasingly dependent on the use of technology. This is not only benefiting the companies by giving greater efficacy and flexibility at lowers costs but also assisting customers in enjoying their buying experience.

Reference List

Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2015). Table B-1 Employees on nonfarm payrolls by industry sector and selected industry detail. Web.

Catala, R. (2012). Wal-Mart Market Share Analysis. Web.

Farfan, B. (2015). US Retail Industry Overview 2015 – Info, Facts, Research, Data, Trivia. Web.

Hoovers. (2015). Seasonal Trends of the Retail Industry. Web.

Kulkarni, G. (2014). Ten game changing technology trends revolutionizing retail. Web.

Platt Retail Institute. (2012). Retailers’ Investment in Technology: An Industry Perspective. Web.

PricewaterhouseCoopers. (2015). Retail & Consumer Insights 2015 Financial Benchmarking. Web.

Statista. (2015). Annual retail industry sales in the United States from 2000 to 2014 (in trillion U.S. dollars). Web.

Competitor Analysis

Existing competitors

US cosmetics retailing industry tends to expand within the domestic and international markets because of the rising level of discretionary income in the developed and developing countries (Polla 1). The major players in the US cosmetics retailing industry include Ultra Salon, Cosmetics & Fragrance Inc., Sephora, L Brands Inc., and Sally Beauty Holdings Inc. Prominent mass retailers include Walgreens, Target, and CVS (Howell, 106). Famous boutiques include Macy’s and Dillard’s (Mills 1). They are my major competitors. The key economic drivers of the industry incorporate the per capita disposable income of adults aged between 20 to 64 years. The competitive profile matrix is indicated below:

Potential competitors

Potential competitors include Hypermarcas and AmorePacific (Keenan 1). If they enter the market, the competition will increase (Howell 106). They will eat into our market share. To keep up with this, we will have to be innovative and differentiate our products.

Business Strategy

Desired image and position

My enterprise aims to be a leader in the US cosmetic retailing market. The business’s mission is to improve our products and to advance shopping awareness and necessity. Its principal purpose is to offer our customers what they require at the quickest time possible.

Company goals and objectives

The company’s objectives are as follows:

• To expand its presence in urban centers globally
• To increase customers’ interest and accomplishment by offering them the prospect to get familiar with first-hand extraordinary designer clothes on a weekly basis.
• To increase retail stores from the start of the year 2016 by 80%

The cost of establishing the enterprise is shop is $263,000. The majority of the expenses will be used in purchasing raw materials. The business will hire ten employees to operate. They will comprise of one supervisor and subordinate staff. The workers will be needed to have more than one year of experience in a similar environment.

SWOT analysis

Based on the above information, a SWOT analysis of the US cosmetic retailers should be obtained. To understand competition in the particular segment, I must evaluate this report (Dess 78). The analysis will help my company to identify the intensity of competition and the profitability of the sector.

Competitive strategy

Cost leadership

Owing to increased competition and dwindling profits, my business will utilize a cost leadership strategy. To achieve this, I will retail my cosmetic merchandise at a lower price compared to my rivals. Through this strategy, I will guarantee my clients affordable and quality products hence attracting many customers compared to my competitors (Howell 123). As such, many cosmetic retailers sell their products at higher prices. The strategy will enable my business to win customer loyalty guaranteeing long-term viability.

Differentiation

I will also utilize a differentiation strategy in my business to survive the ever-increasing competition. My company will differentiate our products and services to gain a competitive advantage over our competitors (Champniss 11). One major way of fulfilling the above is through value addition. My enterprise will focus on improving our cosmetic product’s package to enhance its aesthetic appeal (Champniss 12). All our merchandise will be packed in impressive packages designed to surpass our customers’ expectations.

Focus strategy

The business will also utilize a focus strategy to get ahead of its rivals. The approach will allow us to research the market segments that the enterprise can major to compete efficiently. The method compares market features with the business’s competitive advantages to identify markets that will enable the company to concentrate its resources effectively, leading to anticipated sales volumes, proceeds, and incomes. I will also focus on only serving female clients to differentiate ourselves from our rivals. In my locality, a few beauty and cosmetics shops focus only on particular communities such as religion, age, sex, or political minorities. If my shop focuses on specializing in satisfying only the women’s community, I will attract many clients and enhance my market share. The market segment presents an opportunity for the business.

Given the rates of the segment’s expansion, cosmetics retailing in the US and around the world is expected to grow in the future. For example, the sales of US cosmetics are supposed to increase by 3% through 2017. Based on its growth rate, innovation, change, and customer acceptance, the segment’s stage of growth is that of maturity.

Works Cited

Champniss, Guy. Brand valued: how socially valued brands hold the key to a sustainable future and business success, Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley, 2011. Print.

Dess, George. Strategic management: text and cases, New York: McGraw Hill/Irwin, 2012. Print.

Howell, Marvin. Actionable performance measurement: a key to success, Milwaukee, Wis.: ASQ Quality Press, 2006. Print.

Keenan, Joe. How ULTA Beauty is Developing Loyal Customers. 2015. Web.

Mills, Nancy. More than Cosmetic –The New Face of U.S. Beauty Retailing. 2008. Web.

Polla, Ada. The Changing Face of Beauty Distribution. 2015. Web.

Supply chain management refers to the organization of a set of connections of interconnected business activities which are involved in the process of providing goods and services to consumers. According to Harland (165), it involves all the steps goods and services pass through right from when they are raw materials up to when they are delivered to customers as end products ready for consumption. In addition, supply chain management is aimed at improving the performance of a company by ensuring the attainment of a company’s long term goals (Hines 85). It also aims at satisfying the customers’ needs at the endpoint when delivering goods and services. Hence, this system creates value to customers and other stakeholders in the production process.

The aim of this summary report is to identify the areas a firm ought to asses in order to create a multichannel retailing capability. A business is largely related to customers and other partners who entirely determine the success of the business. Identifying the critical areas to be assessed in a firm will ensure that all the stakeholders’ needs are met for the success of the entire business.

Most managers of supply chains in different firms are usually faced by the challenges posed by the performance of their firms as a result of inefficiency in the supply chain process. In order to compete in the global market, and achieve a firm’s goal, a firm needs to have an efficient supply chain system firmly put in place. The supply chains have to meet the needs of the firm’s customers. In terms of attaining success, a firm has to consider assessing its efficiency in the supply chain. The efficient of a firm is measured by exploring the services they offer to their customers (Jespersen and Tage 225).

If the needs of customers are met to their level of satisfaction, then it is an indicator of efficiency in a firm. Efficiency also touches on the impacts the processes of the supply chain have on the environment. Therefore, managers should ensure that all the processes are friendly to the environment. For instance, in the attainment of the raw materials, there should be no inconveniences brought to the immediate environment. Furthermore, supply chain managers need to control all the activities of the supply process by monitoring weekly or monthly performance. They should also flag the essential areas on a daily basis and address them in the shortest time possible. The managers are able to address failures in the quality of the products, the delivery problems and the whole process of production before they have a significant impact on the success of the firm. This ensures the maintenance of an effective chain of supply.

