Identifying Social Media's Importance for Increasing Waitrose Sales

This report investigates the significance of social media platforms in enhancing sales for organizations, using Waitrose as a case study. It begins with an introduction outlining the research's background, aim, objectives, and research questions. A preliminary literature review explores social media as a marketing tool, examining factors that contribute to increased sales and the overall impact on sales margins. The research methodology section details the use of both primary and secondary data collection methods, including questionnaires and various secondary sources. The report aims to provide insights into how social media strategies can be effectively employed to improve sales performance and brand image, offering valuable recommendations for Waitrose and similar businesses. The study considers various social media factors influencing company performance, customer base, and brand image. The report concludes by highlighting the importance of leveraging social media for positive outcomes and mitigating potential negative impacts.

Business and
Management Project

Table of Contents
Title: To identify the importance of social media platform in increasing sales of an organization.
..........................................................................................................................................................3
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
Background of the research & Company....................................................................................3
Research aim: .............................................................................................................................3
Research objectives:....................................................................................................................4
Research Question:......................................................................................................................4
Preliminary Literature Review.........................................................................................................4
Social media as marketing and promotional tool........................................................................4
Factors associated with social media platform which assist in enhancing the sales...................5
Role of social media and its impact on sales margin..................................................................6
Research Method.............................................................................................................................6
Timescale.........................................................................................................................................8
Resources.........................................................................................................................................9
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................9
References......................................................................................................................................10
Books & Journals......................................................................................................................10

Title: To identify the importance of social media platform in increasing sales of
an organization.
INTRODUCTION
Social media plays very essential role in the overall development and enhancement of
business operations at the competitive marketplace. There are various tool and techniques related
with social media which provide assistance to the company in order to improve the sales as well
as performance of the organisation at the market area (McCann and Barlow, 2015). In the present
report, Waitrose is chosen as the base company which is a British supermarket. Head office of
the organisation is established in the market of Berkshire, England. Waitrose is an organisation
which was founded in the year 1904 by David Taylor, Wallace Waite and Arthur Rose. This is a
research report which mainly includes ample number of sections where aim and objectives are
required to be developed so that whole research will be formulated. Along with this, literature
review on some topics are required to be explained so that reviews of different author will be
collected. In addition to this, research method are going to be discussed in a detail manner.
Background of the research & Company
Social media define as one of the latest computer technology which is being used by the
management team of an organisation in order to interact with their consumers in an effective and
appropriate manner. The main reason behind conducting this research is to improve the
knowledge of people about the importance and impact of social media on the enhancement of
sales ratio of the company (Choi and Thoeni, 2016). In the present research, chosen organisation
is Waitrose which is a British supermarket established in the year 1904. The management team
of the company going to conduct a research so that various recommendations and suggestions
will be given to the management team of Waitrose related to the social media platform which
leads towards the overall enhancement of sales ratio of the organisation. This will assist other
researcher who are going to conduct the same research in near future within similar sector.
Research aim:
“To investigate the significance of social media platform in order to increase the sales
of an organization. A study on Waitrose, London.”

Research objectives:
 To understand the concept of social media as marketing or promotional tool.
 To identify the factors associated with social media platform which assist in enhancing
the sales of Waitrose.
 To determine the role of social media and its impact on sales margin of Waitrose.
Research Question:
 What do you know about the concept of social media as marketing or promotional tool?
 What are the main factors associated with social media platform which assist in
enhancing the sales of Waitrose?
 What is the role of social media and its impact on sales margin of Waitrose?
Preliminary Literature Review
Social media as marketing and promotional tool
According to the view point of Moe and Schweidel, (2017), social media is a way by
which businesses reach their prospects and customers. Social media provides an effective way to
reach the customers by using different social platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram,
Pinterest, etc. A great marketing on social media is helpful for remarkable success to the
business. This creates devoted brand advocates and this also increases sales and profits. Social
media is type of internet marketing which includes creating and sharing of content on social
media networks for achieving marketing and branding goals. There are different companies
which uses social media campaigns for promoting their products and services. Marketing
through social media is best way for increasing website traffic. This helps in raising brand
awareness. When companies try to promote products through social media, there is need for
building social media marketing plan. The social media for marketing enables business to project
the brand image around variety of different social media sites. The growth of social media has
reflected that there is need for promoting and marketing products and services through social
media. Two major social media applications naming Facebook and Twitter are used for
promoting products and services. Social media marketing is useful for using the social media
platforms for connecting with audience and build the brand. This also helps in increasing sales
and driving website traffic (Kumar and Nanda, 2019). The major social media platforms are
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc.

