Introduction to Woolworth

Woolworth is a leading supermarket in the retail industry of Australia. Woolworth is having a 78% market share and faces strong level of completion from Coles, Aldi, and Wesfarmers. The company is having more than 900 outlets in Australia and it’s specialization includes vegetables, fruits, meat, stationeries, magazines, and DVDs. It’s headquarter is situated at New South Wales. The slogan of the company is ‘The fresh food people’. The sales revenue of the company was more than $40.123 at the end of 2015. The company aims to provide fresh products to it’s customers from the cultivators and farmers.

The company constantly faces threat to lead in the market. Woolworth went wrong in some of it’s campaigns such as cheap-cheap and down-down. The shoppers are price conscious nowadays. In order to fight this issue, the company adopted a cheap-cheap campaign. The company reduced prices of products to attain huge market share. As a result, the sales of the food and liquor increased by .2% but in the fourth quarter, it went down by .7%. This campaign was not as successful as expected by the company. It could not bring improvement in the price perception of the consumers. The down-down campaign has been one of the successful campaigns but the adulation did not last long. This campaign focused on the past success rather than the keeping pace with the changing dynamics of the market place. The company also made three-year strategy for the successful implementation of the activities. But it could not accomplish the targeted decided. The company also reviewed it’s whole business in 2002. It reviewed the further expansion and merger of it’s management structure. It strengthened the infrastructure and the management to maintain at optimum levels. The company also introduced new till system to ensure stock holding capacity and provision of enhanced and efficient services to the customers. The management of the company also reduced the number of suppliers and boosted the use of own brand products. But these improvements contributed very less in the sales as well as profits (Mumbrella, 2015). This report includes the factors which drive the failure of the business. The strategies are also discussed which are adopted by the company and the reason behind the failure of the strategies. At last, the recommendations are made for the successful strategy.

General Environmental Analysis

The general environmental analysis consists of PESTEL analysis with global supply chains.  

Challenges Faced by Woolworth

Political factors: The political forces affect the supply chain operations of the retail industry in Australia. The recently launched government campaign negatively impacted the industry and it targeted to block the operations of the companies like Woolworths. It eliminates small traders through the partial competition in the market. The fair business policy and consumer commission considerably affected the performance of the Woolworths. The supply chain management is focused in order to establish effective strategic measures. Due to these processes, the company is able to succeed in the industry and grasp a substantial market share (Neilson, Pritchard & Yeung, 2014). Woolworths receives support from the government for importing raw materials from the overseas or domestic market. It comprises the use of rules, regulations, norms, regulations, and advice. The international trade for obtaining resources from other countries brings out the complex matters such as transportation, language barriers, tariffs, exchange rates and more.

Economic factors: These factors deal with the country’s economic performance. These factors relate to the preference of consumers, inflation, exchange rates, purchasing power and the inflation rates. The weak purchasing power of the consumers leads to the negative performance of the Woolworths. The inflation rate raises the price of raw materials in the supply chain process. Hence, affects the buying behavior of the consumers. Woolworth modifies it’s marketing and management strategies to deal with the economic factors. The high employment rate influences she business operations (Arunraj & Ahrens, 2016). The global financial crisis caused a financial crisis for the company in 2009. The recession also had a great bearing on the supply chain operations of the company as well as sales turnover. Even during the financial crisis, the Australian retail industry maintained a stable market position with a fixed market share.

Social factors: The social factors include the demographic factors, attributes, and the individual beliefs. It mainly includes religion, age, gender, population size, sex, language and more. The demographic aspects keep on changing. The consumers change their demands as the technology changes and prefer the most updated products. The consumer prefers to purchase products from the companies leading in supply chain and corporate social responsibility practices. The company has implemented the process of self-service checkout along with the modern technology. The online website of Woolworth delivers every detail of the supply chain process and the relevant information about the products (Bailey, Price, Pyman & Parker, 2015). It helps customers to choose the best product among the available options.

