UFashion: Logistics, Supply Chain, and Omni-Channel Retailing Report

This report analyzes UFashion, a fast-fashion retailer in Singapore, focusing on its Omni-Channel Retailing strategy. It begins with an executive summary highlighting the challenges and opportunities UFashion faces in the competitive market. A PEST analysis examines the political, economic, social, and technological factors influencing the business environment. Porter's Five Forces are used to assess the industry's competitive dynamics, and a SWOT analysis identifies the company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The report then delves into the different aspects of UFashion's Omni-Channel Retailing, including demand forecasting, order management, and inventory management. The report concludes with recommendations for improvement, emphasizing the importance of IT and big data analytics, sourcing arrangements, and pricing structures to enhance UFashion's operational efficiency and market competitiveness. References are included for further study.

Running head: LOGISTICS AND SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
Logistics and Supply Chain Management
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

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Executive Summary
Globalization had changed the face of the world and there is a huge availability of data on the
online platform. The connectivity among the consumers had increased significantly; therefore,
Omni channel retailing is the new trend in the market for sustainability. This report had analyzed
the real life scenario of the UFashion which had been one of the fastest growing fast fashion
retailers in Singapore. The founder of the organization had implemented Omni channel retailing
for competing with other companies in the market. However, it is still in its nascent stage and
requires improvements at many folds. The use of big data had become very crucial in this
context for the business to flourish so the report had conduct a situation analysis to develop
strategy that should be implemented to improve the Omni channel marketing of UFashion. It can
be concluded from the study that Ufashion had a very good operating environment in Singapore
and they can have plenty of opportunities of increasing their share in the market. The use of
information technology and big data analysis is essential for developing effective Omni channel
retailing. As the organization is relatively new when compared to the industry giants, they
should initially focus on sourcing of their requirements in order to reduce and collaborate with
other companies to increase their operational efficiency.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Situational Analysis.........................................................................................................................3
Different aspects of UFashion in Omni channel retailing...............................................................8
Investments to enable migration....................................................................................................11
Implementation of IT and big data analytics.................................................................................12
Sourcing arrangement and pricing structure..................................................................................13
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................14
References......................................................................................................................................16

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Introduction
Omni channel retailing has become one of the major factors for maintaining sustainability
in the retail industry. Globalization has changed the face of the world and there is a huge
availability of data on the online platform. Therefore, the connectivity among the consumers
have increased significantly, therefore, Omni channel retailing is used by many retailers. Omni
channel marketing is the presence of brick and mortar outlets as well as having online websites
and applications so that every customer is able to access the organizational products from
anywhere (Beck and Rygl 2015). This report will analyze the real life scenario of the UFashion
which is one of the fastest growing fast fashion retailers in Singapore. The founder of the
organization has implemented Omni channel retailing for competing with other companies in the
market. However, it’s still in its nascent stage and requires improvements at many folds. The use
of big data is very crucial in this context for the business to flourish so the report will conduct a
situation analysis to develop strategy that should be implemented to improve the Omni channel
marketing of UFashion.
Situational Analysis
PEST
The external environment of any organization is evaluated using the PEST analysis. The
different macro environment factors are analyzed using these factors to infer the condition of the
operating market.

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PEST ANALYSIS OF Singapore
Political The political risk of the country is lowest in the continent. The country follows
democracy and gained relative political stability after the independence (Rodan
2016). Therefore, due to this stability there are improvements in the standard of
living and peace. Moreover, there has been increment in the number of
opportunities in the field of business.
Economic Singapore has developed a free market economy that is vivacious. There is
rapid growth in the economy of the country and corruption free environment in
the country helps the business sector to flourish more easily. Therefore, the fast
paced economy has increased the level of competition among different
companies in the market. The financial and legal frameworks set by the officials
has also facilitated in growth of the economy. The government has also invested
in diversifying the economy of the country (Rodan 2016). This has led to the
growth of the industries such as pharmaceutical and tourism. However, the
main issues faced the economy of the country is shortage in the availability of
labors. These have increased the labor cost and Singapore is dependent on the
neighboring countries to provide them with cheap labors. However, there has
been steady increase in the labor cost which has decreased the productivity of
the nation.
Social Singapore follows all the traditional values passed down to them from the
ancestors. However, westernization has emerged among the younger generation
that follow western values and culture. The society believes in hard work and
this has increased the productivity of the country (Tremewan 2016). Therefore,

