Analyzing Retail Transformation: A Research Proposal on Technology

This business research proposal investigates the transformation of the retail industry due to technological advancements like online shopping, focusing on the UK grocery retail sector. It aims to evaluate how these advancements are shaping online shopping experiences and providing competitive advantages to organizations. The research methodology involves reviewing existing literature to understand the subject, issues, and relevant theories. It critically assesses empirical research, identifies shortcomings, and justifies the chosen research approach. Data collection methods are explained, and findings are interpreted based on the literature review. The proposal outlines the project's aims, including analyzing the changed business prospects due to technology and its influence on global business practices, emphasizing the importance of technology in enhancing customer service and retaining customers in the competitive retail market.

Running head: BUSINESS RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Business Research Proposal
Topic: The changing face of Retail Industry given the Technological advancements like the online
shopping facilities
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Executive Summary
Technology has been influencing the business arena since the time of its inception. The way that
organizations have been adopting the changes are huge in number. In this particular case, the research
or the study is entirely based on the adoption of technological advancements like the online shopping
facilities in the face of online shopping facilities in the retail grocery businesses in the United
Kingdom. The way by which the research process is done is for evaluating how the even more
technological advancements like the online shopping facilities have been shaping up the face of online
shopping for grocery retailing organization in the UK market. For this, the research report provides
essential information about the findings that have been put up by the researchers and the ways by
which these have been formulated to find out the reasons why the organizations are adopting more
and more technological advancements like the online shopping facilities for shaping up the market or
the industry of online retail grocery.

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Acknowledgement
I want to present my gratitude towards all the people for helping me with this research project.
Conducting this research has made me much more analytical and detailed as I was before. I have
learnt to deeply go through a research topic without believing the visible information about it. I want
to present my gratitude towards everybody who has helped me go through this research. I would take
this opportunity to thank my supervisor _______________ for helping me with all the researches and
analytics. I would also like to thank my peers, my professors, for my handlers and everybody who
have provided me with the information that I required for my research paper.

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Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction..........................................................................................................................4
Project Background...........................................................................................................................4
Setting of the Project.........................................................................................................................4
Aims of the Project............................................................................................................................5
Reasons for the project selection.......................................................................................................5
Chapter 2: Literature review..................................................................................................................6
An overview of the subject, issue or theory under consideration.......................................................6
Critical review of the current theoretical and empirical research.......................................................9
Relevance of the research to the topic.............................................................................................10
Shortcomings in the current research..............................................................................................11
Chapter 3: Methodology......................................................................................................................11
Adoption of the research methodology............................................................................................11
Chosen research methods................................................................................................................11
Carrying out the researches.............................................................................................................12
Justification of the chosen research approach..................................................................................12
Difference of the approach from the method applied......................................................................12
Chapter 4: Discussion and evaluation..................................................................................................13
Explanation of the collected data representation of the charts and graphs.......................................13
Reflection on the presented information..........................................................................................16
Interpretation of the findings based on the theory presented in the literature review.......................16
References...........................................................................................................................................17
Appendix.............................................................................................................................................20
Survey Questionnaires.....................................................................................................................21

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Chapter 1: Introduction
Project Background
The retail industry has always been an industry that has always been offering a wide range of
products and services to the customers according to the needs of the customers. The retailing business
can be defined to be an industry that can create a bond between the organization and the
manufacturer, including the customers and the suppliers. The sector of retailing has been in vogue in
the business world for quite some time and has been changing with the way that the world has been
accepting technological advancements like the online shopping facilities. The idea that business
organizations have been receiving the use of technical implementations within the organizations, it
has undoubtedly been changing the perspective of the business world (Kim et al. 2018). The
technology has changed the world of retail business in such a way that in recent times, the
organizations and the retail chains are not found to be utilizing the traditional techniques of
conducting the business. There are many manual conventional ways of running the company in the
retail industry and in no way, this could have been managed in a shorter way other than the
amalgamation of the technological advancements like the online shopping facilities to the system.
Many tiring manual procedures are simplified with the interference of technology in the retail
business. These manual procedures included the counting of the stocks, the status maintenance of the
delivery, tracking the inventory and others (Nickson et al. 2017). Technology is becoming more and
more important every day in this industry because it has been allowing the secure management of the
business in certain areas like the management of the supply chains, the control of the customer
experience and the implementation of the loss prevention statuses and inventory management. The
way that competition has been elevating in this industry is contemplating every organization now and
then to apply the utility of the technological advancements like the online shopping facilities in the
organization. This is why the implementation of the latest technology in every aspect of retail
organizations is found to be increasing at an exponential rate. The following research is thus based
upon the changing face of the retail industry in recent times with the implementation of the advanced
technology that has been utilized by the organizations in the latest times.
Setting of the Project
The background of the project, in this case, is meant by the planning is done for researching
the entire project. This is formulated with the help of analysing all the aspects in which the project
would be divided into several divisions. There has been a setting made for investigating all the
elements of the project given the structure of the research project. This is formulated with the help of
finding out the aims behind the project and the reason why technological implementation on the retail
business system has been selected as the project to research upon. It would then idea that the literature
review that would form the basis of the entire procedure for the research (Birkin, Clarke and Clarke
2017). This will be identified by the evaluation of the articles that have been presented by other
researchers who have already placed their research on this topic. The information would be gathered