There are various range of social media management tools which helps organisations for
getting most out of the social media platforms. The promotions through social media help in
managing and handling the customers is an effective manner. There are various companies which
are using social media tools for promoting and marketing products and services. This is helpful
in managing and handling the customers in an effective manner. Social media is useful for easily
tracking and analysing brand mentions on social channels. This is helpful in conducting research
which includes vast historical archive of social media posts. The social media communities of
different size are used for promoting and selling products and services of the company.
Marketing through social media is helpful for companies as more number of customers are
reached within short time spam. Some companies posts videos and photos of their products on
the social media websites. It is easy to grab attention of various customers by posting these on
social media platforms.
Factors associated with social media platform which assist in enhancing the sales.
According to the thought of Barger, Peltier and Schultz, (2016), it has been concluded
that social media is a platform which provide ample number of opportunities to the organisation
at the competitive marketplace. Various social media factors are there which might influence the
overall performance of the company such as cost, time, convenience and so on. It is very
essential for every business organisation to identify as well as consider all the factors which
might affect the functionality of a company in an effective manner. It has been analysed that
social media is a platform which provide cost effective products and services to their customers.
Along with this, company will be able to gain competitive advantage at the marketplace which
assist them in enhancing the overall sales of the company. Furthermore, company will be able to
enhance their goodwill and reputation at the competitive marketplace and grab ample number of
opportunities. It can better understand with the help of an example, management team of
Waitrose adopt social media in order to perform their business function where there are various
factors which influences the overall sales of the company (Pelet , Ettis and Cowart, 2017).
There are ample number of factors and elements related with social media platform
which affects the overall goodwill as well as reputation of the company. It becomes easy for the
customers to enhance their knowledge and buy products & services in an effective manner.
Along with this, it has also been said that all these factors might influences the overall sales of

the company. Customer base and brand image of the company will be enhanced by using
effective social media platform.
Role of social media and its impact on sales margin
On the judgement of Rodriguez, Ajjan and Peterson, (2016), it is said that in the current
competitive marketplace social media is a platform which help an organisation in order to grab
ample number of opportunities. Along with this, they will be able to maintain their long term
sustainability by attracting large number of customers towards their organisation as they provide
products and services within given time frame. It has also been analysed that with the help of
effective use of social media, company will be able to interact with ample number of customers
which often create positive relationship with their consumers. Major role of social media
platform is to connect and interact with individuals so that large number of people will be retain
by the company.
Apart from this, it has also been said that there are both positive as well as negative
impact of social media on the overall development of the company. If talking about the positive
influence of social media, it has been analysed that positive impact of using social media is that
they enhance their overall brand position as well as goodwill at the competitive marketplace by
using social media platform in an effective manner. Whereas, in context of negative influence of
social media is that sometimes it might affect the positive image of company in a negative
manner. Rumours in today's world spread within few seconds by using social media platform.
This as a result affect the overall brand image as well as market share of the company in a
negative manner. Therefore, it is required by the management team of an organisation to use
social media outlet in such manner that it will produce positive outcome and if there is any kind
of negative result will be produced, managers are required to develop strategies and policies so
that it will minimise the negative impact.
Research Method
Research methodology refers to a particular process or techniques which is used by the
researcher in order to identify, examine, collect or analyse the data and information on a specific
topic. It refers to the tools and techniques used by investigator for collecting data which are
authentic and accurate so that positive result will be developed (Quinlan and et al., 2019). There
are various number of sources which are used by the researcher so that they will be able to gather

information and data which are authentic and reliable by the investigator in order to complete the
whole research.
Primary and secondary method:
There are different types of resources which is used by the researcher so that they will be
able to collect authentic as well as accurate information related to the topic. Data collection
methods are commonly of two types which are primary and secondary. In the present context of
Primary method, all the information which will be gathered are fresh and raw which is not used
by any other person. It has been analysed that primary data is the data or information which is
being gathered by the investigator which are original and first handed (Bresler and Stake, 2017).
Major sources of primary method includes face to face interaction, interview, questionnaire as
well as focus group. All these methods requires lot of time, cost, resources and efforts of
researcher which might delay the overall process of investigation. But on the other hand,
researcher will be able to gather fresh and unused information from the respondents which
provide positive results.
In case of Secondary method, all the information and data which is going to be collected
by the researcher are second hand information and already used by other individuals in order
conclude the research in an effective manner. Some of the main resources of this method
includes articles, books, journals, online websites, newspaper and many more. All these methods
provide secondary information which is cost effective and does not require any other resource so
for concluding the result (Liu, and et. al., 2019). Along with this, it has also been said that there
are various sources with the help of which researcher will be able to identify the information and
then analyse them before making any kind of conclusion.
In the present research, it has been concluded that investigator adopt both primary and
secondary data for collecting information. In primary method questionnaire is the method which
is used by researcher in order to collect fresh information and data. On the other hand, in case of
secondary method, researcher includes online website, newspaper, articles and journals so that
proper information will be collected in an effective manner.
Participants: In the context of primary data collection method, researcher select
stakeholders who are directly associated with the profit margin or functioning of the business
organisation. They are the one who can influence the overall sales & profitability of the company
in both positive and negative manner.

