LSBM300 - Analyzing Tesco's Challenges in the UK Retail Sector

This business research project analyzes the challenges faced by major supermarkets in the UK, focusing on Tesco's strategies to maintain its market position against new entrants. The research employs a quantitative methodology, using questionnaires distributed to Tesco employees to gather primary data. The study explores the nature of the UK retail sector, the challenges posed by competitors offering high discounts, and the strategies Tesco uses to attract and retain customers. The project includes a literature review, a detailed methodology section outlining sampling techniques and data analysis methods, and ethical considerations. The research aims to provide insights into the competitive dynamics of the UK retail market and Tesco's responses to these challenges.

Business research project
on “The changing face of
retail sector”
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Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction and terms of references ............................................................................3
Research Rationale.................................................................................................................3
Research questions.................................................................................................................3
Research aim..........................................................................................................................3
Research Objectives...............................................................................................................3
Scope of the study..................................................................................................................4
Chapter 2: Preliminary Literature review........................................................................................4
Chapter 3: Methodology..................................................................................................................6
Research methodology...........................................................................................................6
Sampling.................................................................................................................................7
Data collection methods.........................................................................................................7
Data analysis methods............................................................................................................8
Ethical considerations.............................................................................................................8
Research Limitations..............................................................................................................8
Timeline...........................................................................................................................................9
References.....................................................................................................................................11
Ethical Review form......................................................................................................................13
Ethical Review Form: Part 1................................................................................................13
Ethical Review Form: Part 2................................................................................................14
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Chapter 1: Introduction and terms of references
Research Rationale
The main reason for choosing this research is to examine the concept of retail sectors and
its impact on the UK market. It further relates to the challenges which pre-existing company
faced while competing with the new entrants who give high discount to grab market share. This
research is helpful in extending the market area in retail industry and provide the wide range of
effective growth in UK market. It is effective and helpful for addressing issues and provide wide
range of applicability in supermarkets (Batat, 2019). On the other hand, researcher is able to gain
personal and professional development which will be more effective and helpful for addressing
wide range of information and gain more effective approach in an efficient manner. In the
relation to personal context, researcher is able to enhance their market data attribute,
communication skills, research aptitude and public speaking. All of these are effective and
helpful for managing and addressing issues and solve on the perspective of future growth.
Research questions
 What is the nature of retail sectors in The UK market?
 What are the major challenges faced by major supermarkets Like Tesco from the new
entrants?
 What are the major strategies used by Tesco to gain their position in market and attract
customers?
Research aim
“To analysis the challenges faced by the major supermarkets in UK from
new entrants. A study Tesco.”
Research Objectives
 To understand the overview of retail sectors in The UK market.
 To determine the major challenges faced by major supermarkets Like Tesco from the
new entrants.
 To evaluate major strategies used by Tesco company to gain their position in market and
attract customers.
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Scope of the study
This research study include the behaviour of primary and secondary data sources which
will be effective for gaining conceptual background and information. These would be more
efficient and appropriate to provide working and manage suitable sector growth in addressing the
challenges in an appropriate ways. It will be helpful for managing data and collect primary and
secondary source of information in an efficient ways (Burhan and et.al., 2021). This study
include appropriate methodology for completing research and gain higher growth in analysing
and conducting market research on retail sectors. Whereas, researcher is not able to manage data
in research for conducting large scale primary and secondary data. Due to lack of time and
limited resources, investigator does not include the vast topic or conduct large scale research.
Chapter 2: Preliminary Literature review
What is the nature of retail sectors in The UK market?
According to the perspective of Smith (2021), retail industry is defined as the businesses
involved in selling of goods and services for personal consumption. It include shops,
supermarkets, stalls, department stores. Here, retailers sell all items of personal consumption to
satisfy the need of consumers. The retailers of UK are having more than 3,00,000 separate
businesses. It is relevant for UK economy as it provides livelihood to approx 3 million people
which represents around 8% of UK employment. The retailers has variety of roles to perform,
ranging from serving customers on daily basis to influencing people and making strategic
decisions (Clarke, 2018). There are various sectors which a retailer can choose as per the area of
interest such as fashion, food, entertainment, health and beauty, technology, general merchandise
and so on. The four biggest retailers in UK are TESCO, SAINSBURY, ASDA and Morrisons.
