Impact of Brexit on UK Retail Industry

This dissertation aims to identify the impact of Brexit on the overall growth of the UK retail industry, with a focus on the case of Marks & Spencer. It includes an introduction to the topic, background information on the industry and company, research rationale, research aim and objectives, and research questions. The literature review explores the concept of Brexit and its impact on sales within the retail industry. The research methodology, research findings, and conclusion and recommendations are also included.

Business Research
Project
(Impact upon the UK economy after Brexit)
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Abstract
Main purpose of doing this research is to identify the impact of Brexit on UK economic. In
this retail industry is a selected part of UK economy that have impacted due to Brexit. It is a
main aim of this dissertation and in order to achieve this aim, different number of activities were
completed by researcher. Literature review was done with the use of secondary sources which
are books, articles, magazines, publication research etc. Research methodology is another
activity that was completed by using number of methods such as secondary research, inductive
approach, exploratory research design, systematic literature review, interpretivisim research
philosophy etc. These are main methods that included in research methodology that resulted in
getting of valid outcomes for current study. Research and findings are another activity that was
completed with the use of collected secondary data. This helped in identification of accurate
outcomes and results of the study. Conclusion and recommendation is last part of the study that
was completed by presenting entire information of dissertation briefly.
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Contents
Abstract............................................................................................................................................2
Chapter 1: Introduction....................................................................................................................4
Overview of the Topic.................................................................................................................4
Background of the industry and company...................................................................................4
Research Rationale......................................................................................................................5
Importance of the chosen topic....................................................................................................5
Research Aim:.............................................................................................................................5
Research Objectives:...................................................................................................................5
Research Question.......................................................................................................................5
Sub-questions of research............................................................................................................5
Overview of the structure of dissertation.....................................................................................6
Chapter 2: Literature review............................................................................................................8
Explain about the concept behind the term Brexit?.....................................................................8
How Brexit impact on sales within UK retail industry?..............................................................9
What are the impacts does Brexit upon overall growth of UK retail industry?........................10
What are the implications of Brexit on the UK retail industry?................................................11
Chapter 3: Research Methodology.................................................................................................13
Chapter 4: Research and findings..................................................................................................16
Theme 1:-Explain about the concept behind the term Brexit?..................................................16
Theme 2:- How Brexit impact on sales within UK retail industry?..........................................17
Theme 3:-What are the impacts does Brexit upon overall growth of UK retail industry?........19
Theme 4:-What are the implications of Brexit on the UK retail industry?...............................20
Chapter 5: Conclusion and Recommendation................................................................................22
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................25
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Chapter 1: Introduction
Overview of the Topic
Brexit is the withdrawal of the UK from the European Union. It is an acronym for the word
“British exit”, similar to “Grexit” that was applied for numerous years to introduce to the
chances of Greece leaving the Eurozone. Brexit introduces to the chance of Britain moving back
from the European Union. The nation will hold a referendum on its European Union membership
on June 23. Brexit has direct impact over growth of UK retail industry. Britain’s retailers
suffered from decrease sales last month as mounting uncertainty over the United Kingdom
departure from the European Union led to consumers becoming more wary of making bigger
purchases before Brexit (Aguzzoni and et. al., 2016).
Brexit is recognized to be a British live from the EU that is one of the main decision
made by United Kingdom which bewildered the UK economy very poorly. This has a large
effect on the economic and social factors or attributes of the nation. It also influenced the
industries or business because the income level of people get impacted which in turn impacted
their buying behaviours or decisions that leads to a reduced sales and profitability of an
organisation. Apart from this, Brexit has also impacted the trade practices and operations of
business, so that they get performed and do their business operations or functions with other
nations. As most of its trade flow is being carry out with European Union country in excess of a
free trade agreement amongst them because of its membership with European Union (Alfano,
Dustmann and Frattini, 2016).
Background of the industry and company
This report is based on UK retail industry that is largest private sector employer with
around million workers. The retail industry is fundamental to the economy of United Kingdom
because in year 2018 they generated £381billion worth of retail sales (Anderson and Wittwer,
2017). Retail is the sale of goods and service to the public or society for use of consumption,
before for resale. It encompasses department stores, shops, market stalls, supermarkets, internet
retailers and door-door-to salespeople. Marks & Spencer is a chosen retailer for this dissertation
that was founded in year 1884 by the Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer and headquartered in
London, England, UK. Company mainly specialise in selling of clothing, food products and
home products.
