Analysis Of Saint Vincent De Paul Shops

Published Date: 23 Mar 2015 Last Modified: 10 May 2017

Due to the global financial problems, the business sector is now facing its most difficult period since high unemployment, Ireland falling into recession for the first time since the 1980s. The Irish government officially announced it was in recession in September 2008, with a sharp rise in unemployment occurring in the following months. The numbers of people claiming unemployment benefit in Ireland rose to 326,000. saint Vincent shops providing support to the people in need so it is important that environmental scanning occurs to identify how Vincent's shops can improve their services and provide all needs. This Assignment is about an internal and external Environment analysis Of Saint Vincent De Paul Shops where I am doing my work placement is requested by the teacher as apart of advance certificate in business course, to be summit by the 16th of December 2009.

Method of procedure

To obtain the relevant information I get the information from the manager of the shop,

To obtain the relevant information I get the information from the manager of the shop,

I get some information from the Internet (www.SVP.ie),. from the course sheets and academic Theories.

Description of Saint Vincent De Paul Organization

Frederic Ozanam and a few friends started the Society of St.Vincent de Paul in Paris on April 23, 1833. It was a time when the Catholic Church in France was the object of bitter hostility following the French Revolutions of 1789 and 1830.

Favouring a practical, direct approach to dealing with poverty, by their own efforts and rising what finance they could, they worked to alleviate the sufferings and poverty of others, less favoured in their social situation. Frederic Ozanam and his friends believed that Christian help and friendship were the best means of achieving social justice. This is the same path followed today by the members of the Society of St.Vincent de Paul in Ireland as they work for social justice.

The Society of St. Vincent de Paul is an international non profit voluntary organization. The entity of this organization is friendly societies not registered with the registrar of friendly societies. The aim of the St Vincent de Paul Society is to tackle poverty in all its forms through the provision of practical assistance to those in need. However over the years, the SVP has responded to social changes, providing a range of additional services depending on the prevailing need. Today, these "Special Works" include shops, resource centre, and providing accommodation to vulnerable people holiday.

Vincent's shops

Over the last ten years the Society has established retail units nationwide to provide a more efficient service. These shops are important because through it the organization can provide people in need with new and second hand clothing, furniture, toys, books and high quality goods in low price. VSP shops all over Ireland, we can find more than 24 units in Dublin. These shops dealing with all types of customer's students, people on low incomes trying to provide the best they can for their families, children, and elder people.

Organisation Chart

Manager

Volunteer

Volunteer

Volunteer

Students

VENCENTS Shop , Blanchardstown Dublin 15, where I am doing my work placement, this shop is managed by professional manager, volunteers and three students doing their work experience .the student reports to the volunteers or to the manager, the volunteers report to the manager and the manager report to the regional manager. We find three departments, the, management department this section dealing with the financial matters and direct the volunteers, the volunteers department, their duties are sorting the charity items, Tagged, coding, Pricing and tidy up the shop, the customer service department they dealing with customer. My duties to work with the volunteers some times dealing with the customers.

Internal Influence on Organization

VSP shops gain competitive advantage over another charity shops because of its resources which create value for its customer, the organization own tangible assets like the shops, it is well known among people because it is the largest charity organization in the country, it have good will between customer, brand name, customer loyalty, also the staff work as a team, they working together to provide their products and services in a good way that to increase the profit.

Value chain analysis

The donators bring charity items to the shop , then the staff start sorting the items and choose the new one and all things that in good conditions, then tagged the it, coding , pricing and put it in the shop ready for selling. In sorting clothes they choose the best quality clothes that suits the customers, that mean winter or summer time, and the price depend on quality. The customer service helps the customer to find what they want and how to use it if they need help.

The shop runs activities that the customer value, they organize sale for new and valuable clothes, toys sale and chrisms sale and open days. From all this activities the shops increase the profit.

PEST Analysis PEST Analysis

PEST Analysis

Mean The macro-environment e.g. Political (and legal) forces, Economic forces, Sociocultural forces, and Technological forces. These are known as PEST factors.

