Strategic Analysis: Myer Australia in the Competitive Retail Market

This report provides a strategic analysis of Myer Australia, focusing on the external and industry factors impacting the company. It identifies strategic issues stemming from poor strategy formation and failure to adapt to the evolving online retail landscape. The analysis covers the macro and industry environments, highlighting political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental factors, as well as threats of new entrants, supplier power, buyer power, substitute threats, and competitive rivalry. The report further examines Myer's strategy, performance, capabilities, and marketing, operational, and human resource issues. Recommendations are provided to address these challenges, emphasizing improved store planning, enhanced online marketing strategies, and superior customer service, with the ultimate goal of regaining Myer's market position and effectively competing with international retailers in the Australian market. Desklib offers a range of solved assignments and study tools to aid students in their academic pursuits.

Running head: STRATEGIC ANALYSIS OF MYER AUSTRALIA
STRATEGIC ANALYSIS OF MYER AUSTRALIA
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1STRATEGIC ANALYSIS OF MYER AUSTRALIA
Executive Summary
This report is based on the external and the industry analysis of Myer Australia. The various
issues that are being faced by different department of the company are analysed in the report.
The recommendations are based on the ways by which the company can improve its
profitability in the Australian retail market in a successful manner. The report is concluded by
stating that Myer is totally capable of gaining its lost position in the Australian retail market
and further provide tough competition to the foreign retailers.

2STRATEGIC ANALYSIS OF MYER AUSTRALIA
Table of Contents
Introduction....................................................................................................................3
Myer’s strategic issues...................................................................................................3
Environmental Analysis.................................................................................................3
Macro environment....................................................................................................3
Industry environment.................................................................................................4
Organisation Analysis....................................................................................................5
Strategy......................................................................................................................5
Performance...............................................................................................................5
Capabilities.....................................................................................................................5
Marketing issues.............................................................................................................5
Operation issues.............................................................................................................5
Human Resource issues..................................................................................................6
Recommendations..........................................................................................................6
Conclusion......................................................................................................................6
References......................................................................................................................7

3STRATEGIC ANALYSIS OF MYER AUSTRALIA
Introduction
Myer is an Australian upmarket departmental store chain which trades in the different
Australian states and the governing territories of Australia. The organization was established
in the year 1900 by Sidney Mer. The organization retails a broad range of products which
include, women’s and men’s clothing items, accessories, footwear, fragrance, homewares,
cosmetics and many more. The organization is associated with many famous celebrities who
act as the fashion ambassadors of Myer to promote the various brands (Myer. 2018).
Myer’s strategic issues
The poor strategy formation of organizations like Myer have paved the way for the
entry of international retail companies in the Australian market. Myer has been unable to
change its operations and offerings related to the changes that have occurred in the external
environment. The company has been unable to understand the online space of marketing and
demands of the consumers that have changed accordingly. Myer has to face issues related to
the decrease of its revenues due to the changing shopping style of the consumers. The costs
that are related to the maintenance of the traditional stores of the company has been a major
issue for Myer in the modern business environment (McDONALD 2016).
Environmental Analysis
Macro environment
Political factors – The stability of Australian
retail industry. The risks related to military
invasion. The intellectual property rights in
the country. The taxes applied by the
government on the organizations. The
benefits that are provided to the employees.
Economic factors – The type of the
economic system. The intervention of the
government in the operations of
organizations. The infrastructure of the
retail industry. The skills of the workforce
of the country (Lusch, Serpkenci and Orvis
2015).

4STRATEGIC ANALYSIS OF MYER AUSTRALIA
Social factors – The skills and the
demographics of the population. The power
structure, the level of education and the
class structure of the people. The interests
and the attitudes of the people.
Technological – The recent developments
that have taken place in the technologies.
The impact of technologies on the cost
structure of the company. The structure of
the value chain of the organization.
Legal – The laws in the country related to
discrimination, employment, data
protection, safety and health that can affect
the operations of Myer.
Environmental - The changes that have
occurred in the climate and the weather of
the external environment. The increase in
the level of water and air pollution in
Australia (Swoboda, Elsner and Olejnik
2015).
Industry environment
Threats of new entrants – The entry of new organizations in the retail industry gives rise to
innovation which further exerts pressure on the operations of Myer. The pricing strategy
and the costs of the company are affected by the entry of retailers.
Bargaining power of the suppliers – Myer has a huge number of suppliers for the
procurement of raw materials from the market. The suppliers thereby have moderate power
to dominate the prices of the products of Myer.
Bargaining power of the buyers – The buyers of Myer have huge power over the prices that
are determined for the products of the company. The customers have the power to change
the prices of the products and demand discounts from the company as well.
Threats of substitutes – The products and the services that are offered by Myer have many
substitutes in the Australian retail industry. This power is quite high in case of the
operations of Myer in the country.
Rivalry among the competitors – The levels of rivalry among the competitors of Myer are
quite high. The organization has to face immense pressure from the various other retailers
based on the prices that ae offered by Myer (Titah, Shuraida and Rekik 2016).

