Sears Pest Analysis Paper

Our group chose Sears as our company to research why they have not been performing well in the past few years. Throughout this paper we will discuss both the internal and external environments of the company, threat of substitutes, why the firm is underperforming, actions the firm has taken to improve their business, and recommendations for improvement.

First, we will analyze the external environment for Sears through the PESTEL framework and threats of substitutes. The PESTEL framework is a tool used to identify macroenvironmental forces that might affect an organization. After reviewing the company and the factors of the PESTEL framework, we have determined the following to be applicable to Sears decline:

E (Economic) - Just as the 2008 recession affected all companies, Sears was largely affected and has struggled to recover. Sears saw their highest stock price ever in 2007 at $134.51 and that quickly fell as the recession developed where Sears saw its lowest at that point, $21.33 (Yahoo Finance). Post 2008 the stock price was starting to go back up but was short lived due to new management in 2013.

They offered whatever possible item you may need and offered to ship your order directly to you, while offering the lowest prices. While Sears used to be a retailer that offered everything, they have been unable to keep up with changing times. Most of Sears sales still come from within their stores (NY Times). Although, Sears has an app and has an easy to navigate website, with free delivery over a certain amount, they were late to the game in updating their business strategy from focusing on brick-and-mortar to e-commerce. Sears has been making changes after their competition but this always leaves them one step