Business Recovery Of ASDA After Covid-19 Pandemic Case Study

Part 1

Chapter 1: Introduction of Business Recovery Of Asda After The Covid-19 Pandemic 

The pandemic had a severe impact on every organisation throughout the world. It also affected the world economy and slowed down its growth. It led to huge losses and it was the same with the retail supermarkets. ASDA is an organisation that gives various goods and services like; grocery, insurance, home accessories, and many other things. It was harshly affected by the pandemic and faced huge losses by this. The pandemic led to bringing down the economic growth of the organisation. This brought changes in the strategies and working structure of the organisation, and along with that, it affected the economic growth of ASDA.

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Background

This is research, which states how ASDA will get recovery from the harsh impact of Covid-19. The pandemic brought changes in the lifestyle and preferences of the people. Common people went for necessary goods only which affected the business of various organisations (corporate.asda.com, 2022). This led many organisations to face different kinds of losses and wastages of goods.

ASDA brings various products to the market, that is; foodstuffs, medicines, clothes, and many other things. The business was affected as people bought the goods that they needed, hence the sale of luxury items was reduced. This affected the market as its sale was partially increasing. The income from goods other than necessary goods was reduced which led the organisation to face various obstacles (Desai et al. 2022). The organisation needs to take some steps to overcome this situation. They would make some sort of research to recognize its losses and the ways to get rid of this crisis. The authority will collect data that will help the management team to take relevant steps to recover from this harsh situation. They will make the required move to regain the previous standard of income and enhance their performance.

The company will take recommended steps to solve the issues that have come due to the pandemic. They will implement various strategies to enhance its performance and follow different theories and techniques to make the relevant move (asda.com, 2022). This will help them to develop their financial structure along with that, it would support the enhancement of their production and sale. They would collect the data to recognize the reason behind the low performance of the retail industry and based on the collected data steps would be taken by the manager of the ASDA retail supermarket (reuters.com, 2022). They will make employee retention to enhance performance and get favorable income. This will suggest taking relevant steps to gain profit and perform well in the competitive market.

Aims and objectives

Aim

The aim of this study is to describe the process of handling crisis management, the disaster recovery process, and developing a business in a global pandemic situation. The aim of this study will help us to find the impact of Covid-19 on ASDA and what steps they take to recover its business.

Objective

• To evaluate the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the business performance of the organization
• To discuss the challenges faced by the organization during the pandemic situation
• To assess the implemented strategy applied by the organization to recover the business
• To provide effective recommendations to operate the business successfully

Research questions

The pandemic situation is affecting the whole world, and some parts of the world are affected more. In this situation, every industry was affected. After the Covid-19 pandemic situation, ASDA also recovered its business. In this study, we will describe a few questions about the topic of how ASDA recovered its business after the pandemic.

Q1. What is the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the business performance of the organization?

Q2. What are the challenges faced by the organization during the pandemic situation?

Q3. What is the implemented strategy applied by the organization to recover the business?

Q4. What are the effective recommendations to operate the business successfully?

Problem statement

This study is based on an organization that is faced with many problems during and after the pandemic situation. The basic topic of this will be how the retail market is affected by the covid situation and what steps they took to overcome the situation. Gathering information about this project will help to know about the situation but there are also so many chances to create a problematic area during finding (Inkinen et al. 2021). This project's data collection method will be interviewing the organization’s stakeholders that is also can be a problematic area. Gathering pieces of information from the organization’s stakeholders can be manipulative to create a good image for the company. That will be a problematic area for this study. This study needs a clear view of the retail marketing of the company, if the company will not show its details to maintain the image it will also affect the study by taking authentic information.

Rationale

This study is based on the recovery of the ASDA organization after the pandemic situation. In the pandemic situation, every industry faced losses. ASDA is a very big a popular organization that has many parts to explore its business. In the pandemic situation, ASDA faces a big loss in every industry from the clothing industry to the Fuel industry ASDA reported a near double-digit fall in its sales. In that time estimated fall of sales excluding fuel became 9.2%. After the covid period, the organization has to come back in every industry for that reason ASDA create a recovery process for itself.