Timescale
Gantt Chart: It is a horizontal bar chart coined by Henry L. Gantt in the year 1917 who is an
American social scientist and engineer. It refers to the timeline which is generally used by the
investigator as a project management tool in order to identify the status of the project or research.
Gantt chart in simple words is a graphical representation of all the task and activities mainly
conducted for analysing the current position or status of the activities. It has been analysed that
task are generally shown on vertical axis but on the other hand time spend is defined on
horizontal axis. Along with this, it has also been said that Microsoft Excel might also be used by
researcher in order to create Gantt charts (Ong, Wang and Zainon, 2016).

Resources
In order to conduct the whole research in an effective manner, there are ample number of
resources which are required by the investigator in order to gain positive results. These resources
includes money, time, human resources, land, equipments and many more. It is also very
essential for the researcher to use all these resources while conducting the whole research on the
topic of social media and how they improve the overall sales of the organisation. Investigator is
required to adopt all these resources in an effective manner so that positive results will be
produced related with the topic (Cooke, 2018). Along with this, two main types of research
resources are used by the researcher which are primary and secondary. In the present context of
primary research, questionnaire is the method which help in collecting primary data related with
social media and its impact. On the other hand, secondary sources is used by researcher in order
to gather information from various websites, journals, online sites and many more so that
authentic and related data will be collected within specific time limit. As compared to primary,
secondary research is cost as well as time effective and help in attaining positive results within
given time duration.
Conclusion
With the assistance of above stated research, it has clearly been concluded that social
media play very essential role in order to enhance their growth as well as sales of the company at
the competitive marketplace. There are both positive and negative impact of social media in the
enhancement of profit ratio as ample number of customers will be attracted towards the
organisation. Various resources are used by the researcher in order to collect authentic and
accurate data so that whole investigation will be done within specific time frame and in effective
manner. Along with this, in this research, investigator adopt both primary as well as secondary
method for collecting data and information in order to develop authentic and accurate outcome.

References
Books & Journals
Barger, V., Peltier, J. W. and Schultz, D.E., 2016. Social media and consumer engagement: a
review and research agenda. Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing.
Bresler, L. and Stake, R. E., 2017. Qualitative research methodology in music education.
In Critical Essays in Music Education (pp. 113-128). Routledge.
Choi, Y. and Thoeni, A., 2016. Social media: is this the new organizational stepchild?. European
Business Review.
Cooke, F. L., 2018. Concepts, contexts, and mindsets: Putting human resource management
research in perspectives. Human Resource Management Journal, 28(1), pp.1-13.
Kumar, V. and Nanda, P., 2019. Social media in higher education: A framework for continuous
engagement. International Journal of Information and Communication Technology
Education (IJICTE), 15(1), pp.97-108.
Liu, S., and et. al., 2019. Experimental evaluation of highly efficient primary and secondary
amines with lower energy by a novel method for post-combustion CO2 capture. Applied
energy, 233, pp.443-452.
McCann, M. and Barlow, A., 2015. Use and measurement of social media for SMEs. Journal of
small business and enterprise development.
Moe, W. W. and Schweidel, D. A., 2017. Opportunities for innovation in social media
analytics. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 34(5), pp.697-702.
Ong, H. Y., Wang, C. and Zainon, N., 2016. Integrated earned value Gantt chart (EV-Gantt) tool
for project portfolio planning and monitoring optimization. Engineering Management
Journal, 28(1), pp.39-53.
Pelet, J. É., Ettis, S. and Cowart, K., 2017. Optimal experience of flow enhanced by
telepresence: Evidence from social media use. Information & Management, 54(1),
pp.115-128.
Quinlan, C., and et. al., 2019. Business research methods. South Western Cengage.
Rodriguez, M., Ajjan, H. and Peterson, R. M., 2016. Social media in large sales forces: an
empirical study of the impact of sales process capability and relationship
performance. Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, 24(3), pp.365-379.