MBA Project: Strategic Management Analysis of Coles and Woolworths

This report provides a strategic management analysis of Coles and Woolworths, two leading retail organizations in Australia. The study examines their corporate strategies and how these strategies impact their competitive advantages within the industry. The report includes an executive summary, literature review exploring concepts of corporate strategy, theoretical perspectives of competitive advantage such as Porter's Generic Strategy and Resource-Based View. The methodology section details the case study approach and data collection methods. The findings section presents data analysis, reflecting on the implications. The report concludes with recommendations for both companies, emphasizing differentiation strategies and the use of grocery analytic tools to enhance their market positions. The report aims to highlight and explore the strategies employed by Coles and Woolworths to improve their competitive advantage, and provides recommendations for future strategic development.

Running Head: MBA PROJECT: STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
MBA Project: Strategic Management
Analysis of Corporate Strategy of Coles and Woolworth
Student’s name:
Name of the University”
Author’s note:

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Executive summary
In this report, analysis of Corporate Strategy of Woolworths and Coles has been chosen;
however, the main focus has been on the impact of corporate strategy on competitive advantages
of both companies. Corporate strategy of the organisation focuses mainly on the meeting the
objectives and the business leaders of business try to escape from a critical situation through
corporate strategy. Moreover, corporate strategy helps an organisation to gain the completive
advantage in the industry. Moreover, the organisations like to gain the corporate strategy in
focusing on the improvement of business profitability. In the first section of the report, problem
statement for Woolworths and Coles has been provided with aim of the report. In the second
section, a literature review has been conducted based on the past literature. Theoretical
perspectives of corporate strategy and competitive advantage have been given in this section.
Moreover, two competitive models have also been given namely Resource-Based View and
Porter's Generic Model. In this regard, the benefits of corporate strategy and competitive
advantage have been provided with instances. In the third portion, a process of case study
analysis and data collection process have been highlighted. In the fourth section, the data
findings have been provided with tables, images and graphs. However, the analysis has been
done segregating the topic into four themes. Finally, a clear conclusion has been done with
recommendations. Woolworths and Coles must take differentiation strategy with grocery
analytic tools.

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Table of Contents
1. Introduction..................................................................................................................................4
Background of the topic:.............................................................................................................4
Problem statement.......................................................................................................................4
Aim of the report.........................................................................................................................5
2. Literature review..........................................................................................................................6
Concept of corporate strategy......................................................................................................6
Reasons behind taking corporate strategy...................................................................................6
Problems arise from corporate strategies.....................................................................................7
Theoretical perspectives of competitive advantage.....................................................................8
Impact of corporate strategy on competitive advantage..............................................................9
3. Research methodology...........................................................................................................10
3.1 Case study method...............................................................................................................10
3.2 Data collection.....................................................................................................................10
4. Presentation of findings.............................................................................................................11
4.1 Analysing the data...............................................................................................................11
4.2 Reflection on findings and implications..............................................................................17
5. Conclusions and recommendations...........................................................................................19
5.1 Conclusion...........................................................................................................................19

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5.2 Recommendations................................................................................................................20
Reference List................................................................................................................................23

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1. Introduction
This report sheds light on corporate strategies of Woolworths and Coles, reputed retail
organisations in the Australia. Moreover, this report will highlight the relationship between
corporate strategy and the competitive advantage of the firms. In the first section of this report
will eliminate the rationale of the study with the focal point of the report. In the second section,
the relevant literature will be reviewed in order to establish the theoretical framework of the
report. In the methodology section, the secondary data will be taken in order to establish the data
analysis. Furthermore, in the lasts section, a clear conclusion will be drawn with
recommendations.
Background of the topic:
Coles and Woolworths are two supermarkets in the Australia and both organisations have
large retail chains in the Australia. These supermarkets sell the products like vegetables, fruits,
household goods and food items. Woolworths has been overshadowing the Coles and Coles’
dominance is coming to an end. Woolworths has its outlets in more than 992 places in Australia
and it has been in the industry since 1924 (Woolworths.com.au 2017). The employee base of the
organisation is large and in recent time, Woolworths’ food sales accelerate over Coles. On the
other side, Coles is a subsidiary of Wesfarmers and it has been in the industry since 1914. Coles
is not far behind from Woolworths as it has its outlets in more than 800 places (Colwa.com.au
2017). In the recent time of globalised business, retail organisations require strategic thinking
and string corporate strategy can make the organisation strategically competitive.

