Inquiry-Based Project: B&Q Company Retail Business Analysis

This project provides a detailed analysis of the B&Q Company, a British multinational home improvement and DIY retail company. It begins with an introduction to the retail business, outlining current trends such as tapping into new markets, leveraging technology like chatbots, and personalizing customer experiences. The main body of the project includes a comprehensive analysis of B&Q, including its background, mission statement, and a questionnaire-based survey of managers to assess their views on corporate social responsibility, key retail trends, customer behavior influences, and the impact of e-commerce. The survey results are analyzed thematically. A SWOT analysis is included to evaluate the company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The project concludes with actionable recommendations, focusing on customer needs, digital technology integration, and competitive analysis, along with a SMART objectives action plan to improve operational efficiency and customer satisfaction. This project is a valuable resource for students studying business development and retail management, offering insights into real-world business analysis and strategic planning.

An inquiry-based project of B&Q
company

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Trends in Retail business............................................................................................................1
Analysis of the B&Q Company..................................................................................................2
Recommendations with an action plan.......................................................................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
The key of the study is to effectively evaluate the key trends related with the retail business.
Furthermore, this report also focuses on analysing the retail company by carrying out the primary
research. Lastly, this report will also highlight on the key recommendations with the smart
objective action plan.
MAIN BODY
Trends in Retail business
The B&Q Company is a multinational British home improvement and DIY retail company which
was founded in the year 1969 by the Richard Block and David Quayle. This company is
headquartered in the Eastleigh, Hampshire in UK.
Logo:
Website: https://www.diy.com/
Mission Statement: “B&Q is considered to be as a committed company which focuses on
minimisation of the environmental damage which has been caused because of the day to day
running of the business and the securing of production, raw materials, packaging and
disposal of its products range”.
The retail industry within the UK is magnificent. There are approximately 30655 retail
outlets within the UK and the gross domestic product of the retail industry accounts for 5%. The
annual growth of the retail industry accounts for 10% with the increasing annual sales of 324%.
The key significant trend which has been followed by the retail industry is that it focuses on
tapping into the new markets and the other channels in order to establish the business within the
market (Hortaçsu and Syverson, 2015). The improvement and advancement within the
technology in turn has made it significantly easier for the key retailers in order to tap within the
emerging and international market. Use of the Chat bots helps in increasing the customer
engagement by providing the key updates associated with the order and helps in providing the
services on a real time basis (Ivanov and Mayorova, 2015). Creating new channels is one of the
significant trend for the retail business.
Shift in the expectations and need of the customers is one of the most significant trend. The
human centred experience is useful in providing the customers with the effective feeling of ease.
Providing the personalized set of retail experience is one of the appropriate measure which helps
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in meeting the needs and expectations of the customers (Top 5 Emerging Retail Industry Trends,
2020). Attending the growing culture which is useful in offering wide set of culture which helps
in improving the inventory process. It helps in restocking the quality and tends to also offer day
to day delivery services. It helps in changing the customer behaviour. Embracing the digital
mobile wallet helps in providing the growth within the consumer demand which helps in the
attainment of the higher operational growth and efficiency. Physical stores is at the edge of
gaining digital native brands. This is useful in expanding and effectively launching the presence
of the business across various countries. This is useful in increasing the market share within the
digital economy.
Artificial intelligence associated with the retail industry is one of the key prominent trend which
helps the customers in effectively shopping the products by virtually looking at the product
(Amelung, 2019). Advancement within the technology has eventually made it easier for the
company to tap into wider set of market and leads to higher operational growth and efficiency.
Analysis of the B&Q Company
Background: The number of employees within the B&Q Company is estimated to be 16717 in
the year 2018. It has 296 shops and it tends to mainly deal in the gardening plants and other
gardening supplies, home improvement and DIY tools. The B&Q Company is a multinational
British home improvement and DIY retail company which was founded in the year 1969 by the
Richard Block and David Quayle. This company is headquartered in the Eastleigh, Hampshire in
UK.
Name:
Age:
Gender:
QUESTIONNAIRE
Do you agree B&Q company focus on corporate social responsibility in order to sustain for the
long period?
 Yes
 No
 Maybe
According to you, what are the key trends related within the retail business?
 Expanding business into new market
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 Emergence of new technology
 Embracing partnership
 All of the above
According to you, what influence the behaviour of the customers in the retail industry?
 Personalized retail experience
 Artificial intelligence powered personal assistance
 Social and cultural factors
 Personal and psychological factors
Do you think providing real time services to the people is significant in improving the
operational efficiency of the business?
