Competitive Analysis of Waitrose in the UK Grocery Market

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SWOT ANALYSIS OF WAITROSE
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SWOT ANALYSIS OF WAITROSE
Introduction
Waitrose is a chain of supermarkets based in UK. They conduct their business mostly in the
British market. They provide a wide range of retail products ranging from food materials and
groceries. Ridge (2017) stated that in history, Waitrose have had a glorious past, increasing its
business in various sectors and purchasing other potential competitors’ domains thus securing
their future. However, it is seen in the recent decade that their approach is quite classical and
orthodox.
SWOT analysis of Waitrose
Businesses have used extensively the SWOT analysis to analyze their organisational data to
understand and interpret their internal and external factors that affect their business processes.
According to Simkin (2016), evaluating the SWOT analysis, the weakness and strengths of the
organisation are identified and their profitability is analyzed.
Strengths
Waitrose has its strengths organized in order to achieve its organisational objectives. It gets their
promotion and marketing done extensively. They have spread their name over the world by
investing in sponsorship in the national English Cricket team. They have showcased their
expertise skills and have achieved various awards regarding hygiene, customer satisfaction and
providing substantial employment. Puddle (2015) opined that they maintain their brand image by
employing sufficient workers to facilitate customer experience by catering to their needs. They
have close to 50,000 employees. One of their biggest strength is that they possess a loyal warrant
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SWOT ANALYSIS OF WAITROSE
to provide grocery supplies to the royal family. They have further marketed themselves bragging
about their superior standard of ethical behavior as compared to their competitors.
Weaknesses
In the high level of competition among the supermarket chains in UK, Waitrose fails to compete
with its pricing strategies. It is seen that as compared to its competitors, Waitrose maintains a
price which is not the cheapest among others. This leads to a lack of popularity. On the other
hand, they do not provide a customer check out point as smooth as its competitors like Tesco or
Sainsbury’s. Long queues at checkout points add up to custoimer frustration and make them to
consider for changing brands. They also lack a social image through blogs and articles all over
the internet.
Opportunities
Tang (2018) argued that Waitrose can build an image of their own among the common masses
by taking serious steps to communicate with the masses and organizing more campaigns like
‘community matters’. This would help to spread a better reputation and public engagement. They
should also spread in more locations moving inwards rather than building their stores in
important city centres. They have an image of serving a standard of rich heritage people.
Growing more stores and reaching out to more geographical locations could change this, making
Waitrose more familiar with all communities of people. Fulfilling these opportunities would lead
to an increase in its market share by enhancing profitability.
Threats
Waitrose maintains its business mainly in UK. It tends to grow its business keeping their
economic and geographical extent limited. The limitation of their economic dependency solely
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SWOT ANALYSIS OF WAITROSE
on the UK market is a huge threat to Waitrose. Bäder (2016) suggested that in case the market of
UK falls, that would disrupt all financial strategies and planning of Waitrose. The increase in
technological advancement has led to the use of ecommerce extensively. Online purchasing of
groceries and other retail products has led to a downfall of retail supermarkets like Waitrose.
Due to the same reason, they have lost even more popularity and loyalty from its customers.
Along with these, local businesses and mini markets have posed a challenge in the grocery
market. With the amount of competition being increased, Waitrose finds it difficult to sustain its
image and maintain their profitability. All these factors add up to cause a number of challenges
to their policies and strategies to achieve organisational objectives. They lag behind their chief
competitors, who are evolving with the changing world.
Conclusion
From the SWOT analysis, it is evident that Waitrose though excels at different fields, tend to lose
their market when it comes to a large section of population and competition among other retail
chains. They target a certain section of people who prefer to pay in return of best hygiene and
superior quality of products. Considering their weaknesses they should take steps to improve
their image and customer engagement. Waitrose need to evolve themselves with the growing
market needs and identify the present needs of its customers. The loyalty cards and special
discounts provided by them try to kep their existing customers bind to them by gaining their trust
and improving their relationships. However, they should recognize their threats and work to
minimize them if they aim at sustaining their profitability and productivity in the long term.
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SWOT ANALYSIS OF WAITROSE
References
Bäder, M., 2016. Strategic Analysis of the John Lewis Partnership plc (Vol. 1819). GRIN
Verlag.
Puddle, T., 2015. Marketing essentials for veterinary practices. In Practice, 37(5), pp.259-261.
Ridge, M., 2017. The contributions of family and local historians to British history
online. Participatory Heritage, p.57.
Simkin, L., 2016. 11 Segmentation. The Marketing Book, p.271.
Tang, C.S., 2018. Socially responsible supply chains in emerging markets: Some research
opportunities.
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