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Problem statement
Corporate strategies of Coles have been facing the issues of directional strategies in
relation to firm’s orientation toward stability, growth and retrenchment. Coles has also been
facing the issues in the industry of retail market in which it is competing. The management of
Coles fails to coordinates the transfer resources and activities that help the business in cultivating
the capabilities of the business units. Moreover, Coles' strategy is to strive to provide real values
to the customers through lowering the prices, however, the emphasis on the quality of the
products. Coles strives to provide better shopping experience to the customers. On the other side,
Woolworths makes plans to grow in the market and corporate strategy of the Woolworths helps
to understand new entrants in the market. Moreover, Coles' corporate strategy lacks identifying
the missed opportunities that can help the organisation to grow in the market. As a result of this,
Coles fails to compete with Woolworths and in last quarter of 2016, Woolworths eclipsed Coles.
Revenue of Coles in the year 2016 was 33 billion AUD and the operating income of Coles 1.9
billion. On the other side, Woolworths had its revenue of 59 billion in the year 2016 and
operating cost was 1.6 billion in 2016 (Rugman and Verbeke 2017). Coles has been facing the
issue of maintaining stock, packaging and providing customer services in proper order.
Woolworths has also been facing the issues of investment, paying heed to the customers and
updating the technologies and maintaining proper online systems.
Aim of the report
The aim of the report is to highlight the corporate strategy of Coles and Woolworths
Objectives of report
 To highlight the corporate strategies of Woolworths and Coles

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 To explore the competitive advantages of Woolworths and Coles
 To find out the impact of corporate strategy on competitive advantage
 To provide some possible recommendations to Coles and Woolworths in order to develop
both corporate strategy and competitive advantage
2. Literature review
Concept of corporate strategy
Corporate strategy can be defined as the organisation’s direction that helps an
organisation to gain strategic objectives. Grinblatt and Titman (2016), supported this by saying
that corporate strategy assists to achieve business success in the long-term basis. In recent time,
corporate strategy of the organisation is flexible enough to adapt the changes in business
environment. Moreover, as stated by Purce (2014), corporate strategy of an organisation can be
fixed with essential tests, The Attractiveness Test, The Cost of Entry Test and the Better-off test.
An organisation's corporate strategy is developed based on the particular market that also
depends on various divisions of the business. Moreover, management takes the strategy of
diversification and vertical integration strategies in order to make the corporate strategy.
Reasons behind taking corporate strategy
Strategy within an organisation refers to a complex web of ideas, thought, experiences
and goals that give general guidance for actions. Corporate strategy expects always a particular
end and in pursuit of a profitable end, the organisational management mentions the policies and
necessary strategies. Corporate strategies can correlate with the international policies, national
regulation, political, economic and psychological factors.

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Moreover, the organisation's management needs to make corporate strategy with keeping pace
with the changing environment. The present environment is dynamic and the organisations are
facing it difficult to cope up with (Larson et al. 2017). Moreover, threats constraints and business
uncertainties are other factors that make the corporate strategy difficult to make. The
management needs to make corporate strategy in order to escape from hard circumstances. In
addition, management of the organisation makes it possible to survive within the market with
corporate strategy by reducing the expected threats.
The leaders of an organisation try to focus on mainly the completive advantage while
making the corporate strategy as competitive strategy provides satisfaction in profitability of the
organisation. For example, Hindustan Unilever Company tries to merging with other
organisation as it is one of the corporate strategies of the organisation. Corporate strategies differ
with the organisations based on the business environment and the organisation reposition their
products and brands.
Problems arise from corporate strategies
Corporate strategy helps an organisation strengthens the competitive advantage and
leaders set objectives for the organisation to follow. Moreover, organisation follows the basic
principles to smooth the sailing of the organisation with a right set of decisions (Keyes 2016). On
the other side, the corporate strategy must be taken after a clear foresight and decisions of all
levels because the future course of actions of an organisation depends on these decisions. The
organisations can face the issues from corporate strategy when the taken measure goes wrong for
the organisation. The example of such incident is enough in the recent history; Ford Motor is one
such example. Ford Motor organisation took the strategy of vertical integration and changing the
direction of the company went wrong for the organisation. McDonald's organisation took the

