CW 1: Inquiry Project: Analysis of Retail Industry Trends and Primark

This report examines the trends within the retail industry, focusing on how companies like Primark adapt and evolve. It explores key trends such as multichannel selling, social media preferences, and the balance between physical and digital experiences. The report includes an analysis of Primark's business, its responses to challenges like the COVID-19 pandemic, and its strategies for reinventing its stores to enhance customer engagement. Primary research, conducted through a questionnaire, provides insights into customer awareness and preferences regarding store reinvention. Based on these findings, the report offers recommendations for Primark, emphasizing the importance of adapting to changing consumer behaviors and leveraging digital platforms to maintain customer loyalty and drive business growth.

CW 1: Inquiry Project

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Trends in retail industry..............................................................................................................1
Analysis of the organisation........................................................................................................3
Primary research..............................................................................................................................4
Recommendations:......................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
The retailing industry is the one that sold various products and services to its customers
that compromised towards higher generation of economy in sustained mode. In this better
engagement in between customers and company is analysed through which products and services
get exchanged in ordinate mode (Bodolica, Spraggon and Soueid, 2019). In this reinvent a store
shopping is an essential prospect under which customers experienced get considered through
which productive amount of modifications is induced in systematic manner. The report below is
based on Primark that is an Irish retailer with having a headquarter in Dublin, Ireland and also
having a subsidiary of British food processing and a retailing company. The report furthermore
comprise trends in retail industry, analysis of an organisation and its recommendations.
MAIN BODY
Trends in retail industry
Retailing is a process of selling goods and service directly to the consumer and end user ,by
having number of channels of distribution where retailers takes the small amount of order from
number of customers basically retailing consists with direct selling to meet the profit without any
channel ,retail shops can involve in the activity of selling or providing product or service to
either business customer but it will considered in non-retail activity. Retailing is considered with
retail stores and where there is a process of one to one interaction between the retailer and
customer (Bamfield, 2018). Retailer will directly approach to the customer demand and
preferences ,its an advantage of retailing likewise in retail industry are having a objective to
reach the customers on the basis of marketing strategies, in shopping malls any retail store will
follow the practise of analysing the customer demand and market trends on the basis of buying
behaviour of the customer ,in retail industry there is a proper study of market segmentation cause
a business should know what to sell and to whom they will cater on the basis of age group and
income level of a customer, analysis of competitors and proper communication with the target
market. Retailing industry will make sure about the review and action plan on distribution
channel between supplier and distributor. Some of the recent trends which are applying by the
retailing industry is that :
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 Multichannel selling : A Retail industry is adopting the number of channel to sale their
product or services and by the motive to reach maximum number of customer and believe
them a confidence of easy availability they are trying in both online and offline pattern of
sale by taking the help of e-commerce websites is that Amazon, Flip kart and so on they
are continuously moving toward digitalization and along with their direct sale to the
customers. Some of the basic channels are internet, store, door to door selling etc.
 Social Media Preferences: In today marketing scenario customers are having lots of
choices of buying from different platform is that they will go for online and offline to
depends upon the customer preferences (Bhagwat, Kumar and Kashyap, 2018),it has been
notice that today customer are more likely to purchase from whether e-commerce or
social media platform, retailer and more focused on introducing their product on social
media applications like Facebook ,Instagram , or any new application which are just
introducing into the market because of fresh customer line , this will also leads to low
competition with other market .
 Focus on branding and quality : Retail industry are more likely to move towards brands
product in respect to reach the customer and retain them for a longer period of time,some
of the techniques used by retailers to achieve this by proper analysis of market what kind
of brands customer demands and their brand acceptability,more focus on product quality
leads to cater the customers more effectively (Gunn, Cappuccitti and Lee, 2020). Product
branding depends upon the customer income level and what sort of segment line retailer
are deals in .By taking care of the market demand and customer requirement for brands ,
this practise is morely followed in shopping malls, brand Retail shops etc.
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 Balance between physical and digital : Today's market follow the concept of balancing
between the offline and online aspect of dealing the customer . Retail stores are basically
have a motive to interact and to reach the customer with both the platform taking care of
their feedbacks in consideration,there is a continuous check on the online site for the
recommendation and demand of the customer ,again the basic source of any retail store is
to sell their product by an interaction with the customer and to their end user but as
changes are occur in the market due to competitors industries are taking the help of
online sources for their product or services by promoting through e-commerce website
and by social media too.
