Current Retail Trends and Challenges Faced by Woolworths: A Study on Business Performance

FY028 Inquiry Based
Learning

Table of Contents
Introduction .....................................................................................................................................3
Main Body.......................................................................................................................................3
Task1 ...............................................................................................................................................3
1) Three current retail trends.......................................................................................................3
2) research aim, objectives and questions...................................................................................4
Research aim:..............................................................................................................................4
Task 2...............................................................................................................................................5
Primary Analysis:........................................................................................................................5
Secondary Analysis:....................................................................................................................9
Recommendations..........................................................................................................................10
References .....................................................................................................................................11
APPENDIX....................................................................................................................................12

Introduction
Retailing is the market which includes all the activities that involves the sale of products
and services directly to the consumer by a company which are usually purchased for family or
personal use. It is the selling of certain services and merchandise to its customers. It involves the
selling of individual small lots or units to a large number of customers by the help of business set
up for that specific purpose. In the present report, Woolworths has taken into consideration
which is an Australian chain of grocery stores and supermarkets founded in 1924 and
headquartered in Bella Vista, Australia.
Main Body
Task1
1) Three current retail trends.
Buy Now Pay Later: It refers to the use of instalment plans in order to pay off consumer goods
over a given time while being able to use the product immediately (Aggarwal and et.al., 2019).
The consumers can get the benefit that they can able to get the product immediately and if they
can make repayment by pay little to no interest, on time. It is the payment option where a
consumer can purchase a good or service immediately. Instead the BNPL service provider pays
the bill on behalf of customer and at the end of the given time that is mostly a month a consumer
is required to pay back to buy now pay later service provider the accumulated amount. In context
to Woolworth company, they provide the buy now pay later service to its customers which help
the company to increase the sales and profitability in the market effectively and efficiently. As
BNPL provides amazing benefits to the customers as well as company. It helps to increases the
affordability and instant credit at hand (Ashima and et.al., 2021). For both the company and
customers it provides secure and quick transactions and in addition to this the zero rate of interest
on repayment.

Impact Of COVID 19 On Retailers: The digital economy has boomed at the time of COVID 19
crises. The several potential trends are shaping the pandemic era retail environment as the
retailer consumer interactions will be defined by safety and health expectations. Demands for
convenience will be drive by even more contactless transactions. The consumer loyalty has been
fallen down to the typical brands. In context to Woolworth company, it provides the contactless
payments to its consumers by using online transaction methods as it could replace in every single
in person purchase. It made the use of expanded or new delivery or pick up options from their
physical, local stores (Jie and Gengatharen, 2018). New trending product categories has been
made as around 20-30% of the business during pandemic peak moved online and the grocery
penetration settled at 10-14% at the end of the year 2020. The company faces the issues of social
media shopping at the time of COVID 19 crises as it lack to fulfil the demand and unable to add
commerce features etc. The Woolworth company faces the challenges to provide the goods and
services to its customers at the doorsteps by maintaining proper safety, hygiene and taking all the
COVID 19 precautions which do not harm others.
Globalisation Of Production: Globalisation has become increasingly important in the early of
21st century as many big companies looking forward to grow and expand its business in the other
countries in order to earn profit and increase market share. It will achieve the long term success
by concentrating on thing what everyone wants rather than worrying about details of what
everybody thinks they might like (Kautish and Sharma, 2018). In context to Woolworth, by the
help of globalisation the company can able to increase the market share, profitability and build
the brand image in the global market and achieve its objectives for the longer run. It also faces
the issues especially in the developing countries rather than in developed countries. As in
developing countries thy people are not so aware of using the latest technology and machinery in
order to produce goods and provide to its customers. Communication technology has been
dramatically increased the responsiveness and speed of wireless and mobile networks as the
introduction of 4G and 5G technologies has been made.
2) research aim, objectives and questions.
Research aim:
“To analyse the latest trends within retail industry and its impact on business
performance of an organisation” A study on Woolworths
Research Objectives: