Improving the Retail Sector and Reducing the Financial Crisis in UK Economy - Dissertation Example

?Economics Findings Consumer’s mindset has changed during recession, and retailers must focus on strategies that win the heart of the consumers. The impact of recession has influenced consumers’ buying behavior in a big way. Consumers have become more value conscious. Their shopping habits have changed, and they have become more cautious about spending on leisure. Fig.1Shopping Values (Credit Crunch and Financial Crisis Effect on Consumer Buying Behaviour 2005). 2. Job uncertainty- Consumers experience a lot of pressure on their job security. Due to recession, many retail organizations have reduced their workforce, and the employees feel uncertainty in their jobs. 3. People are likely to lose their jobs, especially men and young employees. The effect of global crisis have been felt by people in different ways, depending on the places they live, industry in which they are employed, occupation, and their personal characteristics. This is an indicator for understanding that, recruitment is an expensive process. It means that retail firms will increase the number of employees only if necessary, and they will only recruit when there is any authentic business case. As an alternative, most firms will go for their existing employees working harder, until the situation come under their control. 4. Unemployment rate is greater for males than females (Figure 1) – The unemployment rate to an extent will affect men more because they are more employed in the retail sectors, and so have the chance to experience job losses. 5. Compared to other sectors in UK, executive salary in the retail sector is so high. In reality, a significant portion of the revenues of UK retail companies are being spent for schemes of employees’ pension and salaries. 6. Unemployment rate increases largely for younger people- The maximum increase in the unemployment rate, was for the population of age group between 18 and 24, as shown in Figure 2 below. Males in this age category have borne the impact of job losses. This will result in unemployment in later life, and they are supposed to earn less in future also. Fig.2: Male and female unemployment rate Fig.3: Increase in unemployment rate by age (Lee et al. n.d.). 7. The global crisis has been reflected in the present patterns of economic slowdown: maximum job losses have been found in ex-industrial areas of UK. 8. One of the main reasons for job losses is the low skill levels of the workforce in UK. Places of population with highly skilled people have experienced less amount of increase in unemployment, and populations with low skill levels have experienced the highest rate of increase in unemployment. 9. Places which depend on financial services employment have not performed well during the time of recession. This is because of the high job losses in retail banking sector, and it tends to be situated outside the capital of UK. 10. Lower Disposable Income- The decrease in the distribution of disposable income was a main challenge for the purchasing activities of the consumers. Decrease in the disposable income has taught the consumer to be more careful in making any purchase. 11. Lower Level of Savings- Inability of the consumers to maintain a sustainable level of savings, have made them focus on two distinct alternatives; one is to continue the same level of consumption pattern by low priced product purchase, or to purchase quality products without cutting the consumption level. 12. Risk of Opportunity Costs- The risk of opportunity costs have made the consumers more conscious in making their purchase decisions. Purchase decision strategy often depends on the individual preferences of the consumers. 13. Retail banking industry is another area which has faced problems on account of recession. Retail banking carries on banking operations which directly deal with the individuals relatively than other banks or corporations. As the UK retail banking is not controlled by any centralized authority, they are occupied in business practices which are risky to continue in the market. 14. In the last three years in the UK retail sector, the number of mergers and acquisitions were very less. This has paved way to sharp turn down in the requirement for senior executives, thus leaving the laid off employees with smaller number of new job opportunities. 15. UK cities contribute a lot towards the recovery of recession for the UK economy. Many cities have taken innovative steps to alleviate the effects of increasing unemployment. It is very important that cities study from each others’ responses. 16. Innovation is important to survive in the competitive market during recession- Innovation, or the exploration of new successful ideas, as a major factor towards long-term success of the economy. Fundamental, incremental and revolutionary innovations that create new goods or services, new processes, new organizational structures, and new techniques of marketing, have always played as key sources of growth of employment and economy 17. More than fifty seven percent of retail traders anticipate a long-term, fundamental modification in the industry, in response to the global crisis. The response was in the form of structural modification in the supply chain and a transfer to value retailing. 