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Research Rationale
Main rationale behind selecting the topic or research is to identify the impact of Brexit on
overall growth of retail industry that is a part of UK economy. There are other different reasons
behind selecting this topic as with the help of this, researcher can easily develop their knowledge
about the Brexit and its impact on sales of UK retain industry. They also know about its impact
on growth of Retail sector and also analysing implications that will be beneficial in overcome of
Brexit impact over them. Therefore in order to carry out research about the Brexit’ impact on UK
economy, this dissertation is being performed.
Importance of the chosen topic
This topic holds significance because it will assist in identifying the areas that being
impacted by reason of Brexit which take changes to the UK business and also trade it perform
(Banerjee and Mio, 2018). Additionally, this will also assist in signifying industrialist regarding
what are some bad effects that an enterprise faced or may face as a result of Brexit so that
suitable strategies or practices can be implemented in advance to address with such type of
changes in effective manner. Along with this, this research will also helps UK business in
identifying the advantages that they can gain after this Brexit with purpose to enhancing their
business growth and performance easily.
Research Aim:
To identify the impact of Brexit on overall growth of UK retail industry. A study on
Marks & Spencer.
Research Objectives:
 To determine the concept behind the term Brexit.
 To identify the Brexit impact on sales within UK retail industry.
 To identify the Brexit impact upon overall growth of UK retail industry
 To determine the implications of Brexit on the UK retail industry.
Research Question
 What are the impacts of Brexit on overall growth of UK retail industry?
Sub-questions of research
 Explain about the concept behind the term Brexit?
 How Brexit impact on sales within UK retail industry?
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 What are the impacts does Brexit upon overall growth of UK retail industry?
 What are the implications of Brexit on the UK retail industry?
Overview of the structure of dissertation
This is an important and main part of the dissertation that helps reader in identification of
structure of report. There are number of chapters that have been included for completing full
dissertation in systematic manner. All these chapters apart from their will be explained as below
in clear manner:
Chapter 1: Introduction: This is a first part of the dissertation that includes entire detail
about the report such as research aim, research objectives, research questions, overview of the
topic, rational of the research etc. All these are main aspects of introduction chapter that will be
essential for reader in determination of this chapter. Main purpose of this chapter is successfully
development of research aim and objectives because other next chapters are based on them
(Bloom and et. al., 2019).
Chapter 2: Literature review: This is second chapter that includes secondary data gathered
from the different number of sources such as magazines, books, journals, articles, publication
study etc. Main purpose of literature review is to find out research gaps in previous studies. By
analysing this, researcher can easily fulfil this gap by following research questions.
Chapter 3: Research methodology: This is another and main chapter that includes number
of methods, tools and techniques of data collection and data analysis. These methods are;
research philosophy, research approach, research strategy, research design, research ethics,
secondary sources of data collection etc. All these are useful methods that will be applied for
carrying out this investigation in systematic manner. Main purpose of research methodology is to
collect data from the different methods and gain valid outcomes for research.
Chapter 4: Research and findings: This chapter is correlated with the literature review
because in this chapter, researcher find out outcomes that are based on secondary data gathered
for literature review. Main purpose of this chapter is to find out and discussed secondary data
effectively and systematically.
Chapter 5: Conclusion: This is another chapter that is important and necessary for doing
any type of dissertation. This chapter includes entire information of dissertation briefly that helps
reader in identification of outputs and aim of the research is achieved or not.
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Chapter 6: Recommendations: This is a last part of the study that includes some
recommendation about the topic. If there is lack of data about the topic and its impact on
business or industry, there is requirement of providing some recommendations about how to deal
with present issues and how to grow business successfully within an industry (Bolet and et. al.,
2018).
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Chapter 2: Literature review
Literature review introduces to the process in which researcher can collect secondary data
from the number of useful sources such as articles, magazines, publication research, journals,
books etc. These are known as secondary sources that will be useful for doing present study in
systematic manner. This section helps researcher to refine research questions and supports to
identify current issues, trends and debates in selected topic. Along with this, main purpose of this
section is to identify consequences and gaps in previous investigation. Main gap of present study
is the impacts of Brexit on overall growth of UK retail industry (Chang, 2018). In previous
research, there is information about the impact of Brexit on business but there is lack of data
about its impact on overall growth of retail industry of United Kingdom. In order to fulfil this
gap, researcher becomes able to use sub-questions of research because this will help them in
fulfilment of research gap and also accomplishment of research aim and objectives easily.
