Retail Theory and Practice

Retail Theory and Practice

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
1.0 Introduction to retail..............................................................................................................1
2.0 Introduction to company.......................................................................................................1
3.0 Key relevant changes within the UK fashion retail..............................................................2
4.0 Relevant changes within the micro environment..................................................................3
5.0 Suggest and discuss strategies and tactics that could be used...............................................5
RECOMMENDATIONS ................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Retail is explained as process of selling the products or services to customers by many
distribution channels to earn profit. The retailers satisfy determined demand of consumers by
supply chain. Retail sales occur when business sells service or goods to a persons for own use.
Next Plc is multinational footwear, home products and clothing retailer in Leicestershire. This
has almost 700 stores which circa 500 in United Kingdom (Anand and Grover, 2015). There will
be discussion about the retail sector and also relevant changes within UK fashion retail. Relevant
changes within micro environment will be discuss in present report in detailed manner.
1.0 Introduction to retail
Retail is explained as the process of selling the consumer services or goods by using the
many distribution channel for purpose of earning profit. Retailers satisfied the demand identified
through supply chain. The retailer is applied where service provider fills small quantity orders of
several people which are end users rather than the large orders of small wholesale. Many of the
modern retailer make many strategic level decisions consisting store type, customer service,
market served and overall positioning of stores at market place. Some of the retailers may sell to
the business consumers and such kind of sale is termed as non retail activity. On the other hand,
Fashion retailing is business section that acts as intermediary among consumers and
manufacturers. It is related to process of purchasing the clothes from manufacturer and also
selling to customers. The fashion retailer explains strategies which begin from positioning factor
that consists experience and speed channels to differentiate themselves from rivals
(Badrinarayanan, Becerra and Madhavaram, 2014).
2.0 Introduction to company
Next plc is British multinational clothing, home products and footwear. It was founded in
year 1865 by Josephn Hepworth in Leeds and its headquarter is in Enderby, Leicestershire. Its
first department store with the menswear, womenswear and interiors that open in London. Next
plc has around 700 stores in United Kingdom and 200 across Asia, Middle East and Europe. It is
one of largest clothing retailer through sales in United Kingdom that having overtaken Marks
&Spencer in 2012 and 2014. The mission of Next is to be natural choice in UK for fashion aware
women and men for fashion which expect distinction, quality and style from clothing. It
captivates people attention through provision of high quality offering related with the footwear,

clothings and other accessories. Next directory is online shopping division with more than the 4
million consumers in United Kingdom and more than 70 countries. It was second biggest
clothing retailer market share of 7%. In this organisation, around 43,970 staff members are
working and their focus on providing the better experience to consumers. The operating income
of Next plc was £762.0 million and net income was £590.4 million. Profit margin of Next plc
company is 34.19% and stock turnover is $1,694 (Bodie, 2015). Other than this, Next plc takes
the orders through mail and also deals in the online shopping where it has introduces the
initiatives about home delivery. For the free delivery, consumer can collect the products from
store. Regarding the product issue, it provides proper assistance to consumers.
3.0 Key relevant changes within the UK fashion retail
PESTLE analysis explains framework of the macro environment factors which mainly
used in environmental scanning components in strategic management. It helps in examine key
factors which influencing company from outside. Through this method, am organisation can
recognize their threats as well as opportunity, allowing them to take the corrective action to
effectively and efficiently achieve organizational objectives. Changes in the macro
environmental factors can have impact not only Next plc but also affect other players in fashion
retail. The PESTLE analysis gives valuable insight into operating challenges which an
organisation in sector face and many questions arise. On the basis of present scenario, fashion
industry is at the booming stage. Next plc deals in the fashion sector and it is one of the largest
organisation in fashion retail. To determine as well as examine external factor impact on overall
performance of Next plc, PESTLE analysis is given below:
Political factor- In this factor, there are many political factor which impact Next but may
have impact on firm in future. The political factor consists interest rate, policy, government
stability etc. The main political decision which impact Next in UK is tax rate that levied through
government. The government of United Kingdom is stable that enable Next to take the corrective
action which aids to capture market and make improvement in growth.
Economic factor- It deals with economic performance such as exchange rates, economic
growth etc. which has impact on an organisation an country both. In this factor, economic
environment develops more impact in Next n UK (Christina and et. al., 2014). As business
makes use of premium based differentiated strategy as opposed to being cost leader. Other than
this, economic factor slowed down the spending of customers in United Kingdom is