Impact of Covid-19 on Retail Industry

This research project discusses the impact of Covid-19 on the retail industry, focusing on the advantages and disadvantages of the lockdown. It also explores corporate governance and strategic changes in the industry. Recommendations are provided to deal with the crisis.

RESEARCH PROJECT

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.
The report has been discussed the impact of covid-19 on the retail industry, it has been
discussed that due to lock down the retail industry have faced a lot of issues in the market. The
report highlighted the impacts with the advantages and disadvantages of the lock down on the
retail industry. Report concludes that lock down impacted the entire country and it has also
impacted on the working of people. It created a tough situation which also impacted in the
process of performance of business. It is important for the organization to provide work from
homes to those employees whose work can be done at home, and they also need to include the
online shopping in such situation to increase the performance. Maintaining the budget is
necessary as it also creates a balance in the working. The organization need the worker at
workplace then they need to provide the working safety to the employees.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.............................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
Aim and Objectives..........................................................................................................................5
Literature Review.............................................................................................................................5
Theme 1 The impact of lock down due to COVID-19 in retail industry.....................................5
Theme 2 The advantage and disadvantage of COVID-19...........................................................6
Theme 3 Corporate governance and strategic changes................................................................8
Theme 4 Retail industry strategies in dealing with COVID-19 situation....................................9
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY...................................................................................................10
Discussion of sources of data collection....................................................................................10
Critical Review of the results of research..................................................................................16
CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATIONS................................................................................19
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................23
APPENDIX....................................................................................................................................26

INTRODUCTION
Research Questions:
 What is the impact of Covid-19 on the retail industry?
 Explain the advantages and disadvantages of Covid-19 crisis on operations of House of
CB?
 What is the current corporate governance strategy of House of CB and what strategic
changes are needed?
 What recommendations can be proposed to implement changes in company strategies of
House of CB to deal with the crisis?
Background:
The current situation of the market is very bad and the covid-19 have hit hard on the market all
over the world. It is affecting the retail sector in huge ways by the lock down which happened in
the world due to COVID-19. It is very impact full in the market and have impacted the loss in the
retail industry as the organization were not able to work due to lock downs and faced a huge loss
in the market. House of CB is working in the retail sector, and they are the fashion retailer for
women, it is one of the most talented retailer product which are offered by the owner.. The
company is presently closed but has been actively attractive in online store promotions. In order
to deal with the dynamic situation and government policies, current corporate governance and
management strategies of House of CB need to be changed in order to deal with the crisis.
Rationale: The reason of selection to this topic is very important because it affected the whole
world with huge losses and it also makes a lot of impact in overall business and market strength.
It is very important for the House of CB to understand the criticality of the covid-19 situation,
and they need to understand the process of working in the pandemic situation. They need to find
the ways to improve the situation and improve the profitability of the organization with working
in the pandemic. The retail industry has impacted due to the lock down and it also affected the
working and the salary of the people who are working in the different department of industry.
Significance: The study will help the management to understand the working and the process of
the retail sector and how they can utilize the pandemic situation in improvement in work. It is
very important for the retail industry and the people who are working in the retail industry.
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Significance explains the importance of the report and research and the ways in which the
research can be helpful.
Aim and Objectives
Aim: To critically analyse the impact of Covid-19 pandemic on House of CB, UK and the need
for change in corporate strategy to deal with the situation.
Objectives:
 To understand the impact of lock down due to Covid-19 on the retail industry
 To analyse advantages and disadvantages of Covid-19 for House of CB
 To understand the concept of corporate governance and strategic changes
 To devise changes in company strategy of House of CB in dealing with Covid-19
Literature Review
Theme 1 The impact of lock down due to COVID-19 in retail industry
As per the Harapan and et.al., (2020), Corporate governance refer to the laws and policies
made by the government on which the business are being operated. It also affects the internal and
external effect on the company's stakeholders and management. Crisis management is the
process of identification of threats in the organization and include the ways in which the threat
can be handled. Company deals with the crises by making proper strategies to eliminate the
crises and a proper direction to the process of working in increase to the developed performance.
