Retail Theory and Practice: A Case Study of Marks and Spencer

This report provides a case study of Marks and Spencer, a multinational British fashion retailing company, and discusses relevant changes within the UK fashion retail industry. It suggests and discusses strategies and tactics that could be used to improve the company's performance.

Retail Theory and
Practice

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY ......................................................................................................................................4
Relevant changes within the UK fashion retail...............................................................................4
Relevant changes within the micro environment.............................................................................5
Suggest and discuss strategies and tactics that could be used.........................................................6
RECOMENDATION............................................................................................................................8
CONCLUSIONS..................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES.....................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Retail is defined as the sales of products to the consumers. The retailer purchase the goods
and services from the manufacturer in the bulk amount either straight or indirectly from the
wholesalers. They are known as the final connection in the supply chain from the manufacturer to
the consumers. The retailers sales necessities goods that includes foods clothing, FMCG product
and many more. The retailer shops are running from the ancient time. Retails shop are identified
into various categories such as shopping centre, residential streets, indoor shopping malls and
shopping streets. The buying of clothes from the manufacturer and selling them to the customers is
called the fashion retail. There are different types of fashion retail present in all over the world
which is named as fashion departmental stores, boutique, discount stores, outlet stores and many
more. Fashion is advised as important factor for the modern world. So fashion category can be
considered as the effective choice to generate profit(Biswas and Jain, 2021).
The chosen fashion retail company in this report is Marks and Spencer. Mark and Spencer is
a multinational British fashion retailing company. It was established in the 1884 in United Kingdom
whose headquarter is situated in London, England. It is specialised in selling the fashion clothes of
child and adults and other than that it also sales home products and the food products. It is a public
limited company which is listed on the London stocks exchange. The company has more than 1884
retailing store all over the world in which 1037 retailing stores are present in the United Kingdom.
The brands that falls under this company are Per Una, Autograph, Rosie, Blue Harbour, M&S
collection, boutique and many more. The revenue generated by the firm is approx 9,155.7 million
Euro and the net income if the company is 201.2 million. The number of employees work in the
company is more than 78000.mark and Spencer also uses e-commerce website in order to sale their
fashion products. The company also maintain there online fashion clothing website where
consumers can directly purchase the clothes sitting at the home. Mark and Spencer is identified as
the luxury brand because of providing the best quality of clothes and on trend pattern and elegant

detailing clothes to the customers(Boateng and Sarpong, 2019). The brand manufacture those
fashion clothes who are in trading in context with the children and the adult clothings. Some of the
biggest competitors of the this company is macy's, next, debenhams and many more. The the
company manufacture clothes different from their competitors so as to get competitive advantages
in the market of all over the world.
MAIN BODY
Relevant changes within the UK fashion retail.
The relevant macro environmental changes in the Marks and Spencer which is multinational
fashion retailing company in the United kingdom can be identified through the tool PESTLE
analysis which is explained below.
PEST analysis on Marks and spacers
It is defined as the tool that is use to identify the macro factors that influences the
organization either in a positive way or in the negative manner. The tool is used to gain a clear
image of the company environment. PEST analysis helps the company in establishing the external
factors that can create an impact decision took within the organization. The organization can plan
accordingly if this tool is took in the considerations. The pestle stand for the political, economical,
social, technological, legal and environmental. These are treated a the macro factor that create
impact on the firm. the tool helps the marks and Spencer in identifying the different macro factors
that influence it and can help in analyse the macro environment of the business(Contributor, 2020).
The vast explanation of the factors of Pest in context with the Marks and Spencer are given as-
Political factors- These are those factors which have link with the government and their polices.
These policies may be legislative or economic policies. Political environment can affect the
businesses of marks and Spencer through various factor that includes-
 free trade- One of the maximum superb elements of contemporary politics is the loose
exchange that has been mounted among a mess of countries. Marks and Spencer, which
mainly operates in the United Kingdom, however additionally has places abroad, blessings
significantly from this. Free trade lets in M&S to import foreign goods and services on the
market of their shops at inexpensive fees, at the same time as retaining a wholesome
earnings margin. While free trad has been round for pretty a few time, particularly for
European brands, the United Kingdom’s choice to depart the European Union would
possibly have an effect on this.
 Brexit- Leaving the union of Europe that is decided by united kingdom is considered as the
political factor that create a vast impact on the operations of Marks and Spencer. It is not

