In recent years, due to the change of own profit model, high inflation, increasing operating costs and competition from online commerce, traditional retail businesses have grown slowly in China. Chinese retail business, especially supermarkets need to be transformed and updated. Developing private label brands is one of the most efficient ways to realise supermarkets ' transition and updating, it could reduce costs and improve supply chain system. However, the development of supermarket private label in China is only in start-up stage now which leaves plenty of scope to learn from mistakes and successes from other businesses. The British retail market is the second largest in Europe, and has the highest profit margins in the world. Its supermarket private label has developed into a mature stage (Zhen, 2007). Since there are limited studies in the area of analysing the gap between British and Chinese supermarket in developing private label, this study will help to stop the gap in literature study of comparing the development of private label between China and UK. In addition, it may predict the future developing trend of Chinese private label and benefit Chinese supermarket managers on how to introduce more successful strategies of private label products in further development on the basis of British experience.
The author chose this topic due to a personal interest on the development of supermarket, growing up in a family where most members work in the retail industry.
The grocery industry has a relatively high market commonality; a lot of grocery stores are somewhat related in terms of technologies used, labor force and the products or services offered in the stores. Differentiation with other competitors is key for survival in this highly competitive industry.
1. The grocery industry is a commoditized industry, which makes it difficult for grocers to sustain through differentiation. Buyer power is high and thus, cost leadership and operational efficiencies are critical. There is fierce competition amongst various grocery stores, with the main players such as Loblaw and A&P holding multi-banner stores in various market segments. Traditional grocery stores also lose some of their market share to drug stores, convenience stores and other retailers who have entered the industry. Threat of substitutes from fast-food and take- away outlets is not as prevalent, since many grocery stores have started stocking ready-to-eat meals and have deli services available for consumers. Competitive
Last of all, in Marion Nestle essay, “The Supermarket: Prime Real Estate” she states that supermarkets manipulate you on buying extra things you do not need. During her research, she realized there were a lot of different studies for designing the layout of the stores (Nestle 499-500). For instance; Stores do not use a lot of islands, they put certain things in the back of the store and put
1. Introduction The intended purpose of this report is to outline the nature of the Australian retail market, specifically the retail food sector. This report will then discuss the role of market segmentation and how it has resulted in the emergence of new retail channels available to consumers. The emergence of ALDI as a new retail channel will be the focal point of the report along with a brief overview of other new-coming organizations such as Costco. Through the use of current journal articles, books, internet sites and government publications, this report will outline the benefits of the new retail channels available to consumers, especially in regards to saving on common expenses. This report will also discuss the possible room for
This left a segment open for new entrants to come with no competition from incumbents. Private labels also did not do product proliferation and were focused on limited popular brands at low costs. This helped them save costs in R&D of new products and also save costs by not experimenting new products. They did not compete with the Big 3 on all possible niches. Also, from the table below, we see that the total costs of the private label are 40% less than the Big 3 brands, which helped them to target the price sensitive customers. They are several strategies that the private labels applied which resulted in reduced cost structure. First of all, they did not use coupons, which had accounted for 23% of the total costs for Big 3 brands. The private label also offered higher margins to retailers (15%) in comparison to Big 3(12%) in order to get premium shelf space and signage. The private labels reduced packaging costs by supplying cereals in clear plastic bags. They also used less labor intensive manufacturing process and fewer expensive fruits and nuts.
The UK supermarket industry is a very competitive and profitable industry. It is made up of four main players with significant share of the market, and then various smaller companies who focus on smaller niches in the market such as the bottom of the market discounters and the top of the line speciality stores. It is an interesting market and this report evaluates the attractiveness of the industry using Porter’s five forces model with an insight into how market nicher Waitrose sustains a competitive advantage. Next this report looks at how major player Sainsbury’s successfully competes against its rivals using differentiation strategies, and analyses current consumer trends and problems can effect this industry.
Larger stores also offer people the convenience of additional services along with their shopping, for example post office, pharmacy and opticians. By addressing consumer’s expectations and using their buyer power they can offer a choice of products to reflect consumer’s diverse budgetary, dietary, ethical and environmental requirements. Furthermore their global buyer power enables consumers to benefit from choosing exotic produce all year round. With 30,000,000 customers (Bevan cited in Allen, 2009) choosing to use the big four supermarkets on a weekly basis it would suggest that they provide a format that consumers want.
Location- Another very important aspect of a successful supermarket, location is important. You must be in an area with the correct demographic of people to have success. Most people will not be willing to drive an hour to go grocery shopping.
A supermarket, or grocery store is a place everyone visits at least weekly. People put their trust in the place they choose to shop. The company I choose to research is Publix Super Market Incorporated, otherwise known as Publix. They are known mainly for their outstanding customer service (Business, 2007). Publix prides themselves in, making every single store a pleasure to shop in. Their philosophy is in pleasing the customer, thus comes the saying, “Publix, where shopping is a pleasure” Publix is one of the 10th largest supermarkets chain in the country today. (Publix, 2016b)
The industry within which Hansson Private Label exists is a very competitive and volatile one. It is dominated by two types of firms, namely, Branded and Private Labels. Tucker Hansson operates as a private label firm. Private Label firms are an emerging market which is competitive based on its ability to have a lower price than its rivals. This market has experienced growth primarily because of this affordability. However this growth would be regarded as organic.
In the early 1990’s, the retail grocery industry began leaving the growth stage and entered the maturity stage in the industry lifecycle. This was caused by increased market saturation and slowing growth rates. Between 1995 and 1996 the growth rates were the lowest they had been in the past twenty years. The main reason for
The UK supermarket industry resembles an oligopolistic industry, with several characteristics. Oligopolistic markets tend to be characterised by high concentration ratios, barriers to entry and…Since the turn of the century, the industry has been scrutinised by both the Office of Fair Trading and has been referred to the Competition Commission on two occasions. (Seely, 2012)
The Big 3 had high advertising to sales ratios of 10-14%, also deterring entry, because average first year advertising cost for a new brand was over $20 million. We can conclude that total costs related to producing private label products are lower than new branded products. Private label products can offer greater margins to grocers and still sell at lower prices. They have a considerable competitive cost advantage over the new branded products.
2.0 PORTERS FIVE FORCES MODEL FOR UK SUPERMARKET INDUSTRY Supermarkets’ performance is reliant on consumer’s income and their willingness to spend. The growing consumer pressure to drive value, quality and taste requires companies with strong management teams to understand the market trends in the industry of which this had led to constant competition among firms in the industry. This rivalry is based on firms in the industry battling to win the highest market share in
The report then delivers an audit of the Chinese market including size, consumer behaviour, distribution and transport channels, promotional mechanisms and pricing arrangements. Major competing firms are analysed and their marketing tactics are discussed.