5STRATEGIC ANALYSIS OF MYER AUSTRALIA
Organisation Analysis
Strategy
Myer has been changing its strategy in the market based on the needs of the
organization. The current strategy of the company is mainly based on the increase in the
online growth due to the increase in the online shopping trends of the customers.
Performance
Myer has been facing issues related to the decrease in its revenues related to the
extreme changes in the technological environment. The negative growth of sales has also
been faced by the company in the recent times (Bidwell and Mollick 2015).
Capabilities
The organization has a strong financial backup and the online operations are also
increasing. This has been able to increase the reach of Myer towards a bigger group of
consumers.
Marketing issues
The weakness that has been recently seen in the retail market of Australia due to the
decrease in the number of customers in the physical stores has put pressure on the
profitability of Myer. The traditional marketing strategies of the company have failed to
impress and attract the customers (George 2015).
Operation issues
The changes in the technologies used in the retail industry have also pressurised the
sales of Myer in Australia. The costs related to operations of the organization have increased
and caused issues in the revenues and profitability.

6STRATEGIC ANALYSIS OF MYER AUSTRALIA
Human Resource issues
Myer had to face issues in the various stores due to the differences that have been
seen in the customer service provided by the casual workers as compared to that of the full-
time staff. The management had to face lot of criticism related to the proper coordination of
activities of the staff (Mavlanova, Benbunan-Fich and Lang 2016).
Recommendations
The operations related issues of the company can be improved if Myer plans
the stores in a better way.
The marketing strategies formed by the organization needs to emphasize more
on the online retail operations.
The organization needs to increase the levels of service that are provided by
them to the customers. They need to become more service-oriented.
Conclusion
The report can be concluded by stating that Myer has faced many serious issues in the
Australian retail market related to its successful operations over the years. The company has
to reorganise the various activities related to different departments to increase its profitability
and further gain its previous position in the market. The Australian retailer needs to improve
its operations to compete successfully with the international retailers who are entering the
Australian retail sector.

7STRATEGIC ANALYSIS OF MYER AUSTRALIA
References
Bidwell, M. and Mollick, E., 2015. Shifts and ladders: Comparing the role of internal and
external mobility in managerial careers. Organization Science, 26(6), pp.1629-1645.
George, W.R., 2015. Internal marketing for retailers: The junior executive employee.
In Proceedings of the 1984 Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) Annual Conference (pp.
322-325). Springer, Cham.
Lusch, R.F., Serpkenci, R.R. and Orvis, B.T., 2015. Determinants of retail store performance:
a partial examination of selected elements of retailer conduct. In Proceedings of the 1995
World Marketing Congress (pp. 495-504). Springer, Cham.
Mavlanova, T., Benbunan-Fich, R. and Lang, G., 2016. The role of external and internal
signals in E-commerce. Decision Support Systems, 87, pp.59-68.
McDONALD, M.A.L.C.O.L.M., 2016. Strategic marketing planning: theory and practice.
In The marketing book (pp. 108-142). Routledge.
Myer. (2018). Myer. [online] Available at: https://www.myer.com.au/ [Accessed 29 Apr.
2018].
Swoboda, B., Elsner, S. and Olejnik, E., 2015. How do past mode choices influence
subsequent entry? A study on the boundary conditions of preferred entry modes of retail
firms. International Business Review, 24(3), pp.506-517.
Titah, R., Shuraida, S. and Rekik, Y., 2016. Integration breach: Investigating the effect of
internal and external information sharing and coordination on firm profit. International
Journal of Production Economics, 181, pp.34-47.