Therefore, research questions of current dissertation will be explained as below in systematic
manner and with purpose to fulfil research gaps. These questions are:
Explain about the concept behind the term Brexit?
According to the Che, Wang and Jiang, (2016), BREXIT is acknowledged as the
withdrawal of United Kingdom from EU. The referendum in respect to similar was completed in
June 2016 where 52 percent give the vote in support of withdrawal and 48 percent was voted tore
remain in European Union. The formal declaration of countries withdrawal as of the government
side was ended in March 2017. It is the point in time when process of BREXIT started. It took
lengthy time as of the stalemate in British parliament. The date when United Kingdom finally
leaves European Union was on 31 January 2020. The features in which United Kingdom still
have incorporation with European Union includes European Union law, EU customs union as
well as single market throughout the changeover but no longer the division of the European
Union political bodies and institutions. This is the huge transaction for the reason that for Britain
since Europe is the most significant source to create a centre of attention for enticing foreign
investment.
On the other hand Bowe (2019), UK exits the EU on midnight by 31 January 2020 and
from 1st of February it come into transition time and in this time duration the trading connection
will carry on to go behind the European Union rules and regulations. The United Kingdom is a
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best nation for new venture as well as expansion of business operations but this likely going to
change because of a number of unidentified impacts that Brexit can take. The United Kingdom
export industry will obtain the major hit at the same time as Brexit bring up higher cost and also
tariffs, which can be extra, broaden seen crossways supply chain. It is so for the reason that as of
the statistical data of 2015 it has been determined that United Kingdom exported approximately
£133 billion merchandise to the rest of European Union that remains about equivalent to the half
of worldwide merchandise exports. It means that United Kingdom will knowledge a bigger
failure of just about £4.5 billion a year but it exist European Union with no negotiating an
innovative trade agreement with European Union.
How Brexit impact on sales within UK retail industry?
According to the Partington (2019), England's retailers experienced more vulnerable deals a
month ago as mounting vulnerability over the UK's take-off from the EU prompted buyers
getting progressively careful about creation greater buys before Brexit. In the most recent proof
that energy in the economy is blurring during the prior week’s Britain is booked to officially
leave the EU, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and Accounting firm KPMG said that all out
deals development dropped to 0.5% in the year to February, down from 1.6% per year sooner.
Customers were increasingly hesitant to spend on optional products, regardless of an
improving standpoint for family unit funds from blurring levels of inflation and the most
grounded wage increments for British specialists in 10 years. Barring food shopping, high road
deals dropped by 0.4% over the three months to February, in a more regrettable result than
normal over the previous year, while development in online deals of non-food things additionally
slowed back (Dhingra, Ottaviano, Sampson and Van Reenen, 2016).
Separate information assembled by Barclaycard, which forms half of the nation's credit and
debit card exchanges, additionally recommended on Tuesday that Brexit has abridged optional
deals on the high road. Barclaycard said spending on attire had dropped by 5.2% and in retail
establishments by 5.5%. Lodging spending shrunk by 3.8% and bars and eateries – ordinarily
more grounded parts over late months – detailed more slow deals development of 7.4% and 3.9%
individually (Fassam, 2019).
Families have additionally battled with powerless compensation development and advantage
cuts under the administration's earnestness strategies over the previous decade. Normal wages
after expansion despite everything stay beneath the high point recorded before the money related
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emergency, crumbling families' spending influence. A few retailers experience run into difficulty
in the midst of the troublesome exchanging conditions, including high road stalwarts, for
example, Marks and Spencer and Debenhams, which have reacted by declaring work cuts and
store terminations. Financial development has verged on slowing down point as of late. New
figures due on Tuesday are relied upon to uncover that the administrations division – which
incorporates retail and records for 80% of the economy – was probably going to have fallen into
withdrawal a month ago (Fetzer, 2019).
What are the impacts does Brexit upon overall growth of UK retail industry?