The world is facing a huge impact due to the pandemic which is named by COVID-19. The
COVID 19 has caused a huge impact throughout the world with lots of death and cases of
COVID-19 which are impacting the whole world. The covenant in has impacted the whole world
and it is impacting the retail industries as well which are affecting the business and profitability
of the organizations and decrease of profits and increase in the losses the organizations and the
industries are facing. Lock down due to COVID-19 have impact the retail industries cause
government made a lot of decisions to stop the code and in pandemic and two give a huge impact
on the code 19 situations the government have allowed the lock down situation in the countries
and the retail industries has faced a lot of issues because there are no working an people are
losing their jobs as well as they are not able to work and earn money which is causing them in a
lot of issues in their personal and professional life.
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Wang and et.al., (2018), suggested that The retail industries have faced a lot of crisis due to the
lock down situations because the industries are working advance, and they have already made
different stocks for the coming period and due to the lock down situation the organizations and
different companies working in the retail sector were not able to sell their product and services to
the customers which make their product and services get expired and no sale caused them a huge
loss. Code 19 impacted as March is this month in which every organization do everything in the
financial year closing and the industries closed their high numbers than usual orders but due to
the covenant in situations everything changed.
As per the view of Li and et.al., (2018), many organizations and forms have reported a financial
Hit. Many of the retail organizations have faced a huge impact in their financial stability and it is
very important to understand how critical the COVID-19 in situations can be. the more time it
takes the huge impact it can be on the industries and it is very impactful in the economic stability
also for the country. The impact of COVID-19 and lock down on the retail industries is that,
people who are working have faced recession and country and the industries have faced a
recession and a huge impact in the economic stability which caused a lot of jobs loss to the
people working as organizations are unable to pay the amount due to the lock down for months
which have caused them a huge loss in the business. Retail industries have faced a lot of impact
due to the lock down as people got infected and are unable to get the cure, many of the people
died who are working in the organization and the industry of retail, and they need a total
protection for that the organization and the government has made different plans which include
the lock down of a month to stop the spread of COVID-19 and to reduce the impact of the
pandemic.
Theme 2 The advantage and disadvantage of COVID-19
According to the Harapan and et.al., (2020), Stakeholders are the party which have interest in the
company and can also affect or affected by the business. The primary stakeholders in the
organization are the investors, customers, employee etc. the retail industry is very vast and it is
important for the organization to make changes in the process of development and also to
increase the changes so that the stakeholders impact can be controlled. It is found that there are a
lot of advantage and disadvantage in the supermarket and retail industries where thousands of
people and customers go daily to buy their product and services and utilize the product and
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services offered by the organization and the industries. Retail industries provide every single
product which are used in the day-to-day process and it is one of the most important industry and
the biggest industries working in the UK. there are a lot of advantages which can be Found
because of the lock down as the lock down helped the people to Start learning different things
during the lock down. And to improve their personal skills and develop themselves to improve
their performance for the industries and for personal growth. The lock down also provides a huge
advantage of people who are working in the retail industries and other industries get time to
spend with family time, it allows a lot of employees to breach and met their families after a long
period and it also helped them in getting an emotional support from the families in the situation
of lock down which is very critical and needs to be taken care with all the responsibilities. It is
very important for the organizations and the industries to make sure that every employee get safe
to their houses and can meet their family and friends during the lock down. In which the industry
is shut down.
