Discuss about the Business Research Literature Review.
In this assignment, a comprehensive literature review had been developed for the business research proposal related with topic “study and analyze marketing tools and tactics used by Coles Supermarkets, Australia.” There were some major topics included in this literature review section. They were such as overview of the Australian retail industry, Global Retail Business, consumer demand and ideas of independence groceries. The main hypotheses of this literature review section is to analyse the effectiveness of marketing tools and tactics used by Australian retail companies compare to global retail companies. It had been assumed that Australian retail market is still growing and it can be improved by modifying the marketing tools and techniques used in this industry.
Hypothesis:
H0: Australian retail market has a steady growth in the market
H1: Australian retail market do not has a steady growth in the market
It has been found that Australian retail market is growing rapidly. The retail market of Australia has increased by 3% in accordance to the current value terms in 2016[1]. Although, the growth is positive, it had been analyzed that the growth rate had become slower than 2015[2]. The main reason behind the slower rate of growth of Australian retail market is that Australian customers remain cautious about their spending during the whole year due to low level of income growth. The customer good subdivision of Australian retail market has struggled with critical retail conditions over the last five years. It had been found that volatile consumer sentiment and weak growth of economy due to fluctuating financial market had developed tensed time for the subdivision operators. In addition, it had been found that there was continuous fall in the retail demand in Australia for video games, photographic equipments, books, newspapers, stationary goods and footwear[3].
However, online retailing or internet retailing of Australia had reached a relatively steady rate. In the year of 2016, it had been found that the online retailing has outperformed store-based retailing is Australia. Due to the increase importance of retail presence across different channels had influenced Australian retailers like Woolsworth and Wesfarmers to increase investment on multichannel retailing[4]. They started to focus on online business presence. They started to use social media like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube for promotion and advertisements. It had been analyzed that the trend of consumer demand of Australian retail market favored the convenience offered by online retailing. Aggressive expansion of Aldi indicates the continuous growth of this industry[5].
Wesfarmers is considered as the largest retailer in Australian in the year of 2016. The company is presently leading across different categories of retailing. The value growth of the company Wesfarmers is highly driven by the strong performance is categories like office supply stores, home and garden, mass merchandisers and forecourt retailers. The company is ranked as number one organization in terms of value share in the year of 2016[6].
It had been analyzed that retailing industry in Australia will increase at a value of CAGR of 3% over the next forecast period[7]. It will be largely driven by garden and home specialist retailers and online retailing. It is expected that these categories of retail industry will show strong growth due to growing demand for new houses and due to faster adoption of new technologies and online services.
There were two major factors that have affected the Australian retail market the most. They are such as Government policies and the subdued lending environment. The election of new coalition Australian government in 2013 had come up with two major factors[8]. The government has announced the withdrawal of government subsidies for many retail organizations. For this reason, various local retail groceries have closed their operation in Australia. The government has renewed the focus on the reduction of federal debt reduction to handle the national deficit leading to the viewpoint of tax increment and deep cuts to family benefits. In addition, banking sector has also become the subject of capital adequacy reforms designed to protect the retail industry. It would help to secure the retail industry from unexpected fluctuations and promote stability to this industry.
In term of future, it had been analyzed that, Omni channel retailing is going to be more relevant now than ever. In order to improve sales performance in future, retail companies have to combine brick and mortar operation with digital strategies. Rise of Smartphone adoption will increase online retail selling. In future online marketing will become the most important promotion and advertising strategy. There are various in-store technology can be used as effective marketing tool to increase sales performance. They are such as digital signage, interactive screens, self serve kiosks and online product directories. Presently it has been found that 49% of the Australian customers would like purchase products with the help of apps than a browser. For this reason, retail companies such as Woolsworth and Wesfarmers have started to incorporate mobile apps in their Omni-channel marketing strategy.
The Australian grocery retail had experienced a positive growth in the year of 2016. This high rate of growth in this sector can be explained by the success of discounters within the country. However, the growth of this industry is restricted by price discounting and intense amount of competition. These factors have hindered the growth rate of the grocery retailer s during the year. Rapid technology advancements provide retail companies the opportunities to engage consumer in-store. It has been found that perception of many marketers in the retail market is that the lending practices have also become constrained. It had also affected the commercial growth and customer credit.
Hypothesis:
H0: Global retail business is changing due to market competition
H1: Global retail business is not changing due to market competition
Supermarkets and grocery retail industry is competitive not only in Australia but also in other parts of the world. The level of competitiveness is due to the change in consumer trends of the shopping their necessary goods from the market as well as changing sentiments. The change in the consumer sentiments has also changed the trading pattern of the supermarket retail industry all over the world[9].
