Business Model: A SWOT Analysis Of Shrift

1 Product/Service delivered

Shrift provides both goods and a service; increasing their market opportunity. It specialises in selling second-hand items such as clothing and fashion accessories – mainly of a vintage or unique origin. The business also offers customers a trading service to sell their used items to the store, thus increasing the variety of stock items offered which can suit many customer fashion styles and preferences.

2.2 Reason for selection

The owner (Jamie-Anne Geary) has been exposed to hospices and second-hand charity shops from an early stage. She has experienced the gratification of bargain hunting or finding a treasure. She is also the type of person that has a great need for uniqueness and a personal style. This experience

The competitive edge is that Shrift satisfies a need that a normal retail store cannot give to their customer. The business offers a buy and sell platform, which other competitors do not have. This gives the business a competitive advantage in the market and opens more distribution channels for customers of different income groups.

2.4 SWOT Analysis – Internal environment

A SWOT analysis is an easily understandable tool that can be used to identify the factors in both the internal and external environment that influence the business. In this section, an evaluation tool is needed to analyse the positives and negatives of the business concept, to develop a competitive advantage and make it easier for the business concept to succeed in entering the market.

Table 1: Strengths and weaknesses

Strengths

The products that the business sells and trades will be unique, authentic and differentiated as it isn’t sold on a mass scale and it is second-hand treasures which makes it attractive to consumers. This will also cater for many different customer fashion styles, it is not just the latest fashion trends and it does not just target a certain group – increasing its market

The location (which will be discussed in its section below) of the business will be around the hub of student activity which will ensure its exposure in the target market.

Due to the nature of the business (thrift store prices are already low), no specials or discounts will be required.

The business not only trades in clothing but also fashion accessories such as hats, jewellery, shoes etc. to suit more customer preferences.

The business follows the trend of ‘going green’. Customers buy from the company instead of choosing production companies that use more resources and pollute the environment with smoke, material wastage etc. Thus, the company is being both ethical towards the interest of society and chooses to contribute to reducing the carbon footprint.

Weaknesses

Once again, the one-size category of the items might persuade people that they might not find items that they like that suit their body shapes.

Initially it is a student-run business, so trading hours might be limited and might not meet all customer schedules. However, the desire is to later develop it into a normal trading hour