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Merchandising at Nine West Retail Stores SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution

Case Study Description of Merchandising at Nine West Retail Stores


Describes the merchandising decision process (organization, structure, and incentives) at Nine West retail stores, a large footwear retailer in the United States. Also describes changes currently occurring at Nine West and thus provides a context in which students can recommend changes to the merchandising process and the structure of the merchandising organization. To explain how merchandising decisions are made at a fashion retailer and to explore how changes in the environment will impact the merchandising organization.

Authors :: Ananth Raman, Colin Welch

Topics :: Technology & Operations

Tags :: Budgeting, Decision making, Forecasting, Motivating people, Operations management, Organizational culture, Sales, SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis

Swot Analysis of "Merchandising at Nine West Retail Stores" written by Ananth Raman, Colin Welch includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Merchandising West facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Merchandising at Nine West Retail Stores case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Budgeting, Decision making, Forecasting, Motivating people, Operations management, Organizational culture, Sales and Technology & Operations.


Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Merchandising at Nine West Retail Stores casestudy better are - – cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing commodity prices, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, wage bills are increasing, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, etc



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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Merchandising at Nine West Retail Stores


SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Merchandising at Nine West Retail Stores case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Merchandising West, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Merchandising West operates in.

According to Harvard Business Review, 75% of the managers use SWOT analysis for various purposes such as – evaluating current scenario, strategic planning, new venture feasibility, personal growth goals, new market entry, Go To market strategies, portfolio management and strategic trade-off assessment, organizational restructuring, etc.




SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix


SWOT analysis of Merchandising at Nine West Retail Stores can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Merchandising at Nine West Retail Stores case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Merchandising West
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Technology & Operations field.
4. Making a Technology & Operations topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Merchandising West




Strengths Merchandising at Nine West Retail Stores | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Merchandising West in Merchandising at Nine West Retail Stores Harvard Business Review case study are -

Ability to recruit top talent

– Merchandising West is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Merchandising at Nine West Retail Stores are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.

Superior customer experience

– The customer experience strategy of Merchandising West in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.

Cross disciplinary teams

– Horizontal connected teams at the Merchandising West are driving operational speed, building greater agility, and keeping the organization nimble to compete with new competitors. It helps are organization to ideate new ideas, and execute them swiftly in the marketplace.

Highly skilled collaborators

– Merchandising West has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive segment. Secondly the value chain collaborators of the firm in Merchandising at Nine West Retail Stores HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.

Low bargaining power of suppliers

– Suppliers of Merchandising West in the sector have low bargaining power. Merchandising at Nine West Retail Stores has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Merchandising West to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.

Operational resilience

– The operational resilience strategy in the Merchandising at Nine West Retail Stores Harvard Business Review case study comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the industry, building diversified operations across different geographies so that disruption in one part of the world doesn’t impact the overall performance of the firm, and integrating the various business operations and processes through its digital transformation drive.

Effective Research and Development (R&D)

– Merchandising West has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in, as mentioned in case study Merchandising at Nine West Retail Stores - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.

Organizational Resilience of Merchandising West

– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Merchandising West does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.

Learning organization

- Merchandising West is a learning organization. It has inculcated three key characters of learning organization in its processes and operations – exploration, creativity, and expansiveness. The work place at Merchandising West is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Merchandising at Nine West Retail Stores Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.

Analytics focus

– Merchandising West is putting a lot of focus on utilizing the power of analytics in business decision making. This has put it among the leading players in the industry. The technology infrastructure suggested by Ananth Raman, Colin Welch can also help it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.

Digital Transformation in Technology & Operations segment

- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Merchandising West digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Merchandising West has successfully integrated the four key components of digital transformation – digital integration in processes, digital integration in marketing and customer relationship management, digital integration into the value chain, and using technology to explore new products and market opportunities.

Sustainable margins compare to other players in Technology & Operations industry

– Merchandising at Nine West Retail Stores firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Merchandising West to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Technology & Operations industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Merchandising West to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.






Weaknesses Merchandising at Nine West Retail Stores | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Merchandising at Nine West Retail Stores are -

Slow to strategic competitive environment developments

– As Merchandising at Nine West Retail Stores HBR case study mentions - Merchandising West takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the industry in last five years.