As per the view presented by Lowe, Adkins and Laird (2020), there are number of issues
of negative impacts does Brexit causes for UK retail industry. Each and every business faces
various numbers of issues when they come to the United Kingdom go away from the European
Union. Some major challenges have been explained as below:
Supply chain will be disrupted and may have to renegotiate supplier contracts: Brexit
take to provide number of risk or issue by maximising the business operations cost and also
delays in supply chain. This is a major issue for retail industry because it impacts on business
operations by increasing the amount of material that will be needed for manufacturing,
processing as well as supplying products or services to the customers and in marketplace. These
all are highly impacted by reason of increased inflation rate. For example: Some 59 percent
expected the supply chain management cost to remain the same otherwise maximise to some
extent, at the same time as 15 percent thought Brexit would bring down costs (Fichtner, Große
Steffen, Hachula and Schlaak, 2016).
Economic challenge: Due to Brexit, each part of the UK economy and retail sectors are
being impacted because each financial transaction and trade of United Kingdom is related with
the European Union. For that reason, it externally impacted the UK economy that turn to effect
on overall growth of retail industry by reducing the number of customers due to poor income
status of people (Geng, 2020).
Customs Traffic: This is another challenge faced by UK retail industry due to the Brexit. It
is vital for exporters and importers to know the possible customs implications for their company.
For example: with the go away of European Union, the practices of cross border are also
impacted because its standards and laws are more impacted. Therefore, it is another challenge of
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retail industry to understand laws and customs of both nations which is more difficult in running
of business successfully (Gudgin, Coutts, Gibson and Buchanan, 2018).
Therefore, Brexit has negative impact on overall growth of UK retail industry by
increasing cost of business operation, reducing number of customers etc. These are main risks
that retail industry of United Kingdom are facing currently which have a biggest impact over
their business operations and functions.
What are the implications of Brexit on the UK retail industry?
According to the Cooper (2018), with the terms of the United Kingdom leave from the
European Union still being negotiated as well as the present uncertainty around whether or not,
an organisation will exist with or without a trading of their goods and service, there continues to
be a poor clarity regarding the implications of Brexit over the retail industry. Retailer across the
United Kingdom are already trading with the consequences of the vote to exist with the
depreciation within sterling in the repercussion of the vote and also the effect over confidence
level of consumer that comes with economic and political uncertainty. It is important that UK
retailers get ready for the post-Brexit globe and the better implications on their business
functions and operations instantaneously. There are several areas that must be focus by retail
industry which has been explained as below:
Access to Labour: The retail industry of United Kingdom employs approximately 300,000
European Union nationals in the UK by means of large numbers within the logistics as well as
completion side of the manufacturing. Several of these employees will hang about post Brexit,
other than they are probably to see a smaller amount of EU workers within the United Kingdom
in the future, by those that do come up to work at this point requiring work authorize. With
United Kingdom employment being in close proximity to trace high, rivalry among industry for
Labour will possibly effect on earnings inflation (Hepburn and Teytelboym, 2017). This comes
at a point in time when traditional 'bricks and mortar' stores are already facing the outcomes of
many headwinds such as the fall in sterling, extended opposition from online stores and high gas
fees impacting logistics costs. Retailers will consequently find they want to awareness on
attracting and retaining key personnel and one way may be to inspire EU personnel to use for
paintings permits now, in the event that they have already been resident within the UK for five
years.
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Products: UK retailer must offering their products or service to the both nations such as UK
and EU post Brexit will potentially have to comply with two units of product requirements and
set of laws. At the same time as that is not likely to be a big difficulty without delay following
the leave from the EU, through the years it appears inevitable that there can be differing
standards and regulations across the EU and the UK markets main to additional compliance fees
for brand new products. The lack of United Kingdom influence in putting requirements inside
the European Union after the United Kingdom exists is also probable to have an effect on
retailers (James and Quaglia, 2019).
