Retail Marketing - John Lewis Company in the UK Essay - 1

Retail Marketing - John Lewis Company in the UK - Essay Example The retailing industry is essential to the modern consumer culture that depends on the speedy delivery of goods to the consumer in the market. A typical retail outlet may range from a handful of goods to entire shopping lists depending on the size of the retailing company. Historically retailing businesses in Great Britain have often diversified their total offered lineages as well as putting a focus on expansion since long. The first appreciable move towards assuming a large retailer framework is evident from the early business strategies of John Lewis Partnership that has been chosen for the sake of analysis. The company started out as a simple store but soon the owner John Lewis procured a few other stores before the First World War. Later his son introduced a novel framework for retailing by introducing an employee led partnership. After his death the entire business was bequeathed to the employees of John Lewis Partnership and this has continued as is since 1925. 1.1. Current St ate of the John Lewis Partnership At this point in time the John Lewis Partnership has diversified its business interests such that it owns and operates John Lewis departmental stores, the Waitrose supermarkets as well as a number of other services. The company is still owned by its current employees who are designated as partners. These partners all have an effective say in the manner in which business is conducted. Moreover each partner is provided with a piece of the annual profit of the company which generally ranged between 5% and 20% of the pays of partners throughout an average year between 2000 and 2011. 1.2. Market Standing Currently John Lewis Partnership stands out as the third largest private company in the United Kingdom with a revenue of 6.74 billion pounds in 2009-2010 (The Sunday Times, 2010) along with some 76,500 employees on the pay roll in 2010 (Madelaine, 2011). In addition to the above, John Lewis Partnership has become the United Kingdom’s â€Å"best h igh street† website after it took the place from Marks and Spencer’s in October 2010 (Bold, 2010). John Lewis also serves as the supplier for the Ocado web supermarket chain. Ocado is supplied with the Waitrose brand food products as well as with other non food items from John Lewis directly. Overall the image of the John Lewis Partnership brand and its affiliate’s image are upmarket. Historically John Lewis has appealed to the more fiscally independent customers namely customers present within the middle and upper classes. 2. Retailing Issues 2.1. Drop in Purchasing Power The downturn that has been visible in the global economy since 2008 has had the consequence of lowering the spending levels available to the average consumer. The drop in purchasing power has been all the most noticeable in the North American and Western European markets that were deemed as the markets with the greatest consumer purchasing power. The British market has felt similar problems as well when it comes to purchasing power. Overall consumers are spending less and less when it comes to commodities that are often stocked by retailers. In this respect the overall trend in the British retail industry reflects a slowdown as well. The emergence of other phenomenon related to the recession based phenomenon such as the Euro zone crisis have also shaken consumer confidence in spending at previous levels. Moreover a number of consumers are already spending less in an effort to save more money to avoid situations that