Woolworths Supermarket: Business Research on Sales Challenges

This business research report examines the challenges faced by Woolworths, Australia's largest supermarket chain, including declining sales, loss of market share to competitors like Coles and ALDI, and the impact of government regulations such as the plastic bag ban. The report identifies the abrupt departure of key executives and disappointing sales figures as critical issues, further exploring the conflict between the company's vision and current market realities. It highlights the failure of promotional campaigns like the 'Cheap-Cheap Campaign' and the lack of visionary leadership as contributing factors to the business problems. The research formulates questions regarding the current problems, reasons behind them, consumer trends, and the success of competitors. It aims to provide recommendations for improving existing campaigns and preventing future market failures, emphasizing the importance of strategic action plans, market research, and understanding consumer attitudes to regain a competitive advantage. Desklib provides access to this and other solved assignments to aid students.

BUSINESS RESEARCH FOR HOTELIERS
NAME OF THE STUDENT:
NAME OF THE UNIVERSITY:

RESEARCH CONTEXT
Pertinent information of the company
Woolworths supermarkets trades as Woolworths and is a chain of Supermarket/grocery
stores owned by the Woolworths Limited.
 The company along with that of Coles Supermarket are two of the top supermarkets of
Australia and accounts to more than 80% of the Australian supermarket
(woolworths.com, 2018).
The company offers almost every kind of different things from grocery to beauty and
health products, DVD’s, electronic items, household products and every other different
thing to the consumers of the company.
The company has more than 1000 different major stores in the island continent.
The company earns more than $45 billion and supports employee strength of more than
111,000 (woolworths.com, 2018).
GENERAL INFORMATION
The following slide contains information regarding the organization including its origin
and core business.

RESEARCH CONTEXT
INFORMATION OF THE INDUSTRY
The supermarket and the grocery stores industry is one of the most fiercely competitive industries in
Australia.
The presence of Woolworths and Coles and the rapid expansion of the other industries like that of ALDI
over the past few years in the country have helped in the growth and development of the industry
(Kumar & Pansari, 2016).
The main strategy of Coles and Woolworths has been to ensure the cutting of the prices and the
expansion of the private label product ranges in response to the growing demand of the customers of the
company in the market.
 The Australian supermarket industry is projected at $103 billion and has been projected to grow at the
rate of 2.1% each year till 2019.
After 2019, the industry will see another major change, as the companies will adapt themselves to new
trends and technology to innovate and provide much more varieties in goods and services.
According to, woolworths.com (2018) currently the industry employs more than 400,000 people in
Australia.
GENERAL INFORMATION
The following slide contains information regarding the industry in which the following business operates.

RESEARCH CONTEXT
CIRCUMSTANCES LEADING TO THE NEED TO UNDERTAKE THE RESEARCH
As mentioned in the introductory part of the following presentation Woolworth’s market is the largest
Supermarket chain of Australia and it implements all the strategic objectives in such a way that
provides them the unique competitive advantage in the market (Albrecht, Bakker, Gruman, Macey &
Saks, 2015).
However, the presentation has strikingly contrasted the above mentioned views by providing the
current issues that are being faced by the organization in the Australian market.
The abrupt departure of Tony Philips, the chief marketing officer of Woolworths caused a haywire in
the company.
This was followed by the departure of most of the high profile executives in the recent months.
 The disappointing set of quarterly sales figures has been cited to be the main reasons for such a
administrative crisis in the company.
The marketing experts predict the following happenings to be a threat to the organization. The sudden
such issue has been the main reason for the conduction of the research.
GENERAL INFORMATION
The following slide contains information regarding the main reasons that lead to the following research.

RESEARCH CONTEXT
IMPACT AND ITS MAGNITUDE TO THE OPERATION OF THE COMPANY
 The sudden decline in sales and the loss of market share is a serious concern to Woolworths.
 The management of the company has flagged that the sales growth of the company dropped off
early in the new financial year.
 The result of the sales drop has taken a toll on the financial projections of the Company (Landy
& Conte, 2016).
 The company expects to sum up to a huge loss in the coming months which will create a great
impact on the business of the organization.
 However the largest impact will be the loss of the market share to old rival “Coles
Supermarket” and also loss of significant customers to newcomers in the market “ALDI
Supermarkets”.
 Apart from this the sudden ban of plastic bags by the Government in the supermarkets is also a
major problem that can have a negative impact over the organization.
 The sales of the company have impacted as the customers have found it hard to adapt to the
phasing out of the single use plastic bags (Burt, 2017).
GENERAL INFORMATION
The following slide contains information on the impact and the magnitude of the organization.

