Legal forces:
1. Potential tax cuts
According to World Economic Forum[22], high tax rates are considered one of the most problematic factors for doing business in Canada after bureaucratic procedures. Justin Trudeau aims to stimulate the national economy and improve international trade by introducing duty remission programs[23]. Currently most of the companies cannot enter the Canadian market due to anti-competitive provincial tax policies. As a global company with international operations and integrated logistics H&M may benefit from the potential tax cuts and should carefully monitor changes in this legal field.
2. Labor laws in China
This legal factor is now considered to be common for the whole apparel industry worldwide which
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Overall, despite possible challenges Canadian market should expect growth in size of fast fashion industry.
MICRO ENVIRONMENT
In order to identify possible growth points and provide meaningful recommendations, careful analysis of micro environment should be done. The level of stakeholders’ power and competition within the fashion industry in Canada can be divided between five different forces according to Porter’s model: suppliers, new incumbents, buyers, substitutes and rivalry or competition within the
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Costs of switching to another retailer in fast fashion industry are low, taking in account that their loyalty programs are quite similar to each other. Furthermore, Canadians are extremely cost-conscious as can be seen from the fact that price still remains the major variable in their purchasing decisions[4]. Despite the fact that individuals alone do not have direct bargaining power, fast fashion industry is affected buy their overall influence on the market, ability to switch and price sensitivity, which brings to the fact that this industry is consumer-driven. Buyers demand continuous changes and shape the future of H&M’s
Maxx benefits from chaos by picking up the pieces, merchandise at a discount, when other retail stores close, or have overruns, or unexpected changes in demand and in return pass these savings on to their customers who shop for value (Levine-Weinberg, 2016) This is the demand-side benefits of scale when the consumer rather pay less for name brand merchandise than to pay more for the same designer in the department store. The stores that where having difficulty in the retail market left themselves vulnerable by not defending their position and T.J. Maxx proactively attacks this opportunity with its purchasing power and passes the savings to its customers. This proactive process of attacking and defending is what Wee (2016) calls the holistic and balanced perspective of handling competition. Moreover, this business warfare strategy of attacking struggling competitors is called offensive marketing warfare strategy (Grewal, 2014).
An entrepreneur is someone who recognizes an opening in the market for a product or service and carries it out using initiative. Usually being innovators; entrepreneurs are risk takers in means of not knowing whether their ideas will in fact succeed (Business Dictionary, 2016). Fashion leaders are considered entrepreneurs because to be strong in the fashion industry one must attempt to stay ahead of competitors and know what is already out there as would an entrepreneur. One of Australia’s most successful fashion designers could also be considered an entrepreneur; Collette Dinnigan is an award winning fashion designer who has exhibited in London and Paris and was the first Australian to launch a ‘ready-to-wear’ collection, as well as being
JCPenney is a chain of American mid-range department stores that is based out of Texas that started over 100 years ago. JCPenny has been successful for most of its time up until the last three to four years. The company is trying relentlessly to overcome the lingering effects of the makeover that former CEO, Ron Johnson, had implemented in order for the company to take a new direction in hopes of increasing sales. The new CEO, Myron Ullman, has taken a close look into the markets demographic segmentation along with the income segmentation in order to attempt to return the retailer back to its old self, which is to appeal to middle-market customers. A couple issues of major concern for the company are the dissolving of Johnson’s Boutiques, the price of their products, and overall revenue.
Present day Federated consists of both Bloomingdale’s and Macy’s stores and operates in 34 states as well as Guam and Puerto Rico. While Bloomingdale’s and Macy’s provide both private and national brands and are similar in merchandising categories (men’s, women’s and children’s apparel, home décor, shoes, beauty, and accessories), they differ greatly in culture. Bloomingdale’s, being more upscale, targets consumers that are more concerned with trend and quality than they are price. Macy’s targets the more value oriented consumer and represents a broader Federated clientele. Macy’s represents 423 of the 459 Federated locations while Bloomingdale’s represents only 36 locations. Because I can better relate to the value conscious consumer of the Macy’s division and because they represent such a large portion of Federated, I will further explore their current characteristics and behaviors that suggest that they possess qualities of both monopolistic competition and oligopolies.
Target, a high-end discount department store, hoped to continue expanding and adding to the company’s 1,752 stores, by purchasing 200 Zellers stores, located in Canada. One of Target’s, longtime goals was to expand into Canada , and after a decade, the company took a jump across the border (Shaw, 2011). Because many thousand Canadians hold a Red Card, Target’s reward card, Target assumed this would be a successful expansion, increasing the amount of US brands that encompass Canada’s market. Target spent a year converting the Zeller stores, altering and renovating them to transform them into Target Canada, a subsidiary of Target (Shaw, 2011). They opened 124 stores in locations all over Canada, hiring back only one percent of the former Zellers employees, desiring to make a fresh start for the department store chain (Target Refused Zellers Workers).