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by the reviewing of, along with the findings gathered from all the articles (Davoren et al. 2016). This
would be described down with the overview of the subject taken for the research, understanding any
issue for the study and all the undertaken considerations about the theories developed for the same. A
critical review of the theoretical and empirical research would be presented in this research, along
with the relevance of the topic, and the culminated research would also be presented (Lovelace et al.
2016).
Along with this, the shortcomings that have been found in the previous research would also
be formulated. Then the setting of the project would move on to the methodology section that would
adopt a research methodology and describe in which way the research has been conducted. In addition
to that, the chosen research method what this research would be justified along with the difference of
the approach from the method applied. The next discussion would be done about the evaluation of the
research, followed by the explanation of the collected data formulated through the data collection
methods and reflection present on the gathered information. This should also be followed by the
interpretation of the findings based on the theory present in the literature review and analytical and
critical discussion of the project taken for formulating this research.
Aims of the Project
The project aims to find out the retail Industry and its way of conducting a business that has
been changed completely from the traditional methods by which retail Industry use to run their
business, with the implementation of technological advancements like the online shopping facilities.
The research is looking forward to analysing all the business prospects that have been
changed with the utility of technology for running a retail business and how it has been adding
competitive advantage to the organisation in the market compared to other business organisations in
the same industry. This is another reason what the project is currently being selected for
understanding the need for technological advancements like the online shopping facilities and its
influence on global business practices (Chen, Wang and Jiang 2016).
Reasons for the project selection
Retail business has been an industry that shares a special connection between an organisation
and the customer because the industry is known to provide the customers with their specific and
generic names Ivan customising the products according to the requirements of the customers. This is
another reason why industry started to transform itself with the utility of the technological
advancements like the online shopping facilities that had the potential of establishing a business
environment that would easily collect and store all the customer related information to have a faster
and effective access to all the information about the customers, even the individual and specific ones,
when it comes to provide services (Luchansky et al. 2017). This is one of the basic reasons why retail
Industry wanted to adopt technological advancements like the online shopping facilities in the
industry to serve the customers better ok, retain the previous customers and also gather potential

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customers towards the business organisation. With the import of customers one after another, the
business would already gain a competitive advantage than the other organisations in the market.
Providing better and improved services to the customers would also mean that the technological
advancements like the online shopping facilities at providing even better services to the customers
when it comes to individual service providers. Therefore, this project has been chosen for research on
given the latest scenario and to understand how technological advancements like the online shopping
facilities are providing reminders support or benefit to the retail Industry. in addition, it needed to be
researched upon on how this transformation is benefiting the entire industry and how vividly has the
changes happened within an organisation for the whole of the industry to completely change the face
of retailing (Pantano 2015).
Chapter 2: Literature review
In this chapter, the research will be conducted with the help of secondary sources, that is the
research that has already done by various researchers in previous times. It has been identified that the
inclusion of technological advancements like the online shopping facilities in the retail Industry has
already been identified and Research upon by various researchers in earlier times (Cook, Williams
and D'Agostino 2019). Therefore, together with the knowledge about how these researchers have
looked upon about the changes that have already been brought in by technological advancements like
the online shopping facilities in the Retail Industry and how they believe that it has been able to
change the face of the entire industry. Therefore, data will be collected from the secondary sources
through the collected articles, so that the research could have viewed upon how other researchers have
looked upon this drastic change in the industrial phase and what are the factors that can further be
searched about given the changes in times.
The chapter would begin with having an overview about the entire subject about the face of
the industry in retail business that has been completely changed by the inclusion of technology in
retail Industry, the identified issue that has occurred due to this change and the theory that has been
identified by the previous researchers that needs to be taken into consideration about the subject of the
research. It would then present a critical review of the empirical research is that has been dictated and
the current theoretical prospects (Esbjerg et al. 2016). The relevance of the research conducted by the
people and the topic would then be established finding out the shortcomings of the research process.
An overview of the subject, issue or theory under consideration
There have been times in the retail business that has presented the idea that the retailers are
finding it very difficult and struggling to get to their customers perform any bond with them. The
retail landscape is changing a lot, given the past few years. There have been reports about the event to
be impact full on the consumer purchase goods. It was found that in previous times people used to
visit the physical shops and buy popular products from these shops according to their needs and
requirements. Later it was found that Technology was getting into the day to day business operations
and even the day to day lives of the general mass (Clarysse, Wright and Hove 2016). Which so many

