Strategies and Tactics for Responding to Changes in the UK Fashion Clothing Market - Desklib

This report discusses the key relevant changes in the UK fashion clothing market and suggests strategies and tactics that could be used by the retailer to respond to the major changes occurring in the fashion clothing market. It covers topics such as online shopping, legal changes, technological change, shift toward size-inclusive fashion, sustainability, using digital media for promotion, discounts, offers and sales, and selling cultural dresses. The report also includes strategies and other tactics that can help Marks and Spencer gain a competitive advantage in the market.

Retail Theory and Practice

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Main body........................................................................................................................................3
Identifies key relevant changes in the UK fashion clothing market.......................................3
Suggests and discusses strategies and tactics that could be used by the retailer to respond to
the major changes occurring in the fashion clothing market..................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCE.................................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Retailing industry is one of the most developed and fastest growing industry in many
countries including UK. Retailing companies are responsible to sold household products to their
customers (Tudor, 2018). Here, they mainly focuses on the services which they provide to their
customers. Retailing companies can gain competitive advantage by offering less price than their
competitors to attract more customers. Marks and Spencer is a British Multinational clothing
company which was founded in 1884 by Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer. It is
headquartered in London, UK. It is having stores all across the world and their customers prefer
to purchase their garments because of their high quality and affordable prices. The following
report covers key relevant changes in the UK fashion clothing market and strategies and tactics
that could be used by the retailer to respond to the major changes occurring in the fashion
clothing market.
Main body
Identifies key relevant changes in the UK fashion clothing market
There are various kind of changes which is faced by UK fashion clothing market and there are
positive and negative impact of these changes which are mentioned below-
Online shopping and e-commerce- The retailing company is moving toward online
option to sell their products (Winterton and Winterton, 2019). Here, companies like Marks and
Spencer is having their own mobile application which will help their customers to find all variety
of clothing products at one place only so that they will choose which one they want to buy.
Legal changes- UK, has made some restricted laws related to retailing companies to
perform their business like General Data Protection Regulation Act which consist that the
companies must keep the personal data of their customers safe and secure by using advance
technological and software factors. It is the responsibility of company if their customer's
personal data get leaked to third party. Hence, they must keep the data of their customers and
employees safe and secure from external party. This may include to have huge investment on
purchasing those devices which will keep data secure. In context of Marks and Spencer, they
follow all legal laws and regulations of UK to maintain discipline within their company.

Technological change- It plays an big role in the development of UK fashion clothing
market. UK, is focusing and investing more on their technological factors and introduce those
technologies for companies which help them to produce good quality of products within limited
time frame (Goworek and et. al., 2020). Advanced technological tools and machines will also
help clothing companies to manage their waste effectively which means they produce their
products by using every single unit of raw material and in case few amount of fabric is left
without use then these machines will help to reuse them for new product production.
Inflation rate- This is one of the biggest change in UK fashion clothing industry. UK is
observed to have 3.1% inflation rate in the year 2017 and it get increased in 2018 and 2019.
inflation rate is the situation where the prices of raw material get increased which further
increase the prices of finished goods. Hence, due to high prices of products, the customers
purchasing power get declined. In context of UK fashion clothing market, their companies have
increased the prices of their products due to increase in prices of raw material. Hence, this will
impact bad upon customer buying behaviour and due to this reason customers purchase less
quantity.
A shift toward size-inclusive fashion- Most of the clothing companies introduce a
different section of large size cloths especially for pregnant ladies and those customers who face
obesity (Mr S Ullal and et. al., 2021). This will help company to expand their business and
expand their targeting customers. This also shows the message of equality that whether the
customer are fit or unfit but they have rights to wear branded cloths. In context of Marks and
Spencer, they welcome their each customer in polite way and help them to find out the section of
their clothing size and type.
Deals in variety of cloths- This is also a good change which is shown in the fashion
clothing industries in UK where most of the companies provide various kind of clothing type for
women, men and kids. Hence, this will help customers to purchase all kind of clothing types
from one store.
Importance of sustainability- Sustainability is the concept of adopting those activities
which help a company to develop their environment and communities standard of living. Hence,
most of the clothing companies in UK are switching to adopt sustainability activities like
reducing plastic bags and using paper bags in stores, collecting used garments from customers
and distribute them to needy people who are unable to afford appropriate cloths. All these

