COVID-19 Impact on UK Retail: M&S Operations and Sales Research

This research proposal investigates the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the operations and sales of Marks & Spencer within the UK retail sector. It outlines the research aim to identify the pandemic's effects, supported by objectives to determine the impact on the UK retail industry, examine the specific effects on M&S's operations and sales, and identify strategies M&S could use to overcome these impacts. The proposal includes a literature review highlighting disturbances in operations and sales declines due to lockdowns, while also noting the resilience of essential product areas like food halls. The research methodology details a positivism philosophy, deductive approach, and a mixed-method strategy employing systematic literature review and surveys for data collection. Quantitative research choices are favored, with probability sampling used to gather data from 40 M&S employees. The proposal also includes a time framework using a Gantt chart for project scheduling. Desklib provides access to this and similar solved assignments for students.

RESEARCH PROPOSAL
( Impact of COVID-19 over the operations and
sales of retail sector of the United Kingdom. A
study on Marks & Spencer)

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Background of the research topic................................................................................................3
Research aim, objectives and questions......................................................................................3
Problem of the research...............................................................................................................3
Significance of the research .......................................................................................................4
LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................5
RESEARCH METHDOLOGY.......................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Background of the research topic
COVID-19 is one of the situations that has created problems for the whole world. It has
impacted individuals, organisations, economy, institutions and many more (Hoekstra and
Leeflang, 2020). COVID-19 has come up with temporary closures of the market, organisations,
restrictions on the travel, shift to online purchasing and many more (Schleper and et. al., 2021).
The pandemic has created havoc among companies as their operations and sales have been
affected negatively. The current report will take out information about the impact of COVID-19
on the sales and operations of an organisation and the ways companies used to overcome the
negative impact of this global pandemic. The chosen organisation for the current investigation is
Marks & Spencer.
Research aim, objectives and questions
Research Aim
To identify the impact of COVID-19 over the operations and sales of an organisation. A
study on Marks & Spencer
Research Objectives
 To determine the impact of COVID-19 over retail industry of the United Kingdom
 To examine the impact of global pandemic over operations and sales of Marks and
Spencer
 To identify the ways that would be used by M&S for overcoming the impact of Covid 19
on their business operations and sales
Research Questions
 What is the impact of COVID-19 over retail industry of the United Kingdom?
 What is the impact of global pandemic over operations and sales of Marks and Spencer?
 What are the effective ways that would be used by M&S for overcoming the impact of
Covid 19 on their business operations and sales?
Problem of the research
The problem that will be investigated in the present investigation is organisations have
faced issue in coping with the challenges created by the emergence of global pandemic COVID-
19. The problem faced by company is their sales have dropped down due to customers giving

more importance to essential products rather than luxury products. Therefore, the present
investigation is aimed at working on the major issue of global pandemic COVID-19 on
organisation (Amit, 2020).
Significance of the research
The research is very significant because it collects information about the impact of
COVID-19 over operations and sales of the organisation. This investigation is important because
it collects more in-depth information about the impact of global pandemic. This report also
shows that certain areas of the organisation also impacted positively with the emergence of
COVID-19 as well as those areas that have negatively impacted due to COVID-19.

LITERATURE REVIEW
According to Sobande (2020), it has been recorded that COVID-19 has created
disturbances in the operations of the organisation. Marks & Spencer had crashed to its first loss
because their sales of clothes collapsed at the time of first COVID-19 lockdown. The several
stores of the Marks & Spencer has faced strict restrictions and they has to close down their
physical outlets for the certain period of time. This has directly impacted their level of operations
as they have to close down their whole operations completely. This retailer had also seen pre tax
loss within six months due to lockdown. When the sales of their clothing line dropped it has
directly negatively impacted their profit and revenue level. On the other hand, the other
significant area of Marks & Spencer was still able to carry out its operations was food halls
because it has come under essential products. This helped company to continue its operations
even in the strict lockdown by following all the safety measures and precautions. During this
time company was unable to predict its future financial performance and this ultimately created
stress on the different departments of the organisation.

RESEARCH METHDOLOGY
Research Philosophy: The two types of philosophies include: positivism and
interpretivism. Investigator will choose positivism philosophy so that investigator can get certain
set of beliefs for the analysis of statistical and numerical data in the defined period of time.
Hence, with the assistance of positivism philosophy, investigation will be completed with
numeric data (Pandey and Pandey, 2021).
Research Approach: The approach consists of two parts that are: inductive and deductive
approach. Investigator will show dependence on deductive approach so that it can also support
positivism philosophy. The major benefit of deductive approach is it facilitates in evaluation of
assembled numerical data.
Research Strategy: The strategies are of several types that are: grounded theory, case
study, survey, interview, systematic literature review and so on. Investigator will choose
systematic literature review and survey so that combination of information could be recorded.
Survey will help in assembling numerical data in the nature of raw and first hand data. On the
other hand, systematic literature review will be used so that secondary data can be assembled and
this will help investigator to have in-depth data (Newman and Gough, 2020).
Research Choice: The choice is classified into two important kinds that are: quantitative
and qualitative research choice. Quantitative research choice will be chosen by researcher so that
numerable facts and figures could be assembled in the decided time framework.
Data Collection: Primary and secondary methods are parts of data collection
methodology. Researcher will choose both the methodologies so that objectives could be
attained. Primary method will be helping investigator to collect raw data through instrument of
questionnaire. On the other hand, secondary method will facilitate researcher to use published
data from the sources such as articles, newspapers, books, journals, publications and many more
(Nayak and Singh, 2021).
Sampling: Sampling is the methodology that gives two parts that are: probability and
non-probability sampling (Babii, 2020). Probability sampling will be chosen by researcher so
that every participant can get equal chance to participate in the survey. 40 employees will be
chosen by investigator from Marks & Spencer so that they can answer questions of the
questionnaire.

Time framework: Gantt chart will be made by investigator so that researcher could easily
schedule the whole project. This framework will divide the activities with the proper time period
so that every activity could be done on time and objectives could be attained.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Amit, S., 2020. Long read: coronavirus and the Bangladesh economy: navigating the global
COVID-19 shutdown. South Asia@ LSE.
Babii, A., 2020. Important aspects of the experimental research methodology. Вісник
Тернопільського національного технічного університету, 97(1), pp.77-87.
Hoekstra, J.C. and Leeflang, P.S., 2020. Marketing in the era of COVID-19. Italian Journal of
Marketing, 2020(4), pp.249-260.
Nayak, J.K. and Singh, P., 2021. Fundamentals of Research Methodology Problems and
Prospects. SSDN Publishers & Distributors.
Newman, M. and Gough, D., 2020. Systematic reviews in educational research: Methodology,
perspectives and application. Systematic reviews in educational research, pp.3-22.
Pandey, P. and Pandey, M.M., 2021. Research Methodology Tools and Techniques.
Schleper and et. al., 2021. Pandemic-induced knowledge gaps in operations and supply chain
management: COVID-19’s impacts on retailing. International Journal of Operations &
Production Management.
Sobande, F., 2020. ‘We’re all in this together’: Commodified notions of connection, care and
community in brand responses to COVID-19. European Journal of Cultural
Studies, 23(6), pp.1033-1037.