Sunday 2 November 2008

Week 2 Excercise - Topshop SWOT Analysis

(Please add your points by editing the blog)

Strengths:





  • hit-the-trend styles
  • affordability
  • accessibility - store coverage all over the country
  • availability in clothes range
  • numerous choices in product lines
  • numerous options in collections and styles, e.g. vintage boutigues
  • choices at multiple price points - for different choices of styles and qualities
  • store space (especially the London Oxford flagship)
  • additional serives - cafe, nail salon, etc
  • established brand image and market position (in the UK)
(Jiji)



  • variety of collections to appeal to a broader range of customers (current and potential)
  • over 300 stores in UK and 100 overseas - increased competitive edge on the international retail market
  • Charity work w/ PETA, Breast Cancer, TRAID & Starlight - providing a strong brand image and establishes a trustful relationship with its stakeholders
  • Great range of awards won, making it a highly recognized High Street Retailer in Britain, and overseas

(Nina)

  • New collection every week.
  • Explore the brand- combining media culture and celebrities to produce products.
  • Different types and styles of garments.
  • Many sections- salon, nails beauty, cafĂ© and a lot of fashion magazines, customers can spend whole day in the store.

(Serina)

  • Internet website where garments sell out quickly making shopping accessible to every body also international customers. Here you can buy key garments for the season and see the latest trends. Also offering podcasts of new collections and behind the scene events, thus keeping up with the new technology and creating good PR and generating more sales.
  • Top Shop has a lot of services that makes the customer life easy, like: Style Advisor, Membership Card, Topshop To Go, Topshop Express, Concierge, In-store

(Laura)- NA

  • They offer a student discount!! This is good because a majority of their target market.
  • I think the rest of you summed up the strengths pretty well.

Lisa

Weaknesses:

  • difficult to manage - numerous lines of products, big store space and big number of staff
  • high cost in management because of above
  • customer services become difficult to maintain for big store space and numerous product lines
  • store presentation (tidiness and organisation) become difficult to maintain too because of above reasons
  • average quality
  • accessibility takes away the exclusivity and uniqueness in styles - cloned and uniformed styles
(Jiji)




  • Weak customer service - they are more focused on quantity and not quality
  • Quality and price range will be problematic to allow TopShop to become a Higher-end quality retailer - appealling to more mature customers who have money to spend
(Nina)



  • Quality control/management- bad.
  • Some ideas and details of fashion trend come from top brands.
  • The prices- too high.
  • Inside display of the store- too messy, not easy to work out it.
  • Customer service- doesn't work well, only one person to help whole customers, also unprofessional and unhelpful.
  • Web shopping- no detail and size for accessorises, customers are difficult to get the right images of them.

(Serina)

  • A store that is that big can not offer a personal care like a small boutique

(Laura) NA

  • Customer Service is practically non-existent. it is completly self-service.
  • The stores can be overwhelming. Their size makes it hard for a customer to see all the product, this can lead to less sales if a customer feels overwhelmed.

Lisa


Opportunities:

  • targeting young consumers - very fashion-cautious group that will spend on fashion more
  • regularly
  • association with celebrities - creating fame and attchment to brand
  • affordability and choices might make survive the recession
  • International expension opportunities with its mature market position and status among consumers in the UK
(Jiji)




  • Brand expansion - they are starting to carry Men's clothing line on their website, which allows them to enter a new customer market & potentially open Men's top shop stores
  • Chartiy work provides opportunities to target a greater range of potential customers, those who wouldn't normally shop at TopShop otherwise
  • Increase in popularity and strength of brand image (use of Kate Moss - world renowned model), provides expansion and recognition opportunities all across the world
  • Worldwide Store Expansion = increase revenue and profits

(Nina)

  • Website management- producing and selling the products by website, customers shopping by internet without visiting the store, also it can shipping to USA and Europe.
  • It is the good stage for new fashion designers to present their works.

(Serina)

  • Step to step Top Shop is getting bigger and there is a huge market to explore, China, U.S. ...
  • Kate Moss is a prescriptor who catches young people attention, and they are biggest fashion consumers.
  • Internet market offers many oportunities for Top Shop.
  • Top Shop man.

(Laura)NA

  • I think Topshop should branch out from the Kate Moss partnership and perhaps start a partnership with a new model or designer. They could give young designers a shot to design small "exclusive" collections. They would be helping the artists and bringing an exclusivity to their stores. Topshop is such a large store, that I think their customers would love to see more "exclusive" products.

Lisa

Threats:

  • Competition from high street leader H&M who cooperates with top designers and fashion icons too
  • Competition from new entered foreign bands that offer very fast fashion styles at even more affordable prices
  • Negative impact on celebrity endorcement campaign - debate on celebrity choice
(Jiji)




  • Great competition overseas with other High Street Retailers who already have a niche and status in those countries (i.e. H&M, ZARA)
  • Overseas legal policies and government
  • Overseas Location development might hinder the growth of the company - has to find very good shop locations in order to be accessible, to expand brand knowledge and image

(Nina)

  • Many high street retailers- Wearhouse, ZARA, River Island, OASIS, Unite Benetton, Fornarina.
  • Overseas market need.

(Serina)


  • There are so many brands that have the same level, and is hard to compete with all of them.
  • Kate Moss addictions could affect the reputation of the brand.

(Laura) NA

  • Topshop needs to set itself apart from other retails at their level (i.e.- OASIS, French Connection etc.)

Lisa

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

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Anonymous said...

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Animal said...

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Anonymous said...

thanks alot for this, helped me with my work.

Anonymous said...

this helped me out so much for my new business project.
THANKS!

Anonymous said...

it helps me a lot in my project. thanks!

Anonymous said...

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Anonymous said...

me toooo

Anonymous said...

Thanks alot,this rily helpd me

Anonymous said...

very useful! thank you!!

Anonymous said...

Hi there, just wanted to write to you - the Author - and just say thank you very much for posting your SWOT analysis.

It's been a great help to me in my studying.

Side note: The text itself is not clear in some areas, I'm not that clued into fashion, so I was a bit lost. A little bit more detail, is all I saying.

Thanks again!

kau dan aku said...

soooooo...useful for my business plan..thnks a lot...

Anonymous said...

This was unbelievably helpful. Thanks!!

Anonymous said...

Thanks a lot, it helped me much for my project.

Anonymous said...

This was extremely useful - busy doing a project on Topshop now and this post has been a huge help in information! I just wanted to make a comment though, Topshop does cater for men they have a store called TOPMAN.

Verdissima said...

Thanks*

Unknown said...

can I have your email? coz I need some help for my project if you don't mind.

Advert said...

Really helpful. thank you!

Jhon Staphen said...

can you update the name of Fashion Designing agencies here ?
I would be waiting your updated post.

Branding & Marketing Agency

Evan said...

Its even better if there were some swot analysis examples were posted. TFS!

Anonymous said...

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