Another critical area of assessment is the transformation of the chain of supply, which is a continuous process. Consumers are always searching for low-cost goods and services at their disposal and which are also environmentally friendly (Kaushik and Cooper 130). For the success of a firm, supply chain managers should always focus on better ways of improving their business to fit the modern technologies and satisfy the customers’ needs. The managers can always identify costly processes and replace with improved ones. For instance, reduction of the wastes produced in a process or adoption of processes consuming less energy may reduce the cost of production.

The continuous transformation of the supply chain ensures that a firm provides its consumers with advanced services which are up to date in terms of technology. It also ensures that a firm fits in the current world in terms of technology since it is an area which is in continuous transformation (Mentzer et al. 245). A firm can deal with any upcoming challenges because it keeps improving ways of approaching emerging challenges.

In any organization, there are always points of failures and success. As the firm targets on its success, it should address the failures in the supply chain. The main target is satisfying the customers’ demands. If such needs are not met, it may lead to organizational failure. In assessing the supply chain, the issue of compensating for failure should be addressed. It is an issue with significant impact on the success of a firm, and if not addressed, they lead to a loss.

Finally, it is imperative to note that any supply chain management has to assess the above areas in order to improve on channelled retailing. In assessing the efficiency of the process, the management will be able to identify and include the designs of metric hence improving its processes. Continuous assessment of all points of the supply chain helps in noting any problem before causing substantial damage. This helps in cutting the cost of compensating damages or failures, which helps in maintaining the unimpeachable name of a company. Many firms look to the supply chain organization with the aim of increasing their efficiency. Failure of the supply chain just at a single point leads to failure of the whole system. All the steps starting from the attainment of the raw materials to the point where the end product reaches the final user have to be observed carefully.

Works Cited

Harland, Mike. Dictionary of Operations Management. London, UK: Blackwell, 1996. Print.

Hines, Tylor. Supply chain strategies: Customer driven and customer focused. Oxford, NY: Elsevier, 2004. Print.

Jespersen, Herbert and Skjott-Larsen, Tage. Supply chain management: in theory and practice. Copenhagen: Business Press, 2005. Print.

Kaushik, Deeksha and McClaren, Cooper. Industrial Marketing Management. New York, NY: Sage, 2000. Print.

Mentzer, John, William DeWitt, Keebler James, Soonhong Min, Nancy Nix, Carlo Smith and Zach Zacharia. “Defining Supply Chain Management”. Journal of Business Logistics 22. 2 (2001): 1–25. Print.

The program is aimed at training mid-level managers of a clothing retail store. It is necessary to consider some characteristics of the learning community.

These employees are professionals who have the necessary education, knowledge and skills to complete certain task. However, these professionals may lack for the most recent advances in the field. They may also lack for desire to employ new strategies as they are sure that they are professionals who have already done a lot for the company.

Therefore, it is important to develop certain strategies to communicate with the participants of the program. First of all, it is necessary to make them understand that they know a lot and this is good. But it is important to show them the scope of new knowledge and skills. It is important to make them understand exact benefits of the program. They should see how beneficial the program could be for them.

Hence, it is necessary to include some issues professionals in the sphere face. It is possible to add solutions which are common. It is also necessary to include certain solutions based on recent advances. Comparison of these two approaches will help potential participants understand benefits of the new approach.

It can be useful to include a number of real-life stories as well. It is also possible to include a list of companies who have already got the training and their feedback. This will add credibility to the information provided.

The first step of the advertising campaign can be development of the Facebook page as all the detailed information can be placed there for reference. The second step is sending e-mails to top- and mid-management of the companies that can be potential customers. The third step is production of flyers and posters as well as distribution of these materials. It can be also beneficial to launch introductory lectures or presentations held in different locations.

In this way, potential customers will be able to ask questions and have face-to-face communication which can be very important. Of course, these meetings will not be numerous as they are associated with certain costs. This will be the final step of the promotional program. Clearly, it is also important to make sure that all calls will be responded and all e-mails or inquiries will be addressed.

Finally, the budget of the present program is $500 and this can be enough for a successful promotional program. Development of the Facebook page and sending e-mails can be completed by the training company’s employees. It is very easy but the tool is very effective. Production of flyers and posters can take up to $300-350. The rest of the money can be spent to hold the presentations and lectures to promote the program.

E-Mail Message

The world is changing very fast and consumers’ needs and expectation are also evolving. Clothing retail companies are frontiers in this rapidly changing world as fashion is so changeable.

You are professionals who have their own ways to sell products as well as dreams. However, there is always way to improve. If you really want to be up-to-date, you will have to employ the most recent sale strategies.

We can show you so many ways to improve! We can share strategies utilized by the most successful retailers, such as Zara, COS, J. Crew and so on. Interested? Find us at Facebook or call us telephone number.

Retail business ownership

The ownership alternatives one considers when debating store format options

There are numerous forms of retail business owners that have their advantages and disadvantages. The entrepreneurs choose one particular form depending on their reasons to start a business, the skills they have, their preferences and many other peculiarities. The five main forms of retail business ownership are:

Independent Retailer

It is a person who creates one’s business from the ground up. He/she considers when the store should open, whether consultants’ assistance is needed, what staff should be hired and what responsibilities it should have. In other words, an independent retailer is free to implement any changes one wants. Unfortunately, many of them do not have a decent business plan, which leads to failure in the early years. One can search for help within trade associations to omit possible issues.

Existing Retail Business

It is possible to inherit or buy the business that already exists instead of creating a new one. One is to remember that he/she receives not only the ownership but also the responsibility of someone’s work. The advantage of such a form of retail business ownership is that the foundation is already laid, and lots of time need to build a customer base and maintain other primary activities can be saved. Still, the company may have a poor reputation or clients will be reluctant to accept a new owner.

Franchise

One can also buy a franchise. In this way, the opportunity to use the name of the other company is provided. The owner can utilize products, concepts, and business strategies and plan to apply it to the established business, which is a great advantage even though the lack of flexibility exists.

Dealership

A mix of franchise and independent retailer provides an opportunity to sell a brand of products, utilizing a “plug and play” option. However, it might be difficult to receive customer loyalty.

Network Marketing

The people in the network have the power to influence sales. Even though a storefront may be needed, the company can receive support from the interaction with all types of people (Waters, 2016).

Recommendations to senior management expansion from a retail manager for a small chain

Taking into consideration the previously obtained information, I would recommend having only a few senior management professionals. Thus, the issues connected with the information exchange and interaction among the personnel will be rarely observed. The expansion should take place only if the chain expands.