Analysis of the organisation
Primark is an Irish brand and also called as Penneys in Republic of Ireland and it is
owned elsewhere as the company operates its functions and operations within United States and
Europe. The company has offered various collaborations with the celebrities and along with this
also get collaborate with London fashion week (da Costa Webber. and et. al., 2018). As per the
pandemic attack of COVID it has direct impact over supply chain and store operations by which
customer engagement and labour working is promoted. In this deep down the respond is
concerned about to fulfil the demand of marketplace as in support of innovation, technologies
and agility. In this it is hard for the business to get connect as with this ability to make productive
amount of modification and changes within working standards is enhanced in systematic mode.
In this it is required by the business that current trends are managed by the company that is
completed affected due to COVID situation. In this it is required that company must have make
supportive usage of reinvent store so that consumer attractiveness is managed and controlled in
systematic manner. As during the lock-down radical changes are measured as due to shutdown in
this better response and quick changes is sought as per operations and priorities measurement.
As discussed above about the recent trends in retail industry now primark will set their
position again through several changes entering into the market after Covid situation .The basic
change is to formulate and create a strategy to reform the company structure back with new
possibilities of reaching as much customer as they can (Larke, Kilgour and O’Connor, 2018). So
for that process they will take a look into the operational department of how they are going to
supply and and distribute the product and services into the market again primark due to their
working in both the online and offline pattern they will try to balance both by proper initiating
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through there market players ,as to aware more of its customer and to reach them with a channel
of online marketing due to the restrictions by Covid they have to set proper update of their
website and by analysing the market trends and how they will attract the customer by taking their
feedback on the basis of internet
and provide them knowledge about their current and future plan for the product .Strategy of
create immersive experience for their customer will also leads to attract them on the basis of
changing the ambience if we are talk about retail outlet of primark they are chnaging the
overview of the company by dealing the customer by giving them a priority in respect of
particular queries from them and ambience change with proper setup of new technologies into
the stores by handling the customer through proper websites of it and generate the feedback form
for them (Dabija, Bejan and Dinu, 2019).There is a continuous process of dealing with customer
through online basis is that by solving their queries and provide the information regarding new
product if introduce in future. By commitment to the customer will generate loyalty factor for the
company again ,primark will start their product selling on the same market which can regrow the
customer loyalty.
Primary research
In order to conduct primary research questionnaire is used by which authentic outcome is
achieved as by making clear communication with respective respondents. In this sample size of
30 respondents is selected to conduct this research.
Questionnaire
Quantitative questions
Q1) Do you know about the concept of reinvent in store.
a) Yes
b) No
Q2) What are the different ways under which business reinvent its store shopping?
a) Add new product categories.
b) Implement guided selling
Q3) What is the impact of reinventing of store in terms of customers experiences?
a) Encourage customer loyalty
b) customers feel valued and appreciated
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Present findings and data
Q1) Do you know about the concept of reinvent in store. Frequency
Yes 26
No 4
Interpretation: It has been determine from graph that most of the respondents are
aware about the concept of reinventing as in this 26 are in favor while the rest 4 are those who
are non interest towards reinventing.
Q2) What are the different ways under which business reinvent its store
shopping?
Frequency
Add new product categories. 17
Implement guided selling 13
5
Yes No
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
26
4
Add new product categories. Implement guided selling
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18 17
13

Interpretation: It is analyse that there are different ways through which business
reinvention is considered and in this 17 of respondents believe that it added new categories of
product and rest 13 believe it this better implementation of guided selling is induced that develop
brand selling.
Q3) What is the impact of reinventing of store in terms of customers
experiences?
Frequency
Encourage customer loyalty 20
customers feel valued and appreciated 10
Interpretation: It is interpret from above analysis that reinventing has direct impact over
customer's experience and in this 20 believe that it encourage customer's loyalty and rest 10
believes that due to this customer's felt more valued and appreciated by which rate of
profitability is increases on continuous basis.
Recommendations:
The current trends of retailing market is that by inducing the policies of multichannel
sources through online, offline platform this will enhance the possibility of cover most of their
customer again and hence to achieve the organizational goals ,proper balance between physical
and digital leads to effect the revenue as well .
The reinventing of stores is essential as it promotes and changes the working criteria every
company after Covid are following the process of changing the structure of companies working
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Encourage customer loyalty
customers feel valued and appreciated
0
5
10
15
20
25
20
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department is that by change in operational activity of company through their channel of supply
and distribution and continuously provide training program to the employees by recruiting
process enhance the working structure of dealing with customer through digitalized process.
As the reinventing of stores is required to modify customer experience by giving them offers on
a particular product providing discounts and by reducing the cost of it taking care of the loss of
company will leads to generation of proper supply ,customer will attract and reach the market
easily (Ceccato and Armitage, 2018).
