River Island is a private company whose headquarters are in London UK. It is a textile company that deals with different fashions of clothes for men, women, and children. River Island Company makes its sales in retail form. River Island has more than 350 retail stores across most parts of the world as at 2018. The stores are based in UK, Asia, Republic of Ireland, South America and other countries across Europe ("River Island – Fashion Clothing for Women, Men, Boys, and Girls," 2018). River Island also deals with online marketing and selling. It currently has six working websites on its name which help in advertising their products. Interested customers from all the parts of the world can make purchases, and the clothes delivered to them since the company has integrated the use of the four common currencies in the world. The purchased items can be sent to the customers in over 100 countries in the world.
The reason for choosing this company as the best retailer is the brand name of the company. It has been in operation for over sixty years. It has built its excellent reputation of selling the best outfit for the customers. Overall the years it has been an operation, it has expanded to more than 100 countries in the world precisely across all the continents. The other reason that makes it the preferred company of our choice is the fact that they have integrated online marketing and purchasing. With the world undergoing internet revolution and the growing needs to purchase items in the online stores, the company has worked hard to reach that milestone. With the currently six websites that are operational, customers from all over the world can visit the company website to check on the various newly developed fashions for clothes. If interested, the customers can purchase and send the payments through online means, and in turn, their purchases are delivered to them at their pickup locations.
With the company’s headquarters located in London UK, it is an added advantage. All the clothes are designed and made here. It has an employee’s base of more than 10,000 workers of which most of them are known designers across the world. New fashions of clothes streams in every week hence makes it a competitive fashion company among the biggest companies in the world ("River Island – Fashion Clothing for Women, Men, Boys, and Girls," 2018). Having established itself as one of the most successful companies in the world, as at 2013, the company had reached to a net worth of $809.5 million which was a 3.8% growth from the previous year.
Introduction to the portfolio range
Having discussed the reputation of River Island in the fashion industry, this section will review the information about the retailer. With the many years that it has been operational, it has all the information it requires to succeed in the competitive fashion industry with other giant companies. The company has all the information on the groups of people that it can target to increase their sales. The targeting of the customers is not done in a specific region, but it is done on the trending market in the fashion industry. The company targets mostly the fashion clothes purchased by the youths from 18 to 35 years. The other group of people that are targeted by the company is women who are ranging from 38 to 43 years. According to the recent research done on the fashion market, there is an increase in the trend of women in that range of years wanting to purchase designer clothes (Kim, 2015). By the company having experienced designers working for them, it has been easy to meet the demands for the customers. It has grown its advertising work by creating awareness about the quality of their products hence the steady increase in the customer base.
The portfolio range is to be displayed online. This is the reason River Island should be selected as the best company. It has six working websites under its ownership and control of operations. This shows that the company will be in a position to offer a chance to reach the target customers. The intended product to be sold will gain interests in all the countries. In the countries where the company has retail stores, the product will reach the target customers at a faster rate than the other companies would do. River Island has set measures that enable it to deliver the product to the customers who have ordered it using the online means in a faster method. It also makes sure that the product that is advertised on their website is the same product that is delivered to the customers. Changing some features to be different than that in the description would destroy the reputation of the company which it has been building for a long time (Xu, 2014).
The recent increase in the imposition of taxes on some brands of the company clothes has not damaged the plans for the company to work on the international market efficiently. The recent establishments of the websites are seen as landmark improvement, and more are expected to meet the objectives of the company. With the increase in the number of online stores, there will be a need to make necessary measures to prepare the company on how it will be in a position to deliver all the purchases across all the countries in the world. The company must have a plan to care for the needs of the customers in other countries where there are no established pickup stores.
KPI Plan
The company plans to raise 850,000 Euros as sales turnover of the chosen stock. The intake margin sales are the total amount that the price of an item is increased with to make quotations and the selling price of the selected item. If a mistake is made during the setting of this selling price can lead to the item being sold at a higher cost or lower cost than it should. On the other hand, markdown spend is the difference between the marginal sales and the value of the goods sold. The choice should be to use intake margin. Chances of making huge purchases will be high. Customers know the brand of the company together with its products and they will be willing to buy the outfits at the highest price since they want to enjoy it. Having set the preferred gears to be outworn & jackets, bottoms & dresses and tops, it will cover the range of the demands of the customers. Most of the youths and women born in the year 1980 to 1985 and who are of between 38 to 43 years will be the most buyers of the outfits. Presence of experienced designers in the company will ensure that the best outfits are made and everything is made according to the description in the website and the other channels that the company uses to advertise.
