Fashion Retail: Next plc

This report explores the fashion retail industry with a focus on Next plc. It discusses the key changes in the macro and micro environment, strategies and tactics for success, and provides recommendations for enhancing efficiency. Topics covered include the introduction to the company, relevant changes in the macro environment, relevant changes in the micro environment, strategies and tactics, and recommendations.

Fashion Retail

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Introduction to the company...................................................................................................3
Key relevant changes in macro environment within the Next plc..........................................4
Relevant changes within the micro environment...................................................................5
Strategies and tactics that could be used by the company......................................................6
Recommendations..................................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10
Appendices.....................................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Retail can be defined as the sale of finished goods as well as services straight from the
business to the consumer as per the demand and the use. A retailer is an individual or a business
that the outer world purchase the products from (Arunraj and Ahrens, 2016). It has been seen that
the retailer do not manufacture the goods rather they acquire the products from the manufacturer.
Retailing, on the other hand, is the retailer process of dispensing the goods and then selling to the
customer for their further requirement and use.
The retail transaction deals with less quantity of products but wholesale handles with
buying services on the large scale. The fashion retailing enterprise focus on manufacturing and
creating designer cloths and other associated fashion accessories in order to produce profit and
increase the productivity of the organisation as well. This report will discuss the fashion retail of
Next plc including the PESTLE analysis of the business, micro environmental changes ,
strategies and future recommendations for enhancing the efficiency and smooth functioning of
enterprise.
MAIN BODY
Introduction to the company
Next Private Limited Company is a multinational British company of fashion dealing in
fashion clothings manufacturing, which has a headquarter in Enderby, Leicestershire. The
company has around 700 stores, out of which approximately 500 in United Kingdom and others
in Europe, Middle East and Asia. Such organisation was originally founded by Joseph Hepworth
in 1864 with partnership of James Rhodes, which later got dissolved. This has been considered
one of the largest retailer in clothing as per sales in UK, and it also got listed in London Stock
Exchange. The portfolio of such company has a long list covering goods and products like home
décor system, footwear, beauty products, lingerie, sports accessories, clothes of men, women and
children.
Mission – The mission of Next plc is to meet the demands as well as expectations of the
customers by rendering them attractively designed and exciting clothing with the assurance of
best quality of accessories, footwear, clothes and home ware (Choi and Shen, 2017). They focus
in building such environment that has a capacity to attract and retain the people to each and
every level.

Vision – The future vision of the company is to deliver supreme quality of all products
and services. It wants to be a natural choice retailer at the market of UK especially for those
people who are aware of recent trends and expect different styles in clothing from time to time.
Key relevant changes in macro environment within the Next plc
It has been observed that there are many variables and factors that affect the operations
and decision making strategies of any enterprise. The fashion retailer companies also face
changes in macro environment, so it is essential in identifying and monitoring the key issues and
the external factors affecting the mission and the objective of the business (Crewe, 2016). So as
to conduct such evaluation, PESTLE analysis is being conducted which covers political,
economical, social, technological, environmental and legal variables. Such analysis have been
discussed below.
Political factors – Major political factors that has an impact on the future of the company
are the rules and set of regulations which are designed by government. The rate of tax imposed
on the Next plc by the government is another political factor that affects the stability of the
corporation and has a imbalance in spending ability of customer in next brand. Another factor
has been considered as interest rates which have positive impact on the company because of low
rate in UK, thus allowing such enterprise to acquire large amount of money so as to capitalise the
business at much lower interest rate.
Economical factors – This factor deals with the economy of the United Kingdom, which
indirectly influences the economic status of the provided company. Such factors has major
consequences on the financial status either locally or globally. The factors like recession, taxers,
amount of supply over demand, rate of interest and exchange rates (Vecchi, 2016). These
variables have immense amount of influence over the profitability and productivity of Next plc.
By maintaining the economic factors, the fashion industry can attract large number of customer
which eventually enhance the revenue of the business.
Social factor – The social factor has direct outcome on the society at which the given
company have been operating. Factors consisting beliefs, values, social classes, attitude towards
saving and funding, population growth, age, lifestyle, thoughts on imported services are some of
the factors that affects the macro environment of Next plc as well as set the preference and
decides the way customer problems are dealt with. These factors assist in prioritising the

