Servco's Supply Chain: Retail Service Strategies, Canada Analysis

This report provides an overview of Servco, a retail institution based in Canada, focusing on its supply chain and service offerings. It details Servco's mission, vision, and core values, drawing parallels with Costco's business model. The report analyzes the Canadian retail industry, including e-commerce trends and the impact of political, economic, social, and technological factors using a PEST analysis. It outlines Servco's product and service offerings, emphasizing consumer, insurance, and business services. The report also discusses the concept of supplier sourcing, its significance in service retailing, and the four phases involved in vendor management. Finally, it includes a Gantt chart illustrating the project plan for the capstone project, covering tasks from topic selection to final submission, and highlights the importance of service standardization and customer relationships in service retailing.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
About Servco...............................................................................................................................3
Different sections.........................................................................................................................3
Mission of Servco............................................................................................................................3
Vision of Servco..............................................................................................................................4
Core Values of Servco.....................................................................................................................4
Industry Description........................................................................................................................4
Product/Service Overview...............................................................................................................7
Product/Service Description............................................................................................................7
Purpose Statement...........................................................................................................................8
Concept of Supplier Sourcing..........................................................................................................8
Significance.....................................................................................................................................9
Background......................................................................................................................................9
Summary and Approach................................................................................................................10
References......................................................................................................................................12

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Introduction
About Servco
Servco to be based in Canada would tend to operate as a retail institution that would essentially
focus on retailing of different types of services to its members along with retailing different types
of merchandises pertaining to various categories to its customers. The business model of Servco
would be designed based on understanding of the business model of the multinational retailer
Servco that operates both along the product and service dimension (Costco Wholesale
Corporation, 2019).
Different sections
The different sections in the report would essentially highlight on the mission, vision and
objectives of the firm with also providing an effective overview of the retail industry based in
Canada along with detailing of the service mix to be provided by Servco to its members. Finally,
the significance and background in carrying out a capstone project would also be addressed at
the last in a reflective fashion.
Mission of Servco
The mission statement of Servco would essentially reflect the fashion in which the service mix is
ought to be designed to help customers gain effective solutions to their personal and business
needs. The organization would focus on designing an innovative service portfolio for helping in
enticing the customers.

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Vision of Servco
The vision of Servco is to enhance the level of its operational efficiency such that it encourages
the members of the wholesale club in carrying out their buying and selling activities and also to
gain on potential savings in the long run.
Core Values of Servco
The core values based on which the management of Servco focuses on carrying out its business
operations are outlined as follows. The management focuses obeying by the laws of the land
while carrying out the retail operations. Further, the organization also takes a pledge in saving
and protecting the interests of both the internal and external members like the employees and
customers respectively. Servco’s management also focuses on both respecting and also in
generating rewards to both the suppliers and other stakeholder groups such that it highlights the
social responsiveness of the firm (Costco Wholesale Corporation, 2018).
Industry Description
The retail industry in Canada reflect a sluggish growth rate wherein during January 2018 the
growth in the level of retail sales accounted a growth of around 5.3 percent on a year-to-year
basis. However, the same is recorded to be lower than the growth rate achieved during January of
around 6.7 percent.

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(Strapagiel, 2018)
The graphical illustration provided above reflects that the growth trend on an annual basis has
weakened over the period as highlighted by the green line. Likewise, the growth trend measured
on a quarterly basis by the orange line is observed to reflect weaker trends after the 2017 period
(Patterson, 2018). During 2018, e-commerce operations in Canada accounted for around 2.6
percent of the total retail sales in the region and accounted for a quarterly growth of 15.1 percent
during the last quarter. The e-commerce operations herein reflect an integration of pure e-
commerce retailers and also that of online platforms for the brick-and-mortar retail firms.
However, the sales associated to e-commerce and online retailing is also evaluated to have
gained a downfall during 2018 compared to the growth rate of around 30.8 percent during the
last quarter of 2017. E-commerce activities in Canada earn greater significance regarding

