CW1: Analysis of Global Business Environment on Retail Industry

This report analyzes the significant changes in the global business environment and their impact on the retail industry. It highlights the influence of technology, particularly e-commerce, and the strategies employed by retailers like Tesco and Marks & Spencer to adapt. The report also discusses the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on supply chains and the implementation of change management models. Furthermore, it examines the increasing competition within the retail sector and the importance of customer interaction and data analytics. The conclusion emphasizes the need for retailers to adopt more interactive and sustainable approaches to address future challenges and opportunities. The report references academic journals and books to support its findings.

CW1: Global Business
Environment Portfolio Paper

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................2
Impact of changing business environment on retail organisations..............................................2
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................3
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................4

INTRODUCTION
Global business environment has been changing very rapidly due to several factors. For
sustainable growth it is required for organizations to quickly respond towards these changes. The
report will discuss the impact of global changes on retail industry and effective management
strategies used by organizations to cope up with emerging trends.
Impact of changing business environment on retail organisations
Business environment has been witnessing several changes which are affecting business
planning as well as operational aspects. The biggest change which has shaped the industry is
technology. As compare to 2017, the present year has identified social media, online retailing
and ecommerce as an essential feature of business process. In the beginning of 2017 there were
only few companies like Amazon which were ruling e-commerce retailing. However at present
e-commerce can be considered as synonymous to retailing and there are countless retailers and
industry seems to be the most competitive one (Ehgartner, 2018). All leading players like Tesco,
Marks & Spencer are emphasising more on adopting technology for its operations, marketing,
and business research and customer services.
Another significant change which altered not only retail but entire business process is
pandemic situations due to COVID 19, in year 2020. The national lockdowns, economic
recession caused great damage to supply chain and production processes. According to Lewis
change management model changes are incorporated successfully in three phases namely
Unfreeze, change and refreeze. When pandemic situations took place at that time retail sector
prepare it by ensuring sufficient supply of product and to avoid shortage and inconvenience to
consumers due to pandemic situations. For this purpose retailers adopted proper inventory and
supply chain management system so that stocks were maintained and supplied as per regulatory
directions. The second stage is change implementation for which organisation not only trained its
staff members but also established a good communication and relation with its staff members so
that their health and economic safety can be ensured without laying off jobs. However there is
long way to refreeze changes.

In upcoming years retailers must strengthen their networking system so that delivery and
customer interaction system can be made more secure and safe with concepts like social
distancing, automatic billing counters and safe delivery of products (Jin and Shin, 2020). Since
2017 retailers have adopted much more interactive relation with their customers. For instance
organisations like Tesco regularly take feedbacks from their customers, analyse their purchasing
behaviour through data analytics. The changing business scenario has also made competition in
retail sector more fierce and visible. As compare to any other industry retailers are facing much
threat from competitors in terms of price wars and market shares. Companies are using their
pricing strategies, product innovation and other marketing methods to overcome this
competition.
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded from the above discussion that retail industry has been successful in
utilizing the recent changes in exploring business opportunities. However it has been also
analysed that still organizations have to adopt more interactive and sustainable approach to deal
with the upcoming threats and challenges.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Ehgartner, U., 2018. Discourses of the food retail industry: Changing understandings of ‘the
consumer’and strategies for sustainability. Sustainable Production and
Consumption. 16. pp.154-161.
Jin, B.E. and Shin, D.C., 2020. Changing the game to compete: Innovations in the fashion retail
industry from the disruptive business model. Business Horizons.