customers and aids in targeting the quality customers. The choices and lifestyle of customers are
constantly changes that directly have consequences over the business growth and deliverance.
Technological factors – The competitiveness and structure of price can be disturbed by
the emergence or lack of technology in short period of time. Thereby, it is very necessary to
create innovation and uniqueness in the products and services, which not only raise the economy
of the business but it also aids in preventing degeneration in up coming future. The emergence of
technology should give tough competition to the competitors in the same domain industry so
enhance the level of popularity of the brand among the customers (Cutcher and Achtel, 2017).
The profits earned by the company should be invested in the research and development sector in
order to ensure the improvement in the profits sustainably.
Legal factors – All the factors that are related to the law of the country comes under this
category. There are set of standards and guidelines which has to be followed by Next plc in order
to maintain the functioning and manufacturing of the enterprise smoothly. The intellectual
property laws helps in safeguarding the policies and patents of the organisation. Discrimination
law made by the government to ensure protection to Next plc employees.
Environmental factors – Various type of environmental standards are provided
depending upon the kind of industry. The ecological factors like the weather, constant changing
climate have an adverse effect in pattern and quality of the clothing. The demand of the
customers are tend to bend depending upon the current weather,and Next plc should keep a
check on the demands and should make amendments to their clothes.
Relevant changes within the micro environment
Micro environment of an organisation consist of factors in the area of operation which
effects its performance and freedom of decision making. Some of the factors that constitute a
micro environment in an organisation include customers, competitors, suppliers, distribution
channels and general population (Petermans and Kent, 2016). Some of the relevant changes
within micro environment of Next plc is discussed here.
Competitors – Being a fashion retailer, respective company face a large number of
competitors. However, the ratio of competitors is increasing day be day as many new entrances
are entering into market. Number of changes has been made in the micro environment of Next
plc due to increasing number of competitors. It will effect operations of the respective

organisations and will make the overall business to lower their manufacturing price. Some of the
examples of competitors of Next Plc are Topshop Ltd., The J. Jill Group and New Look Limited.
Customers – In comparison to the earlier days, customers are now brand freak and they
are more interested in running with current trends. Thus, such changes in the clothing styles of
customers will effect the internal operations of Next plc. In order to deal with such changes
receptive organisation need introduce current trends in their organisation. Utilization of
technology and some more creativity will help the organisation to tackle such changes. However,
customers mostly have microeconomic impact directly on business operations (Fernie and Grant,
2019).
Suppliers – Increasing number of new entrants will gradually leads to less number of
suppliers. There may be chances that suppliers may switch to other organisation. Thus, Next plc
being a fashion retailer have to select their suppliers carefully. If a supplier provides a low
quality or poor quality of resources to the organisation than it will effect the overall reputation of
firm and can lead to a negative brand image.
Employees – Availability of skilled and qualified employees are the main reason of
overall success of the organisation. Employees of the respective organisation produce, service or
sell the products of the organisation. However, employee turnover can impact overall
productivity of the organisation as it will lead to a disturb micro environment.
General population – Media along with general population also effect the ongoing
operations of the business. People generally support organisations who provide employment, pay
taxes and function with environmental and social responsibility. However, respective
organisation must cope up with all such things otherwise it will lead to negative image between
public.
Strategies and tactics that could be used by the company
The micro as well as macro factors have been observed to have positive as well as
negative impacts on the development and growth of the business and also assist in making
crucial decisions regarding the working of the company (Henninger, Alevizou and Oates2016).
There are several strategies and tactics which influences the efficacy and productivity of the
enterprise. Both the factors that is micro and macro factors helps in establishing the efficient

tactics and strategies for the betterment and advancement of the organisation. Some micro as
well as macro factors and their impact on the business are elaborated below.
Technology – The advancement of technology has been considered to shape the future of
the world. The emergence of new techniques in sorting the work as well as in marketing is huge.
The use of technology may also have demerits and merits for the enterprise. The companies hire
high paying executives to keep a check in security and prevent in attacks from cyber. The online
presence of Next plc have been seen to get subjected to security risk due to such platforms more
frequently. Thus, companies depend on the technology and innovative machines to make the task
simple and easy. Such macro factor helps in growing the business to large extent. Moreover,
technology make the advertisement and new products of the company more public and authentic
which results in boosting the revenue and sales in the market (Giraldi and et.al., 2016). It is
because of the technology the social media platform has emerged which has been considered as a
very essential business target channels which are sorted according to the nature of the company.
The necessary tools which assist in identifying the correct time of posting the post,
applying and tagging the preferred content, location restricted targeting and many more have
been established more accurately in the social world and have been observed to engage correct
audience and demanding customers for the upliftment of the business. It has been seen in some
cases, that the break in the secure software and technology may lead to mishap and can be
dangerous for the reputation of the company and negatively portrait the picture of enterprise in
the outer world.
Economy – The economy of has been observed to have biggest effect on the growth and
development of the business. The growth leads in increasing the account of profitability at high
rate, where the employment is low and the confidence among the staff members are high. The
business can be expanded and the opportunities are huge (Okonkwo, 2016). Using the economic
turn, high level authorities have the capacity to acquire new employee, thereby, they can hire
new minds and talents to serve the customer demand in most creative manner. Attaining another
business can help in expanding the base of customer and new products.
Competitors – Competition is often considered good, and the rivalry is thought to make
the company workers to work more own their own resources to outcompete one another. If an
industry is the sole supplier of any product, then they soon avoid making any innovation and the
customer gets bound to the single product, the competition make such organisation challenging.