specific that united kingdom follow the Brexit in relation to the tariffs and regulation of
trade. if the UK leave the the European union that that might result in the loss of free trade
policies with the supplier of Europe that result in the higher price of goods(Costa, 2018).
Economical factors- Some of the economic factors that move an impact on M&S are-
 local market- the The majority of the UK population is more likely to purchase their
favourite local retail outlet than the premium products of Marks and Spencer's. Discount
stores are a direct threat to Marks and Spencer's target market and the brand has been unable
to devise a means to combat this threat.
 Competitors- prices are always considered as the big factor in the retail industry. Due to the
increasing number of budget store in the UK, the competitors become high. The competitors
provide the fashion products below the price as compare to the marks and Spencer.
Social factors- the social factors that affect the organization are given as-
 Non trendy- As per the current situation going all around the world, there are always
something new innovation has been take place in the particular fashion industries in context
with M&S. They should always follow the trend according to the society culture.
 Different culture peoples- M&S makes those types of clothes that the new generation is
demanding. But some of the demographic place has diversified culture. So as it can turn
into impact on the firm(Hanaysha, 2018).
Technological factors- given below are some technological factors that influence the M&S.
 Online shopping- it is considered as the biggest trend in the modern world. M&S already
runs its business online where he offers fashion clothing goods and others. It uses the
traditional approaches to online shopping with there clothing goods delivering it directly to
consumers.
 Self checkout- the mark and Spencer has already in the process of implementation of
service checkout system through self is a numbers crosswise its stores as it is considered as
the one of the most Important modern day trend.
Relevant changes within the micro environment
In order to cover the competitive landscape of the company, porters five forces analysis can
be took in the consideration as tool that helps in identifying the roots of the competitions in
business. If the firm understand the forces that affect the organisation then the company can able to
apply strategy, increase the profitability and can get the competitive advantages in the
market(Kasemsap, 2018). These five forces are given as-

 Threat of substitute- the fashion and food are the sector in which M&S operates. Both are
considered as the basic need for human to sustain. Hence there are no substitute is available
for this. However, products of other company can be offered as the substitution product. The
mark and Spencer have develop the efficiency brand equity. It is not difficult for the
companies to copy the products and sell the in the cheaper prices. Still, The brand equity
helps in selling the products.
 Bargaining power of customers- customers purchases the product of M&S. The retailing
sector considered as the most competitive sector by nature. And the customers are price
sensitive. There are variety of competitors that offers the product to the same customers at
lower prices. There are many alternative choices available for the individuals. At last, the
consumer have various alternatives available with the minimal cost, which states that the
bargaining power of customer is higher(Wiranata and Rahman, 2018).
 Competitive rivalry- there are numerous competitors present in the fashion retail sector.
And the players as well as customers are price sensitive. Marks and Spencer has a high
quality brand position in the market that offers value for money products. Marks and
Spencer are getting benefits from personalization as a loyalty program. Because of its brand
recognition, the competitive rivalry is high.
 Bargaining power of suppliers-just like the customers ,the supplier also play an important
role. Trueness and satisfaction of the suppliers also switches . If the firm has many suppliers
options than it can switch for the cheap alternative. Mark and Spencer have multiple
suppliers all over the world. .the competitive positions affected by the bargaining power of
the suppliers. It can be concluded that the bargaining power of the suppliers is
comparatively low for the M&S(Mercado and Henao, 2020).
 Threats of new entrants- Marks and Spencer have good brand loyalty which is the case
with well-established players in this industry. This market is mature and means that the
current players are trying to keep their current market share and not lose it. Because of the
brand loyalty, the M&S has sustained more than 138 years in the market. Absence of
knowledge regards the market cab be a barrier for the new entry. Comparing all this, it has
been considered that the threat of new entrants is high for M&S.
Suggest and discuss strategies and tactics that could be used
Marks and Spencer can perform different changes when it is related to the macro
environment such as technological changes, social changes and many more. Technological changes
such as self checkout system in which there is no need of traditional staff for the checkout, the
customer can self check out through innovated different checkout machines. The other

