Thank you for exploring the opportunity of expanding Bloomingdale north of the border. Overall, Canada's economy is strong, a notable shift in the economy will see infrastructure activity and rising business spending play a more dominant role next year according to Wrightin 2017. Government spending on infrastructure and a moderate increase in business investment, are forecast to support economic growth next year RBC noted in its end-of-year forecast. Canada had some bad luck with the retail sector. Sears Canada is about to close all of its stores, releasing millions of square feet of space to fill. Off-price retailing is about to see unprecedented competition as Nordstrom Rack enters the market this spring. Doing business in Canada can be …show more content…
Target found itself having to compete on pricing with Wal-Mart, which has been in Canada since 1994 and got aggressive to protect its hard-fought Canadian market share. The company struggled from the outset to find a proper mix of inventory, often having too much of some products and not enough of others. Secondly, shoppers complained of empty shelves and a lack of selection. The company had been working to improve its inventory management, but it was too little too late. Thirdly, many Canadians were already very familiar with Target, having shopped in its stores across the border. While that brand awareness gave Target an initial boost, Canadians soon started complaining that Target’s Canadian stores had higher prices and lacked the same products as U.S. stores. Lastly Target's launch in Canada was overambitious. The retailer opened 124 stores in 10 months in its first year. The main lesson to be learned is that Canadians and Americans are not the same. Americans are more one stop shoppers compared to Canadians, Canadians are more frugal and aren't scared to shop around until they find the best price for the quality of the product. Over the past several decades, some US retailers have gone on to thrive in Canada's retail landscape, such as retail giant's Home Depot Inc., Staples, Costco, Wal-Mart and Starbucks. But it was not all smooth riding. Not all brands or business models will make it in Canada, even if owned by the same retail chain, no matter how sophisticated. Wal-Mart, which first arrived on the Canadian scene by taking over Woolco in 1994, continues expanding its general and supercentre stores, but closed down its Sam's Club stores a few years ago, unable to compete with Costco, which had set up shop in Canada
The global economy has been recovering from the financial crisis which occurs in 2008, then has a weak growth for most developed countries over 2012 and 2013. But economic activity in Canada has expanded at a faster pace than most other major advanced countries in 2012; however, economic performance in Canada has been unsteady throughout 2013 (The Economic review, 2013). After the last quarter in 2010 GDP growth rate grows rapidly, the GDP grows slowly but steadily in 2012 which remains at around 3 percent. Real GDP growth rate in Canada grows slowly in the first quarter of 2013, but increased by 5 percent in the second quarter ,then remains the same level until the first quarter of 2014 (Statistics Canada, 2014). In 2014, the Canadian government take a series economic action plan as a guide for the economy development such as improving investment conditions, ...
As I have outlined in the charts below, there are various similarities and differences between Wal-Mart and Target. Wal-Mart is Target’s primary competitor, and vice versa. Wal-Mart has a strong market presence in its global markets and has a diverse range of products and services that are affordable and available in stock. Target, on the other hand, does not have a strong market presence or efficient product supply; however, Target’s physical environment and innovative products further the brand’s image and value. Unfortunately, Target and Wal-Mart are both e-commerce laggards with major competitors such as Amazon. Target faces complications with their pricing strategies and their product availability, which hinders their strength when competing
Target’s first foreign store investment was in Canada; American stores look to Canada as their first foreign investment because the differences between the two countries are relatively minor. Other stores that have expanded to Canada include Wal-Mart, and Sears, each of these companies proved to be prosperous in Canada. Canada is one of the wealthiest countries in the world and is dominated by the service industry, Wawa would have no trouble fitting into the culture Canada has and dominating the market as they do here, in the United States. After reading about Canada and Wawa, we have realized this move could only benefit Wawa and help their reputation and build their company.
Target has many competitors in the market, and the level of competition is highly intense. Some of its main rivals are Wal-Mart stores, Home Depot and Costco Wholesale Corp. All of them produce similar products as well as offer almost the same services to their consumers. Naturally, the organization would need a strategy that helps it to stand out and to distinguish it from its competitors, thus, Target 's positioning was based on more than just pricing; it combined quality and style. This was the differentiation strategy that have always been applied since the launch of the organization.
