Conclusion and Recommendations
5.1 Linking with Objectives
Linking with Objective 1
Leveraging existing core competencies as well as cultivating a workplace with deep knowledge is critical factors that have been helping companies to gain competitiveness in the retail sector. As per the point of view of Donthu and Gustafsson (2020), Covid has provided a hard time for the retail industry in enhancing its business growth. Due to this reason, ASDA has also been going through a critical issue that forbids it to increase its revenue level. Companies have been paying heed to creating such an atmosphere in the working place that can motivate their employees to develop creativity in their character. Apart from that, investing in research and development has also been proven beneficial in order to identify the scope of the market and hence the formulation of a new strategy has been possible for broadening the business growth. Increasing online presence has also been assisting companies to remain in the competition and thus, this objective is linked with the discussion.
Linking with Objective 2
Traditional retailing practice is one of the main challenges that ASDA has been facing in running its business in the competitive market of the UK. As per the opinion of Jocevski (2020), during the pandemic, companies have been transforming from traditional to digitalization to ensure their business can run in a positive direction. But, failing to focus on it has provided a negative outcome to the business of ASDA. The finance manager has highlighted that this company was not able to maintain its finance because of reduced revenue levels. The CEO of ASDA has also claimed that they should have focused on deep apprehension of social media marketing as well as technological development. But, ASDA has failed to work on this fact which has decreased its revenue level at a constant level. Furthermore, ASDA did not focus on change management which has added a disadvantage in procuring the right strategy for enhancing its business growth in the competitive market of the UK.
Linking with Objective 3
In order to increase the sales and get a competitive advantage, the use of social media marketing has been greatly needed. As per the evaluation of Wibowo et al. (2020), social media has been enabling companies to reach a wide range of consumers, build customer loyalty, and reduce marketing costs. Hence, following this research will be beneficial for ASDA to hike its consumer base which will automatically increase its revenue level in the competitive market of the UK. Junior Assistant Manager, as well as Senior Management Officer, has been provided the same opinion for the growth of ASDA. Apart from that, ASDA has also been required to develop infrastructure for implementing an effective social media marketing strategy. As summarized by Hartanto et al. (2022), improvement of infrastructure will be helpful for a company to control traffic which reaching a huge number of consumers will be easier. Thus, ASDA can also take assistance from it in order to enhance its business which is highlighted by the Finance Manager of the company. Hence, the discussion is linked with other chapters for meeting the objective.
Linking with Objective 4
Social media marketing strategy will have been increasing the brand recognition, and engagement of a lot of audiences and hike the website traffic. Due to this reason, ASDA will be able to improve its profitability level. As per the opinion of Talwar et al. (2019), fake news has been increasing for which there is a chance of reputational damage for a company. Furthermore, ASDA can also face security as well as privacy-related issues. This can provide a hard time for the company to keep the growth of the consumer base. On the other hand, infrastructure development will be effective for ASDA to facilitate trade and connectivity with customers. As a result, trend analysis will have been possible to make informed decisions with a view to heightening business growth. In order to develop infrastructure, ASDA has been required to spend a huge amount of money. Furthermore, employee costs will have been increasing, which will add a burden. As a result, there is a chance of decrement in the profitability of the business up to a further level. Hence, the objective is linked with the evaluation and discussion.
5.2 Recommendation
- Development of an intercontinental supply chain in the company
During the pandemic period, it has been observed that ASDA is facing a supply chain shortage, in recent periods it has been observed that the company is facing a problem in supply of eggs. This company is engaged with generating revenue from the selling of eggs, due to a supply shortage in 2021 the company has faced huge revenue loss and people are losing dependencies from the brand (British broadcasting company, 2022). This problem can be solved by the acquisition of new suppliers from the country. Supply chain of the company is facing issues since intercountry travelling has been restricted due to an overflow of covid-19 cases. Thus hiring suppliers from the country will help the company to continue with their selling in the country.
Figure 5.1: Picture from ASDA store
(Source: British broadcasting company, 2023)
The above picture is taken from an ASDA store and this picture reflects that the store does not have a quantity of vegetables and fruits (British broadcasting company, 2023). People of the UK are dependent on fruits and fresh vegetables from the company however, due to the pandemic the company is unable to gather fruit and vegetables from other countries. This lack of supply is affecting the revenue generation of the company as well as the reputation of the brand. During the pandemic period companies such as Tesco, and Sainsbury’s are also affected by supply chain shortages. In order to gain a competitive advantage the company needs to adopt a new strategy. It is recommended to the brand directly deal with farmers in the UK and gather raw fruits and vegetables during a pandemic period. This will help the company to maintain its supply chain and customers will be able to source all products from a single store.
- Implementing a strategy to develop new jobs as social work
During the pandemic period, the UK government imposed a lockdown and for this reason, all physical stores were shut down. ASDA lost huge business in this period and was affected by revenue loss. In order to overcome this period, the company was implementing an online operation method and decided to cut off 5000 jobs which are adequate with only store jobs (British broadcasting company, 2021). In a pandemic period, cutting jobs can affect the reputation of the company since there is no chance for the employees to get new jobs. Thus, it is recommended that the company provide training for online operations so that they do not have to cut any jobs in a pandemic situation.
- Reduction in the price of products during a crisis period
After the pandemic period inflation rate of the UK has risen to a high level and this has increased the raw materials rate in the UK. Thus, the company was forced to increase the price of their product and this is affecting their sales (British broadcasting company, 2022). It is recommended that the company apply a lean method of production which can help in reducing cost of operation to some extent.
5.3 Future scope
This research includes information regarding competitive strategy adopted by ASDA during pandemic period, however, future forecast is not present in the research and successfulness of the competitive strategy has been not reflected in the research. Lack of this information in the research created the scope of further research.
5.4 Research Limitation
In order to proceed with this research, researchers have collected primary data but there is no guarantee of accuracy of information because it is not possible to determine the validity of information. Furthermore, secondary information that researchers have used has contained very little information on the impact of Covid on ASDA particularly. The budget has been creating a problem for researchers for which they were not able to conduct research at a large level. Due to this reason, there is a chance of providing limited information on this research topic that is showing research limitations.