activities are nowadays becoming trendy and companies focus to adopt sustainability in their
organisation with few innovative ideas.
Using digital media for promotion- Most of the companies are switching their
promotional strategy and coming to digital ways of promoting their brands (Cross, 2021). In
context of most of the clothing companies including Marks and Spencer, they promote their
brand and products on social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and many
others. This will help them to reach customers at global level because most of the customers are
using social media platforms for collecting any information. Hence, through social media
platforms they can aware their customers well. It is also considered as one of the most non-
expensive way of promotion.
Discounts, offers and sales- This is also one of the biggest change which is opted by
most of clothing brands in UK where they start selling their cloths on discounts and sales with
reduced prices than MRP for two main aims and objectives which is to improve the movement of
their stock and maximize their sales and secondly, to gain high customer attention for brand
recognition which further help to build strong customer base. Due to this change most of the
companies gain loyal customers.
Selling Cultural dresses- Most of the clothing multinational companies deal in
manufacturing cloths related to nation's culture where they expand their business. For example,
in case Marks and Spencer company expand their business in Japan then they must sell normal
clothing like trousers, shirts and many others but they also start manufacturing Kimono which is
their traditional dress (Peters and Simaens, 2020). This will help them to gain more customers.
This will include high investment on finding traditional designers who have gained appropriate
experience and knows about traditional trends in their country. Local designers are one of the
best option for this. Hence, companies are required to invest high on their research and
development department.
Suggests and discusses strategies and tactics that could be used by the retailer to respond to the
major changes occurring in the fashion clothing market
There are various kind of strategies and tactics which can be adopted by a company to
manage the industrial changes so that changes will not impact bad upon their operations. These
strategies and tactics are mentioned below-
Strategies and tactics for adopting online shopping and e-commerce activities-

 It is suggested to Marks and Spencer that they must analyse their targeting customers and
then adopt online shopping because it is necessary for their customers to have knowledge
of digital technology and online shopping to operate the website of company well.
 It is also essential for the company to make their website attractive so that their customers
will generate interest to purchase products fro their website (Papahristou and Bilalis,
2017).
 It will also helpful for Marks and Spencer to offer less prices of their products for online
shopping customers as compare to traditional shopping to influence customers to
purchase most of the products online.
 Improving delivery time will also help customers to use online shopping.
Strategies and tactics for legal changes-
 Marks and Spencer is suggested to follow all legal rules and regulations for for their
company and they are also required to follow the international laws where they expand
their business.
 For General Data Protection and regulation Act it is essential for Marks and Spencer to
purchase advanced and modern digital devices and keep updating their software for
keeping their data secure and safe from hackers and other external threats.
 They can manage their investment by making budget for these activities and try to
purchase their new devices and install them within that particular budget so that they will
not feel burden for following any law.
Strategies for technological change-
 Marks and Spencer is suggested to adopt those tools and machines which will help them
to increase the efficiency and performance of their employees like Scutching Machines,
Carding Machines and many others. These type of machines will help them to
manufacture their clothes faster and maintain the quality perfectly.
 Hence, it is essential for them to analyse which tools and machine will provide them
maximum benefit and they can try to adopt those machines which are having more pros
than their corns (Ozarisoy and Elsharkawy, 2019).
 In case the machine is considered as expensive for Marks and Spencer, then they can
adopt to use partnership method where they can work with other company which is

having good technologies like high tech machines and tools so that they can also use
those machines and manufacture quality products.
Strategies for shift toward size-inclusive fashion-
 It is suggested that Marks and Spencer will have different section for over sized clothes
and they must have various garments varieties for their pregnant customers and over
sized customers (Reinhoudt‐den Boer, van Wijngaarden and Huijsman, 2021).
 It is also effective if they use dummy to show that they are having exclusive sized
clothes and they can also use slogan for motivating their customers to attract them toward
their brand.
Strategies for sustainable development-
 In context of Marks and Spencer, they must adopt those sustainable activities which will
help them to gain attention of their customers and make them happy.
 For example, if they plant more trees in those areas where the forests are reducing and
distributing clothes to poor people will help them to maintain good image in their market.
 It is also suggested that they can manage their waste effectively so that it will be
benefited for environment as well as for their organisation.
 In case they start collecting used and damaged clothes from their customers and make
some changes in them to make it good to wear effectively and then distribute it to poor
people will help them to perform better sustainable management with less expensive
ways (Barika, Garg and Ranjan, 2020).
Strategies for using digital media for promoting their products-
 It is suggested to Marks and Spencer that they must analyse that their customers are using
which digital platform commonly and try to promote their brand through that platform
like in case they found their UK customers are using Facebook and Instagram more than
other digital way then Marks and Spencer must promote their product on these platforms
only (Xu and Hua, 2017).
 It is also suggested that the company must share short and adequate information on their
social media sites so that their customers will gain interest to read the messages.
 They can also share their few of the clothing designs through social media contents to
attract more customers.
Strategies for discounts, offers and sales-