We have chosen this issue because after facing the covid situation no other small companies have the capacity to fight back and come back to the industry. ASDA a company is known as the biggest organization in the UK. After Sainsbury’s and TESCO, it is the biggest organization, during the covid period these two companies also help ASDA. The impact of the pandemic situation is very hard to bare, but after overcoming the situation the company come very positively and recover in every industry. This is a great achievement for ASDA (Ahmad et al. 2021). This issue will help us to know what type of planning and strategy is needed to overcome disaster situations and global pandemic situations.

During Covid -19 pandemic situation there are many parts of the organization of ASDA fell apart. After the covid -19 period, it came back to it’s ever industry. This study will specifically talk about the retail business. In the pandemic situation, ASDA is mostly affected by the retail process. In the pandemic situation, the import-export of groceries, clothing, and many other things are not able to retail by any process. The problem with this retail business, the company is unable to give customer orders in a proper time. The ASDA clothing industry imports raw materials from Bangladesh but during this period it would be very difficult to do the retail business.

This topic by chosen because, during the covid period without the medical industry, every industry faced a critical situation. After covid-19 every industry has fallen apart. The organization ASDA is one of the biggest organizations in the UK. After the pandemic situation how ASDA came back to the retail industry is the main point to discuss in this study. The study also includes, how to manage a business in a crisis situation, and what type of steps will take the organization in a disaster situation. These many things will help to know how a person will manage the situation if this crisis and disaster will happen in their business. This study will also help create a decision-making process (Xiao et al. 2021). This study will show the affected market of the UK. During the covid situation and after the covid situation there is a big graphical change in the retail industry. This topic is also chosen because it was very important to know how a total Organization falls apart because of covid.

Significance of the research

This research is very much significant for the situation during covid. This study will explain all the problems and shows the strategies to recover from the disaster situation. Basically in the pandemic situation covid, the UK faced a big loss in the retailing business. This study elaborates on the problematic area of a particular organization to show the specific and common problem in retail marketing (Do et al. 2021). During and after covid pandemic situation it became very hard to stand up and start to do the job again from square one. In the retail industry, ASDA had to face the critical point of that situation. Financially and at market value wise it became very difficult for ASDA to compete with other organizations. There is also a point in which Sainsbury’s and TESCO help ASDA to face the problem and recover it. This study will clarify all the points of how ASDA recovered itself after facing the global pandemic problem and manage itself from crisis situations.

Summary

The organisation is well aware of its condition thus they have planned for research to regain its market standard. They had made research based on some objectives which would help them to know the impacts that the pandemic laid on the company. The findings would help them to take effective steps to improve its market condition. The theory that ASDA will implement will suggest them to recognize the competitive market and fight with its competitors. These theories and strategies will help the organisation to attract more and more customers and bring innovative products into the market. Hence, this study is effective to enhance the performance of ASDA and gain a position in the competitive market.

Chapter 2: Literature Review

Employees are the main part of a company or an organisation and it increased on daily basis. This study will be discussed the company's productivity and people engagement after the covid pandemic. After the pandemic, many industries have been destroyed so ASDA has lost its turnover. Therefore, this research study will help to get clear information on the company’s turnover and employee rate and other information. According to Xiao et al. 2021, many new strategies are maintained during this study research and it will help to get authentic data from employees that will be promoted employees and their culture of the workplace. These study objectives will help to understand all information after the covid pandemic.

Impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the business performance of the organization

ASDA is a retail industry in the UK, and it is an important part of the global economy with a 5.1% GDP. The covid pandemic has destroyed all industries and a bad impact depends on companies. The retail industry has maintained many rules and regulations because governments give so many restrictions such as social distancing, using masks, and stopping physical meet and lockdowns started during the pandemic (ons.gov.uk, 2022). As a result, product quality and customer service have decreased during this time. The company business has continued its business with a low run. The total sales fell by 1.9% of retail in 2020.

Figure 1: Overall scenario of ASDA in 2022

(Source: statista.com, 2022)

In 2019, the company turnover is high in retail sales. Therefore, the company overcomes this situation to use many digital technologies. Online shopping for every product started during this time, and as a result, people get many opportunities to purchase any products still at home, and delivery systems are started (statista.com, 2022). Therefore, some challenges have been managed during this time.

