Profit and Loss

Social Factors:

In the last few years, England’s society has changed in the way they behave and act when shopping in retail and this has lead to organisations changing the way they operated to enable them to increase popularity. Marks and Spencer’s wanted to stretch the brand of their company, so they considered selling food online to allow them to become a multi channel retailer. This also enabled Marks and Spencer to keep up with their competitors such as Next as they provided a lot more variety for their customers and they were also adapting to the way society is changing such as changing their products to suit the consumers tastes and preferences and the amount of time that consumers will dedicate to retail.

Technological Factors:

Technology is a very important factor for competitive advantage in retail as it is a major driver of globalisation. When Marks and Spencer’s were thinking of introducing technology into the organisation they have to consider many factors such as a cost effective technology that will increase production of goods and services, change in distribution and innovation in products. The lack of technology in an organisation can lead to the organisations competitive position being affected for example before Marks and Spencer introduced their own loyalty card they were not able to compete with their competitors as customers liked the idea of being rewarded for shopping with the organisation. Once they did introduce the loyalty card, Marks and Spencer began to regain some of the customers they lost at the start. The introduction of the cost effective technology allowed Marks and Spencer to increase their level of production but also lowered their overall costs of production.