The Future Of Retail In Australia - A Case Study Of JB-Hifi

JB-Hifi Australia

The report brings about the discussion on the retail and the Future of retail in Australia or the retail stores in Australian market. For the purpose of explaining the significance and the scope of retail business, a company has to be taken to describe the elements and the aspects related to the retail sector. The report is based on the selection of one company amongst all the retailers in the Australian market. It also states about the perspective of the founder of the Netscape, Marc Andreessen, who claimed that the ‘retail is dead’. He mentioned because there are many forces acting upon the retail business. Therefore, there is a further description considering the article provided demonstrating the Future of the retail store- what does online mean for bricks and mortar. The retail sector is considered as one of the most significant in the whole industry, and it accounts as being the second largest employer in Australia, behind healthcare (Tehseen et.al, 2015).

JB-Hifi is one of the largest home entertainment retailers in terms of revenue around the globe. JB-Hifi is a public company, which comes under the retail sector, dealing in consumer goods. The company specialises in products such as video-games, electronic products, mobile-phones, Ultra HD-Blu rays, DVDs, CDs, hardware’s, and the home-electrical appliance and Telstra services. JB-Hifi has been listed publicly on the American Securities Exchange. The company is founded by John Barbuto, located in the Melbourne suburb of Keilor East Victoria, Australia.  The company first started with the specialisation in the Hifi equipment’s, as it was the mainstream of vinyl records. Then the company started offering CDs, and was the first Australian music retailer in such activities (Sambasivan et.al, 2016).

The operations at the JB Hifi started with gaining the specialisation in Hifi equipment’s, being the first music retailer, offered exclusively CDs. Moreover, other than the operations of selling music CDs, company has diversified the scale of operations, in terms of retailing business for the consumer electronics. It includes Plasma, and 4 K Ultra HD, HDR, Full HD, and LCD televisions. In addition, it includes digital still video cameras, and accessories, car sound systems (audio, and visual). JB-Hifi offers their products at discounted prices, positions their strategies towards targeting both price-sensitive consumers and other enthusiast. The company’s initiatives for future growth, mentions about targeting the high-growth segments of the entertainment market. It also focuses upon ensuring the rapid growth and profitability of the recent opened stores. The company emphasizes on attainting the sustainable competitive advantage by adopting the low-cost operations strategy, discount positioning, and distinct way of branding and the establishment of prominent stores (JB Hifi, 2018).

 The company offers, products at discounted price to their customers. The group of the company offers a wide range of leading products with the particular focus on consumer electronic, music, white goods and so on.

Liabilities of Company

Discussing about the liabilities of JB-Hifi, it was the aim of the company to enhance customer satisfaction, and liable to ensure that need and expectations of the customers are met. As the company deals in the consumer electronics, ensuring the safety standards, and preventing, harm to their health is the major liability. The main liabilities of company are towards their clients, suppliers, and stakeholders.

Stakeholders of Company	Liabilities
Employees	To compensate them with the proper remuneration
Clients	Satisfy their needs and demand by offering customized services
Government	Complying with the applicable rules
Suppliers	Set up proper payment cycle.

Current operations of JB-Hifi

JB-Hifi Company’s retail outlet sells a number of items, mentioned below:

• Computers and tablets
• Home appliances
• Mobile phones and other accessories
• In car-gear
• DJ & Musical instruments
• Drones and robotics
• Health, fitness and wearable
• Televisions and other electrical products

The company stated about the opening of 214 stores across Australia, and New Zealand, and has the subsidiary as “THE GOOD GUYS”, which is also a chain of the Australian retail stores. In addition to the products and the electrical items, the company also focused on services. JB-Hifi Solutions provides business, electronic, telecommunication, audio-visual products and the related professional services to the corporate, government and the wholesale markets, i.e. hospitality and the education sectors. Further discussing about the JB-Hifi Homes, which is a store located at the homemaker centres with the emphasis on consumer goods, white goods, cooking appliances and air-conditioning appliances (Ang et.al, 2018).

As per the article provided on the future of the retail stores in Australia, the founder of the Netscape, Marc Andreessen, stated that the retail is dead in the current scenario in Australian market. He was of the view that with the introduction of online stores, and the competition, will degrade the existence the physical stores.  On the other hand, the founder and CEO of the retail prophet, Dough Stephens stated that there is an equal and important role of both, online and the physical retail outlets for the growth of the stores in the future. These statements were directed towards the carrying out the processes or operations in the business that means importance of both should be considered. According to the consumer’s perspectives, it can be stated that the concept and experience of shopping does not only relate to just taking or making things. Shopping is much more than and it focuses on attaining and maintaining an effective social interaction through the purchasing of products (Pauwels & Neslin, 2015).

