Top Shop Business Plan: Reasons for Failure and Strategies for Success

This report covers the product and services, business plan, and strategies of Top Shop, a fashion retailer in the UK. It identifies the reasons for the company's failure and provides recommendations for future growth. The report includes a SWOT analysis, marketing and sales strategy, management and staffing, operations, and financial projections. Subject: Inquiry Based Learning, Course Code: FY028, College/University: Not mentioned.

Module: (FY028) Inquiry Based Learning
Topic: (Business plan)

Executive Summary
In this report it covers product and services and business plan of Top Shop as well
as its strategies to conduct profitable business operations. The aim of this report is to
highlights the reason of failure of Top Shop as well as what factors can be the
reason of failure in future. The biggest reason of their failure is outdated methods,
items and marketing strategy which decline their sales profitability and customer
base. Top Shop fashion brand in UK provides better quality and large variety of
products especially for women. Market strategy of company includes target market,
digital marketing plan, sales strategy and pricing strategy on order to attract large
number of customers. Managers’ makes effective business plan by conducting huge
market research about customers’ trends and preferences to improve their current
quality and performance in order to reduce many risks related to that. They providing
best training to their employees to manage their work effectively and earn
competitive advantages over competitors.
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Table of Contents
Executive Summary......................................................................................................2
Introduction ..................................................................................................................4
Company history background ......................................................................................4
Identify areas of failure and why ..................................................................................4
Current trends and competition at that time ................................................................5
Models of Analysis ......................................................................................................5
Recommendations........................................................................................................6
Marketing and sales strategy........................................................................................6
Conclusion ...................................................................................................................9
References .................................................................................................................10
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Introduction
Business plan is a set of activities which includes various types of plan to
conduct all functions of organisation systematically and effectively. It consist
marketing plan, sales plan, operation plan, budget plan, resources plan and many
more (Souto and Rodríguez-López, 2021). It helps the managers to outline
strategies in order to conduct activities and get opportunities for future growth. To
define the concept of business plan the selected company is Top Shop which is
fashion Retailers Company in UK. It was established in 1964 by ASOS as well as it
deals in various fashion products like make up, shoes, accessories and clothing.
The aim of this project to define the possible reasons of why the company has
to be fail. This report highlights company description, market analysis, market and
sales strategy. Further, it covers management team, staffing, operations, funding
requirements, financial projections as well as assumptions related business
operations.
Company history background
Top shop is a multinational British retail women fashion company which deals
in multiple product line such as shoes, clothing, makeup and accessories in UK. It
was founded in 1964 to provide these products to large number of customers. It has
around more than 500 shops across the world and has also online stores in many
markets. The vision of company is get huge customer base by offering better quality
ethical products and meets their demand. The objectives of company to increase
their sales, profitability and market share globally by increasing the values for
customers. The company failed to survive in competitive market and make
sustainability in their operations as well as they are not capable to adopt recent
trends and fashion in their stores for the younger girls. Old fashion Cloths, out dated
items, Traditional method of conducting business leads to decline the sales of
company. As the result of this they are suffer from huge loss and become insolvent
along with that they have to shut down their stores in many countries. The biggest
reason behind the failure of Top shop is they failed to cope up with recent trends as
well as upgrade their business operations. It has been seen that, in recent time most
of the people prefer to buy products online which unable the company to survive in
competitive market. (Nunis., 2020).
Identify areas of failure and why
 Poor marketing strategy- Marketing strategy refers to plan which outlines
what the marketers of company have to do in order to increase their sales and
attract target audience for the achievement of organisation goals (Prathap and
Sudheer, 2021). The marketing strategy of Top Shop includes traditions
methods like advertisements, direct selling and others which are the reason in
declining in sales which further results in insolvency of company.
 Lack of training among employees -The company cannot provide training
and development program for their valuable employees in order to improve
their technical and analytical skills to reduce mistakes and cost of operations
as well as enhanced productivity and skills of them.
 Improper recruitment process- HR manager of Top Shop conduct their
process of staffing ineffectively by not following proper procedure of hiring and
recruiting. They hire less qualified and skilled employees without checking
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their qualifications and background from many sources which impact badly
the overall performance of company (Frederick, 2021)
 There are various other reasons of failure of Top Shop such as change of the
customer’s behaviour, lack of innovations, very slow or late entry into online
shopping. Along with lack of flexibility in terms of the market trends and
changes, Ignoring the competitors, economic reasons and the range of
products are not attractive to the customers any more. There are many
reasons behind insolvency of Top shop such as its online business is lagged,
failed to maintain the trend and uniqueness, it had to meet various competitive
problems and poor sustainability which decline their sales and increase their
cost. As the result of this the company suffered from huge loss and became
insolvent.
Current trends and competition at that time
Market analysis
In Top Shop the targeted customers are above the age of 30 and women who
buy products at high prices. But in modern world people and girls prefer variety of
fashion items at affordable cost. As they are students and not earning which enable
them to buy items at higher price. As the result of this they closed down many stores
which suffered from losses. Marketers of Top Shop makes plan to target people who
prefer to adopt recent trends related to fashion products. Also they make changes in
their market segment by Targeting youngsters and people of age group between 16
to 30 who has preferred better quality (Putri, 2020). In recent times; half of the
population prefers online shopping, so the main target of Top Shop is audience who
are the user and regular customers of online store. They can expand their online
business rapidly rather than opening stores in physical market. They targeted
women and girls between the age group of 16 to 30 who are fashion freak and
earning women. They are ready to pay more amounts in order to buy better quality
fashion products.
Profile of competitors
Competitors of Top Shop includes various big multinational companies such as
ZARA, New Look, Farfetch and many more which have huge customer base, market
share across the world. These companies offer their products in Innovative way by
providing many facilities for customers like online shopping, cash on delivery, online
payment and many more in order to add values for them. They also use effective
marketing strategy and financial sources to expand their business globally as well as
attract large number of customers.
Competitive advantage
Competitive advantages of Top Shop are they have huge loyal customer base and
professional staff that give their best efforts to provide better quality products to
customers in order to meet their demands efficiently (Rocafull Piqueras, 2018).
Company offers their products at high price with better quality so most of the women
choose that for standard living and better skin. Top Shop sells high quality products
with innovative designs at reasonable prices which attracts large number of people
towards them.
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Models of Analysis
SWOT analysis
With the help of this analysis they determine the area in which they
failed as well as the future possible challenges which leads to become the
failure of company. SWOT analysis is a business analytical tool which helps
business manager to determine their internal strengths and weaknesses as
well as external opportunities and threat in order to get clear direction for
company to improve performance and earn competitive advantages over
competitors. It also helps them to find out the reason of their failure and weak
strategies. SWOT analysis in context to Top Shop is as follows-
Strength: -
 Broad Spectrum.
 Across the board
name.
 Profitable pricing.
 The latest catwalk
styles with the
shortest lead time
and affordable
price.

