Retail Theory and Practice project Hints and Tips

Retail Theory
and Practice
project Hints
and Tips

Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................3
Background to Company.........................................................................................................................3
Key relevant changes within Fashion retail of UK:.................................................................................3
Changes in the micro environment:.........................................................................................................6
Strategies and tactics that could be used:.................................................................................................7
Recommendations...................................................................................................................................9
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................10
References.................................................................................................................................................11

Introduction
Retailing is a crucial part of business wherein goods are provided to the end customers.
Here, retailer buy the goods from manufacturer and then make it available to the final users. In
Fashion industry, retailing is considered as highly important concept. In the current world,
fashion retailing is important in order to make money. In addition, it makes the retailers enable to
earn significant profit margin in an efficient manner. Apart from this, it also helps the customers
to get necessary fashion items at reasonable price (Pallagst, 2017). For the current report, Marks
& Spencer is taken into consideration which is one of the major multinational retailers based on
UK. It was founded in 1884 and currently has nearly 1037 stores within UK ( Marks and Spencer
- Statistics & Facts). The report will cover change in the macro environment with the application
of PESTLE analysis. Additionally, changes in the micro environment will also be discussed
along with the suitable strategies to be used to deal with the situation. Further, it will include the
necessary recommendations for further improvement.
Background to Company
Marks and Spencer is the most renowned retailer of UK which is specialized in selling
clothes, fashion products, home products and more. It was founded in 1884 by Michael Marks
and currently operating business at global level. The company was founded with a partnership
between Marks & Polish Jew. Apart from the clothing, M & S is also known for including
quality, fresh and innovative credentials in the food. Additionally, the business entity has nearly
1509 stores globally and also they maintain nearly 100 websites globally. For this purpose, the
business entity is likely to enter in new market places by having physical stores and online
websites (Marks & Spencer, 2021). Additionally, the company has higher number of employees
who help them in running the business efficiently. In current time, M & S has more than 78,000
employees working with them. The company is highly concern regarding the sustainability thus
they adopt necessary environment friendly and sustainable approaches in order to run the
business efficiently.

Key relevant changes within Fashion retail of UK:
Fashion industry of UK comprises ample of factors which put a profound impact on the
overall functioning of the companies within the industry. In this context, the PESTLE analysis of
the fashion industry is mentioned below:
Political Factors: The fashion industry of UK maintains a significant reputation at the
global level. The recent lockdown and adverse economic conditions profoundly affected the
fashion industry of the country. Therefore, the industry is in the requirement of financial
assistance and support (Latz and Mulvihill, 2017).
Political Stability:
In UK, the political stability will create opportunities for the large fashion retailer like
Marks & Spencer. It will help the company in future growth & enlargement.
Brexit:
Brexit hampered the trade relation of European countries and UK. It has direct impact on
the business of the largest fashion retailer of UK as they cannot exchange the necessary material
and resources from European countries any more (Fernie and Grant, 2019).
Economical Factors: In UK, manufacturing clothes is highly expensive thus several
retailers produce outsources the clothes to earn potential amount of profit. In context of Marks
and Spencer, they are also highly affected with change in the economical conditions of the
country.
Impact of recession:
Recession majorly affects the fashion industry as people stop to buy expensive products
at the time of recession. Marks & Spencer faced deep decline in the sales during the time of
pandemic (Martino and et. al., 2016).
Social Factors: The people of UK are highly fashion oriented thus there is huge scope
for the fashion companies to grow in the future. In case of Marks & Spencer, they can also earn
high profit by offering creative, unique fashion to the people.