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Chapter 3: Research Methodology
Research methodology refers to the vital and fundamental part of dissertation because
this will helps in data collection and data analysis with the use of accurate methods, approaches
and techniques. Research methodology introduces to a systematic investigation, defining a
problem, formulating a research questions and, collecting and analysing data. For conducting this
research, Secondary research has been used because it will help in collecting of in-depth and
detailed information of about the impact of Brexit over growth of retail industry. Secondary
sources of data collection will be used by researcher for doing this investigation. For collecting
secondary information about the impact of Brexit, different number of sources will be used
which are books, journals, articles etc. These sources will be used for literature review because
this section of dissertation helps researcher in gathering of secondary data .Main objective of
research methodology is to gain familiarity or attain a new insight towards a certain topic (Khan,
2017). This section includes number of research methods that has been described as below:
Research philosophy: It introduces to the set of beliefs that helps researcher in collecting,
analysing and interpreting of information systematically and effectively. It is mainly studied in
type of epistemology and ontology. Ontology is a type of philosophy that means collecting data
in form of authenticate and valid. Epistemology is another form of philosophy that introduces to
the valid information required within a study and how a person can obtain it. Along with this,
this secretion mainly has two types which are known as positivism and interpretivisim. These are
two types of research philosophy that has been used for gathering and interpreting of information
effectively. Positivism philosophy assumes that data is independent of the specific area of study
being studied, while interpretivisim philosophy claims that an individual observer their own
understanding as well as perception of actuality (Koehl, 2016). For carrying out present study on
Brexit and its impact on UK economy, interpretivisim philosophy has been followed as it is more
suitable and valuable for collecting and evaluating secondary data without any difficulty. Main
rational or research behind interpretivisim form of philosophy is it basically emphasis on
secondary data and also assist investigator in gaining valid and appropriate outcomes of
dissertation effectively and efficiently.
Research design: This is an essential and significant section of research methodology
that basically has three type of research design such as experimental, exploratory and descriptive.
All these are effective types of research design that helps investigator in identification of
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research issues. For doing current dissertation over a topic of Brexit impact on UK retail
industry, exploratory design of study has been applied because it provides insights into the
common nature of a research issue. Main rational behind selecting exploratory research design is
it assist researcher in analysing of secondary information collected for literature review in
systematic and effective manner (Nash, 2019).
Research approach: This section of methodology refers to the main part of data analysis
that divided into two sub sections which are called inductive and deductive. These are
considering two main approaches of research but for carrying study present study over the
impact of Brexit on overall growth of UK industry; inductive approach will be more useful and
appropriate as this approach follow research questions with purpose to increase the scope of
dissertation. Main rational behind selecting inductive approach for secondary research as it
support researcher in analysis of secondary data that was gathered for literature review in limited
time duration. On the other side, deductive is another type of research approach that is not
followed within a current study because it requires primary information that is not possible
within a dissertation (Pantano and et. al., 2017).
Data collection Method: It introduces to the data collection process in context of present
investigation by collecting the data from sources where the data is obtainable that are already
being studied by someone before over same type of topic. It is mainly followed to create an
understanding the present area of research and its nature that act as a base of future research of
dissertation. Present dissertation is completely based on secondary research and for gathering
secondary data, there are number of sources available for the investigation which are known as
magazines, books, articles, publication study, journals and many other sources relevant to the
existing topic. All these are useful sources of secondary data collection that will be used within a
study. In order to collect the data from view point of various authors’ journals or online articles
will be followed so that actual data regarding the impact of Brexit has been presented so that aim
and objectives can be accomplished (Pilbeam, 2019).
Research strategy: It refers to the process of collecting information from suitable research
strategy. There are a lot of research strategies which are experimental research, interview, case
study research, systematic literature review, action research or survey. These are considering
main types of research strategy but for performing present study, systematic literature review has
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been applied because it facilitate in collecting and analysing of secondary information regarding
the impact of Brexit on UK retail industry as a part of Economic (Portes and Forte, 2017).
Ethics: Ethics is important and valuable part for performing any type of study because it
helps researcher in completion of full dissertation ethically and legally. Secondary information
varies in terms of the amount of finding data in it. If the data has no identifying data or is totally
devoid of such data or is properly coded so that the investigator does not have access to the
codes, then it does not need a complete review through the ethical board. For this to come about,
use of secondary information must meet a number of key ethical conditions: Information must be
de-identified earlier than release to the investigator. Consent of research subjects can be logically
presumed. Results of the data analysis must not permit re-identifying participants (Simionescu,
Bilan, Smrčka and Vincúrová, 2017). There are some principles of research ethics that must be
following by researcher by doing secondary research on Brexit and its impact on overall growth
of United Kingdom Retail industry. These principles have been explained as below:
 Look at any limits placed on the consent of the statistics provider, as an example if
consent is confined to a specific form of research.
 Seek ethical advice wherein a proposed reuse of facts (even in an anonymised shape) may
additionally lead to research outcomes affecting an identifiable network, institution or
category of human beings.
 Be aware that it's far vital to obtain consent from the original participants for any research
the use of personal records to aid measures or decisions in respect of the research subjects
to be taken without their consent, or in a manner that might be probable to motive big
harm or misery to all people (Bergin and et. al., 2017).