Weakness: -
 Top Shop has less
stock for production
along with our dated
fashion items which
decline their sales.
 Scant advertising is
the biggest reason
behind the failure of
company.
 Pricing of product of
Top shop is s for
lightly high so it is only
for those who are
willingly to buy.
Opportunities: -
 High quality
clothing and lack
of diversity in
market is biggest
opportunity for Top
Shop to grow.
 It has opportunities
to expand
business in many
cities by
franchising.
 Top Shop can
attract more
investors by
creating big brand
value.

Threats: -
 Biggest threat for Top
Shop is political
conditions of many
countries is not stable
along with COVID 19
has impacted the
future customer base.
 New companies with
many offers and
innovative products
are also threat for Top
Shop which can be
the reason that
company will be suffer
from huge loss.
 Effective Pricing
strategy and
marketing strategy of
big competitors can
be challenging for Top
Shop.
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Recommendations
Marketing and sales strategy
Marketing strategy
IN order to deal with the effect of COVID 19 and overcome from the failure of
company management have to use new concept or technology in their marketing or
make effective strategies. To promote their products and services in digital world
they can use digital marketing, social media marketing and giving advertisement on
holdings and many more. By making effective content for uploading post, emails,
videos and poster on the profile, website and account of many social media
platforms they can increase their sales, profitability and customer base. They can
used this technique by hiring professional for making and testing valuable content in
order to increase loyal customer base as per their preferences and demands.
Sales strategy
Sales strategy refers to set of activities and proper plan of actions of business
management to achieve their sales target and increased profitability for future
growth. The marketers of Top Shop formulate sales strategy by conducting research
about recent market trends, customers preference in order to produce better quality
of innovative products. Also they can also have utilised their resources optimally
which leads to decline in their cost as well as they can sell their product at
reasonable price. (Ericksen, 2020). They can sell their products online and direct
through retail stores in many areas by promoting them on their personal website and
social media accounts to attract large number of teenager and youth.
Pricing strategy
Professional of Top Shop makes effective plan of action by evaluating market
conditions, customers taste or income level, pricing strategy of competitors and
many. They fix their prices by determining their cost of operations and adding in it
their profit margin in order to earn huge profits and reduce the loss which they
suffered earlier. In order to survive in dynamic market and earn big market share
they fixing their products and services price by determining pricing segment, pricing
position, pricing capacity and strategy of competitors in order to provide products at
reasonable price and earn maximum profit for them (Seisdedos Barrabés, 2021).
Management of Top Shop set their price according to their customers willingness to
pay for that in order to boost their connection and trust to overcome from the failure.
Management and staffing
Management team
In Top Shop top management makes various teams for every department in
order to conduct systematic working in organisation and increased productivity by
follow proper rules and policies. They must follow divisional structure in which they
can allow their employees to take participation in decision making process related to
many activities of products and services. For these they feel confident and motivated
to improve their performance and productivity for offering better quality of products to
meet the expectations of customers (Lin, 2019). Every employee has right to share
their ideas and lead the team to achieve the target on time make business more
profitable, they give their best efforts in order to contribute in the growth of company
at larger scale.
Staffing
It is useful to them to hire best candidate for their vacant job role for
conducting effective working in organisation without wasting time, resources and
cost on them to improve their skills or knowledge. They hire well educated and skills
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personal for their online and offline fashion stores in order to satisfy customer
demands and earn competitive benefits.
Training program
The manager of Top Shop has to be provide training to every employee as
per their needs and job roles to boost their morale to perform in an effective manner
in order to achieve success and business goals. They must organise work shop,
seminars, conferences, on job and off job training program for their employees in
enhance their experience and knowledge of various field to conduct working
smoothly and generate better understanding about task or each other to create
better environment in organisation.