General Environmental Analysis

Technological factors: The technological factors affect the way business conducts it’s supply chain operations. The technological harnessing and innovations are the common trends which are applied by the company to sharpen it’s competitive advantage. Woolworth has employed technology in it’s supply chain operations. The company has used green supply chain management to deliver products through material flow in the framework of the environment. The green supply chain management can be set by selecting safe products, the process which has less negative impacts on the environment, eco-friendly packaging material, and the automatic process. Woolworths has also installed self-check-out machines to scan, weigh and make payments considerably which help in reducing the costs (O’Kane, Richardson, D’Almeida & Wei, 2018).

Legal factors: The taxation policy and the management rules are the part of the legal framework of a retail industry. The food licensing requirement is also an important aspect of the retail sector as the companies are required to comply with the regulations. The food quality is focused on the supply chain operations as per the regulations of the country. The new outlets are required to follow the legal requirements and obtain approval from the concerned government.  

Environmental factors: The environmental factors affect the supply chain of Woolworths and the entire retail industry. The company makes use of environment-friendly practices to reduce the harmful effect on the environment. The company has been investing in the resources in minimizing the carbon footprint and wastage of natural resources. The businesses of Woolworth such as petrol and winemaking are posing an adverse impact on the environment; hence it affected the profitability of the business (Paillé, Chen, Boiral & Jin, 2014).  However, the company supports the recycling practices for a improved environment. The company makes use of the practices which are ethically sound.

The industry environment can be analyzed by Porter’s five forces framework. It evaluates the present position of the retail industry and the means in which the factors affect the performance. The analysis of the retail industry can be done through the following tools:

Bargaining power of buyers: The bargaining power of buyers is considerably higher in relation to the retail industry of Australia. There are various supermarkets and retail stores in the Australia which provides a different kind of items to the customers. There is a low switching cost between stores as the supermarkets offer homogenous products. The bargaining power of the customers is comparatively high due to the availability of wider options of supermarkets (Pantano, Priporas, Sorace, & Iazzolino, 2017).

Porter’s Five Forces Analysis of the Retail Industry

Bargaining power of suppliers: The bargaining power of suppliers in the retail industry is moderate. It depends on the brand name of the suppliers and the extent of the supermarket. There are certain players in the retail industry of Australia that have a major market share. This factor upturns the bargaining power of suppliers up to a definite level (The New Daily, 2018). The suppliers have more power when the supply reduces due to climate changes. Woolworth has opted a significant supply chain management to satisfy customers.

The threat of new entry: The threat of entry in the retail industry of Australia is low. The established firms have made it problematic for the new players to move into the industry. The retail industry offers low-profit margin so it is not successful in attracting industries to take the entry (Mortimer & Ingersoll, 2015). The huge capital investment, government regulations, high price of land creates barriers to entry in the retail industry. The larger retail companies have dominated the Australian market. For instance, Aldi has affected the profitability of Woolworths and has made the rivalry higher.

Rivalry among existing firms: The rivalry among the existing firms is higher as there are few major competitors such as Wesfarmers, Coles supermarket, Asda, IGA and more. These competitors compete against each other to attain the largest market share. Such competition has reduced the profitability of Woolworths. There are chances of increasing sales in the future (Sutton-Brady, Kamvounias & Taylor, 2015).

The threat of substitute: There is always the availability of the substitute products in the market. Woolworth makes available ample of products and the opportunity to choose from them. The company is making use of a differentiation strategy to influence customers. These strategies are surely going to help in increasing sales and the profit maximization (Mol, 2015).

Competitive environment

The contemporary growth of the Woolworth is based on the understanding of the management concerning the demands and the norms of the consumers in Australia. The concept of retailing has been rapidly changing due to it’s large scope and the probability of dynamic business future. Woolworths is being successful in it’s business day by day even when the behavior and attitude of the customers are constantly changing. The company has effective strategies to define a complete phase of opportunity and growth. It provides a perfect shopping facility to the customers when they want to shop online (Methner, Hamann, & Nilsson, 2015). The innovation in the technology takes place on the regular basis and the trends of online shopping keep on changing. So, the management of the company engages software developer for updating online shopping website to provide more products to the customers. The company also provides the option of virtual stores with the help of mobile applications and the door to door delivery provision. The strategies discussed above are the efforts made by the management of Woolworth to enhance it’s customer base and loyalty (Shin & Eksioglu, 2015). The factors driving failure of Woolworths are given below:

Competitive Environment

Losing loyal customers: Woolworths faced the problem of losing existing customers to the competitor companies. It influences the annual sales revenue and viability. The reward strategy of Woolworths is additional significant strategy employed by the management (Spillan & Ling, 2015). It is an important loyalty program for the existing customers. After implementation of this s strategy, the company enjoys at least 18 million customer base every week and this number is rapidly growing. The online strategy includes the easy practice of online shopping. The marketers and the experts of the Woolworth provide the significant and adequate information about the products which is sold by the company. The company provides the great facility of selecting products online and pick them from the supermarkets. The company also makes use of a social media platform such as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and blogs to advertise and launch new products. It helps in attracting new and younger generation of Australia (Leibold & Hugo, 2015). Woolworths also offers gift cards in order to offer different items. The company has regarded some customers as corporate customers who regularly purchase products from them. The mobile money app of the company is successful in tracking the balance of gift cards and purchase products online to avail doorstep delivery (Thompson & McLarney, 2017).

Technology challenge: Woolworths faces various strategic challenges within the modest retail market of Australia. The company has announced an online shopping website in order to fight with such challenges. The management evaluates the current trends and initiates to offer products online. The innovation strategy of the company includes fresh Sushi bars in order to offer a proper choice of healthy meal (Jiao, et. al. 2017). The company also have outlet growth strategy which comprises the in-store facilities of amassing seafood from the specific counter and choose a sauce as per taste and the experts put in a ready to cook bag.  It offers seafood of restaurant excellence at home. The business strategy adopted by the organization helps to attain goal and intentions within the certain period of time. The strategy helps to hold the best position within the marketplace and hold anticipated market share at the end of the annual year. The stock strategy of lamb and beef is outstanding as it stores easily rotten products along with following the Meat Standards Australia in an authoritarian manner. The CEO of the company, Ian Moir focuses on the productivity and cost-cutting strategy with the inference of wining strategies. The credit card strategy comprises an automatic tracking of the purchases in the outlets. The shopping card provides payback points which makes possible to avail discount to the customers on their next purchase.

Competition issue: The company faces huge competition from the existing companies like Coles, Aldi and IGA supermarkets. There is the possibility of new entrants in the Australia market. These new entrants make use of innovative strategies and can destroy the leading position. Woolworth needs to change it’s current strategies in order to avert the potentials of new strategic issues which can obstruct the business of the company. The company also follows the seasonal strategy which offers customers flash sales and discounted coupons for purchasing particular products. Woolworth enjoys the position of the unique retailer in Australia by offering the above-mentioned strategies. The strategies help in increasing sales revenue and bring the success to the company (Woolworths, 2018). The brand strategy of the company plays the part of winning strategy (Indartono & Wibowo, 2017). The company provides fresh products to the customers by making use of this strategy and it helps in retaining the loyalty of customers. The company creates a strong customer base in various countries by making use of the business strategy.

Issues regarding promotion and campaign of products: Woolworth faces issues in campaigning and promotions due to increasing number of population constantly. It makes difficult to appeal a large number of customers. In the promotion strategy, the company incorporates creativity and innovation in order to appeal new customers and retain it’s existing and loyal customers. The marketers make use of social media platform to endorse and launch new products, special offers, seasonal sales and online shopping website. The campaign strategy of the company is as successful at the time of launching any kind of product. The company also makes use of street and outlet campaigns in order to determine the success of the business (Paras, Pal & Ekwall, 2018). The strategies mentioned above helps the company to retain a strong position in the retail industry and give hard completion to the Coles. The company updates it’s strategies from time to time but no strategies are fixed in this competitive world.

