Retail Is A Fast Paced Environment

The apparel store industry within the USA is a highly competitive market, consisting of number of companies that are willing to fight for their share of the market. To remain afloat in this business, corporations must be highly innovative, price-conscious, knowing the trend, and with great responses to consumer needs. Each company within this industry must be aware of the competitors’ move, trying to match every trends and benefits offered by another, in order to steal the average consumers. Market-alertness is the key to survival; each company must balance marketing strategies and customer-service, responding to consumer demands within the shortest processing time

Style, quality and price are some of the most significant competitive factors in the industry. Merchandise mix, brands, service, loyalty programs, credit availability, and customer experience and convenience are also key competitive factors. Primary competitors are traditional department stores, upscale mass merchandisers, off-price retailers, specialty stores, internet and catalog businesses and retail commerce. Specific competitors vary from market to market by include the following: Target, Nordstrom, The Gap, Walmart, Macy’s Inc., J.C. Penny, L Brands, Inc., Ross Stores, Inc., the TJX Companies Inc., and Bed Bath and Beyond Inc.

The intensity of rivalry and the threat of substitutes are strong components for J.C. Penney to consider as they continue to strive for increased revenue and market share. Their two primary competitors are Macy’s and Kohl’s, both of whom have fiercely competitive strategies to be strong retail operations. For instance, while Macy’s offers a multitude of promotional deals and is working hard to choose products based upon demographics and geographic segmentation, Kohl’s is attempting to reduce their inventory levels and improve their marketing strategies in order to become a stronger competitor in the department store segment of the retail industry. In order to compete with their competitors, J.C. Penney aims to focus on their previously successful promotions and home department segmentations by bringing in new reputable designers in order to attract a larger customer base. Due to the fact that the intensity of rivalry and threat of substitutes are both moderately strong in the retail department store industry, J.C. Penney ought to be diligent in their implementation of strategies in order to achieve success in the retail business.

J. Crew contributes part of its decline to the “place” aspect of the retail mix. As a result of the popularity of online shopping, mall traffic has greatly declined in recent years. Also, when shoppers do go to malls, J. Crew is competing with other American middle-tier retailers like

Nordstrom’s Inc. is one of the upscale fashion retailers in the United States that competes with other high end stores, such as Saks, Neiman Marcus, Bloomingdale and Macy’s. In order to differentiate itself from its competitors, the company must carefully follow its value chain design, because it is the only concept that allows Nordstrom to stay unique among the other retailers. Most of the company’s competitors buy products from the same or similar vendors and have creatively designed

The apparel and clothing accessories industry, a subgroup within retail, reached sales of $32 billion in 2016. Given the industry’s highly competitive and rapidly evolving nature, Canada Goose Inc. (CG) and Roots Corp. (Roots) must focus on creation of innovative designs to remain relevant. Retail sales are forecasted to decrease, however, the luxury segment of retail stores and e-commerce segments are predicted to expand. This suggests CG and Roots have the capacity to remain competitive due to their high-end product offering and online sales presence.

My interest began to grow, and I started shopping online with Ebay and Amazon, trying to find prices under retail. After getting so many pieces of clothing from Nike and Jordan, I began to get tired of the style and decided to move on to another brand, and change my style completely. That brand was Ralph Lauren, which I now own a shirt in almost every color from them. I then decided it was time to move on from him as well. This is when I started to find more and more sites and apps dedicated to selling and buying designer clothing. “But it was the slew of second-hand clothing startups that launched at the end of the 2012 that really made a point in 2013. From digital clothing swap Bib and Tuck to online consignment store TheRealReal, there

Threat: Forces shaping the Nordstrom’s strategy is that it is operating in highly competitive environment, where apparel sold by it is not only competing with large organized departmental chains but, also from small independent boutiques in the U.S. As a result competition has become very stiff in retail

Nordstrom’s Inc. is one of the upscale fashion retailers in the United States that competes with other high end stores, such as Saks, Neiman Marcus, Bloomingdale and Macy’s. In order to differentiate itself from its competitors, the company must carefully follow its value chain design, because it is the only concept that allows Nordstrom to stay unique among the other retailers. Most of the company’s competitors buy products from the same or similar vendors and have creatively

This is a concerted effort by Macy’s to fight the competition like H&M, Uniqlo, or Forever 21 who have gained share of market in this fast moving competitive arena (Loeb, 2012). Fast fashion emphasis means that new merchandise reaches the selling floor quickly and often (Loeb,

The industry is therefore highly competitive right now. With fewer people making their way to department stores, the industry is filled with players all struggling to maintain market share through innovative strategies. The retail industry however is unusually hard to penetrate. Despite the high level of competition among the players in the industry, new players are finding it hard to stay in the industry because of the size of the players. One of the strategies of retailers right now is expansion in almost all cities across all states. This would enable them to capture as much market as they can. The industry players ' size is one of the important barriers to entry that should be considered. With the size of the main competitors and the increase in the number of their stores, new players are finding it hard to enter the industry.

With H&M’s many strengths come many weaknesses. Although buying in large amounts keeps prices affordable, it can also lead to overstocking, and later the lowering of an already affordable price, as well as a lack of control over product production. Uncontrollably, their target customer base is highly affected by the changing macro economic conditions. They are new to the United States online store compared to their competitors (Gap, Zara, Forever 21). Their clothing is usually not original due to how they follow the trends of luxury brands on

The retail industry is highly competitive, with few barriers to entry. Each Company competes with many other local, regional and national retailers for customers, associates, locations, merchandise, services and other important aspects of the Company’s business. Those competitors include other department stores, discounters, home furnishing stores, specialty retailers, wholesale clubs, direct-to-consumer businesses and other forms of retail commerce. Some competitors are larger than JCPenney, have greater financial resources available to them, and, as a result, may be able to devote greater resources to sourcing, promoting and selling their products.” There are many factors that characterize competition, including advertising, service,

An additional method Zara utilizes to ensure the right product is produced is to constantly monitoring the sells at every store in real time through the use of computers. Sells managers are the individuals that play out this strategy. When the clothing sells well or does not sell well, they can quickly let the designers know to swiftly create new designs (“Case 3-4. Continued Growth for Zara and Inditex”, 2013). However, the competition is changing their strategies in an attempt to successfully compete with Zara. The methods that Zara has implemented to ensure fast fashion is truly fast has pressured the competition into reducing their lead times on stocking their stores (Hayes & Jones, 2006).

Zara is a clothing and accessories retailer selling stylish apparel at affordable prices, and it is also the most profitable brand of the Spanish clothing retail group Inditex SA. Ortega planned for this new Zara outlet, located near his factory in La Coruna in northern Spain, to sell this overstock merchandise himself. Since then, Zara has expanded into 500 stores in 68 countries as of January 2007 and has become a leader in customized fashion retailing. This assignment presents core competencies to help Zara achieve competitive advantages in fashion industry. Besides, we also offer five competitive objectives about quality, speed, flexibility, dependability and cost to evaluate