BIZ202: The Business Environment - Free Samples to Students

that cloud infrastructure can be implemented successfully as it will aid to save the costs. It is also summarized that greater control over the supply chain aid to increase the profit at the multiple levels. It is also evaluated that sponsorship and franchising will aid the corporation to boost their business in the competitive economy (Knox, 2015).      

Macroeconomics affecting the business and the social economic factors

Economic factor

The existing trend in the climate of the economy has resulted in declining the consumer purchasing power. Due to this, several flexible goods are adversely affected. Consumers are moving towards the private labels good in order to save their costs. Australian economic climate will allow the Coles supermarket to compete for the market on the basis of lower rate and making a large profit margin. This provision of private labels can be favorable for Cole’s supermarket as it will enable the supermarket to compete on the basis of choice convenience. It can also enable the customer to get the low-cost choice products (Simpson, and Clifton, 2015).  

Social factor

One of the significant trends is increasing the awareness and consciousness of the consumers with regards to their well-being and health. It is addressed that the taste and preference of the consumer are shifting with regards to organic and healthy products. Furthermore, currently, there are certain competitors in the retail industry who provides the organic foods and products (Brotchie, Hall, Newton, and Nijkamp, 2017). It will enable the Coles supermarket to tap on the already existed market and respond to changes in the preference as well as a taste of customers. It also highlights the threats for Cole’s supermarket to deal in niche and farmer market hence it should focus on trading the organic and healthy products (Varsei, and Polyakovskiy, 2017).

There are certain social factors that could support Coles to make their unique image in the marketplace like plastic, suppliers, competitors, and intermediaries. These are discussed as below:

Plastic

Coles stop to single-use plastic bag as it could be effective for consumers as well as environment. Coles should encourage consumers to bring their own bags at the time of shopping. It could support to make distinguish the image of Coles among customers. For confectionery packaging, the company should use soft plastic as it could be harmful to the environment.  

Supplier

Supplier plays an imperative in the business process of Coles. Coles should make an effective relationship with their supplier to get the higher competitive benefit. Another significant outcome is customer satisfaction. Because Coles will be capable to deliver their products and services on time without defects so as to the consumer will enjoy doing business with Coles. The consumers of the company feel that their capital is well-spent (Fleming, and Measham, 2015). Apart from this, suppliers could also support to obtain many benefits like the timely delivery of quality products and services, flexible sailing production, excellent support, and great deals with others.    

Competitors

Most of the organization gets lost in the day to day activities of sustaining their business without competitors. As other organizations link in the market, the organization will require to do unique to achieving more (Brotchie, Hall, Newton, and Nijkamp, 2017). The competitors will enable Coles to understand many elements as it could be effective in getting higher success like building brand clout, ignore complacency, enhancing self-awareness, and unexpected partnership, and prioritize needs of the consumer.    

Intermediaries 

Coles should select reliable intermediaries to deliver their services for sustaining their position in the marketplace and make a positive image among consumers. Coles should always be honest, loyal, and transparent with their intermediaries for accomplishing their desired goal and obtain a positive outcome.      

Technological factor

There is also rapid advancement in the technological atmosphere in the last few decades. Corporations and people are engaging to use the smart system as well as technologies in order to boost the efficiency of their operation as well as scrutinize their progress. The population of Australia is increasingly using the computers as well as other technologies to buy their products and services. Coles use the advanced technology in order to track the process of its stock and also analyses the alteration of the demand and preferences of the consumer (Darghouth, Wiser, Barbose, and Mills, 2016).

Challenges/ problem the business could face due to Macroeconomics factors

Advance in technology:

It is significant factors that have an impact on the business of Cole’s supermarket. It uses technology instead of directing the team member towards the exact area of each product as, without technology, team members cannot reach at the efficient route and position.  Cole’s supermarket had launched the new online shopping technology in order to backing the online shoppers. Thus, it would be beneficial for the growth and development of Coles. It is analyzed that sales are increasing about 20 percent in a year because of technological changes in an organization. It is also evaluated that the online grocery sector in Australia is small, however; it is growing rapidly with the about 15% percent annual growth from last five years (Burtt, and Dargusch, 2015).  