In the pandemic situation of COVID it is required for the businesses and customers to make
different changes are :
There is few recommendation for Primark and it is as explained below as:
 In relation to conducted survey it is acknowledge that most of the female get attracted
towards the Primark and they get linked with the business for a longer period of instance.
It is only get induced as per the quality standards that is maintained by the company and
with this company also attained better quality standards under which rate of attractiveness
of customer's also get enhanced in effective manner.
 In order to make replicative changes in reinvent of stores Primark must have conduct
market research by which they are able to know about the various changes that is
required to implement in order to cope up from the situation of COVID. Due to Covid
market scenario are totally changes demand graph for a particular product will also
changes ,company should go with some new product line and innovative ideas to promote
into the market it will better the experience of customer’s.
 It is required for the business to make adequate changes within market offering by which
as per pandemic situations as well customer’s get attract towards working of business. In
this Primark induces various strategies as like by enhancing the customer’s experience in
shopping through both online and offline platform (Tartaglione and et. al., 2018). By
reducing the price on existing product and some offering on them to reduce the risk of
loss of sale ,company should try make discounting offers on product by proper
estimating the budget and return on sale .
 To reinvent the store it is necessary for the Primark to make different changes as per
timely frame as like primark should have to change the organisation structure in the
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context of all department by putting an efforts to retain the employees and to grow the
finance department by continuing the sale process through both platform .
 Furthermore it is also be essential that corresponding changes and alternation is processed
within the organisation through which customer can easily reach to their known store is
that Primark store should adopt the policy of attracting the customer by enhancing the
supply of their USP product and update their department by recruiting and generate
workforce and reduce the cross cutting of employees.
 As the reinvention of stores shopping is necessary by which Primark is able to reach
more customer’s and have a wide scope of introducing the new product ,more likely
customer will prefer larger space due to pandemic and through shopping mall it will
easier to both retailer and their customer to reach at a particular place and go with various
product (Nayak, Akbari and Far, 2019).
 In order to develop customer experience various operational changes is induced through
which company attain their goals and objectives easily operational changes are by
enhancing the skills and knowledge of the employees in respect of new policies due to
Covid ,by properly channelising the distribution platform within the company .
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CONCLUSION
It has been recommended from the above report retailing industry is the one that has
induce wider impact over the growing economy condition of the country. In this better level of
modification and changes is altered by per the impact of COVID situation. For this it is essential
for business to get overcome from different situation as by considering of customers
improvements and advancement. In this key trends of business is analysed through which
company is able to make modified changes in the overall productivity. In addition to this
company is looking forward to advance the working standards through which adequate
perfection in re-invent stores is induced through which positive changes is attained as in terms of
services enhancement.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bamfield, J., 2018. International trends in retail crime and prevention practices. In Retail Crime
(pp. 33-53). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Bhagwat, S., Kumar, A. and Kashyap, A.K., 2018. Assessing the Significance and Measuring the
Dynamism of Apparel Retailing in India's Evolving Organised Retail Sector. ZENITH
International Journal of Business Economics & Management Research. 8(5). pp.64-72.
Bodolica, V., Spraggon, M. and Soueid, M.A., 2019. Innovation drivers and trends in the retail
industry: an application to emerging markets and the case of the Gulf region.
International Journal of Comparative Management. 2(1). pp.51-66.
Ceccato, V. and Armitage, R., 2018. Retail crime. Cham, Switzerland: Springer.
da Costa Webber, C. and et. al., 2018. Remodelling the retail store for better sales performance.
International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management.
Dabija, D.C., Bejan, B.M. and Dinu, V., 2019. HOW SUSTAINABILITY ORIENTED IS
GENERATION Z IN RETAIL? A LITERATURE REVIEW. Transformations in
Business & Economics. 18(2).
Gunn, F., Cappuccitti, A. and Lee, S.H.M., 2020. Towards professionalising Canadian retail
management careers. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management.
Larke, R., Kilgour, M. and O’Connor, H., 2018. Build touchpoints and they will come:
transitioning to omnichannel retailing. International Journal of Physical Distribution &
Logistics Management.
Leeman, J.J., 2020. Supply Chain Management: Fast, flexible Supply Chain in Manufacturing
and Retailing--. BoD–Books on Demand.
Nayak, R., Akbari, M. and Far, S.M., 2019. Recent sustainable trends in Vietnam's fashion
supply chain. Journal of Cleaner Production. 225. pp.291-303.
Tartaglione, A.M. and et. al., 2018. How the environmental complexity affects forecasting in
retail? Actual research trends. Journal of Marketing Trends (1961-7798). 5(2).
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