“Competitive edge” of the workforce

I believe that the National Retail Federation website is a great source that should be referred to by all job seekers who are willing to make a lodgment in this sphere. Its Career Center is full of information about retail careers that gives me a competitive edge as I enter the workforce (NRF Retail Careers Center, 2016).

The sphere examination

I deepened my knowledge of retail business and careers. This information is likely to be useful because I found out what will be expected of me and received an opportunity to get prepared. I got a spotlight on retail employment, which allowed me to see what positions are mostly preferred. Thus, I got to know more about the executives and was able to create a list of retail careers that I believe to be right for me.

Information on education

The website provides a lot of information about education and training opportunities for both students and workers. The existence of scholarship programs encouraged me to do my best and perform better than my competitors to prove that I can become a key man.

Job search plan

Taking into consideration all pieces of information that can be found on the National Retail Federation website, I turned out to be able to define what I want and can reach in this sphere. I debated a matter in my mind and created a plan of action on how it can be done.

Job board

I got a chance to look at posted jobs and see what skills and values are required. Thus, I can adjust my resume. It is also a way to look at competitors and find out how to be better than them.

Experience of those who succeeded

I received advice and can have leadership lessons that will give me more chances to reach my goals.

Review of the Presidential Directive on Government Contracting

Reasons to reduce cost-reimbursement contracts

He wants to do so because of the increased expenditure on these contracts between 2000 and 2008. They turned from $71 billion to $135 billion, which is a great increase that seems to run out of control. Except for that, the President takes into consideration the taxpayer funds. He is afraid that they will not be spent to meet the interests of the general public and will be wasted on these contracts. Moreover, the government accepts the greatest risk (The White House, 2009).

Advantages of use a Firm Fixed type contract

This contract allows remaining in control of what is owned and requires the payment only for the item mentioned in the contract. All details are written down, which reduces the number of disagreements and prevents the necessity to provide additional compensation. Moreover, the effort level can be controlled. The greatest risk will be on the contractor, and one’s proposal is likely to be forced up.

The greatest risk under each type of contract

Competition vs. sole source

Competition is critical because it encourages potential contractors to enhance their performance. In this framework, no favoritism is observed, and all units have equal opportunities to cooperate with the government and compete with each other. As a result, the best representative who can bring the most benefit to the government can be awarded. Collusion is also minimalized in this way. The competition also ensures to some degree that both sides will meet the agreement. It allows to find out what is available to meet the government’s need and improve existed technologies and quality of products or services. Thus, competition enhances efficiency and effectiveness.

References

NRF Retail Career Center. (2016). Career center. Web.

The White House. (2009). Memorandum for the heads of executive departments and agencies. Web.

Waters, S. (2016). Top 5 types of retail ownership. Web.

Loss Prevention (LP) involves formulation of policies, procedures and practices in organizations to prevent possible losses of inventory and other assets in a retail chain (LP Innovations, Inc. An Introduction to Loss Prevention par.1). Formulating effective programs to guide loss prevention concept can aid in reducing opportunities in which losses may take place and more specifically, adopt strategies to prevent losses instead of focusing on reactive approaches once they have occurred.

Any organizations that suffer losses are losing incomes, which in turn affect their final profitability. Lost inventory needs to be replenished at costs to retailers. On the other hand, lost incomes cannot be replaced. Costs associated with losses directly affect profitability and inventory items in a company’s balance sheet. Lost profits affect the company’s strategies to acquire new merchandise, its expansion strategies, better employees’ compensations, organizational net incomes or increased EBIDTA.

There are several business reasons for an organization to adopt loss prevention functions. Loss prevention programs are suitable for any other form of a business. For instance, loss prevention functions can focus on sales department and long the supply chain. Hence, it is important for an organization to develop loss prevention functions around the supply chain, human resources and in any other department that may experience losses to prevent losses.

A number of factors may influence the type of loss prevention programs that an organization may implement. These may include the number of retail outlets, characteristics of the supply chain, types of goods sold or service areas, possible threats and other associated risks to an organization. Once an organization has established loss prevention functions, it is necessary to adopt effective evaluation systems in order to ensure that a retailer is profitable and not prone to some specific forms of preventable losses.

How losses occur

Organizations have reported several cases of losses but in certain categories that include internal losses, external losses and losses that take place through employees’ mistakes.

Internal losses

Internal losses are responsible for the largest percentage of losses in an organization, irrespective of size or business segments. These losses are usually associated with employee theft. While many may wonder why internal losses are the significant contributors to losses in organizations, in most cases, however, surveys have shown that employees steal from business the most compared to other stakeholders.

Employee theft takes place through several diverse ways. For instance, there is a simple pilfering of items, collusion with other employees and large mega thefts, which lead to massive inventory losses. These practices deplete stocks available for sales while eventually drain profits from a business.

At the same time, dishonest employees also manipulate activities at the point-of-sales to steal. Employees may take cash from the till, engage in fraud such as refunds, theft through discounts, loyalty reward programs and other well-orchestrated frauds. In fact, retailers can suffer double-dip losses that involve both cash and inventory at the same time at the point-of-sale in a single transaction.

External theft

Such thefts often result from acts of thefts that originate outside an organization. While external sources of losses could be limited and less relative to internal thefts, they also constitute a significant amount of losses to the retail industry yearly. Employees must understand how external theft takes place and appropriate methods to counteract them.

These processes require training, effective customer service, identification of potential areas of weaknesses and appropriate methods of protecting a company. It is necessary for an organization to investment in security solutions that can deter external thefts. These may include robbery and shoplifting prevention and effective ways of enhancing customer service and people management. Internal loss prevention strategies may also assist in reducing cases of external sources of losses.

Errors

Errors also contribute to losses in organizations. In most cases, losses from errors are related to paperwork, and they contribute to nearly 20 percent of losses every year. Employees at various departments cause these errors and thus related losses. Hence, employees are the main causes of losses in any organization.

Errors can take place anywhere in the supply chain. These errors may occur at any point along the supply chain, including product shipment and distribution. Errors could be noted in incorrect counting, inappropriate discounting or wrong records on sales. These errors may be trivial mistakes, but they have substantial costs yearly for any retailer.

Identifying a loss prevention problem

Losses may originate from several sources and occur for various reasons through diverse methods. Retailers, therefore, should look for potential indicators that a business is not doing well due to losses. Some indicators might include rising costs of inventory with flat or decreasing sales, missing items, empty stocks, reported cases of shoplifting, identified cases of robberies, lost inventory, losses noted when certain employees work, inappropriate cash register and certain high refunds, voids, discounts and other rewards and transactions linked to specific employees.

These are only few of the possible indicators that an organization could be experiencing a loss prevention challenge.