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menu expansion strategy and the organisation faced the loss of profit on that year. Changing
direction of the business through corporate strategy can impact heavy for the organisations in
attempting to overshadow the business competitors. Moreover, as suggested by Barney (2014),
without a clear sense of sharp focus, business profitability will not be possible.
Theoretical perspectives of competitive advantage
Porter’s generic strategy
Porter’s Generic Strategy explains about a company’s competitive advantage in the
chosen market. There are mainly three types of generic strategy that an organisation can take in
order to achieve the competitive advantage of the organisation (Liao et al. 2015). Moreover, the
first strategy could be a cost-leadership strategy in which an organisation needs to take lowest
pricing strategy to gather maximum numbers of customers. This cost-leadership strategy is taken
in winning the market share in an industry. In addition, differentiation strategy is helpful for an
organisation as the organisation makes differentiate their products and services in a price-
sensitive way. When the market gets saturated with the products, the organisation takes the
differentiation strategy. Moreover, an organisation can take focus strategy in order to set the
products for particular one or two target markets (Wagner and Hollenbeck 2014). This focused
strategy is appropriate to the small companies in order to avoid the big market players.
Resource-Based view
The Resource-Based View can be defined as an economic tool that an organisation uses
to understand the availability of resources. The resources of an organisation help to provide
sustainable competitive advantage. The resource-based view provides help in understanding the
resources and capability of the organisation. In the first step, the organisation needs to identify

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the resources and then it could recognise the value of the resources. Values enable the
organisation in implementing the strategies that can develop the efficiency and effectiveness of
the organisation. Rare is another factor of resources that means such resources are rare to the
competitors. Imitability is another factor for the resources and competitors cannot imitate the
products or items easily (Lazzarini 2015). Moreover, the organisation needs to make the products
non-substitutable using the resources and it may help the organisation to have a competitive
advantage.
Impact of corporate strategy on competitive advantage
The organisations assess the current strategy and develop the new ones taking help from
the leaders and structured process. Moreover, executing the proposed strategy is very important
as unless the strategy is executed, the organisation may not have any productivity. Corporate
strategy is related to the innovation and execution that might be related to the participants of
leadership. Corporate strategy is taken by the organisations to motivate the employees in order to
increase the productivity (Laszlo and Zhexembayeva 2017). In some circumstances, the
management of the organisation needs to increase the efficiency of the employees and make the
employees loyal towards the management. In this situation, the management body makes a
strategic decision as a corporate strategy to make the employees confident with labour efficiency.
The corporate strategy of the organisation results to organisational peace, managing culture and
broad-based policies. However, business decisions in supply chain and logistics can be impacted.
Corporate strategy of the organisation is based on the market positioning and organisation's
management needs to identify the target customers. The application-oriented strategy will help
the organisation to have a competitive advantage.

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3. Research methodology
3.1 Case study method
As stated by Taylor et al. (2015), case studies are research method in organisation basis
and case study aims to analyse one specific issue in a business environment. However, a case
study can be differentiated into three main categories, exploratory, explanatory and descriptive.
A case study helps to analyse the data with in-depth analysis and it helps to test whether
scientific models and theories have been applied the research. In business research, case study
analysis is taken as a secondary research method and case study analysis is helpful in order to
make an argument on one question or narrowed down view. In this study, the researcher has been
provided understanding on a narrowed down view as corporate strategy and competitive
advantage. Moreover, case study proves the fact to test the typical cases on theories. The idea of
this subject of corporate strategies of Woolworths and Coles can be analysed through case study
method as the whole of the study has been provided on concise form and focus is on the one
topic with two variables. Case study results can be analysed through the descriptive form in
thematic basis. Use of examples in the narrative method has been helpful to the researcher and
some of the numerical data have also been put in the data analysis section in order to increase the
validity of the data.
3.2 Data collection
In this study, the researcher has taken Positivism philosophy in order to collect the data as
positivism philosophy helps to collect information about any phenomenon in a scientific way.
Moreover, the deductive approach has been followed in this study as a huge amount of data has
already been available about this topic. The researcher has taken help of the theoretical

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perspectives and developed the observation through the theory. Moreover, the researcher
concluded this with confirmation about the topic.
In this research, the researcher has collected secondary data. Secondary data are second-
hand data and these types of data are not raw data. Secondary data are collected from books,
journals, websites, articles, government report, annual reports and magazines (Silverman 2016).
In this study, the researcher has taken help of secondary data only and most of the information
has been collected from journals that are published after 2013 and the researcher has also taken
into account of the annual reports of Woolworths and Coles in order to collect the data.
Moreover, the researcher has analysed interviews of the leaders of Woolworths and Coles in
order to collect the data and in order to link with the literature review section. Moreover, the
researcher has taken into account the thematic analysis in order to analyse the data as the
researcher has broken the concepts of the variables into five basic themes. As stated by Flick
(2015), thematic analysis puts stress on examining, pinpointing and recording all the patterns of
data in order to analyse descriptive phenomena. In each of the themes, the researcher has
discussed the corporate strategy and competitive advantage. In the secondary data collection,
reliability issue is prevalent as the researcher has collected the data from various sources.
Moreover, in this study focuses on collecting data only from credible sources.
4. Presentation of findings
4.1 Analysing the data
Theme 1: Corporate strategies of Coles and Woolworths

