Inquiry Based Learning: Retail Industry Trends and Gap Inc.

This report provides an inquiry-based learning analysis of current trends in the UK retail industry, with a specific focus on Gap Inc. The report begins with an introduction to emerging retail trends, such as 'buy now pay later' models, the impact of online retailers, and the importance of a customer-centric approach. It then outlines research questions and objectives, followed by a SWOT analysis of Gap Inc. The study incorporates data collection through a questionnaire, analyzing customer preferences regarding store visits, product purchases, and satisfaction levels. The analysis reveals insights into customer behavior, including the influence of friends and family, the appeal of personalized services, and the preference for online versus offline shopping. The report concludes with recommendations for Gap Inc., emphasizing the importance of staff services, efficient cash counter services, and reasonable exchange policies. The report aims to help Gap Inc. to enhance customer satisfaction and market share by adapting to the latest retail trends.

INQUIRY BASED
LEARNING

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................................3
BACKGROUND ............................................................................................................................................3
Analysis of current trends in retail sector...............................................................................................3
Research questions and objectives.........................................................................................................4
ANALYSIS.....................................................................................................................................................4
SWOT Analysis of Gap Inc.......................................................................................................................4
Data Collection and Analysis...................................................................................................................5
RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION....................................................................................................7
Analysis and recommendation...............................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION...............................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................................9
APPENDIX..................................................................................................................................................10
Questionnaire.......................................................................................................................................10

Topic: To inquire upon the current trends with reference to the retail industry of UK: a study on
Gap Inc.
INTRODUCTION
In this modern era, there are many trends that have emerged in the retail sector due to the
technological advancement and man-made innovations. In this research various such changes
that are causing new trends to emerge in the retail industry will be discussed. As there is no
denying of the fact that the retail industry in current era is experiencing great change due to the
changing customer behavior and their increasing expectations every next day (Kautish and
Sharma, 2018). Here the research will be undertaken to inquire upon various emerging trends
associated with the retail industry of UK and after that the analysis of the Gap Inc. will be done
on the basis of market analysis model and also through primary data gathered through
questionnaire filled with retail customers.
BACKGROUND
Analysis of current trends in retail sector
Buy now pay later: a new trend has emerged in the retail sector, which allowed retail customers
to avail products and services they have ordered immediately and make the payment for the same
on some later date. Retail stores now no more need to depend on banks and credit cards services
in order to finance their customer’s purchases, as there seems many fintech startups such as
Klarna, LayBuy, ClearPay and Afterpay (Ruiz-Real and et.al., 2019). These startups are aimed at
financing customer’s retail purchases, so that customers can avail their requirement as and when
they require by making payment for the same on some later date. This payment model provides
for more flexible payment system than the traditional credit card system. The online stores itself
make the payment for the price of such customer friendly alternative towards financing their
purchases. In implementing this model over their operations, retailers can go for either their own
financing like specific card for their stores or they can go for third party assistance like Klarna
and ClearPay.
There are many benefits of this payment model, which are as follows:
 The buy now pay later model allows retailers to move their inventory stock at a faster
rate.
 It improvises customer experiences which allows for building loyalty and ensuring
customer retention for longer time period.
Impact of online retailers: With the emergence of online existence of retail stores, there are
many impacts that have noticed over time. The customers can view many products at a time
without giving much efforts. This has caused problem of being competitive for the firms who are
still operating offline (Pantano and Vannucci, 2019). The major impact that has been noticed is
that it decreases customer loyalty for offline stores as customers have enough knowledge of
effective deals available at online stores. Online engagement of stores with their potential
customers allows for building deeper connections with the customers. Online stores have
snatched away a large portion of the market share from offline retail stores due to the level of
comfort they provide along with the strategy of influencing customer through establishing
attractive buyer’s persona. There is also an impact of online reviews due to the existence of such
online stores as customer’s review their product online in terms of the product’s nature, their
experience and satisfaction level they obtained by purchasing the product from the online stores

(Cho and Volpe, 2017). Also, customers are able to compare prices between various online
stores without any extra efforts which is not that easy in case of local retail stores and
accordingly the market share of offline retail stores has shrunk very much in current times.
Focus on customer - centric approach: Adopting the approach of customer centric is proved to
be quite useful in modern era as it seems to be an emerging trend of the retail industry towards
providing personalized experience to the customers (Martino and et.al., 2017). Customer centric
approach allows for providing suggestions to the customers on the basis of their tastes and
preferences, their purchase history and many more factors. Through the adoption of chat bots,
customer engagement and their interaction with the store owner has been improved as it provides
for platform on which updates regarding order placed and communication throughonline and
tele-based channels has become possible in the current times. Such regular approach to customer
in order to provide higher level of satisfaction has become possible due the existence of online
retail stores (Gazzola and et.al., 2020). Many suggestions and recommendations gathered from
text messages and chat bots allows for modifying and offering products and services as per the
needs and expectations of their customers, which has become much easier in case of online
retailing and accordingly act as a competitive advantage for the online retailers over offline retail
shops. Thus, the customer-centric approach is more useful in satisfying customer needs and
expectations on a regular basis.
Research questions and objectives
Aim
The aim of this research is to understand the current trends in the retail industry affecting the
operations of Gap Inc.
Objectives
 To understand the newly emerging trends in the retail industry.
 To identify the benefits accrued to the retails stores due to adopting new trends.
 To analyze the impact of technological advancement with reference to retail industry.
 To recommend the best strategy with regards to new trends in retail sector to Gap Inc. to
be applied in their functioning to enhance both customer satisfaction and market share.
Questions
1. What are the emerging trends of the retails industry?
2. What are the benefits derived by the retail stores by adopting new trends?
3. How technological advancement has changed the functioning of the retail industry?
4. What are the new trends that can be applied within the operations of Gap Inc. to enhance
customer satisfaction and market share?
ANALYSIS
SWOT Analysis of Gap Inc.
SWOT analysis is a tool to identify the inherent strengths and weaknesses of a concern along
with the identification of various available opportunities and threats in the external environment
which can have positive and negative impact respectively on the company and here it is Gap Inc.

STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES
 Gap has an established portfolio of
brands which acts as a source of return
maximization and creating brand
equity in the target market.
 Excellent relationship with vendors
which helps Gap in efficiency in costs,
quality improvements and
development of market (Pantano and
et.al., 2017).
 Have a good command over omni-
channel for reaching their customers.
 Gap is enjoying good position to take
over the charge after the crisis of
pandemic.
 The challenging health and
accordingly the profitability of Banana
Republic and Gap brands as they
failed to operate online with the
closure of stores due to pandemic.
 Gap have much amount of debt with
lower quality (Santeramo and et.al.,
2018).
 Dilution of brand value due to the
continuous offering of discounts.
OPPORTUNITIES THREATS
 Subscription based on rental services
has gained enough popularity in the
retail sector (Sansone and Colamatteo,
2017).
 Highly growth potential segment like
athleisure and active wear.
 New market entrance opportunities in
Asia market.
 Fast fashion segment is struggling due
to its inability to keep pace with the
frequent change of this segment
(Ayodeji and Kumar, 2019).
 Due to the emergence of pandemic
and the resulting economic slowdown,
there are inventory pile up problem
with the company.
 Apparel industry of US has been
affected most among retail sector.
Data Collection and Analysis
Theme 1: Knowledge about retail store being visited regularly
1. From where do you came to know about
retail store you visit on regular basis?
 Friends 5
 Family 3
 Relatives 1
 Classmates 1

Theme 2: Encouragement for visiting particular retail stores?
2. How do you get encouraged for visiting
particular retail store?
 Staff services 2
 Discount provision 3
 Personalized experience to customers 4
 Quick processing 1
Theme 3: Type of retail store that is convenient for daily purchases
3.What type of retail store do you find
convenient for your daily purchases?
 Online retail stores 4
 Offline local shops 6

Theme 4: Type of product purchases from online stores
4. What type of product do you like to
purchase from online stores?
 Electronics 4
 Necessities 1
 Clothing 3
 Beauty products 2
Theme 5: Accessibility of local shops for necessities
5. Do you find it easy to get your necessities
from the local shops?
 Very easy 3
 Easy 4
 Difficult 2
 Very difficult 1

Theme 6: Rating for latest experience at retail shop
6. How would you rate your latest experience
with the retail shop you visited?
 Satisfactory 4
 Neutral 2
 Not satisfactory 4
Theme 7: Customer’s opinion towards the behavior of store’s staff
7. Do you agree that store’s staff is helpful,
knowledgeable and friendly?
 Strongly agree 3
 Agree 2
 Neutral 2
 Disagree 2

 Strongly disagree 1
Theme 8: Effectiveness of cash counter services
8. Do you find the services of cash counter
quicker and effective?
 Yes 4
 No 6
Theme 9: Reasonability of exchange and return policy at retail shop
9. Does the store have a reasonable exchange
and return policy?
 Yes 7
 No 3

RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION
Analysis and recommendation
From the data so gathered from 10 retail customer's sample which has been selected on
random basis, the following findings can be summarized as follows:
 It can be said that friends and family have a great sort of impact over choosing the place
from where the daily purchases can be made. They are acting as a source of advertising in
the form of word of mouth (Pantano and Gandini, 2018).
 The personalized services have been found to be a great idea for attracting large number
of customers to the retail stores. Also, discounts, staff services and quick processing of
transaction acts as an alternative idea towards enhancing sales and of the retail stores.
 There have been found out 60:40 ratios for offline and online mode of retail buying. This
indicate that traditional buying pattern is still existing in the market place where
customers for the need of personalized experience desired to visit local shops few
distance away from them.
 When searching about which product is most suitable to be bought from online stores, the
researcher has identified that electronics and clothing products are generally purchased
through online stores whereas there is a very less preferences for necessities to be bought
through online channels (Moore, McDonald and Bartlett, 2018).
 The researcher has also determined that more of the customers found it quite easy and
accessible to visit retail stores whereas there are very less customers who are finding it
difficult to visit local shops.
 On rating customer experience at retail shops, it has been found that customers achieve
good experience at retail shop while many of them thought they would get better
experience if they buy products online.
 Staff services at retail stores is also an important aspect which could not be undermined
at all, as their behavior with customers decides upon the level of customer retention for a

retail shop. So it can be said that in current era, retailers are highly conscious about
excellent staff services to customers who visit their stores either frequently or rarely in
order to ensure repetitive visit of customers.
 Along with above findings, there is need to be faster, effective and reasonable policy of
exchange and return related to products purchased. This acts as a motivating tool for
customers for visiting at a particular retail store (Silva, Hassani and Madsen, 2019). A
store where services are quick along with good policy associated with product bought,
there would be surely long queue of customers at that store.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it has been concluded that customers need and expectations has
increased very much with the changing and emerging trends in the retail industry. The retailers
are shifting their operations online with the desire to improve customer experience such as
payment, return, exchange, feedback and convenient services provided to the customers through
online mode of retail business. It would be highly recommended to struggling retailers to
improvise and work upon their services which is must for improving customer experiences along
with providing online access to store facility. For well performing stores, they must continuously
review their customer's experience ratings and answer their feedback as early as possible to
sustain in the market for long run. The newly emerging trends and their application at the earliest
is the best way and the secret towards the success of retail stores.

REFERENCES
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