Swot analysis and key success factors

Consumer electronic goods experience a significant growth in terms of variety of products and the use of advanced technology. In 19th century, electronics industry faced a relieving progress when Alexander Graham Bell invented an communication media, which later named as Telephone. Actually, the inventor of telephone is not only Bell but also Elisha Gray. However, Bell received the patents since he registered his invention three hours ahead.

Computer development reached interesting achievement as Tim Berners-Lee invented WWW (World Wide Web), which become the platform of current e-commerce (electronic commerce) that show significant growth in the past decades (W3 Consortium, 2007). The invention of e-commerce soon encourages business to generate new opportunity by creating corporate website and online stores that enable customers to shop online from virtually any places I the world.

This is true since internet enables borderless commerce that eliminates the existence of cross-nations trade and commerce that in 200 alone, the electronic commerce reached extensive volume of transaction about $100 - $200 billion (Litan 2000). Concerning electronic commerce, this paper will discuss about environmental forces that influence a company, Woolworths, in competing in online retailing industry. To present comprehensive analysis about strategic position of Woolworths in respective industry, this paper will use SWOT analysis and identify the company’s key success factors.

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Later in the paper, there will be a recommendation regarding the strategic plan that Woolworths may adopt to strengthen their competitiveness in retailing industry. 1. Introduction In internet age, a company that provides online service must realize that web is essentially accessible by worldwide global. It means that when a company launches a Web site, it is accessible by a worldwide audience, thus customers. The coming age of internet revolution also spawns three kinds of enterprises.

First is pure traditional business; second is corporations that conduct business traditionally and through online services; third is pure online companies like Amazon. com. Regardless type of companies, in order to succeed, corporations need to develop competitive advantages in order to stand out the competition. The underlying reasons to develop competitive advantage are because technology leadership and faster time-to-market do not ensure the success of a company when competing in a market.

This situation may favor Woolworths when competing in retail industry in the UK where the country has many general and specialized retailers, each has competitive advantage that may endanger others. Historically, Woolworths is named after the company founder F. W. Woolworths in 1909. In 1980s, the company focuses on delivering four keys products: home, confectionery, kids (toys and clothing), and entertainment. In 1996, Streets Online was established and soon dragged over 450,000 registered consumers to date.

The company holds about 91. 4 percent of Street online (Woolworths Group plc, 2007b). The company, which now focuses on family, home, and entertainment business, has two official websites; the corporate website is located at www. woolworthsgroupplc. com. Meanwhile, the online store is located at www. woolworths. co. uk. By providing extensive products, Woolworths aims at providing their consumers with best value-for-money (Woolworths Group plc, 2007a)

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