Loss Prevention Strategies and Best Practices

Loss prevention has often been touted as effective across different industry reports and media channels through the realized success of certain adopted programs. Hence, loss prevention has become a critical element, and it determines business success in the retail sector.

While giant retailers may have mastered several approaches of mitigating losses, several small startups continue to struggle with loss prevention. Organizations that are successful in loss prevention have also demonstrated best practices and specific approaches. The most common approach to loss prevention is audit function.

Loss Prevention and Internal Audit

The strategy of auditing retail supply has become a crucial way to provide insights on effectiveness of any loss prevention programs. Retailers experience significant challenges on areas for auditing and specific audit measures to adopt for certain areas. Retailers may consider both operational audits and shrink audits across various departments (LP Innovations, Inc. Developing Effective Audit Programs par. 1).

Retailers should conduct inventory control and inventory audits to prevent losses. Physical tracking of the inventory is a cumbersome task for any organization. Nevertheless, retailers require effective inventory control and appropriate inventory audits in order to succeed. They should also conduct year-end audits.

This is appropriate for tracking business performances and losses throughout the year. Inventory accuracy, availability and efficiency are audit management practices to ensure reliability of loss prevention practices. These practices ensure optimal efficiency and low wastage.

Retailers should also conduct supply chain management audits regularly. This ensures that retailers have effective audit processes in place. At the same time, they can identify gaps and mitigate related threats if required.

Purchase management audits are required to evaluate costs of products and services sold. Therefore, firms would always like to track purchase processes. However, retailers may lack adequate resources to ensure constant monitoring of all processes involved in product sourcing and purchasing processes.

Operational audits focus on general areas of operations for the business. Such audits cut across the entire organization and focuses on areas like finance and management among other core areas of operations. Generally, operational audits focus on the entire organization to provide a general outlook of loss prevention programs.

Conversely, shrink audits are categorical and ensure that employees or organizations adhere to and follow guidelines created by governments such as accounting standards and practices and Sarbanes-Oxley among others. Shrink audits may also evaluate some elements of operational audits.

Operational audits may involve the evaluation of employees’ knowledge on retail supply chain management, security and deposit management among others. Operational audit acts as a checklist for an organization. Employees who conduct such audits should be highly knowledgeable and experienced to detect more obvious loss prevention issues. However, organizations may lack employees with deeper knowledge on audit issues and thus require external assistance.

Shrink audits offers relatively specialized approach on loss prevention practices for an organization. These audit activities go beyond the general approach to audits found in operational audits. Specifically, shrink audits look at areas of losses. They rely on data obtained from compliance audits. For instance, practices in shrink audit may require the auditor to review all data of merchandise obtained to detect any trends and patterns that could show possible fraud in an organization.

Shrink audits involve careful evaluation of information through discussions with relevant teams. There is no hurried review of data. For example, auditors may not simply assess employees’ knowledge on processes, policies and procedures for loss prevention, instead they must evaluate relationships with external stakeholders, including customers. Therefore, companies may get opportunities to improve their loss prevention and operational procedures and policies. At the same time, they will also understand the effectiveness of their loss prevention programs.

Based on results of audits, an organization can embark on strategies of enhancing loss prevention programs. Organizations need to understand the type of audit approaches that will work best for their supply chain. Audit approaches mainly depend on what results are expected.

Any organization that relies on internal teams to conduct shrink audits may not yield the intended results because some key indicators of losses may not be covered in the report. In addition, internal teams who conduct shrink audits may also compromise the quality of the report. Shrink audits explore highly sensitive elements of loss prevention, particularly financial reports and related practices.

Internal teams can effectively conduct operational audits to assess possible areas of weaknesses. For example, the team may evaluate aspects of customer service that could result into losses and make appropriate recommendations.

There are professionals or specialized firms that offer loss prevention programs to retailers. Such loss prevention programs lessen shrink and protect the company’s profitability. Nevertheless, loss prevention programs could be expensive for organizations. Indeed, a good loss prevention program requires precise, consistent and meticulous review of existing policies and procedures.

Yet, organizations find it difficult to maintain policies and procedures, particularly when internal teams have to work on widely distributed retail outlets and supply chain. Companies have to deal with loss prevention problems in a more consistent and better ways and prevent losses of incomes.

It is imperative for organizations to enhance audits for organization-wide efficiency. Today, various retailers depend on factory warehouses, retail stores and e-commerce platforms to store, distribute and sell their products. Retailers cannot effectively manage such supply chain with limited internal staff. In fact, the small size of a loss prevention department can result into challenges.

First, retail outlets may be located in different states, which contribute to significant costs of travel while shrink audits may be cumbersome to complete as scheduled. Shrink audits may need much time to complete for every given store. Internal loss prevention team may only focus on operational audits to review issues related to product pricing, store conditions and relationships with customers among others.

The external loss prevention team has to review specific policies and procedures with staff and audit members. Second, many retailers lack reliable data of loss prevention activities. Past audits are imperative for decision-making and identifying trends and patterns across various stores in the supply chain. A single audit may not be adequate for drawing appropriate conclusion. Therefore, retailers require regular audits to support decision-making and draw effective conclusions based on the observed patterns and trends over a long period.

Organizations have internal audit teams in their financial departments. In addition, they may also have loss prevention departments. In such situations, there could be conflict between these departments. Both units of an organization work to prevent losses and ensure compliance with government regulations.

Certainly, loss prevention should take lead in controls required in retail stores and inventory controls needed to avert losses. Further, Sarbanes-Oxley provides various components for organizations to ensure compliance and prevent fraud. Hence, loss prevention departments should handle loss prevention requirements.

While some individuals may consider the internal audit activities as extremely objective practices in organization, loss prevention, based on the reporting structure, may not always be considered in a similar manner. This could be challenging to some companies. On this note, it is imperative to note that internal audit and loss prevention functions have different areas of focus. For instance, one critical area of focus for loss prevention is the company’s store.

Loss prevention requires collaboration with various departments, including individuals who work with store associates. A working relationship is necessary to ensure effective assessment of various reports. This is a major different between loss prevention and internal audits. In fact, many internal audit departments are mainly found in corporate head offices and they usually audit centralized roles.

Loss prevention and internal audits may appear unusual in responsibilities, particularly when headed by a single person or run from one department. Loss prevention and internal audit functions should create a natural synergy (Lee par. 34). Both functions concentrate on ensuring organizational profitability and effectively run operations, which could be achieved within the company’s constraints with available resources and styles of management.

While internal audits and loss prevention may complete their roles rather differently, they have chances to collaborate more efficiently and accomplish much in their current operations. For instance, there are several elements of corporate internal audit noted from operational perspective, which could be solved through the expertise and experience of the loss prevention programs to support their roles and responsibilities.

