Inquiry Project: Retail Trends and Organisational Analysis of Aldi

This inquiry project explores the retail trends in the industry and provides an organisational analysis of Aldi, a German discount supermarket chain. It covers the background of the company, its SWOT analysis, and its performance against industry trends. The report also includes recommendations and an action plan for Aldi to continue its success.

CW1: Inquiry Project

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY ..................................................................................................................................1
Retail trends ................................................................................................................................1
Organisational analysis................................................................................................................3
Recommendations and action plan..............................................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8
APPENDICES.................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Project is described as impermanent undertaking with opening addition to ending which
is used for producing or creating unique product or outcome. Inquiry based project is about
sequencing individual activities, group work together with immediate feedback for devising
educational environment wherein learners enhances hold accountable for learning as well as
academic success for each other (Vroom Redden, Barton and Willian, 2020.). To undertake
inquiry based project, Aldi is selected company. It is a German based discount supermarket chain
that have over 10000 stores in nearby 20 nations. It was established by Karl along with Theo
Albrecht in the year 1946. The report includes data of retail industry and trends in retail sector. It
also covers background information about the company, its SWOT analysis and performance of
business against trends of industry. At last, it includes recommendation addition to action plan
for continuing the success.
MAIN BODY
Retail trends
Industry data
Retail industry is said to the sector that involves activities to sell commodities to general
public through shops. In this industry, selling of products takes place in diverse ways including
in store at brick as well as mortar location, postal services, online, departmental stores to
convenience shops and via direct sales. In the year 2019, total value of retail ales in UK is £394
Billion. In the same year, around 2.9 million people are employed in the industry. The industry
has attained growth of 3.4% in retail sales (UK Retail stats and facts, 2020). More than 3096655
retail outlets are there in the sector. Nearby 324% of online sales have increased three fold in
past ten years within retail industry. Top companies that work successfully in the retail industry
are Walmart, Costco, Lidl, CVS Heath Corporation, Best Buy, Tesco, Aldi, Verizon Wireless,
Meijer, 7 Seven, Gap, Menard, Qurate retail, Hy-Vee, AutoZone, Giant Eagle, Sears Holdings,
Wayfair, Morrisons, Waitrose etc. The data of retail industry showing monthly revenues earned
by retailers in different nations is as follows:
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Illustration 1: Data of retail industry. 2020
(Source: Data of retail industry. 2020)
From the above image, it is analysed that the average revenue of single retail stores
internally is around $28,094 USD in a month. In global retail sector, North American retailers
have most revenue that is $31,038.52. Then American retailers are positioned as the earn around
$29,081.51 per month. At same time, retailers in New Zealand earns $28,527.71 while retailers
of UK have income of $28,066.89 per month.
Retail industry trends
Industry trends refers to the patterns which occur in specific industry. As per Wertz
(2020), retail industry have seen significant transformation from past decade as well as it is
ongoing evolving fastly. The trends that are shaping retail industry are as follows:
Glass Box along with Brands as culture: In recent years, it is seen that more and more
number of consumers are shopping products with emotions rather than their wallets. Millennials
are changing attitudes and choices regarding social consciousness and business responsibility
that is impacting the ways retail brands present addition to position themselves. With this, the
trends has shown that brands requires equating their internal business culture with exterior
identity which is turning organisations towards “culture coders” (Cavan, 2016).
Sustainability paradigm shift: Retail sector is considered as major contributor in
international carbon emissions in which retailers plays big roles. Although, it engrosses big
morale aspects that is significant opportunity for business. Few of retailers have sustainability in
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their working agenda. However, who don't prioritise sustainability are at risk for survival. Retail
companies requires to become sustainable as target audiences are enhancing demand options and
becoming more mindful towards what happens to commodities when they are disposed.
Making E-commerce shipper accelerating: Today, almost all entities have online
presence along with offers comparable prices. E-commerce continues towards becoming most
popular medium for shopping across board (Kashmiri, Nicol, and Hsu, 2017). The trend is
continuing well as companies are working for evaluating new ways so to differentiating
themselves from enhancing saturated crowd. It is analysed that the amount of time an individual
is willing to stand for free shipping has reduced to 4.5 days from 5.5 days in last year. Th trends
motivates retailers to build a passionate brand which serves addition treat its customer in the
similar manner customers prefers to be treated.
Re-invention of retail: Digital is performing significant and creative functions for
meeting experiences that are most preferred by people. In stores along with online, consumers
expect unparalleled and incomparable experiences. It can be through connected spaces, digital
journeys and curated marketplace, consumers are demanding for emotional connection when
they experience shopping. In Retail sector, both, digital along with in-store works together for
increasing customer experiences (Ustundag and Cevikcan, 2017).
Trends in retail industry are driven by amalgamation of evolving technological landscape
as well as shifting preferences from side on consumers as demographics begin for skewing
younger. Through embracing the trends along with preparing for them, companies in retail
industry can grab positive opportunities for expansion and growth.
