Retail Theory and Practice: New Look's Strategic Analysis Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of New Look, a UK-based fashion retailer, examining its performance within the retail industry. It begins with an introduction to the company and the broader context of fashion retailing, highlighting key changes in the UK fashion retail landscape. The report employs a PESTLE analysis to assess the political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal factors influencing New Look's operations. It then delves into a SWOT analysis to evaluate the company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Furthermore, the report explores the strategies and tactics employed by New Look, including pricing, social media presence, and government relations. Recommendations are provided to enhance New Look's market position and address identified challenges, covering areas such as market expansion, product development, and sustainability initiatives. The report concludes with a summary of the key findings and insights, offering a valuable overview of New Look's retail strategy and its adaptation to the dynamic fashion market.

RETAIL THEORY AND
PRACTICE

Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Key relevant changes in the UK fashion retail............................................................................3
Changes in micro environment....................................................................................................5
Strategies and tactics....................................................................................................................6
Recommendations........................................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
The field of retail includes departmental stores, chain stores, variety stores, franchise
stores, online merchants, and door-to-door sellers. Retail stores buy their goods from
wholesalers, stock the goods, and resell them to individual consumers in small quantities.
Fashion retailing is that aspect of business that works as a intermediary between the
manufacturers and customers. The working procedure of this industry is to buy the goods from
manufacturers and sell it to the consumers. Initial purchase is taken by the retailers in order to
resale the goods between three to six months and provide it in their store to the consumers. This
sector of retail focuses on specializing the recent and upcoming trends in fashion and insights are
taken from the business and the people who are working in the fashion sector so that
expectations of people can be met and companies can survive in the market for a long period of
time.
New Look is a British global fashion retailer with a chain of high street shops. It was
founded in 1969 and has been owned since May 2015 by investment company Brait SA,
controlled by Christo Wiese. The chain sells women’s wear, menswear, and clothing for teens.
The company was founded in 1969 in Taunton Somerset. Since then they have expanded their
operations with a chain of more than 900 stores on an international level which includes many
countries such as South Korea, United Arab Emirates, Republic of Ireland etc. Company has
employed more than 18,000 people and the revenue of the company is around £ 1,147 million
which covers a profit of approximately £ 180 million. It used to be owned by equity groups
which were private which was Apax Partners and Permira. The company was founded by Tom
Singh but in 2015 it was acquired by Brait SA. Other than this in order to manage their current
platforms online efficiently and effectively they have partnered up with ASOS so that they can
enhance the experience of users and encourage the consumers to buy more goods online. The
company is working on changing its methods in order to achieve growth in the market. Also they
are looking to working with energy efficient resources so that they can work with the betterment
of the environment.
Key relevant changes in the UK fashion retail
PESTLE Analysis
Political factors-

These factors are concerned with the instability of government factors and their decisions
which can affect the business. After the Crimean Crisis and the instability of politics the
company is looking to extract and pull off their operations from Russia and Ukraine. On the
other hand they are expanding their operations countries such as China and Poland and working
on opening the outlets for concession in Germany (Dholakia, Dholakia and Chattopadhyay,
2018).
Economical factors-
These factors are concerned with the rise in prices, rate of taxes, rate of inflation, level of
employment and standard of living of people in the country. There was a wrong decision taken
by the company which affected the sales of the company from its retail outlets. New Look
increased the prices of the products offered by them. On the contrary the availability of
conducting and maintain operations of business online has helped the company to improve their
revenue.
Social factors-
These factors are concerned with the change I culture, beliefs and norms which bounds
the people under the same thought process or actions. In order to gain acceptance among people
the company is taking the help of social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram but in
order to gain success from it they need to be more active on these channels. On the top of that
company started a New Look Foundation in the year 2009 and from that they have been able to
raise funds more than £850,000. This was done with the help of events for fundraising such as
fashion jumble sales and marathons (Lee, 2018).
Technological factors-
These factors are concerned with the changes and advancements which helps the business
to comply with new factors in order to achieve growth in the market. The company has been
using these factors in order to promote their brand and enhance their reach so that more
consumers can be attracted to the brand. According to the assessment of their website they get
2.7 million visits each week which is helping them to move towards the click and collect and
order feature. In order to improve their experience of the consumers in order to get more reach

they have partnered with 73 partners of e commerce which also includes ASOS (Bernon,
Tjahjono and Ripanti, 2018).
Environmental factors-
These factors are concerned with working for the betterment of the environment and the
society. It is necessary that New Look starts working under this aspect as this will help them to
improve the image of their brand. The company has taken many initiatives such as sustainable
clothing action plan and committed to reduce the level of carbon footprint which affects the
environment. Other than this some years ago company held an workshop in Bangladesh which
was totally energy efficient and to represent it people came from more than 52 factories which
highlighted the importance of energy efficient resources (Hübner, Holzapfel and Kuhn, 2016).
Legal factors-
These factors are concerned with following the legal aspects and guidelines stated by the
government. This is necessary if company wants to serve in that particular market and being a
MNC it is difficult for New Look. In the focus of concern for their employees the company has
banned the process of sandblasting to prevent their workers as it causes cancer and other
diseases. The company has been training their employees for management in more than 100
factories on topics such as improving the environment and culture of work, look after the health
and safety of the employees and ensure that there is communication between management and
workers (Cleophas and et.al., 2019).
Changes in micro environment
SWOT Analysis
Strength-
The brand of the company is well established in the market which has helped the
company to gain trust of consumers. Company is known for their fast pace working that is they
keep up with the changing trends that helps them to keep their stock up to date for their
consumers. The media coverage of the brand is excellent and other than this they have
maintained a good reputation on social media. The website of the company is strong which helps
them to take orders from over the world and ship them across the world (Tannady, Nurprihatin
and Hartono, 2018).
Weakness-

