Strategies for Primark's Future Success in Retail Sector

This report provides recommendations for Primark to compete successfully in the future, including website redesign, market exploration, hiring skilled designers, diversification, loyalty cards, and increased marketing practices. It also includes a strategic audit and analysis of the company's financial and business performance.

Strategy and Strategists BUSN 09044

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Executive summary..........................................................................................................................1
Strategic audit..................................................................................................................................1
Analysis............................................................................................................................................2
Critical reflection.............................................................................................................................5
REFERENCE...................................................................................................................................7

Executive summary
Primark is the multinational company which operates under retail sector. It is the fashion
company which deals in clothing, footwear, accessories, perfumes etc. the recommendations
which are provided to the organisation so that they can compete successfully in the future are as
follows:
Primark is not in the favour of online selling because according to them selling online is not an
easy task and moreover to deal with replacement is another level challenging thing (Gaspar and
et.al., 2018). Company says that being in the retail sector they sell products on low margin and
they are not into the capacity to deal the online losses. So in order to deal with the problem
company should have redesign their website with high tech online shopping portal feature.
Another recommendation is that business should have explore new markets. As there are lot of
market which are untouched by the company and exploring them can be useful for company for
the profitability purpose. Finding out skilled and talented designer and company should have
also go for diversification. Loyalty cards is also the best strategy to attract customers towards
the company (Cozzolino and Moroni, 2021). Other strategy can be increase their marketing
practice to make more customers aware for the product. Opening production factories in
developing countries will resulted in low cost products.
Strategic audit
The financial and business performance of the company is not as what it is expected. As the sale
of Primark has not reached as per the expectations and company has to face downfall. In this
latest quarter only company has faced reducing sales because of the quick spreading of the delta
variant of covid 19. shares of the company has also went down and reaches to 3.4% at 0859
GMT. The main market of the company from which they were making profits which are Spain
and Britain are badly performing. As the tourism of Spain has stopped due to pandemic and
because of the restrictions on foreign tourists, company has also witness drop in their sales and
revenue (Cho, Afflerbach and Han, 2018). In the financial year 2019-2020, company have
closed there many stores due to the lockdown which has reduced their sales.
At the time of first lockdown there revenue has drastically fell down. Although it can be said
that in the year 2019 company was making good profit because they sell affordable good quality
of clothes. But after the government have announced covid 19 in the year 2020, company has to
face drastic reduction in the sales because they sell clothes, footwear etc and these are not the
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basic thing which is required for survival. At the time of lockdown consumers are more concern
about grocery because it is required for survival so they are willingly to spend on grocery but not
on clothes. Clothing have become secondary for the company (Gustafsson, Hermelin and Smas,
2019). Pre pandemic company was making good profit but post pandemic company has hit
strongly because every fashions sector was facing the loss situation.
Although company have received the shortfall in the sales but still they have raised their profits
in the financial year 2021 by showing high profit margin because they have reduced the number
of workers which they have employed and have also reduced the store operating costs.
Analysis
Redesigning the website is important because website is the online identity for the company. So
website should be attractive which promotes goods and services of the company. Website should
be made or designed in such a manner which can convert prospects into the potential leads just
like salesmen does for the company (Würsch and Simmons, 2019). As website get bugs and
there are many problems which arises with it, so it is required to timely fix them. Customers will
purchase items from website only if it will look attractive to them so posting attractive images
can be done if website have advanced features. In the process of redesigning company can add
advanced features which will provide good experience to the customers. Website redesigning is
connected with the business goals. If company have make some changes in their brand than also
little makeover is required on the website. For Primark redesigning website is essential because
they does not have so many customers with shop with them online. So professional website will
be helpful in getting more customers.
Exploring market means getting opportunities to reach those areas which company does not
have reached yet (Gadde and Wynstra, 2017). Expansion is necessary if company wanted to
grow their market share. In order to get growth it is required that company can increase their
customers base and for increasing the customer base it is required that they reaches to cross
borders. Exploring overseas will give Primark many opportunities which will help them to attain
success. Adopting market development strategy can help company in achieving higher results.
Primark will also get advanced business knowledge if they will go oversea to expand their
business. Although Primark is trading at global market but still there are many countries where it
is not reached so company can expand in those countries. Company can also learn about
different technologies and techniques which they were not using (Evangelista, Colicchia and
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Creazza, 2017). Learning about technologies can help them in serving customers better and can
also increase operational efficiencies. Although expansion is not the new strategy but this
strategy works well when it comes to company's growth. When company enters new market than
it will get idea about the culture of that country which can also influence company and drive
them towards innovation.
Another strategy which will help company in achieving success is hiring talented and skilled
designers (Qualities of Highly Effective Designers., 2019). As Primark is the clothing company,
so they need designers which have innovative ideas so that they can attract more customers with
their innovative product range. Good designing skills are important because it makes the flow of
business smooth. Diverse skill set in the employees are required if company is planning for
higher profits. This is the product development strategy because appointing talented designer
will help company in getting innovative designs and innovation is what customers are required.
Effective designers are properly organised. Being organised means they manage their time
properly and try to finish their task before deadline. Primark should have also make sure that
