Unit 3 Digital Business Assignment

Being a multi-billion dollar retailer comes with its perks. JCPenney’s dominance over catalog merchandising has now extended into the cyber world at www.jcpenney.com. This website is multi-functional and easy to navigate, but how would JCPenney’s new e-commerce site stack up against its toughest competitor, Kohl’s, on the web? The answer may surprise you. This is an intriguing look at how varied retail comparisons can be. While JCPenney is struggling with sales on the retail floor, Kohl’s continues to exceed expectations in their stores. Online though, it is a completely different story.

Nordstrom is one of the top retailers in the United States. With a solid brand image and a sound financial situation, Nordstrom is relentless in their expansion in the US, and are beginning to expand into international markets. Nordstrom takes pleasure in providing state of the art client support and having experienced sales people. In order to hold their position as the most successful high-end retailer in the United States, Nordstrom must continue to figure out ways to improve their brand image and customer satisfaction. Nordstrom’s current business working strategy is successful but I believe there are a few ideal solutions that the organization could apply to further enhance the organization. Due to the aggressive

Target Corporation is an upscale discount retailer whose mission is to provide trendy merchandise to their “guests” or customers (Target Corporation, n.d.). In order to achieve its mission, Target relies on its efficient management team to execute its vision and maintain operations. To learn more about a manager's role at Target, we interviewed Lisa Novgrod, a store manager of Target, on November 3rd, 2017. One of the topics discussed in the interview was the growth of online shopping and the struggle to be competitive online against giant e-commerce companies like Amazon.com and other retail competitors like Walmart. Currently, Target is having difficulty translating their competitive advantages such as a great in-store experience and trendy

The technology changes affecting REI are not unique to the company. Nationwide, consumers are ‘wisening up’ to new technologies and they are increasingly demanding expanded services from the companies they do business with. While the dot com revolution of the early 2000’s projected the death of traditional brick-and-mortar stores, the reality today is that customers are demanding comprehensive shopping experiences, experiences that seamlessly integrate online shopping with visits to traditional stores. For example, an REI customer might choose to purchase a pair of La Sportiva Rock Shoes in-store, order them online and pick them up from a store, or purchase online and have the shoes shipped directly to their home. Technology is not just

While Target is grappling with the immediate issue of eliminating “show-rooming” in their stores, the more pressing issue is, evolving their business model to fully exploit e-commerce to maintain a competitive advantage (Kinicki, 2013). Analysts estimated that customers would spend $1.4 trillion online in 2015 and yet, as late as 2011 e-commerce only accounted for approximately 2% of Target’s overall sells (Kinicki, 2013). Therefore, Target’s management team must create and execute a strategy that enables Target to adjust to changing customer purchasing patterns, significantly increase internet sells, and lower operational cost (Kinicki, 2013).

Look around you in retail, you’ll see people googling reviews and hitting their Social networks to make sense of the retail options they face. For brands, marketing to respond to this new reality is vital, but it’s messy, often hit or miss, and often takes purchasing online and away from in-store. The struggle to digitally merchandise in ways that align with today’s digitally connected consumers and their need to buy with confidence from brands they trust, like and understand is a huge challenge. It’s a challenge that’s not just about physical environments, it’s also physiological, getting brands connected emotionally and intuitively through physical devices and digital media. So like any smart dad, I turned to my in-house marketing gurus; my 23- and 11-year old daughters for

When a brand is created, many will ask the questions that haunt all of us trying to start a company. Will it work? Should we stay online or launch a brick-and-mortar store? Will I make profit or fail? These questions arise even more when the company is to start only online. Because of this, e-commerce fashion brands must constantly evolve and expand their styles to maintain the interest of their target customers. Fashion Nova is one fashion brand that manages to stay relevant among its consumers because of their edgy style and quality priced clothing. Fashion Nova was first established in 2010. It gained its popularity from celebrities promoting it on their social media platforms and the fact

Internet fashion retail is a highly competitive market, the trends in the industry and company’s success relies on customer’s needs, which change constantly. “Competitive advantage is the delivering of superior value to customers and, in doing so, earning an above average return for the company and its stakeholders” (McGee, Thomas & Wilson, 2005, p.207). In order for ASOS to stay on top of its competitors, the trends in the industry have to be monitored, so that further they can be strategically translated in developing new products, to gain customer satisfaction.