The company has not been able to reach in the markets of Italy which is considered as
the hub of fashion. Also in southern Europe the brand is not established on strong basis. Due to
the rise of prices in they have been losing a lot of consumers over their competitors. The debt
management of the company met failure which resulted in closing of 100 of their shops. Also
they need to implement safety measures in their shops so that the consumers can shop freely.
Other than this company needs to improve the level of customer experience because many of
them have made complaints regarding it. Also they need to maintain enough stock and sizes for
everyone so that customer never goes empty from the shop (Heller and et.al., 2019).
Opportunities-
Company has many opportunities as they deal in the fashion sector whose trends keeps
on changing. They have the scope to form a new market and make it in form of niche for the
clothing of babies and maternity section. Also they need to collaborate with influencers and
celebrities to promote the brand so that more consumers can be targeted. They also have the
scope of improving their program of loyalty. The most beneficial aspect for the company is to
adopt the strategy and get into organic clothing. They need to develop their business in countries
such as India as they prefers western wear more (Kamran-Disfani and et.al., 2017).
Threats-
The company is facing an immense competition in terms of pricing as the prices charged
by the competitors are low for their products. Other than this there are many substitute local
products which are affecting the business of the company. The cost of labor is increasing which
will force them to increase the prices of their products in order to maintain the level of profits.
The regulations which have been imposed by the government of the country has affected the
business of the company (Sit, Hoang and Inversini, 2018).
Strategies and tactics
There are many factors which have been affecting the company to grow their reach and
expand the base of operations and it is because of poor planning and improper execution of
control of planning. In order to achieve success company needs to analyze the macro and micro
environment and on the basis of that assessment they need to make necessary changes so that
they can serve in the market sustainably (Piotrowicz and Cuthbertson, 2019).
From the analysis of macro environment of New Look it was clearly stated that company
was committing several errors which were working as obstacles in the business and the path to

their growth. They have been working as challenges that the company needs to overcome in
order to achieve growth in the market. It has been clearly observed that the prices of the
company are higher than their competitors. Company needs to implement methods and execute
those strategies which helps them to reduce the prices of the products so that they are able to beat
their competitors such as Primark and Marks and Spencer. This is necessary if New Look wants
to serve more consumers and obtain more share in the market. This aspect and successful
implementation of strategy will help them to be a market leader. It is necessary that the company
offers the prices of their products according to the spending power of people of the country.
Other than this company has made their presence in the platforms which are related to social
media. In order to establish and build the presence strongly they need to be more active on this
so that they can upload new posts and content according to the needs and wants of people. This
will help to increase the awareness of the brand as this way the consumers of the brand will also
know what are the offers that is going in the company and this will also help them to feature their
new products as advertisements. Also it will be beneficial for the company if they collaborate or
sign up with a celebrity as this will help them to increase the reach of their social media
channels. It is necessary that the company maintains the relations with the government of the
country where they are serving their operations. This way they will be able to prepare for the
decisions taken by them and aware with the instable factors. On the basis of this assessment
company will be able to take decisions that is in the best interest of themselves and helps them to
overcome this challenge (Lange and et.al., 2018).
Also there are challenges in the micro environment that has been observed after the
analysis and in order to serve in the market the company needs to overcome these challenges.
Company needs to work on entering the market of Italy as it is the hub of fashion people there
wants to remain updated with trends and always try out new things which is an opportunity for
the company as this will automatically help the business of the company to grow. People of Italy
are even ready to pay more for the product but the only thing they demand is that they get quality
materials from the company. Other than this company also has the scope to enter into the
business of organic clothing. This is a new area as this will help them to extract less but quality
wool which is always in the demand and consumers will even pay more for this product. Organic
clothing must be done under the guidelines which does not cross any legal boundaries as organic
clothing requires animals to make the cloth and if they harm the animals then it will be a breach

of legal practice which can affect the business of the company. these factors need to be taken into
consideration so that they can overcome these challenges and achieve growth in the market (Ko,
Phau and Aiello, 2016).
Recommendations
There are many areas from which company can excel in the market but all it requires is to
change their decision making and the way they perceive things. Currently the dealers of the
company are not satisfied and it is because of the reduced sales. In order to change this measure
the company needs to assess the spending power and the GDP rate of the country they are
serving in as it will help them to set the right price and they will be able to sell more of their
clothing goods to consumers. It is important that company focus on improving their customer
experience as there have been many complaints in the retail stores of the company. more
advisors need to be put up in the store so that they can give appropriate suggestions to people
about the suitability of their preference. Also the website of the company needs some changes so
that it can be more attractive enough to force and motivate consumers to make a purchase. Other
than this debt and financial management of the company is very poor because hundreds of shops
have been closed due to their mistake and affected the business of the company. It is necessary
that leaders of the company make effective decisions and allocate the funds in the right areas so
that these problems does not happen in the future.
CONCLUSION
From the above studies it has been concluded that New Look needs to change their methods and
work according to the needs, wants and spending power of people. It is necessary and important
that company reduces the prices of their products as the dealers of the company are not satisfied
with the sales. Other than this company needs to look for measures that helps them to reach new
goals and objectives. The initiatives that are taken by the company in order to work for the
benefit of environmental factors are up to the mark but they need to increase their level with
time. It has helped the company a lot in terms of improving the image of the brand. It has been
highlighted in the report that company works under the legal guidelines of the countries that they
are serving in so that they are allowed to continue in serving their operations.

REFERENCES
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