UK Retail Sector Analysis

This assignment delves into the dynamics of the UK retail sector through case studies of leading companies like Marks & Spencer and Tesco. It examines their market share, core values, strategic initiatives, and operational challenges. The analysis draws upon academic research, industry reports, and company websites to provide a comprehensive understanding of these prominent retailers' performance and future prospects within the competitive UK market.

Running head: CAREER AND PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE
Comparative Industry Analysis
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

1CAREER AND PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE
Comparison of Retail and IT industry of UK
Retail and Information Technology industry are two of the major industries of the UK.
Being one of the major and developed economies of the world, UK has huge prospects in the
retail and IT sectors in terms of growth (Yu, Ramanathan and Nath 2014). The following essay
focuses on the comparative industry analysis with comparison between the retail and IT industry
of UK. It would also address the comparison of three key organizations in the retail industry on
the basis of aims, values, strategies, key activities, market share, recent performance and future
plans. The employer brand, strengths and weakness of these organizations as employers and how
much they could justify their goals and values should also be discussed in this essay. Three key
organizations in the retail sector of UK are Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Marks and Spencer, which
would be considered for comparison.
The retail and Information Technology industry are two quite different industries to be
compared. Both the sectors are quite huge in the UK. One industry directly deals with the
customers by offering consumers goods and services, while the other offers technological
services to the customers. The performances of the both of these industries are the indicators of
economic growth of a nation (Ramanathan et al. 2017). The main features, recent changes and
expected future trends are discussed below.
Main features
The major difference between the retail and IT sectors is that, one sector operates in the
goods sector and the other operates in the service sector. The comparison of the industries have
been shown in the below table.
Field of comparison Retail industry IT industry

2CAREER AND PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE
Area of operation Consumer goods that include food and
grocery, clothing, electronics goods,
home décor and appliances and
supermarkets (Filimonau and Gherbin
2017)
Consulting and providing
technological solutions to the clients
in the service sector.
Locations Retail and merchandise chain stores in
many locations, in the neighborhoods
convenient to the customers
Major offices in the IT hub locations
in the same and different metropolitan
cities
Employment Full time and part time workers, skilled
worker is not necessary (Triantafyllou,
Cherrett and Browne 2014)
Skilled workers are mandatory
Nature of work Customer service, sales, price
discrimination is present
Technological consulting, bidding for
projects is present
Network Mostly regional Mostly global
Table 1: Comparison of Retail and IT industry
(Source: Author)
Recent changes in the two industries
Retail industry
The retail industry has been going through huge changes in the recent past. With the
emergence of internet, the world has become smaller. Consumers from all over the world can
shop from a retailer in UK as per their convenience. Thus, the retailers are now going online.

3CAREER AND PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE
They are launching their own websites and shopping sites and providing the facility for
international shipping. The return and exchange policies are made easier and convenient for the
online shoppers for a smooth customer experience (Burch and Lawrence 2013).
Apart from that, the retailers are facing competition from online retailers like Amazon,
ebay. E-shopping has become a new trend in the world of retailing. The brick and mortar stores
are struggling to match up with the collection and sales of the online retailers. The younger
generation of the consumers is even buying groceries from the online stores, although the older
generation does not prefer that (Filimonau and Gherbin 2017).
Cross-channel trade is another recent change in the retail industry of UK. The retailers
now have offline and online stores and they are giving the provision of buying online and
exchanging or returning in the stores. This needs improved software to maintain the record of the
customer as well as for the products. However, the local stores provide the human touch to the
shopping experience, as in many times, people need proper guidance while buying something
expensive or exclusive (Triantafyllou, Cherrett and Browne 2014).
IT industry
The IT industry of UK is also going through mane changes. To save money, the
companies are going for subscriptions to get the software delivered online rather than spending
chunk of money every three to five years. Cloud computing has become the new trend in this
industry (Grünewald and Torriti 2013).
The new GUI, ‘Metro’, made by Microsoft for windows 8 and 10 has changed the way of
using the PC and laptops. The working has become smoother with the new touch sensor. It has
brought about revolution in the technology. The productivity of the IT professionals has

4CAREER AND PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE
increased multiple times. It has also lead to the death of the mouse as people are becoming more
comfortable with the touch interface.
Open source software is another new trend in the world of technology. It is making the
software available to all without any money and it also accepts improvement by any user. This
helps in improving the service of the IT employees, without being controlled by the company
(Crew and Kleindorfer 2013).
Moreover, the clients, who take services from the IT industry, are changing their business
operations and methods to provide better services to their customers, and the IT companies are
also improving their quality of service and increasing productivity to stay in the business.
Expected future trend
Retail industry
The future of retail industry is quite bright. As the population is increasing, along with
the improvement in the job opportunities, there is growth prospect of the retail industry in the
UK. The quality, transparency and sustainability are the three key factors that would push a
retailer forward in the industry. Consumers are becoming more aware about where their money
is going and in what they are investing. Hence, the quality and sustainability of the retailers
influence the buying decision of the consumers. Unique in-store experience would help the stores
to thrive. Adoption of technology, such as, mobile payments and apps would help the retailers to
sustain. Lastly, personalized shopping experience is extremely important to the customers and
the retailers must be providing enhanced experiences to the consumers (Jussila, Kärkkäinen and
Aramo-Immonen 2014).