Ng and et.al., (2020), concludes that the disadvantage which caused due to COVID-19 situation
in the world as it has affected the economy of the country in the world in a huge impact and hit
the worst phase over the time. it is the one of the biggest economy crises and the economy of the
country is being affected due to COVID-19 which will take a lot of time to revive as the situation
is not under control and it is still not curable to fight with COVID-19 situations. Government
have made a lot of policies and procedures to work in the cover 19 and there are different
disadvantage which have come due to the lock down as the students are not able to go to their
school and colleges and are not able to complete their studies which can cause them a loss of a
lot of time. The issues faced by the worker, labour and employee who are working on the daily
wages and who are running their families on the daily wages are affected due to this lock down
which is very harsh as the recession also made the industries to take decisions of eliminating the
employees from the organizations and it has impacted a lot to the industry as well as the
employees. The labourers and the workers are affected very badly as their income and revenue
are completely stopped, and they do not have any other source of income during their family and
it is one of the disadvantages of COVID-19 lock down.
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Theme 3 Corporate governance and strategic changes
According to the Brodeur and et.al., (2020), Strategy and strategy planning are very crucial as
the government make a lot of corporate governance rules and laws. It needs to make sure that
they are developing the strategies and plan the strategy to accept the policies and laws of
government. It will help them in creating a better performance at the working and operational
level. Working in the industry needs o have a great impact and for that they need to make sure
that they follow the governance properly. Corporate governance plays a very important part as it
is one of the most important way by which the corporate governance is being managed by the
governance, and they make a combination of rules and processes of laws which the business and
the industries need to operate it to work in regulated and controlled way of working. It is very
important for the organizations to understand the criticality of corporate governance and the
ways they need to work in the industries by following all the corporate governance rules and
policies made by their governance and government rules. The impact of covenanting on the retail
industries is very high as all the basic necessity items are found in the retail industries and it is
very important in the time of COVID-19 to have all the necessary items to reach at every single
places and the people in the audience can apply for the product and services from the industries
in the time of COVID-19 lock down pandemic. The government has made a lot of laws and
policies of rules and regulations which the industries need to follow, and they need to take care
of all the regulations and corporate governance so that they can do the working in the process of
control and regulated way and also to provide the product and services to the audience in the best
way with taking care of all the situation of COVID-19. Governments have made different
regulations and precautions to make the pandemic end covenant in situations controlled and it is
very important for the industries to understand the criticality of the governance and the rules
made by the government needs to be followed.
As per the Mirzaie and et.al., (2020), the corporate governments are the rules made by the
government and the industry should understand that in the situation of COVID-19 it is very
important to utilize every source of income and work so that they can earn a good amount of
money as the situation is very worst and people don't have money in the lock down due to no
working. The industries have the responsibilities to provide the facilities and product and
services to every person who are willing to buy product and services from the organization
should get the product and services in the safest way and the company needs to follow all the
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precautions while providing the services. It is very important to follow all the rules and
regulations as the industry is need money so that they can provide the money to their employees
who are working for them in the pandemic situations and the decisions needs to be taken care by
following all the precautions of COVID-19 so that the disease cannot be spread in different
people. It is also very important for the retail industries and further government to make different
policies and strategies to control the covenant in situations and to provide all the facilities and
basic necessity to every citizen of the country so that they get all the ways and the product and
services.
According to the Villani and et.al., (2020), Corporate governance are the rules and regulations
which are followed by the industries and the industries need to make different strategies to work
in the code situations which is very important to utilize the best of the market so that they can
earn more in the situation of lock down where the people do't have a lot of money and the market
is unstable with lack of money and economic recession of the country.
Theme 4 Retail industry strategies in dealing with COVID-19 situation
According to the Workman and et.al., (2020), VUCA refer to Volatility, uncertainty, complexity
and ambiguity. VUCA conflates 4 distinct type of challenges which include 4 distinct type of
responses. The emergency strategy is referred to the action which are developed over time in
organization. It is due to the absence of mission and goals or can be a mission or goal. Retail
industries need to make a lot of strategies to work in the cover 19 situations as it is one of the
situations where people do not have money due to the lock down, and they were not able to work
and earn money which are affecting them to spend a lot of money on the retail industries and the
purchase and selling of products and services from retail industries. The retail industry is need to
make different strategies to control the loss as the market does not have a good amount of money
and it is important for the retail sector to utilize the opportunities which they're getting in the
cover 19 situations, and they need to make different strategies to take the precautions which are
made by the government, and they also need to make sure that they follow all the guidelines of
the government.