18. Distinctive branding helps the retailers to capture the mind of consumers, and create an everlasting trust and loyalty towards the brand; the value perceptions of the UK consumers are greatly influenced by the brand. Retailers need to take necessary actions, in order to take advantage of the opportunities that change in economy has bought. Branding during recession helps the retail industry retain and attract the consumers. Investment in brand-building helps the retailers gain not just consumer’s mind, but also the market share.  19. Communication is essential in strengthening the retail brand values. People spend less during recession, and become more selective in purchasing products. This will weaken the brand. So appropriate communication through media is necessary. 20. Flexible operations and propositions have helped the UK retailers to take advantage of the positive trends rapidly; flexibility in operation and proposition have helped the UK retailers to exploit sales trends in the economy, and the retailers have encouraged it a lot in their culture. Being in their sectors is a common factor among the retail leaders to adapt to a product range, to gain benefit from it, or that provide for trends of recession. 21. Ethical Retailing - According to IGD, households have not dramatically compromised on their values during the 2008/09 recession, but they are certainly scrutinizing products closely, to get the best price for their values. The pace of ethical retail sales growth is likely to slow. It is now firmly established in the UK, and consumers do not want to compromise on their values. Many food and grocery retailers are also making long term ethical commitments” (Retail Market Report 2010). 22. Multi-channel retailing importance is increasing. Modern consumers have a preference to surf through multiple retail channels, rather than depending only on brick and- mortar stores, so as to update themselves about products and services, before making purchases. This has encouraged the retailers to expand their practices of multichannel retailing. 23. The retailers make use of the supplementary channels including mobile devices, catalogues and internet. Retailers make use of channels like store-based and online shopping, to take the competitive advantage 24. The IT related jobs in retail sectors are outsourced to countries like India. This is done for the cost- effectiveness of the retail sectors. But this has bought a number of challenges before them in the form of cheap quality and untimely delivery. All these factors will affect the working of the retail industry in many ways. 25. Along with reduction in value of price, price wars have started in UK to increase the market, primarily due to the liberalization and globalization principles. 26. There was a considerable reduction in the productivity in the UK retail sector. The factors like sales, service levels, product ranges, customer satisfaction, have affected the retail sector’s productivity considerably. Analysis: The downward shift of the economy could lead to a permanent change in the spending habit of the consumers, mainly in those markets where consumer spending was exorbitant. The job uncertainty, lower disposable income, lower level of savings, and risk of opportunity costs, have made the consumers plan their purchases in order to increase their efficiency of buying by cutting down the waste. Due to lower income level, consumers experience difficulty in maintaining the level of savings, as they did earlier. The increasing levels of prices and depreciation in money value have contributed to difficulty in maintaining the price level. Consumers frequently experience pressure on selecting products. They never want to make a wrong buying decision and this has increased the opportunity cost of the consumers. “Retailers in the UK face huge challenges as they struggle to cope with a sudden deterioration in consumer willingness to spend. The credit crunch, the downturn in the housing market, and the rising cost of living, are having a profound impact on consumer confidence, which will require retailers to adapt their strategies” (UK Retail Futures 2013: Sector Summary n.d.). A part from consumers’ value price and quality of the products being more, customer service and store environment also influence a lot. Retailers have to become accustomed to new consumers’ buying behavior, and also the values. They should also consider the priorities that help in proper decision making. As there are more retailers in the scene, they have to precisely differentiate them individually from their competitors, including brand management. Retailers have to develop discount concepts by investing more on it, and also they have to adopt expansion strategies to newer segments. While other sectors in the retail industry have lost their strength, discount stores continue to expand their business quickly with a growing demand for their products. This trend began to increase as consumers began to be more value-conscious, and as they began to make their purchases carefully. Grocery retailers continue to expand with discount offers in UK. Retailers should take effective steps to control costs and prices of the products. “Retail management hit by fall in demand and supply glut, but some specialists still sought after Simon Gough, Director of Retail and Consumer at Interim Partners, comments: “The market for senior managers in retail has