Global supermarket retail industry has showed the growth of many popular supermarkets such as Tesco, Walmart, Aldi, Woolworths, Metcash, etc. It is seen that the supermarket retailers of Australia are adapting the trends of the demands of the customers that are responsible for the increase of footprints in the retail stores. They are facing the competition to meet the higher expectation of the customers in terms of convenience, freshness of the foods, transparency, standard of foods and other products served by it[10]. The trends that the retail supermarkets across the world are adopting are categorized into groups such as authentication of the fresh foods, convergence concepts that are convenience driven, impact of the changing regulations, creating opportunities to the workforce and consolidation of the operational movements. Companies are going to focus on the product differentiation focusing on the niche segment of customers. The addition of the online retailing and click and collect options are more competitive than the traditional supermarket stores of different parts of the world[11].
On the other hand, it can be said that the supermarkets in many parts of the world are facing issues in maintaining the workforce i.e. skilled technical workforce. The companies are facing different issues in terms of maintaining the workforce in terms of technical problems. The technical experts and skilled expertise are hard to find in many countries of the world. However, it is the responsibility of the retailers to take of their employees in terms of employee engagement and their satisfaction. The supermarkets are facing problems in order to maintain an adjustment of the operations to the different associates who are associated with managing an array of tasks[12]. Research has portrayed the fact that the need of technology is of first priority. In terms of facility management systems, the global retailers are utilizing different types of human centred design that are considered as enhancing connectivity and monitoring the capabilities that improves user interface, intuitive operation and usability.
The changing regulations of the countries are factors that are responsible for creating any effect on the trading patterns of the different supermarket retailers across the world. The two regulations that are important in creating a significant change of the business patterns of the supermarket retailers are refrigerant regulation and Food Safety Modernization Act. It can be said that the refrigerant regulation changes focuses on the issues of energy efficiency and the refrigerants. This implication will help the retailers while adopting refrigerators that are manufactured by using latest technologies[13]. The FSMA regulation is responsible for reduction of food waste by the companies. The individual retailers and the grocers are responsible for maintaining the freshness level “farm to table”.
The companies are focusing on increasing the footprints in order to boost their never ending strategy in the expansion plans. In terms of focusing on the trollies of the consumers, it is seen that the global supermarkets are focused in providing benefits to the shoppers in order to improve their shopping experience. Hence, the hypothesis of the topic can be said that the global supermarkets are constantly trying to follow the recent and future trends in order to attract more customers that results to increase in the sales.
It can be concluded that the global supermarket retail chains across the world are competitive in nature while developing their research and development department in order to imply the product differentiation by adopting different types of pricing strategies to attract the customers of the specific target market. It is seen that the top retail companies are competing with each other not only in terms of price but also in terms of attracting more customers. . It can be said that the food retail industry across the world are simultaneously differentiating and consolidating. It is known by conducting research to the market regarding the integrity and safety of the foods they maintain in order to satisfy the consumers of the countries.
Hypothesis:
H0: Global market strategies depend on the changing perspectives of consumers
H1: Global market strategies does not depend on the changing perspectives of consumers
Demands of the consumers are important aspect in the perspective of developing strategies of the global supermarket retail chains. Preferences of the consumers are the main criteria that businesses of every sector follow while standing apart in the competitive market in terms of different business operations such as revenue, customers, product expansion, market expansion, etc. The section will focus on the effect of changing patterns of the consumer demands in the perspective of shopping attributes and perception of choosing things especially food and other grocery items. There are also some problems that are faced by the global supermarket chains along with the supermarkets of Australia.
Food and retail transition among the supermarket retail are caused due to the change in the consumer’s choice especially in terms of food items. The British people are known for consuming more calories when compared with other people of the different countries of the world. The transitional middle-income group is known for more consumption of processed foods that have very high in energy and salt content. These foods are known as problem foods because these foods are responsible of creating risks of different types of diabetes and cardio-vascular diseases. Research has been done not only to the supermarkets across different parts of the world but also to the consumers who are considered as the shoppers. It can be said that more than 85% of the respondents are preferring supermarkets for buying their essential things[14]. Among them, almost half of the consumers are regularly visiting the supermarkets and the convenience stores. They are focused in buying foods those are healthy and does not contain more fat. The consumers purchase fresh bakeries, vegetables and different organic foods more than processed meats, soft drinks, fast foods, deep fried foods, instant foods, etc.)
Apart from that, the supermarkets focus on the service quality, customer loyalty, and customer satisfaction and the self-checkout service for increasing the customer loyalty and the increase of the sales. The technological advancements of the supermarkets are responsible for increase of the sales of their products as well as setting various programs for the development of customer loyalty programs. Apart from that, self-service checkouts must be improved so that the customers are not facing any rush while shopping in the supermarkets. Tesco has improved their clubcards and other applications that help them in shopping at Tesco very easily[15]. Customized offers and discounts are set by the company to engage the shoppers to shop at Tesco. Aldi, Tesco, develops mobile applications so that customers can choose their products easily and can avail many benefits.