Conversely, there are instances in which loss prevention functions require expertise and knowledge of internal audits to support their activities and evaluation processes.

Conclusion

Retailers can enhance loss prevention programs by adopting exception-based reporting systems. These systems enhance effectiveness, efficiency in monitoring and dealing with exceptional issues as they occur. Inventory management systems have evolved over time and they have become more effective.

Consequently, such systems offer better data for loss prevention, stores and inventory organization. Monitoring systems have enhanced loss prevention environment, increased performance, eliminated redundancy and increased organization-wide control for improved profitability.

New systems provide good auditing of collected information, exception reporting and abilities to control potential areas of weaknesses such as gift and credit card frauds, refunds and any other behaviors that may perpetuate losses. Individuals who use these systems require adequate training in order to realize maximum benefits in loss prevention programs.

Retailers need effective loss prevention strategies in place to handle potential losses through various means, particularly losses related to employees’ activities. It is not simple to determine loss prevention strategies in large organizations with several outlets in various states. Staffing needs for loss prevention is equally difficult to determine.

Therefore, it is imperative for any organization to review its loss prevention policies and appropriate recommendations based on highly technical aspects of the programs. They must consider organizational structure, resources, staffing, productivity and intended outcomes among others. Organizations must ensure that loss prevention programs are cost-effective and highly effective in planning, resource distribution, auditing, budgeting, and policy formulations.

Organizations that lack highly experienced and qualified staff on loss prevention may outsource such services (Harris par. 3). At the same time, they must understand the differences between internal auditing and loss prevention functions while acknowledging the synergy that these two units may create for the business to ensure compliance, controls and profitability.

Works Cited

Harris, Erin. “Outsource Loss Prevention, Reduce Shrink.” Integrated Solutions For Retailers. 2009.

Lee, James. “The Dual Role of Internal Audit and Loss Prevention.” LP Magazine. 2004.

LP Innovations, Inc. An Introduction to Loss Prevention: Loss Prevention 101. 2013.

—. Developing Effective Audit Programs: Store Audit Development: Operational Audits vs. Shrink Audits. 2009.

The contemporary technologies evolve at an extremely fast pace. The modern consumers have more devices and digital technologies at their service than at any other time in human history. Today, the technologies have grown to penetrate every sphere of our life. Retail, marketing, and shopping have not become an exception. Some of the modern shopping practices are very different from those popular just several decades ago (credit cards, QR codes, online shopping). However, shopping at brick-and-mortar stores is still very similar to that of the past. In this paper, I theorize about the likely retail trends and in-store experiences that might be popular in 2025. The discussion involves handheld devices as humanized digital assistants and interactive in-shop experiences.

Clients of the Future and Their Needs

As the Millennial generation is now recognized as one of the largest and includes people born between 1981 and 2000, this generation represents the future consumer base for all spheres of retails and services. This tendency means that the buyers of the future are going to be tech-savvy with heavy reliance on the latest technologies as their ever-present helpers. Moreover, the modern consumers have time as one of their most appreciated values. That way, the future customers would want their shopping experiences to be maximally efficient and active.

Handheld Devices as Humanized Digital Assistants

Mobile devices and tablets will play a key role in helping massive information sharing over the Internet seamlessly interwoven into daily life. These handheld devices will become even smarter, quicker and collectively provide information tailored to users’ lifestyles and preferences. As a result, these changes will eventually turn our phones and tablets into digital assistants that have emotions and feelings. They will not only be able to analyze data, track behaviors, and give quick feedback to the users but also serve as more humanized digital assistants that communicate and connect with the users on a more intimate level.

This will be executed through a computer program like Apple’s Siri or Google’s Google Now but in a more advanced and complicated form. Users will be able to start an uninterrupted, personal conversation in a way just like talking to their friends and family face to face, but with their devices. This type of humanized digital assistant will take on any possible topics and give back answers that are helpful and precise. The stores will have ports where the handheld devices will be able to connect to their database so the humanized assistants could be able to answer questions about each store in particular (for example, whether or not it has certain products, and what the prices are).

This option would encourage the marketers to provide more information about their goods so the buyers could learn more about them (for instance, their ingredients, where they come from, how organic they are). The devices could have the option to memorize various wish lists to scan the store databases for these goods and inform the buyer about their presence. Besides, they will have the option of expenditures monitoring. A user would need to insert the approved amount of money for each day, and the device would notify them when the limit is approached. The same can be done to bank accounts; the devices would be able to track them and inform the users when the costs on their accounts are running out.

Automatic Authorization of Goods

All the products would have stickers with all the necessary information about them for both the shoppers and the retailers. These stickers would be provided by the manufacturers at the stage of packing goods. As a result, when the goods are delivered to the stores by trucks, the vehicles would have to pass through special scanning frame that will capture the information on all the stickers inside of the truck and instantly identify them and add to the store’s database so they can be delivered or put on the shelves right away without the lengthy registration. This technology will benefit the buyers as well since they would not need to wait in lines for the cashiers to scan each product’s code. Instead, they would have to move the cart through the scanning frame and within seconds all the items inside would be registered, so the buyer would only have to pay for them.

Advertising

As a vital part of retail, advertisement is going to make its way to the future but alter its form to attract more tech-savvy consumers. First of all, the advertising screens placed inside and outside of stores are going to become interactive. That way, whenever a client sees something they are interested in, they will have the ability to pause an advertisement, re-start it, or skip through various products and search for a particular one. Besides, since communication is one of the most important aspects of the future society, the advertisement screens are going to have a “send” button.

With the help of this option, the clients would be able to share advertisements with their friends and family members. Besides, the interactive shopping screens in the stores and supermarkets are going to add interactive commercials to the buyers generating them based on the goods each particular customer is viewing. Product testing is going to be another important aspect of the future advertising. As it would include many aspects of online shopping, the users would need to connect with the goods. Testing can be altered based on the types of goods sold in every store. For example, perfume stores would have machines not only equipped with interactive shopping screens but able to give away the samples of selected perfume.

The same can be done with fabrics, makeup, or some kinds of food. To attract the customers of the future the appearance of the stores is to change. Targeting tech-savvy Millennials, the stores would have to advertise themselves fighting for the buyers. That way, the standard looking supermarkets are not likely to be popular in the future. I, personally, imagine the stores of 2025 similar to the contemporary Apple stores with a lot of soft light, minimalistic design, and a highly technical approach to everything. In other words, the outside and inside space of the stores (doors, walls, shelves, ceiling, and stairs) would be designed to contribute to the experience desired by the clients.

Conclusion

To sum up, the stores of the future are going to have convenience, speedy service of high-quality, and technologies as their main orientation as these are the values of the future buyers. The experience of shopping in a retail store of the future would be a combination of online shopping and visiting brick-and-mortar stores merging the advantages of both and eliminating the inconveniences. The buyers would be assisted by the humanized devices raising their shopping experiences to the next level and taking over such activities as searching for specific goods, processing their details, selecting the best ones, and monitoring the expenditures.