while hiring designer along with skills they should have also check their level of communication
because those designers can create master piece which have good communication skills. As
handling designing team is not easy it requires high level coordination and collaboration and for
that effective communication is must. Talented workforce covert risks into opportunities smartly
(Hlatshwayo, 2019). With confidence and by believing in themselves employee can help
company in achieving their objectives. Those designers are considered as talented which are
attentive enough and can effectively solve designing issues.
Another strategy is diversification. It is the most difficult thing but this can help company in
minimizing the risk. Primark can opt for opening cafe or restaurant because company is already
in fashion sector which changes rapidly so that is why diversification is required so that if
company make loss in one sector than they can earn from other sector. cafe is suggested because
after covid one thing which is reached to growth is food industry. This is the industry which
rarely face losses because food is the basic requirement of an individual. Nowadays it has
becomes trend that people are going restaurant or cafe for celebrating birthdays or anniversaries
so this gives opportunity to the company to earn more (Froio and Castelli Gattinara, 2017).
Although diversification is risky because can hardly predict its success or failure. If company
will fail than they will lost the money which they have invested but if diversification helps them
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to achieve success than they can able to increase their product or service portfolio. Introducing
new product in the new market is the concept of diversification. Innovative product will provide
opportunity to the company to earn more revenue and new market will also help company in
getting new customer base. So diversification can provide company dual advantage.
Introducing loyalty cards, this is the facility which Primark can provide to their customers in
order to attract them towards company. This card facility can help company in retaining their
customers ad improving sales. Loyalty card comes with benefits which can be discount on sales
etc. such schemes attract customers to shop more and if they will shop more than sales of the
company will automatically get increased (Hlatshwayo, 2018). This can be helpful in making the
relationship of customers and company strong. Loyalty cards can be also called as perks which
are given by the company to their customers in order to provide value to the customers. There
are uncounted benefits of loyalty cards. For availing the rewards of loyalty card, customer will
purchase more from the company and that will increase sales of the company. By providing this
card to the customers, company is giving value and respect to them. This is the methods of
showing care to the customers. When customers are asked that why they are happy with loyalty
cards than they have said that they feel good when they received rewards by the company and
this has also improve the opinion of the customers towards the company.
Increase their marketing practice, it is wisely said that improving marketing will help company
in attaining great profit because with the help of marketing, company can promote their product
or create product awareness in the marketplace. Traditionally marketing the products like using
television or newspaper will not going to help company but if company uses modern marketing
method than that can definitely boosts the company's profitability (Grainger-Brown and
Malekpour, 2019). Social media can be use by the company for product promotion. Social media
platforms are easy to use and also is the cheap way to do the promotion of the product. Users on
social media is increasing everyday which will help company in targeting potential customers
easily. Social media also have various new features like going live. This feature is connecting
business and customers and also make their relationship strong. On live option customer can
also share their feedbacks for the products and also get immediate solutions for the query if they
are having any.
So social media marketing will help company in doing more marketing at cheap rates and also
target large audience easily. Primark can also go with email marketing option. Sending
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personalised email to everyone which can be related to the discounts or coupons or any deal
which is offering by the organisation (Jukka and Pellinen, 2020). When customer will get
awareness of the product they will make plan for purchasing it. Email can be also circulate
regarding new product which is launched by the company in the market. Basically email
marketing is the method to create awareness so that sales of the company can be increased.
Primark can also open their production factories in the developing countries like India because
in the developing countries company will get cheap labours which will reduce the costs of the
product. When company will sell less reasonable products in the market than that will
automatically increase their sales.
Critical reflection
While completing this management report there are lot of things which I have learnt. I have
research about various companies which have experience losses in the last 3 years and also the
reasons why they get losses (Skačkauskienė and Smirnova, 2021). The main reason which I have
found is coronavirus due to which business has to face loss. I have develop research skills
because before starting the report I need to evaluate company which has not performed well in
last three years. Than research skill only has helped me in finding out information about the
company and their financial and business performance. After getting relevant information only I
have suggested recommendations to the company. I came to know that why making effective
strategy is important and how it helps company in achieving growth in the sector in which they
are operating. Although while completing this management report I have faced various problems
but after understanding things clearly I can say that I have build problem solving skills.
This skill will help me in the future in my professional as well as in my personal life because in
every stage of life an individual has to deal with problems which can be big or small. So for that
problem solving skills are required (Nguyen and et.al., 2019). I have also develop understanding
that how financial performance can impact business decisions or strategies. Financial
performance will help company is achieving expected financial position in the market. Earlier I
was not having knowledge that doing effective can made noticeable differences in company's
success. But after completing this report I have got understanding that doing proper marketing
can definitely help company in creating awareness and also increases sales of the company.
Diversification also helps company to great extend. After covid 19 Primark has faced major
losses so in order to recover those losses company can choose the option of diversification. I
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also get knowledge about various types of diversification. There are product diversification and
market diversification. Both can provide opportunities to the company if utilizes wisely. Earlier I
have underestimated the value of designers but now I have understood that for clothing business,
designers are the most important asset for any company (Lafaye and Brochard, 2021). Getting
skilled and talented designers are not easy. So that is why company should have source them
carefully.
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Qualities of Highly Effective Designers., 2019. [Online]. Available through:
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