been hit harder than other sectors by the credit crunch. Demand for managers fell sharply and a glut of top quality retail talent is oversupplying the handful of roles available. The two factors have put substantial downward pressure on fees” (Decline in Retail Sector Rates but Financial Sector Shows Recovery 2011). Consumers stay powerfully value oriented, and thus remain focused on discount retailers. Retailers who offer a low-price and are more focused on prices of conventional grocers, leave the scene as consumers make downward trade. But some high-class players are relatively doing well, as they target on niche market. To reduce the costs, retailers have to downsize the supply chains; leases are to be re-negotiated to reduce the operational costs and to strengthen their core market position in the targeted segments. Customers’ shopping behavior will be influenced a lot by their in-store experiences. Retailers have to differentiate themselves through various ways methods, so as to build brand loyalty among the customers, and to generate more business. This will help them to gain more market share. Customers’ shopping experience can make a huge difference in the retailer’s performance. For that, the retailers should have the capability to improve their performance continually, by making more innovation to sustain differentiation. This will help retailers in turn, to maintain their pricing power. The globe was facing at the time of economic recession, an increase in unemployment and minor industrial production, due to the failure of businesses and consumers spending little. Recession is the product of global financial crisis. The financial crisis originated in the United States (US). It has affected the revenue of sales, and decline in the profit of the retail industry, it is defined as " The definition of a recession is a decline in a country's gross domestic product (GDP), or negative real economic growth, for two or more successive quarters of a year” (The Economic Cycle n.d.). Recession affects businesses, as businesses depend on the purchasing power of consumers, and their buying behaviour. There are many other factors that contribute to fall in economy, but inflation is the major reason for recession. Inflation indicates the general increase in the price of products and services over time period. When the rate of inflation is high, the consumers purchase lower percentage goods and services with the same price. During recession, the consumers’ buying behaviour changes; consumers are already being assured that a result of the recession is the wish among the consumers to chase additional aggressiveness for bargains. In spite of the economic slow down, many shopping malls, and shopping centres develop enjoy good business conditions. The government has supported these types of retail stores during recession. This type of retail chain offers the easy availability of all products under one roof, also providing parking facilities, cafeteria and other facilities like cinema complexes. The financial crisis is still greatly affecting the economy of the country. There are several economic consequences associated with the financial crisis; they are the potential growth of the country, unemployment and labour market, budgetary position of the country, and global imbalance. The government has to take decisions about global financial crisis; the economic policy of the government serves to accomplish sustainable, strong, and balanced growth in times of recession. The policy is to share across countries and industries. Recession indicates depressing growth of economy for the country; it signifies a go down in the real Goss Domestic Product, National Output and national income. It shows a negative impact on growth of economy, and makes a negative impact on the country. The recession impact is often categorized by the following factors – the rate of unemployment increases, government borrowing increases, brings sharp turn down in stock markets and price of shares, fall in investment, and lower inflation. The effect of the global crisis have been felt by people in different ways, depending on the place they live, industry in which they are employed, occupation, and their personal characteristics. During recession, middle aged and young workers suffer high rate of unemployment, and old aged workers lose their jobs, but begin taking the retirement costs rather than planned. A huge number of old aged workers do not have enough to be saved or lost in the market, and they look for new jobs, or completely retire. The unemployment rate is greater for males than females. This is the great impact of recession. The actual impact of global financial crisis is on the retail banking sector because, prior to the crisis, the retail banking sector was already experiencing a deep reorganization. This is the result of a strong procedure of integration of market, and internationalization for the duration of recent decades for the liberalisation in universal capital markets, commercial expansion, and new information technologies This study focuses on three important aspects, and they are: Lower Consumer Confidence Employment and Structural Modification Financial Slump and Joblessness . The confidence of the consumer is an indicator of the economy; it measures the level of optimism that the consumer experiences about the general condition of the economy, and