Compensation and incentives

– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Merchandising at Nine West Retail Stores, is just above the industry average. Merchandising West needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.

High operating costs

– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Merchandising at Nine West Retail Stores has high operating costs in the. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Merchandising West 's lucrative customers.

No frontier risks strategy

– After analyzing the HBR case study Merchandising at Nine West Retail Stores, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Technology & Operations strategy. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.

Ability to respond to the competition

– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Merchandising at Nine West Retail Stores, in the dynamic environment Merchandising West has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Merchandising West has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.

High bargaining power of channel partners

– Because of the regulatory requirements, Ananth Raman, Colin Welch suggests that, Merchandising West is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the industry.

Slow to harness new channels of communication

– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Merchandising West is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Merchandising at Nine West Retail Stores can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.

Lack of clear differentiation of Merchandising West products

– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Merchandising West needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.

Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy

– From the instances in the HBR case study Merchandising at Nine West Retail Stores, it seems that the employees of Merchandising West don’t have comprehensive understanding of the firm’s strategy. This is reflected in number of promotional campaigns over the last few years that had mixed messaging and competing priorities. Some of the strategic activities and services promoted in the promotional campaigns were not consistent with the organization’s strategy.

Slow decision making process

– As mentioned earlier in the report, Merchandising West has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the industry over the last five years. Merchandising West even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.

High dependence on existing supply chain

– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Merchandising West supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Merchandising at Nine West Retail Stores, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Merchandising West vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.




Opportunities Merchandising at Nine West Retail Stores | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis


The opportunities highlighted in the Harvard Business Review case study Merchandising at Nine West Retail Stores are -

Using analytics as competitive advantage

– Merchandising West has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in the sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled, as illustrated in the Harvard case study Merchandising at Nine West Retail Stores - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Merchandising West to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.

Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities

– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Merchandising West to expand its talent hiring zone. According to McKinsey Global Institute, 20% of the high end workforce in fields such as finance, information technology, can continously work from remote local post Covid-19. This presents a really great opportunity for Merchandising West to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.

Developing new processes and practices

– Merchandising West can develop new processes and procedures in Technology & Operations industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing etc.

Learning at scale

– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Merchandising West to conduct training and development for its employees across the world. This will result in not only reducing the cost of training but also help employees in different part of the world to integrate with the headquarter work culture, ethos, and standards.

Loyalty marketing

– Merchandising West has focused on building a highly responsive customer relationship management platform. This platform is built on in-house data and driven by analytics and artificial intelligence. The customer analytics can help the organization to fine tune its loyalty marketing efforts, increase the wallet share of the organization, reduce wastage on mainstream advertising spending, build better pricing strategies using personalization, etc.

Increase in government spending

– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Merchandising West can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Merchandising West operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Technology & Operations sector.

Redefining models of collaboration and team work

– As explained in the weaknesses section, Merchandising West is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Merchandising at Nine West Retail Stores case study suggests that firm can utilize new technology to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.

Lowering marketing communication costs

– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Merchandising West in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Technology & Operations segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.

Low interest rates

– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Merchandising West can still utilize the low interest rates to borrow money for capital investment. Secondly it can also use the increase of government spending in infrastructure projects to get new business.

Reconfiguring business model

– The expansion of digital payment system, the bringing down of international transactions costs using Bitcoin and other blockchain based currencies, etc can help Merchandising West to reconfigure its entire business model. For example it can used blockchain based technologies to reduce piracy of its products in the big markets such as China. Secondly it can use the popularity of e-commerce in various developing markets to build a Direct to Customer business model rather than the current Channel Heavy distribution network.

Identify volunteer opportunities

– Covid-19 has impacted working population in two ways – it has led to people soul searching about their professional choices, resulting in mass resignation. Secondly it has encouraged people to do things that they are passionate about. This has opened opportunities for businesses to build volunteer oriented socially driven projects. Merchandising West can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.

Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19

– Consumer behavior has changed in the Technology & Operations industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Merchandising West can take advantage of these changes in consumer behavior to build a far more efficient business model. For example consumer regular ordering of products can reduce both last mile delivery costs and market penetration costs. Merchandising West can further use this consumer data to build better customer loyalty, provide better products and service collection, and improve the value proposition in inflationary times.