RESEARCH CONTEXT
CONFLICT TO VISION AND STRATEGY
 The vision and strategy of the company have already taken a backseat as the
management of the company has been unable to achieve the vision of generating a
sustainable sales momentum in the following condition of the market
(woolworths.com, 2018).
 Though Woolworths is a lean retailer and provides products at the most competitive
and affordable price, the changed situations have forced them to come out of their
strategic vision and increase the cost accordingly.
 The company also needs to change the end to end process and systems excellence to
mitigate the loss.
GENERAL INFORMATION
The following slide contains information regarding the conflict of vision and its impact
on the strategy of the business. This leads to a loss of momentum in the sales of the
company.

BROAD PROBLEM AREA
BUSINESS PROBLEM
The problem of the business currently is the sudden decrease in the sales of the different products that are sold by
the company in their stores.
The sales figure of the last few months has not been encouraging for the management as it has touched a new low.
The last quarter of the company saw a meager growth of 0.2% in sales of liquor and other beverages (Hansen &
Taylor, 2017).
The main reasons cited for the same is believed to be the lack of proper promotional innovation.
The Cheap-Cheap Campaign which was launched by the management of the organization, a few years back, though
well received by the customers has failed to improve anything considering the price perception of the organization.
The main reason for the failure is believed to be the strategy of the following campaign itself as because most of the
experts believe that the organization made a hasty decision to start such an unorganized and visionless campaign to
counter the threat produced by ALDI and Coles.
The absence of a proper visionary leader is also one of the major problems for the organization.
GENERAL INFORMATION
The following slide contains information on the different types of the problems that the business faces in the industry
and the failure of the company to impress its customers through the launch of different campaigns. The problems of
the business are thus tough to handle and tends to disrupt the smooth work of the organization.

BROAD PROBLEM AREA
CRITICAL GENERIC DECISION
 The information provided in this presentation when accessed by the
organization will increase the activity of the Company.
 The problems highlighted in the following presentation can help the
management of the organization to put more focus on the current situation
on the business.
 The presentation will help to ensure the implementation of an immediate
action plan by the organization to counter the other companies and increase
the sales of the organization to the desired levels.
GENERAL INFORMATION
The following slide has described the decisions regarding the different types
of the organization that are important for their management.

BROAD PROBLEM AREA
IMPLEMENTETATION BY THE COMPANY AND ITS BENEFITS
The implementation of a strategic action plan by the management of the
organization will have a number of benefits. They are as follows;
 Secure a proper and efficient sales value for the business
 Ensure the competitive advantage of the organization in the market
 Improve the branding of the products in the market
 Ensuring the loyalty of the customers and the shareholders of the
organization in the market
GENERAL INFORMATION
The implementation of the strategies in a proper and efficient manner are
important for the success of the business.

LISTING OF INFORMATION
RESEARCH QUESTION
The research questions that can be formulated from the following projects are
as follows;
What are the current problems faced by Woolworths?
Validation Statement- The current problems faced by the company in the
organization is certainly the main topic of the research and thus it is the most
important question in this particular regard.
What are the reasons behind the problems of Woolworths?
Validation Statement- The reasons behind the problems of Woolworths will
help in the construction of the literary review of the research and is thus one
of the main necessities of the following research.
GENERAL INFORMATION
The research questions have been mentioned in the following slide.

LISTING OF INFORMATION
RESEARCH QUESTION
What are the current consumer trends in the Australian Supermarket industry?
Validation Statement- The identification of the trends of consumer in the Australian Supermarket
industry is important because it will be necessary to formulate a proper strategy to recover from the
current situation.
Why has been Coles and ALDI been more successful in the recent years than Woolworths?
Validation Statement- The information regarding the success of Coles and ALDI will be important as
it provides a thorough analysis of the competitive environment faced by the organization.
RESEARCH QUESTION
How can the existing campaigns be changed to make it more presentable and attractive to the
customers of Woolworths Supermarkets?
Validation Statement- The description of the existing campaign and how to make it more presentable
and attractive will help the organization to improve on the existing set of campaigns.
Suggest some recommendations that can change the sales condition to avoid market failure in the
future?
Validation Statement- The suggestion or the recommendations will help to address the problems in a
proper and efficient manner.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
High Level outcomes of the Business information Collected
The high level outcomes of the research will necessarily be based on the proper
implementation of the strategies and performing a thorough level market research.
The performance of the market research is important in the sense that the research
helps to determine a number of different results that are very much important to
the success of the organization in the future (Albrecht, Bakker, Gruman, Macey &
Saks, 2015).
ATTITUDES AND PERCEPTIONS OF CUSTOMERS TOWARDS THE
BRAND
The attitudes and the perceptions of the customers towards the products of the
company have been certainly in a declining state as sales figures have hit a new
low in the last quarter.
The consumers of the company have preferred the use of more innovative and
advanced range of brands (Hansen & Taylor, 2017).