Competitive Strategies Employed by Retail Supermarkets in the Uk: a Comparative Study.

1. Proposed working title Competitive strategies engaged by sell Supermarts in the UK A comparative study. 2. Research Background This look for background focuses on hawkish strategies use by retail supermarkets in the UK. This background provide give a general idea as what to anticipate in the report on strategies approach of leading retail supermarkets of the UK. Retail strategy is an overall plan or the agenda of action that has to fol humble by the retailer to come up the success in the retail supermarket competition. (Barmen, B. & Evans, J. 2006).The retail supermarkets environment has become tremendous competitive in recent years . line of longitude supermarkets equal Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury and Morrison ar heavily investing in infrastructure to bring higher quality crop then their foes. Retail supermarkets industry in UK has high development in their service by employ advance technology, increasing harvest-festival range, speed and quality. (Harvey, 2000). (Sourc e BBC news, 9 abut 2006) Above diagram shows the market sh ares active by elucidate retail supermarkets and other grocery markets in the UK on 9 march 2006.harmonize to above diagram top four retail supermarkets of the UK hold 74. 4% shares of total grocery market on 9th march 2006. Tesco is the number one retail supermarket by griping 30. 4% market shares in the UK. Asda, Sainsbury and Morrisons are the main competitor of Tesco by holding 16. 6%, 16. 2 % and 11. 2% shares respectively. We bottom of the inning see genuinely tough competition between retail supermarket in UK and Tesco looks more than successful to overcome its competitor. Today these top retail supermarkets dominates grocery retailing in the UK.The industry construction is characterized by many attributes such as greater stick in size, embarrassedering prices of goods and adopting different arranges to satisfy the consumers expectation. (Andrew Holingworth, 2004) According to me retail supermarkets in UK are super competitive which is good for consumers because aim of some organisations is to increase sales so they need to keep low price and in this competitive environment all organizations must be alert about ever-changing needs of consumers and strategies of rivals. 3. Oraganisation Background Tesco PLCTasco is number one retail supermarket in the UK now, which is founded by Jack Cohenin 1919. The first store- marking overlap sold by founder was Tesco-Tea. Tesco has spread its business all over the world of which 2,184 retail supermarkets are in the UK. Tescos UK supermarkets are divided into various formats differentiated by size and the range of product such as Tesco extra, Tesco superstore, Tesco metro, Tesco express and one stop where it offers fresh feed and non food product like DVDs, books, c draw pokerhing, health, garden furniture, electrical, home entertainment and in any case pharmacies.Tesco also has its other businesses like garden centres, Tesco personal pay which offers credit cards, loans, mortgages, saving accounts and insurance of car, home, life and travel. It also operates ISP, mobile phone, home phone and VoIp businesses. Tesco has its petrol manage at many places in UK. It offers lot of facilities like online shopping from its sack up site i. e. www. tesco. com at low price and club card scheme to its customers. (Tesco, 2008) J Sainsbury plc J Sainsbury is UKs longest retail supermarket fibril of 509 supermarkets, 276 convenient stores and Sainsburys bank.It was founded by John James and Mary Ann Sainsbury in 1869. Bacon was the first own-labeled product of Sainsbury. That prison term it has department of dairy, bacon, hams, Poultry and games, cooked meats and fresh meats. instantaneously it has around 30000 fresh food and non-food products. Apart from this Sainsbury also has its Sainsburys bank which offers car, life, home, pet and travel insurance also offers loans, credit cards and saving accounts. (J Sainsbury, 2008). J Sains bury was the UKs leading retail supermarkets up to mid-1990s until it was overtaken by Tesco. (EL-Amir, A. nd Burt, S. 2008) 4. Rationale for the chosen topic It is decides to select this research proposal topic competitive strategies employed by retail supermarkets in UK. This is first time I came to UK for my study. It was the big challenge for me to adjust and understand the circumstances over here because no one from my family and recounting were with me and I confine to manage e actuallything like shopping, cooking, etc myself. On the first day I have to do shopping to get some goods & services so I was thinking from where can I get cheap, qualities and varieties of it? umpteen people gave me different suggestions but most of them were telling me to do the shopping from Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury, and Morrison which are the famed retail supermarkets in UK where I can get lot of commodities. This motivates me a lot and on a personal note I would like to do my personal experience which drove me to choose this as my research topic. 