Recruitment
HR manager of Top Shop hires new candidate for their stores and expand
their business in new market by using various method such as direct hiring,
contracting with agencies, campus hiring, giving ads and verbal recommendations of
old employees (Vicente, 2022). They use these in order to get best candidate by
conducting whole process of selection effectively and select individuals as per
required skills and qualifications to meet the desired demands of company.
Operations
It is related with production functions and running, managing and conducting
all the activities of business to achieve the objectives successfully. The management
of Top Shop make business plans to determine location, infrastructure, process,
technology, people and many more. Initially, they make budget plan for accruing
licence, insurance, purchasing equipment, company premises, raw material,
transport and many more to provide products and services to large number of
customers to complete goals. They use labour and machine techniques both to
produce and offer better products by arranging funds for resourcing these activities.
Financial projections and key assumptions
In order to conduct operation effectively managers required to huge amount of funds
and finance for rent, infrastructure, operations function, salary, distribution, marketing
and many more. They have to give salary to large number of employees who worked
in many stores across the world and conduct their performance effectively. Also they
have to give funds for day to day activities, raw material, installing machines,
Marketing products or services and investing amount on productive opportunity for
success.
Funding requirements
The main source of income in Top Shop is investments of foreign investors as
they can raise funds from market by using various source of income. These sources
include loan form bank, accruing funds from venture capital and attracting many big
investors to invest in their company project for making it big and more profitable.
They must utilise their Scare financial resources for day to day working, expansion
program and providing better quality services to target audience. They can also
attract general public to invest their money in the company and get ownership for
profit and better opportunity.
Risk analysis
It refers to the most important factor which affects overall business and its
effectiveness. By using various tools such as PEST, management of Top Shop can
determines their external factors such as impact of political and government policies,
economic conditions of Country like suppliers, income level and many more.
Customers taste and preferences and availability of technology in market which
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effect the business profitability and productivity (Mohammed, 2018). They can make
effective plan in order to minimise internal and external risks, internal risk is related
with production process, employees working, organisation culture, conflicts, cost,
skills of people, fault in technology and many more which hinders the productivity
and quality of products of company that leads to decline in sales, image and
customer base.
Conclusion
As per above presented information, it is concluded that business plan
includes various plan such as marketing, finance, operations and many more which
is essential for manager to provide proper plan of action for working. Manager can
make effective marketing strategy by conducting research and using digital tools.
They also provide training to employees to increase their skills and raise funds from.
Various sources like loan, venture capital and many more. In order to reduce risk,
they can use PEST to determine it for making plans for better results.
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References
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experiential and competences training context: A business plan in Bachelor
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Putri, M.N., 2020. BUSINESS PLAN GLIKO (Doctoral dissertation, President
University).
Rocafull Piqueras, M., 2018. Development of a business plan for 3Bee.
Prathap, S.K. and Sudheer, K.P., 2021. Model Business Plan. In Entrepreneurship
Development in Food Processing (pp. 347-362). CRC Press.
Ericksen, J., 2020. Jamie’s Italian ice business plan.
Seisdedos Barrabés, S., 2021. SON-SOLUTIONS: Business Plan.
Lin, E., 2019. The Business of Bariatrics: Creating a Business Plan. Bariatric
Surgical Practice and Patient Care.14(1). pp.1-2.
Frederick, W.A., 2021. FOR TOMORROW's LEADERS, A SOCIAL AGENDA IS AS
IMPORTANT AS A BUSINESS PLAN. Leader to Leader. 2021(100). pp.18-
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Vicente, C.B., 2022. Business plan for a metallurgical and metalworking company
Mohammed, S., 2018. Developing a Business Plan. In Tomorrow's Agriculture (pp.
33-36). Springer, Cham.
Nunis.,V, 2020. Four reasons Top Shop is not the brand it once was. [Online].
Available Through: <https://www.bbc.com/news/business-54959881>
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