Analyzing I Saw It First's COVID-19 Response in the UK Retail Sector

This report investigates the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on I Saw It First, a UK-based retail business, and its implications for the UK market. The analysis covers the company's response to the crisis, including the impact on its business, profitability, and supply chain. It examines the challenges faced, such as disruptions to deliveries and supply chain management, and the strategies employed to overcome them, including customer engagement and leveraging online retail. The report also explores the government schemes that I Saw It First utilized, such as CBILS and CCFF, and the effectiveness of these schemes. Additionally, it highlights the external business environment, including reduced purchasing power and shifts in social preferences, and identifies future opportunities for the business. The research utilizes secondary sources to analyze the business's decisions, the effectiveness of solutions, and the competitive landscape. The report aims to understand how I Saw It First navigated the pandemic, the decisions made, and the implications for the business's future.

To investigate the
response of I Saw It
First to COVID-19
disruption:
implications for the
United Kingdom (UK)

Table of Contents
Title: “To investigate the response of I Saw It First to COVID-19 disruption: implications for the
United Kingdom (UK).”..................................................................................................................3
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Aims and objectives.........................................................................................................................3
Literature review..............................................................................................................................4
Research methodology.....................................................................................................................9
Research and findings....................................................................................................................11
Conclusion and recommendation...................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................14

Title: “To investigate the response of I Saw It First to COVID-19 disruption:
implications for the United Kingdom (UK).”
INTRODUCTION
COVID 19 Pandemic has forced industrial enterprises to rethink of all the aspects of
business to thrive and survive in the changing external conditions. The resiliency and mobility to
collaboration and connectivity has lead to a negative impact on overall global business
functioning. The impact of covid 19 virus has affected the global and national economies in
terms of increased restrictions on the national economy. In the context of impact of COVID virus
on the functioning of retail industry there is report prepared based on analysing the literature
review. Presently there is analysis of I Saw It that was started in Manchester UK in the year
2017, it was founded in by Jalal Kamani (Alavi and et. Al 2018). It is part of retail industry and
dealing in clothes, accessors, bags etc. There is use of secondary sources of information for the
purpose of making analysis of the collected information and achieve laid objectives. The spread
of COVID virus has affected the global operations across world for which the organisations are
working to use alternative sourcing and functioning strategies. There is discussion of the research
methodology that has been used in the research and further there is development of
recommendations as per the analysis and the evaluation of collected information by application
of various secondary available sources.
Aims and objectives
To analyze the impact of COVID-19 with the respective decline in I Saw It business,
profitability, and the implications for the UK.
To establish what can be done to sustain the business supply chain during the Covid 19 lock-
down and ensure the safety of their workers, therefore enabling them to resume stable operation.

To spotlight the unique pitfalls faced by the business to analyse the effectiveness of solutions
they have procured. To establish how I saw the business can take advantage of the lock-down as
a primarily online retailer.
To evaluate the challenges faced by the external business environment; future opportunities for
the business so that they are adequately positioned and equipped.
To address the effectiveness of National Schemes and the feedback of the business on
Government support.
Research Questions
1. How has Covid 19 affected I Saw It First and what steps are they taking that their competitors
have not?
2. What major decisions did the business make to ensure their continued survival, during this
pandemic?
3. What steps have the business taken to sustain their supply chain during the pandemic and
ensure the safety of their workers in order for them to resume stable operations.
4. What national schemes and policy schemes were available to I saw It First and did they take
advantage of this scheme in order to sustain their business?
5. Why did their competitors (SMEs) fail despite the actions they took to counter the market
external environment and the help they received from the government? Could it have been
prevented and why?
Literature review
Analyze the impact of COVID-19 with the respective decline in I Saw It business,
profitability, and the implications for the UK.
As per Beiderbeck and et. al (2021) covid 19 pandemic, it has affected different countries
and approximately 50 million people across the world. Government is dealing with the situation
of radical uncertainty and there are instances of difficulty related to economic health and social
challenges. The lock-down situation has affected the overall functioning of different industries in
a severe manner. After the human and health strategy of corona virus it is recognised the
pandemic trigger as one of the serious economic crisis after World War II. The overall nature of
crisis is unprecedented but there has been short term reputation of health and economic shocks
that has lead to long-term impact on productivity human capital and behaviour.