Challenges faced by the organization during the pandemic situation

Many challenges are faced in the company and trying to overcome issues. The company faced employee issues, Customer service issues and supplier’s issues, and others. The Covid pandemic has destroyed all businesses and employees and customers are feared to use products. Many employees have left the job and left the town so the company faced employee’s problems. Employees are the main part to continue any business because most of the parts of the business are managed by them. Customers are satisfied to get good quality products and services but the pandemic situation destroyed the service quality (Xiao et al. 2021). Lockdown stopped all sales processes so customers changed their shops and they choose low-cost products because many customers lost their jobs. Suppliers of this company left their work because the company cannot provide money to the suppliers. As a result, huge problems are faced to make products. In spite of these, the cost of every product is increasing daily basis during this pandemic time so customers are disrupted for that. All types of results are bad at this time.

Strategy applied by the organization to recover the business

The company faced many challenges so tries to overcome all challenges and some challenges are managed to apply many strategies. Omni channel is one of the common strategies that accepted the company managers and employees. Many digital and physical sources are created in this time, so many customer service issues have been avoided. ASDA has started so many different brands such as it creates fashion goods and all groceries products and insurance processes. Therefore, the company has developed its market profit using the market segmentation process.

Summary

The current situation of the company is good and is growing faster in its sales and profit. This company has applied many strategies and followed many unique ideas so this company’s growth is faster than the pandemic situation. Many digital apps and tools are used in this company to recover its business growth and many challenges have been overcome during this time, gradually these strategies have developed this company. Many e-commerce apps have started their business and runs heavily in the future.

Chapter 3: Methodology

The methodology is the process of any research because many types of data collection will be needed in any research. Therefore, Methods will be needed to collect many types of data. This is a very different part to collect data and all necessary aspects.

Data collection method

This Research will be discussed all types of primary data that help to get and understand the specific data for the recovery of ASDA. After the covid pandemic, many companies have been destroyed and lost their turnover for different reasons. Therefore, this research study will help the researcher to identify the actual information and get the right measurement. An interview will be done to get a primary collection of data (Ali, 2022). It will observe 6 questions from 4 employees and 2 HR managers and 4 customers who are done the entire interview to get much evidence.

The question that will be asked during the interview are mentioned in the following order:

Question 1: According to you what is the major factor that affected the ASDA during Covid 19?

Question 2: How was the service of ASDA got affected by the pandemic?

Question 3: How does the pandemic affect the life of the employee of ASDA?

Question 4: After the pandemic, what are the major challenges in the retail industry, especially in ASDA?

Question 5: In a post-pandemic situation, what changes have you noticed in ASDA?

Question 6: According to you, how ASDA can recover from the loss during the pandemic?

Data analysis method

Primary Qualitative, Primary quantitative and Secondary Qualitative data will be taken to elaborate the methodology of this topic. It will be given specific data from these methods. The methodology of this project is based on three data collection processes one is the qualitative primary data collection process, the next one is the quantitative primary data collection process and the last one is a secondary qualitative process. The quantitative data collection is not very believable or trustworthy to put into the project. On the basis of this project, it needs to focus on the organizational primary sources. To show the drawbacks of the organization it becomes very important to also collect secondary sources to collect the other data that the organization will not be able to give. Some specific data will be collected from this data collection and personal discussion or information will not collect during this process. Employee rates and productivity will be collected by this data (Almaslamani et al. 2020). Many skills and pieces of knowledge are applied in this process so the right data get from this research. After the covid pandemic, ASDA was destroyed so, in this research, much information about this company will be taken from this data collection method. A logical approach will be obtained from this data and this research will be very helpful to get a piece of clear information from the researcher. ASDA faced a big critical situation in the market. But they did not say about the help they get from the other organization. On the other hand, secondary resources give these types of data which are also very important for this study. Much data will be analyzed to capture the company concepts and patterns of its work and its turnover after the covid and how to recover from this situation. All types of data will be collected from this research and improved it.