5. RESEARCH QUESTIONS Following question came in my mind during my research ? What combination of competitive strategies makes retail supermarkets of the UK like Tesco and Sainsbury so successful? What are the impacts of strategies of Tesco and Sainsbury on retail supermarket of the UK? ? How are retail supermarkets in the UK evolving to receive changing customer needs? ? How can they stand out in a highly competitive environment where consumers have so many selects? 6. RESEARCH OBJECTIVE Main objective of my research will be ? To recognize and compare the competitive strategies employed by the Tesco and Sainsbury. ? To classify the impact of strategies employed by the Tesco and Sainsbury on consumers and share market. ? To identify profit margin strategies of Tesco and Sainsbury. An attempt to identify which of them are most in force(p) for the consumer. 7. LITERATURE REVIEW My research is on competitive strategies employed by the retail supermarkets in the UK. The study on this topic has been published all over the books, news papers, online journals and web reports. I would like to check some of the most striking opinions given by some authors and my vox populis on it. We do not set out our retail offer in line with levels of local competition. We and all the other major grocery multiples have national strategies on pricing, branding, advertising, quality, range and services. Commented by Tesco (Press association, 2007) I also agree with the authors view above. Tesco which is number one retail supermarket in the UK decides their strategies by comparing their strong rivals strategies. Now days customers have lot of choice to do shopping because of the competition between retail supermarkets in the UK. Most of the people choose to do shopping on the criteria of pricing, looking at brand and quality of goods and also service provided by the retail supermarkets. I also use same criteria to do my shoppi ng. Toscos attack on Sainsburys southern stronghold reflected a more aggressive store opening programmer.But he also said that Sainsbury, which will this week release interim results, could commence to feel the effects of the credit crunch if consumer worries about weekly shopping bills push them into the arms of cheaper rival such as Aldi, Lidl or Asda. Commented by Paul Langston associated director for location strategy at CACI. (Elizabeth Rigby, 2008) I completely have the same opinion with the authors view stated above. Tesco observes strong areas of Sainsbury and overt its aggressive stores it that area to overcome its strong rival and to attracts the customers by giving better service and choice for shopping.This is also the part of the competitive strategy employed by Tesco to capture the powerful areas of competitor Sainsbury. This is plosive of credit crunch in the UK. It becomes extremely necessary for the people to cut redundant expenses so it is very tough time for al l retail supermarkets to think about it and keep their customers constancy. According to some authors the change magnitude competition between retail supermarkets in UK has led them to expand their product categories and extend their retail format to get profit. (Hackney, Grant, & Birtwistle, 2006).It is obvious that as competitor enhance both organization must think to examine their sales and consumers loyalty by using different strategies if all are in homogeneous business. Many supermarkets offers consumer to do online shopping at low prices. This is also part of strategies of the retail supermarkets to stick consumer with them. And authors view is that Tesco is the more successful retail supermarket which gets huge profit by implementing internet strategy. Such a way every retailer try to act in accordance with their consumer by using new technology , simplification ransaction cost or extending their business to different formats. 8. METHODOLOGY My research topic on competiti ve strategies employed by the retail supermarkets in UK is an always on going topic. Retail supermarkets have to decide their strategies depending on the market situation and studying their rivals strategies. In my proposed research I have to identify strategies of Tesco, Sainsbury and it impact. It can be recognized by understanding, observing and in-depth study of each retail supermarket. Hence this proposed research is descriptive in nature.This will give clear thought and understanding. Descriptive research means the research which serves a transmutation of research objective to understand its phenomena or characteristics connected with it. For further in-depth study and to participate in the notice and to know what is happening I have chosen this method. (Donald, R. & Pamela, S. 2006). 8. 1. DATA COLLECTION In this proposed is always on-going topic and lot of articles and cultivation published everyday in news papers, magazines, journals and books and research of other auth ors which can be collected from subroutine library and internet.The information about Tesco and Sainsbury can be collected from their own web side. It will give lots of abridgment of other authors, writers and researcher . I will get lot of option to understand and obtain objective of my topic. (Kothari, C. 2005) 8. 2. DATA ANALYSIS Most of the data will be analyse predominantly from the internet. My personal observation, understanding and input will be integrated. The data will be gathered by the supermarket as part of internal organizational project relating paper and internet. The data analysis will be based on the performance of two retail supermarkets over the past years. condemnation series analysis will be use to get the objective of research. Quantitative data will be supplement with qualitative data obtain from all possible sources. (Kothari, C. 2005) 8. 3. RESOURCE REQUIREMENT totally the resources will be available from internet and the review of literature will be obt ained from colleges library and private library. Internet is the most genuine source which is easily available today where I can search out e-books, Journal published by other authors and also information about Tesco and Sainsbury on their own web site which can save my time and cost of research.Updates of newspapers, Journals, articles, others research reports are also available on the internet. 9. TIME SCALE October 2008 November2008 December2008 January2008 Activity W1 W2 W3 W1 W2 W3 W4 W1 W2 W3 W4 W1 W/K Commencing X Search information X X X X Read & understand information X X Finalized Objectives X Prepare & Submit proposal X Compile necessary data X X pull Research strategy & method X Get Feedback X Gather Data X X Analyses Data X Update literature Read X Prepare rough draft X Draft to supervisor for feed back X Edit unw anted information X X Make final draft X Print X Submission X 10.BIBILIOGRAPHY/REFERENCES 1) Berman, B. and Evans, J. (2006), Retail prudence a strategic approach, 10th edition, New Delhi, Prentice-Hall of India Private Limited. 2) Holingworth, A. (2004), Increasing retail concentration Evidence from UK food retail sector, British Food journal, online, vol. 206, issue 4/5, Pp. 629-638, obtainable from universal resource locatorhttp//www. emeraldinsight. com/Insight/viewContentItem. dojsessionid=2D1F750288725BD25CCEDCE906588E78? contentType=Article&contentId=870774, Accessed 7 November 2008 3) Donald, C. & Pamela, S. (2006), Business Research methods, 9th edition, New Delhi (India), Tata McGraw-hill Publication. 4) Kothari, C. 1996), Research Methods and Techniques, 2nd edition, New Delhi, Age transnational publisher. 5) El-Amir, A. and Burt, S. (2008), Sainsburys in Egypt the strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde? International Jo urnal of retail and distribution management, online, vol. 36, Pp. 300-322, Available from URL http//www. emeraldinsight. com/Insight/viewContentItem. do? contentId=1714594&contentType=Article, Accessed 8 November 2008 6) Harvey, M. (2000), Innovation and competition in UK supermarkets, Supply chain management An foreign study, online, vol. 5, Pp. 15-21, Available from URL http//www. emeraldinsight. com/Insight/viewPDF. jsp? Filename=html/Output/Published/EmeraldFullTextArticle/Pdf/1770050102. pdf. Accessed 10 November 2008 7) BBC news, 6 March 2006, Q&A supermarket competition concerns, online, Available from URL http//news. bbc. co. uk/1/hi/business/4785544. stm. Accessed 11 November 2008 8) Press association, (2007), Tesco fights monopoly accusations, online, The Guardian, Available from URLhttp//www. guardian. co. uk/business/2007/apr/02/supermarkets. tesco. Accessed 11 November. 2008 9) Elizabeth Rigby, (2008), Sainsbury losses strongholds to Tesco, online Financial times, Avai lable from URL http//www. ft. com/cms/s/0/74abaa68-af75-11dd-a4df-000077b07658. html. Accessed 12 November 2008 10) Hackney, Grant & Birtwistle, (2006), UK grocery