Case Study: Business Economics of Online Vs High Street Shopping in UK

This case study analyzes the impact of online shopping on the UK's high street retail sector, highlighting the market structures of monopoly, oligopoly, and perfect competition. It examines the shift in consumer behavior towards online platforms, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the convenience of online shopping features like doorstep delivery and customer reviews. The study identifies the beneficiaries of this shift as online retailers and the sufferers as traditional brick-and-mortar stores struggling to adapt. It concludes that businesses must adapt to evolving market dynamics by offering unique products and embracing e-commerce to maintain a competitive edge in the UK market. Desklib offers similar solved assignments for students.

BUSINESS
ECONOMICS

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................................................3
Monopoly market.........................................................................................................................3
Oligopoly market.........................................................................................................................3
Perfect competition......................................................................................................................4
The case study of Online Vs High Street shopping.....................................................................4
The reasons behind the influential impact of the online retailers over the high street
shops in the UK business environment................................................................................4
The benefiters and the sufferers of the changing market competition model..................5
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
The enumeration of the significant marketing structure is imperative in order to
understand and comprehend towards the formulation and the composition of the market. The
features and the characteristics of each signifies the importance it withholds in the business
environment. The contribution of each of the structure is extemporary to understand thereby
(Bennett, 2022). The presentation in this report will deal with the case study of the online versus
the high street shopping trend prevalent in the UK economy. Its relative impact over the business
environment of UK and the explication of the benefiters nd the sufferers of the dynamic market
competition will also be highlighted.
MAIN BODY
Monopoly market
This can be considered as a market situation in which one significant company has a
dominant position in the sector and enables the power to exclude the worthwhile competitors
existing in the marketplace. The occurrence of a pure monopoly happens when a single seller of
a particular good or service has a 100% share of the market share. In context to the UK business
environment, a form with over 25% of the total market share is considered to be a monopoly
power of the domain. Microsoft and Google can be considered the monopolies of the market
with an approximate 75 and 70 percent of total market cap respectively.
Oligopoly market
The market situation in which the structure of small number of firms pertains and none of
them are in position to prevent others from having a significant impact in the industry (Kerdpitak
and et. al., 2022). The market powers of each can dictate the supply and the prices and the
enumeration of these kind of firms can be analyzed through the concentrative ratios amongst
them. The UK supermarket can be considered as an oligopoly and the most prominent four
brands collectively hold a share of roughly about 67% in the market. the companies are Tesco,
ASDA, Sainsbury’s and the Morrisons. The interdependence of the leading companies can
describe the oligopoly nature of the firms.

Perfect competition
The perfect competition operates on the assumption of the economic rationality,
symmetrical knowledge of the economic agents, existence of huge number of participants,
selling of homogeneous products or services and there exists no barriers to market entry or exit.
The occurrence of such market situation isn’t that easy to identify in a running economy because
of its unrealistic assumptions (Lemma, Gwatidzo and Mlilo, 2022). However, to some extent, the
foreign exchange market of the UK can be described as the perfect competitive market of the
economy.
The case study of Online Vs High Street shopping.
The online sales prevalence of the UK is the greatest in the entire Europe. The mobile
phones have become the soul of the marketers and the customer these days have preferred the
utilization of the electronic gadgets rather than going out and shop. The preferences of the
potential customers have rose in regards to the online purchasing as per the pertinent statistics of
the UK market. the growth in the E-Commerce has expanded at faster pace especially after the
invasion of pandemic. The significant influence of the digital shopping mechanisms has
adversely affected the street shopping scenarios of the UK market economy.
The reasons behind the influential impact of the online retailers over the high street shops
in the UK business environment.
The struggle of the British High Street retailers to survive in the market due to the
incursion of the online commerce, has impacted the functioning of these businesses, the
challenges that are faced by the street market of the UK has been identified in this examination
and they are the primary reasons for the downfall that has been experienced by the high street
businesses (Noguera-Méndez and Cifuentes-Faura, 2022).
Changing consumer behavior – The approximate figure of online shopping in the UK has been
expected to increase from 19% to 55% in the next coming 10 years.
Impact of the pandemic – The restrictions imposed during the time period of COVID-19 has
also pushed towards the excessive utilization of the online mode of shopping.
On door delivery of the purchases – The delivery of the product or the services to the
doorsteps has made it convenient for the customers to make the purchases.

Reviewal of the products before its utilization – The provision of the availability of the
customers reviews over the online portals has proven to be an aid for the customers to get an
overview of the product beforehand.
The benefiters and the sufferers of the changing market competition model.
The analysis can thereby infer that the dynamic market competition in the economy of
UK has made a crystal-clear distinction between the sufferers and the benefiters of the market.
the sufferers are of the economy are the offline retail stores and the street style traders that has
been experiencing a set of losses in the market due to the failure in attaining a significant
position in the market and adopting the mechanisms of E-Commerce (Yang and et. al., 2022).
The benefiters are clearly the online traders or the companies who have maintained a position in
the market due to its monopolistic nature. The inheritance of offering exclusive products or
services in the market can help in the attainment of a significant alignment in the market of the
UK.
CONCLUSION
An inference can thus be made that with time, it is important to work and operate
according to the prevailing marketing scenarios. The attainment of a dignified positing in the
market through the offering of exclusive and not so common commodities, can help in the long-
term sustenance, or else the ventures can face a tough time to grow. The high street shops should
opt for the suitable option sin order to retain in the market and give stringent competition to the
online traders.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bennett, C.J.P., 2022. Cultural and Creative Industries in a VUCA World: Learnings Between
Business, Economics, and Arts. In Handbook of Research on Organizational
Sustainability in Turbulent Economies (pp. 227-246). IGI Global.
Kerdpitak, C., and et. al., 2022. Development of Historical and Cultural Tourism Areas for the
Competitive Business of U-don Thani Province. International Journal of Health
Sciences, (V), pp.271-285.
Lemma, T.T., Gwatidzo, T. and Mlilo, M., 2022. Gender differences in business performance:
evidence from Kenya and South Africa. Small Business Economics, pp.1-24.
Noguera-Méndez, P. and Cifuentes-Faura, J., 2022. Environmental sustainability in economics
teaching: analysing Spanish upper secondary economics textbooks. Environmental
Education Research, pp.1-18.
Yang, D., and et. al., 2022. Approaching Artificial Intelligence in business and economics
research: a bibliometric panorama (1966–2020). Technology Analysis & Strategic
Management, pp.1-16.