OTB breakdown
The strategy that the company uses is to target the groups of people who will in most cases make purchases of the produced goods. The company works in hand with the trending market to avoid oversupplying the outfits in their retail stores and end up making losses from reduced sales. To prevent this from happening, the company has selected the gears according to the current demand in the market. Women clothes are the leading in priority in the catalog. The reason behind this is that women are preferring to purchase their designer outfits from the online stores instead of traveling to make purchases at the company retailer outlets (Abu-Shamaa, Abu-Shanab & Khasawneh, 2016). Tops outfits have been given the highest priority in the catalog. They appear the first in the list with an average ROS of 6.0. The reason behind the choice of the tops to have the highest number of sales. According to the study, most of the women will in most cases purchase the tops than jackets. It makes it have a higher demand, and the company has to keep up the design work and production to meet the demand with higher supply. Bottoms and dresses come second with an average ROS of 5.5. The fourth in the catalog is the jackets and outwear with an average ROS of 4.5. According to company statistics, men have the highest number of outwear and jackets purchases. It shows that women are admirers of designed clothes hence getting the preference in the catalog.
River Island current collections
The current majority collections in River Island company is the women’s wear. With the increase in demand for designer clothes by women, the company has prioritized on the women clothes. They sell dresses, tops, purses, and handbags. They are made in large numbers more than that of children, youths, and men. It involves tops and dresses. To increase sales of certain types of clothes, the company places offers and promotions on purchases of clothes (In, 2018). The company also targets the youths. There is an increase in the demand for jackets and outwear by the young people. In the company's display, it also has holiday clothes for women, children, men, and youths. This strategy targets to increase sales during certain holidays and seasons in different parts of the world. The company makes significant sales in times when the demand is high hence the production is increased. The fashion evolves on a weekly basis thus the company looks to make vast and faster supplies and sales within a short time. With the evolving world regarding internet use in online purchasing, the demand for designer clothes will continue to increase.
Supplier analysis
River Island Company has worked hard to ensure they distribute their outfits across all the countries. To make higher sales, the company increases the number of supplies to the stores which have recorded a high number of sales in the past. Most of these retail stores chosen are mostly in the cities with the highest number of people. The supplies are also gauged based on the online purchasing activities that the people in that region have (Mathew, 2016). By using the website to advertise and sell the products, the target customers will increase eventually increasing the sales that the company makes. For example, in London, the company has a good brand hence most of the customers will prefer the products of River Island company. It forces the company to increase the supplies to the retailer shops.
Portrait display
Basing this on the customers purchasing theories, it is important to note that customers will be interested in checking and buying the products that have the best portraits in the advertising channels. The choice colors that most of the customers prefer should be the preference. It will increase the number of sales of the designer clothes made from that choice color. Using a planogram to display the selected products is the best idea. By placing them at a strategic point, it will be easier for the interested customers to spot the clothes without making inquiries. The method of the display also matters. All the parts of the designer clothes should be visible for every person to notice. The color of the outfits used as display should be the striking colors.
Allocation plan
During the allocation of the outfits in different company stores, the clothes should be supplied regarding the demand. Few packages of the clothes with the least orders are provided while the packages of clothes with the highest number of requests are given the most top priority. When an outfit on demand is supplied in low quantity, it leads to the dissatisfaction of the customers who are want to make the first purchase of the designer clothes. Having the customers wait for a very long time for the clothes to arrive at their convenience stores makes them prefer other companies that have better plans. Creating customer satisfaction by timely delivery of the clothes in a short period from when they are advertised is the best plan to stay competitive in the market. The company tries to avoid oversupplying their products in some regions to prevent instances where a high number of outfits remains in the stores unpurchased and leads to losses when that type fashion declines concerning demand.
Competition with other companies
Companies with similar brand levels tend to create a lot of competition. The company that retains the quality of the fabric used to make the clothes manages to offer more competition on the other companies. In the case of River Island, it has survived in the fashion industry for a long time due to the brand name and production of the outfits with the best fabric in the market. They have been able to retain their loyal customers. With the qualities remaining high and new designers being employed, the company is still going to create competition. The other factor that sets apart the competing companies in the fashion industry is the cost of their designer clothes. Some companies have been selling their outfits for high prices while their products remain low regarding quality. However, by conducting the market research well, River Island has survived for many years without hitches since they set their prices at an affordable level hence attracting more customers. Placing offers and promotions on some of the clothes have been attracting many customers who have been making online purchases.
Conclusion
With the increasing demand for designer clothes, there is a need for fashion companies to keep up their advertising activities. To maintain the competition with the other companies is enhanced by maintaining the qualities of the products. It is also done by ensuring that the clothes made possess the properties that are described in their advertisements. The choosing of River Island as the best company to work with the selected portfolio will have good results. The decision is based on the current reputation of the company in the fashion industry. The demand for designer clothes by women has made the preference in the portfolio to be on dresses and tops. The company's strategy on targeting specific groups of the people, for example, the youths have seen jackets and outwear given preference. Having distributed their retail outlets across many countries in the world, the company is sure to make huge sales of the selected portfolio. The reputation makes the company stand out against all the other companies that would have been selected for this portfolio. The statistics show that the company will remain competitive than the other companies since it has been continually employing new designers to deal with the trending market regarding fashion. New clothes with different designs are developed on a weekly basis ensuring the purchases made for the company are spread across the whole year. Designing costumes for certain holidays and seasons of the year has been making sure that the company makes enormous sales when the demand for the clothes is high. The company has also maintained competition by setting the prices of their clothes at a fair level. Many customers who are interested in purchasing the items will be in a position to acquire.
References
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