Ethical concern

Any research process is based on some ethical factors, and this data collection process has many ethical factors. Therefore, this research will be highly successful, and only specific data are collected for a piece of clear information. Particularly, some relevant data will be get from this research. A Data Protection Act works on the research and this research maintained many guidelines and rules of this act. Some ethical rules and regulations will be maintained throughout the whole research of data collection (Ahmad et al. 2021). Therefore, the company will be accepted to do this research, and employees are supported when data are collected. Many authentic data will be managed in the collection of the research data. Many online sources will be collected for this and so many articles will be worked on in this research. Confidentiality is the main part to get authentic data and this research method will be maintained, all the interviewers will be maintained confidentiality.

Summary

The collection of data will help to get a piece of authentic information and many strategies are maintained for collecting data. The methodology is the main part of this research and it will help to get much information of data and a clear direction for this research. The data collection process will maintain some rules and regulations for its success and the act follow some ethical rules and maintained all types of issues and challenges. All interviewers will be confident to give all types of authentic data and their confidence is high in this situation. The entire data will be based on the company information and all types of working data.

Part 2

Chapter 4: Findings

They would collect information about its performance and strategies from customers, HR, and its employees. This will help to find out the factors that were affected by the pandemic in ASDA. It would find out about the changes that came in the service of the organisation. The pandemic’s effect on the working of employees will also be researched (Sayyida et al. 2021). This will help them to recognize the changes that came in the post-pandemic period, along with that, it will also recognize the changes that are to bring in the functioning of ASDA.

The pandemic had a relative impact on the working of the employee of ASDA. The employees would give different replies to those questions. They might say that many employees were fired and others would say that they worked easily due to the arrival of fewer numbers of customers. One of them would also add that their salary was delayed by the organisation. The answer of the first HR would say that the organisation maintained safety measures during the pandemic and the second HR might say that customers used online shopping.

The first customer would say that they used to wait for a long for processing. The other would say that they have chosen the online service, hence they could get their products in their door steps. The third customer would add that there was less crowd in the shop. The fourth customer will say that they were provided all precautionary products for maintaining a safe environment in the organisation.

The replies of the HR. employees and customers will bring forth the shortcomings that dissatisfied them, and along with that, the organisation will also get positive functioning of the organisation. This will find out the relevant changes they need to bring in their services. This will help to recommend major changes that they need to bring to the organisation.

Chapter 5: Data Analysis

The answers of employees, customers, and HRs would help them to get knowledge about the performance and functioning of the organisation during the pandemic. It will also help them to know the functioning and working strategy of the organisation after the pandemic period (Wang et al. 2020). It could be analysed that the organisation maintained all precautionary safety measures. Their behaviour with the employees and the customers will also be found. The analyses of their responses will help to get an overview of companies' performance during the pandemic and in the post-pandemic period.

The analyses of the responses of employees will bring forth the issues that the employees of ASDA faced. This will help to strengthen the facilities provided to them and help to employee welfare. The customers' opinions will help to know the problems they faced during the period and the things they liked. These would support the organisation to take relevant steps to improve those things.

This analysis will be helpful to find out the changes that they need to bring. It will support the organisation to recognize its weak points and provide a suggestive measure to strengthen its performance. This states that they will check to bring changes to improve the facilities that are provided to its employees and they need to pay concern to the wages of employees. The service provided to the customers would be enhanced and fastened to speed up its functioning (Peters and Bodkin, 2021). This will analyze that there was a rise in online business due to covid-19 and customers would prefer online shopping to avoid traveling and wastage time.

This will state that the enhancement of the performance of ASDA would urge some changes. The changes would be for the employees, customers, and the company itself. This will help to suggest the relevant strategies that the organisation needs to implement to enhance its performance and make a place in the market of retail groceries.

Chapter 6: Conclusion & Recommendation

Conclusion

It is recommended in this study that the first recommended thing of this research will be a piece of clear information and clear data that help to increase the research. Many journals and articles, and many tools will be used in this research to get all company information. The data collection method will be used to get clear and the right data that is easy to explain this research topic. Interviews will be done for some specific and clear data. Six questions will be considered in this research including 4 employees and two HR managers and four customers who are done this interview and will be given some authentic data that help to grow this research.