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Corporate strategies of each of the organisations are different as these strategies try to
establish business objectives for the organisation. Moreover, corporate strategies of the
organisation set up the mission and vision of the organisation. Woolworths puts the customers at
first place in the corporate strategy as this organisation believes in building customer-base is the
first priority for the organisation. Moreover, Woolworths creates store-led culture and team that
can strive for meet the organisation's objectives. The leaders of the organisation put emphasise
on generating sustainable sales momentum in the food section of the organisation. In addition,
Woolworths provides stress on evolving the drink business and they are trying to provide value
more on drink business that can convince the customers. The CEO, David Banducci, of the
business tries to empower the business to pursue strategies in order to deliver the shareholder
value. Most importantly, corporate strategy of Woolworths is to become a lean retailer that does
its business in the end-to-end process and that can excellence in business systems. In addition,
Woolworths tries innovating the offer to the customers including the drink business BWS and
Dan Murphy (Lin and Wu 2014).

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Figure 1: Strategy is focused on having the customers put on 1st by Woolworths
(Source: Woolworths.com.au 2017)
On the other side, Coles takes the strategy of cost-leadership like the international leader
Wal-Mart which takes the strategy of EDLP (Everyday Lowest Price). Coles does not take itself
to be a luxury brand and it tries to reach the customers with lower prices. Coles’ strategy to reach
the mass market and the business leaders of this company attempts to reach the broad range of
customers across various demographics. The corporate strategy of the business gets the parent
organisation Wesfarmers and it mainly tries to focus on the freshness of the products with
delivering the best quality products.
Theme 2: How Woolworths manages Competitive advantage over Coles

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Woolworths tries to build a great team that helps the organisation to have a competitive
advantage. Competitive advantage is the factor that can be generated from the external business
scenario and also from the resources that the organisation has got. Woolworths provides
maximum focus on customers, suppliers of the products and team members. Sales executives of
Woolworths are given to training so that they can manage to behave gently with the customers.
51.00%
11.20%
10.20%
12.80%
7.60%
6.30%
Woolworths' expenses
Employees' salaries, wages
to Government as income
tax
To lenders as finnace cost
to shareholders
depreciation and
amorisation
earnings retained
Figure 2: Graph of Woolworth’ expenses strategy
(Source: News.com.au 2017)
Team leaders of Woolworths conduct Voice of the Customers programme that provides
daily feedback to the sales executives an idea what the customers want from Woolworths.
Woolworths always try to enhance the customers’ shopping experience. Last year, Woolworths
opened up to the loss of $972 million and it failed in the business in the Masters business (Kim
and Mauborgne 2014).

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Figure 3: Strategies of Woolworths
(Source: Woolworths.com.au 2017)
Moreover, Woolworths has an excellent communication technique with the customers
through various channels like Social media, emails and voice calls. It manages to handle social
media platform through Social bakers and it is a proof that Woolworths cares for the customers’
experiences. In New Zealand, the organisation tries to make the Lives of Kiwis a little better
through the strategy of obsessed price, love for food, making easy the payment and active local
options (Woolworths.com.au 2017). The strategy of Woolworths is simple and it revolves as
developing the team, reduces the cost, improving the process, developing a cohesive brand and
updating product offering.
Theme 3: Corporate strategies taken by Coles in managing the competition from market
leaders

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Coles reported in the second quarter of 2017 as its earning has been decreased by 2.7% to
$920 million. Not only Coles, Woolworths has been experiencing the declining in the food
business and it got down by $120 million.
Convenience store sales growth +11.1%
More than grocery products on everyday value 3100
Awards won in last four years More than 500
Food and liquor sales growth 5.1%
Coles online sales growth 24%
Total profit growth +4.3%
Exclusive product launch More than 100
Table 1: Financial Year 2016 highlight of Coles
(Source: Coles.com.au 2017)
Woolworths demanded that the down of revenue was happened because of team training,
reinstatement of team payments and store renewal. However, Coles is trying to invest in IT cell
as the organisation wants to move on online business and the accounting process through
computerised programmes (Gamble and Thompson 2014). Coles takes the corporate strategy of
lowering the price and improving the quality. Moreover, Coles tries to underpin the strategy of
employees' behaviour in the stores and the organisation tries to go deeper into a long-term
relationship with the stakeholders and most importantly with the suppliers. The corporate
strategies of Coles are related to focus on freshness, deliver a better store network, build a great
career for employees, simplicity and create a trusted value for the customers. However, Coles
experienced a total profit +4.3% and food and liquor sales growth saw almost +5.1%. IT

