Current Trends in Retail Industry: Analysis of Sainsbury and Recommendations

This report analyzes the current trends in the retail industry with a focus on Sainsbury. It covers the use of AI, online selling, and digital marketing strategies. Recommendations are provided for long-term sustainability and success in the competitive market.

FY028 Inquiry Based Learning

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Current trends in retail industry...................................................................................................3
Analysis of the organisation.........................................................................................................4
Recommendations........................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1
APPENDIX......................................................................................................................................3

INTRODUCTION
The report is based on the inquiry based project that will highlight the current trends in
the retail industry with the help of the business models and analysis form the research study
conducted through interview. Furthermore, it also covers the recommendations for the company
to ensure future success in the retail industry. The chosen company is Sainsbury.
MAIN BODY
Current trends in retail industry
The retail sector the business that is involved in selling the products directly to the end
users and includes shops , departmental stores, supermarkets , door to door sales and various
internet retailers. The retail sector of UK is important for the economy and provides
employment to over three million people(Jin, and Shin, 2020). It has been analysed from the
research is that it consist of over 300,000 separate business and is the also the source of
employment and help in increasing the employment rate of the country. It also focuses on
providing quality products and services to its customer by understanding the needs and
requirements. Due to Covid-19 crisis has resulted into various changes that has taken place in the
retail industry.
It has been analysed that most of the retailers has made modifications in their business
models by looking at the current situation of the market. From the studies it has been observed
that 87% retailers have shifted to selling their products online. In the beginning they faced
various challenges by expanding its business online as it is necessary to stay ahead in the
market and offer wide variety of the products to the customers(Kaur, Arora, and Bali, 2020). In
order to cover and balance the losses, and to serve wide variety of audience, companies have set
up the online stores and also offered home delivery which was the various steps that was taken
by the company. From the research it has been analysed that the retailers uses direct to customer
approach i.e. B2C business where the company sells its products to the customers. This kind of
the model is used by most of the retail companies i.e. Sainsbury as carries higher margins but
sometimes also results into high cost and distribution risk(Kunc, and Križan, 2018). Considering
the increasing in the scope of technology , the company has move towards installing effective
software systems in their management in order to receive the relevant information and data
regarding the requirements of the customers and about the current trends in the market. Various

retailer have applied Artificial Intelligence which has enabled the company and its systems to
work together and has also helped in optimising the customer experience, forecasting the trends
and also helps in management of the inventory(Har, and et.al., 2022). With the help of this
technology it has helped the company to connect with customer and communicate in order to
understand their preferences and requirements and operate accordingly. With the help of digital
transformation has helped the company to get better and reliable data which acts as a driver and
results into better business outcomes. It has been analysed that due to machine learning has
helped the company gain knowledge about the customer , growth opportunities and leads to
innovation(Arli, Bauer, and Palmatier, 2018). Current research shows that due to the pandemic
and with the return to indoor shopping , the safety measures have been taken by the stores. The
company is bound to follow the restrictions imposed by the government. In order to ensure safety
, it has been observed that 62% has introduced contactless and online payment in their stores for
better customer experience(Chen, and et.al., 2020). This has helped the industry to recover the
losses. With the help of these it has helped the company to provided better experience to its
customer. With the help of adopting the technologies and shifting to online world , the
companies are focusing towards inventory management technology which will help to increase
the efficiency and also improve the supply chain of the company in order to enhance its market
position.
Analysis of the organisation
Sainsbury is the second largest U.K. Grocery chain and have 15% of its market share.
The company has expanded its business in various countries and has over 600 supermarkets and
800 stores. The organisation was founded in 1869 and has diversified its business and expanded
its product line by dealing in clothing, telecom equipment and other non food items. In
September 2016, company further entered into non food retailing business of Home Retail group
and operating the Habitat and Argos chains. With the emergence of Covid-19, the company
suffered and incurred its costs in paying the workers in order to prevent the spread of the
infection. From the interview conducted, it has been analysed that various changes have took
place in the market which enable the company to make modification in its strategies according to
the current trends in the market.
It has been observed that during the pandemic the organisation also started its online
selling of the groceries and provide home delivery services for the enhancing the customer

