Marks and Spencer: Comprehensive Business Analysis and Recommendations

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Marks & Spencer (M&S), a multinational British retailer. It begins with an introduction outlining M&S's business model, including its clothing, home products, and food offerings, along with the impact of fast and sustainable fashion and emerging payment methods like 'buy now and pay later'. The main body of the report includes a SWOT analysis, identifying the company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. A PESTEL analysis examines the political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal factors affecting M&S. The report incorporates a questionnaire to gauge customer satisfaction regarding services, prices, issue resolution, and the use of AI and machine learning. Based on the analyses, recommendations are made to improve customer experience, leverage technology, and enhance business strategies. The report concludes with a summary of the key findings and insights.

Assessment
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................4
SWOT analysis of the company..................................................................................................4
PESTEL analysis of the company...............................................................................................5
Questionnaire ..................................................................................................................................6
Recommendations............................................................................................................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................11
Appendix........................................................................................................................................12
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INTRODUCTION
Marks and Spencer group is the British multinational company in London which
was founded in year 1884 by Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer. Company deals in
selling clothing, home products and food products. There are about 80,000 employees
working at 1,463 locations on all over the world. Fast fashion refers to the clothing
designs that move very fast from the catwalk to stores to meet the new trends. Fast
fashion is used as a term to describe the business model based on the catwalk trends,
high fashion designs and and mass producing at low cost. These are the collection that
is based on the designs presented at the Fashion week events. Sustainable fashion is
refers to the meeting about current needs and it ensures that person is going to meet
those future needs as well. In addition, sustainable fashion is the all about the benefiting
to the customers through the supply chain of fashion. It is from the manufacturers to the
customers to everybody working in the recycling factory. Emerging of new payments
methods in the UK retail market. Issues has been faced by many customers and
shopkeepers. About 60% of the shopping cart desertion rate in all over the country in e-
commerce sectors (Broughton and et.aI., 2019). This involves that there is a need of
cresting new accounts and problems with the security of payment and there is a
complexity on checking out the process.
Now a days, in market there are various dominants by debit and credit cards,
new services are being established for the payment of money. These services give
promise to deliver real benefits to the customers and retailers both. Marks and Spencer
offers 'buy now and pay later model' in the company to attract young customers and
boost their trade. ClearPay, which is from Australia and launched in UK, 2019 with
5,00,000 customers and this involves M&S, Pretty little thing. In this customer can pay
there cost in four instalments within six months. Also, customers are referred to the
credit agency at Clear pay discretion. The Marks and Spencer is contacted with the
ClearPay to offer customers a option of paying there orders in many instalments. By this
company is able to increase its customers and profits. The ClearPay services enable
customers to pay there cost in four equal instalments or within the six weeks (Ervural
and et.aI ., 2018). By this customers can mange their payments through an mobile app.
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The impact of online retailers is on the company is that it has various competitors
such as H&M, Zara etc. There are various new wave that is digital connection which is
from various e- commerce websites are Asos, Boohoo, Amazon. These company are
also applying fast fashion in the country. So this can create a very severe impact on the
Marks and Spencer profile. The store needs to be an integral to the pull model in which
feedback is taken from the customers after the use of the product. Other companies
take regular feedbacks from the customers for the products they use. Company is using
Artificial intelligence and Machine learning process in their organisation. AI is the era of
creation of intelligent machines that work and react like machines. It is studied that AI
function offers million dollar opportunity found that most of the retailers are spending
approx US$7.3 billion the Artificial intelligence (Mintz and Brodie, 2019). AI enables
employees to make decisions. Machine learning is the process of making computers
learn like humans do. Big data is easier to understand as it is the big volume of data