Introduction

The world economy has been increasingly characterized by an increase in trade and consumption aspects. People shop for different goods and services that are sold or retailed by different traders. With the coming of information and communication technology, trading activities have been greatly enhanced. E-commerce is slowly taking charge in trading activities and is expected to take full charge of trade in the near future (Rotem-Mindali and Salomon, 177). This paper will discuss one aspect of e-commerce, which is the e-retailing and development within the 2000 decade. The paper will focus on the cause behind the emergence of e-retailing and the likely future trend that is expected to be observed in e-retailing.

E-retailing as a subset of e-commerce

According to Rotem-Mindali and Salomon, e-retailing is one of the components of what is widely referred to as e-commerce (176). E-commerce has come with the advancement and adoption of information and communication technologies in commerce. E-commerce has been immensely supported since the dawn of the 21st century. This is because of advancement in information technology and the realization that information technology can greatly enhance business.

Therefore, the advancement in information technology can be termed as the major cause of increased e-retailing activities. Information technology is the only base on which e-retailing can take place. The production and distribution of information technology product was very high during the 2000 decade. This saw many IT companies being established. The communication technology gadgets are used in e-retailing. The aspect that should perhaps be investigated is whether the adoption of e-retail consumption is a consequence of information technology or whether it is important to the users (Dennis, 199).

Reasons for the development of e-retail consumption

The use of the internet and the World Wide Web has gained prominence from the later years of the 20th century to the beginning of the 21st century. This trend has continued up to date. With the development of the internet, most people have been finding it easy to conduct tasks and accomplish duties using the internet as a communication tool. With a significant number of people conducting their communicative activities on the internet, it has been easy to conduct trading activities electronically. This has been facilitated through the use of tools that are connected to the internet.

Online trading activities have been launched to enhance trade. Online consumer communities have been formed encouraging e-retailing and consumption. These developments have been happening at a highly accelerated pace. This trend is associated with what traders and consumers refer to as the increased efficiency and effectiveness in trading activities.

These benefits have enticed many people to start using e-retailing. This has led to what is considered as a revolution in e-retailing. However, it has been discovered that not all people enter consumer networks objectively. Some of the people who have been adopting e-retailing have had ill motives. This has caused fears amongst the genuine e-retail consumers. Therefore, they have exposed the weakness of e-retail consumption thereby hampering its growth. However, these fears have had very little impact on e-retail consumption as statistics reveal that an increased number of consumers have been employing e-retailing practices (Qin, 158).

Research reveals that most consumers are opting to indulge in e-retailing because of the many benefits that accrue to it. However, there are other consumers who do not prefer to do e-retailing because of the negative aspects related to online retailing. This group of consumers is different from the group that does not use e-retailing because of inaccessibility to online retailing enabling tools or enablers. However, it could also be argued that this group of people is just adamant in the sense that they do not want to acquire the tools of communication because they do not see the essence of adopting the concept. In other words, they are contended with conventional form of retailing. Thus, this group derives considerable utility from the old system of retailing as compared to e-retailing homes (Adomavicius and Gupta, 128).

Many consumers in the modern society opt to use the web in conducting online shopping or retailing because of the high level of convenience related to online or e-retailing. Costs of retailing are significantly cut down when consumers use online retailing services as compared to when they use the brick-and-mortar system of retailing. Time and resources are greatly saved since retailers are not forced to outsource for goods or services. Consumers can shop and place an order for goods from the comfort of their homes (Adomavicius and Gupta, 128).

The emergence of many online retailing companies such as the Amazon has also led to the growth of e-retail consumption. These companies offer a wide range of services to customers. They advertise and offer goods at highly discounted prices to attract consumers. This is because a good number of consumers are budget conscious owing to the effects of the harsh economic times of the 21st century. Online companies also offer a range of goods and services thus increasing a range from which consumers can choose the products they want. Nonetheless, the same range of goods and services are also offered in brick-and-mortar retailing. In fact, the consumers get a real touch on products rather than just descriptions that are offered in e-retailing. Consumers can be easily deceived in e-retiling (Zentes and Morschett, 78).

Conclusion

E-retail consumption has gained prominence in the modern business environment. This is because of the overwhelming benefits of using the internet in trade enhancement. Reasons for increased e-retail consumption include availability of technologies and the presence of online retailing companies. Therefore, e-retailing is projected to continue gaining momentum as a lot of people continue to access and use the internet and other information technology services.

Works Cited

Adomavicius, Gediminas and A. Gupta. Business Computing. Bingley: Emerald, 2009. Print.

Dennis, Charles. e-Retailing. New York: Routledge Publishing. 2004. Print.

Rotem-Mindali, Orit and I. Salomon. The impacts of E-retail on the choice of shopping trips and delivery: Some preliminary findings. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 41, 2 (2007): 176-189. Print.

Qin, Zheng. Introduction to E-Commerce. Berlin: Springer Berlin, 2007. Print.

Zentes, Joachim and D. Morschett. Strategic Retail Management: Text and International Cases. Wiesbaden: Betriebswirtschaftlicher Verlag Gabler, 2011. Print.

Creating a solid compensation and benefits package for an employee may influence many factors connected to job performance, job satisfaction, and commitment. This responsible task is appointed to the human resource department. While some types of benefits are required for every worker, some additional compensations and non-financial incentives are unique to certain professions. The job position of secretaries and administrative assistants is not an exception, although this profession is also highly dependent on the type of organization. This paper aims to create a compensation and benefits package for the position of a secretary in an HR department of a retail company.

According to the United States Department of Labor (2017), retail companies along with other types of businesses are one of the industries with the highest concentration of secretaries and assistants. The department of human resources can significantly influence the course of a retail business. Retail companies are represented by their employees as much as their products. The described retail company consists of a number of stores, located in one city. While the size of this business is small compared to major chain stores and retail organizations, the importance of hiring high-quality personnel stays the same. Therefore, the position of a secretary for the HR department should not be undermined. This type of an organization implies that a secretary will perform such duties as appointment scheduling, paper and electronic files organization, interaction with department’s callers, and other administrative tasks.

The job specification of a secretary shows that choosing to use competitive pay is not the best approach for the position’s compensation package. Secretaries’ pay does not revolve around interaction with customers or retail part of the business. Therefore, the main part of the financial compensation should be represented by fixed wages (Gupta & Shaw, 2014). The statistics show that secretaries in the retail business can have hourly wages of $18 on average. Furthermore, because this particular job position does not require an individual to show competitiveness, incentives directed at a higher level of performance cannot be considered. However, some financial incentives may include paying for overtime. The secretary position falls under the description of nonexempt employees. Thus, they are expected to receive not only a minimum wage but also overtime compensations. For example, if an employee is asked to work during the holidays or weekends, he or she should receive a financial compensation that equals at least one-and-a-half rate of the established hourly wage for every additional working hour.