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the disposable income of the general population is high and the business
organizations expect higher purchasing power from the consumers in the
market. Due to their high rate of literacy in the industry there has been increase
in foreign direct investment and international trade.
Technological There has been vast improvement in the quality of life of the individuals in the
country due to the advancement n the field of technology. The online media
has impacted the growth of Singapore as it reduced the communication barrier
by increasing connectivity among the general population. This has decreased
the time and cost of the conducting business (Chatterji 2016). The advent of
social networking has connected Singapore to the rest of the world. The
infrastructure in information technology is highly developed and large numbers
of companies have set up their regional operation centers. The growth in
Ecommerce is high and Singapore is developing their era of electronic
government.
Table 1: PEST
Porter’s five forces
Porter’s five forces have been developed in order to examine the competitiveness of the
market. Therefore the internal environment of the organization is measured using the porter’s
five forces. The different factors in porter’s five forces are bargaining power of the supplier,
bargaining power of the buyer, competitive rivalry, threat of substitution and threat of new
entrants.

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Porter’s Five Forces of UFashion
Bargaining
power of the
buyer
The buyer power is high in the fashion industry in Singapore especially in the
high end segment. The organization caters to high end customers in the fast
fashion industry where there is huge competition and the consumers have the
opportunity of choosing different rival brands.
Bargaining
power of the
suppliers
The bargaining power of the suppliers in the industry is low as there are
dispensable. Therefore, powers of the suppliers are almost insignificant in the
fashion industry. The company has been outsourcing the manufacturing of their
products to other countries with cheap labor and manufacturing cost. The input
cost of the companies will remain low till there is a gap in global development
all over the world.
Competitive
rivalry
The competitive rivalry in the industry is high and the companies will be face
stiff competition from the market. There are fashion companies selling similar
products to the consumers in the industry. As the market is becoming saturated ,
it is difficult for the industry to sustain and gain competitive advantage
Threat of
substitution
The threat of substitution is low as there no products outside the industry that
can substitute clothing products. There is only competition in the industry so
the organization is facing threats from the within the industry.
Threat of new
entrant
The barriers in the fashion retail industry are very low due to lack of uniqueness
that a new organization can bring to the market. Its takes large amount of
marketing in the social media platform to grab attention of the consumers. It is
tough for the new market entrants to develop their brand and increase

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awareness.
Table 2: PORTER’S FIVE FORCES
(Source: Yeung and Ang 2016)
SWOT analysis
SWOT analysis is to identify the strength, weakness, opportunities and threats of any
organization. It is the internal analysis of the organizations capabilities and facilitates in
developing strategies for increasing the market share.
SWOT Analysis of UFashion
Strengths The basic strength of the company is they have developed fast fashion products
for their high end consumers. They have been able to develop a strong presence
in the Singapore market. The cost of production is low which has increased the
profit margin of the organization. The organization has implemented Omni
channel marketing which has facilitated them to reach more consumers and
provide them with better experience.
Weaknesses The brand is still relatively new when compared to the global brands in the
market. The infrastructure of the organization is not that good and requires
improvements in order to compete at the same level with the big brands in the
industry. The operations department needs improvement for better improvement
in the inventory and supply chain management.
Opportunities The organization has the opportunity of entering new foreign markets.

