Williams Sonoma Inc. Case Study

Urban Outfitters is a popular clothing and accessory store that was founded in 1970, and generates success from the type of merchandise it retails, as well as through the contemporary culture and ethos that it promotes to its customers. The store has stated that it is targeted towards a specific audience that ranges from eighteen to thirty years old, who are well “educated, [and] urban-minded” (“Urban Outfitters”). Urban Outfitters offers a specific shopping experience that is unique to its store, because it focuses on a well-defined audience that is attracted by its modern environment and trendy clothes. Many individuals are unconsciously lured into the store first by the placement of the store itself, then by what the consumer can see in the front windows, and lastly by the specific and well thought out placement of the store’s merchandise. It is evident that the theories regarding retail geography defined by Paco Underhill, including the stores location, the decompression zone, the invariant right, destination items, the

Zappos is an online shoes retailer that started its business in the year 1999. Later on the company had expanded its business to include the beauty products, clothing and even the housewares within its leading e-commerce website. This case emphasizes on the customer service department of Zappos Company and initially the business focused only on the drop ship method. Later on the company also increased the variety of the products. The company had also created a bricks and mortar storefront to expand the business and increase the sales of the business.

The company that I have chosen for this assignment and project is Lowe 's Companies, Inc. Lowes strongly focuses on the mission statement “helping the customers to improve their homes”. The company started in 1921 as a small store in North Carolina. Great success and high demand of Lowe’s products led to an increase in the number of stores. By 1955, there were five more functional stores. Rapid growth took place around 1960s. Carl Buchan was one of the founders of Lowe’s, who died in year 1960. Exactly a year later in 1961, the company went public. This was the time when Lowe’s was given its name. Initially it was called North Wilkesboro Hardware Company. By 1979, Lowe’s established more than 50 stores in the United

Staples website Tagline Staples: Make more happen Pros Staples carries a wide assortment of items in various classifications, including a ton of family-and understudy situated items. Notwithstanding offering supplies for understudies and little home workplaces, Staples has items and administrations for medium, huge and venture level organizations, for example, gadgets, furniture, custom printing and innovation administrations, and mailing and sending hardware. Staples easy to use site acknowledges all real Visas, and additionally blessing cards, prepaid cards and refund cards. On the other hand, you can pay with Visa Checkout without making a Staples account. Be that as it may, making a record is free and quick, and it has extra advantages like reliability focuses, email coupons

1. Williams-Sonoma has experienced strong growth in the past year, but this is on the back of a strong economy and in particular a strong new home market. The furniture business is strongly correlated with the strength of the real estate market. In this respect, the company's strategy is largely irrelevant, because within the next five years the real estate bubble will burst and Williams-Sonoma will suffer a major downturn in its own results as a consequence. However, this reality shows that the company perhaps lacks sufficient differentiation, and can only be expected to perform roughly in line with the housing market. It is neither outperforming competitors nor is it underperforming. W-S has sufficient differentiation within the furnishings and home products segment, and has a fairly strong brand name in the segment. The company's status as a mass-market premium company allows it to grow strongly in strong economic times, but also makes it particularly vulnerable to economic downturn, because not only do consumers redecorate at greater intervals, but they will trade down to more affordable stores when they do.

Williams-Sonoma has six major competitors plus one more in their market. The company holds only 7.9% market share (FY10) to main competitor Bed, Bath and Beyond with an astonishing 34.4%. (William-sonoma.com/investors) BBB’s strategy is to offer competitive prices for quality products. Its’ target market is middle to upper middle class and this is the reason it fairs better in the current market. The Bombay Company’s strategy was to increase its’ footprint by increasing outlet store

HN (Harvey Norman) (established in 1982) is recognised as one of the most efficient businesses in Australia at marketing their products predominantly in regard to knowledge and the implementation of their Marketing Plan and the necessity in regularly monitor the effectiveness of the marketing plan. The role of marketing is to connect a business with their consumer and the potential or future customer base. The role of marketing in HN is a huge part of its success story.

American Apparel, is an American multi-national clothing manufacturer, distributor and retailer since 1988based in Los Angeles, California. Dov Charney, a Canadian business man was a founder and former CEO of the company. He was involved in nearly every part of the business process from design and manufacturing to marketing. The Ernst & Young named Charney Entrepreneur of the Year in 2004. He was also termed "Man of the Year" by various fashion

In 1897 Sebastian Spering Kresge opened five-dime stores in Memphis and Detroit with John McCrorey as his partner. Two years later the partnership broke up and each person kept one city. Mr. Kresge kept the Detroit store and began expanding from there onward. In 1912 the company became incorporated as S.S. Kresge and was the 2nd largest dime store chain with 85 stores and annual sales of more than $10 million. In 1918 S.S Kresge was listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Throughout the decades, Kresge rapidly expanded eventually opening the first Kmart store in 1962 in Garden City, Michigan. By 1966 there were more 160 Kmart stores in the US and Canada. In 1968 Kmart began airing TV commercials. In the 1970s, Kmart continued to expand

Zappos started out by selling shoes online to become the world’s largest online retailer of shoes. Subsequently, in their quest to boost sales, they moved beyond footwear to become an E-tailer that sells ‘anything and everything’.

Ragan Fretwell - Case 23: Walmart: But We Do Give Them a 10% Employee Discount

4. Uniform adoption of new financial performance indicators which helps identify trends on a more reliable basis and does not give false impressions.

A. Wal-Mart realized through third party studies and internal research that the Chinese customer were significantly more cost-sensitive than those in other countries and that there existed a strong, established culture of frequently shopping around to find the absolute lowest prices. Through these studies, Wal-Mart also realized that customer satisfaction level greatly influenced customer loyalty in China. The greatest determinant of this satisfaction was made up of perceived value. The perceived value is composed of three sub factors: (1) Product price, (2) Relative price and (3) Promotion. The other factors for customer satisfaction in descending order of its importance are Image,

Sears is facing a huge problem when it comes to making profits anymore and they are continuing to shut down stores. They have already shut down over 100 locations due to them not being as successful as they used to be. They also have a failed stock, drained all their resources, and they are loaded with debt. This company is not able to pull through and make profits anymore because their CEO is not capable of making changes to the company to bring it out of it. He sees that the company is not as presentable as it used to be and it does not have the same appeal. People are not going to want to go to a store where it does not have anything to offer anymore. How can sears become profitable again if they are in such debt and trouble with stocks

This work is an introduction to the fashion industry of Pakistan which has made quite a lot of progress in just a few years. Ten to fifteen years from now, this industry was still unknown to actually exist to the masses. Later with the formation of fashion councils and education centers under the enthusiastic few who wanted to make a difference and promulgate this very institution of fashion, did the very fashion industry took its concrete contour from the old tailor culture that formerly existed. Today it is one of the most progressing industries in the country.