Marks and Spencer Business Aspects
Introduction
Marks and Spencer is a renowned old company in the United Kingdom that offer clothing items for all ages groups, foodstuffs and home-based products worldwide. There are some internal and external business factors that affect the company’s productivity. Furthermore, this poster will highlight the internal factors and external factors of Marks and Spencer. Internal factors like strength, weakness, opportunities, and threats to Marks and Spencer will describe in this poster briefly. A clear brand image of the company with different variety of products is a good strength that helps the company to become stronger. Different online stores of the company supply customer-friendly product for their customers, which is a great opportunity to enhance the company’s financial growth. These entire contexts will discuss here in the poster. This context will also describe briefly how different external factors like political, environmental, social, technological, legal and environmental factors affect Marks and Spencer’s business productivity. The impact of the external environment on Marks and Spencer will discuss in this project to enhance the company’s financial growth.
Discussing the external and internal business factors that affect Marks and Spencer
Michael marks and Thomas Spencer founded the British multinational retail Business Company Marks and Spencer in 1884. Clothing items, home products, and edible and food items are the main products. All products are sold by the company under its own brand name. There are some external and internal businesses factors which affect Marks and Spencer are described below.
SWOT analysis of Marks and Spencer
Strengths of Marks and Spencer
There is some prominent strength of Marks and Spencer.
Well experienced
Marks and Spencer have been a renowned retail Business Company in the UK for the past 136 years. The retail journey of the company began at Kirk gate market with Penny Bazaar. Over the years, many big partnerships have been made by the brand all over the world. The abundance of experience is a massive plus point for the company.
Clear brand image
Marks and Spencer have a reputation for its customers for providing high-end, value quality products; that’s why people in the UK always prefer to go out shopping at Marks and Spencer. For this reason, this company is the second most popular supermarket in the UK.
Variety of products
Varieties of products are offered to its customers with 800 sites over 400 suppliers located in 44 countries worldwide by Marks and Spencer’s.
Famous designer’s brand
Different numbers of famous designers’ brands are taking place at Marks and Spencer’s stores. Autograph, North Coast, Indigo collection, Limited collection, Blue Harbour, Per Una, and classic are some of those. Under one roof, many brands have brought the help of a company that made Marks and Spencer stronger.
Weakness of Marks and Spencer
Weakness of Marks and Spencer are as follows.
Declining sales
Due to the non-availability of the product, and poor supply chain system, the sales of some stores of Marks and Spencer declined. For this reason, the required demand for clothing items and food was not supplied to the customers. Poor brand loyalty increases the brand switching for customers, which decreases the company’s productivity. This is the weakness of Marks and spencer.
High cost due to manual processes
Manual operations have heavily relied upon Marks and Spencer Company which is time-consuming and expensive also.
Perception of public
Among the general public, there’s a perception that teenagers’ and young’s clothes are not offered by Marks and Spencer (Beyne, 2020). There are many who perceive that only elderly people’s clothes are offered, but this is a wrong perception that affects a company’s costs a lot.
Supply chain scalability
Weak scalability of the supply chain is the biggest weakness of Marks and Spencer. Through the company’s online stores, the supply chain of delivering all products to all global locations.
Opportunities for Marks and Spencer
The opportunities of Marks and Spencer are as follows.
Online store
People avoid crowded and public places for shopping in their busy schedules. So company focus on their online store to provide home products and clothing online.
Global expansion
Stores of Marks and Spencer are opened up in various countries like Russia, Indonesia, India and Brazil to increase more and more branches all over the world (Scott and Fridenson, 2018).
Market Segmentation
Marks and Spencer offer the customer needed based products to increase profit.
Threats to Marks and Spencer
There are some threats to the company which can determine its growth of the company.
High competition
Across the world, the retail market in the UK is getting very competitive. Tesco, Amazon, Debenhams, and John Lewis are the main competitors of the company Marks and Spencer. The company has to change the strategy to make its position secure because of these strong competitor companies.
PESTLE analysis of Marks and Spencer
There are different political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental factors that help to understand Marks and Spencer’s future market (Bismark et al., 2018). Different extrinsic scenarios of the company are highlighted by the PESTLE analyses, which impact the business of the company’s brand value.
Political Factors
Two political factors affecting Marks and Spencer are as follows.
Free trade
Free trade is one of the most constructive aspects of modern-day politics, which has been set up between multitudes of countries. Marks and Spencer is a multinational company that operates chiefly in the UK but also has different abroad locations. Foreign products for sale are imported into their different stores with the help of free trade in Marks and Spencer at lower prices while a healthy profit margin is maintained (Bismark et al., 2018). Political stability and taxes are the main factors that affect a company more. Marks and Spencer’s products are increased due to the increase of Governmental taxes in the UK, which impacts negatively on the sale of the company’s products.
Brexit
Due to Brexit, the United Kingdom’s decision to exit from the European Union is a political factor that has a massive impact on the operations of Marks and Spencer (Beyne, 2020). Different tariffs and regulations of trade are affected by hard Brexit for end consumers with higher product costs (Coleman et al., 2022).
Economical Factors
Economic factors that affect Marks and Spencer are as follows.
Discount competitors of Marks and Spencer
One of the big factors in the retail industry is Price, but in the United Kingdom, budget retailers pop up is seen in the last few decades. New competitors are stealing the market value of the super-budget market from budget clothing stores to share premium brands. The competitors encourage customers to appreciate the same products at lower prices. The demand for Marks and Spencer’s high-quality products decreases the ability for clothing or luxury due to the financial crisis. This crisis has affected Marks and Spencer to make 2% of job cuts of 70000 employees. The company’s ability is affected by the recession to give discounts as the initial idea of a 20% discount offer was scraped off by the Marks and Spencer Company. Interest rates, inflation rates, foreign exchange rates, and economic growth patterns all are the economic factors that align Marks and Spencer Company to provide quality products to customers.
