Swot Analysis Of Sears Holdings

J.C. Penney is a retail department store that was found by James Cash Penney in 1902. Currently it has 1013 department stores in 49 states and Puerto Rico as of January 28, 2017. JC Penney is one of the largest department stores in the US that sells family apparel and footwear, accessories, fine and fashion jewelry, beauty products through Sephora inside JC Penny. In additions, the department stores provide a wide range of services to customers including styling salon, optical, portrait photography and custom decorating. JC Penney was one of the nation’s top catalog operators , but has exited the catalog business and it is expending to e-commerce.

Our recommendation is to take Sears Holdings Corp. (SHLD) private through a private equity buyout. After doing so, we recommend implementing a centralized management structure and recruiting retail-savvy executives for the upper management team. We then recommend focusing on increasing value by capitalizing on SHLD’s real estate holdings through leasing agreements and increasing partnerships with complementary enterprises. Also, we recommend improving employee retention rates and retaining exclusive rights to private brands. Finally, we recommend focusing on a long-term strategy to continue to maximize SHLD’s ecommerce platforms. We believe these recommendations will lead to long-term stability through increases in customer base and

JC Penney is an American department store chain with 1,095 locations throughout the United States. In the latter half of the 20th century, shopping malls became very popular and most of the company’s stores were situated in the downtown areas, they followed the trend of developing more stores in the shopping malls to attract customers and increase the financial profitability of the company. Conversely, JC Penney had freestanding stores, and was able to get consumer traffic which helped the company earn a profit and increase its market share.

Sears has long been one of the most well known retail companys in the United States. However, Sears along with many other traditional retail companies have been hit hard over the last two decades. The dangerous combination of the stock market crash in the early 2000`s, failing job market and the rise of convenient online shopping hitting the market full force. Sear like many other retailers has found itself struggling to stay aloft in this new digital world we live in today. However, Sears has had one more big hit to its organization and in particular its culture. That hit came in 2003 when Eddie Lampert, a Yale graduate that had been labeled the next Warren Buffet. Lamparts appointment as CEP of the company and indeed his almost immediate acquisition of Kmart, who had found itself in the process of bankruptcy. Lead to high hopes for the many long time associates and supporters of the company who got its start over 100 years ago. However, Lamperts lack of retail management experience soon proved fatal to the company’s culture. Some of the many issues that soon arose were that Lampert preferred not to have direct contact with his staff, he was prone to violent outburst, started pulling funds are

Sears, Roebuck and Co. started formally as a company in 1893, but its history started in 1886 with Richard Sears who created R.W. Sears Watch Company selling watches to increment his income. In 1887, he hired Alvah C. Roebuck a watch repairman, both formed Sears, Roebuck and Co; by 1888, they offered their first catalog featuring only watches and jewelry.

There were also proprietary brands that were held by both Kmart and Sears, and with the merger it would be easier to get those brands out to the target demographics. Making each

The retailer will continue to see aggressive competition from Target, Wal-Mart, JCPenney, Kohl’s, Macy’s, Home Depot and Lowes. These companies are some of the national retailers that Sears will have to contend with in order to survive. According to Sears Holding 2011, annual 10K Report with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Home Depot and Lowes are the company’s most fierce rivals of the major appliance category in which Sears accounts for nearly “16% of its entire revenue” (p.5). This fierce market positioning battle between its competitors will be a major obstacle for Sears to overcome. Sears continues to try to move forward as the company’s efficiencies in fixed assets continued

Due to the current stagnate growth and reduced future growth Sear’s was experiencing in the late 70’s, Sears diversified its holdings to include more financial services businesses. This differentiation diversification strategy allowed Sears to vertically integrate into other markets by leveraging their huge customer base and brand loyalty to offer credit financing services, real estate services, brokerage services and insurances services (Gillan, Kensinger & Martin, 2000). These acquisitions furthered the ‘one stop shopping’ experience favored by

The early 2000’s would bring significant changes to the Kmart Corporation, including changes in leadership as Conaway replaced Floyd as the CEO of Kmart, and things were never the same. Kmart struggled to compete with Walmart and Target. The intense competition between the two other retailers led to a decline in Kmart market share. Kmart had received complaints regarding the cleanliness of the stores; the empty store shelves and the long customer wait times at checkout. The newly appointed CEO, Charles Conaway would take over and outline a strategic business strategy that would include the “Big 5” initiatives designed to improve Kmart financial stability and performance to change the competitive positioning of Kmart:

Managers and leaders play an important role in garnering results and allowing the company to pursue and achieve its goals. Ed Lampert purchased SHC back in 2004 and his behaviors and characteristics have greatly impacted the company causing a continual downward spiral where a company worth four billion in 2004 in now worth less than 2 billion (Hartung, "The 5 Ways Ed Lampert Destroyed Sears." Forbes, 2016). Ed Lampert has had difficulty installing himself as the executive of the company due to lack of technical skills. Lampert originally got his start on Wall Street as a hedge fund manager and installed himself as the CEO of SHC with no retail experience (Peterson, "Sears' Obsession with Wall Street Is Killing the Retailer for Good," Business Insider, 2016). This contributed to his lack

Dicks Sporting Goods retailer is one of the leading companies in selling athletics products. Over the years, the company has achieved tremendous milestones in the industry. However, this being a competitive sector, there are various factors that inhibit the company 's progress. This research paper will conduct a SWOT analysis of the company, and there after offer possible recommendations on the effect.

Some of Macy’s main competitors such as Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus have been quite successful in catering to wealthy and affluent customers. On the other hand, Wal-Mart and Target have been successful in cornering bargain hunters. Macy’s is caught in the middle and has to reposition itself in such a way that customers are attractive towards its affordable luxurious brands such as CK, Ralph Lauren etc.

The main marketing and PR strategy for Toys R Us are creating an online presence that creates a channel to conduct business. Currently, the organization has a website and social media accounts that are used to advertise the products that are available at the stores (Schiffman, 2011). However, these platforms can be maximized to include consumers in the product development through online surveys, making sales on an international platform and understanding the client base even better. Through the internet platform, it is considerably easy to create more business for the organization.

Walmart and Amazon have become global, household names in the US and for good reason: both of these companies have revolutionized the way in which we shop. Amazon offers a convenient experience, and an ever-expanding selection of products whereas Walmart has a wide network of store locations and famously low prices. As investments, these companies highlight the dichotomous nature of the retail industry – brick-and-mortar vs e-commerce; high growth vs steady growth; US vs International; actual vs market expectations. This report provides an in depth comparative analysis between Walmart and Amazon. We will first summarize the industry and these companies, followed by an analysis of market position and financials, and finally an

To get a better understanding of the issues that face Walmart, it is a good idea to do some research to understand the company and its competitors. This can be done by finding out what Walmarts strengths and weaknesses are by conducting a SWOT analysis. A SWOT analysis stands for Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. By using this tool SWOT, this will show and identify the strengths and weaknesses of Walmart and what opportunities and threats there are in the environment (Dyson, 2002). Once these areas identified strategies that can be developed to build on Walmart's strengths, get rid of weaknesses, manipulate the opportunities and counter the threats (Dyson, 2002). The strength and weaknesses are what is internal to Walmart, and opportunities and threats are what is external. Meaning what is out there in the market and they are happening even if they like it or not. By doing a SWOT analysis will allow a business according to Dyson (2002), “to attempt to connect internal and external factors to stimulate new strategies” (pg. 633). A SWOT analysis can be conducted at any time for a business, especially if the environment is changing so they can respond proactively. Typically a company would want to analyze at least once a year. Below is the SWOT analysis for Walmart: