swot analysis
DESCRIPTION
SWOT Analysis. Presented by Angel Fion Neil Pita& Stephen FJU English Dept. Business Commnucation. Introduction. A membership warehouse club Founded in 1983, Seattle The fourth biggest general retailer in the United States, after Wal-Mart, The Home Depot, and Kroger. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Presented by Angel Fion Neil Pita& Stephen FJU English Dept. Business Commnucation
SWOT Analysis
Introduction
• A membership warehouse club
• Founded in 1983, Seattle
• The fourth biggest general retailer in the United States, after Wal-Mart, The Home Depot, and Kroger.
• 132,000 full- and part-time employees
• 51.8 million members
Locations
• Costco has 543 locations around the world.• 398 in the United States and Puerto Rico • 75 in Canada • 31 in Mexico • 20 in the United Kingdom • 8 in Japan• 6 in South Korea • 2 future locations in Australia • 5 in Taiwan• Kaohsiung(1997)
• Business Philosophy• Product Strategy Fion Wu
• Store Philosophy• Membership Neil Chen
Business Philosophy
Our Operating Philosophy Is Simple• Keep costs down and pass the savings on to
our members. • Our large membership base and tremendous
buying power, • combined with our never-ending quest for
efficiency, • result in the best possible prices for our
members. - Quoted from COSTCO website
Product Strategy• Choose the most popular brand of each
category • Bulks Size Sale• Import New Products• Promotion
賣場的經營管理 Store Philosophy
• 所有商品以原運送棧板的方式進貨並陳列於簡單的賣場環境。 Simple Display
• 提供會員安全整潔的購物空間,走道寬敞、舒適。 Big, Safe, Comfortable Shopping Space
• 商品的處理,有關溫度控制及衛生均有嚴格控管。 Strict Control on Conditions of Products Serving • 儘可能的提供給會員更多的免費服務,例如:免費輪胎
安裝 / 平衡服務,免費視力檢查 / 鏡架調整服務, 免費停車。
Offer as more services as possible to our customers • 賣場採自助式,並使用紙箱而非塑膠袋包裝商品。 You have to help yourself ; Offer paper box and
Reduce unnecessary plastic pack.• 微量的廣告文宣。 Few DMs
Membership
• Membership would compromise COSTCO the operating cost and administrative cost and lower down the products price they offer to the customer, usually lower than the competitors
• You pay for the membership annually. The more you shop here, the more you get.
Strength & Weakness
Angel Chang
Strength
I. Diversified products and services
II. Strong market position
III. Low cost promotion and marketing strategy
Strength
I. Diversified products and services • Various national brand
• Private label Kirkland
• Various services
ex: self-service gasoline stations at a number of US and Canadian locations
Strength
II. Low cost promotion and marketing • the 4th largest retailer in the US
• the 8th largest in the world
• ranked 29th in the Fortune 500 list of America's largest corporations based on sales
Strength
III. Low cost promotion and marketing strategy
• conducting direct mail marketing
• new members follow on from word of mouth advertising
Gold star member card
Weakness
I. Concentration of operations in Californian market
II. Lax quality control
III. Weak compliance function
Weakness
I. Concentration of operations in Californian market
• increasing unemployment levels
• increased prices of food and energy
• declining housing prices
• natural disasters
Weakness
II. Lax quality control
• several product recalls
III. Weak compliance function • failed to properly compensate employees for
overtime work
• improper bonus formula relating to overtime pay
Opportunities & Threats
Pita Chen
Opportunities
• Growing demand for private label products:
Kirkland
Opportunities
• Expanding market presence:
Year 2006: opened 25 warehouses
Year 2007: opened 31 warehouses
Year 2008: plans to open 35 warehouses
Threats
• Increasing competition:
Wal-Mart, the largest retailer in the world
Threats• Increasing competition:
low cost operators sell single category or a constricted range of products
Threats
• Lower consumer confidence:
Owing to weakening labor market and harder borrowing standards
A decline in consumer confidence could adversely affect Costco's revenues.
References
• www.datamonitor.com
• www.costco.com.tw
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Costco_Co.