These businesses are dominating the entire retailing industry of UK. There is no requirement of
any degrees to enter in this market, although having a degree will significantly improve the
chances of expansion of the business. To beat the competition in the market place businessman
need to have certain skills such as commercial awareness, means what all products and services
are currently in demand. Having a sound brand or product knowledge will be an added
advantage which will help to enhance the business. There is need to have passion for retailing
and the ability to come up with the innovative and creative ideas. Other than this, good
leadership skills, numerical and customer service skills will help to attract a large number of
customers (da Veiga, and et. al., 2017). So, all these skills will upgrade the chances of business
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in order to capture a large market share. (Overview of the retail sectors in UK, 2021) There are
different types of retailing such as store retailing and non store retailing. Store retailing means
offering products on stores, stalls etc. for final consumption or non businesses uses.
What are the major challenges faced by major supermarkets Like Tesco from the new
entrants?
As per the view point of KANYA (2018), there are major challenges which competitors
face from new entrants such as new retailers come up with the variety of goods and services with
the advanced technology. For this the existing competitors has to adopt advanced technology to
beat the competition in the market place (Leng and Wee, 2017). Due to changes in economy
some retailers are having profits well some has to face huge losses. Well, the new entrants are
now majorly focusing on the new protocols of COVID due to which consumers are getting
attracted more to them. Now the existing competitors are implementing these protocols to stay in
the competition. As of now, they are limiting the number of customers in market, ensure that
they are maintaining social distance, wearing masks, and maintaining proper hygiene. Another
major challenge which retailers face are to keep with the ever changing customer needs and
desires (Taoana, Quaye and Abratt, 2021). As customer preferences keeps on changing it
become relevant to keep with the customer demand. Apart from these economic situations,
advertisements and competition has huge impact on the consumer demand which are impacting
existing competitors. (7 Major challenges in the Retail industry & How to Overcome Them,
2018) . As the new entrants keep their prices low in the beginning in order to capture large
market share, this has a huge impact on the competitors. In order to avoid all such threats
retailers keep on giving special offers and discounts to their consumers to win their hearts.
Additionally, retailers keep on improving their quality of products which boost the trust of
consumers and will create brand loyalty. Therefore, it is important for the businesses to adopt all
the uncertain changes smoothly to beat the competitors and win consumer loyalty (Liebowitz,
2017).
What are the major strategies used by Tesco to gain their position in market and attract
customers?
As per the view of Dorf (2021), Tesco used different marketing strategies for adopting
the right way of technique and process to achieve their market positions and attract customers in
more effective ways. It further helps in managing and analysing the impressive store front looks
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which helps their loyal customers to stay and connected with the company (Grashuis and Su,
2019). In addition to this, they provide adequate training and facilities which are effective and
helpful for analysing the challenge and trained their employees to overcome with the challenges.
The marketing team of Tesco always try to understand the market position and always engage
with their customers to attract and connected them with the company for longer period of time
(Kopalle, Kumar and Subramaniam, 2020).
Chapter 3: Methodology
Research methodology
Qualitative and quantitative methods are used in a research for collecting research
methods for collecting data and analyse data in more effective ways. Qualitative data include the
research which does not include any numerical values and it conduct on the basis of theoretical
background. Whereas, quantitative research methodology includes numerical data and common
techniques will be used to conduct the research in an effective and appropriate manner.
Researcher, opted quantitative research methodology which include the basic growth and
opportunities in more effective and appropriate ways (Psomas, 2021).
Advantages of quantitative methods:
 Can be tested and checked: This methods helps in conducting research and can be
testes and checked while finding issues in concluding outcome. This strategy make the
data and gather information for having more reliable and managing update to be open for
more argumentative.
 Straightforward analysis: This type of data provide more accuracy in research and
provide statistical tests to use more appropriate data to use and manage applicabilities.
 Prestige: This is one of the effective and appropriate for considering more effective and
approaches for considering values and manage impressive growth in market.
Disadvantages of quantitative methods:
 Can be mislead: This research can be mislead the researcher as it is based on scientific
knowledge rather than observational. However, for managing both research project is can
be subjective and misleading also.