However, Gallo Marin and et.al., (2020), the retail industry’s need to make a lot of strategies
while working in the biggest sector of UK market. Retail industries need to make sure that they
follow all the precautions which are made by the government, and they need to follow all the
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government rules and regulations which government had made during the lock down and the
COVID-19 situations. it is very important to take all the strategies including the precautions with
sanitizing of product and services while delivering the product and services to the customers and
providing different ways so that that does not get infected during the process of sales and
services which also includes that they need to be considering all the equipment’s while working
in the lock down and pandemic situations so that there does not harm themselves and also
doesn’t spread the disease.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Discussion of sources of data collection
Data collection is the process of collecting the data from various sources in order to
achieve the objectives of the research and to draw significant interpretations from them. There
are basically two types of sources of data collection: Primary and Secondary. The primary data is
the first-hand data which is collected in the raw form whereas the secondary data is the already
collected data. Primary data is gathered through questionnaires, interviews, surveys etc. where
the researcher collects the data at the same time (Davies and et.al., 2020). Secondary data is
collected from the already published books, journals, research papers, articles, publications etc.
The objectives of the research are achieved by doing both the primary and secondary researches.
Primary research and sampling: The primary research is done by distributing the
questionnaires to the major employees of all the departments like Financial, Production, Human
Resource, purchasing, marketing etc. These respondents are 25 in number which is the suitable
number which will help in making suitable interpretations and overall results. This is purposive
sampling of non-probabilistic type as criteria is decided that only those employees of House of
CB will be chosen as respondents who participate in the decision-making of the organization.
The responses gained from the respondents help the researcher to know about the corporate
strategies that can be developed and implemented by the retail firms in this pandemic of COVID-
19 (Kannappan, 2020).
Secondary Research: This is done to gain deeper insights about the topic by going through
various books, journals, research papers etc. which are published by well-known authors.
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Various themes are made which segregated the whole objective and helped in gaining deeper
insights about each.
Ethical considerations: The respondents will submit the consent form and the researcher will
attach a declaration form while taking the questionnaires to ensure that all the data collected is
true to the knowledge of respondents and the researcher. The articles chosen were also recent
which helped in gaining information regarding the current situation.
DATA ANALYSIS
Thematic analysis will be used to analyse the data collected from various sources like
primary and secondary.
Theme 1: House of CB performs the operations in pandemic as well.
Does your company is performing the operations even in the
pandemic of COVID-19?
Respondents
Yes 20
No 5
Total 25
Interpretation: It can be interpreted from the above pictorial representation that majority of the
respondents i.e., 20 out of 25 respondents have gone with the response that the company House
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of CB performs its operations at the time of pandemic of COVID-19 also when most of the
companies stopped operating. Only 20% argued by choosing the option which says that the
company does not performs its operations in lock down.
Theme 2: Various operations of House of CB are impacted by the lock down.
Which operation House of CB is much affected by the lock down
due to COVID-19?
Respondents
Supply 5
Production 3
Marketing 3
All of these 14
Total 25
Interpretation: This can be analysed from the above graph that more than half of the total
respondents realized that only single operation is not affected by the lock down but various
operations are affected by this as the employees from different departments agreed with this.
Only some respondents felt that the pandemic is affecting only individual operations.
Theme 3: The company prefers to shifts its mode of performing operations from offline to
online.
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What is the preference of the company regarding the business in
this tough time?
Respondents
Terminating the operations 2
Continuing the operations in stores 4
Shifting the operations to online 19
Firing the employees 0
Total 25
Interpretation: The above chart represents that the House of CB prefers to shift its operations to
online platforms as it is not possible to increase the sales through selling from the stores as
majority i.e., 76% of the total respondents agreed with this.