A wide variety of benefits should also be present for this job position. First of all, an employee should be guaranteed to receive a number of standard benefits, such as dental care, medical insurance, and standard 401(k) retirement savings plan. Some additional insurance coverage can be discussed as well. The partial coverage of health care for the worker’s domestic partner or spouse is another benefit that is expected of the companies (Bloom & Trahan, 2016). According to the United States Department of Labor (2017), most companies offer health insurance programs that are based on a preferred provider. Such packages allow the company to restrict its fiscal spending. Moreover, paid sick and vacation leave allows the worker to feel secure in his or her position and ensures stability. Non-financial rewards are also important because they affect employees’ morale and perception of the company. Thus, such rewards as skill development and opportunity for career advancement may be connected to the worker’s level of job satisfaction. Retail businesses can also entice their employees with various product discounts and sales (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014).

References

Armstrong, M., & Taylor, S. (2014). Armstrong’s handbook of human resource management practice (13th ed.). Londin, UK: Kogan Page Publishers.

Bloom, D. E., & Trahan, J. T. (2016). Flexible benefits and employee choice: Highlights of the literature. Elmsford, NY: Pergamon Press.

Gupta, N., & Shaw, J. D. (2014). Employee compensation: The neglected area of HRM research. Human Resource Management Review, 24(1), 1-4.

United States Department of Labor. (2017). Overview of BLS statistics on pay and benefits.Web.

Executive summary

This marketing plan is prepared for Athleta Inc, which is going to expand the range of its operations in the foreign (Canadian) market of women’s sporting clothing. The plan contains general descriptions of the macro-economic environments in all three of the initially considered countries. It also outlines present dynamics in the Canadian domain of clothing retail and provides readers with the insight, as to what should account for the company’s marketing strategies in the targeted market.

Introduction

Athleta Inc. is the US-based retail store chain that specializes in selling women’s activewear clothing. The company was founded in 1998 and until the year 2008 (when it was acquired by Gap Inc.) it operated as an online-only retailer. Athleta is concerned with targeting educated and environmentally conscientious middle-aged women who lead a physically active lifestyle. As of 2015, the number of the company’s stores accounted for ninety-five in the US and two in Britain.

In the fiscal year 2014, the amount of the company’s net sales was reported above $600 million. Following the success of Athleta’s expansion into the British market of women’s sporting goods, the store’s managers decided that they should proceed with the adopted market-expansionist policy and to make Athleta-branded products available in yet another foreign country. Among the initially considered ones were Kenya, Bangladesh, and Canada.

PEST-based overviews of external macro-environments in:

Kenya

As of today, Kenya is considered to be one of the most politically destabilized countries in Africa, which in turn reflects the fact that Kenyan society continues to be divided alongside the tribal and religious lines. Even though the country’s economy has been showing steady growth (1%-2%) through the years 2011-2015, it did not prevent the majority of citizens from becoming progressively poorer. As of today, the poverty rate in Kenya accounts for 55%. Kenya also continues to be counted among the world’s most corrupted countries. One of the qualitative traits of Kenyan society is that it adheres to the traditional (patriarchal) values and that the percentage of Kenyans who belong to the middle-class (7%) is rather insignificant (Owiti 550).

Bangladesh

Being the tenth most populous country on the planet (160 million people) with the steady growth of GDP (2%-6% per year), Bangladesh is seen increasingly attractive to foreign investors. At the same time, however, Bangladesh remains a politically volatile state, in which 40% of citizens suffer from poverty. The integrity of Bangladeshi society is undermined even further by the continuation of ethno-religious tensions between its members, which represents a major obstacle in the way of technological progress in this country. Just as it is the case with Kenya, the middle-class stratum in Bangladesh is virtually non-existent, with most people adhering to conservative values (“Research and Markets” 247).

Canada

Canada is a fully developed and politically stable country with the servicing sector of its economy accounting for 72%. Even though Canada’s population is only 35 million, it is highly urbanized and endowed with a great buying power, which in turn is predetermined by the fact that the standards of living in this country are assumed to be among the world’s highest. Canada’s economy has been on a steady rise since 2011 (“Research and Markets Adds” 29). Canadian society is a technologically advanced one, with most of its members subscribing to the values of an intellectually open-minded/environmentally friendly living. Based on the provided insights into the macro-environments of Kenya, Bangladesh, and Canada, it was determined that Athleta will be most likely to benefit from choosing the latter.

Market research

Porter’s Five Forces analysis

• The threat of new entrants – strong. The reason for this is that: a) The barriers (such as legal, economic, cultural, etc.) to this market’s entrance are rather low; b) The establishment of a new player on this market will not require much capital to be invested.
• Buyer power – strong. There are two factors that presuppose such a state of affairs – a) The heightened extent of consumers’ purchasing independence; b) The factor of low-cost switching.
• Supplier power – weak. The contributing circumstances are a) A strongly defined ‘division of labor’ within the clothing-manufacturing industry in Canada; b) The availability of substitute inputs.
• The threat of substitutes – weak. Even though Canadian women are at liberty to choose in favor of just about any fashion style, their options are limited when it comes to substituting high-quality sporting apparel with any other products of the same nature.
• Degree of rivalry – moderate. The reason for this is that, although there are indeed many retailers competing within the same segment of the apparel market in Canada, the ongoing competition between them is the subject of a number of formal and informal rules and regulations – something that reduces the rivalry’s intensity (“Apparel Retail Industry Profile: Canada” 13-18).

SWOT analysis (concerning Athleta’s expansion to Canada)

Strengths

1. Athleta offers a number of uniquely designed women’s apparel, many of which are made of the company’s hi-tech fabrics, such as the one that has silver salt embedded in it;
2. Athleta charges thoroughly competitive prices for the lines of its products.

Weaknesses

1. Athleta’s brand name is virtually unknown in Canada;
2. The current exchange rate of USD to CAD undermines the feasibility of the intended expansion to an extent.

Opportunities

1. Canadian female consumers are known for their sensitiveness to the ‘perceived’ (lifestyle-related) value of clothing, which makes them a legitimate object for targeting by Athleta;
2. There are many reasons to expect the continual growth of the targeted segment of the market.

Threats

1. In Canada, Athleta will be faced with much competitive rivalry, on the part of such companies as Nike, Adidas, and Lululemon Athletics;
2. The devaluation of CAD is likely to continue in the future.

Trends

Through the years 2016-2019, the Canadian apparel retail industry is expected to grow at a rate of 3% per year, which should have a positive effect on Athleta’s competitive standing in the market. What is more, the company should also benefit from the fact that, as the relevant statistical data indicates, more and more Canadian women grow increasingly comfortable with the idea that a particular clothing item can serve both: casualwear and sporting-related purposes (“Apparel Retail Industry Profile: Canada” 21).