technological changes that can helps the company is upgrading the online website for providing
better experience to the customers. The online website is quite effective in gaining the large number
of customers base. The people prefer online shopping because it saves the time. A good website of
marks and Spencer with full of feature like sorting, filtering and many more can create a changes.
This key relevant change can make the company strong presence amongst the current generation.
And the other key relevant change is social changes(Pratap, 2021). The purchasing power of the
consumer is influenced by the cultural, social, personal and physiological changes in the market.
The ans-off model can be used in order to explain the social changes that company need to execute.
The Ansoff matrix model helps in achieving the profitability growth in the market. The model is
developed by Igor Ansoff that represent the market penetration, product development, market
development and diversification.
 Market penetration- it focuses on promoting the existing product in the existing market in
order to increase the market value. M&S can penetrate the market by different types of
social promotional campaigns and sales promotions.
 Product development- it means the introduction of new product in the existing market. This
can be relatable to the social changes that the company want to acquire in it. M&S introduce
different types of classical fashion clothing according to the society in the existing market.
 Market development- it involves selling of existing product in new market. M&S can sell
there products that suits to different culture in the different new market in order to get the
social appearance and hence it can increase the sale of the company.
 Diversification- it stand for introduction of new product in the new market. M&S
manufacture those types of clothes that is meant for the particular society or the
market(Novikov, 2018).
The given are the two micro environmental changes and the strategy or the tactics used to evolve
this.
 Substitution- the term substitution means using the other product that have same use as
existing product. Marks and Spencer operates in both fashion clothing as well as food sector.
And the availability of substitution product of both is not possible. So marks and Spencer
have to make effort in manufacturing the products which not available in the market. Mark
and Spencer should follow the fashion trend which is going in the market in order to get the
competitive advantages. The marketing mix can be used as the strategy in order to get the
competitive advantages in the market base.
 Use of green material- the mark and Spencer can use the environmental friendly raw
material in order to manufacture the fashion clothes. The M&S should use natural fabrics
such as organic cotton and linen and use those material which is made from sustainable

wood pulp. These are most suitable as compared to the man made fabrics such as polyesters
and nylon which are made from the by product of petroleum and takes many year to
biodegrade(Pantano and Vannucci, 2019).
RECOMENDATION
It has been recommended that marks and Spencer should apply some changes in their products. The
foremost recommendation to the company is to get the basic fashion rights and go for the style
rather than fashion because fashion can come and goes but the true style remains forever. The
product of marks and Spencer are high priced, the company must focus on quality rather than the
prices. And the last recommendation to the company is using the natural fabrics in manufacturing
the clothes rather than using the polyesters and nylon as a fabric. The marks and Spencer have to
enhance the supply chain system. The company must follow the perception of the consumers like
what consumer wants and which type of product can satisfy him. The company is having good
reputation and provide good quality products but the competition is much higher. So it is
recommended that the company have to put efforts in managing all the stores in order to get the
competitive advantages.
CONCLUSIONS
From the above report, it has been concluded that the fashion of clothing is spread in all over the
world and retail stores are those store where the retailers purchase the products from the
manufacture or wholesalers and sell it to the consumers. It has also been concluded that Marks and
Spencer is a multinational retailing company which is famous for its high quality products and
count in the luxury brands. It has also been concluded that different factors are involve that
influence the company such as micro environmental factors and macro environmental factors and
different strategies are explained such as Ansoff matrix strategy that helps in achieving the
profitability in the market and build the competitive advantages.

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