Strategies for Fashion Retailing

This article discusses the key changes and strategies in the fashion retailing industry, with a focus on Nike. It covers relevant changes within the UK fashion retail sector, micro-environment activities, and suggests strategies and tactics that can be used by retailing industries to boost sales and attract customers. The article also includes a discussion on Pestle analysis and Porter's five forces in the context of the fashion retail industry.

FASHION CLOTHING RETAILERS IN UK
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
KEY RELEVANT CHANGES WITHIN UK FASHION RETAILS.........................................1
RELEVANT CHANGES WITHIN MICRO ENVIROENMENT..............................................2
SUGGEST AND DISCUSS STRATEGIES AND TACTICS THAT COULD BE USED BY
THE RETAILING INDUSTRIES...............................................................................................3
RECOMMENDATIONS.............................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5

REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Retailing is all about the process of selling of goods and services through multiple
channels of distribution. In this the product and services are directly sold to. The retailing
industry provides many small units of products and services to large number of individuals. The
retailing work was started “itinerant peddlers”. By passing many centuries, the retail work was
done by “rude booths”, but they have expanded among many retail stores, outlets, supermarkets
and retailer's shop's. Retailer's plays a very major role in the sales pf products and services
produced by any company. This is because the company only thinks about making their product
and service innovative, but “ how the product will reach to its end users” is decided by the
retailers. Retailing industries needs many sales person's to get connected with the end customers
for the sale of companies products.
The retail industry on which we are focusing on the Nike, Inc. It was established in 25
January 1965 by Bill Browerman and Phil Knight, having the headquarter in Beavertor, Oregon.
It is Sports fashion house and have many channels of distribution across the world. It is world's
largest supplier of sports shoes and other wears. Their major product are sports shoes. The
average revenue generated by the company during fiscal year 2012 was US$ 24.1 billion. In
2012, the company recruited approximately 44000 employees from worldwide to expand their
business across the world. The brand value of Nike was $29.6 billion in year 2017. In terms of
revenue, the fortune 500 list Nike stood at 89th position in the year 2018. Other than
manufacturing of sportswear and equipment’s, the company also operates in the retail store
market which was named as the “Nike Town”. The trade mark of the company is “Just do it” and
the logo is “Swoosh”. The “swoosh” is a logo which shows a curved check mark, which became
famous all over the world and made its own identity. The company opened its first retail store in
the year 1966 and first product launched were the shoes under the brand name “Nike shoes” in
year 1972. The company has its retail outlets in more than 170 countries. Nike’s success was
owned to endorsement by many athletes namely Tiger woods, Mia Hamm, Micheal Jordan and
Roger Federer.

MAIN BODY
KEY RELEVANT CHANGES WITHIN UK FASHION RETAILS
The Nike's has made many changes in the retailing sector of their company. The major
changes made by them were as follows. Firstly, the Nike became a top news in the “ethical
consumer magazine”, that the company is changing its corporate culture as it is the worlds
biggest sportswear company whose products are wear by Olympic players while they are playing
for their nation. Second was that the company’s working environment was not having equality
and justice for both the genders. The female employees of the company were not provided with
the equal roles and responsibilities of the work of the organization. Because of this, the payments
and salaries paid to the employees was also not same. So, this work culture was being changed
by the company and after that level of equality was made in the organization. The third change
done by the company was that the company Nike made a tagline for their brand naming “just do
it” which was recognized by “edit to amplify growth”, which helped a lot in the putting the 25%
fewer styles into the market to make space in order to amplify sales. It included the steaming
distribution to only those who deliver the fastest and most profitable growth in the history (Davis
and et.al., 2017). The fourth change made was the introducing a new product, which was a
hoodie and a sweat t – shirt. These hoodies and sweat shirts were produces only in two colours
and they were black and white. The product was produced by targeting male customers. During
the time of production, it was kept in mind that 70% of its manufacturing is done according to
male body structure and 30% was done according to the female body structure. As the product
was a branded product and the manufacturing company was well known, the sales of the product
increased at high level. People thought that it looks cool. The fifth change made in the fashion
retail was digital innovation, in this the company was having a 20 social networking sites
connections by which they were connecting with their customers with the help of chat box,
messages and e-mails (Davis and et.al., 2017). It was generally using Facebook where the
customers can easily get the complete information about the companies strategies. In today's
scenario the customers are investing in the company whereas the competitive companies and
firms are still figuring out how to satisfy needs and wants of their customers. They can chat with
the worldwide stores and can match the accessories and products which they wants to purchase
from the stores. The sixth change made in the retail industry was collecting the customer data
and their feedbacks. In this the customers shares their data with the company so that if any new
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arrivals come in their stores, they could easily inform their customers. The company not only
inform the customers about the new products and services but also helps in matching and
suggesting the best cloths which will suit them and appropriate accessories and jewellery
(Pantano, 2015). The company had 40 differentiated partners, which were both online and
physical retailing system. This gain an access to the most popular products of the company
including the exclusive marketing dollars to draw shoppers away from undifferentiated retailers.