Berry, Hannah. “The Fashion Industry: Free to Be an Individual.” The Norton Field Guide to
Primark has a huge customer base for being one of the largest clothing retailer in the UK. Nonetheless, the bargaining power of buyers is relatively high due to the large quantity of competitors in the industry. Buyers are price sensitive and they will probably seek for the lowest price before purchasing an item. There is no switching cost in the market so customers are likely to buy products in other store once they discover a cheaper price.
...ed the lifestyle of Canadians. Their effect on Canadians contributed to the making of our consumer capitalist society. While department stores introduced several innovative ideas to the business world, their negative impact significantly contributes to our materialistic lifestyle. Donica Belisle’s “Retail Nation: Department Stores and the Making of Modern Canada” clearly define these aspects and describe the mass retailers relationship between the public, its stakeholders and Canada’s national identity. The author’s well researched information and various perspectives of a situation support her arguments effectively. In conclusion, Donica Belisle’s book excels in its presentation as it is well written and well organised. She successfully communicates her main points and eliminates bias by presenting both sides of a story, making this a good book for others to read.
The purpose of this presentation is to provide a comparative analysis of business activities of two well-known representatives of the US retail industry, Target and Walmart. My research is focused on a business strategy of these largest and most experienced American merchandising companies; particularly, on their activities in Canada. Based on the data collected from the various sources, I would like to detect, analyze, and demonstrate the obvious causes that have lead to a catastrophic failure of Target in its unsuccessful attempt to win a Canadian market.
Fashion models don’t need to be thin, they need to be diverse and healthy at whatever weight that is. Not everyone is supposed to be thin, some women are big boned and curvy, others are naturally slim and small boned, some are tall, others are short, some are light skinned and others are darker. So many diverse looks exist in the world today and the fashion industry need to change their perception of perfect. Body image in our society is out of control. We have young men and women comparing themselves to unrealistic models and images in the media and feeling bad about the way their own bodies look because they somehow don’t measure up. (Dunham, 2011) The struggle for models to be thin has led to models becoming anorexic or bulimic, untimely deaths, and inferiority complexes. Even worse is the fact that they influence a whole generation of young women who look up to these models and think “thin” is how they are supposed to be. They influence what we buy, how we eat and what we wear. Why has this specific group captured our attention so much? Why do we seem to be so fascinated in their lives, to the point where we try to look and act just like them? The media is largely to be blamed for this, many people believe the media has forced the notion that everything supermodels do is ideal. Others believe that the society is to be blamed because we have created a fascination with their lives. There are many opinions, and I agree with both of these specific opinions. We allow ourselves to be captivated by these people's lives, and the media portrayal of their lives seem to also enthrall us. (Customessaymeister, 2013) Despite the severe risks of forcing models to become too thin, designers, fashion editors, fashion brands and agencies still ...
known for decades: it pays to invest in Canada. There is a government commitment to attract foreign direct investment. Canada's government provides a competitive, welcoming climate for international business. It is committed to fiscal responsibility, deficit reduction and job creation.
Thesis: With the unregulated practices that goes on in the Fashion Industry, change is one notion that this abusive yet glamorous business have yet to see.
H&M is the world’s second largest retailer, only behind its main rival Zara of Inditex (Petro, 2012). The company currently has 3006 stores in 53 countries. The company does not own any factories. H&M outsources production to network of 800 independent suppliers; 75% in Asia and 25% in Europe. In order to increase the efficiency and productivity of its supply chain, the company strategically locates its network of 20 to 30 production offices close to its suppliers. According to Stockholm Newsroom, the pretax profit of the company for the month of June to August of 2013 is $907 million, which indicates an 11 rise in turnover (Pollard, 2013). The company continuous development plan facilitates its goal for both brick and mortar, and online stores expansion worldwide. The target segments for H&M, a category specialist store, are trendsetters and fashion/money conscious males and females ranging from 16 to 40 years old with income ranging $15,000 to $60,000 annually.
Consumers tend to be more demanding and more arbitrary, so use appropriate strategy will be critical to all fast fashion retailers.
Globalization is basically about attempting to make things global and expanding products and companies over seas to countries all around the world. It can also be classified as the process of creating languages, services, and products that apply not just to an individual neighborhood or city or country, but to the whole world. Canadians have experienced many benefits that globalization has brought to their lives including the availability to products and services from all around the world. However, at the same time on the other side of the world it has had many pessimistic or negative effects on workers in developing countries. As Globalization began to boom, the number of sweatshops also increased greatly and its effects were most definitely harming in many ways to the individuals employed by them; mainly women and children. Out of all the industries that have become globalized, the textile and garment industries are amongst the most. Mutually the textile and garment industries make up one of the largest sources of industrial employment in the world. In virtually every country around the world clothing is being produced but being sold somewhere else. Around 30 million people are making clothes and textiles around the globe and out of those thirty million, most of them are women. Around the world women and children are suffering because of the introduction of sweatshops, low wages, unsafe working environments, free trade zones, foreign control, sub contracting and abuses of human and worker rights.