 Yes
 No
 Maybe
Do you agree, emergence of ecommerce digitalization is useful in improving the market share of
the B&Q company?
 Agreed
 Highly agreed
 Disagreed
 Highly disagreed
 Neutral
According to you what are the key challenges which has been faced by the retail company while
complying with the current market trends?
 Complying with the changing customer needs
 Maintaining the accurate customer base
 Digital disruption
 All of the above
What recommendation would you give to improve the operational efficiency of the retail
business?
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Theme 1: Yes, B&Q company focus on corporate social responsibility in order to sustain for
the long period.
PARTICULARS NUMBER OF
RESPONDENTS
% OF RESPO%DENTS
Yes 7 70%
No 1 10%
Maybe 2 20%
TOTAL 10 100%
Interpretation: The above carried out survey from 10 managers of the B&Q Company. Among
these 70% established that, corporate social responsibility is useful in carrying out the operations
of the business by effectively taking into consideration the environmental and social concerns
(Sławińska, 2016).
Theme 2: Expanding business into new market, emergence of new technology and embracing
partnership are the key trends related within the retail business.
PARTICULARS NUMBER OF
RESPONDENTS
% OF RESPONDENTS
Expanding business into
new market
2 20%
Emergence of new technology 2 20%
Embracing partnership 2 20%
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All of the above 4 40%
TOTAL 10 100%
Interpretation: The above carried out survey from 10 managers of the B&Q Company. Among
these 40% established that, emerging business in new market helps in increasing market share
and is better for profitability of the business. Engaging with new technology helps in better
business performance.
Theme 3: Personal and psychological factors influence the behaviour of the customers in the
retail industry.
PARTICULARS NUMBER OF
RESPONDENTS
% OF RESPONDENTS
Personalized retail
experience
3 30%
Artificial intelligence
powered personal
assistance
2 20%
Social and cultural factors 1 10%
Personal and
psychological factors
4 40%
TOTAL 10 100%
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Interpretation: The above carried out survey from 10 managers of the B&Q Company. Among
these 40% established that, the personal factors like economic circumstances, self-concept
personality self-concept, lifestyle, occupation, etc. The psychological factor like motivation,
beliefs, perception, learning and attitudes which influence the behaviour of the customers in the
retail industry (Vlahovic, Knezevic, and Sabolic, 2015).
Theme 4: Yes, providing real time services to the people is significant in improving the
operational efficiency of the business.
PARTICULARS NUMBER OF
RESPONDENTS
% OF RESPONDENTS
Yes 8 80%
No 1 10%
Maybe 1 10%
TOTAL 10 100%
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Interpretation: The above carried out survey from 10 managers of the B&Q Company. Among
these 80% established that, real time services has eventually become one of the key vital cog
within the retail business to comply with the demand of the customers.
Theme 5: Highly agreed, emergence of ecommerce digitalization is useful in improving the
market share of the B&Q Company.
PARTICULARS NUMBER OF
RESPONDENTS
% OF RESPONDENTS
Agreed 2 20%
Highly agreed 5 50%
Disagreed 1 10%
Highly disagreed 0 0%
Neutral 2 20%
TOTAL 10 100%
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Interpretation: The above carried out survey from 10 managers of the B&Q Company. Among
these 70% (20%+ 50%) established that, e- commerce digitalization by developing website and
ordering through digital mobile leads to wide set efficiency within the market by increasing the
sales (Jocevski and et.al., 2019).
Theme 6: Complying with the changing customer needs is the key challenge which has been
faced by the retail company while complying with the current market trends.
PARTICULARS NUMBER OF
RESPONDENTS
% OF RESPONDENTS
Complying with the changing
customer needs
4 40%
Maintaining the accurate
customer base
3 30%
Digital disruption 2 20%
All of the above 1 10%
TOTAL 10 100%
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Interpretation: The above carried out survey from 10 managers of the B&Q Company. Among
these 40% established that, the needs of the customer has been changing and meeting their
expectations is one of the key challenging task.
Theme 7: Examining the recommendation would you give to improve the operational
efficiency of the retail business.
Interpretation: The above carried out survey from 10 managers of the B&Q Company. Among
these maximum respondents established that, it is important to understand the key goals and
objectives of the business to remove the barriers and improve the customer services by
complying with current trends.
SWOT analysis
Strength: It is a multinational company and the first company to offer home improvement
products. It is one of the third largest company across the globe.
Weakness: High degree of competition is the major weakness for the B&Q Company.
Opportunity: It tends to have good interpersonal presence by creating wide range of products.