the individual economic situation. How confident people are regarding the strength of their income, determine their expenditure, and as a result serve as the key indicators intended for the overall economic condition. In its fundamental nature, if the economy or market expands it increases the confidence of the consumer, and on this occasion the consumers will make more purchases. If the economy is in a bad shape, the consumers’ confidence rate goes down, and they are likely to save more money by spending less. The declining trends in consumers’ confidence recommend that, in the present state of economy, most of the consumers have a negative attitude on their capability in finding and maintaining good jobs. “Consumer confidence is now backing to levels last seen during the 2008-2009 recession. Consumer expectations, which had improved in September, gave back all of the gain and then some, as concerns about business conditions, the labor market and income prospects increased. Consumers’ assessment of present-day conditions did not fare any better. The Present Situation Index posted its sixth consecutive monthly decline, as pessimism about the current economic environment continues to grow” (Garcia 2012). After 2009, economic condition started improving slightly, and the consumers’ confidence has also started improving. Financial crises of some type or the other happen intermittently nearly every decade, and in a variety of places around the world. Economic meltdowns have happened in countries ranging from Russia to Korea, from Sweden to Argentina, from Japan to the United States & from the United Kingdom to Indonesia. The global financial crisis originated in United States of America. The present crisis has deeply influenced the national financial systems of both developing and developed world, depending on the degree to which they have been opened up. The economic slowdown or inflation is negatively influencing the retail industry. With the suddenly disturbed economical position, customers are steadily losing attention on buying. “Overconfidence on stability and growth path has fooled bankers into ignoring systemic risk which combined with complexity in the world led to the crisis. While busts have happened before, the scope was largely unexpected and statistically dismantled before the event appears as a black swan. Risk management becomes unpredictable because of the interlocking links between banks, turning it to one global bank due to globalization. The system risk is inherently fragile due to underestimation of risk” (Lazarov 2009). The sources of the economic troubles of the last three years can possibly be traced back to the deregulation of financial markets in the UK, US and the Western European financial systems that started in the 1970s, and which speeded up in the early 1980s. Deregulation swept away lots of governmental controls, and freed industries to trade across a wider variety of actions and regions. Prior to 1970, banks, investment banks, building societies, stockbrokers and insurance companies worked very much in their own specialized trading areas. In various countries there were also physical restrictions, related to these sector trading restrictions, in the US, organizations were often restricted to. The main dispute in UK’s retail business is due to economic crisis in trading in certain places and in Europe, rather than dealing in their own state. As far as banks were concerned, there were tight rules on capital and cash ratios and, purposely, on what proportion of shareholders funds could be lent out to consumers. As these rules were comfortable, and governments permitted these diverse economic institutions to increase funds from money markets across the world and not only from shareholders, financial services companies were equal in raising more funds quickly it than had been possible formerly. The outcome was to liberalize credit, and efficiently fuel a huge growth of personal debt, containing mortgage debt. With almost unbroken increases in property principles, deregulation on the ‘buy to let’ markets and the home credit markets, became very big and very gainful to banks internationally. Therefore some lenders, nervous to retain and enlarge market share, offered loans that were often above the face value of the underlying possessions and were at times as high as about seven times the borrower’s returns. This ratio evaluates to one that usually pertained to the tighter regulatory period, where lenders would classically only lend a pair with two returns an amount able to double the high income, plus the lower income. “With high returns available on this type of business but, perhaps underestimating the higher element of risk involved, some organizations started to raise funds by selling off ‘bundles’ of their mortgage and loan deals to other lenders, who were largely unaware of the original, underlying, transactions. This process was known as ‘securitization’” (The Financial Crisis of 2007/2008 and its Impact on the UK and Other Economies n.d., p. 2). The recession impact is also visible in the employment sectors. The economic crisis impacts largely young people, unskilled ethnic minorities, urban poor, and older workers. Particular programmes are to the launched to bring structural changes in order to make sure a fair chance to all, particularly minority youth, and to guide item to active