Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution? SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
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Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution?
Wearables, self-driving cars, AI displacing people who will spend less time working and more time searching for memorable experiences to share on social media. These trends are already triggering a seismic shift in consumer patterns toward a constantly connected and engaged omnichannel model. From his research on retail sector trends and the challenges posed by digitization, the author offers a series of tips so that brands and businesses can adapt to the consumer of the future. As the success of firms like Zara, Mango, Uniqlo, Apple and Amazon show, the keys to survival in this new age are unforgettable customer experiences and efficiency.
Swot Analysis of "Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution?" written by Guillermo D'Andrea includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Omnichannel Age facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution? case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Marketing, Supply chain and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution? casestudy better are - – challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing commodity prices, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing energy prices, technology disruption,
increasing transportation and logistics costs, geopolitical disruptions, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution?
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution? case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Omnichannel Age, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Omnichannel Age 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 Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution? can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution? case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Omnichannel Age
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Sales & Marketing field.
4. Making a Sales & Marketing topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Omnichannel Age
Strengths Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution? | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Omnichannel Age in Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution? Harvard Business Review case study are -
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution? 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Omnichannel Age 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 Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution? HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Innovation driven organization
– Omnichannel Age is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution? Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Training and development
– Omnichannel Age has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution? Harvard Business Review case study by analyzing – employees retention, in-house promotion, loyalty, new venture initiation, lack of conflict, and high level of both employees and customer engagement.
Analytics focus
– Omnichannel Age 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 Guillermo D'Andrea 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Omnichannel Age is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution? case study a diverse revenue stream that has helped it to survive disruptions such as global pandemic in Covid-19, financial disruption of 2008, and supply chain disruption of 2021.
Ability to lead change in Sales & Marketing field
– Omnichannel Age is one of the leading players in its industry. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in its segment but also across the whole industry. The ability to lead change has enabled Omnichannel Age in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Omnichannel Age in the sector have low bargaining power. Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution? has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Omnichannel Age to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Learning organization
- Omnichannel Age 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 Omnichannel Age is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution? Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Omnichannel Age is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution? are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Omnichannel Age 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 Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution? - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Omnichannel Age in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Weaknesses Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution? | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution? are -
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Omnichannel Age is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Sales & Marketing segment. Omnichannel Age needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Omnichannel Age to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution?, in the dynamic environment Omnichannel Age has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Omnichannel Age has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Omnichannel Age, firm in the HBR case study Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution? needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Omnichannel Age needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.
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 Omnichannel Age supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution?, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Omnichannel Age vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution? that the firm needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department in the case Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution? can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Omnichannel Age is planning to shift buying processes online.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Omnichannel Age has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Guillermo D'Andrea suggests that, Omnichannel Age 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution?, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Sales & Marketing 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Omnichannel Age has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Omnichannel Age is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution? can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Opportunities Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution? | 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 Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution? are -
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Omnichannel Age in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Sales & Marketing segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
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 Omnichannel Age 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.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Omnichannel Age in the consumer business. Now Omnichannel Age can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Omnichannel Age 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 Sales & Marketing segment.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Omnichannel Age is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution? 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Omnichannel Age can develop new processes and procedures in Sales & Marketing 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Omnichannel Age 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Omnichannel Age 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 Omnichannel Age to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Omnichannel Age can build a diversified supply chain model across various countries in - South East Asia, India, and other parts of the world. This reconfiguration of global supply chain can help, as suggested in case study, Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution?, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Omnichannel Age 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Sales & Marketing industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Omnichannel Age can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Omnichannel Age can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Omnichannel Age operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Omnichannel Age has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Omnichannel Age to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution? case study. Omnichannel Age can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Threats Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution? External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution? are -
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.
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 Omnichannel Age.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Omnichannel Age in the Sales & Marketing industry. The Sales & Marketing industry is already at various protected from local competition in China, with the rise of trade war the protection levels may go up. This presents a clear threat of current business model in Chinese market.
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 Omnichannel Age in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Environmental challenges
– Omnichannel Age needs to have a robust strategy against the disruptions arising from climate change and energy requirements. EU has identified it as key priority area and spending 30% of its 880 billion Euros European post Covid-19 recovery funds on green technology. Omnichannel Age can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Omnichannel Age can face downward pressure on margins from increasing competition from international players. The international players have stable revenue in their home market and can use those resources to penetrate prominent markets illustrated in HBR case study Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution? .
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. Omnichannel Age needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Increasing wage structure of Omnichannel Age
– 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 Omnichannel Age.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution?, Omnichannel Age may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Sales & Marketing .
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Sales & Marketing field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Omnichannel Age can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Instability in the European markets
– European Union markets are facing three big challenges post Covid – expanded balance sheets, Brexit related business disruption, and aggressive Russia looking to distract the existing security mechanism. Omnichannel Age will face different problems in different parts of Europe. For example it will face inflationary pressures in UK, France, and Germany, balance sheet expansion and demand challenges in Southern European countries, and geopolitical instability in the Eastern Europe.
Regulatory challenges
– Omnichannel Age needs to prepare for regulatory challenges as consumer protection groups and other pressure groups are vigorously advocating for more regulations on big business - to reduce inequality, to create a level playing field, to product data privacy and consumer privacy, to reduce the influence of big money on democratic institutions, etc. This can lead to significant changes in the Sales & Marketing industry regulations.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Omnichannel Age 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution? 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 Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution? 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 Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution? 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 Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution? 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 Rethinking the Funnel for the Omnichannel Age: Are You Ready for the Retail Revolution? 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 Omnichannel Age needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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