Current Trends in the Retail Industry: A Case Study of T.K. Maxx

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Current Trends in the Retail Industry (T.K Maxx)
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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Trends in retail industry.............................................................................................................3
Analysis of the organisation.......................................................................................................5
Recommendations......................................................................................................................7
How your company will perform?.........................................................................................7
How can they improve their sales if they are not doing well?...............................................8
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................8
References................................................................................................................................10

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Introduction
The succeeding description is based on different aspects of retail industry and its expansion
all over the global market. Various trends and features of the retail industry are depicted in
this report. For providing better clarification of the concepts and strategies, examples of
T.K.Maxx organisation have been included in the description. T.K.Maxx is a subsidiary
company of TJX companies, operating in the retail industry of the US (Anon, 2019). The
organisation was found by Bernard Cammarata in 1994. The company is headquartered in
Framingham of US.
Trends in retail industry
The external and internal environment of any kind of organisation or industry is a great
influencing factor for the business operations and behaviour of the organisation. The changes
that occur in the market are called as trend and the retailers or the retail organisations have to
comply with these changing trends and meet the demands of the customers. The companies
who fail to meet these trends, face failure or downfall in their business. Therefore, the trend
has a very significant role in retail industry. T.K.Maxx is one of the leading brands on globe.
It has acclaimed wide fame and popularity among its customers (Levy et al. 2012). This is
because of its adherence to changing trends in the market and transforming demands of the
customers. Due to cutthroat competition going on in the market, retailers are focusing on
bringing improvisations and development in their products and services. This has accelerated
the pace of changing trend in the market (Pantano, 2014). The most widely focused trends
going on in the market can be assessed further in this section.
Including sustainability policies in various processes and operations of the organisation has
become a global trend from few previous years. This is due to increasing negative effects of
industrial and organisational processes and their products over the environment. Because of
sustainability policies, the negative effects of these organisational processes and activities
have been decreased or lowered to certain limit (Gupta, 2015). Many of the retail giants have
been practicing sustainability in their organisational process. Therefore, T.K. Maxx can also
opt for enhancing its sustainability polices for lowering the negative impacts on the
surrounding environment (Beck and Rygl, 2015). This helps in creating good reputation and
image in the market and contributes towards sustaining the environment.

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Another trend that has been observed in the retail industry is the trend of digitalisation.
Digitalisation is the outcome of advanced technology and modernisation of the society. Many
of the retail companies have started their online portals and websites. This helps the
organisation in promoting its goods and services as well as reaching to the customers by the
means of online platforms (Pantano, 2014). Many companies have designed their personal
websites and many have opted for social media platforms. Due to digitalisation, customer can
get products and services of any desired brand without being physically present with the
retailer. This is also called as online shopping. There are many of the organisations and
companies, who generate more revenue from their online websites and portals. Many
companies are following this trend of digitalisation for performing and gaining competitive
advantage in the market.
The trend of selling products under private label has also been practised by many of the
organisations present in the retail industry. In this trend, the retailers and sellers sell their
products under the brand name and flagship of any other brand. This helps in increasing the
sales ratio as well as profitability of the company (Yüksel, 2012). This trend has been one of
the most beneficial trends for the retail industry as it has helped in doubling the amount of
sales and profit in many cases. Online shopping website of Amazon can be taken as the best
example of this cases scenario. Many of the products and services of other companies and
brands are retailed on the shopping website of Amazon (Grewal et al. 2011). Apart from this,
Amazon has also started retailing the own manufactured goods online. This is one of the best
examples of the trend of private label selling.
Apart from these famous and well know trends, there are several other retail trends observed
in the market. Many of the brands has initiated online payment programs for ensuring more
security and ease in making payments for the purchases. A number of programs including
loyalty programs have been started by companies. Loyalty programs are one of the best ways
of maintaining relationship and continue engagement with the customers. In this program,
customers are rewarded with some gifts and vouchers for their regular contact and purchase
from a particular brand (Fletcher et al, 2016). This helps in maintaining the relations of the
customers with the organisation and is a good marketing and incentive technique of
promoting the customers for buying the products of the company.