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 Difficulty in calculating: While conducting quantitative research method, can be related
to having errors or mistake in the research methods. So, it will find difficulties in
calculating the data in more effective and appropriate ways (Nogueira and et.al., 2021).
Sampling
This is the method which is used to provide wide range of applicability in an effective
and appropriate ways. It further helps in managing large population size and provide the
significant growth in managing practices and provide applicable scale. Here, researcher uses
random sampling method as this method is effective and helpful in managing data and provide
significant growth for conducting research. In order to complete sampling, respondents are the
employees of Tesco. To complete the research 30 employees are chosen for conducting primary
research with the help of random sampling method. The reason for choosing employees as
respondents is because they will helpful in analysing policies of company and mostly affected
through the company's decision (wa Mungai, N., 2021).
Data collection methods
There are different primary data collection methods which can be used in this research, as
these strategies or methods have their own advantages and disadvantages. Some of the primary
research methods are related to interview, questionnaires, observations, focus group,
documentation and other methods.
Questionnaire: This is one of the effective and appropriate method for collecting
quantitative research methodology and provide the wide range of information to collect and
manage growth in analysing practices. It further helps in managing and addressing issues in
considering different factors. It is economical, wide coverage and having suitable type of
responded in more effective and appropriate methods. It is one of the effective and appropriate
method to complete the study but at the same time, this method have limited responses and lack
of personal contact.
Observations: This method is one of the easiest and effective method for collecting data
in more effective ways. Observational method collect the data on the basis of natural
surroundings and high accuracy for collecting data different tools in an effective and appropriate
ways. But this method always miss something from the observation, all the factors are not able to
considered in research.
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From the above, researcher opted questionnaire method to complete the data and achieve
higher efficiency in considering different factors. This method is effective for completing large
scale and quantitative research.
Data analysis methods
There are basically related to managing data and achieve higher efficiency in managing
data and provide appropriate information. For this researcher is able to choose frequency
distribution method which are effective and applicable for conducting research in more effective
ways (Larke, Kilgour and O’Connor, 2018).
Advantages of frequency distribution method:
 It make the data more effective and appropriate for conducting research and most
understandable form.
 The range of data can be determined easily and make more effective conclusion in an
appropriate ways.
 With the help of this, the data can be determined more effectively and easily to achieve
data distribution.
Disadvantages of frequency distribution method:
 It will be become the reason for loosing data and make individual data forms.
 This methods needed to rearrange the data and compact the analysis in more effective
ways.
Ethical considerations
This is an important source to achieve higher efficiency and make growth in analysing
confidentiality and anonymity of the products which needed to be handles in these research
methods. With the help of data protection act 2018, it is analyse that the data of respondents will
never be share to any third party and make sure to follow the rules in efficient manner. Another
ethical consideration is related to make consent from the respondents and company to take
primary research and being applicable in research (Gilbert and Macleroy, 2021).
Research Limitations
The major limitation of research of not having appropriate time and resources for
conducting different time frame methods. During the process of managing research choices and
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methodology, researcher is finding difficulties in addressing the source and provide wide range
of applicabilities in an effective and appropriate ways.
Timeline
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References
Books & Journals
Batat, W., 2019. The new luxury experience: Creating the ultimate customer experience.
Springer.
Burhan, M., Salam, M.T., Abou Hamdan, O. and Tariq, H., 2021. Crisis management in the
hospitality sector SMEs in Pakistan during COVID-19. International Journal of
Hospitality Management, 98, p.103037.
Clarke, T., 2018. The governance and regulation of the superannuation industry: systemic failure
in the Australian retail sector. Law and Financial Markets Review, 12(4). pp.186-192.
da Veiga, A and et. al., 2017, August. Compliance with the protection of personal information
act and consumer privacy expectations: A comparison between the retail and medical aid
industry. In 2017 Information Security for South Africa (ISSA) (pp. 16-23). IEEE.
Gilbert, F. and Macleroy, V., 2021. Different ways of descending into the crypt: methodologies
and methods for researching creative writing. New Writing, 18(3), pp.253-271.
Grashuis, J. and Su, Y., 2019. A review of the empirical literature on farmer cooperatives:
Performance, ownership and governance, finance, and member attitude. Annals of
Public and Cooperative Economics, 90(1), pp.77-102.