There are some factors which help to analyze the specific factors. The profit model is used to assess the profitability of the firm. Woolworth has two types of resources such as tangible and intangible. The tangible resources can be calculated as dividing net income by it’s total tangible assets.  The intangible resources do not have any physical form but has great value to the company and can be unveiled in the financial reports. The intangible resources are recognizable, non –monetary in nature and have lack of physical substance. The resources of the Woolworths are:

Financial resources: Woolworth earned $60.68 billion at the end of the financial year of 2015 which indicates the current performance of the company compared to it’s competitors. The sales of the company have been consistent from $51,918 to $60868 in the financial year 2015. The company makes use of credit rating to raise the funds to enter in the international markets. It can help the company to enter in the new market with ease.

Technological resources: The technology which was used by the Woolworths in the Australian market can be used in other countries as well. It can enhance efficiency in the new markets where it is not established earlier. The practices, processes and the trademarks of the company are the technological resources which can be used by the company in the international markets (Phillipov, 2017).

Organisational structure: Woolworth has enormous experience in the international market and can utilize it’s strategic frameworks to gain competitive advantage. The presence of the company worldwide has accumulated years of learning and intellectual capital which is irreplaceable in the market (Woolworths, 2018).

Human resources: Woolworths has experienced staff from all over the world they operate in. The staff is known to the processes and procedures which are useful in maintaining standards in any location of the world (Rajabian Tabesh, Batt & Butler, 2016). The human resources are the biggest asset for the company.

Woolworth has enabled strategies to keep update itself with the consumer trends and environmental changes. For example, the company has introduced a collection of easy to prepare meals under the fresh brand to update with the consumer trends and environmental changes. The company makes of value proposition model to generate profits. It keeps the value proposition united with shifts in the market. Woolworth makes substantial improvements in it’s operating model, as value proposition and operating model have a great role behind the generating revenue and success of the business. The value proposition includes the following elements:

• The product includes the range of collection, private label options and the quality of the product.
• The shopping experience of the customers includes the physical layout of store and prearrangement of stock.

The pricing and revenue model comprises the pricing strategy such as high- low and value added services such as free delivery. The profit model helps the value proposition by assisting the retailers to fulfill a pledge to the customers. It comprises the cost model as the company supports low-cost policy in order to attain more profits and the value chain structure such as organizational process. Recently, the company has adopted a new business model for the expansion in Africa (Hwang & Kandampully, 2015). The company will replace it’s franchise business model with joint venture partnerships in order to make an expansion in Africa. The company is going to be better involved in the retail operations by moving into the partnership model. It also represents that the company will be working more closer with the partners in the range of products. The company also signed joint venture for Tanzania and Uganda with the former franchisee Ali Mufuruki.

The capabilities of Woolworth can be judged by it’s ability to serve a wide range of customers at low cost with high-quality assurance and improved efficiency. The capabilities of Woolworth include:

• Organizational: The organizational capabilities include a variety of policies and procedures to improve efficiency along with the supply chain and the quality control.
• Physical: The customers can approach physical stores as well as online shopping, mobile site, and the virtual stores.
• Human: The directors working in Woolworths have already worked as leaders in the retail industry for decades in the domestic market or overseas (Chen, Wang & Jiang, 2016).
• Reputation: The qualities that add to the reputation of Woolworths are high bargaining power over suppliers for the quality products and low input costs.
• Valuable: The assurance of the quality of the products and well-trained employees improve the base of the customers.

The VRIO analysis includes the dimensions such as value, rareness, imitability, and organization.

• Value: The financial resources enables Woolworth to pursue it’s expansion strategies more aggressively so that competitive advantage can be attained. The company takes advantage of the human and technological resources in order to establish technologically advanced supermarkets in the new place. The staff of the company is technically skilled and helps in training local people who are hired to work for the organization. It helps in standardizing the whole operations of the company (BCG, 2010).
• Rareness: Woolworth has some technological resources which help to lead in the innovation. The company made a partnership with eBay to facilitate eBay orders to be delivered to the selected stores of Woolworths. The stores have become picking up points for the eBay customers (Chen & Kodono, 2014). The company should also focus on it’s existing technological resources effectively.
• Imitability: Woolworths should make use of advanced processes in it’s supermarkets which is hard for the competitor companies to copy. Such technology should be ahead in terms of advancement and more updated for the local players. It is also an advantage for the company to have outlets in the international markets.
• Organized:  The resources of the company whether it’s financial or human cannot deliberate any advantage for the company until these are organized to capture value. Woolworth can organize it’s management, structure, and policies to realize the potential of it’s resources and capabilities. It is helpful in sustaining competitive advantage.