The second recommended thing is that the pandemic situation has destroyed the company turnover and lost many employees and stakeholders also suppliers. Therefore, the company faced many challenges and it depends on the company's total volume. ASDA overcomes all types of challenges to apply many strategies and unique ideas. Online marketing strategies are applied in this company when the pandemic situation runs. Therefore, many online apps have started that help to expand its business. The E-commerce industry is the fastest-growing industry at that time and this industry is growing and many companies followed these strategies to recover from the pandemic situation.

Recommendation

The organisation would require to bring changes in its working strategies. They would need to adopt some techniques to function effectively and bring some sorts of improvements to enhance their performance. The pandemic led to a drop the performance hence the retail supermarket of ASDA will require to improve its market strategies.

They are recommended to enhance the online business system to increase its sale via online mode. This will attract more customers because online shopping saves time (Li et al. 2020). They can use the online mode of shopping at any place and any time thus this will help to attract more customers and increase sales. This is supportive of the organisation too as it would require less staff and a small place in comparison to the offline mode of business.

They are recommended to employ more staff to speed up the working and give adequate services to its customers. This will help the customers to not wait for long which will attract customers' support and they would stick to this organisation for its fast processing.

It is recommended to bring attractive and innovative work to the organisation. This will attract more customers and they would prefer the products of ASDA. this will also support the organisation to raise its business and make a perfect5 place in the market.

The organisation is recommended to implement a modern way of marketing to attract more customers. This would include advertising through social media and other digital modes of marketing (Bala and Verma, 2018). This will help them to attract customers from all the secretions of society and from every region.

Scope

This shows that the functioning of the organisation was affected by7 the pandemic and it laid down the performance of the ASDA. The research shows that the authorities will need to bring different changes in their functioning. They would get the chance to adopt some strategies to enhance the performance of the employees and attract more consumers to their products. They also get the chance to attract more customers by bringing innovative products and enhancing online business processes by making it easy to order and pay (Adapa et al. 2020). They would get the scope to use both modern and traditional ways of marketing, which will help to attract more and more customers to the organisation

Reflection report

After completing this study it is very much clear that ASDA is performing well during the pandemic and after the pandemic. It is also very clear that though the organization performing well, the market value and financial deficiency are shown at that time. By using the data collection process it is pointed out that the situation in the pandemic is giving a very effective impact on this organization. Leaving everything else aside the retail process is very much affected by the pandemic. ASDA is an organization that is work not only in one industry the ASDA organization worked for many other industries also. This study showed the problematic area of this company and also showed how the company recover itself by using many strategies and recovery processes. The reflection on this topic is not based on only one or two methods. This study is related to the ASDA market which is affected by covid. To know how they overcome the situation or what types of strategies they make and what the new planning for the future is, this study used three methods to get the best data about this organization. Using the three types of data collection methods really helps the study to know about the cause, effects, flaws and achievements.

The study on this organization also showed the other company’s problematic areas. During and after the pandemic situation every organization has fallen apart. To overcome every company's losses this study will help them to recover also their business. The strategies and planning for recovering the market value will help the organization overcome the losses. ASDA organization after the pandemic faces a 9.2% loss in the market (asda.com, 2022). The retailing industry of this organization was in a disaster situation during and after the pandemic. During the pandemic, the import and export business is completely dissolved. The raw material of the ASDA clothing industry came from Bangladesh that is why the organization did not deliver its order in a proper time and sometimes the order has been canceled (Ahmad et al. 2021). In this situation, the customers of the organization have faced various problems in that situation. For that reason, some of the customers are became disappointed with the organization by ordering from them.

The strategies and planning of the organization to come back to the industry are becoming very much powerful to grab the market. The strategies make it very clear to the organization that if a company has a powerful strategic manager and a team of crisis management, it will be very helpful. A crisis management team and a strategic manager helped the organization of ASDA to come back into the industry. The organization also follows strategic planning and crisis management planning to do the work.

The problematic area I faced was that the interviews with the customer is genuine but the interviews with the organization stakeholders is a bit manipulative for the project, but all the manipulation parts aside, the strategic planning to help the organization became very impactful for the company. The company was also helped by the other competitors at that time. If I could include the competitor's interview that would be very good for this project.