In this situation there are many different international organisations were dedicated towards
encouraging the competitiveness of micro, small and medium sized enterprises. There has been
development of international Trade centre that is following all the different aspects of dynamic
with a direction on small and medium businesses that a part of developing countries. There is
assistance provided to SMSE s in form of guidance and insights to the small business so that they
are able to search ways to deal with the functional stress that is arising because by covid-19
virus. It is a type of useful resource for supporting the small organisations and policy makers for
dealing with a situation in a more appropriate manner.
Small and medium enterprises are facing variety of issues that includes decrease in the demand
supply chain disruptions, raw material shortages, cancellation of export orders, transportation
distractions and reducing purchasing power of customers. Small and medium enterprises have
mainly suffered because of this pandemic as there has been a complete different scenario that has
led to decrease in the overall business transactions and reduction in the present market share.
Organisations have to work towards developing ways that can help in dealing with the situation
especially in the situations of lockdown organisations have mainly suffered due to reduced
business. Small and medium enterprises have to deal with the changing external environment by
making certain critical decisions that are very necessary for managing the exposure of virus.
For this purpose there is requirement to develop some continuity plans for building up the over
capabilities of the organisation. It includes considering
The major impact on I saw it first was related to no proper deliveries that were able to be done
by the organisation with respect to their already accepted orders. Generally the organisation has a
policy of dispatching the orders same the day of ordering in multiple packages. But due to spread
of covid warriors it became very difficult for the organisation to cope up with the transportation
facilities.
National schemes and policy schemes were available to I saw It First and did they take
advantage of this scheme in order to sustain their business
As per shah (2020), there are number of schemes that have been introduced by the
government of UK for the purpose of managing the impact of corona virus. CBILS is a corona
virus business interruption loan scheme that was started in March 2020. It is providing various

facilities up to five million pounds for smaller business across United Kingdom who is
experiencing reduction of revenues and losses leading to further descriptions to the cash flow. It
is supporting different range of Business finance products that includes overdraft, invoice
finance, term loans and asset finance (Ivanov, 2020). The strategy is also providing lending of
government guarantees and borrower always remains under a person liability for the whole debt.
I saw it has taken benefits from this scheme by avoiding disruptions to the cash flow and having
availability of finances as per changing business requirements. Covid corporate financing facility
(CCFF), CCFF is a joint treasury. It is planned for providing support to the liquidator for
organisations to help the bridge corona virus descriptions of the cash flow by purchasing of short
term debt in the commercial paper. I saw it has taken benefit from the scheme by having
demonstration of sound financial health threat to the impact of covid-19. I saw it first takes the
benefit of commercial paper by banks insurance companies’ structure of societies & other
different financial sector that are regulating the bank of England as the part of financial conduct
authority. Commercial paper is also not desirable to be issued by leverage investment vehicles or
organisations in groups that are predominantly active in businesses (COVID-19 - UK
Government support schemes, 2021).
In UK, there are many schemes that have been beneficial for competitor brands of I saw
it such as HMRC is one such schemes that is related to offering grant towards employment cost
of eligible individuals who are temporally not working. This scheme has been developed for
benefits off employees but apart from this there is another scene that is Job retention scheme that
has been developing favour of employers to maintain their present workforce as their overall
operations are affected by COVID 19 outbreak (Government and institution measures in
response to COVID-19, 2020).
Sustain the business supply chain during the Covid 19 lock-down and ensure the safety of
their workers
As per Oliver (2020), supply chain management is enabling organisations for
development and execution of strategies that can help them in efficiently integrating the
management of players in supply chain process. It includes managing supplier’s manufacturer’s
distributors & customers so that overall distribution and production functions are completed at
lowest achievable price. With the covid-19 pandemic there have been a complete destruction of
the overall supply chain process of business as there are no proper transportation delivery