Kopalle, P.K., Kumar, V. and Subramaniam, M., 2020. How legacy firms can embrace the
digital ecosystem via digital customer orientation. Journal of the Academy of Marketing
Science, 48(1), pp.114-131.
Larke, R., Kilgour, M. and O’Connor, H., 2018. Build touchpoints and they will come:
transitioning to omnichannel retailing. International Journal of Physical Distribution &
Logistics Management.
Leng, H. K. and Wee, K. N. L., 2017. An examination of users and non-users of self-checkout
counters. The International Review of Retail, Distribution and Consumer
Research, 27(1). pp.94-108.
Liebowitz, J., 2017. Thoughts on recent trends and future research perspectives in big data and
analytics in higher education. In Big data and learning analytics in higher education (pp.
7-17). Springer, Cham.
Nogueira, P.J., Forjaz, M.J., Rodriguez-Blazquez, C., Diaz-Franco, A., Unim, B., Palmieri, L.,
Carcaillon-Bentata, L., Makovski, T. and Feteira-Santos, R., 2021. Research
methodologies to assess the impact of COVID-19. European Journal of Public Health,
31(Supplement_3), pp.ckab164-175.
Psomas, E., 2021. Future research methodologies of lean manufacturing: a systematic literature
review. International Journal of Lean Six Sigma.
Taoana, M. C., Quaye, E. S. and Abratt, R., 2021. Antecedents of brand loyalty in South African
retail banking. Journal of Financial Services Marketing. pp.1-16.
wa Mungai, N., 2021. Designing a PhD proposal in mixed method research. Research Anthology
on Innovative Research Methodologies and Utilization Across Multiple Disciplines,
pp.211-221.
Online
7 Major challenges in the Retail industry & How to Overcome Them, 2018. [Online], Available
through : <https://www.hashmicro.com/blog/7-major-challenges-in-retail-industry>.
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Overview of the retail sectors in UK, 2021. [Online], Available through : <
https://www.prospects.ac.uk/jobs-and-work-experience/job-sectors/retail/overview-of-
the-retail-sector-in-the-uk>.
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Ethical Review form
Ethical Review Form: Part 1
Part 1 needs to be completed by all Business Research Project students.
Please read the following two statements and place an X in the area indicated for the statement
that most accurately represents your research intentions.
Student Statement Insert X Student Action
Statement 1
I have read the above
information. I confirm that my
research does not
include study on human
participants.
You do not need to complete
Part 2 of this form. Ethics
approval is not
required.
Statement 2
I have read the above
information. I confirm that my
research does involve
the study on human participants.
X Please proceed to complete Part
2 of this form.
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Ethical Review Form: Part 2
Part 2 only needs to be completed if you put a cross against Statement 2 in Part 1 above.
Yes No
I have prepared a participant information sheet (including information on
secure data storage), and submitted it in Appendix 1. □ □
I have prepared a participant consent form (including information on right to
withdraw from the study), and submitted it in Appendix 2. □ □
If you have put a cross No for either of the above, please note that your final Research Project
will have to include a participant information sheet and a participant consent form.
Please answer all of these questions by ticking yes or no in the box provided.
Yes
1.
Does the study involve participants who are particularly vulnerable or
unable to give informed consent? (e.g. people under the age of 18,
people with learning disabilities, students you teach or assess) □ □
2.
Will it be necessary for participants to take part in the study without
their knowledge and consent at the time? □ □
3.
Does the study involve audio or visual recording of people in public
places? □ □
4.
Will the study involve the discussion of sensitive topics? (e.g. sexual
activity, drug use, illegal activities, death, whistleblowing) □ □
5.
Are drugs, placebos or other substances to be given to the study
participants or will the study involve invasive, intrusive or potentially
harmful procedures of any
kind?
□ □
6.
Does your study involve a topic that would be considered ‘sensitive’
(age, culture, race, gender, sexuality, socio-economic standing, or
religion)?
□ □
7.
Is physical pain or psychological stress from the proposed project likely
to cause harm or negative consequences beyond the risks in normal
life?
□ □
8.
Does the study involve groups or materials that may be construed as
terrorist or extremist? □ □
9.
Will financial inducements (other than expenses) be offered to
participants? □ □
10.
Does the study involve the collection of data that is not anonymised
(contains identifying information such as name and address)? □ □