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features available over the internet provided by the various connecting devices, the retail Industry
found it extremely hard to come up with the latest development of the technological advancements
like the online shopping facilities having their physical shops. The new millennial generation can be
considered as a factor contributing to this research since it is their ideology and behaviour over the
internet that has been researched about by the retail industries. According to Cresswell Cunningham-
Burley and Sheikh (2017), it was the latest generation that was more inclined to the cyber world such
that the business organisations have shaped themselves according to the requirements of the people
who would be considered to be the customers. Not just that, the changes in population and the use rise
in the number of customers made it difficult for the people in the retail Industry to have a proper
system to generate all the data and store them accordingly. Not just the need of the customers to have
an automated business system evoked the utility of Technology in the industries but the authors of
also found out that this was also due to the inclusion of the significant number of business
information. The more the retail industries expanded, the more business information started to come
up. It was found that the business industries where having a really hard time to store and manage all
the data within the organisation manually. This also happy birthday relationship with the customers as
we could not handle the customer information appropriately as well given the increase in the number
of customers. Therefore, the retail Industry has to develop itself to have a better understanding of the
software systems available that would help them in categorising all the business information.
According to Glanz et al. (2016), it was also found that this is another reason that the
organisations in retail Industry had to come up with the utilisation of the technological advancements
like the online shopping facilities in the organisation since there was a huge incur of E-Commerce
websites that were involved into the utilisation of cyber world. E-Commerce websites came as a threat
to the retail business having a physical existence. This is because The E-Commerce business websites
allowed the customers to book any product that would be made available to the customers through the
online website portals. The customers could easily access them with their connecting devices, be it
mobile, laptops, computers, portable laptops, tablets and others. This is the reason that the retail
Industry is having physical existence since the people were given the utility of not visiting the
physical shops and still having the excess over buying any product with the help of their connecting
devices. This is an added advantage not just for acquiring customers for the E-Commerce websites but
also from the business perspective as well. Having a physical existence made it difficult for business
organisations in the Retail Industry to have control over their product prices. All the cost of the
products that were present within the shops having an inclusion of all the expenses that having a
physical shop has to provide (Fernie and Sparks 2018). This made it much difficult for the retail
industries since the e-commerce website could easily cancel out all the payments that were needed to
be done for the physically existing retail shops. There was no question of having a physical shop as
the entire shop will be displayed digitally to the customers so that they could have an idea about the
availability of the products. There was only the requirement of a warehouse when the products should

