Sainsbury’s Marketing Trends Inquiry Project: A Case Study

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Inquiry Project – Case study on Sainsbury’s
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Executive Summary
Marketing trends are rapidly changing in the recent ear, it is the high time that the
companies should upgrade their business model and follow the trends so that they can
earn the profitability for the company and eventually can achieve the success. This
report is an inquiry project on the marketing trends and a case study on Sainsbury’s.
This assignment consists of the trends that are prevailing in the retail market, an
analysis of Sainsbury’s and the recommendations for improving the business of the
company.

Table of Contents
Introduction...................................................................................................................... 4
Current trends in Retail Industry......................................................................................5
Analysis of Sainsbury’s.................................................................................................... 7
Recommendations...........................................................................................................9
Conclusion..................................................................................................................... 12
Reference list................................................................................................................. 13

Introduction
In the recent era of the rapid growth of the retail industries, the companies are tending
to follow the current trends in the market, which will aid in satisfying the needs of the
customer. The retail industry is the largest private sector has employed the maximum
population of UK. Companies can expect profitability only if they are updated with the
latest trends that are prevailing in the current market. This project is a report that
highlights the inquiry on the latest trends that are being practised by the firms to
overcome the issues and lead towards successful growth. This particular assignment
will cover all the segments related to the retail in industry. This will consist of a brief
about the latest trends followed by the retail industries, the analysis of the organisation
and the necessary recommendation that can be helpful for the future growth prospects
of the company.
Background of the company: In this particular report, Sainsbury’s has been chosen
as the retail organisation for the analysis part. Sainsbury’s has its position as the
second-largest retail supermarket chain in UK. John James Sainsbury’s owns this public
limited company from the year 1869. Sainsbury’s is operated from their own
headquarter that is in Holborn, London. They have a good brand image in the retail
sector, where they generate revenue of around £28.456 billion. They have a large
workforce of 186,900 employees (Sainsbury’ss.co.uk, 2019).

Current trends in Retail Industry
The current trends that are prevailing in the market are aiding the retail companies as
these trends are harnessing their profitability growth of the organisation. The companies
follow various trends in order to be the market leader in recent years. Some of these
trends are as follows:
The retailers in the current market need to do more investments in order to get
the best workforce: Currently, the retail market of UK is facing the tough scenario with
their employees because of the low wages. In that, case the companies need to take
steps and increase their investments for their employees as for conducting the
successful growth in the market the organisation should have a good employee base for
the smooth running of business (Pantano et al., 2017). Without employee satisfaction,
the organisation cannot run its business in the current market of UK. They need to pay
fair remunerations to their employees in order to stay competitive in the retail market.
Business entities should take major steps in order to train their employees for providing
the services to the customers in a better manner.
Artificial intelligence is a trending topic in the retail industries: This is trending in
the market currently by the retail companies. The retail companies are relying on
artificial intelligence in order to increase their profitability in the market (Armstrong et al.,
2018). The personalized AI technology helps the customers in giving personalised
advice while shopping with the companies, which is a major attraction for the customers
and they get attracted to the company. There are AI technologies that can help the
customers in saving their time such as Dott technology. The technological
advancements help the company to upgrade its business in the retail market.
Flourishing in-store experience: In the current retail market, the customers are more
focused towards the store experience, as nowadays the customer does not flock to any
retail location due to its expediency but due to the experience, which they get in the
store. In that case, for attracting more number of customers towards their shops the
companies need to take major steps for developing their in-store experiences for the

customers. They can take steps for developing their products, in-store ambience or the
excellent staff quality for providing a better experience to their potential customers.
Providing upgraded customer assistance: In order to upgrade the business in the
retail industry, the company should follow certain advanced options such as the voice
assistant or the voice search for drawing the attention of the customers towards their
company particularly. The world is taking its steps towards a voice-centric approach for
that case the company need to prepare themselves accordingly. This strategy of
implementing voice assistance for the customers will help the company in increasing the
traffic towards their company. The companies need to understand the procedure that
how the customers prefer using voice search and implement the idea in their business
for a successful strategy.
Upgraded payment options for the customers: The world is going cashless; in that
instance, the retail companies should understand the necessity of upgrading the
payment methods for the convenience of the customers. The companies should keep
alternative payment options that can be through cards, online banking, etc. By providing
flexible payment options, the companies will be providing liberty to the customers for
choosing their appropriate payment methods for payment (Martinez et al., 2018). This
initiative will be helpful for the companies, as the customers nowadays prefer to do their
payments by various other means but not cash.