Pestle analyses
 Political factor: Nike being a fashion retailer is required to follow instruction of
government in order to run its business globally successfully. Stable government
conditions create opportunity for the retail firms as it gets more expansion opportunity.
Free trade [policies gives benefit to the firm in sustaining in new market for longer
duration.
 Economic factor: value of currency of UK is stable and it is growing well. Economic
stability aids Nike in raising revenues of the firm to great extent. If inflation is here, then
company may face problem in generating sales in market.
 Social factor: This is another element which influence retail companies, people like
fashionable products, Nike fulfil their desires. It has fashionable products for young
people which helps in gaining their attention. Sport shoes, apparel of Nike are satisfying
the consumers of Nike.
 Technological factor: Nike always spend money in research and development,
furthermore, mobile technology helps in making great connection with buyers and
influencing their mind as well. This supports in attracting consumers and raising of
business. But sometime mobile technology negatively influences the mind of customers
because negative review of others makes other consumers negative towards the brand.
 Ecological factor: Nike always work for the environment benefit; it has sustainable
products which do not really harm to atmosphere. This improves brand image of Nike
greatly.
 Legal factor: Changes in health and safety regulation create pressure of the retail firm to
modify existing operations so that firm can sustain in the market. Nike follow consumer,
employment all regulation carefully so that it can avoid future complexities.
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RELEVANT CHANGES WITHIN MICRO ENVIROENMENT
The retail industry of the Nike's has many micro environment activities which goes daily
and continue sly with the flow of time. In this the company have many micro elements such as
customers, organisation, markets, intermediators and suppliers. The retail industry deal not only
with these elements but also with the suppliers, salesmen, third parties, producers, distributors
and other employees who are engaged with the supply chain management of the company. In this
micro environment, the activities which runs under the supply chain management are counted
(Pantano, E. ed., 2015). They do not involve any feedback, reviews, needs, expectations and
other wants of the customers. They are dealing only with the interior of their retail business. In
this the recruitment for salesmen for distribution and other job profiles are done by the retailers
and not by the companies. The channel of distribution is made by the suppliers and retailers of
the retail industry. The retail industry has different identity or a firm which have tie ups with the
big and famous companies. They get product from these companies at a fixed price (which is
decided by the company) and then they distribute it keeping the profit margin (Martino, and
et.al., 2017). The company gives full description about the product and services to the vendors.
The product and their description changes with time and the vendors have to change the supply
chain because there is change in taste and preference of customers (Gao and Yang, 2016). In the
supply chain system, the work is divided among many employees and the changes occurs due to
change in price of the goods, weather, number of employees, miscellaneous activities,
transportation cost, etc. There are also many other factors such as development of the retail
sector. Many times technical problems occurs and because of that the retail business is effected.
When the retailers are not able to transfer the goods and services because of internet and network
issues, then the micro environment will get effected. Many times the demand of a particular
product or service is high and the retails don't have enough stock, then the retails stores faces
problems. The same can happen in opposite case also. Many times a product fails in the market
or the demand for that product goes down, then the retailer have to sell that product at low cost.
Hence they don't earn any profit (Gupta, 2017).
Porter’s five forces
 Competition: rivalry in the retail industry is very high, many competitors are here those
who has great command over market. Adidas etc. are some major players which
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influence the performance of retail sector. Hence it is strong force and affect the Nike to
great extent.
 Bargaining power of buyers: Customers have high power because they can influence
sales and profit of the firm if they are not happy with the performance and services of
organization.
 Suppliers power: Power of suppliers in retail sector is weak, there are many suppliers
those which are serving in this sector well. They ensure to provide right quality raw
material hence their power to influence Nike is weak.
 Substitute : they have moderate power, many substitute products are available in the
market hence consumers can move towards such items.
 New entrants threats: new companies cannot create competition in retail sector because
they have less power and have poor brand image. Hence power of new entrants is low.
SUGGEST AND DISCUSS STRATEGIES AND TACTICS THAT COULD BE USED BY
THE RETAILING INDUSTRIES.