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investment of the organisation brought profit for the organisation and online sales of the
organisation saw the growth almost 22% (Coles.com.au 2017).
Figure 4: Coles’ strategies
(Source: Coles.com.au 2017)
Theme 4: Future course of actions for Coles and Woolworths
As both of the organisations in the retail sector, Coles and Woolworths both face the
completion in the market as other market players are doing good in the industry. Competition
comes from Adli, Lidl and IGA. Some of the other small groceries provide lower prices to the
customers. In this scenario, corporate strategies are important for both of the organisation and
they can provide their focus to create trusted values on an everyday basis. The supermarkets are
mainly sales food products and everyday values can improve the sales. Coles already has set up
more than 4000 everyday Value lines that highlight the commitment to the customers to lower

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the cost of the Australians (Cameron et al. 2015). This strategy can provide the real saving to the
customers when they get the products at lower prices. Supermarkets face the issue of supply
chain management as the suppliers take the upper hand in the supermarket business. Woolworths
and Coles need to build stronger supplier partnerships and this strategy can lead to lower the cost
of the weekly shop for businesses. This strategy can help to deliver the great products for the
customers and Coles has already started the suppliers’ awards.
4.2 Reflection on findings and implications
The corporate strategy of Coles and Woolworths are taken by the leaders and they
understand the situation to win back the customers. Coles in maximum times take the strategy of
slashing the prices of the products and they also have cut down the products from the shelves.
The problem the brand has been facing is the competition. Competition is high in retail as
Woolworths, Aldi, IGA and Aldi. Wesfarmers, the parent organisation of Coles takes the
strategy of slashing of the prices as the cost leadership is the strategy of the organisation in order
to gain maximum customers. Coles has reviewed the market and they have found that one among
three customers is not happy with the pricing (News.com.au 2017). Moreover, the threat of new
entrant is huge in the Australian market and Woolworths is also under pressure since the entry of
chain of Aldi in supermarkets. Cost leadership strategy is helpful for the organisation as
impending new entrants will not overshadow the company in prices. The corporate strategy of
the organisation involves in creating the purpose and scope of the activities of the organisation.
Corporate strategy of the organisation is set by the leaders and business leaders to check the
attractiveness of the industry before they make the corporate strategy of the organisation (Wu et
al. 2015). However, Coles has been facing the issues of too many discounts and questionable
ethics in the workplace. Coles is facing the issues of hearing the customers’ voice and Coles

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lacks in best practices benchmarking. However, Coles has been facing the problems in
evaluating the new market and to determine expansion potential. Coles is a subsidiary company
and it is older than Woolworths in the market, however, the parenting strategy from corporate
level of Coles cannot exceed the Woolworths. Coles is not meeting the objectives of the business
as done in the corporate strategy as the competitive advantage cannot be gained and the
organisation aims to create trusted values for the customers. Coles tried to build stronger supplier
partnerships that would help the organisation to gain the competitive advantage. Resources of the
Coles are valuable and the organisation has not expanded the market in launching new ranges of
products. Hence, the sustainable future of the organisation cannot be achieved. The resources of
the organisation must be non-substitutable and it provides a completive advantage. In this regard,
Woolworths is trying to achieve new channels in business by focussing food productions and
liquor.
Both the companies have their corporate strategies in running the companies and the
competition in the market is high as both numbers of competitors in the market are high.
Otherwise, the vision of the organisation in long run may need to change. Strategy refers to meet
the objectives and basic requirement of the firm in changing environment is to achieve the
competitive advantage. In light of this, corporate strategy creates budgetary changes for the
organisation and finance department of the organisation faces issues while making the budget for
the organisation. The leaders of businesses try to make maximum synchrony and harmony in
order to run smoothly for the organisations. Both the supermarket's organisation has been facing
the issues of financial underperformance and reason because of possibly the competition. Both
the organisations can foster the innovation through support the small business organisation with
using the market-leading technologies.

