Retail Industry Analysis: Trends, M&S Performance, and Recommendations

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Marks & Spencer (M&S) within the evolving retail industry. It begins with an introduction to the company and a discussion of current retail trends, including the rise of e-commerce and the importance of customer experience. The report then delves into an analysis of M&S, utilizing both external (PEST) and internal (SWOT) analyses to assess its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The analysis considers political and economic factors and the brand's strengths such as brand name and quality services. Recommendations for M&S are provided, including the implementation of a penetration pricing strategy and strategies for inventory management. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of employee support and strategic planning for continued success in the retail market. References to relevant academic sources are included to support the analysis.

Inquiry based learning
Marks and Spencers

Table of Content
•Introduction
•Trends in Retail
•Analysis of M&S
•Recommendations
•Conclusion
•Reference

INTRODUCTION
The retail industry is expanding and organisations
are having global businesses with the customers experience
increasing the performance of the organisation. The
organisation chosen for the report is Marks and Spencer
which was founded in 1884 in UK by Michael Marks and
Thomas Spencer. The report includes trends in retail and
analysis of the organisation.

Trends in Retail
Michael Marks opened the first penny bazaar in
Leeds, UK in 1884. The business strategy was "Don't ask the
value, it's a penny". At first his prices was low yet as the
business developed with time and he searched for
collaborator to deal with him to expand the organisation and
Thomas spencers was willing to join his business as a
partner. They began their business in 1894 with the name
Marks and Spencer. They have changed from a little slow
down into a worldwide multi-channel retailer and have many
employees working for them.

Cont...
•Ecommerce- Purchasers are presently sensible and they
need to have products that are affordable. The customers
want to have a convenient purchase and the customers to
actually go each store, look at prices and purchase. The e-
commerce have the made it easy for customers to look at the
costs of different products and find the best arrangement and
it will help them in choosing product.

Analysis of M&S
The organizations are having customers in many countries and they
should focus on increasing the services of the organization to
improve the performance.
External Analysis
Political factors- M&S can use PEST analysis to understand
different customers because they have customers in many
countries and the labor laws of the UK and the impact on the
organization of improving and reducing the cost by having ling
term relations with customers of different countries.

Cont...
Internal Analysis
Strength- The strength of M&S is the solid brand name and they
give quality services to customers with the skilled employees
and excellent products and different products helping the
organization in the mid 1990s. The SWOT analysis helps the
organization in uncovers that the organization have different
style and described headquarters framework and exacting skilled
employees and internal factors of the society and brought about
the increase in the performance of M&S in the retail market.

Recommendations
•The organizations should have strategies that are helping
them in increasing the performance. M&S should have the
Penetration Pricing Strategy. This method helps the
organizations in first setting low costs to attract customers.
This is helping the organizations to have business expanded
and the organizations are expanding the costs. This strategy
is important to attract customers to products and services of
the organization. The organizations can attract customers
with products and services according to the needs of
customers.

Cont...
•The organization should not have more stock and when they
are trendy they are attracting customers but it involves cost
and they are not sold, they are outdated. The organizations has
place markdown on these things and they will involve cost
and they will have to make the strategies for improving the
performance (Uribe and et.al., 2020). This is the method used
by the Zara and they are not keeping an excessive amount of
stock and twice-in week it is presenting new products.

CONCLUSION
From the above report it is concluded that the
organization should help the employees because they will
make the organization successful. The organizations should
make strategies that will help to increase the performance
and they will help customers in getting products and
services. They will be successful when they are increasing
the benefits.

REFERENCES
Hwang, G.J., Chiu, L.Y. and Chen, C.H., 2015. A contextual
game-based learning approach to improving students'
inquiry-based learning performance in social studies
courses. Computers & Education. 81. pp.13-25.
Al Mamun, M.A., Lawrie, G. and Wright, T., 2020.
Instructional design of scaffolded online learning modules
for self-directed and inquiry-based learning
environments. Computers & Education. 144. p.103695.