Social Factors
Social factors’ impact on Marks and Spencer are as follows.
Non-trendy
Marks and Spencer is a renowned old company in the United Kingdom since 1800 among the elderly, youth and everyone. An unfortunate sequence like consumers at the beginning to associate with the past for long-standing reputation of Marks and Spencer. Trendy and new retail chains pop up, effect Marks and Spencer’s reputation with the less trendy brands for younger buyers. Companies give opportunities for their customers to pay through credit cards for their online shopping, which increases the company’s sales.
Technological Factors
Online Shopping
Online shopping is a big trend in the retail market to enhance a company’s productivity (Tsvetkova et al., 2019). With a strong e-commerce presence, Marks and Spencer offer home products, clothing items and foodstuff to deliver directly to customers (Savastano et al., 2019).
Self Check out
Self checks out are the trendiest process in modern-day retail. The checkout experience for customers becomes faster rather than spending time on cashiers. The technological transformation of Marks and Spencer helps the company to diversify customer experience with a digital-first business. The company has designed to create commercial and faster functions which enhance the growth of the business. This operates Mark and Spencer with new technologies to adopt agile methods of industry.
Legal Factors
The legalisation process of Mark and Spencer is ever-changing as it offers training in different areas to update every year with laws (Raybould et al., 2020). Different stores on Broad Street of Marks and Spencer are renovated to address the issue of customers regarding safety and health. The company offer a certain amount of money to take safety measures for workers.
Environmental Factors
Marks and Spencer have become the most sustainable retailer in the UK with the luxury brand image which offers home products and clothing. Fare trades products are sold by Marks and Spencer than larger competitors, which is beneficial for the company with a good impact on the environment. Reducing the use of energy, removing Trans fat from food and promoting the fair value of trade are done by the company, which evaluates the business factors of the brand.
Discussing the different ways of Marks and Spencer can impact the external environment.
External factors have an impact on Marks and Spencer in different ways. These are as follows.
Business extension
As Marks and Spencer is a multinational company firing products are imported to abroad countries for sale all over the world. Food products, clothing items, and home-based products all are under the marks and Spencer, which imports worldwide for the customers. Thus the business extension of the company spread worldwide and helped the company to enhance its growth.
Product development
Marks and Spencer supplies customer-friendly products, which help to improve the company’s brand image worldwide. The company supplies food that is Trans fat-free and reduces the energy, which evaluates the business factors of the brand.
Financial Stability
Market segmentation all over the world increases the profit of a company’s financial growth. Product development of the company helps to engage customers in purchasing products that increase the financial stability of Marks and Spencer (Tsvetkova et al., 2019). Sometimes company offer discounts to their customers other than competitors and which increase the sales of the company that increase the financial stability of the company. Opportunities to pay through credit cards help customers for online purchasing frequently, which increases the stability of the financial growth of the company.
Technological development
Marks and Spencer offer different online shopping portal for all their stores to collect customer attraction for purchasing products from their store without wasting time (Savastano et al., 2019). With the help of different new technologies checkout experience for customers has become faster, which is the trendiest process in a Retail Company. Technological transformation increases the product value all over customers. Employee and customer relationships become very friendly and easy with the help of new technology, which increases the financial growth of the company.
Conclusion
Marks and Spencer have been renowned retail Business Company in the UK for the past 136 years. Some internal and external factors have affected the company’s productivity. This poster has highlighted the external factors and internal factors of Marks and Spencer Company. Abundance experience of the company, good image of the brand, and famous designer’s products have helped the company to spread their business worldwide. High costs due to manual processes and high competition with other competitors have made a threat to the company. The company has supplied online purchase products for their customers, which increases the productivity growth of the company. All of these have been described in the following poster. Different external factors like environmental, political, economic, social, legal and technological factors influence the business process of Marks and Spencer, which has been described in the poster. A company’s business expansion, product development, technological development financial stability depend on the external environment, which has been highlighted in the poster.
Reference
Raybould, B., Cheung, W.M., Connor, C. and Butcher, R., (2020). An investigation into UK government policy and legislation regarding renewable energy and greenhouse gas reduction commitments. Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy, 22(2), pp.371-387.
Beyne, J., (2020). Designing and implementing sustainability: An integrative framework for implementing the sustainable development goals. European Journal of Sustainable Development, 9(3), pp.1-1.
Bismark, O., Kofi, O.A., Frank, A.G. and Eric, H., (2018). Utilising the Mckinsey 7s model, SWOT analysis, PESTLE and Balanced Scorecard to foster the efficient implementation of organisational strategy. Evidence from the community hospital group-Ghana Limited. International Journal of Research in Business, Economics and Management, 2(3), pp.94-113.
Scott, P. and Fridenson, P., (2018). New perspectives on 20th-century European retailing. Business History, 60(7), pp.941-958.
Coleman, P.C., Dhaif, F. and Oyebode, O., (2022). Food shortages, stockpiling and panic buying ahead of Brexit as reported by the British media: a mixed methods content analysis. BMC Public Health, 22(1), pp.1-9.
Tsvetkova, L., Yurieva, T., Orlaniuk-Malitskaia, L. and Plakhova, T., (2019). Financial intermediary and insurance companies: Assessing financial stability. Montenegrin Journal of Economics, 15(3), pp.189-204.
Savastano, M., Bellini, F., D’Ascenzo, F. and De Marco, M., (2019). Technology adoption for the integration of online-offline purchasing: Omnichannel strategies in the retail environment. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management.
https://pestleanalysis.com/pestel-analysis-of-retail-industry/
http://panmore.com/walmart-pestel-analysis-recommendations-case-study
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-53478403