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Chapter 4: Research and findings
This introduces to the systematic and essential process of analysing the collected data in
order to interpret it into meaningful manner present the findings effectively and clearly. Present
research is based on secondary data and for analysing such type of data literature review has
been used (Van Reenen, 2016). This section is based on secondary data gathered for literature
review by using number of secondary sources such as articles, books, journals etc. For analysing
and finding secondary information collected for literature review, themes have been made of
each questions of research. This will helps investigator in analysing of secondary data easily and
effectively. Research questions apart of themes will be researched as below:
Theme 1:-Explain about the concept behind the term Brexit?
From the above mentioned information collected from secondary sources for literature
review it has been analysed that Brexit is a broad concept that have impact on overall industry or
companies that are perform their business in United Kingdom.
Figure 1: Concept of Brexit
(Source: How Britain Voted, 2020)
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Interpretation: It has been interpreted from the above chart that when the referendum has
been done regarding the aspect of Brexit then out of the total number of population 51.9% voted
in the favour of leaving European Union and on the other side 48.1% voted against the decision
of leaving European Union. The majority of people are in favour of the decision where they
wanted UK leave the European Union and built the unique identity and formulate the operations
on the basis of their own self-made policies and regulations which are more beneficial towards
the direction faster growth and higher safety of society. But, the large number of population is
also against the decision where denied by almost 48.1% population. They want to continue with
the EU where same regulations will be followed in the direction of growth continuing with other
nations that prevail under EU.
The initial impact of this news was negative over the economy. Also, when it finalised
there were numerous negative aspects created like low rate of economy growth, rise in
unemployment, trade restriction, migration of people and businesses, lack in flow of cash etc. All
these made the situation worse where difficult for the government to sustain the same kind of
growth rate (Wadsworth, Dhingra, Ottaviano and Van Reenen, 2016). This lowers down the
GDP where negative impact was ascertained by all the industries and businesses prevail under
these irrespective of their nature and size. All saw the phase of decline where demand and sales
deceases. All many threats were received from the large business after the decision of leaving
that they discontinue their operations from UK.
The government focused over the decision and took various steps regarding improvement
of the economy and the situation of GDP. Here, they focused over concept of self-employment
by providing easy funding options. The main aim is to motivate for starting own business and
generate local employment within the nation. This step has huge contribution towards the
direction of UK GDP improvement. The simultaneous rise in per capita income provides the
positive impact over the business of other organisations. The whole process integrates with each
other in the direction of economy growth towards upward direction (Zhang, Zhu and Ye, 2016).
Theme 2:- How Brexit impact on sales within UK retail industry?
From the above mentioned secondary data collected from different number of sources for
literature review, it has been analysed that Brexit has direct and negative impact on retail
industry of UK by decreasing sales and market share. There are different reasons that proofed as
Brexit negatively impact on sales of retail sector. These reasons are poor income status of
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people, economic issues, rules and regulation of UK as well as EU etc. These are considering
major researchers that have negative and bad effects on retail industry by decreasing sales and
also growth at marketplace (Geng, 2020).
Figure 2: Impact of Brexit on sales of retail industry
(Source: Impact of Brexit on sales of retail industry, 2020)
Interpretation: From the above mentioned graph, it has been concluded that retail industry faced
major loss in its sales due to Brexit. Total sales (including auto sales) of UK retail for the 2020
year will develop around 1.2% to £487.30 billion ($649.66 billion). That’s the slowest
development rate seeing as 2015, when it was losing by 0.2%. In the meantime, ecommerce,
which makes up a rising portion of United Kingdom retail sales, will grow up around 8.9% this
year, accomplishment £114.26 billion ($152.33 billion). Brexit has had cooling impacts on
United Kingdom retail sales as well as, at other times, has spurred added spending.
When first announced, the latent exit from the European Union produced a sign of
shoppers from other nations who took benefit of more positive currency exchange rates, which
positively boosted sales growth of retail industry. But as doubt wore on, domestic purchasers
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restricted spending exterior of shopping holidays at the same time as they required ever-deeper
sales as well as discounts (Gudgin, Coutts, Gibson and Buchanan, 2018).
