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SWOT Analysis for Secret Sales

What is the SWOT analysis and how can it be useful for organizations?

SWOT analysis is a useful tool used to assess the strengths and the weaknesses of an organization and identify the potential opportunities and the threats that may be faced by an organization. The tool enables the managers to come up with solid and valid strategic plans for the growth of the business. It is essential in making valid decisions for short-term and long-term plans. Knowing the company strengths helps the managers to concentrate more on them and utilize them maximally through determining the internal and external factors that may influence the performance of a company (Kangas et al 2016, p. 84). It helps to use plan and use the resources efficiently and improve the company operations. Identifying the weaknesses also helps the organization to avoid mistakes such as offering inferior products as opposed to the competitors. The company is able to identify the critical areas which need much attention for improvement.

Conduct a SWOT analysis of SecretSales.com, based on the information in the case study. Structure your SWOT according to the three business functions: Human Resources Management, Accounting and Finance, and Marketing. Present your analysis in the form of a SWOT table (40 marks)

SecretSales.com is a well-established company dealing with technology-provision. Some of the strengths include being the pioneer in the UK technology market which earns it the customers’ interests and trust. The great efforts made to establish the company have born fruits as the revenues have risen 20pc annually which saw the company attain a gross of £47m in 2015. Partnering with brands such as Dyson is a great move which has increased the sales volume of the gadgets. Some weaknesses include being a low-margin business which means if its sales volume are low, then it incurs great loses. The introduction of new products in the market that the customers are not used to may foster loses as the customers have not gained the trust in those new products.  The company has had to operate for more than 10 years before acquiring business development and this may be due to factors such as poor management or poor marketing strategies. The money spend on advertising is too much accounting to 70% of the company spending and this may pose a financial imbalance for the company. Having to offer too many discounts to the customers in order to win more of them and retain them and also maintain the integrity of the brand is a challenge to the financial position of the company. The opportunities include investing in the marketing of the products using the capital funds raised as most of the products are not well-known in the market. The business is focusing on informing the customers on any new arrivals of flash sales by texting them.  The threats include; most of the high street brands have developed their own websites which they use to access the online audience. This poses a threat to the SecretSales.com Company as it is its main business hence fostering a loss of customers. The outstanding services offered to the customers by the multichannel retailers also poses a threat to the company.

Based on your SWOT analysis, which are the most important issues that you think SecretSales.com need to address? Explain the reasons for your answer. (20 marks)

The customer needs should be addressed such that the needs of the members are well understood so as to be able to narrow down the operations to meet their needs. The enhancement of the personalization is important in ensuring an increase in the average spending per head and also customer satisfaction. The spending on advertisement should be reduced as this utilizes a lot of the company revenues whereas the advertising may not yield the desired results back (Phadermrod et al 2016, p. 90). The discounts offered should also be minimized to avoid pressing down the revenues. The management should also come up with various means of advertising which suits different age-groups in order to reach as many potential clients as possible. For instance, the use of tongue-in-cheek advertising may only interest the youngsters while the potential customers of other age groups are left out.

How do you think SecretSales.com should respond to the most important issues arising from the SWOT analysis? Explain your recommendation. (10 marks)

In order to address the weaknesses of the business, the management should employ the qualified staff with the necessary skills, especially in the marketing area. This will help to identify new markets and also increase the number of members. If the business activities are not well-advertised, the potential customers do not get the interest in buying the products hence they end up ignoring them (KOLLER 2015, p. 58). Maintaining the strengths also requires experienced personnel who have a good knowledge of the business strategies. The business strategies should be fashioned in a way that grabbing any new opportunity is possible and can be done in the best way possible to reap maximum benefits. The management should assess the potential competitors and identify the services that are not offered by the competitors so as to maximize on them. This will present an effective way to address their competitors.

References

• Bohari, A.M., Hin, C.W. and Fuad, N., 2017. The competitiveness of halal food industry in Malaysia: A SWOT-ICT analysis. Geografia-Malaysian Journal of Society and Space, 9(1).99
• Brooks, G., Heffner, A. and Henderson, D., 2014. A SWOT analysis of competitive knowledge from social media for a small start-up business. The Review of Business Information Systems (Online), 18(1), p.23.
• Grant, R.M., 2016. Contemporary Strategy Analysis Text Only. John Wiley & Sons.
• JAMES, G. (2011). How to say it: business to business selling : power words and strategies from the world’s top sales experts. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=1117547.
• Kangas, J., Kajanus, M., Leskinen, P. and Kurttila, M., 2016. Incorporating MCDS and voting into SWOT: Basic idea and experiences. Serbian Journal of Management, 11(1), pp.1-13.
• KOLLER, T. (2015). Valuation: measuring and managing the value of companies. John Wiley & Sons Inc.Bottom of Form
• Phadermrod, B., Crowder, R.M. and Wills, G.B., 2016. Importance-Performance Analysis based SWOT analysis. International Journal of Information Management.