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Information Technology in Retail Sector

   

Added on  2020-04-29

14 Pages2911 Words71 Views
Leadership ManagementData Science and Big Data
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Running head: CAREER AND PROFESSIONAL PRACTICEComparative Industry AnalysisName of the Student:Name of the University:Author note:
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1CAREER AND PROFESSIONAL PRACTICEComparison of Retail and IT industry of UKRetail 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 theretail and IT sectors in terms of growth (Yu, Ramanathan and Nath 2014). The following essayfocuses on the comparative industry analysis with comparison between the retail and IT industryof UK. It would also address the comparison of three key organizations in the retail industry onthe basis of aims, values, strategies, key activities, market share, recent performance and futureplans. The employer brand, strengths and weakness of these organizations as employers and howmuch they could justify their goals and values should also be discussed in this essay. Three keyorganizations in the retail sector of UK are Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Marks and Spencer, whichwould be considered for comparison. The retail and Information Technology industry are two quite different industries to becompared. Both the sectors are quite huge in the UK. One industry directly deals with thecustomers by offering consumers goods and services, while the other offers technologicalservices to the customers. The performances of the both of these industries are the indicators ofeconomic growth of a nation (Ramanathan et al. 2017). The main features, recent changes andexpected future trends are discussed below. Main featuresThe major difference between the retail and IT sectors is that, one sector operates in thegoods sector and the other operates in the service sector. The comparison of the industries havebeen shown in the below table.Field ofRetail industryIT industry
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2CAREER AND PROFESSIONAL PRACTICEcomparisonArea of operationConsumer goods that include foodand grocery, clothing, electronicsgoods, home décor and appliancesand supermarkets (Filimonau andGherbin 2017)Consulting and providingtechnological solutions to theclients in the service sector. LocationsRetail and merchandise chain storesin many locations, in theneighborhoods convenient to thecustomersMajor offices in the IT hublocations in the same and differentmetropolitan citiesEmploymentFull time and part time workers,skilled worker is not necessary(Triantafyllou, Cherrett and Browne2014)Skilled workers are mandatoryNature of workCustomer service, sales, pricediscrimination is present Technological consulting, biddingfor projects is presentNetwork Mostly regional Mostly global Table 1: Comparison of Retail and IT industry(Source: Author)Recent changes in the two industriesRetail industryThe retail industry has been going through huge changes in the recent past. With theemergence of internet, the world has become smaller. Consumers from all over the world canshop from a retailer in UK as per their convenience. Thus, the retailers are now going online.They are launching their own websites and shopping sites and providing the facility forinternational shipping. The return and exchange policies are made easier and convenient for theonline 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
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3CAREER AND PROFESSIONAL PRACTICEare struggling to match up with the collection and sales of the online retailers. The youngergeneration of the consumers is even buying groceries from the online stores, although the oldergeneration does not prefer that (Filimonau and Gherbin 2017).Cross-channel trade is another recent change in the retail industry of UK. The retailersnow have offline and online stores and they are giving the provision of buying online andexchanging or returning in the stores. This needs improved software to maintain the record of thecustomer as well as for the products. However, the local stores provide the human touch to theshopping experience, as in many times, people need proper guidance while buying somethingexpensive or exclusive (Triantafyllou, Cherrett and Browne 2014).IT industryThe IT industry of UK is also going through mane changes. To save money, thecompanies are going for subscriptions to get the software delivered online rather than spendingchunk of money every three to five years. Cloud computing has become the new trend in thisindustry (Grünewald and Torriti 2013). The new GUI, ‘Metro’, made by Microsoft for windows 8 and 10 has changed the way ofusing the PC and laptops. The working has become smoother with the new touch sensor. It hasbrought about revolution in the technology. The productivity of the IT professionals hasincreased multiple times. It has also lead to the death of the mouse as people are becoming morecomfortable with the touch interface.Open source software is another new trend in the world of technology. It is making thesoftware available to all without any money and it also accepts improvement by any user. This
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