Organisational analysis
Background of retail entity
Aldi started its operations in retail industry in 1946, at the time when Theo together with
Karl Albrecht managed their guardian grocery store in city of Germany. The company started as
small provincial store and with great efforts and tactics of the owners, it became popular across
globe. Later, in 1950, the two brothers have owned 10 stores within Ruhr Valley. The idea of the
business was based on subtracting legal supreme rebate of 3 percentage prior to sale (Aldi, 2020).
Further, in 1960 the company was splited because of mismatch among views about some thing
between the two brothers. It was further acquired by Aldi Süd which was grocery chain Hofer. In
1973, the company launched its first international stores in Netherlands and various other
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countries also. The company have adopted various business models including concierge,
disintermediation and Freemium. At present, it has over 10000 stores with estimated turnover of
approx €50 billion in 20 countries.
SWOT of organisation
As per the results obtained from primary data which is collected through questionnaire
method in which 50 customers of the company are selected, it is analysed that the Aldi is popular
in the market for its low product price. The products of company are sell at low prices that
attracts large customer base towards it which is its key strength. Moreover, various customers
says that the employees of Aldi so not assist them when they shop which is its weakness. Most of
the customers shop with the computer once in week. To maximise ales demand, the entity has
opportunity to offer large discounts on some particular day within the week. With this, it can
improve its financial status and enhance profits (Trinh and Linh Le, 2018.). It is also analysed
that there are various competitors of the company that decreases its customer base.
Various secondary data are also collected from books and website about the company.
According to the results, SWOT Analysis of Aldi is as below:
Strengths
 Aldi is discount store chain that survive
in market due to its low price strategy.
 The company has build strong
ecosystem that have altered various
critical parameters in retail industry.
Weaknesses
 Aldi flourish on low margins as well as
heavily dependent on volume of sales.
 Due to lower assistance from
employees, its customer are poor
satisfied with its services.
Opportunities
 Adoption of digital is huge opportunity
for Aldi as this will help the retailer in
meeting customer satisfaction and
providing favourable experiences (Aldi,
2020).
 Offering huge discount on particular
day of week is other opportunity to
increase sales volume for the company.
Threats
 Lot of competition from domestic
addition to global retailers is big threat
for Aldi.
 Changing customer's preferences and
attitudes towards online shopping as
well as getting personalised experience
is great threat for the retail business.
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The other information are collected through primary research. In this questionnaire
method is used for gathering information about Aldi. The questionnaire for analysing the
company is as follows:
Questions
Q1. What characteristic of ALDI attracts you to shop its products?
A. Quality
B. Service excellence
C. Low product prices
Q2. How often you shop with Aldi?
A. Daily
B. Once in week
C. Once in month
D. Once in year
Q3. Does employees of Aldi assist you while shopping?
A. Yes
B. No
Q4. Do you also shop from other retail stores except Aldi?
A. Yes
B. No
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As per the primary research, it is analysed that people have awareness about Aldi and its
offerings. The company have made high position in retail industry and have good customer base.
Also, employees of the retailer are are supportive as they assist customers while shopping that
creates good experience among people with the entity.
Organisational performance against industry trends
The performance of Aldi is increasing year by year in international retail industry. The
company have gained trust of large customer base through offering them quality of commodities
at lower prices. The strength of the company is that it is working as per pertaining trends and
also makes changes in its strategies through forecasting potential trends in retail industry.
Sustainability is core agenda of the company through which the performance of the entity is
focused towards reducing carbon footprints and prioritising it at first. This helps in meeting
demands of customers on time and achieving popular or leading positions in market (Kamble,
Gunasekaran and Gawankar, 2018). Moreover, the company is making improvements to offer its
customer online by making delivery on same day through various channels which improves
customer experiences at large level.
Retail industry has trends of expanding in emerging market as well as creating new
channels. It is weakness of Aldi that its fails to make strong expansion on emerging market
addition to create new channels. It is because of its low price strategy and high level of resistant
from employee side to adopt changes in marketing and other divisions. It hampers its
performance against pertaining and potential trends in the retail sector.
Recommendations and action plan
Recommendations
Some of the recommendations to Aldi for emphasising towards continuing success are as
follows:
 Embracing digital mobile wallet: It is recommended to Aldi that it must increase use of
mobile as payment method in its stores. According to survey, it is found that almost all
people owns smartphone and views that it is indispensable companion in their daily life.
Through adopting APIs, MasterCard and many more, the company can fulfil unmet needs
of customers and also makes their payment process easier resulting in ongoing success.
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 Multichannel: Aldi is also recommended to work with multi-channel approach so to
employ activities for customers to make shopping decisions. With this, the retail entity
can captivate consumers along with keep them engage with its products by providing
excellent services from sales channels. Moreover, it will also assist the entity to
strengthen it practices across globe and stimulating employees to operate accordingly for
continuous success. Emphasising towards making brand as culture: Aldi is also recommended to make
their focus to make the company as culture that customers demands most. By presenting
or promoting its products that stimulate emotions of consumers rather than their wallets
will help in improving ongoing success.