The retailing industries especially in the fashion market can use many strategies to sale
their products to the customers. Though we already know that fashion products are always in
huge demand and it is the most attractive product which attracts people towards it. As the most
demanded product, the suppliers and the producers don't really need to develop many strategies
but as there is a lot of competition in market, the companies and the retailers have to make their
product different. So the strategies used by them are firstly to make an official website as Nike's
is already having it. The customers can visit that site and do online shopping. These websites
should have different payment options so that customers have the option to pay according to
their choices. On official website, products display must be matching their wants, taste and
preferences. This can be done by many methods and one of which is giving filter options in
which the customer filter it as per their need. Another way to comfort the customers while doing
online shopping is maintaining a record of products viewed by them website. After doing this,
the pop-up ads should be shown to the customers and reminded that they should purchase this
product (Vecchi, 2015). Another measure is by notifying the price drop alert to the customers
who has viewed the same product many times. This can be reminded by sending the e-mails,
Facebook notification, notifications on the official websites of the company etc. By doing this
the customer will visit that product again and it can be sold. Second is creating awareness about
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the mobile application and its benefits. As there are many facilities by the mobile industries like
android phones and IOS which makes the mobile shopping easy for the customers. Nowadays
the fashion industries are making huge profit because of shopping done through mobile
application. The third strategy can be applied is by joining the social world. The social world
plays a very major role in the in the marketing strategies. By visiting the social networking sites,
people get connected with the company. These social networking sites help in building good
relations with customers. This well lead in the profits to the retailing industries. If the product is
ordered from mobile application, then profit will be made to the online shopping site retailers
and companies retailers. And if the product is ordered from any social networking site, then the
retailing industries will earn the profit (Davis and et.al., 2017). At the end, the orders made by
the customers depends on delivery time and process of ordering. The fourth strategy that can be
used is by attaching an influencer to the brand. This is one the best part which fashion retailer
can implement. While distributing the products to the customers, the retailer can influence the
customer by giving them pamphlets or knowledge about the products which will best fit with
them. This can be done through “word of mouth” strategies. So these are the major strategies that
retailer's can execute in their organization.
RECOMMENDATIONS
The recommendations which can be given for this are that retailing industry should
improve the speed of delivery of good to customers. The taxes included in the product apart from
actual price should be reduced. The company should deliver the correct product to the suppliers
and they should ensure that the product is not a defective one. If by mistake the product is
defective, then it is the duty of the company to exchange the product or refund the amount given
(Simões and Sebastiani, 2017). In case if the product is being returned then new product should
be delivered to retailer's on time. One more recommendation can be given is for government
policies. For example, when demonetization was done in India, many retailers business got
effected because old currencies were not been accepted by stores or outlets. At this point of time,
the retailing industry should have taken this initiative to accept the old currencies. This will not
affect their business. By doing this, the chances of loss decrease and the customer's needs and
wants will be satisfied.
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CONCLUSION
As the mentioned in the report, the changes made in the fashion industry of UK were
helpful in bringing a good business. The changes were made on time so that it match with the
competitors strategies. The other step taken by the fashion retailing industries was making
changes in micro (internal) chain. Positions of the suppliers, retailers, salesmen etc. were
discussed in that. With changes all the work became digital in the organisation. There are many
strategies such as use of mobile apps, payments, doing marketing of substitute products etc.
became the major source of developing strategies for the retailing industry company also made
strategies which were unique and different from their competitors in the market and it helped a
lot in making a different identity of company in the market. At last the recommendations were
given to improve the services of the retail market. Many kinds of customer friendly
recommendations were provided to them.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Anum, A. and Syed, A.A., 2018. A Review of India’s evolving Apparel Retail scenario and its
relationship with Purchasing Behaviour of young Consumers. International Journal of
Innovative Knowledge Concepts. 6(4). pp.12-18.
Davis and et.al., 2017. Shopping orientation, store attributes, and apparel retail format
preference.
Gupta, A., 2017. Impact of Visual Merchandising on Consumers' Purchase Intention in
Organized Retail Industry of Ahmedabad City. Gavesana Journal of Management. 9(1/2).
pp.36-44.
Kasemsap, K., 2018. The roles of corporate marketing strategies and brand management in the
global retail industry. In Digital Marketing and Consumer Engagement. Concepts,
Methodologies, Tools, and Applications (pp. 294-325). IGI Global.
Lee, S.H. and Ha‐Brookshire, J., 2018. The effect of ethical climate and employees'
organizational citizenship behavior on US fashion retail organizations' sustainability
performance. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management. 25(5).
pp.939-947.
Maloney, B.C., 2015. The economic impact of the fashion industry. In Joint Economic
Committee, United States Congress.
Martino, and et.al., 2017. Supply chain risk assessment in the fashion retail industry: An analytic
network process approach. Int. J. Appl. Eng. Res. 12. pp.140-154.
Pantano, E. ed., 2015. Successful technological integration for competitive advantage in retail
settings. IGI Global.
Simões, C. and Sebastiani, R., 2017. The nature of the relationship between corporate identity
and corporate sustainability: Evidence from the retail industry. Business Ethics Quarterly.
27(3) pp.423-453.
Simões, C. and Sebastiani, R., 2017Gao, R. and Yang, Y., 2016. Consumers’ decision:
FashionSimões, C. and Sebastiani, R., 2017 Omni-channel retailing. Journal of
information hiding and multimedia signal processing. 7(2).pp.325-342.
Vecchi, A. ed., 2016. Handbook of research on global fashion management and merchandising.
IGI Global.
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