References

Journals

Adapa, S., Fazal-e-Hasan, S.M., Makam, S.B., Azeem, M.M. and Mortimer, G., 2020. Examining the antecedents and consequences of perceived shopping value through smart retail technology. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 52, p.101901.

Ahmad, N., Haque, S. and Islam, M.A., 2021. COVID-19 and global clothing retailers' responsibility to vulnerable workers: NGO counter-rhetoric. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal.

Ahmad, N., Haque, S. and Islam, M.A., 2021. COVID-19 and global clothing retailers' responsibility to vulnerable workers: NGO counter-rhetoric. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal.

Ali, S.A., 2022. Role of Digital Marketing in Covid-19. Informative Journal of Management Sciences (IJMS), 1(1), pp.1-7.

Almaslamani, F., Abuhussein, R., Saleet, H., AbuHilal, L. and Santarisi, N., 2020. Using big data analytics to design an intelligent market basket-case study at sameh mall. Int. J. Eng. Res. Technol, 13, pp.3444-3455.

Argyropoulou, M., Zissis, D., Korfiatis, N. and Zampou, E., 2022. Horizontal collaboration in the last mile distribution: gauging managerial response to disruption and abnormal demand. Benchmarking: An International Journal.

Bala, M. and Verma, D., 2018. A critical review of digital marketing. M. Bala, D. Verma (2018). A Critical Review of Digital Marketing. International Journal of Management, IT & Engineering, 8(10), pp.321-339.

Desai, B., Studente, S. and Garivaldis, F., 2022. The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Consumer Purchasing Behaviour: Implications for the Retail Sector. In Global Strategic Management in the Service Industry: A Perspective of the New Era (pp. 1-15). Emerald Publishing Limited.

Do, Q.N., Mishra, N., Wulandhari, N.B.I., Ramudhin, A., Sivarajah, U. and Milligan, G., 2021. Supply chain agility responding to unprecedented changes: empirical evidence from the UK food supply chain during COVID-19 crisis. Supply Chain Management: An International Journal.

Inkinen, S., Williams, V. and Hoque, W.M., 2021. Effect of Contingency Planning on Survival of the Hotels in California, USA amid COVID 19 pandemic. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, 4(2).

Li, X., Zhao, X. and Pu, W., 2020. Measuring ease of use of mobile applications in e-commerce retailing from the perspective of consumer online shopping behaviour patterns. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 55, p.102093.

Peters, C. and Bodkin, C.D., 2021. Retail store community and its impact on store success. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management.

Sayyida, S., Hartini, S., Gunawan, S. and Husin, S.N., 2021. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on retail consumer behavior. Aptisi Transactions on Management (ATM), 5(1), pp.79-88.

Wang, Y., Xu, R., Schwartz, M., Ghosh, D. and Chen, X., 2020. COVID-19 and retail grocery management: insights from a broad-based consumer survey. IEEE Engineering Management Review, 48(3), pp.202-211.

Xiao, B., Chen, Q. and Yu, Z., 2021, April. Research on the Investment Value of Sainsbury’s. In 2021 6th International Conference on Social Sciences and Economic Development (ICSSED 2021) (pp. 108-115). Atlantis Press.

Zissis, D., Aktas, E. and Bourlakis, M., 2018. Collaboration in urban distribution of online grocery orders. The International Journal of Logistics Management.

Websites

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corporate.asda.com, (2022), Covid 19 risk management of ASDA, Available at: https://corporate.asda.com/asda-stores-limited-asda-covid-19-risk-assessment [Accessed on: 30th November, 2022]

ons.gov.uk, (2022), Impactofthecoronaviruscovid19pandemiconretailsales, Available at: https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/grossdomesticproductgdp/articles/impactofthecoronaviruscovid19pandemiconretailsalesin2020/2021-01-28 [Accessed on: 30th November, 2022]

reuters.com, (2022), Outlook of ASDA, Available at: https://www.reuters.com/article/asda-outlook-idINL5N2XI4IX [Accessed on: 30th November, 2022]

statista.com, (2022), Asda online grocery delivery brand profile in the united kingdom, Available at: https://www.statista.com/forecasts/1304363/asda-online-grocery-delivery-brand-profile-in-the-united-kingdom. [Accessed on: 30th November, 2022]