5CAREER AND PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE
IT industry
Big data is the new trend that can become a big thing in the future. The entire IT industry
is based on data and data management. Hence, latest technologies are required to manage the
huge data. There are new technologies in the market, which are in high demand, namely, Hadoop
and noSQL databases, which allow the IT professionals to collect, store and analyze huge
amount of data inexpensively (Schwalbe 2015). This is expected to bring enhanced productivity
and more accurate technological solutions for the clients. The UK IT industry is brimming with
opportunities for the skilled workers from across the world. With new technologies and
availability of skilled workers, the IT industry is expanding to increase the business opportunities
(Lorenz 2015).

6CAREER AND PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE
Comparison of three key retail organizations
The aims, values, strategies, key activities, market share, recent performance and future
plans of Tesco, Sainsbury and Marks & Spencer are presented below in the table. The employer
brand value, strengths and weakness of these organizations as employers and how much they
could justify their goals and values would also be discussed below.
Tesco Sainsbury Marks & Spencer
Aims To become leading
supermarket and
provide the best quality
products at the cheapest
price
To become the most
trusted retail chain,
where people would
love to shop and work
To make affordable and
accessible products that
generates inspiration
among the people
Values  To understand
the customers in
a better way to
meet their needs
accordingly
 Treating people
the way they
want to be
treated, like,
mutual respects,
sharing
knowledge and
experience
 Making a big
difference
through small
 Living a healthy
life
 To source with
integrity
 Pay respect for
the environment
 Making positive
contribution to
the communities
 To make
Sainsbury a great
place to work
 Inspiration
 Integrity
 Innovation
 In touch run
 To help
disadvantaged
people in work
 Supporting charity

7CAREER AND PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE
helps, such as,
reducing food
wastes, sourcing
sustainable
products and
making positive
contribution to
the society
Strategies  Growing the
core business in
UK, by
increasing
employees,
renovating stores
and promotional
activities
 Creating highly
valued brands by
developing own
labels with
quality products
 Becoming
outstanding
international
retailer online
and in stores by
opening up
franchise stores
and websites in
other countries
 Growing retail
 Providing the
best quality
commodities and
services at the
fair prices
 Employees make
difference
through their
contribution
 It knows its
customer better
and more than its
rivals
 Values making
difference
 To be present
whenever and
wherever the
customers need
them
(sainsburys.co.u
k 2017)
 Giving the
customer the most
priority of every
action
 Recovering and
growing the
Clothing and
Home section by
focusing on
quality, fit and
styling of the
products and drive
the execution
through price,
service and
availability
 Continuing the
growth of the Food
section by
focusing on
innovation,
capability and
health factors and

8CAREER AND PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE
business in all
types of market
by generating
more than £1
billion revenue
 Increasing CSR
practices
 Improving and
increasing the
team size for
internal growth
 To sell the best
quality products
in every
department
(Tesco Plc 2017)
drive the execution
through price,
convenience and
availability by
increasing space
 Increasing
international
partnership for
offline and online
business
(marksandspencer.
com 2017)
Key activities Supplying best quality
consumer goods and
food products at a fair
price and maintain the
sustainable practices
Providing the quality
products with a special
attention towards the
customer needs
Providing inspiring and
excitement generating
products in food, clothing
and living at an affordable
prices
Market share 27.9% 15.8% 9.4%
(Kantarworldpanel.com
2017)
Recent
performance
Tesco is the leading
supermarket in the UK.
However, it has reported
a slump in sales due to
falling food prices
(Waller-Davies 2017)
Sainsbury is also
suffering from declining
food prices
It is struggling to recover
from its falling clothing
business.
Future plans To increase the market To increase the market Improving and recovering

9CAREER AND PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE
share by increasing
number of stores in UK
and in overseas
share improving product
and service quality
the clothing and home
section improve the
market share
Table 2: Comparison of three key retail organizations
(Source: Author)
The three organizations have big brand images. Among these three, Tesco is the most
popular supermarket retailer, followed by Sainsbury and Marks and Spencer. Tesco is one of the
companies among the top 100 most values brands of the world (Waller-Davies 2017). The
strength of Tesco are the leadership position, effective online business operations, Clubcard as
the effective customer information tool and strong property portfolio. The weaknesses of the
company are the recent weak financial performance, damage to the brand image due to the 2015
commercial income scandal, diminished morale of the employees and reliance on the UK market
(Alam 2013).
Sainsbury is the second market leader in the lifestyle and retail sector of UK. The priority
given to the customers has made it one of the most popular shopping destinations of the people.
The strengths of the company are the employee strength of more than 150,000, experience
leadership, excellent marketing strategies and branding, more than 550 supermarkets and 350
convenience stores across the country, and producing and promoting own labeled quality
products. Weaknesses of Sainsbury are the rising food prices across the country and international
market and tough competition (Thompson and McLarney 2017).
Marks and Spencer is another big company in the retail sector of UK. Although the
company has faced downfall in the clothing and home retail, it is trying to recover based on its

