Retail Theory and Practice: Strategies for Marks and Spencer in the UK Fashion Retail Industry

RETAIL THEORY AND
PRACTICE

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction to retail........................................................................................................................1
Introduction to the company............................................................................................................1
Key relevant changes within the UK fashion retail.........................................................................2
Relevant changes within the micro environmen..............................................................................3
Suggest and discuss strategies and tactics that could be used.........................................................4
Recommendations............................................................................................................................6
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................6
REREFENCES................................................................................................................................8

Introduction to retail
Retailing can be defined as selling or buying of goods. It can also be defined as timely
delivery of goods and services that are demanded by the customers at an affordable and
competitive price (Vallati and Grassi, 2019). Retailing concept is based upon four main
principles. First is that retail sector is customer oriented in which retailers need to understand
needs of their customers in order to fulfil and satisfy their needs and demands in a better manner.
it is a coordinated effort where retailer integrates all activities and plans for maximum efficiency.
Retailing sector is value driven and lastly it is goal oriented. Fashion retail sector is a section of
retail sector that acts as an intermediate between customers and manufacturers. Fashion retail is a
process in which buying cloths from the manufacture is done and is sold to the customers. many
big organizations in this sector even manufacture their own cloths.
Introduction to the company
‘Marks and Spencer’ is one of the major retail sector organization and is one of the major
multinational British retailer company. It was founded in 1884 by Michael Marks and Thomas
Spencer’s in Leeds in United Kingdom. Main headquarter of Marks and Spencer is in London,
England in UK. Marks and Spencer sell various kinds of products and specializes in selling
clothing, home products and food products but out of these majorly they sell clothing products
for men, women and kids of all age group. They have more than 1450 stores world wide and
operates globally. They also have approximately 80,000 employees working for them globally.
Out of 1450 stores, approximately 959 stores are present in UK itself. They are one of those
public limited retail sector organization that has been listed on the London Stock exchange. They
are one of those organizations that provide latest fashion retail clothing items. Not only clothing
items but they also sell latest fashion home decor items and they offer these products to
customers in different types of stores such as: Full line stores that offers homeware and beauty
ranges with clothing’s products to customers. outlet stores that provides discounts on
approximately all the products. Other than this they also have their own online service stores in a
particular niche market where they provide products such as clothing, home décor and many
more for the customers and also provide free home delivery above a certain amount. Marks and
Spencer have established themselves in an excellent manner specifically in the market of UK.
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