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electronic shopping functions compared to the need placed by the brick-and-order formats
(Strapagiel, 2018).
The situation of the service retail industry in Canada would be evaluated based on the use of a
PEST Analysis as follows.
Political
The government of Canada in association with the
Retail Council of Canada essentially focuses on
encouraging the growth of service retailing
activities both as extensions to merchandise
retailing and also in an exclusive fashion (Retail
Council of Canada , 2019).
Economic
The economic situation of Canada ideally reflects
reduction in unemployment levels, growth in job
creation, and augmentation of personal gains and
declining of interest rates with effective real estate
markets which in turn paves the growth of
consumerism in the region (Alexander, 2018).
Social
Despite the fact that the brick-and-mortar retailers
operating in Canada tend to offer different types of
services to the customers the latter focus on gaining
specialized services from new sets of service
retailers. The change in consumer ideology thereby
requires the development of service retailers on a
larger scale in the region (Government of Canada ,
2018).
Technological
From the technological standpoint the development
of e-commerce would help the service retailers in
easily reaching a wider customer base and that also
in a faster manner. Further, the customers focusing
on availing the services can access the site based on
their convenience. The service retailers can also
focus on developing multichannel retailing
platforms through development of apps for
Smartphones which in turn would enhance
interaction with the target customer groups
(Strapagiel, 2018).

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Product/Service Overview
Servco would tend to act both as a wholesaler retailer and also strengthen its focus regarding the
addressing of the needs of customers regarding service retailing. In terms of operating as a
wholesale retailer it would focus on retailing merchandises whether food and non-food products
in bulk to its business and non-business customers. In terms of services, the service programs
carried out by the company tends to divide the total gamut of services into mainly three different
segments like consumer, insurance and business services (Loeb, 2012).
Product/Service Description
A detailed study of the service programs to be carried out by Servco reveals the following
information. The consumer services to be offered in by Servco would have an auto program that
enables the customers in earning the benefit of attractive prices. Herein dealers for different
categories of merchandises would be already selected by the organization to which the customers
tend to call for procuring merchandises at lowest prices and thereby tend to gain on in savings. In
the ambit of insurance, Servco would offer to its members’ different types of insurance
converges associated to insuring of home, property, and automobile and also health of
individuals (Pinola, 2014). Other types of services to be offered by the retail firm to its
consumers would be in the area of financial consultation while would also work in printing of
cards and in reaching water to residences and offices (Loeb, 2012). Servco in addition to the
above would also enable the customers in availing loans for different personal needs like buying
of automobiles, travelling and even of procuring residential properties (Pinola, 2014).

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Purpose Statement
Service retailing in Canada is at rudimentary state and is mainly addressed by the different retail
stores that focus on retailing of different types of consumer products along with selling of
different types of services. Herein, Servco would tend to generate a mixture of different types of
services in an exclusive fashion or as a one-stop shop for helping customers in addressing their
servicing needs.
Concept of Supplier Sourcing
Supplier or vendor sourcing occupies a significant place in the sphere of retailing in that the
productivity of the retail firms are ensured based on the effective management and interaction
with large number of supplier groups that focus on rendering quality goods and services for
enticing the customers. Vendor sourcing and management activities are concerned with not only
researching and identification of effective vendors but also in deciding on price quotes, duration
and number of turnarounds, quality checks, evaluation of supplier performances and productivity
patterns and finally the rendering of payments to the supplier groups (Ayers & Odegaard, 2017).
Vendor or supplier sourcing functions in the scope of service retailing is carried out based along
four main phases. The first phase focuses on outlining the aims and objectives of the firm based
on which the suppliers can be identified and selected for the business. The second phase is
associated to the evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of the vendors identified such that
the right type of vendor can be chosen in terms of matching the vendor’s potential with the
business performance. The third phase is associated with monitoring the performance levels of
the vendors with also ensuring the following up of the contract. Effective feedback is provided to