Theme 4: The strategy of the company was to perform all its operations online in this tough
time.
Which strategy is used by House of CB in order to continue its
services in the time of pandemic?
Respondents
Marketing the products and services online 2
Delivering the goods to the customers’ home 3
Taking the orders online 2
All the above 18
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Total 25
Interpretation: It can be examined from the above pictorial representation that 72% i.e., 18 out
of 25 respondents believed that House of CB implements various strategies instead of adapting
one i.e., doing all the processes online such as marketing, delivering and even taking the orders
online.
Theme 5: The lock down due to COVID-19 affects the profitability of the company.
Do you agree that the profitability of the company is affected by the
lock down due to COVID-19?
Respondents
Strongly agree 12
Agree 8
Neutral 3
Disagree 0
Strongly disagree 0
Total 25
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Interpretation: The above graphical representation interprets that majority of the respondents
i.e., 48% were strongly agreed with the fact that the overall profitability of House of CB is
impacted by the pandemic of COVID-19 and also 32% agreed with this. None of the responses
contradicted this fact.
Theme 6: Online platforms benefitted the company in making much profits.
Do you think that using the online platforms for performing its
operations, House of CB can earn much profits?
Respondents
Yes 20
No 5
Total 25
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Interpretation: It is clearly visible from the above pictorial representation that the online
platforms are helping the House of CB to continue its operations even in the lock down and earn
much larger profits as 80% respondents went with this option and only 5 out of 25 respondents
denied this which does not affect the overall response.
Critical Review of the results of research
Many findings were gained after doing the primary as well as secondary researches. The
questionnaire method which was a primary research helped in getting the responses of the
management employees of House of CB who mostly takes part in the decision making. Their
responses were based on their experiences and by making observations in the different practices
of the company. Also, in the literature review which was the secondary research helped in
gaining the views of various well-known authors who expressed their knowledge in this sector
which helped in gaining deeper insights to achieve the research objectives and helps in
answering the research questions.
It was analysed from the responses that the house of CN is not terminating its operations due to
COVID-19 and striving hard to continue performing its operations even at this time when most
of the people became unemployed and majority of them lost jobs and sat at home. This was also
analysed in the literature review by Mason, Narcum and Mason (2020), that many companies
lost hope due to sudden mishap and had no hope for the finishing of this pandemic and restarting
of their business. This made them fired the employees and terminating the businesses. This
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demotivated the employees, decreased their morale and reduced the employee retention. The
companies suffered a lot during this time as it became very difficult to perform the operations in
the regular manner as the supply became too tough as the government has imposed various
regulations on the trade and for the gathering of the people for the health and safety of everyone.
This was also identified in the literature review by Harapan and et.al. (2020), that this pandemic
happened in that crucial month which was considered as the financial closing of the year, so this
lead to a big loss to the companies of every industry especially the retail one.
It was also analysed from the responses of the employees of House of CB that not only one
operation in the company is affected by this pandemic but all the operations were affected by this
including the supply, production, marketing etc. Also, it was highlighted by Duygun and Şen
(2020), that the production was impacted as it became too difficult to get the raw materials from
the suppliers as there were complete restrictions on the trade from another countries and supply
to the same. This made the production operations very difficult to be performed as this was
realized by the employees of production department. The marketing operation was negatively
impacted as the marketers cannot perform the campaigns and promotional activities as it was
restricted to make a crowd and do gatherings. The marketers were even unable to meet the
customers directly which is must to convince them in person. This make the marketing activities
low and no campaigns and meetings were organised in person. This was further elaborated by (),
in the literature review that the delivery of goods was majorly impacted as there was no
permission to the people to visit the stores and buy the products from the same. So, it became
very difficult for the company to provide the customers with their required products and services.