Building a culture of innovation

– managers at Merchandising West can make experimentation a productive activity and build a culture of innovation using approaches such as – mining transaction data, A/B testing of websites and selling platforms, engaging potential customers over various needs, and building on small ideas in the Technology & Operations segment.




Threats Merchandising at Nine West Retail Stores External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis


The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Merchandising at Nine West Retail Stores are -

Stagnating economy with rate increase

– Merchandising West can face lack of demand in the market place because of Fed actions to reduce inflation. This can lead to sluggish growth in the economy, lower demands, lower investments, higher borrowing costs, and consolidation in the field.

Easy access to finance

– Easy access to finance in Technology & Operations field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Merchandising West can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.

Consumer confidence and its impact on Merchandising West demand

– There is a high probability of declining consumer confidence, given – high inflammation rate, rise of gig economy, lower job stability, increasing cost of living, higher interest rates, and aging demography. All the factors contribute to people saving higher rate of their income, resulting in lower consumer demand in the industry and other sectors.

High dependence on third party suppliers

– Merchandising West high dependence on third party suppliers can disrupt its processes and delivery mechanism. For example -the current troubles of car makers because of chip shortage is because the chip companies started producing chips for electronic companies rather than car manufacturers.

Backlash against dominant players

– US Congress and other legislative arms of the government are getting tough on big business especially technology companies. The digital arm of Merchandising West business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.

Technology disruption because of hacks, piracy etc

– The colonial pipeline illustrated, how vulnerable modern organization are to international hackers, miscreants, and disruptors. The cyber security interruption, data leaks, etc can seriously jeopardize the future growth of the organization.

Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution

– Merchandising West has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Technology & Operations industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Merchandising West needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Technology & Operations sector. According to Mckinsey study top managers believe that the adoption of technology in operations, communications is 20-25 times faster than what they planned in the beginning of 2019.

Increasing wage structure of Merchandising West

– Post Covid-19 there is a sharp increase in the wages especially in the jobs that require interaction with people. The increasing wages can put downward pressure on the margins of Merchandising West.

Learning curve for new practices

– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Merchandising at Nine West Retail Stores, Merchandising West may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Technology & Operations .

New competition

– After the dotcom bust of 2001, financial crisis of 2008-09, the business formation in US economy had declined. But in 2020 alone, there are more than 1.5 million new business applications in United States. This can lead to greater competition for Merchandising West in the Technology & Operations sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.

Capital market disruption

– During the Covid-19, Dow Jones has touched record high. The valuations of a number of companies are way beyond their existing business model potential. This can lead to capital market correction which can put a number of suppliers, collaborators, value chain partners in great financial difficulty. It will directly impact the business of Merchandising West.

High level of anxiety and lack of motivation

– the Great Resignation in United States is the sign of broader dissatisfaction among the workforce in United States. Merchandising West needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Technology & Operations industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.

Aging population

– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.




Weighted SWOT Analysis of Merchandising at Nine West Retail Stores Template, Example


Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers in the HBR case study Merchandising at Nine West Retail Stores needs to zero down on the relative importance of each factor mentioned in the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants. We can provide the relative importance to each factor by assigning relative weights. Weighted SWOT analysis process is a three stage process –

First stage for doing weighted SWOT analysis of the case study Merchandising at Nine West Retail Stores is to rank the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. This will help you to assess the most important strengths and weaknesses of the firm and which one of the strengths and weaknesses mentioned in the initial lists are marginal and can be left out.

Second stage for conducting weighted SWOT analysis of the Harvard case study Merchandising at Nine West Retail Stores is to give probabilities to the external strategic factors thus better understanding the opportunities and threats arising out of macro environment changes and developments.

Third stage of constructing weighted SWOT analysis of Merchandising at Nine West Retail Stores is to provide strategic recommendations includes – joining likelihood of external strategic factors such as opportunities and threats to the internal strategic factors – strengths and weaknesses. You should start with external factors as they will provide the direction of the overall industry. Secondly by joining probabilities with internal strategic factors can help the company not only strategic fit but also the most probably strategic trade-off that Merchandising West needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.



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