According to Turban and King (2003), internet technology renders retailers an additional channel for branding, transactions and customer relationship management, the adaptation of which may drive down retailers’ transaction costs, and ensuring faster and higher quality of customer interactions, resulting in enlarging the existing markets and consumer base. M&S realizes this and have tried to sell clothing via high street stores as well as via internet though they have experienced cost cutting, rationalisation and management changes in order to revive their business in recent years. Internet technology might enable sustainable competitive advantage, but problems remain on how to physically organize their online retail operations.

Chui, M. (2011, November). Mckinsey & Company. Retrieved June 10, 2014, from Inside P&G's Digital Revolution: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/consumer_and_retail/inside_p_and_ampgs_digital_revolution

In this paper I will discuss Forever 21’s retail market and financial strategy. I will examine the company’s sustainable competitive advantage that upholds the company’s edge over its competitors. I will explain how the company’s fast fashion retail is becoming a threat to other companies with the same type of products such as Zara and H&M. These companies should be worried because Forever 21 is faster and cheaper, it 's expanding its consumer base, and it 's fighting with the competitors head on. I will discuss exactly how Forever 21 is planning on being the number one fast fashion retailer in years to come, and how the placement of the stores is an important factor for it’s success. Forever 21’s expansion strategy is to increase the amount of stores currently in the US and also to add locations over seas. CEO Don Chang plans to double the size of the company in the next three years by expanding it’s total retail footprint. In this paper I will also explain how Forever 21 compares financially to its competitors and I will discuss the net sales for the company in 2014 as well as the competitors net sales in both dollar and percentage amounts. I will describe the controversy behind the trends of Forever 21’s future sales, and depict the current trends in both negative and positive light due to opposing views of the company. I will determine these strengths and weaknesses of the company and explain them in great detail to show exactly how well the company is doing

IKEA is a world renown brand and one of the world’s most successful retailers thanks to their constant will to improve and connect with their customers.  Currently, the global retail space is in complete flux, and as online shopping continues to grow at the expense of store visits, the key to successful international retailing in the future will be to create unique brand-defining experiences that keep customers coming back, no matter through what channels.  IKEA exemplifies the importance of maintaining relevance in the marketplace by continually updating their marketing plan to reach and sell their furniture and homeware products to customers across all platforms.  IKEA recognises the recent need to connect to the new ‘connected’ consumer by working through a technological channel.

Lately, there have been issues of brand management on the internet. The new digital tools require a lot of adjustments at the executional stage. According to Chaffey (2000) Internet marketing success depends on the sites interactivity features. Also added that a brand’s presence online should be conceived in a way that is sympathetic to the technology and the environment. Many brands fail in the execution of different features resulting in customers’ needs and expectations not being met says Hewson and Coles (2001) The consumer still looks up to the luxury brands although the bond is presently being evolved beyond the existing “top-down” model. (Okonkowo, 2009) The percentage of online shoppers and the sales of luxury brands have been on a positive growth. In spite of the growth, it’s not clear that what drives the consumers to shop online and whether they would be interested in shopping if attractive online stores were introduced. Therefore, what factors affect consumers to shop online will be examined here. A framework is necessary to develop the complex system and determine these factors, influences and buying behaviors of the consumer. (Perea, 2004) Affluent consumers use the internet as their powerful source of information about the luxury products and it is necessary that they have an online presence.

Given the low cost of H&M apparel, H&M can easily take advantage of emerging markets and boost its revenue. Uniqlo occupies a greater market share in the Asian market with the support of expertise; in addition, it can quickly respond to variable customer demand and attract new customers with the products as described above. In the digital transformation of an era of big data, the digital marketing strategies of H&M become more effective.

The digital revolution has been instrumental in reshaping entire sectors, categories and industries- one of the most heavily affected is the retail sector. In the changing digital landscape, new opportunities to innovate through the embracing of e-tailing have meant that retail stores are no longer geographically limited, but the rise of e-tailing provides it’s own set of unique challenges to bricks and mortar retailing. This literature review will succinctly analyze and evaluate the effect that e-tailing has had on traditional bricks and mortar retailing, by looking at the ways in which the bricks and mortar retail stores have had to develop their retailing strategy in an increasingly digital world. Across the extant literature three themes were consistently detected around the effects online retailing has had on traditional bricks and mortar retailing, in the forms of the responses of physical retailers to this digital shift in the sector; fight it, use it or embrace it by fully integrating it into an ongoing strategy. Each of these themes is discussed below.