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the vendors in a likewise fashion for future development. Finally, in the fourth case the vendor
management functions tends to ensure whether the vendors selected ideally contribute in
addressing the performance related objectives along with meeting of profitability goals both
along the short and long-term periods (Bruel, 2016).
Significance
Service retailing as focused on being carried out by Servco gains significance in that it focuses
mainly on the intangible part of the business and thus endeavors to sustain an effective
relationship with the customer from its very inception. The service unlike merchandises being
intangible in nature fails to get stored and thus needs to be effectively disbursed of by the retailer
whether singly or in a package format to the customers. Standardization of services is highly
crucial in that the deliveries of the services are mainly carried out by human beings (Rafiq,
2014).
Background
Service retailing as a concept gained its emergence with the development of different types of
service providers that essentially cater in addressing the servicing needs of the customers
associated to different segments based on one’s necessity. Though the retail enterprises focusing
on selling of merchandises also tend to service the customers through generation of customer
services yet service retailing earns needed specialization in exclusively dealing with designing of
different types of service packs for enticing the diversified service based needs of customers.

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Summary and Approach
The use of a Gantt chart would be made to reflect on the project plan that needs to be undertaken
for carrying out the Capstone Project. It would reflect on the different tasks that are needed to be
carried out along the project with also highlighting the duration that would be required for the
effective completion of the diverse set of tasks.
S.
No.
Tasks/duration February March April
1 Weeks 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4
2 Selection of the topic
3 Submission of the
Proposal for review
4 Writing the
introductory section
5 Consulting different
literature
6 Formulating the
Research
Methodology section
7 Collection of data
from both secondary
and primary sources
8 Analysing the data
sets collected
9 Generation of

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inferences and
providing
recommendations
10 Writing of the
Executive Summary
and
Acknowledgement
11 Drafting the research
work for final
submission

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References
Alexander, C. (2018, November 28). Canada: Economic growth gearing down, but to a
sustainable pace. Retrieved February 4, 2019, from Deloitte:
https://www2.deloitte.com/insights/us/en/economy/americas/canada-economic-
outlook.html
Ayers, J. B., & Odegaard, M. A. (2017). Retail Supply Chain Management, Second Edition.
United Kingdom : CRC Press.
Bruel, O. (2016). Strategic Sourcing Management: Structural and Operational Decision-making.
United States : Kogan Page Publishers.
Costco Wholesale Corporation. (2019). About Us. Retrieved February 4, 2019, from Costco
Wholesale: https://www.costco.com/about.html
Costco Wholesale Corporation. (2018). Sustainability Committment . Retrieved February 4,
2019, from Costco Wholesale: https://www.costco.com/sustainability-introduction.html
Government of Canada . (2018, July 17). Retail trade. Retrieved February 4, 2019, from
http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/retra-comde.nsf/eng/Home
Loeb, W. (2012, November 6). Costco- Overwhelming Services for Members. Retrieved
February 4, 2019, from Forbes:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/walterloeb/2012/11/06/costco-overwhelming-services-for-
members/#4fed424416d0

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Patterson, C. (2018, January 7). 2018 Canadian Retail Forecast [Analysis]. Retrieved February
4, 2019, from Retail Insider: https://www.retail-insider.com/retail-insider/2018/1/2018-
canadian-retail-forecast-analysis
Pinola, M. (2014, October 16). Not Just for Bulk Buying: the Other Services You Can Save on at
Costco. Retrieved February 4, 2019, from https://lifehacker.com/not-just-for-bulk-
buying-the-other-services-you-can-sa-1646916284
Rafiq, M. (2014). Principles of Retailing. United Kingdom : Macmillan International Higher
Education.
Retail Council of Canada . (2019). Our Story. Retrieved February 4, 2019, from
https://www.retailcouncil.org/who-we-are/our-story/
Strapagiel, E. (2018, March 26). Canadian Retail Sales Growth Slows Going Into 2018.
Retrieved February 4, 2019, from Retail Insider: https://www.retail-insider.com/retail-
insider/2018/3/canadian-retail-sales-growth-slows-going-into-2018