Tashn.com: Developing Merchandising for a Competitive Advantage SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Tashn.com: Developing Merchandising for a Competitive Advantage
In October 2016, the assistant director for buying and sourcing apparel at Tashn.com (Tashn) was examining his team's readiness for the upcoming End of Reason Sale, scheduled for January 3 to 5, 2017. The assistant director was contemplating a few crucial merchandising decisions: Was Tashn's merchandising plan effective? Was its buying model sustainable for large orders? Were the seller selection and evaluation processes efficient to ensure quality? The assistant director was also concerned about an increase in customer complaints and dissatisfaction with product quality in the general market. Ritu Srivastava and Anupama Prashar are affiliated with Management Development Institute.
Swot Analysis of "Tashn.com: Developing Merchandising for a Competitive Advantage" written by Ritu Srivastava, Anupama Prashar, Punit Bhardwaj includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Tashn.com Merchandising facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Tashn.com: Developing Merchandising for a Competitive Advantage case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Competitive strategy, Sales and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Tashn.com: Developing Merchandising for a Competitive Advantage casestudy better are - – competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing energy prices, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, wage bills are increasing, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing transportation and logistics costs,
digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Tashn.com: Developing Merchandising for a Competitive Advantage
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Tashn.com: Developing Merchandising for a Competitive Advantage case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Tashn.com Merchandising, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Tashn.com Merchandising 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 Tashn.com: Developing Merchandising for a Competitive Advantage can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Tashn.com: Developing Merchandising for a Competitive Advantage case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Tashn.com Merchandising
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 Tashn.com Merchandising
Strengths Tashn.com: Developing Merchandising for a Competitive Advantage | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Tashn.com Merchandising in Tashn.com: Developing Merchandising for a Competitive Advantage Harvard Business Review case study are -
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Tashn.com: Developing Merchandising for a Competitive Advantage 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.
Training and development
– Tashn.com Merchandising has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Tashn.com: Developing Merchandising for a Competitive Advantage 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry
– Tashn.com: Developing Merchandising for a Competitive Advantage firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Tashn.com Merchandising to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Tashn.com Merchandising to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Ability to lead change in Sales & Marketing field
– Tashn.com Merchandising 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 Tashn.com Merchandising in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Tashn.com Merchandising 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 Tashn.com: Developing Merchandising for a Competitive Advantage - 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 Tashn.com Merchandising in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Tashn.com Merchandising has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Tashn.com Merchandising has effective processes in place that helps in exploring new product needs, doing quick pilot testing, and then launching the products quickly using its extensive distribution network.
Analytics focus
– Tashn.com Merchandising 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 Ritu Srivastava, Anupama Prashar, Punit Bhardwaj 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.
Organizational Resilience of Tashn.com Merchandising
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Tashn.com Merchandising does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Strong track record of project management
– Tashn.com Merchandising is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Learning organization
- Tashn.com Merchandising 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 Tashn.com Merchandising is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Tashn.com: Developing Merchandising for a Competitive Advantage Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Innovation driven organization
– Tashn.com Merchandising is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Tashn.com: Developing Merchandising for a Competitive Advantage Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Weaknesses Tashn.com: Developing Merchandising for a Competitive Advantage | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Tashn.com: Developing Merchandising for a Competitive Advantage are -
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Tashn.com Merchandising 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 operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Tashn.com: Developing Merchandising for a Competitive Advantage 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 Tashn.com Merchandising 's lucrative customers.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Tashn.com: Developing Merchandising for a Competitive Advantage, in the dynamic environment Tashn.com Merchandising has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Tashn.com Merchandising has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Tashn.com: Developing Merchandising for a Competitive Advantage 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 Tashn.com: Developing Merchandising for a Competitive Advantage can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Tashn.com Merchandising is planning to shift buying processes online.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Tashn.com: Developing Merchandising for a Competitive Advantage, it seems that the employees of Tashn.com Merchandising 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Tashn.com Merchandising has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Tashn.com Merchandising 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Tashn.com Merchandising 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. Tashn.com Merchandising 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Tashn.com: Developing Merchandising for a Competitive Advantage, is just above the industry average. Tashn.com Merchandising 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Tashn.com Merchandising is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Sales & Marketing segment. Tashn.com Merchandising needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Tashn.com Merchandising to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Tashn.com: Developing Merchandising for a Competitive Advantage HBR case study mentions - Tashn.com Merchandising 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.
Opportunities Tashn.com: Developing Merchandising for a Competitive Advantage | 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 Tashn.com: Developing Merchandising for a Competitive Advantage are -
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. Tashn.com Merchandising 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 Sales & Marketing industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Tashn.com Merchandising 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. Tashn.com Merchandising 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Tashn.com Merchandising 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 Tashn.com Merchandising to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
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 Tashn.com Merchandising 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Tashn.com Merchandising 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Tashn.com Merchandising has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Tashn.com Merchandising to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Tashn.com: Developing Merchandising for a Competitive Advantage case study. Tashn.com Merchandising can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Tashn.com Merchandising 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Tashn.com Merchandising can leverage digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate the production process, customer analytics to get better insights into consumer behavior, realtime digital dashboards to get better sales tracking, logistics and transportation, product tracking, etc.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Tashn.com Merchandising 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 Tashn.com: Developing Merchandising for a Competitive Advantage - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Tashn.com Merchandising to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Tashn.com Merchandising 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Tashn.com Merchandising to increase its market reach. Tashn.com Merchandising will be able to reach out to new customers. Secondly 5G will also provide technology framework to build new tools and products that can help more immersive consumer experience and faster consumer journey.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Tashn.com Merchandising can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Tashn.com Merchandising operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Tashn.com Merchandising 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, Tashn.com: Developing Merchandising for a Competitive Advantage, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Threats Tashn.com: Developing Merchandising for a Competitive Advantage External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Tashn.com: Developing Merchandising for a Competitive Advantage are -
Consumer confidence and its impact on Tashn.com Merchandising 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 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. Tashn.com Merchandising needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Increasing wage structure of Tashn.com Merchandising
– 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 Tashn.com Merchandising.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Tashn.com Merchandising 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.
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. Tashn.com Merchandising 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.
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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Tashn.com Merchandising 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Tashn.com Merchandising 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.
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 Tashn.com Merchandising.
Regulatory challenges
– Tashn.com Merchandising 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.
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 Tashn.com Merchandising business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Tashn.com Merchandising is facing in Sales & Marketing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Environmental challenges
– Tashn.com Merchandising 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. Tashn.com Merchandising can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Tashn.com: Developing Merchandising for a Competitive Advantage 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 Tashn.com: Developing Merchandising for a Competitive Advantage 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 Tashn.com: Developing Merchandising for a Competitive Advantage 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 Tashn.com: Developing Merchandising for a Competitive Advantage 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 Tashn.com: Developing Merchandising for a Competitive Advantage 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 Tashn.com Merchandising needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