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5. Conclusions and recommendations
5.1 Conclusion
In the Australian supermarket's industry, Coles has been facing fierce completion from
Woolworths and Aldi. Coles faces issues to maintain the momentum in the business and the
resurgent of Woolworths in the market creates issue graver for the business. German
Supermarket Company Aldi supermarket is giving a huge discount in the stores of Australia that
creates blow in the market. Moreover, earning of parent company Wesfarmers saw the growth of
revenue 22%, whereas Coles saw the decline in the profit percent to 13.5. Woolworths and Coles
both try to expand their businesses in food and liquor sector and Coles observed the growth of
only one percent in food and liquor. The situation is getting very competitive in the supermarket
industry and both Woolworths and Coles try to invest in service, values and better qualities.
Moreover, Coles tries to focus mainly the freshness of the products with a partnership among the
suppliers and customers. The corporate strategy of Woolworths mainly focuses on a customer-
led strategy that they can expect the sustainable growth in business. Corporate strategy of the
business is to meet the objectives along with the mission statement. Corporate leaders of the
business set up the plan that focuses advanced analytics for customer insight. In the recent time,
the customers' insight is needed to understand and the supermarket sector can use the advanced
analytics prior set the corporate strategy. Corporate strategy of the business is based on the short-
term advantage and long-term profit for the business. CEO and board of directors of the business
can take considerable work to transform the condition of the business through giving the lower
price. The organisations try to exit from the unprofitable categories and try to sourcing through
corporate strategy. It is needed to discuss with all-level of employees in order to improve the
pricing strategy and improve the merchandising. Corporate strategies of the organisations are all

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customer-driven and the organisations are providing offers and discounts in order to have the
retention. Moreover, employees are given to rewards in order to motivate them to increase the
target cell. Woolworths and Coles correlate the customers' shopping and they try to understand
the consumers' needs. Most importantly, in order to solve the financial issue, the organisation
needs to be bold in extending into new channels and services like financial services, online
services and customer-centric offerings.
5.2 Recommendations
Recommendations are given for both Woolworths and Coles so that they can improve the
corporate strategy and develop the competitive advantage for the business. Woolworths has the
largest market share of 36.3% and Coles stands second in the market with 33% of market share.
Identify core competencies and refocus
The choice of the strategic option for the business of both Woolworths and Coles need to
identify the drivers of the corporate strategy. Supermarket organisations can take core
competencies as one of the major drivers of corporate strategy. Woolworths and Coles must have
planned in terms of next five years. Woolworths has its top market position in Australia, hence, it
can check the core competencies for the evolutionary step. The corporate strategy of Woolworths
should be about the market dominance. The organisation can diversify the business and expand
its business to cover up the market share for next five years at least. However, Coles is at the
second place in the business and they need to identify the core competencies and they can
eliminate the non-core diversification from the business. The major rule of any firm to have the
corporate strategies like vertical integration, diversification, product development and market
entry, however, Coles should the strategy that can complement and supplement the core

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competencies. Therefore, it is needed to refocus the strategy of Coles and follow only the core
competencies.
Professional development with Customer value
In the supermarket, the sales executives who work within the outlets do not have enough
knowledge. In order to engage the employees to customers and gain the competitive advantage,
professional development of the employees is needed. Woolworths takes this seriously and they
engage the employees for on-the-job training, however, Coles can start this professional
development strategy for the employees at all levels. Coles has been focussing in diversify the
team in a workplace as the customers come from different backgrounds. Coles can start the
professional development of the team members with customers' focus in order to achieve perfect
shopping environment and safe working culture.
Shelf-life management and grocery analytic solution
In-house departments of Coles and Woolworths, there are dairy products, meat,
vegetables, seafood and bakery. In this section, the organisation needs to plan inventory by
understanding demand patterns of the customers. The organisations need to use forecasting tool
like Shelf-Life Management and the tools will focus on replacement of the products. These types
of tools used for sales and store traffic, local events and based on seasonality and holidays.
Grocery analytics solution tools can use advanced grocery landscape within Woolworths and
Coles to understand the nuances and methods of the grocery business.
Differentiate products and services

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Economic recession and shift from fundamental consumer needs have generated to
change in retail business. The supermarket's organisations try to differentiate the products and
services to gain the competitive advantage. Coles and Woolworths can differentiate the services
they offer as the same products are offering by all supermarkets. Coles has differentiated the
business by offering travel website (Flybuys). Launching of the online standalone store,
launching new delivery option can increase the organisation's profitability. Woolworths needs to
differentiate the business apart from food, groceries and liquor to some other businesses.

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Reference List
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