J Sainsbury Plc. Case Study

In this unit I will be indentify the functions of the different retail sectors, the different aspect and types of retailers and the structure of the retail industry. I will be looking in depth at the industry’s role. I will be basing my case study on Sainsbury’s. I will present my work in the form of a written assignment.

J Sainsbury plc was founded in 1869 and it operates over 1,200 supermarkets and convenience stores around the UK and an online grocery and general merchandise operation. It also has two property joint ventures with Land securities Group Plc and The British Land Company Plc. Sainsbury’s Bank provides a range of quality banking and insurance products.

Know the structure of the retail industry.

A retailer is an organization that provides services and goods to customers for a profit to be gain. They are able to offer attractive products, and make sure that stock is available to meet demand. They are different types of stores, for example there are:

• Department stores such as House of Fraser, Debenhams, BHs etc…
• Multiple chains such as WHSmith, Boots the chemist etc and Mother-care etc…
• Supermarkets such as Sainsbury’s, Asda and Tesco’s.
• Online retailers such as BooHoo.com, Amazon.co.uk, misguided.com.
• Internet auction such as eBay.

• It’s more convenient for customers; shopping through the internet is easier the traveling to the store and also paying for car parking.
• Shopping via internet gives customers access to a wide range of products throughout the world that ordinary stores won’t have and this is the biggest and best advantage of internet shopping.
• Prices vary and they are cheaper than those sold in stores. Normal store retailers have to pay staff and premises, these cost are far less than your average store.      

Most business has your traditional physical outlets as well as online services this is called click and brick, it combines both services. Many large retailers do this for example Sainsbury’s customers can either go to the supermarket or order they shopping via online and it will be delivered to them or delivered to the nearest store, if the customers  are not happy with products bought online, then they can return in shop and get a exchange. They do this have something for all their customers, it caters to the needs those that like to shop online and those that are more traditional.  There are advantages of click and brick retailers, for example it utilized existing suppliers, they use established and trusted brand that customer are familiar with and it also they can buy in large quantities and qualify for bigger discounts from producers. There are also disadvantages such as there will be extra expenses associated with the website, and there will be costs associated with the stores. This combination of both stores and online service is mainly used by retailers who have a successful distribution network. Sainsbury’s have a strong distributions system, they are the largest UK-based food retailer, they currently have 19 distribution centers, with 527 supermarkets and 276 smaller stores, all their vehicles have tracking systems. Sainsbury’s have recently reported they were cut transport costs with integrated Paragon system, there were a lot of benefits of them using paragon such as they are able to save around 142,245 gallons of fuels across four sites, 15% of reductions in store turnaround times in overall, on-time delivery levels increased by 17% and many more benefits that Sainsbury’s have gained for this. Sainsbury’s now use Integrated Transport Management System; which integrates Paragon’s planning optimization with telemetric to dramatically enhance the accuracy and execution of each day's complex transport plans. All over this system helps Sainsbury function effectively and improve their deliver services, which means that customers are happy.