Answer

The Impact of the General Environment on New Zealand Retail Business in the Next 10-15 Years

Introduction

The New Zealand retail business has experienced significant growth leading up to 2015 where most sectors of the retail business experienced positive growth. The different categories of retail business such as clothes retailing, foodstuffs retailing and general retailing such as in supermarkets have experienced a surge in sales due to the economic recovery experienced throughout the New Zealand economy. The New Zealand economy has been recovering from the effects of the recession and this recovery has fueled growth in the retail sector as more consumers have larger disposable incomes that they spend on retail shopping. Other sectors of the economy have also experienced growth, but these sectors are beyond the scope of this paper, whose focus shall be on the retail sector (Stanley-Smith & Schwanke, 2016). The general environment of a business refers to the external environment factors that might affect a business such as the technological environment, the economic and sociocultural environment, the global environment and the political/legal environment. These external factors have a large impact on the retail business within New Zealand and this paper shall examine the future impact of some of these factors on the retail business environment in New Zealand. This paper shall be focused on the impact of the global environment, the technological environment and the sociocultural environment on the New Zealand retail business environment over the next 10-15 years.

The global environment

The global business environment is poised to have a significant impact on the retail environment in New Zealand over the next 10-15years given the rapid rise in popularity of global retailing websites. Retail businesses in New Zealand will have to compete with global retailers such as Amazon, given that such global retailers offer services to global consumers that local retailers have to match. For example, most global retailers are offering free shipping for goods ordered that have reached a certain threshold, such as NZD $400; therefore, local retailers have to match such offers in order to compete on the same level as the global retailers. The fact that the New Zealand business environment has been largely deregulated has also attracted numerous global businesses to the country including global retailers who are looking to open new stores within the country (Germann & Raudkivi, 2006). The global competition within the retail sector is bound to affect the different categories of retail business such as foodstuff retailing, clothes retailing and general retailing as is the case of supermarkets. The next 10-15 years shall mark an era of stiff competition within the New Zealand retail market as local retailers compete for customers with large global retailers who have the benefit of economies of scale due to their global operations. However, current trends indicate that local retailers have a chance against their global competitors as many consumers still buy from local retailers.

The technological environment

The current state of the technological environment indicates that there is a significant rise in the popularity of shopping using mobile devices and there is no sign of this trend abating. It is highly likely that 10-15 years from now most consumers shall still be making their retail purchases via mobile devices. Most global retailers have created mobile shopping applications that are targeted at the retail consumers. The main objective of the retail shopping applications is to make it easier for consumers to shop online through mobile devices as well as to enrich the consumers’ shopping experience (Cox & Vos, 2005). New Zealand retailers have also embraced the trend towards online shopping on mobile devices and it is predicted that in the next 10-15 years, most retail purchases in New Zealand and across the globe, in most developed countries, shall be conducted through mobile devices. Mobile shopping applications developed by most retailers shall drive the growth in online shopping as many local retailers in New Zealand shall have accepted and embraced this new shopping trend. In the next 10-15years, the role of technology within the retail industry shall be greatly enhanced as most retailers embrace technology ion most of their internal procedures apart from the traditional role of technology (Al-Qirim, 2006). Retailers in New Zealand shall embrace new ways of utilizing technology such as in the hiring process as well as in new ways of advertising.

The sociocultural environment

The sociocultural environment in relation to the retail business environment refers to the retail shopping habits and trends exhibited by New Zealand consumers in the ever rapidly-changing retail environment. Currently, there is a significant shift towards internet retailing as more and more customers utilize the internet to place their retail orders. This trend applies to all categories of retail business such as the sale of clothes, foodstuffs, home appliances and other retail products (Alley, 2012). This trend is expected to continue expanding over the next 10-15 years as more and more customers turn to the internet to make their retail purchases. The current trend towards internet retailing has also led to the emergence of numerous retailers selling their wares through internet shops as they have no physical shop front. This has led to the fragmentation of the retail industry as the surge of new retailers sell unique products and they do not have physical storefronts, hence everything is done online (Kite, 2005). The popularity of e-commerce sites such as Amazon.com indicate a new trend in online retailing as the site allows any person with a unique product to sell it through the site, which facilitates the sale. This seems to be the new trend that might dominate the next 10-15 years and New Zealand retailers are quickly embracing the trend in order to remain competitive within the global retail environment. Therefore, it is evident that internet retailing shall dominate the next 10-15 years of the retail environment in New Zealand if another disruptive technology does not emerge.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the New Zealand retail environment is poised for major changes in the next 10-15 years give the rise of internet retailing, global competition and mobile shopping, which are trends that are poised to transform the retail business. The retail business in New Zealand is changing as major retailers take their operations online in order to compete with other global retailers such as Amazon who are penetrating the local retail industry. Australian consumers are also embracing the new trend towards internet shopping and it is projected that more and more consumers will start shopping online in the next 10-15 years. The next 10-15 years are bound to increase the pressure of global competition on local New Zealand retailers who will have to become innovative and create new ways of attracting local consumers. Local retailers in New Zealand who have physical stores would have to embrace online shopping and create mobile shopping applications for their consumers to use. This is especially true given that the next 10-15 years shall see more and more consumers using mobile devices and applications to shop. Therefore, it is safe to conclude that the technological, sociocultural and global environments shall have a huge impact on New Zealand retail businesses.