Even though Brexit is now a certainty, the viewpoint remains mainly not clear. They
require for European Union nations, the United Kingdom major trading partners, to at this time
expand separate buy and sell deals will be most essential determining aspects in how the United
Kingdom retail market will grow over period. Additional or fewer positive trade transactions
being reached in discussions could impact everything as of auto sales in the direction of financial
services, by means of the final outcome still outstanding to be seen (Hepburn and Teytelboym,
2017).
Theme 3:-What are the impacts does Brexit upon overall growth of UK retail industry?
According to the above data gathered for literature review it has been discussed and
interpreted there are different number of factors that does Brexit and has impact on overall
growth of United Kingdom Retail industry (James, S. and Quaglia, 2019). These are Supply
chain will be disrupted and may have to renegotiate supplier contracts, economic challenge and
customs Traffic. All these have direct impact on growth of retail industry by decreasing number
of customers, increasing cost etc. In order to identify impacts does Brexit on overall growth of
UK retail industry; there will be a requirement of presenting graphs which has been shown as
below:
Figure 3: The Retail industry faces multiple issues impacting performance and growth
(Source: The Retail industry faces multiple issues impacting performance and growth, 2017)
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Interpretation: From the above mentioned graph it has been interpreted different number
of factors that have direct effects over performance and growth of overall UK retail industry.
These factors are customer volatility, operations reliability, escalating costs and increasing
security. All these are major factors that impacts over growth and performance of retail industry
at the reason on Brexit.
In customer volatility, there are some sub factors that shown impacts on UK retail industry.
These are brand loyalty is diminishing, highly sensitive to economic downturns, increase in
mobile shopping is impacting in-store pricing and customer journey from offline to online in
becoming more essential, but cultural resistances within business (Khan, 2017).
In case of increasing security, there are also numbers of sub-factors that has been
determined as an effect of retail industry. These are social responsibility and waste, financial
transactions and pension account deficit, ethical sourcing and manufacturing, employee contracts
i.e. Zero hours and working conditions. All these are considering main factors that impact on
overall growth of UK industry.
Under escalating costs, there are various aspects that impact on UK retail industry because
of Brexit. These are increase to business rate, rising employee costs, depreciation of sterling,
rising commodity and fuel prices and escalating pension costs and deficits. These are also shown
as negative factors that effects on UK retail industry.
In operations reliability, there are several points that determined as main impact of Brexit
on UK retail sector. These are doubt over UK-EU data flows if United Kingdom classified as
third-party country, Integration of multi-channel retailing, returns management becoming
complex and costly and streamlining stock management.
Theme 4:-What are the implications of Brexit on the UK retail industry?
From the above gathered secondary data from large number of secondary sources it has been
determined that, there are number of implications that must follow by retail industry for
overcoming the impact of Brexit effectively (Nash, 2019). For this supply chain is effective
because it will help retail industry in improvement of its business operations that resulted in
higher growth and success.
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Figure 4: Supply chain strategy after Brexit
(Source: Supply chain strategy after Brexit, 2020)
Interpretation: Brexit poses major uncertainty or risk in favour of supply chains of large
number of organisations running in the United Kingdom, on pinnacle of already high ranges of
uncertainty due to global geopolitical and economic tendencies. But groups can respond to the
continued uncertainty via reinventing their supply chains—now not just to defend against near-
time period disruption, however to deliver lengthy-lasting enhancements in resilience, flexibility,
and bottom-line performance.
Some business within retail industry has abridged write-downs by means of at the same time
as lots as 45% by way of placing the appropriate stock bets to reduce surplus unwanted
merchandise. They have also decreased overall inventory by 10& or greater by reducing 12
months-over-yr stock carryovers as a result of extra protection stock. That has led to capex
diminution in the area of 5%, as businesses have removed the want for capability expansion at
flora to produce excess safety inventory (Pantano, Priporas, Sorace and Iazzolino, 2017).
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Chapter 5: Conclusion and Recommendation
Conclusion: From the above mentioned information it has been concluded that Brexit has
negative impact on entire retail sector of UK by decreasing their growth, sales and also reducing
number of customers. This is, for the reason that the most of the businesses are operated over the
laws and regulations as well as standards that are formulated or implemented by the European
Union. Additionally, the United Kingdom was also limited to carry out business with other
nations but after Brexit it is free from this. From the above collected and analysed secondary
data, it has been determined that Brexit is a broad concept that not only impact on particular
business but also effects on overall growth of industry. Brexit has direct impact over sales of
retail industry because it decreased the income status of people it means they not have maximum
amount of capital to purchase products from a specific brand. There were other issues which are
supply chain risk, economic uncertainty, rules and regulations and so on. These are major issues
that negatively have impact on business operations by reducing the sales and also decreasing the
growth in country. Brexit has negative and bad effects overall retail industry. In this, costs of the
product are now higher by reason of currency fluctuations and, by means of increased
competition within retail; it has confirmed not easy for UK retailers to pass the extra costs onto
customers.