Moreover, it was evaluated by Li and et.al. (2018), that at this time, due to a major loss, most of
the companies terminated its operations and most of the firms have fired the employees as they
were not having enough money to pay the employees. Some of the firms even continued their
operation at the stores which proved to be harmful for the health of the people working and also
to the customers visiting. But, this could not be continued for long time as the government
imposes higher taxes on them. It was examined from the responses that the Hose of CB neither
fired its employees as it didn’t want to make any of the employee unemployed as they also have
families to be fed and at this time when there are very less options to earn the living, the
company thought of using its employees to shift its operations from offline to online. The
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company believed that this can help it to continue its operations and can help the employees to
earn their livelihood.
The authors Dannenberg and et.al. (2020), also elucidated that instead of terminating the
operations and firing the employees, the firms in retail industry must find alternatives to continue
their operations in any way and must not quit. Also, the responses highlighted that House of CB
is using the online platforms for almost all the operations from marketing to online ordering to
supply at homes. The company has developed a strategy that in this tough times, they can
continue performing their operations through online platforms. This point was also mentioned in
the literature review by Priyono, Moin and Putri (2020), that most of the operations in retail
industry can be done online to a suitable extent. The marketing can be done through various
social networking sites and digital media. In order to makes ease for the customers and attract
them through the sites they are updated on and in the lock down when the people are more free at
their homes, they were more active on the online platforms which gave the companies a greater
opportunity to promote its goods and services through the social networking sites. In this way,
House of CB also made use of this opportunity and started performing all the operations such as
marketing, supply etc. through the digital media. House of CB also started taking orders online
and deliver the items at the doorsteps of the customers and that too with full safety and
precautions such as sanitizing all the products and the delivery men too sanitized and covered.
Through the questionnaire, it could be found that the pandemic of COVID-19 impacted all the
operations as well as the overall profitability of retail firms like House of CB. Though the
company developed various strategies so that it does not need to terminate its operations but also
the company faced many difficulties. This was also observed in the research papers published by
Wang and et.al., (2018), that when a company shifts its operations from offline to completely
online, it faces various problems as the employees of various departments are also not aware of
the things on the online platforms and the ways of doing them. This lock down also didn’t give
time so that trainings can be provided to them. So this change was resisted by many employees
and the company also hired external specialists who can innovate the official website and
enhance its online presence for attracting maximum customers.
But after facing all the issues, the company was able to make much profits even at the time of
pandemic due to COVID-19. This gave the opportunity to the company to extend its reach even
to those areas and people where they never provided their services before lock down. The
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strategy of shifting its offline operations and processes to the online one helped the company a
lot as it brought innovation in the company and made its employees more advanced to face such
a crisis. Similar points were also mentioned in the research paper published by Robbins (2020),
that the lock down due to COVID-19 impacted all the sectors as well as jobs negatively but also
taught a big lesson to the people and the businessmen.
The people working in the House of CB were aware of the impacts of COVID-19 as they were
not allowed to sit at homes even in this tough time but by taking all the safety measures and
precautions, they were available to face the situation together and developed solutions for it
regarding the ways in which they can continue their operations by making less investments and
can earn much profit also. So, this lead to the strategy to shifting the offline things to online
which not only benefitted the organisation but also gave the opportunities to the employees to
earn their livelihood when most of the people were fired and left unemployed and faced many
difficulties to feed their families (Farrell and et.al., 2020).
By analysing the responses of the employees who were selected as respondents as they
participate in the decision making of the organisation, it can be evaluated that the employees
were satisfied with the strategy implementation of the company as majority of them responded
that the company is performing its operations through online mode and is being benefited by this.
Also, the company focussed on satisfying the needs of the customers in this tough time by taking
the orders online and delivering the products right at their doorsteps with no extra delivery
charges which attracted the customers and also forced them to make purchase again which
increases the productivity as well as regaining its profitability.
CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATIONS
Conclusion
The overall research focussed on the very recent situation which is ongoing till now
which is the pandemic of COVID-19 and the lock down which was happened due to the
spreading of the infection of Coronavirus. The research topic was chosen such that it can be
helpful to many retailers and businessmen who lost hope due to this pandemic as no prior
assumptions can be made for its recovery. One of the company is House of CB which is a retailer
of fashion in UK which realized the need to develop various strategies so that the company need
not to terminate its operations rather can find solutions to continue performing its operations in
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the time of pandemic (Bounie, Camara and Galbraith, 2020). The situation, reason and the topic
was described above. Then, literature review was done in which the researcher tried to involve
all the views of many authors who published something related to this topic or the situation. The
overview of the already published articles, research papers, books and journals, publications was
made. It highlighted all the points which can help in drawing significant conclusions from them
(Kim and Asbury, 2020). This was the secondary source of data to collect the information as the
data was already collected by someone else. This was followed by performing the primary
research in which first hand data is collected. Questionnaire method was chosen for the same.
The sample chosen was from the employees of the House of CB and only those employees from
various departments were selected who plays their part in the decision making of the
organisation. They were 25 in number and were selected unbiasedly. Questionnaires were
distributed among them and their responses were collected by the researcher and then analysed.
It was analysed by the responses that House of CB performed its operations in the time of
pandemic due to COVID-19. This was also analysed that various operations of the company on
which it depends were affected by the lock down such as production, marketing, supply and
many more. The preference of the company was to shift its operations to online modes so that
there will be no gathering in any of the business activities and they will be able to satisfy the
customers also. They neither terminated the operations nor fired any employees but for the sake
of them also, the company didn’t make them unemployed in the tough time (Dannenberg and
et.al., 2020). Also, the employees were aware of the effects which the pandemic has on its
operations and profitability. The employees from different departments faced different problems
to perform their tasks. This is why the pandemic affected the overall profitability of the
company. But, House of CB extended its online presence and attracted and facilitated maximum
customers through the social networking sites. The company even took the orders online and
delivered the required products at the doorsteps of the customers. Therefore, the companies can
make use of this time and can enhance its customer sales and profitability just by implementing
various strategies as House of CB has done in the crucial time of pandemic of COVID-19 when
all the things were closed.
Recommendations
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Following strategies could be recommended to the retailer companies like House of CB
in order to retain its profitability even during the lock down due to the pandemic of COVID-19:
 The companies must switch to online in order to gain the competitive advantage. They
must focus on performing all the activities through online modes which does not need
meeting in person which can cause risks of the infection of Coronavirus (Chaudhary,
2020). They can organize the meetings and seminars through the online platforms like
Zoom, Webinar and many more.
 The company also can provide work from home opportunities to some employees whose
tasks can be performed by sitting at homes also which do not require perfect environment
and equipment. The marketers can promote the goods and services online through the
social networking sites and also take the orders by sitting at home and can convey the
same to the production department who performs their tasks at the workplace (Principato
and et.al., 2020). This will not create crowd at the workplace leading to fewer chances of
spreading of infection.
 House of CB must use the robots instead of sending the individuals for delivering the
items as the people can have risks of getting attacked by any person any time and on the
other hand the robots are susceptible to viruses (Clark and et.al., 2020). So, the operation
of supply can be done by robots for the health and safety of everyone.
 The companies must not rely on one online platform to promote its products and services
instead must make use of various platforms as all the people prefer different platforms
and in the time of lock down most of the people have started using these online platforms
specially the social networking sites for the purpose of entertainment. So, the marketers
of the company must make a thorough analysis of the trends and the most used websites
and networking sites on which maximum people are updated on (Carvalho and et.al.,
2020). So that the company can use those platforms to attract the customers and increase
its customer base.
 The company must make stronger relationships with the existing and the new customers
so that they can create a sense of trust and loyalty and can also give the positive reviews
and feedbacks on the social networking sites.