Self awareness is often found to develop which help in determining the weaknesses and strengths
of the company for coping the short comes.
Kurt Lewin theory
It is a change theory or change model which provide an approach for improvement in the
organisation. It gives the a framework to the organisation for implementing a change effort,
which must be as seamless as possible. It is a three step model and gives an idea of effects of
implementing change in organisation (Landmark and Sjøbakk, 2017). It is mostly done by
managers and other change agents. Next Plc should also implement this particular model in their
organisation as it will help them to deal with changes which occur due to macro and micro
environmental factors. The first step of Kurt Lewin model is unfreeze which determine that
employees of organisation are ready for change. Next step is change implementation which
means change process has been start in the organisation. The last step is freeze which states that
change should be made permanent and all the employees must accept the changes done in
operations.
Recommendations
On the basis of above report, there are few domains in which Next plc should work and
improve so as to earn more profit and reputation in market (Parker, 2016). Though, it has been
observed that the fashion company already has a huge brand name and creates new and
innovative products for achieving the objectives and visions of the organisation. Various
recommendation have been given below which should be followed by Next plc.
 The emergence of new technology and software should be utilised efficiently in order to
create new products and to determine the need of the customer at that particular time.
 All the guidelines and rules set by the government has to be followed by the company
for ethical issues.
 The internal communication should be managed effectively with multiple divisions so as
to lower disruption level in processes.
 The techniques of marketing and advertisement should be more creative and unique so
that large number of customers get attract towards the brand name.
 Proper funding must be provided to the research and development sector in order to
make the brand selective and more desirable.

 The feedbacks and suggestions of loyal customers should be attended first, this aids in
retaining the customers for life time (Perry and Wood, 2018).
CONCLUSION
From the above study, it can be concluded that Fashion Retail industry is one of the
fastest growing retailing industry in overall market area. It is a business of manufacturing and
selling of cloths to customers and offering them fashion goods and services. However, micro and
macro environmental factors of business effect the overall productivity and success of
organisation. They largely effect operations and decision making process of business. Macro
environmental factors such as political, legal, social conditions and technological changes are the
major factors for bringing relevant changes in the operations of a business organisation.
Competitors, customers, suppliers and even general population which consist of micro
environmental factors also lead to number of major changes in the business operations. The
micro as well as macro factors have been observed to have positive as well as negative impacts
on the development and growth of the business. several strategies and tactics which influences
the efficacy and productivity of the enterprise has been discussed in order to overcome negative
effects of such factors.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Arunraj, N.S. and Ahrens, D., 2016. Estimation of non-catastrophic weather impacts for retail
industry.International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management.44(7). pp.731-753.
Choi, T.M. and Shen, B., 2017. Luxury fashion retail management. Springer Singapore:.
Crewe, L., 2016. Placing fashion: Art, space, display and the building of luxury fashion markets
through retail design. Progress in Human Geography.40(4). pp.511-529.
Cutcher, L. and Achtel, P., 2017. ‘Doing the brand’: aesthetic labour as situated, relational
performance in fashion retail. Work, employment and society.31(4). pp.675-691.
Fernie, J. and Grant, D.B., 2019.Fashion logistics: Insights into the fashion retail supply chain.
Kogan Page Publishers.
Giraldi, L., and et.al., 2016, October. How to Enhance Customer Experience in Retail:
Investigations Through a Case Study. In ISPE TE. (pp. 381-390).
Landmark, A.D. and Sjøbakk, B., 2017. Tracking customer behaviour in fashion retail using
RFID. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management.45(7/8). pp.844-858.
Okonkwo, U., 2016. Luxury fashion branding: trends, tactics, techniques. Springer.
Parker, C.J., 2016. Human acceptance of 3D printing in fashion paradox: is mass customization a
bridge too far?.WIT Transactions on Engineering Sciences,.113. pp.373-380.
Perry, P. and Wood, S., 2018. The international fashion supply chain and corporate social
responsibility.
Petermans, A. and Kent, A. eds., 2016. Retail design: theoretical perspectives. Taylor & Francis.
Vecchi, A. ed., 2016. Handbook of research on global fashion management and merchandising.
IGI Global.
Okonkwo, U., 2016. Luxury fashion branding: trends, tactics, techniques. Springer.
Henninger, C.E., Alevizou, P.J. and Oates, C.J., 2016. What is sustainable fashion?.Journal of
Fashion Marketing and Management: An International Journal. 20(4). pp.400-416.

Appendices
Pestle analysis
Political factors  Stabilising the government made
policies and standards
 Political influences
Economical factors  Interest rate
 Inflation
 Recession
Social factors  Lifestyle
 Age
 Change in fashion
Technological factors  New techniques
 Innovative technology
 Interventions
Legal factors  Laws made by government
 Safety regulations
 Employment policies
Environmental factors  Climate change
 Weather
 Environment regulations