Numbers of research methods were used by researcher for achieving research aim and
objectives easily. This dissertation is based on secondary data and different methods followed by
researcher by collecting and analysing secondary information over the impact of Brexit on UK
retail industry. For this, interpretivisim philosophy, exploratory research design, inductive
approach, systematic literature review etc. methods have been used for achieving valid
outcomes. Along with this, systematic literature review is a best strategy that supported
researcher in collection of secondary data from number of secondary sources which are books,
articles, magazines, publication research etc. These are more effective and suitable sources in
collecting of accurate data about the impact of Brexit on UK economy or overall growth of retail
industry. Therefore, with systematic literature review, researcher not gathered secondary data
and not presents this data in data analysis part in effective manner.
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Recommendation: From the dissertation performed over the topic of Brexit and its impact
on overall growth of UK retail industry it has been determined that there are a lot of issues or
challenges faced by retailers economic issue, supply chain issues, declined in sales, decreased
growth, lower number of customers etc. All these are major risks that were faced by retail
industry of UK. There are some recommendations to the M&S which is a part of retail industry
about how to grow business due to Brexit. Some ways are recommended as below:
 M&S must emphasis towards trading goods and service with the small retailer of UK in
order to provide better quality products to the society. So that profitability level of
company can be increased and it would help them to perform their business functions and
operations at marketplace successfully and in well mannered.
 The government of United Kingdom must encourage small retailer in form of their
enlargement as a result that the economical growth of a nation can be expected because it
support in maximising the rate of employment as well as also assist in satisfying needs
and demands of customers by providing better quality in products and services. This will
help UK retail industry by increasing number of customers that resulted in higher amount
of sales.
 M&S must focuses towards researching regarding new regulations, standards and laws
that become changed regarding the implementation and enlargement of business
operations and functions inside or outside the nation.
 M&S also require in making an allowance for their present supply chains as well as look
to set up new supply chains, enchanting into account Brexit as well as the predictable
changes in import tariffs and also customs checks. Consideration can be provided to
develop an operation, possibly as a subsidiary, within a European Union country and
importing openly from non United Kingdom-based suppliers. This will helps them in
improvement of their overall growth and also accomplishment of competitive advantages
easily.
 Retailers must understand and mange non traffic barrier because it helps them in
attraction of large number of customers that outputted in increment of sales. Under a no
deal scenario rules of origin will become a massive problem for manufacturers and
exporters to the European Union. They will require to recognize all ingredients and
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components of their products. This needs collaboration along the whole supply as well as
value chain, in a lot of cases testing, certified documentation and so on.
Limitations: There are different limitations that may be face by investigator by carrying out
secondary research over Brexit and it’s the impact on overall growth of UK retail industry. These
limitations are lack of time, lack of relevant literature, inappropriate amount of cost; information
may be out of dated or improper and so on. These are considering major limitations that have
negative effect on researcher while doing this dissertation in proper manner. Due to these
limitations, they cannot perform each activity of dissertation is systematic and accurate manner
(Thompson and McLarney, 2017). There are other limitations of using secondary research
method. These are secondary sources of data collection are more inadequate as well as more
expensive to get and utilize information. Secondary type of information is collected on purpose
for the research problem under dissertation. Along with this, investigator will also face problem
of time and cost in gathering secondary information as it require large amount of capital for
utilising a lot of secondary sources and also require additional time for collecting and analysing
information about the topic.
The another limitation of this dissertation is that the United Kingdom is not likely become
exited from European Union it just become getting over this contract and at this moment it
serving its changing period of time with European Union. For this reason it is complicated to
forecast the real situation that United Kingdom face subsequent to Brexit at the same time as it is
stilling functioning over the standards and also legislations formulated by European Union the
actual impact will only be recognized following the transition time duration of United Kingdom
obtain over and it will be capable to start new ventures and expand their business successfully
and happily.
24

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