Case Study of David Jones Essay

DJS was the first department store in Australia and its black-on-white hounds tooth was judged one of the Australia’s top ten favourite trademarks in 20061. DJS maintains a wide variety of products and

David Jones’ position in the retail industry and the availability of numerous suppliers in the market reduces the threat of forward integration. Suppliers also want to be associated with David Jones due to its strong brand position in Australia. In 2008, 50 new iconic brands were introduced to David Jones portfolio (Annual report, 2008), which reflects the willingness of suppliers to add their products in David Jones’ product offerings.

Competitive environments are defined by the identity, track record, financial strength and market share of key competitors. Harvard Professor Michael Porter 's Five Forces model can be used to evaluate a company 's competitive position. These five forces are barriers to entry (the ability of new players to enter the market), buyer power (the ability of customers to influence price),

Threat of new entrants is relatively low. There are high barriers to entry in the discount retail market, including high capital costs, limited access to investors, and a largely crowded-out market place.

The overall threat of new entrants in the retail market is a high level threat as it is relatively easy and inexpensive to enter

The first of Porter’s Five Forces is the threat of new entrants. According to the case study, there has been a wave of new entrants to the retail industry. These include Best Buy, Costco, Wal-Mart, Old Navy and the recently irrelevant, Target Canada. The second force, the threat of substitute products or services, is also prevalent in the retail market. Inevitably, the target audience that the Hudson’s Bay Company is trying to cater to, will shop at other retail stores for the same goods due to consumers behaviours and preferences. Another impacting force is the bargaining power of suppliers. However, this force does not play as large of an impact to HBC as one might initially assume. Traditionally, HBC among other large retail stores makes a large percentage of their

In recent years, department stores industry has contracted since the hit of Global Financial Crisis creating shock on consumers’ confidence (Figure 2), despite Australia’s narrow escape from going into recession (Uren, 2009). As a result, the marginal propensity skyrocketed after GFC effect hit the economy from nearly mere 3% in mid-2007 to 12% in late-2008 (Figure 3). To stimulate the economy, RBA employs monetary policy by continuously lower cash rate since 2011 (RBA, 2012).

David Jones Limited is a foreign-owned public company. It is owned by South African Woolworths Holding Limited. The company operates department store in Australia. There are 39 department stores existing across all states and territories in Australia. David Jones department store has a wide range of product to select, from ladies fashion, shoes and accessories, menswear, children’s wear, cosmetics, home decors, school supplies, office supply and many more. The company also offers financial services in alliance with American Express. Furthermore, the company also offers other products and services that include insurance cards, gift cards, online shopping, gift registry, hampers, flowers, food hall, The Rose Clinic health screening and interior decorating, (IBIS World, 2013)

In this report I discuss the comparison of competitive strategies between the two major departmental stores in Australia being David Jones and Target and how they differ from each other. I also discuss the current issues that are faced such as Global Financial Crisis that has had much impact on both stores as well as future threats such as online shopping which is believed to be the latest trend is shopping which has already affected the stores but could make competition even tougher in the near future for both stores.

In this segment, the retailer J.C. Penney will be analyzed against the department store retail industry, with particular emphasis placed upon their competitors, Macy’s and Kohl’s. The major components to be discussed will include the general external environment (i.e. demographics, economics, politics, legal requirements, technologies and global expansion), the industry environment, the competitive environment, the driving forces and the key factors for success within the industry. In terms of the general external environment, the retail industry is a multi-trillion dollar business in the United States alone and maintains operations primarily due to consumer spending. Such purchases rely upon the disposable income of

As we begin to strategically plan for our business, it is important for us to take a deep dive into our competitive environment to understand where we are strong competitively and where we are weak competitively. An analysis of the forces driving industry competition using M.E. Porter’s Five Forces Model will assist us in determining where the power lies in a business situation as we begin to plan. We must understand how they work in our industry and how they affect our particular situation. Whatever the collective strength of these forces is, our job as the strategists of the organization is to

Porter’s Five-Forces Model of Industry Competition is the most widely utilized tool to evaluate the competitive environment (Dess, Lumpkin, Eisner, & McNamara, 2014). Dess, Lumpkin, Eisner & McNamara (2014) define Porter’s model

Walmart 's competitiveness can be expounded in terms of Porter 's five forces model very well. In order to analyze the industry environment logically, Porter 's five forces model should be the main analysis guide. This model includes threat of new entrants, threat of substitute products or services, bargaining power of customers (buyers), bargaining power of suppliers and intensity of competitive rivalry. Here we focus on the five aspects to analysis the environment of retail industry and Walmart 's situation in this industry environment.

Threat of new Entrants: Due to low cost in Australian retail shops, it is not an appealing industry to enter with low benefit potential.

David jones is named as the oldest departmental store in Australia and also it is still operating from its real name. Its first outlet opened in Sydney in 1838 by David Jones. Their mission is to sell the best and most exclusive goods (David Jones 2014).