Detailed SWOT Analysis of Currys PC World: Business Strategy Report

This report presents a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis of Currys PC World, a major electronics retailer in the United Kingdom. The analysis highlights Currys PC World's strengths, including its wide range of products, strong market presence with numerous stores, and a multi-channel approach encompassing retail, e-commerce, and B2B sales, along with social media presence. The report also identifies weaknesses such as consumer complaints about pricing and service, past issues with warranties, and a high dependency on the UK market. Opportunities discussed include expanding operations to other countries and focusing on product innovation. The threats section covers competition from major retailers like Amazon and the potential impact of competitors on revenue and employee retention. The report concludes with recommendations for Currys PC World to improve its brand image, diversify its risk, and enhance its strategic positioning in the market.

SWOT analysis

SWOT analysis is a strategic planning technique that focuses on strength, weakness,
opportunities as well as threats being faced by any firm. The technique can be used for better
analysis of the organization so that future strategies can be formulated by management with ease
and comfort (Culp and et.al., 2016). The present study has made an attempt to carry out SWOT
analysis of Currys PC world which is an electronic retailer within United Kingdom.
In the area of strengths, the company has a widespread as well as impressive range of 60,000
products in the area of household appliances; TV, PCs, Smart Tech, Phones; camera; Audio
among others (About Currys PC World Business, 2018). The company is one of the leading
retailer and service provider of electrical and telecommunications equipment in UK. It utilizes
latest technologies which are also efficient and easy to be used by the consumers. It has a good
presence all over UK and Ireland in form of 500 stores. Among these, more than 250 super stores
as well as 73 high street shops (Curry PC world. 2018). The company adopts a multi-channel
approach which is in form of retail stores; e-commerce as well as business to business. There is
also a good presence on social networking sites such as Facebook and YouTube which is a good
strategy to garner additional sales.
With respect to weakness, the company often faces consumer complaints in areas like bout
increased pricing of laptop for which it had to apologize publicly. There was also an issue in
2013 when hundreds of consumers complained about mis-sold extended warranties (Currys PC
World apologizes for extra charges on laptops, 2018). Complaints arrived in the year 2018 about
hiking product prices in the clearance sales started by the company (Cooke, 2018). There is also
an absence of good consumer service which has generated bad word of mouth publicity for the
company on many occasions. There is a high dependency of the company in UK market which
can make its operations get vulnerable if there is a presence of downturn in the economy. The
increasing labor cost in UK market may make it difficult for the company to gain profit margin
in the coming future.
It is recommended to the company that it should make an attempt to create a positive brand
image in the minds of consumers which has got affected many times. This is a much needed
strategy for the company to maintain its long term sustainability in the market. The company can
start its operations in other nations as well so as to diversify the risk factor and gain growth
opportunities. The management should lay increased emphasis on bringing product innovation so
as to garner increased growth.

However the firm is facing threats from competitors in the market such as Best buy, Home
Depot; Tesco, Argos, Amazon as well as Samsung in the UK market. The presence of tough
competition can led the company to offer products at competitive prices or with discounts which
can then pose an impact on the revenue figures. Threat from other competitors is also there who
can target the employees by paying them good salaries and extra perks.

References
About Currys PC World Business. 2018. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/index.html/> [Accessed on 18th April 2017].
Cooke, H., 2018. Currys PC World is hiking prices on products [Online]. Available through:
<soldhttps://www.thesun.co.uk/money/5285541/currys-pc-world-sale-prices-rocket/>
[Accessed on 18th April 2017].
Culp III, K., Eastwood, C., Turner, S., Goodman, M. and Ricketts, K.G., 2016. Using a SWOT
Analysis: Taking a Look at Your Organization.
Currys PC World apologizes for extra charges on laptops. 2018. [Online]. Available through:
<http://www.bbc.com/news/business-43418774/> [Accessed on 18th April 2017].
Currys PC World. 2018. [Online]. Available through: <https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/when-its-
gone-461-commercial.html/> [Accessed on 18th April 2017].