Aldi is name of a brand which is common among the two large supermarket based chains that operate in around 20 countries with more than 10,000 stores. The total turnover which is generated by the companies in a combined manner is greater than 50 Billion Euros. The company has its base in Germany and was established in the year 1913. The business based operations of Aldi were then divided into two different groups in the year 1960 (Aldi.com.au 2018).
The two operating areas of the organization were further named as the Aldi Nord and Aldi Sud. Aldi Nord is related to the German operations of the company which is thereby based on the 2500 stores which are located in France, Denmark, Spain, Poland. Aldi Sud on the other hand operates in the areas like, Great Britain, Switzerland, China, Australia, China and Slovenia. Both the parts of the company operate in the United States in a profitable manner with the help of its 1600 stores in the year 2017 (Aldi.com.au 2018).
The report is based on the analysis of the ways by which the new types of technologies are able to effect the operations of the retail stores. The analysis will thereby be based on five different articles which are related to the effects of various modern technologies on the operations of the retail organizations.
Analysis based on articles related to the usage of technologies in the retail based sector in relationship to Aldi
As discussed by Blázquez (2014), the major reason behind the slow growth based rates of fashion retail organizations is based on the ways by which store related experience can be provided through the online environment. The ways by which customers have been provided with the convenience of comparing the products online in an interactive manner are able to affect the sales and the revenues of the physical retailers. The modern retail based environment has become much more competitive in nature as compared to the previous times. The environment is thereby dominated by the multichannel based retailers and the transformation is expected to increase in the future. The adoption of e-commerce in the fashion retail based industry was thereby slower as compared to the others. This has been able to affect the ways by which different organizations are able to attract the customers. The category of clothing is thereby considered to be high involvement in nature.
As argued by Aloysius et al. (2016), the different types of technologies which have been implemented in the industry based on bridging the gaps between different channels mainly include, 3D virtual models and the augmented reality. The literature review that has been made in the article mainly states that technology is able to play a major role in the improvement of in-store experience which is provided to the customers. The use of technology has thereby become important for the effective operations of the retail stores and differentiating themselves from the other organizations in the industry.
The analysis of the fashion retail based market of the UK and Australia is affected in a huge manner by the low rates of adoption of e-commerce. The shopping experience which is provided by the retail sector in the two countries is thereby different from that which is provided in the other countries. The technologies thereby need to adopted effectively by the retail organizations like Aldi in order to increase its levels of profitability in an effective manner (Demoulin and Djelassi 2016).
According to Evanschitzky et al. (2015), the service innovation based activities are able to affect the retail sectors. The different technologies that are implemented in the organizations for improving the service provided to the customers include, the personal shopping assistant and the self-service technologies. The usage of personal shopping assistants in order to shop in the retail stores is an important improvement that has been made in the service offerings. The author has provided an analysis of the effects that incorporation of technology has on the revenues of the retail organizations.
As argued by Kang, Mun and Johnson (2015), the physical retailers thereby need to face huge levels of challenges from the e-commerce organizations in the industry. The challenge is mainly based on the ways by which the internet based retailers are able to develop effective strategies. The management of consumer experiences have been provided with huge levels of importance in the modern retail based environment in different countries. The benefits that are thereby provided by the use of technologies are analysed in the article. The process of service innovation will be able to play a key role in the development of a loyal customer base of Aldi.
According to Inman and Nikolova (2017), the adoption of technologies by the shoppers in the retail industry is an important factor which has been able to affect the operations of different organizations. The increased capabilities of retail technologies have been analysed by the author. The levels of spending that are made by the retailers on IT based implementations are considered to be an important part of the ways by which attitudes of customers are affected. The adoption of new technologies is thereby based on the ways by which the company is able to satisfy the shoppers effectively. The changes that have taken place in the retail based technologies are considered to be important in the operations of organizations.
As argued by Rapp et al. (2015), the technologies which have been used in the retail industry include, barcode scanning, videocart, kiosks, in-store dispensers of the coupons, self-scanning, mobile apps. The article has been able to depict that the technologies that have been used in the retail organizations are affected in a huge manner by the different factors that include, reactions of shoppers, the concerns related to privacy, switching of the retailers. Aldi also needs to enhance its operations in order to implement the changes that have thereby taken place in the industry based on the usage of different technologies in various operations.
According to Taylor (2016), the use of mobile payment based technologies in the retail market is based on some benefits as well as risks. The suppliers and the retailers of the organization are thereby facing huge number of challenges based on the ways by which the systems need to be configured in order to accommodate the new technologies and their usage in an effective manner. The usage of mobile based technologies in order to make payments for different retail organizations has been an important part of the operations of the industry since the year 2002. The trends based on mobile shopping have major effects on the operations of the retail industry.
As argued by Kallweit, Spreer and Toporowski (2014), the new solutions that have been developed in this case include, Apple Pay and Samsung Pay which have provided the users with convenience to the consumers of making easy payments with the help of their mobile phones. The process of m-shopping has not been analysed previously by authors in spite of its growing importance in the retail sector. Mobile payment and shopping based options that are offered by the organizations are based on huge number of opportunities. However, the retail organizations have also faced some major issues based on the ways by which mobile payment options are used by the consumers. For example, the customers of Target had faced issues when their debit cards were hacked.
