John Lewis Strengths and Weaknesses

SWOT analysis John Lewis :

Strengths :

The first strength of John Lewis is its brand image. The company is very-well-known in the United Kingdom, and the customers are highly satisfied. The best way to show this is the ranking of the « Britain’s best retailer » of the last fifteen years : John Lewis ended first for 10 years. The customers stay loyal to the company because of its wide product range and its reliability.

Indeed, one of the most important strength of John Lewis is its product range. It proposes products for home and garden, clothing for men, women and kids, electrical products such as sound and vision, computers or home appliances, toys for children and finally the leisures and sports products.

The company is a well-established brand, which exists since 1864. As a sign of its quality, we can mention that John Lewis has been awarded of a Royal Warrant from the Queen as « suppliers of haberdashery and household goods ».

Nowadays, John Lewis has 43 shops all over United Kingdom (31 department stores, 10 at-home shops dedicated to the « home » section and 2 convenience-driven stores) and an online store, which delivery to 33 worldwide destinations (including 27 destinations in Europe).

Over the last ten years (between 2006 and 2015), the company increased its gross sales of 82,3% (from £2,43b to £4,43b) and also its operating profits of 129,8% (from £109m to £250,5m). These figures makes John Lewis the largest department stores group of United Kingdom. It really shows the expansion of the sector and of the brand itself.

The sales via the online shop of John Lewis represent a third of the total sales of the company in 2015. Considering that the company ships its products worldwide, we can assume that part of these sales come from outside United Kingdom. Therefore, despite the current unwillingness of John Lewis to expand overseas, there is a market outside United Kingdom.

The last, but not least, point is John Lewis’ organizational model. Indeed, it does not run as a traditional company : all employees are considered as « partners », meaning that they all share the ownership of John Lewis. They share the benefits and profits of the company, the incomes of the employees fluctuate according to the results of the company. Therefore, the staff is more concerned and more motivated as they are the direct beneficiaries of the incomes of the company, and they are very-welcomed to make suggestions in order to improve the company.

Weaknesses :

The first weakness of John Lewis is its up-scale pricing. The products are more expensive