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be kept so that they can be delivered on time as provided by the customers. According to Gibson et al.
(2016), another advantage that the E-Commerce websites had over physical shops been the provision
of the requirements of the customers regarding the delivery of an item and the payment methods. The
payment and delivery of the items can all be connected via online systems, and the delivery could be
done according to the need of the customers on their given time. Therefore, it became much easier for
the customers of the e-business retail Industry, together with the customers and provided the
individual and customised services. In addition to that, the physical retail industries variate not at an
advantage over The E-Commerce websites since they had a competitive advantage of utilising the
technological advancements like the online shopping facilities. Thus, the E-Commerce websites
became an ardent competitor of the physically available retail Industry being in the same industry.
This is another example that can be considered as the changing face of the retail Industry with the
inclusion of technological advancements like the online shopping facilities.
In the last few years, it has been found that technological advancements like the online
shopping facilities have made it much more convenient to buy everything that a customer need. In the
present time, it is found that all the customers within an organisation, loyal to the brand or new to the
industry have become digital customers, whether in-store or online. Technology has been prominent
within the retail Industry according to Gooberman, Hauptmeier and Heery (2018), where the author is
found that explosion of the end devices in social media advertising has been one of the latest
strategies for acquiring customers all over the world for the retail business. They have also identified
that the storefront displays have also become interactive. This can be considered as a good strategy for
engaging in connecting with customers with representing them the items that they intend to sell them.
The customers would also have a clear idea about the products that they are being sold and how they
look like. Another great change in the retail Industry has been social media inclusion. This is
customised by opening the market of retail Industry in having a social media presence. Social media is
considered to be the websites where the time millions and millions of people are connected through
the same website with one another. Having the presence of a business on the same platform would
provide much more exposure to the brand name, according to Hong and Li (2017). Therefore, it is the
customer that are enjoying the most benefits of implementing technological advancements like the
online shopping facilities in retail Industry, given the consequences that have been faced in real time.
The issues identified in this case mostly has to do with the security information brand loyalty
and behaviour of the buyers in the virtual environment, according to Devlin et al. (2015). The author
has found that the primary problem in the virtualisation and technological inclusion within the retail
Industry has formed a lot of problem with the security systems of the information generated within the
business. When it comes to the addition of Information Technology within an organisation, it is very
natural that all the information generated within the business would be conducted through the
software systems and the inclusion of the cyber world. Naturally, this becomes there to all the security
issues that the cyber world faces every now and then. That has previously been various examples of

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different industries falling victim to the security issues present in the cyber world with the inclusion of
technologically advanced systems for the management of the business operations within an
organisation. The Retail Industry is also susceptible to be falling vulnerable to the security systems
and their implications with the utilisation of the technological advancements like the online shopping
facilities. Brand loyalty is also a factor when it comes to the Global respondents in the retail industry.
It is often found that the changes in prices and the categories matter a lot to the customers in the retail
Industry. According to Perren (2017), the customers in the retail Industry is much more specific to the
products than any other industry. To provide such specific factors included in the products, it is
required that the pricing of the products would also be included within the product. However,
different organisations within the competitive retail industries may have differences in the prices of
the commodities offered to the customers. The difference in prices is easily visible to the customers
without travelling from one shop to the other. This results to the shifting in the brand loyalty which is
an issue for the Retail Industry as the customer main switches from one brand to the another easily
with the easy availability of the comparison in the prices. According to Ayers and Peng et al. (2016),
the increase in the legal minimum waste and implementation of the apprenticeship levy has also
pushed different prices up. This works as a factor behind the adoption of the advanced technologies in
the online grocery retail businesses, which has been affecting the industry in such a way that for the
cost-beneficial reasons, organizations are accepting the advanced technologies.
Critical review of the current theoretical and empirical research
According to Bryson and Daniels (2015), at this age of digitalisation, retailers have been
finding it extremely difficult in having a broader sale through the implementation of various channels.
This would make sure that the business would imply the business rules of bricks and mortar. Right
now, the latest implementations in the field of technology have been impacting upon the various
aspects of the online business, especially focusing on the organizational information and the way that
they would be managed (Shrier, Canale and Pentland 2016). The servers selected for this purpose are
being transformed into a cloud in the latest times. The researchers have also analysed the reasons
behind this as per various research works based on finding the reasons behind adopting the latest
trends in technology and implementing them to the online retail grocery businesses.
The influence of the sales would be having a diverting effect with the implementation of the
technological advancements like the online shopping facilities to the organisations have provided
many privileges to the shoppers so that they can have all the amenities brought about at one place
rather than roaming around in different shops for collecting their required items. It is also an aspect to
the matter from the perspective of the people who own physical shops and do not have the business
structure to implement the Information Technology Services are the technological advancements like
the online shopping facilities to implement e-business structures or any other technologically
advanced systems (Naidoo and Gasparatos 2018). For small scale business organisations who have
been investing in retail Industry, they would find it difficult to raise their scopes of being in the