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However, in order to do so they will have to make improvements to their
information technology department. The organization can improve their supply
chain and inventory management. The organization has the opportunity of
expanding their online business through effective digital marketing strategy.
Threat The other competitors in the market pose a threat for the organization as they
have better infrastructure and operations management than UFashion. The
market is becoming saturated which may affect the overall growth of the
organization.
Table 3: SWOT
(Source : As created by Author)
Different aspects of UFashion in Omni channel retailing
As stated by Marchet et al. (2017), Omni channel retailing is one of the modernized
approaches that emphasizes on developing consistent user experience for all the consumers at all
the touch points. Omni channel retailing takes the overall experience of the customers into
account so it is quite different from the traditional methods. UFashion has recently implemented
Omni channel retailing into their business model which means that it is still at its nascent stage.
Therefore, the organization will have to take into consideration few factors which will increase
their operational efficiency and succeed in developing Omni channel retailing.

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Demand forecasting
According to Jaipuria and Mahapatra (2014), demand forecasting the act of making
estimations form historical data about the future consumers demand. As the competition in the
market is intense the managers of the organization will have apply demand forecasting to take
decisions in case of market potential, business growth and prices. UFashion will be using causal
model for forecasting the future demand. This will consist of identify the factors that will impact
the demand. Therefore, causal model will examine factors such as market competitors, socio
economic factors and economic forces. This will also consist of conducting time series analysis
which means historical data is also important component of the forecast. These will enable to
forecast trends and seasonality so they will be able to customize their product type and strategy
based on it.
Order management
According to Hugos (2018), order management is the administration of the different
processes in business that are related to the services and goods orders. Therefore, UFashion will
have to develop an effective order management system which will streamline all the business
processes. OMS system updates the inventory, databases of vendors, customers, refunds,
returns, payments, billing, general ledger and processing records. This will improve the sales
visibility along with improvement in relationship with the customers. Moreover, the OMS
system will improve the efficiency of the order processing by minimizing the back orders and the
number of delays. Ufashion will be using different modules of ERP system such as Cloud

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Commerce Pro which is a cloud based system and will facilitate in streamlin9ing all the
processes.
Inventory management
As stated by Chaiyawantakee et al. (2015), inventory management is the process of
storing, monitoring and controlling of raw materials, finished products and other products. In is
essential for the organization to identify the right amount inventory they need to stock.
Therefore, by using the data for previous months and inventory forecasting software the
company will be able to identify the stock needed every month. The organization will have to
use economic order quantity which will enable to identify exact unit of inventory required.
Moreover, fast fashion industry needs changes frequently so the organization should not waste
their resources on outdated products. There are other factors such as reorder point and safety
stock which has to be evaluated. The reorder point will evaluate the correct time for reordering
by calculating the time taken for item pickup, packed and shipped.
Order fulfillment
Order fulfillment is the act of delivering the finished product to the consumers and it is
generally outsourced to the companies that deliver products for other companies. They act as a
third party and very important in online service (Turban et al. 2018). Therefore, the organization
will have to customize the order fulfillment according to the needs of the consumers. The
organization should analyze their order metric to identify the efficiency of the products.

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Last- mile distribution
According to Emhemed and Burt (2014), the last mile logistic is one of methods of
reducing the shipment cost to a maximum of 28%. Last mile distribution is the phase of
distributing the product from the facility to the consumers. Therefore, the organization will have
to deliver effective last mile delivery where they can receive the products within a very short
notice. As the consumers are willing to pay prices for the delivery, it is essential for fulfill their
needs to retain the existing customers. Therefore, the organization should develop delivery
lockers which will be set at specific locations such as the Amazon Storefront pickup locations.
Ufashion can also use drones for delivering the products more effectively and route optimization
in urban cities is another way of improving last mile.
Return management
Return management deals with reverse logistics, returns, avoidance and gate keeping.
These things should be highly avoided by the organization in order to increase the efficiency of
the supply chain process (Zailani et al. 2017). Ufashion will have to increase the management
quality by introducing technological prowess. The effective management of the processes
increase reverse flow efficiency and reduces the number of returns. This also facilitates in
indentifying the materials that are reusable to the organization. The organization will have to
focus on three factors speed, visibility and control of the processes for increasing the efficiency.
Investments to enable migration
Ufashion will have to develop necessary infrastructure, human resources and information
technology to support the move to Omni channel retailing. As the organization is aiming to
provide the consumers with the best possible experience at every touch point, the organization