10CAREER AND PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE
quality products and services. The strengths of the company are the value for money products,
own label, more than 1000 stores across 40 countries and 80,000 global workforce. Weaknesses
of M&S are limited market share due to strong competition and fake copy of the products in the
market (Rashid 2016).
It can be said from the market share of the companies that all of these three organizations
have a very good brand image in the domestic and international market. Out of the three, Tesco
is the leading retailer in UK. Their market share proves that these companies have stayed true to
their values. However, price, quality and convenience played a major role in capturing the
market. Marks and Spencer could not provide the best quality in the Clothing and Home retail
and that was reflected in their sales. In the recent time, all these companies faced a downfall in
the revenue due to rising food prices in the international market and uncertainties in the domestic
and international economy.

11CAREER AND PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE
References
Alam, J., 2013. An analytical case study on existing corporate communication strategies of
TESCO PLC, UK.
Burch, D. and Lawrence, G., 2013. Financialization in agri-food supply chains: private equity
and the transformation of the retail sector. Agriculture and human values, 30(2), pp.247-258.
Crew, M.A. and Kleindorfer, P.R. eds., 2013. Reforming the postal sector in the face of
electronic competition. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Filimonau, V. and Gherbin, A., 2017. An exploratory study of food waste management practices
in the UK grocery retail sector. Journal of Cleaner Production, 167, pp.1184-1194.
Grünewald, P. and Torriti, J., 2013. Demand response from the non-domestic sector: Early UK
experiences and future opportunities. Energy policy, 61, pp.423-429.
Jussila, J.J., Kärkkäinen, H. and Aramo-Immonen, H., 2014. Social media utilization in business-
to-business relationships of technology industry firms. Computers in Human Behavior, 30,
pp.606-613.
Kantarworldpanel.com, 2017. Grocery Market Share. [online] Kantarworldpanel.com. Available
at: https://www.kantarworldpanel.com/en/grocery-market-share/great-britain [Accessed 1 Nov.
2017].
Lorenz, A., 2015. Contemporary management accounting in the UK service sector (Doctoral
dissertation, University of Gloucestershire).

12CAREER AND PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE
marksandspencer.com, 2017. M&S Today. [online] Corporate.marksandspencer.com. Available
at: https://corporate.marksandspencer.com/aboutus/mands-today [Accessed 1 Nov. 2017].
Ramanathan, U., Subramanian, N., Yu, W. and Vijaygopal, R., 2017. Impact of customer loyalty
and service operations on customer behaviour and firm performance: empirical evidence from
UK retail sector. Production Planning & Control, 28(6-8), pp.478-488.
Rashid, M.D., 2016. Perception of Employee’s about the Human Resource Management
Practices (Talent Management) in Marks and Spencer in Waterloo, London (Doctoral
dissertation, University of East London).
sainsburys.co.uk, 2017. Our values. [online] About.sainsburys.co.uk. Available at:
https://www.about.sainsburys.co.uk/about-us/our-values/overview [Accessed 1 Nov. 2017].
Schwalbe, K., 2015. Information technology project management. Cengage Learning.
Tesco plc, 2017. Core Purpose and Values. [online] Tesco plc. Available at:
https://www.tescoplc.com/about-us/core-purpose-and-values/ [Accessed 1 Nov. 2017].
Thompson, J. and McLarney, C., 2017. What Effects will the Strategy Changes Undertaken by
Next Plc Have on themselves and their Competition in the UK Clothing Retail Market?. Journal
of Commerce and Management Thought, 8(2), p.234.
Triantafyllou, M., Cherrett, T. and Browne, M., 2014. Urban Freight Consolidation Centers:
Case Study in the UK Retail Sector. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the
Transportation Research Board, (2411), pp.34-44.

13CAREER AND PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE
Waller-Davies, B., 2017. Marks & Spencer sales dive as market share takes a hit. [online] Retail
Week. Available at: https://www.retail-week.com/sectors/fashion/marks-and-spencer-sales-dive-
as-market-share-takes-a-hit/7012344.article [Accessed 1 Nov. 2017].
Yu, W., Ramanathan, R. and Nath, P., 2014. The impacts of marketing and operations
capabilities on financial performance in the UK retail sector: A resource-based
perspective. Industrial Marketing Management, 43(1), pp.25-31.