An investigation of the strategic approach of a retail organisation and study the blue ocean opportunities: A case study of Wilkinson Retails, UK

The current retail industry is characterised by hypercompetition and constant change. The UK market for retail services is continuously growing and allowing new comers to enter the market. Business opportunities as well as challenges in terms of competition and technology are growing because of the frequent changes in industry and rapid advancements in technology. Although Michael Porter’s theories force companies to choose either differentiation or cost-leadership, the recent theory, Blue Ocean Strategy suggests companies can make competition irrelevant. Rather than stealing the market share from the competitors of the “bloody red oceans”, companies can create new uncontested market space the “blue oceans”. The purpose of this dissertation is to understand the current competitive strategies of one of the UK’s leading retailer, Wilkinson, by focusing on whether it tend to pursue traditional competitive strategies or blue ocean strategies. This study is based on the data collected from interviews, questionnaires and of course from the existing strategic literature. Most of the retailers, to some extent, have outspoken differentiation focus and are cost conscious. Competition is also seen as a positive sign which promote the retailers own business. But the fact that majority of retailers are in expansion phase, the cost reductions seem less apparent. However, to pursue Value Innovation and become successful, the retailers should start considering the blue oceans