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market and fulfilling all the requirements of the customers. They would have a limited group of
customers and would not have the probability of completing the complex and large size organisation.
The infrastructure of having all the technological advancements like the online shopping facilities
within the business structure is delivered through the utility of a company's ability in investing in the
technological advancements like the online shopping facilities.
There is another reason that can be included in this discussion. This would be about the
demographics of the cultural influence that it happens to have a deliberate impact on the language, the
food and even the environment in which a person thinks about shopping. The cultural influence
broadens when an organisation implements technological advancements like the online shopping
facilities to the business organisation and its existing structure and makes the business available to the
cyber world. According to the discussions made above, it is also found that the cyber world does not
get influenced by the cultural, demographic differences (Burns 2016). It might be the difference
between the people who are optimistic with the utilisation of certain kind of Technologies and the age
gap of people who might not be that influenced by the technological devices for their shopping. The
demographic difference is a factor that affects a business and its technological advancements like the
online shopping facilities. For example, a person who belongs to the millennial generation would like
to invest more in the business for shopping with the utilisation of the e-business website portals.
However, a person who relates to the old age group of the customers may still find it difficult to
utilise all the advancements the technology offers for shopping and might find it easier to visit the
shop and directly by the items that they desire (Fernie and Sparks 2018).
Therefore, from this discussion above, it is clearly understandable that the influence of the
technological advancement over the retail Industry, especially in the United Kingdom depends upon a
lot of aspects including the cultural differences, their usability of the technological advancements like
the online shopping facilities and the rational privilege provided to the business organisations
irrespective of the business size (Bamfield 2018). It is also understandable why the technological
advancements like the online shopping facilities have been influencing various medium to large size
organisation and even some small organisations to implement its utilisation for serving the people in a
much better way, but it is also understandable why some organisations do not find it influential
enough given their existing customers and their requirements.
Relevance of the research to the topic
The current theoretical approaches behind the utilisation of technological advancements like
the online shopping facilities in the retail industry have been presented as the above literature review
to find out that the relevance of the research to the topic is found out. The research that has been
conducted so far brings about all the constants of the technological advancements like the online
shopping facilities implemented in the retail industry. The theoretical approach to this research was
based upon the changing face of the retail industry (Sullivan and Gouldson 2016). From the above
literature review conducted from the researches done by various authors before, it can be established

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that the way that people use to buy any commodity from a retail organisation has been completely
changed given the latest scenario. People have found that relevant commodities according to their
requirements finding everything over the online markets. In addition to that, the organisations are also
changed a lot in calculating the information about the customers. Business is found to be becoming
more and more personal in maintaining the relationships between the organisation and the customers
(Nash 2019). One to one personalized and customised online assistance is provided to an individual
customer if they have any problem regarding the organisation or product sold to them. This is not at in
which previously customers used to interact with the retail organisations. the way that a customer
interacts with an organisation through the utilisation of mobile devices, websites and applications is a
clear view about the changed scenario of the Retail Industry and their relationship with the customers.
Shortcomings in the current research
The shortcomings in the current research about the literature review conducted to find out that
the previous researcher sued has already found about the technological aspects included in the Retail
Industry and their impact to transform the retail Industry states all the advancements and the
advantages added to the business organisations in the retail Industry about the utilisation of
technological advancements like the online shopping facilities. However, since these technological
advancements like the online shopping facilities are included with the utilisation of the cyber world, it
is quite natural that the business organisations would have to consider the issues that might occur with
the implementation of the advanced technologies. The software systems and the applications used in
this regard are bound to go through issues regarding the use of technology (Cloyne and Hürtgen
2016). There is no research found that it ensures an organisation about the measures that they should
take before the implement the technological advancements like the online shopping facilities like
software systems to understand the customer management, handle the business information and utilise
the benefits of e-commerce.
Chapter 3: Methodology
The methodology chosen for the research would be described in this section. This will
describe the research methodology that has been adopted to collect the data in both cases. The chapter
will present the idea about the adoption of the research methodology, the chosen research methods,
the carrying out of the researchers, the justification of the chosen research approach, and the
difference of the approach from the method applied (Eisenhardt, Graebner and Sonenshein 2016).
Adoption of the research methodology
The research methodology applied for this purpose would be deductive. Inductive method is
not applied because with the utilisation of the objective technique, and it would be more justified to
use the deductive method for this purpose for bringing out all the hidden information about the
research. This would help in analysing the data collected in this regard and help in the presentation of
the regressive analysis of the collected data (Eyre and Lockwood 2016).