Swot Analysis Of Jcpenney

J.C. Penney is a retail department store that was found by James Cash Penney in 1902. Currently it has 1013 department stores in 49 states and Puerto Rico as of January 28, 2017. JC Penney is one of the largest department stores in the US that sells family apparel and footwear, accessories, fine and fashion jewelry, beauty products through Sephora inside JC Penny. In additions, the department stores provide a wide range of services to customers including styling salon, optical, portrait photography and custom decorating. JC Penney was one of the nation’s top catalog operators , but has exited the catalog business and it is expending to e-commerce.

Penney’s around for so long is their willingness to change and try different things. With technology being a huge things in today’s standards they needed to come up with different shopping methods for people who only shop online or may not be abler to get out as often as they once could. So what J.C. Penney’s did was they created an only shopping center, catalogs for people to get sent to their house, they are always doing the next best things to keep in competition.

James Cash Penney and two partners opened the Golden Rule dry-goods store in 1902 in Kemmerer, Wyoming. The following two years they opened another two stores in other parts of Wyoming. In 1907, Penney bought out his two partners and took on new ones. By that time Penney had 34 stores and had $2 million in sales. The firm was incorporated in 1913 as the J.C. Penney Company Corporation. The company moved headquarters to New York City the following year and in 1915 stores had opened in Mississippi and Wisconsin. In 1917 Penney became chairman of the board and had opened 175 stores and Earl Sams became president of the company.

CEO Johnson’s time with JC Penney’s was short lived and only lasted 17 months. The three core processes of business that he ignored was People, Strategy, and Operations. From the people aspect, he missed several key details. Johnson just assumed that people thought JC Penney’s prices were too high, so he lowered them and quit having sells (Tuttle, 2013). He also drove customers that had been shopping there for years away. With too many changes happening at one time, loyal customers did not agree with the changes and started shopping elsewhere.

Before joining to JCP Johnson was a star retail at Apple and Target. The financial status of JCP kept declining in 2011, sales were declined by 4.8%. In 2011 Johnson announced a “fair and square” pricing strategy. The new pricing strategy was big shift for JCP. A company was known for coupons, clearance aisle and weekly special pricing advertisements. The “fair and square” program eliminated all that it was known for. The pricing strategy didn’t work fairly well with the customers and failed to attract shoppers. Many loyal customers were moving away from JC Penney because they didn’t receive coupons from JCP and were shopping at Target or Walmart. The pricing strategy failed miserably and in 2012 company lost $985 million. Company reduced the workforce, closed store and sold assets to build up the cash balance. I think the leader must make sure that the entire organization should understand the business change and why the change needs to be

Chief Executive Ron Johnson strongly focused JC Penney around the differentiation strategy. He discontinued many different brands that have been carried for years in order to deliver more of the JCPenney brands. The new JCPenney brand prices were higher and there were little to no sales on these clothes. With coupons being distinct, customers wanted better prices on their clothing. The “usual” customers were used to markdowns and clearance sales which became few to none.The customers were also used to the catalog so they could do a lot of ordering from home.The catalog was seen as useless and a high dollar promotion so this promotion was also taken away.Mr. Johnson wanted to see the business build a better profit because they were beginning

JC Penney’s market share is currently at an all-time low. On December 8 of 2016, the company’s share’s market value was $10.56 and currently, the share’s market value is $2.66.

In the early Millennium, between 2004-2009 CEO Mike Ullman started J.C. Penney on a trend that would lead to their massive debt and near failure in 2012. Ullman’s leadership started strong, “For three years, Ullman was hailed as the man who was remaking a legendary retail brand. Not rescuing it. Not saving it. Just remaking it. Making it more nimble. More hip. Not your mom’s department store. Not any more. Now it was the department store of the future. Sephora, Mango and Liz Claiborne,” (Guinto, 2011). Ullman was known for reimaging brands and gave J.C. Penney a seemingly bright future with strong brand partnerships they are still known for such as Sephora and Liz Claiborne.

In the retail industry, it is hard for a business to abandon all its previous strategies, such as locations and advertising strategies to make a fresh start. However, that is precisely what JCPenney and has been able to accomplish numerous times. Founded over a hundred years ago, the firm has undergone mass renovations with each change in leadership. Moreover, recently, JCPenney, has been reinvented once more, under the leadership of President Michael Francis and CEO Ron Johnson.

At this specific time, the economy was coming out of Great Recession. JC Penney sales continued to decline like melted off ice cream falling off an ice cream cone. JCP’s should have stopped their bad marketing train years ago. Based off of personal experiences their merchandise was cheap, fall apart cheap up until the point where I repeatedly kicked myself for making such horrible purchases. I used to shop at JC Penney a lot, but the t-shirts didn’t survive washings; cheap China stuff people tend to shy away from.

JC Penney was founded in 1902 by James Cash Penney and William Henry McManus in Kemmerer, Wyoming. JC Penney & Co. was founded in 1902 by James Cash Penney and William Henry McManus. The original name of the store was The Golden Rule. The name itself set the standards by which the company operated and continues to operate today. By 1912 there were 34 Golden Rule stores, but the following year the name was changed to JC Penney. In two years, from 1915 to 1917, the company grew from 83 stores to 175. This expansion made it the second-biggest retailer in the country by 1970.During the postwar economic boom of the 50s and 60s, many Americans moved to suburbs, and so did JC Penney. It took advantage of the retail space offered by the boom in shopping malls and became the anchor store in them. Today, most JC Penney stores are located in suburban shopping malls. Recently the chain has been following a retailing trend in opening standalone stores.

As one of the major retailers in the United States, JCPenney has 1,104 department stores in 49 states and Puerto Rico as of February 2, 2013. The key success of its business is tremendously depending on the sales performance. However, the retail business is highly competitive, with low barriers to entry and low profit margin. Due to large sales plunge in 2012, the company is in financial trouble. The thorough analysis of JCPenney’s financial statements is vital to judge the future performance of its business.

With around 5000 retail outlets worldwide, operating in more then a dozen countries and with over US$286 billion in annual sales, Wal-Mart is the top retail chain and number one fortune 500 company in the world. Wal-Mart is the top employer in the U.S. with 1.3 million employees, “the company accounts for 9 cents of every US retail dollar and sells around 20 per cent of the nation’s groceries and pharmaceuticals.” (Times News Network).

In January 2012, newly appointed CEO, Ron Johnson introduced a plan to rebrand the department store chain into a 21st century retail powerhouse. Launching of the new J. C. Penney brand identity was set to occur over four years and would include a new logo, a new in-store experience featuring new and transformed brands, and most importantly, it would change the way that the company priced merchandise. Unfortunately, J. C. Penney suffered a 25% sales decline in the first year and Johnson was fired after only 17 months.

In my opinion, as the retail industry continues to undergo changes so should JCP, after all change is the vehicle that have the capability to brings about improvements. In 2012, Johnson begin to reinvent the JCP department store by turning from the being a promotional department store into a specialty department store in the hope of setting themselves apart from their competitors. The results of these changes posted on the annual report indicates a vast decline within the net sales at JCP to include its profits, operating income, as well as employee turnover. JCP executive management believed these changes would provide greater opportunities for its consumers through cosmetic, electronics