that is collected from various sources. AI has improved the store experiences for the
customers and efficiency of wider operations performing in the company. AI has a
power of amplifying the human ingenuity. In this Covid pandemic, company is making
good profess by implementing transformational programmes. The total dividend of the
company is 3.9p. For the week ended of February clothing and home products of the
company earns a revenue of increased in 0.3%. it before the beginning of crisis.
MAIN BODY
SWOT analysis of the company
SWOT analysis shows the strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats for
the business environment. It is done to analyse the current situation of the market and
implement new strategies to work on those issues or problems which can create a
threat for the company.
 Strength: Marks and Spencer has various strength as it sells different types of
product such as clothing, food products etc. so many customers comes on the
store because it sells wide variety of products which helps customers in choosing
the best (Sarsby, 2016). Also company has 1300+ stores in all over the country.
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It provides quality of products and prices are also very reasonable which attract
many customers.
 Weakness: Publicity of the company is not so much good because it is old
fashioned and non trendy. Manual work increase the cost of the of operations.
 Opportunities: Company is operating in all over the world. It has across 1300
stores in the world. So for the retailing company it is less risk to enter into the
new market. Also company has a change to increase its customers by making
market segmentation strategy. Which helps in identifying potential customers.
 Threats: Company has various competitors like H&M, Sainsbury, Asda etc. So it
is difficult to maintain its reputation in the market to increase its profitability
(Stewart, Sprivulis and Dwivedi, 2018.).
PESTEL analysis of the company
PESTEL analysis is done for identification of the external factors which can affect
the business environment.
 Political: Political factors like free trade, Brexit has affected the external
environment of the company. As free trade allows company to sale it imports
products at very cheap price so there is the high profit margins. But free trade is
for the sometime after that it can affect the company. Also, Brexit issue has also
huge affect the Marks and Spencer company in terms of trade regulations and
tariffs.
 Economical: Price can become the factor. As if price of the products of the Marks
and Spencer is high then customers can shift to the other brand. So for this it
needs to provide low cost products. From budget clothing to supermarket the
new competitors are stealing market share from the company. This can be done
through by offering similar products at the lower and cheap prices.
 Social: Factors like customer change and preferences can affect severely t
business. For this company has introduced cheap clothes to attract more
customers and they provide less expensive versions of the clothes in the market.
So company has made increase of credit cards to those customers who want to
pay cashless.
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 Technological: Marks and Spencer company has announced new technology for
transformational programme. This helps the company in being digital and deliver
there diverse collection of products to the customers. New technology helps the
company in saving the time and also making less effort. Company is focusing on
the successful operations and importance of flexibility, and customer preference
products. So that these can satisfied the customers and increase their
profitability.
 Environmental: Company is facing many issues like current climate conditions
which can affect the business environment on regular basis like ads in
magazines, newspaper etc. Company has pledged to become more sustainable
in the market ( Zahari and Romli, 2019). But there are factors which can affect
the company in it selling food products, clothes etc.
 Legal: At the time of brand expansion Marks and Spencer needs to update to the
government and follow there rules and regulations. Every country has a ever
changing environment which company needs to adopt at the time of branch
expansion. The brand of the company come under the public scrutiny when it
cannot give employees security of job. Then it came under the risk made by
government. The company failed to address the issue properly and it came into
loss for that period.
Questionnaire
The data are taken from primary sources. Primary researches is the method of
collecting data directly from the customers rather than data which is used from previous
collection is used to carry put certain problems or issues which requires in depth
analysis.
Ques 1- Are customers satisfied with the services provided by Marks & Spencer.
Bases Satisfied Unsatisfied
Services of M&S 90.00% 10.00%
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Interpretation- From the above graph it has been evaluated that 90% of the customers
are satisfied with the services provided by the company(M&S). Whereas 10% of the
customers are not satisfied with the services provided by the company.
Ques 2- Are customers are satisfied by the prices of product company is provided to
them?
Bases Satisfied Unsatisfied
Prices of M&S 80.00% 20.00%
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Satisfied
Unsatisfied