A positive to expanding to Canada is that Canadian shoppers are similar to American shoppers, ideally making this a good target market for growth (Fiorletta, 2015). In an interview regarding expansion in Canada, CO-CEO Walter Rob said, “Our efforts in Canada are part of the effort to grow.” “We think the opportunity for fresh, healthy foods is larger now that it’s ever been”. “And we intend to grow as fast as we have ever grown — 40 new stores next year, 42-44 for the following year.” “That’s 10% square footage growth on top of 15 million square feet of retail we already have.” “People have said maybe we should stop our growth.” “I said, no, we are not going to do that because our strategy is working.” “There’s no reason to stop.” “There’s every reason to keep going.” (Vieira,
1. The Discount Department Store. Target prefers to be called as the latter instead of just department store. Expect more, pay less. With this tagline, the customers expect to purchase more items and pay the least amount possible. Not like other retail industries like its competitor Kmart and Wal-Mart, Target maintains retail value in terms of product offerings. They are known in their designer’s items in clothes, exclusive beauty products, categorized and functional goods, and seasonal offerings. It also sells the greatest number of gift cards among its rival business.
Target Corporation has indicated a significant increase in the number of years it has been operational. The company experienced important changes in growth when it transformed from a regional store to a national retailer.
The top two reasons for such success in ranking first in retail store market, is because Wal-Mart is convenient globally and so are there prices in the competitive market . Wal-Mart has three segments which are superstores, discount stores, and Sam's Club stores, all of these are scattered in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe, Brazil, and Asia. One downfall was from Sam's club because too many were opening all over internationally it decreased the number of customers per location. Overall despite the company's decline on Sam's club sales, the Corporations did well over all with the figures brought in and conditions.
...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.
Target has three primary retail divisions which consist of Mervyn’s, Marshall Field’s and the Target stores. The Target stores are currently the second ranked discount retailer in America behind Wal-Mart. Target has approximately 1,778 stores located across 47 states. The retailer distinguishes itself from competitors by selling higher end, fashionable products at discounted prices.
Target has differentiated itself from other competitors by offering high-end, fashion-conscious products at quite affordable prices. This attracts buyers from all over the world. Target sells not only clothes, but food, beauty products, cleaning supplies, office supplies and much more. This appeals to anyone and everyone in all different countries. Both companies are very crucial to our economy and also other countries economies because they both appeal to basically anyone and everyone.
Target has not changed its business model to adapt to the modern-day changes in the retail business. Compared to its rivals, Walmart is planning to open more than 200 small stores as compared to just eight small stores within a year.
The main one is the established and loved brand name that is well liked by customers. Along with this, Target has the perception of being a fun place to shop that comes with an experience. Unlike Wal-Mart, Target has the ability to position themselves as a middle class, hip and more fashionable store to shoppers of this generation (Target Corporation SWOT Analysis, n.d.). Target’s weaknesses include tis business model based on supercenters and other big box stores which make it more difficult for them to reach shoppers who appreciate the smaller convenient stores. Along with this, they have been unable to change their business model to adapting times (Target Corporation SWOT Analysis, n.d.).
The first thing that must be understood is the type of marketing structure that Target is in. Since Target is most like a perfect competition market structure, which is described by five criteria a company must meet. The first criterion is all firms sell an identical product, which is true of Target in comparison to stores like Walmart, Amazon, and K-Mart. The second criterion is all firms are price takers, which means that they are unable to control the prices of the products they sell. The next criterion is all firms have a relatively small market share. The fourth criterion is that the buyer has complete information about any product being sold and the prices of these products. The final criterion is that the industry allows for freedom of entry and exit (Investopedia, 2014). All of these criteria, Target meets, because there are several dozen other discount stores that exist in which Target must compete with (Hoovers, 2014).
According to Schafer (2013), Target Corporation desire is to improve Target Brand and be a better version of Target with an incremental products and services. Target Corporation acquisitions counter any threat from other rival online retailers and allow Target Corporation to cross promote between Target and the new entity strengthening its