economic lives. The economy of US in creating jobs and restructuring employment during the past decades has impelled other countries to highlight the importance of government policies to boost the flexibility of income rates, and carry down the cost of workers by the reductions in statutory minimum wages. The major consequence of this policy is probably in the association of jobs between countries; on the other hand, not an increase in the entire number of jobs obtainable. In detail, the process which reduces income of wages could have the bad effect of reducing collective purchasing power and employment. Unemployment was not a huge problem in Britain before recession. However, the scenario has changed a lot now. Many working professionals in Britain have either lost their jobs or got their salaries cut because of the recession. Retail and manufacturing sectors are prominent employment providers in Britain and their poor performances brought huge challenges to working professionals. Conclusion: Retailers in the UK face enormous disputes, as they struggle to manage with a rapid deterioration in consumer’s eagerness to spend. The credit crisis, the recession in the rising cost of living and the housing market leave a profound influence on customer confidence, which will necessitate retailers to modify their policy. At present the world is facing a serious financial challenge. The prime disaster, which initiated in the USA in 2007, infected an amount of well-developed western financial methods, for instance in the U.K. The economic crisis is recognized as a multi-dimensional occurrence, which has several influences on different aspects of the social and economic life of the country. In this situation, one of the most severely effected parts of the UK financial system was the customer buying behavior. Consumer buying behavior is described as a package of managerial procedures, which are effected by a choice of external and internal factors. On the other hand, the most powerful issue which is recognized is external financial unsteadiness concerning UK retail consumer’s knowledge. The negative belongings of the economic crisis can be observed to strike the entire purchasing behavior of customers as both unplanned and planned buying behaviors are considerably affected. “This extremely volatile environment is identified to be highly challenging for UK retailers and in particular for their marketing strategies. Deriving from the conducted research it can be concluded that the most powerful and successful marketing strategy to attract and retain consumers' interest in the present situation is the marketing strategy which integrates and successfully exploits all of the marketing mix components of price, product, place, promotion, people, processes and physicality” (Credit Crunch and Financial Crisis Effect on Consumer Buying Behaviour 2005). In other words, the most successful marketing plan is the one which is not only concentrated on one characteristic aspect of the consumer buying behaviour, other than giving a mix of single selling plans, adequate pricing, innovative promotions, attractive in-store environment, high quality of consumer service and physical data for good product value. This is the only plan that is likely to bring in long-term market share growth and expansion in customer reliability. Recommendations: The following are the recommendations made for improving the retail sector, and reducing the financial crisis in UK economy: The United States and the local authorities need to improve the financial areas by adopting more flexible operations such as incremental financing and they should be evaluated in order to face the crisis and spend in more operations. The products should be designed and marketed properly to decrease the risk that consumers pay for unsuitable products. Because of the long-term changes to the UK economy, the financial crisis might necessarily change the distinctiveness of some consequences assured by the industry. Therefore, it is necessary for firms to think about this, so that they ascertain suitable underwriting and pricing strategies. By combining skills and employment policies more efficiently, the retail sector can increase the sales. The retail sector should make a rational evaluation of the sum of capital essential to carry their business successfully, in order to make sure that they meet the financial circumstances properly. The banks should be able to carry out a retail banking business in the UK that is reasonable to shareholders as well as to consumers. Improving the banking market: The banking market should have entry and exit barriers so that the financial crisis can be reduced. More international business units need to participate with the banking market, to explore the sales and reduce the crisis. The banks should guarantee that it will capitalize and control well. The move towards new markets and to new products brings about new management experiment. Competition strategy should increase the advantage of the consumer. The commercial banks should function effectively in conducting consumer satisfaction surveys in relation to other suppliers. In a competitive market, the retail sectors should look forward to adopting those policies and marketing strategies which offer better-quality service, varieties or prices to achieve considerable market share from competitor firms. In order to