experience. From the research it was observed that the online demand for the groceries was
increasing and have shown positive outcomes(Guo, and Wang, 2019). It was also seen that the
sales of the company also increased by 20% and during this period the company focused on
increasing its market presence and also introduced new non food items. The company sells its
products directly to the customer whenever they wants and according to needs and requirements.
The business model of the company to designed in order to create more value to the
shareholders, customer and colleagues. The company has also focused on introducing new
marketing strategies in order to provide wide range of products and services to the customers.
Furthermore,from the interview conducted it has been analysed in order to improve its
efficiency of the business and provide better customer experience. The company has selected the
Blue Yonder's end to end supply chain platform in order to make transformation in its supply
chain on the artificial intelligence platform (Davies,Dolega,and Arribas-Bel, 2019).
Furthermore , the company is using artificial intelligence and has introduced the concealment
detector technology in its stores. The company has also collaborated with the ThirdEye to roll
out the concealment detector which uses the machine learning in order to detect and record the
incidents of the theft and also send the video to the security staff immediately. It has been
observed that with the increase in the scope of technology , there has been increase in the cyber
crime and breach of data which is one of the major concerns for the company. On the other hand,
the company is also focusing on the data analytics in order to develop effective database and
applications in order to protect the personal information of the customer and data of the
company.
Due to the emergence of covid-19 has enabled the government to put various restrictions
in order to ensure safety of the customers and staff members of the stores. Due to crisis the
company suffered from the losses and incurred most of the costs in protecting the staff and
employees form the coronavirus(Weber, and Schütte, 2019). Furthermore , Due to lockdown
the company has to face big amount of loss and make strategies to shift to online deliver of the
grocery for better experience of its customer as per their requirements. It was analysed from the
study that workers who were working during the pandemic , most of the expenses of the
company was spent providing safety equipments to the employees and ensuring safety in order to
reduce the spread of the infection. By following the safety measures and to improve the customer
experience, company started doing contactless payment and online payments on the food and

non food items(Giroux, and et.al., 2022).From the above analysis it has been analysed that the
company has focused on adopting new and advanced software which has helped the company to
collect reliable data in order to understand the customers preferences and requirements and
deliver the products.
Recommendations
It has been observed that with the changes in the environmental it is necessary of the
company to make modifications accordingly for long term sustainability in the competitive
market. Sustainability is very important factor for the retailers for the success of the business. If
the company wants to expand or diversify its business it is recommended to plan the strategies
and introduce innovations in order to provide wide range of products to its customers(Cao,
2021). In order to succeed in the business, it is required for the company to have flexibility and
should set clear objectives before implementing any strategy.
It is recommended to Sainsbury to be well organised and In order to complete the task
effectively and in the given timeline(Pantano, and Vannucci, 2019) . It is also suggested to the
company to maintain financial records of all the transactions and monitor the progress of the
company and its ability to face the challenges. The company can use various new and advanced
software such as Big Data and use of Artificial intelligence that will help the company to find
appropriate data about the current trends prevailing in the market and also the needs and
requirements of the customer and then evaluate the progress of the company and make strategies
accordingly in order to fulfil the requirements of the customer and to enhance its position in the
market.
In addition to this innovation is very important aspect which contributes in the success of
the company. In order to succeed in the market and to stand against the competitors it is required
to critically evaluate the strategies and products offered by the competitors and add new
products or service in the market which matches with the expectations of the customers(Vaishya,
and et.al., 2020). On the other hand with the increase in the scope of the technology it is
required for the company to adopt new and effective system software which helps to analyse the
various factors affecting the operations of the company. It is suggested for the company to use
more updated software in its system for protecting data of the customers and also data security.
On the other hand, the manager of the company is required to have the knowledge about the risk
that are involved in conducting the business and it is necessary to manage the and find ways to

eliminate such risk which can negatively impact its business(Cao, 2021). It is recommended that
the organisation should create risk assessment programs which will help the company to identify
the level of risk that is involved and help in overcoming those barriers. Furthermore, it is
suggested to the company to be consistent as it is considered necessary to carry out the business
and successfully. Business environment is dynamic in nature and changes in it affects the
business. The company is required to implement such changes and educate the employees about
the benefit of such changes by providing efficient training to the employees. In addition to this
the company is required to focus providing effective services to the customer as they are
considered as major aspect which contributes in the success of the organisation .

CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be concluded that the scope of UK retail industry is
increasing and it also acts a source of providing employment to people. In order to succeed in the
market and give tuff competition it is necessary for the company to focus on providing quality
services to the customers. The research summarise the various current trends prevailing in the
retail industry of UK such as shifting to online selling of the products of the company , use of
artificial intelligence as it helps in collecting useful data for evaluating the progress of the
company and also to improve its efficiency and reduce the cost.
On the other hand, the study also includes the analysis by conducting the interview and
analysing the position of Sainsbury and its features considering the current trends in the retail
industry and lastly recommendation for the company in order to succeed in the market and gain
competitive advantage in the retail industry such as adopting digital marketing strategies and
adopt the updated technologies in order to collect the data for further analysis.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Arli, D., Bauer, C. and Palmatier, R.W., 2018. Relational selling: Past, present and future.
Industrial Marketing Management. 69. pp.169-184.
Cao, L., 2021. Artificial intelligence in retail: applications and value creation logics.
International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management.
Chen, and et.al., 2020. Promotional pricing and online business model choice in the presence of
retail competition. Omega. 94. p.102085.
Davies, A., Dolega, L. and Arribas-Bel, D., 2019. Buy online collect in-store: exploring grocery
click&collect using a national case study. International Journal of Retail & Distribution
Management.
Giroux, and et.al., 2022. Artificial intelligence and declined guilt: Retailing morality
comparison between human and AI. Journal of Business Ethics, pp.1-15.
Guo, L. and Wang, Z., 2019. Ratio analysis of J Sainsbury plc financial performance between
2015 and 2018 in comparison with Tesco and Morrisons. American Journal of
Industrial and Business Management. 9(2). pp.325-341.
Har, and et.al., 2022. Revolution of Retail Industry: From Perspective of Retail 1.0 to 4.0.
Procedia Computer Science. 200. pp.1615-1625.
Jin, B.E. and Shin, D.C., 2020. Changing the game to compete: Innovations in the fashion retail
industry from the disruptive business model. Business Horizons. 63(3). pp.301-311.
Kaur, J., Arora, V. and Bali, S., 2020. Influence of technological advances and change in
marketing strategies using analytics in retail industry. International journal of system
assurance engineering and management. 11(5). pp.953-961.
Kunc, J. and Križan, F., 2018. Changing European retail landscapes: New trends and challenges.
Moravian Geographical Reports. 26(3). pp.150-159.
Pantano, E. and Vannucci, V., 2019. Who is innovating? An exploratory research of digital
technologies diffusion in retail industry. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services.
49. pp.297-304.
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Vaishya, and et.al., 2020. Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications for COVID-19
pandemic. Diabetes & Metabolic Syndrome: Clinical Research & Reviews. 14(4).
pp.337-339.
Weber, F.D. and Schütte, R., 2019. State-of-the-art and adoption of artificial intelligence in
retailing. Digital Policy, Regulation and Governance.
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APPENDIX
Q 1 What changes have you observed in the Sainsbury you observed after pandemic?
Participant 1 I have observed that the company has successfully complied with the current
trends and successfully followed the safety measures ensuring health and safety of the customers
in their offline stores.
Q 2 Do you think adopting latest technology such as Artificial Intelligence, Sainsbury has
regained its position in the market?
Participant 2 Adopting Artificial Intelligence has helped the company to effectively manage its
supply chain that has helped the customer to respond to the changing needs and deliver the same
to the customers.
3