As discussed by Juaneda-Ayensa, Mosquera and Sierra Murillo (2016), the use of these payment options have been able to provide huge opportunities and convenience to the consumers. However, at the same time companies and customers have faced major issues based on the ways by which their personal information can be compromised and used in an unethical manner. The author has thereby been able to provide a picture of the opportunities that are provided by the mobile payment based systems and the risks that are thereby faced by the consumers in making their payments with the help of this channel. Aldi also provides opportunities of mobile payments to the customers. However, the care needs to be taken information of the consumers is not compromised due to payments that are made by them using mobile payment process.
According to Lee (2015), there is an effective relationship between the consumers and the employees and also between the consumers and self-service based technologies. The author has mainly tried to analyse the levels of relationship which exist between these aspects in the retail organizations. The different types of technologies are thereby adopted by the retailers so that they are able to gain a competitive advantage in the industry effectively. The retail technologies have been able to affect the interaction between employees and consumers in an effective manner. The retail organizations have started believing that technology is helpful in developing the relationships and interactions between the consumers and the employees.
As argued by Pantano (2014), the analysis has thereby been able to prove that the levels of interests of retailers to implement technologies in the stores have been able to improve the interaction levels. Some of the technologies have proved to be highly effective in nature and some have not performed quite well. The self-service technologies have played a major role in the effective interaction between the employees and the customers who visit the stores. Aldi needs to develop effective relationships with the consumers with the help of different technologies which also includes the social media. This will be play a major role in the effective operations and differentiation of the company.
Conclusions and recommendations
The report can be concluded by stating that the retail industry has been able to gain a lot from the effective usage of technologies in different operations. Aldi can also use the technologies in an effective manner in order to increase its revenues in the industry. The company has already been using different effective technologies in order to operate in the retail industry of the United Kingdom. The different technologies which have been implemented by Aldi in order to gain success in the industry mainly include, the enterprise resource planning or ERP based system, MRP of materials requirement planning system, DRP or distribution requirements planning, customer relationship management or CRM. The company has however not been able to implement the effective technologies in order to interact with the consumers.
Recommendation – Aldi needs to increase its presence in the ecommerce sector in order to operate in a profitable manner. The usage of the internet will thereby play a major role in increasing the presence of the organization in the industry. The awareness among the consumers can also be increased effectively with the help of development of the e-commerce based website of the company. The retail sectors are affected in a huge manner by the usage of technologies and Aldi needs to take advantage of the situation in order to increase the levels of its profitability.
References
Aldi.com.au 2018. ALDI Supermarkets – Good Different – ALDI Australia. [online] Aldi.com.au. Available at: https://www.aldi.com.au/en/ [Accessed 25 Sep. 2018].
Aloysius, J.A., Hoehle, H., Goodarzi, S. and Venkatesh, V., 2016. Big data initiatives in retail environments: Linking service process perceptions to shopping outcomes. Annals of operations research, pp.1-27.
Blázquez, M., 2014. Fashion shopping in multichannel retail: The role of technology in enhancing the customer experience. International Journal of Electronic Commerce, 18(4), pp.97-116.
Demoulin, N.T. and Djelassi, S., 2016. An integrated model of self-service technology (SST) usage in a retail context. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, 44(5), pp.540-559.
Evanschitzky, H., Iyer, G.R., Pillai, K.G., Kenning, P. and Schütte, R., 2015. Consumer trial, continuous use, and economic benefits of a retail service innovation: The case of the personal shopping assistant. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 32(3), pp.459-475.
Inman, J.J. and Nikolova, H., 2017. Shopper-facing retail technology: a retailer adoption decision framework incorporating shopper attitudes and privacy concerns. Journal of Retailing, 93(1), pp.7-28.
Juaneda-Ayensa, E., Mosquera, A. and Sierra Murillo, Y., 2016. Omnichannel customer behavior: key drivers of technology acceptance and use and their effects on purchase intention. Frontiers in psychology, 7, p.1117.
Kallweit, K., Spreer, P. and Toporowski, W., 2014. Why do customers use self-service information technologies in retail? The mediating effect of perceived service quality. Journal of retailing and consumer services, 21(3), pp.268-276.
Kang, J.Y.M., Mun, J.M. and Johnson, K.K., 2015. In-store mobile usage: Downloading and usage intention toward mobile location-based retail apps. Computers in Human Behavior, 46, pp.210-217.
Lee, H.J., 2015. Consumer-to-store employee and consumer-to-self-service technology (SST) interactions in a retail setting. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, 43(8), pp.676-692.
Pantano, E., 2014. Innovation drivers in retail industry. International Journal of Information Management, 34(3), pp.344-350.
Rapp, A., Baker, T.L., Bachrach, D.G., Ogilvie, J. and Beitelspacher, L.S., 2015. Perceived customer showrooming behavior and the effect on retail salesperson self-efficacy and performance. Journal of Retailing, 91(2), pp.358-369.
Taylor, E., 2016. Mobile payment technologies in retail: a review of potential benefits and risks. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, 44(2), pp.159-177.
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