Action plan
In order to implement recommendations, action plan plays important role. It is roadmap
which shows the entity is reaching its objectives (Casey and Pearce, 2018). It details concrete
steps that are necessary for attaining goals. It is created through strategic planning and
involvement of all stakeholders. In context to Aldi, the action plan for continuing success is as
follows:
Involving team: In this stage, Aldi required to get best team through involving all
employees while devising action plan. The company have wide number of employees which can
provide valuable inputs for making necessary steps to attain objective of ongoing success.
Listing actions: Centre of action plan is list of activities to attain objective. In this stage,
Aldi can include all things from arranging resources including physical, material, human, finance
and other to developing website. Each action will be defined clearly in order to avoid confusing
in future (Shahbazi, Hassani and Hosseini, 2019).
Setting timeline: Objective of maintaining ongoing success requires lifetime or the
duration till company survive. In context to Aldi, the managers will focus on ongoing success for
large duration says 5 to 10 years.
Designating resources: In this stage, Aldi will designate its resources to various
activities and each action. For example, for adopting various online payment methods, the
company will designate resources to finance team and the employees that are at cash counter.
Establishing follow up along with measurement process: In this stage, organisations
sets the ways for follow up actions for ensuring steps to carry out (Álvarez Sáenz de Cabezón,
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2017). For doing so, Aldi will include reporting addition to regular meetings for discussing
progress of plan. Moreover, the measures that will be adopted for tracking implementation are
also specified in this step.
Communicating plan: It is necessary top communicate action plan to all the employees
of entity. In this stage, managers of Aldi will make sure that all the manpower have awareness
about the action plan and their roles to implement it so to manage ongoing success.
Keeping plan alive: Once the company started executing action plan, it is necessary to
stick on it and measure process which is outlined (Dowden and Dowden, 2019). Administrators
of Aldi will recognise that employees are fulfilling responsibilities and holds accountability for
the outcomes.
With the mentioned action plan, Aldi will be able to achieve favourable outcomes in
implementing recommendation along with making proper emphasis towards attaining ongoing
success.
CONCLUSION
From the report its is concludes that inquiry project improves knowledge and experience
of learner and help in achieving success in enhancing skills and competences. The key trends in
retail industry are Sustainability paradigm shift, re-invention of retail, making E-commerce
shipper accelerating and Glass Box along with Brands as culture. SWOT analysis helps in
assessing strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of company. Recommendations to
retail business includes Embracing digital mobile wallet, adoptiong multichannel and
emphasising towards making brand as culture.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Álvarez Sáenz de Cabezón, Á., 2017. Marketing plan of Propiedad Grial, SL.
Casey, D. and Pearce, D. eds., 2018. More Than Management Development: Action Learning at
General Electric Company. Routledge.
Cavan, D. R., 2016. Analyzing retail store closures. The Appraisal Journal. 84(4). p.353.
Dowden, M. and Dowden, M., 2019. Creating an Action Plan. In Approachable
Accessibility (pp. 79-93). Apress, Berkeley, CA.
Kamble, S. S., Gunasekaran, A. and Gawankar, S. A., 2018. Sustainable Industry 4.0 framework:
A systematic literature review identifying the current trends and future perspectives.
Process Safety and Environmental Protection. 117. pp.408-425.
Kashmiri, S., Nicol, C. D. and Hsu, L., 2017. Birds of a feather: intra-industry spillover of the
Target customer data breach and the shielding role of IT, marketing, and CSR. Journal
of the Academy of Marketing Science. 45(2). pp.208-228.
Shahbazi, H., Hassani, A. and Hosseini, V., 2019. Evaluation of Tehran clean air action plan
using emission inventory approach. Urban Climate. 27. pp.446-456.
Trinh, T. A. and Linh Le, T. P., 2018, April. Biofuels potential for transportation fuels in
Vietnam: a status Quo and SWOT analysis. In Proceedings of the IOP Conference
Series: Earth and Environmental Science, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (pp. 17-19).
Ustundag, A. and Cevikcan, E., 2017. Industry 4.0: managing the digital transformation.
Springer.
Vroom Redden, A. M., Barton, C. M. and Willian, K. R., 2020. Combined Guided and Open
Inquiry Project for an Upper Division Biochemistry Lab: Sugar Content, Enzymatic
Properties of Lactase, and the Spoiling Process in Milk. Journal of Chemical Education.
97(5). pp.1430-1436.
Online:
Aldi. 2020. [Online]. Available through: <https://aldi.com/>
UK Retail stats and facts. 2020. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.retaileconomics.co.uk/library-retail-stats-and-facts>
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APPENDICES
Questionaire log
Questions Frequency
Q1. What characteristic of ALDI attracts you to shop its products?
A. Quality 15
B. Service excellence 15
C. Low product prices 20
Q2. How often you shop with Aldi?
A. Daily 12
B. Once in week 18
C. Once in month 8
D. Once in year 12
Q3. Does employees of Aldi assist you while shopping?
A. Yes 34
B. NO 16
Q4. Do you also shop from other retail stores except Aldi?
A. Yes 28
B. No 22
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