facilities because of the lock-down situations. I saw it is one of the small medium enterprises that
have to maintain its supply chain effectiveness by having mass customisation shorter product life
cycles product line proliferation and faster innovation. For this purpose the organisation is
working towards managing the entire supply chain with more focus on customer centric
approach.
Spotlight the unique pitfalls faced by the business to analyse the effectiveness of solutions
As per Song, Yeon and Lee, (2021), Customer engagement is a one of the creative
strategies that is used by I saw it for the purpose of driving sales and delivering positive results in
this covid-19 situation. The overall results for creation of a highly engaged customer base that
was not be able to you understood by the competitors.
I saw it first was a start-up in the years of its growth. With the time and development of new
brand propositions it was by experiences where founders have developed extensive experience
and knowledge in fashion market clothing. This brand is now entering a fast fashion marketplace
that was not only overcrowded but also commoditized. Other competitors were not able to use
the similar strategy of having higher customer engagement. I saw it was able to get a higher
competitive advantage by exploring the relationship between social media and online behaviour.
They have been using credibility of influencer marketing with the same of broadcast media for
creating ultimate partnership strategy. I saw it has been able to take the premium advantage of
lock-down situation by exploring the overall relationship that can be created with their customer
base.
The challenges faced by the external business environment; future opportunities for the
business so that they are adequately positioned and equipped.
As per chacon (2020) Kuwait Pande make has affected and lead to development of many
small and medium business challenges. As per reports formed by Facebook there has been
survey of 86000 managers,’ owners and workers across organisations who are working with less
than 500 employees.
The overall challenges that have arrived in the external environment are because of the economic
and social perspectives of the customers. As per the economic scenario the overall purchasing
power is reduced because of decline in employment scenario and reduction in the personal

disposable income of people (Reichelt, Makovi and Sargsyan, 2021). On the other hand there
has been a complete shift in the social preferences of people as people are now not willing to
spend only on necessity products and there has been a more emphasis on purchasing of just
necessity goods.
Supply chain difficulties have been one of the major corporations that is suffered by I saw it as a
small and medium business. Many industries are heavily relying on goods that are shipped from
elsewhere by facing obstacles. Further, in the present scenario there have been concerns about
the second wave of covid-19 mix that might happen and affect the present situation in the year
2021 (6 Small Business Challenges During COVID-19, 2020).
Many small businesses are not able to keep a track record of the customers changing preferences.
It has been one of the major external factors that have affected the present situation of small and
medium enterprises. The main commitment of is at first as one of the emerging fashionable
brands is to bring customers with the hottest trends and fashion with innovative & unique
shopping experiences. The organisation is working towards collect + click and collect services so
that their customers are able to approach them in one of the most flexible and unique manner.
Research methodology
Research approach: It is regarded as selection of a specific research approach as per
requirements of research work. There are different types of research approaches that can be used
as per suitability and requirements of research (Gregorioa and Ancog, 2020). Such as it includes
inductive approach or deductive approach. In present research work there is application of
deductive approach where there is a specific hypothesis that is developed based on literature
review that is discovered by researcher and there is further testing of hypotensive in a particular
context.
Research strategy: It is based on selection a particular strategy among the different strategies
that are available with the researcher (Litchman, Marson and Rigel, 2021). Such as it includes
research action research, research, surveys. Case study research, Interviews and systematic
literature review. A particular strategy has to be selected based on the available information as
per requirement of research.
Justification: In present case there is use of systematic literature review as a method because
there is no use of primary information and the whole research work is completed based on
application of secondary sources of information.

Research choices: There are different research choices that are available for a researcher in
which there is need to selection of one such approach. There are different research choices that
includes mono method in which there is only consideration of one type of data that may be ether
quantitative or qualitative form of information (Humphries, Neilson and Ulyssea, 2020).
Another approach is mixed method in which there is use of both qualitative and quantitative
form of data and third approach is multi method where there is use of more than one quantitative
and qualitative approach. In present scenario there is use of mono method by the researcher
because there is no use of quantitative form of information and there is application of qualitative
form of data only for the purpose of reaching to relevant research outcomes.
Quantitative data: It is a approach that is used for quantification of data and generalisation of
results from a sample of target population (Spinelli and Pellino, 2020). It is based on structured
data collection process.
Qualitative data: It is a approach that is based on creation of detailed and complete description
of the observation of researcher (Bagus, Peña-Ramos and Sánchez-Bayón, 2021). It is offering
contextualist and further interpretation of collected information. It is subjective method and
requires small number of chosen respondents.
Justification: There is use of qualitative form of data so that different associated information
related to COVID 19 affecting SME can be analysed by using Qualitative information.
Primary data: It is the type of data that is collected by researcher by use of first hand information
that is original type of data is collected by the researcher in this form of method of collecting
data.
Secondary data: It is the type of data that is available to the researcher from already existing
sources that is researcher is focussing on use of information that is already available such as no
first hand information forms part of the research when this method of collecting data is applied in
course of a particular research work. In secondary form of data research may not have access to
most recent form of information as compared to primary form of collecting data.
Justification: In present research work there is use of available sources of secondary information
that is used for the purpose of making analysis through various existing sources of information
that includes journal articles, online available information.

