Introduction
TJX is the retailer company manufacturing the home fashions and garments for the various income levels. The company sells fashion items and designer merchandise on a global scale. TJX’s stocks are changing rapidly due to the efficient pricing strategies and high quality of products. However, for the achievement of greater profitability, the organization applies the online sales models as well. Nowadays, e-commerce gains popularity and is regarded as one of the most effective methods for the expansion of the supply chain. The high level of TJX’s in-store and online performance worldwide proves that the company adopts efficient merchandise distribution strategies.
Place
TJX uses both the physical facilities and online stores as the distribution channels. “The advent of e-commerce has made retailing more complicated and more competitive” (Mahar, 2005, p. 1). The opening of online stores helps to reach a bigger number of customers worldwide, and it provides the opportunity for the profitability indications improvement and the sales increase. However, the online retailing provokes the new challenges in the distribution of merchandise.
TJX has multiple locations for the inventory. The products for sale offline are stored in some of the retail stores while the products that are sold through the Internet are mostly kept in the warehouses before shipping to the customer. Since the company possesses several brands and product lines, the choice of the multiple locations is evident and the most appropriate one. The company’s main distribution centers are located in Arizona, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania. However, the company conducts business in the international market, and it has the secondary warehouses and the online store’s fulfillment locations in Europe and Canada.
When speaking about the retail location, TJX has an advantageous position in the industry. The brands are successfully represented in international markets. The company continues to expand its physical retail performance in European countries. It means that the distribution channels will be expanded as well.
Competitive Advantage
TJX comprises a wide range of brand names. In the business, they do not address any intermediary agents and distributors and organize the whole process of product development and distribution from the first step to the last one. The company’s product life cycle is short, the offered merchandise is constantly changing, and the new collections replace the old ones rapidly. The current manufacturing strategy is efficient because it helps to maintain a steady level of income throughout the year and avoid the sales decline. The new product introduction provokes the market’s growth (Perreault, Cannon, & McCarthy, 2014). And when the new product development isn’t dependent on the seasons to a large extent, as it happens in the majority of the fashion retailer companies, the company evolves its core competencies and advantages in the industry. Overall, TJX’s large merchandise turnover supports financial turnover as well.
Conclusion
In terms of place, distribution strategies, warehouses locations, and the new product development cycle, TJX has a significant competitive advantage in the retail industry. Moreover, TJX is considered one of the leading enterprises in the world of the fashion business. The sustained profitability and the high rate of customer loyalty prove the company’s success. The functional distribution strategies and the numerous inventory locations help to maintain the business efficiency by facilitating the merchandise supply both to the stores and their clients and reduce the risk of the product turnover slowdown.
References
Mahar, S. (2005). Inventory and distribution strategies for retail/e-tail organizations. Web.
Perreault, W., Cannon, J., & McCarthy, J. (2014). Essentials of Marketing: A marketing strategy planning approach. New York, US: McGraw-Hill Education.