Tesco and Sainsburys Websites - Coursework Example

Download file to see previous pages Tesco and Sainsbury are two giants in the retail business. The head quarter of the two supermarkets is in United Kingdom. However, they have branches in Europe, and Asia. The two companies specialise in food retailing. Tesco is the largest food retailer in United Kingdom. Its head quarter is in Hertfordshire. It operates about 2,318 stores in entire Europe and Asia. The European countries in which Tesco has its operations include Ireland, Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, and Slovakia (Plunkett, 2007:76). The company has 82 and 60 stores in Ireland and Hungary respectively. In Poland, Tesco manages 66 hypermarkets and supermarkets. The countries that Tesco has extended its services in the Asian comprise of South Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, and Taiwan. Tesco offers both online and offline services. The services range from personal finance services to selling online. Tesco Personal Finance is a joint venture with the Royal Bank of Scotland (Zentes, et al, 2012:358). This service caters for approximately 3.4 million customers for various financial services and products. The company has about 326,000 employees (Thomson, & Martin, 2010:549). This makes Tesco one of the biggest job creators in United Kingdom and all its branches of operation. In United Kingdom, Tesco operates under four banners. These banners comprise of Extra, Metro, Superstore, and express. Although the core business of Tesco is food retailing, it also sells non-food products such as clothing in its Superstores. The company also has runs petroleum products and it is in the list of one of the largest and independent petrol retailers. Tesco has registered an excellent performance in the recent years (Tesco, 2011:35). Sainsbury deals in retailing of foods and promotion of health eating. Sainsbury’s has been the largest leader in grocery retailing in United Kingdom. The goal of Sainsbury is to provide food to customers at fair prices. The company does not only stock foodstuffs but also clothing and general merchandise (Hoover, 2004:176). Sainsbury operates under two banners. These include Jacksons Stores and JB Beaumont Hemming (Information Services, 2006:137). This paper looks at Tesco and Sainsbury’s websites. The paper will endeavour to identify the business model that each company employs and the target audiences. Tesco and Sainsbury’s websites are very crucial in order to understand retailing of food in United Kingdom. The two websites are Tesco.com and Sainsbury.co.uk (Davenport, 2007:212). The core businesses of the two companies is specialising on foodstuffs. However, Tesco and Sainsbury sell non-food commodities such as clothes and petroleum products. The two companies have invested many funds in the development of their website to connect with their consumers (Seth & Randall, 2011:26). The management of these two companies understands that dissemination of information is very crucial for success of business venture. With the unparalleled era of technology expansion, the companies embrace online methods of reaching their consumers. They have created a strong database that keeps all the information that is relevant to their customers. Online services are not a complement to the offline ones, but an essential tool in the prosperity of the two companies. Competitor Analysis The two companies are big competitors in the retailing of foodstuffs. Tesco has flourished and out-competed the Sainsbury Company over time. This has led Tesco to emerge as a market leader in the foodstuff industry. The principle reason to explain Sainsbury’s poor performance is the relatively low operating profit margins (J Sainsbury plc, 2011:4). Several factors contribute to the low profit margins. These include specialisation on products with low margin profits, inefficiencies in controlling costs, and lack of value added through the chain of suppliers. The low profit margin leads to relatively low return on invested capital and return on equity ratios. This is despite lack ...Download file to see next pagesRead More