Analysis of Sainsbury’s
Figure 1: Business Model Canvas
(Source: Omrani et al., 2017)
There is a business model provided above which has different sections that will give a
brief about the insights of the company. The business model consists of the key
partners, key activities, key resources, values and propositions, customer relationship,
channels, customer segments, cost structure and the revenue streams.
After critically analysing the business of Sainsbury’s and the business model canvas,
which is provided by the company it, is found that the company follows certain business
models, which are helpful as it helps in taking the business towards success (Tehseen
et al., 2017). In the analysis, it is cleared that the company follows the bricks-and-mortar
model that is actually a traditional business model, which is used by the retailers,
manufacturers and the wholesalers where the products are provided face to face. The
companies, which have their physical stores where the customers can go and purchase

the products, are categorised under the brick and mortar model. Here, Sainsbury’s has
its own stores, supermarkets, hypermarkets, etc, where the people can go and
physically purchase the products. Along with the brick and mortar model, Sainsbury’s
has implemented another model in their business that is bricks-and-clicks as the
company has both their presence in offline and online (Khan and Vaheesan, 2017). This
model provides the company the flexibility in order to conduct the business by targeting
the traffic both in the online and offline mode. They provide their customers the facility to
choose both the means in order to shop in the company. There are negative aspects of
following the brick and mortar model that is by following this model the company has to
incur the cost of building the physical stores of the company.
The company is also following the retail outlet model that is aimed at selling the goods
to the end customers. Sainsbury’s uses the retail model, as it is one of the largest retail
stores in the UK. In this model, Sainsbury’s purchases the products from the different
wholesalers or distributors in order to sell them to the end customers.
The critical analysis resulted that, in order to gain its position in the retail market the
company need to follow certain latest trends in order to compete with their competitors
in the retail market. Sainsbury’s has a lot of competitors in the retail market in order to
eliminate competition they need to be updated with the trends on that they can fulfil the
interest of the customers. More than 79% of the employees say that Sainsbury’s is a
good place for working they have also received the gold accreditation by the investors
for their employee relationship, which is, nor given to any of the retailers and they pay
high wages than any other retail companies (Hwang and Kandampully, 2015). The
company has also focused on building technology so that they can compete with its
competitors in the retail market. The company is using technology to fasten their supply
chains in order to increase their supplies so that they can meet the expectations of the
customers. They provide the facility of self-checkouts, which no other retail supermarket
provides, which is a great initiative in the retail industry. These facilities with the help of
technology save the time of the customer, which will eventually praised by the
customers (Gao, 2016). Recently, Sainsbury’s has taken initiatives in expanding their
business. However, expansion of the business is not the only way to attain the main

objective of the company. There are various trends, which all the retail companies are
implementing in their business so as Sainsbury’s is doing in their business. There is
number of trends, which are provided in the above section of this assignment, and it can
help the company in gaining more number of customers towards their business (Omrani
et al., 2017). Trends help the company to be updated in the market by helping them with
the latest knowledge about the market and customer preferences.
It has been recently found that during the analysis the company has faced downfall in
their profit despite giving great discounts on their products. On this incident, it is said
that this happened because of the highly competitive market and high competition from
their competitors. The company has also faced the occurrence of Brexit, which have
created great impacts by declining their sales (Csikósová et al., 2016). There are many
drawbacks which the company faced in recent years in order to deal with these issues
the company need to follow the necessary recommendation which is provided in the
below
Recommendations
Sainsbury’s in order to be the leader in the retail industry and to continue with their
success need to follow the recommendations:
 The company needs to make technological advancements for the growth in the
retail industry. With the implementation of technological advancement in the retail
industry, the company will be able to upgrade the standard of their business.
Customers get attracted to the stores, which are upgraded with the latest
technologies (Rahman, 2015). With the smooth functioning of AI in their
business, the company can expect the number of footfalls in their company.
 The company needs to understand the needs and interest of the customers and
provide them with the products accordingly. The customers always get inclined
towards the companies who provide more personalised services; this can be
done with the help of training of their employees about the way of treating the
employees.

 In order to sustain in the retail industry, the company need to make certain
changes in their organizational structure by making their stores more attractive
so that the customers directly get attracted to their stores.
 In order to compete in the competitive market, Sainsbury’s needs to follow the
competitive pricing strategy (Gao, 2016). Customers get attracted to the
companies that are offering them the products at the minimum price in the
market.
 The company should have a fast supply chain in their company in order to meet
the demands of the customers. Sainsbury’s has created a lot of channels for their
company to get huge traffic toward their company, in order to fulfil the demands
of their huge customer base they need a good and active supply chain
management for their company.
 The company should follow the business models, which will be profitable for the
company rather following the expensive business models.
 Sainsbury’s needs to follow the promotional strategies in order to catch the
attention of the customers towards their company, so that they can generate
maximum number of sales. The company can do promotional activities such as
marketing campaigns, advertisements in order to reach a huge amount of
success in the future. This will also help the company in creating their brand
image and brand value in the market.
 The company should pay fair remunerations to their employees, which will
motivate the employees for performing better in the organisation. With the fair
remunerations, the employees get satisfaction from their work, which will
ultimately result in good quality services, quality services to the customers leads
the company towards successful growth of the company (Sainsbury’ss.co.uk,
2019).
 Sainsbury’s should take initiatives to engage themselves with their customers so
that they can create customer loyalty towards their company. Customer loyalty is
very important in order to gain the main business objectives of the company.
One-time customers do not fetch profitability to the company but the loyal

customers do. Customer loyalty can be provided to the customers by providing
them better services, quality products, etc.
 The company can also increase their profitability by providing the customers with
a wide range of products; the customers get attracted towards the products,
which have a wide variety of range as it gives the opportunity to the customers to
choose from a wide range of products. In that case, Sainsbury’s can provide the
company with a wide range of products.
 The company should provide customer assistance to the customers as this will
help them gain the customer’s trust factor which will later develop in customer
loyalty. Solving the queries of the customers need to be done by the company as
if the customer is not satisfied with the assistance it can affect the brand image
and profitability of the company.
 Sainsbury’s should be updated with the latest trends, which are prevailing in the
market in order to compete with their competitors and to draw the attention of the
customers towards their company, by updating their business with the latest
technologies and latest trends in the market.

Conclusion
Based on the information provided above, it is cleared that there are various trends that
are prevailing in the market. The companies need to make sure that they follow all the
trending in the retail market in order to be the first preference of the customers as they
get attracted towards the stores that are well equipped and updated by the latest
technology. There are various retail-marketing trends, which are covered in this
assignment. The researcher have discussed about the aspects of providing employee
satisfaction for reaching the business objective, for attaining the technological
advancements, for flourishing the customer’s in-store experience, by providing
assistance to the customers for gaining customer loyalty and by upgrading the payment
options that will ensure that the customers get the variety of options for payment. This
assignment also has covered analysis of Sainsbury’s insights.
The company is using the brick and mortar model along with the brick and clicks model
as their business model. The company is also using the retail business model for
conducting their business. There is number of recommendations provided in this
assignment for the continuation of success and sustainability of the company in the
retail market. The company will achieve the main objectives of the firm by following the
trending in the market as by following these trends the company will be able to meet the
expectations of the customers.