Retailed products

Description

With its corporate slogan ‘Power to the She’, Athleta aims to empower those women who spend most of their time ‘on a move’, in the sense of allowing them to combine their professional and active lifestyle agendas into one. The line of the store’s activewear apparels and other related products is rather extensive: “Athleta’s provides a variety of products for all athletic occasions and seasons; such as yoga and indoor apparel, running and high-performance outfits, ski & snowboard apparel, winter outerwear and sweaters, yoga accessories, and footwear” (Putri 3). As of recently, the company also began to offer menswear items.

Unique features/benefits

Probably the most notable feature of Athleta-branded apparels is that along with being extremely durable, they are perfectly fashionable – something that should come at a great value to the would-be targeted consumers. In its turn, this was made possible by the fact that Athleta makes a deliberate point in using the most scientifically advanced materials available, such as the patented fabrics Pilayo and Power Pilayo. All of Athleta’s products come in a variety of sizes, including the ones considered ‘exotic’ (XXL and XXS). Moreover, the company provides various discounts to buyers.

Objectives

The set of objectives that Athleta aims to achieve within the matter of a year, following its entrance into the Canadian market of women’s activewear clothing, can be formulated as follows:

1. To establish a strong base of brand-loyal buyers.
2. To ensure that by the end of the designated time-period, at least 50% of consumers in the targeted market will be aware of the brand name and all the values for which it stands.
3. To build a reputation of being a socially responsible commercial enterprise,
4. To succeed in selling enough products for the first store’s annual margin profit to account for at least 30%.

Targeted consumer-audience

Because Athleta’s is supposed to serve the purpose of helping women to attain self-actualization, the targeted consumer-audience is best discussed in terms of what happen to be their lifestyle. In this respect, the typical buyers of Athleta-branded products are most likely to consist of professionally engaged and holistically minded (yoga) women, who strive to remain in a good physical shape well into their forties.

Even though there is no statistical data, as to the percentile ratio of this type of consumers in the Canadian market of women’s activewear clothing, we can assume that it is rather considerable. The commercial successfulness of competing brands (Nike, Lululemon, etc.) proves the validity of this suggestion (Lazarus 25).

Suggested marketing approaches

Niche-focused

Because of the earlier outlined characteristics of the targeted consumer-audience, it will be thoroughly logical to suggest that Athleta should benefit from taking practical advantage of the niche-focused marketing strategy. In this respect, Athleta will need to investigate how the audience’s psychological presuppositions correlate with the purchasing behavior, on the part of its members. The same calls for the application of a continual effort in making sure that the store’s apparels are perceived distinctively different from those of its competitors (Toften and Hammervoll 278).

Cost-leadership

Athleta has always been known for its ability to provide competitive prices – something that continues to be the case even today. When compared to the prices on many similar lines of products from Lululemon and Nike, the ones charged by Athleta are 20%-30% lower. If pursuing with the same pricing-policy in Canada, Athleta will be able to increase the base of its loyal buyers, on one hand, and to strengthen the company’s corporate reputation, on the other (Sharma 133).

The appropriateness of this marketing approach can be explored even further, concerning the essence of the socio-economic realities in today’s Canada, affected by the continual weakening of CAD.

Implementation

Location

Athleta’s first store will be located in Vancouver, BC (Robson st.), in close proximity to the store of Lululemon Athletics. As it was mentioned earlier, this location will provide a steady inflow of customers, especially given the nearness of the competitor’s premises. The retail space will be 1500 sq. ft., which should prove sufficient. The store’s operational hours are going to be from 9 a.m. until 9 p.m. during the week, and from 11 a.m. until 5 p.m. during the weekend. The store’s ground floor staff will account for three salespersons working on a full-time basis.

Sales/promotion strategy

Athleta’s sales strategy will be concerned with prioritizing long-term commercial objectives and with deploying a few marketing approaches at the same time. The main effort will be applied in advertising the company’s products conventionally and unconventionally (‘word-of-mouth’), and in providing customers with different incentives to remain loyal to the brand name. Additionally, customers will be qualified to receive substantial (up to 50%) discounts while shopping at the store.

Monitor and control

There will be two instruments used to monitor and control the process of Athleta strengthening its presence in the targeted market – analyzing customer feedback and measuring the amount of the achieved sales on a monthly basis. The logic behind the adoption of this particular monitor and control strategy has to do with the fact that, according to Athletas’s corporate philosophy, both of these indicators of the company’s operational efficiency are closely interrelated.

Budget

The investment-funds will consist of $110.000 in equity capital and $90.000 in various loans. Due to what we know about the specifics of operating a women’s activewear store in downtown Vancouver and the qualitative characteristics of the company’s products, it is estimated that by the end of the fiscal year one, the accomplished sales will account for at least $230.000. In its turn, this suggests that Athleta’s newly opened store in Vancouver should prove profitable within a matter of one year.

Conclusion

In light of what has been mentioned earlier, Athleta’s intended expansion in the Canadian market of women’s sporting clothing does appear to make much sense. Such an eventual development has been predetermined by both: the targeted market’s actual demands and by the fact that, as practice indicates, the extent of just about any clothing chain’s commercial effectiveness positively relates to the measure of the affiliated managers’ willingness to remain committed to pursuing an expansionist policy.

Recommendations

Because it is very likely for the dynamics in the Canadian market of women’s clothing to remain highly fluctuant, Athleta should be willing to experiment with unconventional/innovative marketing methods. In part, this can be achieved by ensuring that the company’s operational paradigm adheres to the principles of:

1. Reactivity – Athleta must react to the market-demands, as they come into being, rather than to conceptualize what these demands may be ahead of time.
2. Interactivity – Athleta should pay close attention to what account for the fashion-related anxieties in consumers – something best achieved through the company’s close affiliation with social media, such as Facebook.
3. Creativity – the company should place emphasis on producing styles, rather than on selling clothes per se. As a result, Athleta will find itself in the position of defining the ways of the market – the strategy thoroughly consistent with the concept of post-industrial marketing.

Even though the provided recommendations are rather vague, we nevertheless believe that they will prove an asset for the company’s managers through the years to come.

Works Cited

“Apparel Retail Industry Profile: Canada.” Apparel Retail Industry Profile: Canada (2015): 1-35. Business Source Complete. Web.

Lazarus, Eve. “The Tao of Lululemon.” Marketing 113.6 (2008): 23-27. Print.

Owiti, Jeremiah. “Political Drivers of Inequality in Kenya.” Development 57.3-4 (2014): 547-558. Print.

Putri, Oen 2014. Athleta Marketing Plan. Web.

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