 It is suggested to Mark and Spencer that they can advertise their discounting offers on
different media such as social media, through new paper, TV ads and many others to
aware their customers.
 It is also suggested that the company must mention appropriate location of stores which is
having sales and discounted products, and also mention the time and date up-to which
customers can purchase discounted products.
 It will also helpful for them to use the offers like “buy two and get one free” so that their
customers will purchase two products on MRP price for gaining one extra product free.
 It is also good for the company that they can start replacing the products within limited
time period which is not liked by their customers. For example, most of the customers
purchase products from sales and discounts and then want to replace it but most of the
companies refuses to replace the product which they purchased from sales and discounts.
Hence, to maintain good relationship with customers and gain their satisfaction, Marks
and Spencer must have the option of replacing their sales and discounted products within
3-4 days.
Strategies for selling cultural dresses in market-
 In is suggested for Marks and Spencer to analyse the culture of the country where they
planned or already expanded their business.
 They can hire local employees and designers which will help them to design on
traditional dresses of their culture.
 It is essential for the company to focus on manufacturing those products which will help
their customers to gain high experienced by the quality (De Lemos and et. al., 2017).
 They can also innovate some new designs in prints as well as in using new fabrics to
manufacture traditional clothes to gain customer's attention.
Strategies and other tactics which can help Marks and Spencer to gain competitive
advantage in markets-
Porter five forces model-
Threat of new entrance- It is essential for M&S to defend them self from the damage
which they gain after the entry of new companies in their market. For this they can focus on
reducing the prices of their products and keep focusing on serving good services to their
customers so that new entered company will not impact bad upon them.

Supplier bargaining power- It is also suggested to M&S that they must deal with those
suppliers which are having quality raw material and well aware about the current trend and
marketing situation. M&S can have more than one supplier so that in case their one or few
suppliers switch to supply their raw material to other company then they will not impacted bad
for this and they can suddenly switch to other supplier.
Customer bargaining power- It is also essential for M&S to gain customer satisfaction
by serving them good services and quality products in affordable prices. Secondly, starting
replacing the product within few days will also help to gain more customers toward their
company.
Threat of substitute- Substitute goods are those goods which are used place of each
other. Clothing industry is having various local companies which can sell the substitutes of
branded company products (Khurram, Hassan and Khurram, 2020). Hence, M&S can defend by
these companies by increasing awareness about the logo of their company's product to their
customers well.
Industry Rivalry- This consist of techniques and ways to tackle competition. In context
of M&S, they can reduce the prices of their products as compared to their competitors and offer a
comparison chart to their customers with which they can analyse the difference between their
prices and their competitive prices with quality. It is essential for them to highlight that they are
having better pricing strategy and quality then their competitors.
CONCLUSION
It is concluded from the above information that there are various kind of changes within
UK fashion and clothing industry like online shopping and e-commerce, legal changes, inflation
rate, deals in variety of cloths, importance of sustainability and many others. Companies are
required to make strategies and tactics to handle the different kind of situations and changes
which their industry faces. Porter five forces is used to analyse strategies for competitive factors
within the industry.

REFERENCE
Book and journal
Barika, M., Garg, S. and Ranjan, R., 2020. Cost effective stream workflow scheduling to handle
application structural changes. Future Generation Computer Systems, 112, pp.348-361.
Cross, K.A., 2021. Comfort in clothing: a Baumanian critique of how clothing contributes to the
well-being of women in the United Kingdom (Doctoral dissertation).
De Lemos, R. and et. al., 2017. Software engineering for self-adaptive systems: Research
challenges in the provision of assurances. In Software Engineering for Self-Adaptive
Systems III. Assurances (pp. 3-30). Springer, Cham.
Goworek, H. and et. al., 2020. Managing sustainability in the fashion business: Challenges in
product development for clothing longevity in the UK. Journal of Business
Research, 117, pp.629-641.
Khurram, A., Hassan, S. and Khurram, S., 2020. Revisiting Porter Five Forces Model: Influence
of Non-Governmental Organizations on Competitive Rivalry in Various Economic
Sectors. Pakistan Social Sciences Review, 4.
Mr S Ullal, M. and et. al., 2021. Is Taiwan a black swan phenomenon for local textile and
clothing industry? A robust nonlinear regressionbased model for stock exchange
prediction. Industria Textila, 71(6), pp.01-7.
Ozarisoy, B. and Elsharkawy, H., 2019. Assessing overheating risk and thermal comfort in state-
of-the-art prototype houses that combat exacerbated climate change in UK. Energy and
Buildings, 187, pp.201-217.
Papahristou, E. and Bilalis, N., 2017. Should the fashion industry confront the sustainability
challenge with 3D prototyping technology. International Journal of Sustainable
Engineering, 10(4-5), pp.207-214.
Peters, J. and Simaens, A., 2020. Integrating sustainability into corporate strategy: A case study
of the textile and clothing industry. Sustainability, 12(15), p.6125.
Reinhoudt‐den Boer, L., van Wijngaarden, J. and Huijsman, R., 2021. Coproducing care and
support delivery in healthcare triads: Dutch case managers for people with dementia at
home using strategies to handle conflict in the healthcare triad. Health & Social Care in
the Community.
Tudor, L., 2018. Change in textile and clothing industry. Industria Textila, 69(1), pp.37-43.
Winterton, J. and Winterton, R., 2019. De-regulation, division and decline: the UK clothing
industry in transition. In Rethinking Global Production (pp. 18-40). Routledge.
Xu, X. and Hua, Q., 2017. Industrial big data analysis in smart factory: Current status and
research strategies. Ieee Access, 5, pp.17543-17551.