Data collection and analysis: There have been different methods of data collection that are
being discussed in the present research methodology. In present research report there will be use
of qualitative data method and there is use of secondary sources of collecting information.
Ethical considerations: There are some of the ethical considerations that are to be considered
where there is need to ensure that researcher is following all norms of mutual respect,
accountability, fairness as per requirements of research (Narayan, Phan and Liu, 2021). For
this it has to be ensured that all the collected information by the researcher is from authentic and
reliable sources only so that the overall research work is made complete accountable.
Research and findings
From the above mentioned information there are some of the finding that are part of the research
as mentioned below:
Theme 1: Analyze the impact of COVID-19 with the respective decline in I Saw It business,
profitability, and the implications for the UK.
(Source: The impact of COVID-19 on small business outcomes and expectations, 2020)
Based on literature review it is analysed that major issue faced by I saw it business was related to
no proper arrangement of finances and they have to deal with the optimum utilisation of
available financial resources. For this organisation has to formulate certain financial and money
management practices so that they are able to manage their overall operational expenses. Apart
from financial management it is also very important to understand the customer bases and then

formulate certain effective strategies that can help in moving towards long-term growth for such
small and medium enterprises. I saw it business has to work towards formation of suitable
strategies that leads to developing campaigns to understand their customers.
Theme 2: National schemes and policy schemes were available to I saw It First and did they
take advantage of this scheme in order to sustain their business
(Source: A giant bonfire of taxpayers’ money’: fraud and the UK pandemic loan scheme,
2020)
Both the government schemes CBILS and CCFF a means of money and are not grants. It is
initial indication that lenders are need of security and personal guarantees that can help in
making loans a daunting prospect for different small and medium enterprises. Many government
schemes have been developed that are to be used for supporting business allowing employers to
reclaim the statuary sick pay paid for sickness absence because of COVID 19. Apart from this I
saw it as a SME has taken advantages to claim a percentage of furloughed employees by usual
monthly wages costs by reducing the monthly cap. This has helped this brand in dealing with the
declining revenue and productivity in this covid situation.

Theme 3: Sustain the business supply chain during the Covid 19 lock-down and ensure the
safety of their workers
(Source: A giant bonfire of taxpayers’ money’: fraud and the UK pandemic loan scheme, 2020)
The above graph shows the way in which different SME business across different parts of the
world have been affected by the COVID 19 situation. It analyses that the global electronics
manufacture have saw a 16 percent decline in revenue, computer industries have observed 15
percent drop in revenue and global automaker saw a 5 percent reduction in output. So, different
industries have been affected in a negative manner because of this situation. In case of SME
business like I Saw it being a SME business is dealing with various challenges that are related to
managing their supply chain operations.
It is analysed that I saw it use a supply chain management for spending of all the links
from suppliers to logistic providers and from distributors to production facilities. The whole
network is a line for achievement of similar goals by serving the customer and needs with
greatest quality standards. There is also fast delivering of products that customers want as for the
prices that they are willing to pay. Another strategy that is used for the purpose of managing
supply chain is control tradeoffs between cost and services. I saw it is working towards smart
trade off between service and cause as a critical to effective design of supply chain network for
achievement of the goal to satisfy customer needs (Supply Chain Strategy: Back to Basics,
2020).
Theme 4: Spotlight the unique pitfalls faced by the business to analyse the effectiveness of
solutions