The value chain analysis is an important tool which analyses the performance of Woolworths. The value chain represents the primary and support activities which help the organization in supporting it’s operations. The primary activities entail the inbound logistics, operations, sale, outbound logistics, and service to the customers (Balaji & Roy, 2017). The sourcing strategy implemented by the Woolworths aims at attaining sustainable performance. Woolworth implements local food sourcing strategy to make sure development and growth of the domestic chains. The local food sourcing strategy aims at cooperating local producers and the purchasing process supports sustainable development. The products as bases are being managed and sold under the company’s brand across the shelves of the Woolworth in it’s supermarkets.

The primary activities are sustained by the huge range of activities in terms of highly skilled human resources worldwide. The strong information technology and the supporting supply chain systems are supported the company. There is a specific culture and strategy is followed in Woolworths in order to support and understand the preference of the customers. There is the provision of training for the employees which is ensured by the company and contributes to accomplishing the strategic goals of the company (Beske, Land & Seuring, 2014).

Strength: Woolworths is a market leader in the retail sector of Australia. It has introduced the modern retail trade model. The company exploits market opportunities with the help of technological and human resources. The company aims at zero food waste by the cost-efficient packaging techniques.  It has competence in the supply chain management and is able to cut costs. The company has taken initiative to improve it’s operational efficiency which represents a proactive strategy to take on the competition. The company is having a high level of the understanding of the customer base which helps to predict changes in the customers’ requirements and attain competitive advantage (Breyer, Tsupari, Tikka & Vainikka, 2015).

 Weaknesses: The negative impact of the external environmental conditions sets back the business of Woolworths. The growth of the company is affected by the restrictions imposed by the government. Woolworth has not been successful in sustaining competitive advantage. The expansion of the company’s in the online business has resulted in less profit due to more competition (Hummel, Kreutzer & Landau, 2017). There is the negligible global presence of the company compared to it’s competitors. The company’s practice of discounting and deals provides high power to the customers which force the company to do things which it would not have to consider such as extending the period of sale. The company has not been successful to upkeep with competitors in the scene of technology.

Opportunities: The Australian retail industry represents great potential by the virtue of computerization and customers preferences towards retail chains. The company is attaining success by adopting a multi-option retailing strategy which caters the ever-changing customer needs. The company has been successful in promoting the brand through advertising, sponsorship and social media platform. The company seeks to grow through partnership and franchise models in the developing economies (Schaltegger, Burritt & Petersen, 2017). There is potential in the foreign markets where the company can expand and establish itself. The opportunities such as entertainment offerings are significant for the development of the company. The funding can help the company to grow and launch outlets and can be helpful in gaining a competitive advantage (Shen & Li, 2015).

Threats: The biggest threat which is faced by the company is growing competition in the market. The government intervention also affects the growth of Woolworths significantly. The increasing cost of the raw material for both food and non-food segment impacts the profitability of the company. The economic recession could hinder the growth of the company which is opening more stores. The international players also represent the threat of competition to the company. The company finds it difficult to maintain a competitive advantage strategy due to the increase in the price of raw material and oil prices (Daellenbach, 2015). The piracy also affects the sales of the electronic entertainment. The takeover from Apax also represents a threat in terms of the loss of talent. It can result in seeking alternative employment by the employees.

Woolworth has growth strategies in processes. As per the growth plans of the company, the strategic priorities of the company comprise leadership in all the market sections. The company announced a 3 year strategy in 2015 to gain the trust of customers and increase share spend on food by customers.  This strategy focused on the lower prices and refining aspects of the shopping experience. It was expected that this strategy will result in lower prices, more convincing offers and greater innovation (Göbel, et. al. 2015). This three-year strategy undertook three principles such as offer, growth, and efficiency. The customers were provided offers to ensure that customers put Woolworths first. It innovated in order to meet the need of the customers. The strategy created efficiency by executing the ‘lean retail model’.