Economic challenges:

A price war amid Woolworths a possible sharp recession in the Australian economy is two threats for Cole’s supermarket. It is analyzed that Wesfarmers Owns Coles supermarket and retailing the brand target that is a key cause for slight increases in the stock share price. Coles has increased about 46% of Wesfarmers profit and looking towards the store sales growth, better performing products, and liquor sales growth. The key challenges faced by Cole’s supermarket are increasing the sales of the company. Moreover, declining Australian currency in against to US currency would raise the cost of goods sold of Coles and also the proportion of Coles non-food products will be sourced through offshore. In addition, the different nation has different economic issues that can affect the sales volume of Coles. Along with this, global health crises, climate change, global imbalance, economic exclusion in the Middle East, and conflict & poverty are the major challenges in the Australian economy that can highly affect the Coles supermarket (Smith, Lawrence, MacMahon, Muller, and Brady, 2016).

Corporate social responsibility:

Corporate social responsibility is the contemporary challenge that can affect the Coles supermarket. CSR practices like corporate philanthropy; sourcing and marketing issue is introduced by Cole’s supermarket in last few years. CSR practices can impact on the corporate financial performance of Cole’s supermarket. CSR has a favorable impact on the Coles, however; the fundamental procedure can lead to the positive effect on the organization (Hatfield-Dodds, Schandl, Adams, Baynes, Brinsmead, Bryan, and McCallum, 2015).

In addition, CSR is a kind of corporate self-regulation into the business model. It impacts as a driver of customer’s royalty as well as the favorable impact on consumer buying behavior. CSR is the mission of Coles that instructs an organization to represent for its customers. CSR is an initiative that assesses the responsibility for the company and has an effect on the environment (Burtt, and Dargusch, 2015).  

Conclusion

From the above interpretation, it can be concluded that that environment scan is the process of determining the different external threats, trends, and opportunities that have an impact on the decision of business directly and indirectly. It can be also summarized that PEST analysis is used by Cole’s supermarket to assess the situation of the Australian nation. Furthermore, it can be concluded that there are certain challenges that can be faced by Cole’s supermarket due to macro-environmental factors such as advance in technology, economic challenges, and corporate social responsibility.  

References

Brotchie, J., Hall, P., Newton, P., & Nijkamp, P. (2017). The future of urban form: the impact of new technology. UK: Routledge.

Burtt, D., & Dargusch, P. (2015). The cost-effectiveness of household photovoltaic systems in reducing greenhouse gas emissions in Australia: linking subsidies with emission reductions. Applied energy, 148, 439-448.

Darghouth, N. R., Wiser, R. H., Barbose, G., & Mills, A. D. (2016). Net metering and market feedback loops: Exploring the impact of retail rate design on distributed PV deployment. Applied Energy, 162, 713-722.

Fleming, D. A., & Measham, T. G. (2015). Local economic impacts of an unconventional energy boom: the coal seam gas industry in Australia. Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, 59(1), 78-94.

Grimmer, L. (2017).The diminished stakeholder: Examining the relationship between suppliers and supermarkets in the Australian grocery industry. Journal of Consumer Behaviour, 17(1), e13-e20.

Hatfield-Dodds, S., Schandl, H., Adams, P. D., Baynes, T. M., Brinsmead, T. S., Bryan, B. A., ... & McCallum, R. (2015). Australia is ‘free to choose’economic growth and falling environmental pressures. Nature, 527(7576), 49.

Knox, M.  (2015). Supermarket Monsters: The Price of Coles and Woolworths' Dominance. Australia: Redback.

Simpson, G., & Clifton, J. (2015). The emperor and the Cowboys: The role of government policy and industry in the adoption of domestic solar microgeneration systems. Energy Policy, 81, 141-151.

Smith, K., Lawrence, G., MacMahon, A., Muller, J., & Brady, M. (2016). The resilience of long and short food chains: a case study of flooding in Queensland, Australia. Agriculture and human values, 33(1), 45-60.

Varsei, M., & Polyakovskiy, S. (2017). Sustainable supply chain network design: A case of the wine industry in Australia. Omega, 66, 236-247.