 In case if the companies need the workers to be at workplace, then the companies must
ensure the health and safety of the employees as they risk their lives for the profitability
21

of the company by supporting it in this tough times (Kannappan, 2020). They must
develop a systematic plan for the effective communication and also for managing the
health and safety of the employees.
 The company must also maintain its budget as it must not make extremely much
investments which becomes hard to recover by getting very less Return On Investment.
They must make a budget in which the investment in implementing all the strategies
during lock down are mentioned along with the return expected from each networking
site. They must also provide various options to the customers for the payment which does
not pressurize them to make a purchase.
 House of CB must also follow the change theory which is basically a scholarship which
lays emphasis on the ways to make change happen. It is important subset of change
research which is defined as framework of ideas which also helps in explaining some
change aspects and that also beyond a single aspect. The company can make use of the
change theories for representing the generalized knowledge about the ways in which
change works. These can be used by the company for implementing various strategic
changes so that the company can cope up with the effects which the pandemic of
COVID-19 has on the overall operations of the company.
 The House of CB can also make use of the Force field model of change which forms the
foundation of Kurt-Lewin change theory in which three stages are there unfreezing,
moving and refreezing. In the first stage of unfreezing, the company managers must
strive hard to find the best method which can help the company in remaining profitable in
COVID-19 also such as expanding the online presence and shifting the operations to
online. In this the driving forced must be enhanced and the restraining forces must be
decreased. In the second stage, the managers and the leaders of the company must
involve the other employees to accept the change by being aware of its benefits. In the
last stage of refreezing, the change must be established as the new habit and the
employees must be familiar to the change so that they can also contribute to achievement
of the company goals.
22

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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Online-Offline Substitution Response to COVID-19: Evidence from French Transaction
Data. Available at SSRN 3588373.
Brodeur and et.al., 2020. A Literature Review of the Economics of COVID-19.
Carvalho, V.M. and et.al., 2020. Tracking the COVID-19 crisis with high-resolution transaction
data.
Chaudhary, H., 2020. Analyzing the Paradigm Shift of Consumer Behavior Towards E-
Commerce During Pandemic lock down. Available at SSRN 3664668.
Clark, S. and et.al., 2020. Can a data driven obesity classification system identify those at risk of
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Davies, N.G. and et.al., 2020. Effects of non-pharmaceutical interventions on COVID-19 cases,
deaths, and demand for hospital services in the UK: a modelling study. The Lancet
Public Health.
Duygun, A. and Şen, E., 2020. Evaluation of Consumer Purchasing Behaviors in the COVID-19
Pandemic Period in the Context of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. PazarlamaTeorisi ve
Uygulamaları Dergisi. 6(1). pp.45-68.
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Kannappan, S., 2020. Marketing agility and E-Commerce agility in the light of COVID-19
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Workman and et.al., 2020, April. Endonasal instrumentation and aerosolization risk in the era of
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25

APPENDIX
Questionnaire
Name:
Age:
Gender:
1. Does your company is performing the operations even in the pandemic of COVID-19?
a. Yes
b. No
2. Which operation House of CB is much affected by the lock down due to COVID-19?
a. Supply
b. Production
c. Marketing
d. All of these
3. What is the preference of the company regarding the business in this tough time?
a. Terminating the operations
b. Continuing the operations in stores
c. Shifting the operations to online
d. Firing the employees
4. Which strategy is used by House of CB in order to continue its services in the time of
pandemic?
a. Marketing the products and services online
b. Delivering the goods to the customers’ home
c. Taking the orders online
d. All the above
5. Do you agree that the profitability of the company is affected by the lock down due to
COVID-19?
a. Strongly agree
b. Agree
c. Neutral
d. Disagree
e. Strongly disagree
26

6. Do you think that using the online platforms for performing its operations, House of CB can
earn much profits?
a. Yes
b. No
7. What strategy do you recommend to House of CB for continuing its business and earn larger
profits in the time of pandemic of COVID-19?
______________________________________________________________________________
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