Interpretation: in the above graph it is evaluated that 80% of the customers are
satisfied by the prices of the product company and 20% of the customers are not
satisfied.
Ques 3- Is the company is able to resolve the issues and problems of the customers?
Bases Yes No
Resolving issues 65.00% 35.00%
Interpretation: It has been noted that 65% of the person thinks that company works on
there issues or problems faced at the time of any products and rest 35% don't thinks
that company is solving issues.
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Yes
No
Satisfied
Unsatisfied

Ques 4- Is the company make effective use of AI or machine learning?
Bases Yes No
Effective use of AI 75.00% 25.00%
Interpretation: From the above graph it has been shown that 75% customers thinks
that company make effective use of AI and machine learning but 25% doesn't agree
with the statement.
Recommendations
From the above graphs it has been concluded that some of the customers are
not satisfied with the services and prices of the products which company is offering.
Also, Marks and Spencer sometimes fails to solves the issues of the customers. And
there is the effective use of technologies like AI and machine learning. There re some
issues which are to be faced by the struggling retailers. These can be fundamental
issues which can be solved by earning customer experiences. There are various ways
by which issues can be resolves by using upgrading technologies, software and
processes. These can be done through using of tablets where tablets has been
required. Because modern technologies helps the company in saving time and making
less effort. Another is getting more personal with the customers as this can increase the
customers satisfaction and their revenues both. This can be done through provide
discounts and offers on the products at the time of occasions. This can attract
customers and they get trust on the brand. If company doesn't do this then customers
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Yes
No

can shift to the other brands as well. Struggling retailers can provide gift vouchers and
discounts to the loyal customers. They can also sell personal quotes at the time of
purchasing the product. Regular training should be provided to the employees so that
they work efficiently and effectively. Retailer should give them job security so that
employees feel safe in the working environment. Last is that retailer should make extra
strategies to sell there products but he needs to make additional channels to sell or
advertise there products. Company can use e-commerce websites and mobile
applications to order the products and show diverse products of the store. This can
helps the company in increasing is customer base and its profitability both.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it has been concluded that Marks and Spencer is the
retailing company which is stable in the all over the world with large customer base and
variety of products. There are some weakness and threats of the company which it
needs to be looked upon. Also it consist of various factors which can affect its external
business. Company needs to looks upon them and take steps to convert them into
opportunities. By this it can increase its customer satisfaction and profitability. Also it
needs to focus on those customers who are not satisfied by the services they are
provided.
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REFERENCES
Broughton, E and et.aI., 2019, August. High temperature superconducting cable study
driving M&S tool development. In 2019 IEEE Electric Ship Technologies
Symposium (ESTS) (pp. 156-164). IEEE.
Ervural, B.Cand et.aI ., 2018. An ANP and fuzzy TOPSIS-based SWOT analysis for
Turkey’s energy planning. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 82,
pp.1538-1550.
Mintz, Y. and Brodie, R., 2019. Introduction to artificial intelligence in
medicine. Minimally Invasive Therapy & Allied Technologies, 28(2), pp.73-81.
Sarsby, A., 2016. SWOT analysis. Lulu. Com.
Stewart, J., Sprivulis, P. and Dwivedi, G., 2018. Artificial intelligence and machine
learning in emergency medicine. Emergency Medicine Australasia, 30(6),
pp.870-874.
Zahari, A.R. and Romli, F.I., 2019. Analysis of suborbital flight operation using
PESTLE. Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics, 192, p.104901.
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Appendix
Ques 1- Are customers satisfied with the services provided by Marks & Spencer.
Bases Satisfied Unsatisfied
Services of M&S 90.00% 10.00%
Ques 2- Are customers are satisfied by the prices of product company is provided to
them?
Bases Satisfied Unsatisfied
Prices of M&S 80.00% 20.00%
Ques 3- Is the company is able to resolve the issues and problems of the customers?
Bases Yes No
Resolving issues 65.00% 35.00%
Ques 4- Is the company make effective use of AI or machine learning?
Bases Yes No
Effective use of AI 75.00% 25.00%
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