New product development especially in terms of foods is the reason of changing patterns of the customers towards consumption of foods. The concept of e-retailing is also on demand that is responsible for attracting most of the youngsters. The youngsters are usually tech savvy and are focused to the latest trends of fashion on different items. Hence, the retailers are developing products according to the latest trends by keeping the price margin quite affordable. However, it can be said that different retailers across the world are focusing on global supply chain for seeking the benefits of lower cost in terms of agri-food supply chains[16]. The supermarket retail chains of United States of America are focusing on the just in time so that they can distribute the products to the customers in a proper time[17].
It can be concluded that American retailers such as Walmart, British retailer Tesco and German retailer Aldi are known for implementation of technologies by conducting a proper research on the customers of their areas of operations. The methods and the discounts are different from one country to another country. The food retailers are considered to as more focus to the demands and preferences of the customers. New food products along with customer service techniques are developed as per the choices and shopping patterns of the customers of their target markets. It can be said that supermarkets from all parts of the world are strongly agree about the fact of following the changing shopping patterns of the consumers of their target market in order to sustain in the target market.
Hypothesis:
H0: The Supermarket giants rule the global retail industry
H1: The Supermarket giants does not rule the global retail industry
The big multinational supermarket retail giants rule global food and grocery markets. However, the importance of the independence groceries or the local retailers is considered as an important contributor of the economy of different countries. It can be said that the local grocers have a particular market share in many parts of the countries. The section will describe about the facts about the local grocery retailers of the world[18].
Local retailers in many undeveloped and developing countries are still preferred by huge customers in the rural areas. There is a sentiment that works behind the preference of choosing local groceries over big supermarkets. However, there are many advantages while shopping from a supermarket when compared to local grocery retailers, but the trust factor is more in the local shops than the big supermarkets. Apart from that, rural people rely on trust factor than other factors of price and availability of the goods. In the rural areas of different countries these things happen. On the contrary, the residents dwelling in the urban areas are focused to shop from the supermarket retail shops as they are price sensitive and the availability of the products are huge compared to the local retail shops[19]. There are many schemes and offers that the customers can avail while shopping from retail stores of Walmart, Tesco, Metcash, Coles, etc.
There is a fact of going digital that is an area of top priority. It is seen that the supermarkets are going online in order to engage customers in the 24*7 shopping. They also provide extra discounts and offers in order to attract customer base. The huge varieties of products except groceries are a reason of threat for the local retailers. The different ranges of food products along with other daily requirement essential products are huge in number in terms of the quantity. Apart from that, the quality of the products in supermarkets is also high from that of the local retailers. It is the reason of the preference of the urban customers while shopping at the supermarkets[20]. To compete with the competitors, local retailers of many developed and developing countries like Germany, France, Malaysia, China, Japan, India, etc. are developing their operations in their target market. The target market of the local retailers is relatively very small compared to the big multinational retail stores. The strategies include lower price of the products. The most important is the use of the concept of convenience stores. The convenient stores are present in many local areas where consumers usually seek. Apart from the groceries items, the local grocery retailers are now storing different essential products that are required in the daily life of the consumers[21].
Research has showed that huge customer’s base is shifted towards the convenient store format of the local retailers. The element of trust factor is enhanced by the owner of the shops in order to convince them to buy goods from their shops. Technologies are also used by them in the operations of distribution maintain stocks in the stores, inventory level maintenance, etc. while maintaining the stock of the shop up to date.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it can be mentioned that retail industry of Australia is increasing rapidly. However, the increment rate had been decreased compare to 2015. This is due to the reason that customers remain cautious about their spending during the whole year due to low level of income growth. People are becoming more inclined towards high quality products. Online retailing has become more important compare store retailing. Customers have become more concern about hygienic products. Omni channel marketing has become important part of marketing technique used in retail market. Companies like Coles, Woolworths and Wesfarmers have incorporated this strategy to enhance their business performance.
References
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Burch, David, Jane Dixon and Geoffrey Lawrence, “Introduction To Symposium On The Changing Role Of Supermarkets In Global Supply Chains: From Seedling To Supermarket: Agri-Food Supply Chains In Transition” (2012) 30 Agriculture and Human Values
Cameron, Adrian J. et al, “Do The Foods Advertised In Australian Supermarket Catalogues Reflect National Dietary Guidelines?” [2015] Health Promotion International
Carlos Fandos Roig, Juan et al, “Social Value In Retail Banking” (2013) 31 International Journal of Bank Marketing
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Kelly, Matthew et al, “Thailand’s Food Retail Transition: Supermarket And Fresh Market Effects On Diet Quality And Health” (2014) 116 British Food Journal
Krisjanti, Wenefrida Mahestu Noviandra, The Effects Of Cultural Adaption In Immigrants’ Purchasing Of Store Brands (1st ed, 2012)
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