increase productivity, the UK retailers should concentrate on the following areas: Increasing Sales: By adopting more products and conducting customer survey, the retailers can satisfy consumer needs and thereby increase the sales. Range of Products: With the advancement of new technology, they can introduce variety of products according to customer’s tastes and preferences. Level of Services: The retail sector should broaden their service scheme in order to withstand the market. Product Availability: More advanced strategies are to be used, to make the products available to the consumers. Customer Satisfaction: This is the main objective of the retail sector. They will be able to increase sales and productivity, only if they attain customers support and satisfaction. Contribution of Employees: In making improvements and developments in all the areas of business, the contribution and support of employees are very essential. This can be achieved by providing more employment opportunities to both the genders of workforce. Operating & Financial Performance: The retail sector in order to reduce the crisis, need to concentrate on the operational and financial areas of the business. They should avail from various financial institutions and banks the face the crisis. Competition can only be successful if customers are convinced about the changing to new suppliers. There are more number of risks, involved such as market risks and risks in switching to new users. More technical ways can be used to make it risk free, without increasing the cost. Providing a stream of finance to the retail sector is essential to guarantee that they have the income to spend and rise and that the modern ideas have the financial assistance they require to hold on to the market. The government needs to spend its funds to expand productivity and entrepreneurship to stimulate market. The government and the authorities should manage and motivate entrepreneurs to be dynamic. Production of small cost quality goods should be the solution for the global competition. High quality services in reasonable cost can also improve global competitiveness. In order to reduce the crisis, the UK companies should provide employment opportunities for those who are between 16 and 24. Training can be given to provide them permanent positions and to avoid unemployment crisis. The UK Government should concentrate on the following: In providing more stable plan and policies for the business. Making markets more active, by removing barriers to expansion everywhere. Concentrating on the government’s actions on imparting the setting investment and growth for private sectors Introducing investment plans and policies, and financial strategies, that are reasonable to the retail sector. Guarantee that strong expansion is comparatively sustained for a longer period. Focus on creating opportunities for British business and reducing obstacles to trade. The retail industry should adopt a successful and powerful marketing strategy to retain and attract the consumer’s attention. The strategy should incorporate and effectively utilize the components of marketing such as product, place, price, promotion, processes and people. The marketing strategy has to be utilized in such a way that it not only considers the buying behaviors of the customers but also offers a blend of modern promotions, reasonable pricing, better quality of customer service, unique selling propositions, and better product quality. This will result in increasing the market share, and attaining customer loyalty. The retail sector should concentrate on adopting direct marketing channels. Since consumers are likely to spend more time in the retail store environment, it can be planned that retailers should develop channels in which they can get in touch with large number of customers. By employing the best people to apply strong leadership is vital in coming out of recession. Quality of service and leadership as a retailer will be difficult to retain and these create elements of a new series of restriction which the retail companies now meet and need to clear about to maintain their progress. Most of the customers are sensitive to the prices. Consumers should be inclined to make use of price as a reference for supplementary point, for spending decisions. When consumers consider price as an indicator for shopping, the retail sector should fix a reasonable price to influence consumer behaviour. The retailers should use online marketing during financial crisis. They should also concentrate on building strong and long term relationships, target markets, available at all hours, short rate for inventory, and boost sales promotion plans. More over creating customer value together with delivering good services to the customer is more essential. The retailers should fix a reasonable price for the luxury items, as recession has affected more in the business of luxury items. Finally, from the analysis and findings, it is evident that by improving the performance, by managing risks more efficiently, providing valuable information to the customers about the product, reducing the costs, and by reducing the employee turnover, the retailers can overcome the financial crisis. Reference List Credit Crunch and Financial Crisis Effect on Consumer Buying Behaviour 2005. Ivory Research Limited. 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