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Analysis of the organisation
T.K Maxx is an ancillary of a home goods and gear company named as TJX Company
situated in Massachusetts. Their main products are furniture, footwear, garments and some
other kinds of household goods. They are spread in large part of Europe. There are total 247
stores out of which, 212 are located in UK, 13 are situated in Ireland, 18 in Germany and
around 4 in Poland. The strategic analysis of an organisation benefits the marketing and eases
future planning for it.
Every organisation encounters difficulties in the existing and newly issued projects. These
problems are tackled by conducting research and studying certain factors that affect the
marketing growth (Kant Hvass, 2014). Raw opportunities must also be identified and used in
finest way possible. These problems and needs of the organisation are assessed efficaciously
with the help of SWOT analysis. The table mentioned below comprises of thorough analysis
of the manner in which, these factors intervene the functioning of T.K Maxx.
Figure.1- SWOT analysis
(Source: Marsdd.com, 2019)
Strengths  T.K Maxx has a wide range of good quality products, which drives the
customers vigorously.
 All these products are available at a very reasonable and affordable rate,
which makes them accessible for major section of the population.
Weakness  Several retailing companies like Brandalley and Secretsales have
increased the level of competition, making it difficult for T.K Maxx to
open new stores.
 Some expensive products like party wear garments and coats have their
demands during specific times, which endanger their sale (Fernie and

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Sparks, 2018).
 Due to recession, the prices of products are heavily affected, decreasing
the demand rate of them.
Opportunitie
s
 T.K Maxx has started the scheme of offering discounts on products,
which makes them available for people with low income.
 Driving men towards fashion will benefit the company, as men have less
interest in fashion (Cadle et al. 2014).
 T.K Maxx offers chain of products of relatively low prices increasing
their demand in market.
Threats  Long-time recession have chances of lowering sales for T.K Maxx.
 Cheap marketing by rivals can increase competition in market.
 Decrease in worth of pound results in downfall of company due to
drastic decrease in sales (Wu et al. 2011).
Table.1- SWOT analysis
(Source- learner)
The technique of Pestel analysis can be brought into use for assessing the external
environmental factors of the organisation. PESTEL stands for politics, economic, social,
technology, environment and legal (Wu et al. 2011).
Figure.2- PESTLE analysis
(Source: Inlooxcdn.azureedge.net, 2019)
These are certain factors, which are focused while strategic analysis and planning of an
organisation. These factors are of the macro environment of the organisation and are stated
below.

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Political factors: T.K Maxx is highly affected by policies regarding trade and taxes. These
issues affect the rate of sales heavily to the company (Grewal et al. 2011).
Economic factors: Recession has resulted in unemployment decreasing the reach of poor
section to market. T.K Maxx offers prices, which ranges from high to low making the
products more appealing.
Social factors: Culture and social ethics of people decides their interest in fashion. T.K Maxx
manufactures good quality, sophisticated as well as fashionable products, which customers
find very alluring (Cadle et al. 2014).
Technological factors: Communication with consumers updates the organisation with
trending demands and needs. T.K Maxx opened its market to online portal, which has
increased the attainability of products for the customers.
Environmental factors: Initial Company is located in UK, which trains cleaners about how
to efficaciously clean and manage waste (Kant Hvass, 2014). T.K Maxx hires these cleaners
for maximum number of stores to maintain a pollution free environment.
Legal factors: T.K Maxx centralizes the rights of its employees in its policy book. Proper
wage, health safety and precise working hours are the rights of the employee, which are very
important to be preserved in an organisation (Fernie and Sparks, 2018).
Therefore, above mentioned factors explain how T.K Maxx is afflicted internally and
externally through SWOT and PESTEL analysis respectively. This assists the organisation in
forming strategies and their execution in an efficacious manner.
Recommendations
Retail industry has taken a significant spot in today’s marketing and business sector. As all
the daily and general needs of the customers are fulfilled through retailers, customers are
tending more towards retail industry. Due to these factors, a rapid growth has been observed
in the expansion of retail industry (Fletcher et al, 2016). In this case, it becomes crucial for
every retailer to perform well and deliver better performance in the market.
How your company will perform?
There are lots of competitors of T.K.Maxx present in the market, which hinders the success
of business of the company. Therefore, it is recommended to T.K.Maxx to formulate its
marketing strategies and plans by considering the techniques and strategies of its rivals and