Threat: Continuous change in the technology and changing customer patterns is the major threat
to B&Q Company.
Recommendations with an action plan
SMART Objectives
 To find the trends of retail industry that affects or are favourable to B&Q business by the
15th August, 2020.
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 To observe consumers behaviour, collect information, interpretation of data collected,
take decision by 20th September, 2020.
 To identify new requirements from customers regarding B&Q business by 30th October,
2020.
 To suggest possible ways to satisfy these requirements by 20th December, 2020.
The B&Q Company must effectively focus on meeting the needs and requirements of the
customers by effectively complying with the digital technology to provide the best possible
services. It is very crucial to effectively maintain a degree of information and accessibility which
improves the operational performance and productivity. It leads to the reduction in the
downstream issues and is highly significant in effectively addressing and improving the customer
interaction. Building a significant CX centred culture is prominent in improving the conditions
and eventually leads to better growth and operational efficiency (Ciravegna and Brenes, 2016).
Improving the website which makes it easier for the customers to shop will significantly help in
providing ease to the customers and helps in better shopping experience. Understanding the need
and demand of the customers will significantly result in providing the customers with the best
possible products and services. This helps in building up the loyalty of the customers and
attaining higher market share and customer base. Personalizing the customer experience and
providing the real time service experience to the customer with a quick response rate is helpful in
the better attainment of the key goals and objectives (LI, and KU, 2017). It has been
recommended that, use of the Chat bots helps in increasing the customer engagement by
providing the key updates associated with the order and helps in providing the services on a real
time basis. Regularly carrying out the competitive analysis is significant in improving the
performance of the B&Q Company that results in establishing the business into the market.
There are large number of already established competitors. However, it is necessary to
understand the customer needs and meet the various operational efficiency to live for the
sustainable longer period of time. Complying with the corporate social responsibility is useful in
carrying out the operations of the business by effectively taking into consideration the
environmental and social concerns. It has been recommended to understand the personal factors
like economic circumstances, self-concept personality self-concept, lifestyle, and occupation, etc.
and also the psychological factor like motivation, beliefs, perception, learning and attitudes
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which influence the behaviour of the customers in the retail industry. It has been recommended
to integrate new advanced technology into the business to gain higher operational growth.
CONCLUSION
From the conducted study it has been summarized that, embracing the digital mobile wallet helps
in providing the growth within the consumer demand. Artificial intelligence associated with the
retail industry is one of the key prominent trend. E- Commerce digitalization by developing
website and ordering through digital mobile leads to wide set efficiency. Improving the website
which makes it easier for the customers to shop.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Amelung, T., 2019. Competition in the German Electricity Retail Business: Innovation and
Growth Strategies October 2019.
Ciravegna, L. and Brenes, E.R., 2016. Learning to become a high reliability organization in the
food retail business. Journal of Business Research, 69(10), pp.4499-4506.
Hortaçsu, A. and Syverson, C., 2015. The ongoing evolution of US retail: A format tug-of-
war. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 29(4), pp.89-112.
Ivanov, G. and Mayorova, E., 2015. Intangible assets and competitive advantage in retail: case
study from Russia. Asian Social Science, 11(12), p.38.
Jocevski, M and et.al., 2019. Transitions towards omni-channel retailing strategies: a business
model perspective. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management.
LI, Z.J. and KU, J.Y., 2017. Theoretical Framework Research on Retail Business Model
Innovation in Internet Environment. DEStech Transactions on Environment, Energy and Earth
Sciences, (eesd).
Sato, A., Huang, R. and Yen, N.Y., 2015. Design of fusion technique-based mining engine for
smart business. Human-centric Computing and Information Sciences, 5(1), pp.1-16.
Sławińska, M., 2016. Changes to Retail Business Models-Overview of the Determining
Factors. Zeszyty Naukowe SGGW w Warszawie. Polityki Europejskie, Finanse i Marketing, (15
(64)), pp.149-160.
Vlahovic, N.I.K.O.L.A., Knezevic, B.L.A.Z.E.N.K.A. and Sabolic, M.I.L.A.N.A., 2015.
Overview of Recent IT Tehnologies in Retail Supply Chains. Recent Advances on Business,
Economics and Development, pp.31-38.
Online
Top 5 Emerging Retail Industry Trends. 2020. [ONLINE]. Available through<
https://www.mulesoft.com/resources/api/top-retail-industry-trends#:~:text=Expand%20into
%20Emerging%20Markets%20and,otherwise%20be%20difficult%20to%20reach. >
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