Considering the future of the retail in Australia, it can be claimed that the retail is changing slowly and gradually. There are various modifications in the retail business and as per the viewpoints of Dough; he stated an example of the mobile phones in this case. The mobile phones are on the acceleration in this case, as they face the most frequent changes daily, and become the reason of the customer’s awareness and emerging demands. Moreover, in a broader sense the popularity of the smartphones is another reason which enables the customers in getting the access to information and products available worldwide (MacGill & Smith, 2017).

In addition, to the introduction of the smartphones, innovation is the other aspects of the retail business, which can shape the success and growth of such businesses. It has been demonstrated that these retail stores must not focus only on the channels, rather than on the enhancement of the moments. It would help the retailers to face the adverse changes and the disruptive forces which are emerging in the retail sector of Australia. Thus, there has been a major impact and emphasis on the technology and the online stores, as it attracts the customers, and makes them buy the product at any moment with the listed price and features. Discussing about the future of the retail, another aspect has been clearly, mentioned that these physical stores will be less about distribution. The operations of the purchase and distribution will take place through the online channels (Price, Bailey & Pyman, 2014).

Offers given by JB Hi-Fi Company

The retail sector in Australia has now undergone several changes, because of the number of disruptive forces affecting the growth of the business. Retailers in the Australia have faced tough competition in the recent years. There is a growing and the global raise of e-commerce, which states that, the boundaries between the physical and virtual stores. There are some of the articles which define more about the retail sector in Australia, about trends and the future scope of the retailing businesses (Singh & Hess, 2017).

Price, Bailey & Pyman (2014) was of the view, that the digital transformation has widely taken place in the market or industry, which is driving a new breed of retail among businesses. It shows about the collaboration in the retail sector or the retailers union, in the Australian market. This will enhance the importance of retailing and customers will be directed and will be experiencing something new and their needs and demands will be met particularly any time they desire. Describing about the current situation, retail sector is facing disruption as a major issue. According to the estimated, it has been also stated that 25% of the malls will be closed in next years. In addition, there were few trends which reshaped the conduct of retail in Australia (Yeoman, Wheatley & McMahon-Beattie, 2017).

• Trend 1: Omni channel
• Trend 2: Internet of things
• Trend 3: Virtual & augmented reality
• Trend 4: Artificial Intelligence
• Trend 5: Hyper-Personalization

According to the Taylor, E. (2016) the retailers and suppliers issues has been highlighted. It has been mentioned that both retailers and the suppliers in the Australian market are facing the challenges of the reconfiguration of the systems. This is due to the increasing demand of the customers, relating to the multichannel options which support quick, easy, and secure payment (Hutchison & Boxall, 2014).

Brady-Sutton, C. Kamvounias, P. & Taylor, T.  (2015), the authors were of the view that the consequences or the result of the supplier-retailer relationships is the power asymmetry. This is considered as highly unavoidable consequence. It was assumed that the nature of the grocery industry resulted into power imbalance. It has been observed that there is a difference in the practice category of management between the retailers and the suppliers. Australian retailers are more responsive, to rely themselves on a coercive power to base their supplier behaviour (You & Barry, 2016).

Kajalo, S. (2015), was of the view that there is a significant impact of the market orientation on the small retailers in the market of Australia. It affects the effectiveness and the performance level of Australian retailers. Market orientation is the important concept which influences the retailer’s way of conducting business. As market orientation describes about considering the wants and needs of the customers and organising the activities and processes accordingly.

According to Price, R. (2015) in Australia, food retail is known for use of flexible hours and the functions are centralised in the companies in the country. The centralisation of the functions at head office results in the reduction of the autonomy at these stores, in terms of managing and organising things, and activities. For the front-line workers in such organisations, there has been a difference in the configuration controls, which acts differently with the different contract of employment (Chang, Joshua & Travaglione, 2012).

Liabilities of Company

Considering the retail sector and the future of retail in Australian market, it can be stated as there should be improvements in the conduct of the businesses of retailers. Trent, the leader of the group of KPMG’s consumers & retail practice in FDCG, i.e. food, drinks, and the consumer goods. The retail sector is facing the disruption, which are changing consumption patterns as well as the arrival of overseas companies. Therefore, the Australian companies should focus on implementing new technologies and internet medium to facilitate their business systems, applications, and processes.

Conclusion

To conclude the above discussion, it has been analysed that the retail sector in Australia is facing major challenges and problems in increasing effectiveness of their business activities. There are few trends in the retail which shapes the future of the retailers, in Australian businesses. The trend or the change has been demonstrated by the use of articles and the author’s viewpoints in the report. With context to the retail business, it has also been observed there are many forces working on impacting these businesses, and amongst all the retailing of mobile phones is highlighted in this case aptly. Hence, there are many things which need to be changed and Australian market must focus on development of agility and multiplicity of the delivery platforms, to reduce problems and enhance their businesses.

References

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