This strategy was not successful up to a mark. The company admitted that it sold the wrong products at the wrong time of the year. Also, it could not maintain some range of categories such as hardware, garden care, and power tools.

The marketing strategy considers the dynamic business environment and focuses on meeting the changing demand of customers. The strategy gives priority to the customers and identified that the place strategy needs to be placed ensuring convenience to the customers. The company is offering websites, mobile apps, virtual stores to complement it’s stores. Woolworth also developed a program to earn the loyalty of customers (Dubey, et. al. 2017). It took initiative and designed everyday rewards program which offers exclusive offers and promotions. The company makes use of feedback to meet the expectation of customers.

The outcome of this strategy reflected in the performance of the company. It was found that the existing marketing strategy of the Woolworths was effective and helped in achieving most of it’s objectives (Fernie & Sparks, 2014). The failure of the strategies of Woolworths can be evaluated from it’s falling market price.

Conclusion

Woolworths has a substantial level of dominant position in the retail industry of Australia. The reason behind prominent position is the strategies pursued by the company. Along with this, there were some factors which lead to failure of the company such as technology challenge, competition issue, declining number of customers, issues regarding promotion and campaign of products. Woolworth could retain it’s customers by implementing various loyalty programmes and updating itself with the enhanced technologies. The comthe pany is required to invest more in it’s research and development segment. The company can also lead and stay away from the competition by introducing new products on the regular basis. There should be the implementation of the strong strategy for the promotion of products.

Woolworth makes use of the strategies like cheap-cheap and down-down in order to achieve huge market share. These strategies are employed by the competitor companies as well. But the company has not been capable to achieve results from these strategies up to a mark. Woolworth provided products at cheap prices but could not succeed in providing quality as well. So, this strategy did not work well (Epstein, 2018). The cheap-cheap campaign confused loyal customers. The lower price does not necessarily win, quality is equally important along with the reliability. The management of the company is recommended to employ strategies which can reduce the costs of operation but maintains quality as well. It should also engage several dealers than previous in order to reduce dominance. The company can engage strategies which are more customers focused.  The business experts can be hired as they suggest relevant policies in order to attract foreign investors and the trading companies (Fernie, 2014). The management should make it’s prospects and purposes clear to associate with employees as they are important part behind the success of the business. The company should also make efforts to encourage open communication process between suppliers, consumers, and the employees to comprehend business activities in an appropriate manner.

Woolworth is suggested to aim at performing constant innovations and make it essential as a key part of the strategy. The innovations are focused because of the changing trends and the preference of consumers. The company needs to target middle-class customers so that it can focus on providing quality at slightly increased prices as the middle-class customers can easily pay enhanced prices. The company should establish an additional division for the new product categories and improved processing facilities. The company can focus more on it’s online segment as it helps to better understand the preference of consumers. The feedback form available on the site helps to know customers better and their expectations of the products and the changes they are expecting. The 3 year strategy of Woolworth anticipated resulting in lower prices, more convincing offers and better innovation. This three-year strategy undertook three principles such as offer, growth, and efficiency (Govender, 2017). This strategy was not successful up to a mark. The company admitted that it sold the wrong products at the wrong time of the year. Also, it could not maintain some range of categories such as hardware, garden care, and power tools. Woolworth can better research the products to know the appropriate time to launch the products. It can result in more profits. The company should focus on framing the strategies in a consistent manner within the suitable political situations and the prevailing conditions in the country. It should also focus on innovating the specific strategies to improve the performance of the company. Further efforts should also be made for the improvement of the employees by using developmental mechanism and training programme for the customers. The company needs to focus on the diversification of it’s product range. It also needs to adopt competitive pricing in order to attract a large number of customers. Woolworth also needs to adopt appropriate promotional strategies for certifying sustainable growth in the future through maintaining it’s position in the market. The company can successfully compete with the competitors adopting technologies which help the company to grow fast. The company also need to look at the performance from the inside out.

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