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competitors (Yüksel, 2012). It is recommended to the retail organisation to perform cost
cutting in its operations, so that it can offer products to the customers at lower prices. This
will eliminate the threat of rivals selling cheaper products to the customers.
It is recommended to T.K. Maxx to exercise various approaches like the total quality
management approach, just in time approach and kaizen theory for making improvement and
development in its business operations and organisational operations management. Through
the application of these theories and concepts in marketing and organisational operations,
T.K.Maxx can eliminate the defects and any kind of wastes from its operations and can
ensure better quality of the products and outcomes of the operations. This will give a
competitive advantage to the company and will result in better cost management and
operation management
How can they improve their sales if they are not doing well?
The prices of the products retailed by T.K. Maxx are found to be higher when compared to
the prices of its rivals. Therefore, T.K.Maxx can lower their prices of the products by
following many measures. This can be done by maintaining good relations with the suppliers
of the company (Gupta, 2015). This will facilitate better management of the supply chain of
the company. Maintaining good relations with the suppliers, help in acquiring supplies of
good quality at reasonable prices. Therefore, this will help the company in cutting down the
cost of production and the price of the products retailed by the company. Thus, effective cost
cutting will also help T.K. Maxx in increasing its profit margin and revenue generation from
business.
The offline stores of T.K.Maxx are limited to certain national boundaries only (Randall et al.
2011). This has confined the business operations of the company into certain countries only.
Therefore, it is recommended to T.K.Maxx to expand its business operations and establish its
stores in various other developing countries. This will help the company in generating more
revenues and gaining more profit in the business. By adhering to these recommendations and
measures, T.K.Maxx can improve its position in the market and develop better marketing and
business strategies for delivering better performance in the market.
Conclusion
Retail industry is filled with numerous retailers and sellers, which has resulted in fierce come
option between the sellers and retailers. In such competitive environment, T.K.Maxx has

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effectively managed its position among the top most retailing companies in retail industry.
However, there are still some areas left for improvement and development in marketing and
business strategies of T.K.Maxx. These can be improved by complying with the
recommendations provided to the company. By following measures and recommendations,
T.K.Maxx can perform its organisational operations in much better way. This will help the
company in attaining its business goals more prosperously.
References
Anon, (2019). [online] Available at: https://www.tkmaxx.com/uk/en/ [Accessed 19 Mar.
2019].
Beck, N. and Rygl, D., 2015. Categorization of multiple channel retailing in Multi-, Cross-,
and Omni‐Channel Retailing for retailers and retailing. Journal of Retailing and Consumer
Services, 27, pp.170-178.
Cadle, J., Paul, D. and Turner, P., 2014. Business analysis techniques. Chartered Institute for
IT.
Fernie, J. and Sparks, L. eds., 2018. Logistics and retail management: emerging issues and
new challenges in the retail supply chain. Kogan page publishers.
Fletcher, G., Greenhill, A., Griffiths, M. and McLean, R., 2016. The social supply chain and
the future high street. Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, 21(1), pp.78-91.
Grewal, D., Ailawadi, K.L., Gauri, D., Hall, K., Kopalle, P. and Robertson, J.R., 2011.
Innovations in retail pricing and promotions. Journal of Retailing, 87, pp.S43-S52.
Gupta, M., 2015. Strategy formulation for performance improvement of indian corrugated
industry: An application of SWOT analysis and QSPM Matrix. Journal of Applied Packaging
Research, 7(3), p.3.
Inlooxcdn.azureedge.net. (2019). [online] Available at:
https://inlooxcdn.azureedge.net/var/corporate_site/storage/images/media/images/blog/back-
to-basics-9-pestle-grafik/1013551-1-eng-GB/back-to-basics-9-pestle-grafik.jpg [Accessed 19
Mar. 2019].
Kant Hvass, K., 2014. Post-retail responsibility of garments–a fashion industry
perspective. Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management, 18(4), pp.413-430.

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Levy, M., Weitz, B.A. and Grewal, D., 2012. Retailing management (Vol. 6). New York,
NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
Marsdd.com. (2019). [online] Available at:
https://www.marsdd.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/SWOT-analysis_20180601-2.png
[Accessed 19 Mar. 2019].
Pantano, E., 2014. Innovation drivers in retail industry. International Journal of Information
Management, 34(3), pp.344-350.
Randall, W.S., Gibson, B.J., Clifford Defee, C. and Williams, B.D., 2011. Retail supply chain
management: key priorities and practices. The International Journal of Logistics
Management, 22(3), pp.390-402.
Wu, P.C., Yeh, G.Y.Y. and Hsiao, C.R., 2011. The effect of store image and service quality
on brand image and purchase intention for private label brands. Australasian Marketing
Journal (AMJ), 19(1), pp.30-39.
Yüksel, I., 2012. Developing a multi-criteria decision making model for PESTEL
analysis. International Journal of Business and Management, 7(24), p.52.