Retail Theory and Practice

Retail Theory
and
Practice

Introduction to retail.
The process of selling consumer goods and services through various channels of
distribution, to the consumers, in order to earn profit is termed as retail. The demand of the
customers is fulfilled by the retailers through their supply chain process. The same thing
comes under fashion retailing industry that includes buying clothes from manufacturer and
selling them further to customers. UK has always been a place for big business of clothing
and apparels. Currently UK fashion industry comprises the worth of £26 billion and
employees around 800,000 jobs to the economy. Textile as well as fashion exports are
estimated around the total worth of £6.5 billion. This report will include the overview and the
study of UK Fashion retail industry along with the relevant changes and trends in the
microenvironment of this industry. The report will also include different strategies that can be
used for dealing with the changes and challenges of the micro and macro environmental
factors of the industry.
Introduction to the company
The organization being chosen to study the UK retail fashion market is Zara Plc Plc. It
is a British multinational brand retailer consisting its headquarters in Westminster London.
Zara Plc was founded in 1884 by Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer with a vison of dealing
in high quality clothing products. Later it got amalgamated together in 1903 and started its
functioning by opening stalls on the streets of Penny Bazaar in Manchester. Currently the
company has 1300 stores across the world and is he leading fashion retail brand in UK. The
company has placed its product segment of high-class fashion for upper class people with
premium clothing quality. It also has its presence and existence over online market,
consisting of its own brand website and placing its products on various shopping sites such as
amazon etc.
Key relevant changes within the UK fashion retail
In order to understand the relevant changes in the company, PESTLE analysis of
company will be observed to attend the learnings-
Political Factors- Zara Plc brand has been widespread in several countries the brand operates
in 1300+ stores across the world. Zara Plc have benefits of utilizing the larger European
Union market where its products have higher chances to travel freely in various countries
without any restrictions and complications of taxes and tariffs. On the other hand different
countries have their own pricing regulations for the brand for its products and services. The
company believes that it is important to be in touch with he government and working with
them in order to protect the organization’s legitimate interests. It quickly responds to the
queries of the government that is available on their site. The company also has the stronger
support from the government as it has rich historic values as well as the fair means of trade
practices in their operations. But on the other hand there are two main factors affecting the
company that are political stability and the taxes, as the government increases the taxes on the
products it automatically impacts the product prices of Zara Plc and further impacts on its
sales volume as well.
Economic Factors- The most affecting economic factor includes the rise in the inflation of a
particular economy that further affects the working as well as the operating profit and the
prices of products and services of the company. Economic factors includes inflation rates,