Political Factors.

The political arena has a huge influence upon the regulation of businesses, and the spending power of consumers and other businesses. You must consider issues such as: how stable is the political environment, the laws that regulate the business, the marketing ethics, the government policy on the economy and the new trading agreement such as EU.In Vincent's shop we find this factors which may effect the spending power between the donators and the customer, and the agreements may change the marketing ethics.

Economic Factors.

Marketers need to consider the state of the economy, the changes in income and spending, this factor cause increasing in the number of the customer of the shop, and the integration of the EU present opportunities for Ireland. So increasing in the donation and the quality.

Sociocultural Factors.

The social and cultural influences on business vary from country to country. Which affect our values, beliefs and behaviors. Vincent's shop can provide foreign products to foreign customer.

Technological Factors.

The technological environment consist of forces that create new technologies and so create new products and market opportunities, by making the products more cheaper and provide good services and the distribution can changed by new technologies e.g. via the Internet, there is lack of technology in vicents shop, which lead to slow transaction, less profit and they cant communicate with the customer.

Porter Five Forces

Porter five forces is a model use to analyze a particular environment of industry to identify strategies to improve the company and its own profitability.

Competitive Rivalry

Competitive rivalry be high if the entry to an industry is easy or the customer move to substitute products, all charity shops have the same products but Vincent's shops has different strategy , and the competitor size is not as the same size as Vincent's. So the competitive rivalry is not high.

Power of Suppliers

Vincent's shop depends on donation, and there is no other substitute for the product, that mean they donate the more and success to the shop.

Power of Buyers

Can affect if there differentiation over the product, substitute can be found easily, and in lower price so the customer can switch. Vincent's shop customers switch from some products because it is in high price.

Threat of Substitutes

The existence of products outside of the realm of the common product boundaries increases the propensity of customers to switch to alternatives. Buyer propensity to substitute if the price of substitutes products is reasonable, in Vincent's shop buyer switching costs is not high, now a days, number of substitute products available in the market, in low price.

5.Threat of new entrant

The threat of new entrant is high when its easy for an organization to enter the industry that mean the entry barriers are low, Vincent's customer has a loyalty to the existing products, and the donator know the role of Vincent in helping people so they brings their stuffs to the shop not to the other entrants.

SWOT Analysis

SWOT Analysis is a strategic process used to evaluate the Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats involves in a business. A scan of the internal and external environment is an important part of the strategic planning process. Environmental factors internal to the firm usually can be classified as :-

Strengths (S):- Internal condition that help to achieving the objectives.

Weaknesses:- Internal condition that attributes of the person or the company those are harmful to achieving the objectives.

Opportunities external conditions those are helping to achieving the objectives.

Threats:-external conditions which can cause damage to the objectives

SWOT analysis of Saint Vincent shop in Blanchardstown village Dublin 15 provides this information:-

Strengths:-

All the staffs are volunteers that mean no need to pay for them.

Vincent de Paul is the largest charity organization in Ireland.

The shop has a good reputation among the customers.

VSP is international organization that means a brand name and it well known to the people.

The financial resources depend on donation, this the key of strengths because it depend in personalized delivery of help.

They accept all kind of donation and resell them in the shops, which mean they provide good quality in good condition.

All the staff work as a team,.

The shop founded in a good location, there are no other charitable shop in the area.

Weaknesses

Absence of important skill because all the staffs are all volunteers sometimes with no experience, not well trained.

Weak brands so the profit margin to low because they sell their items in low price.

The donation is personalized delivery that depends on the person who wants to donate. While the other competitors collect the charitable items by their selves.

Lack of new products, the company depends on charity, so there is no ability to develop new products.

The shop is small in size there is no store in the shop, they recycle good items, because of poor access and distribution.

Opportunities

New distribution channels.

Growth in marketing

Competition weakness

International marketing

Technological advances, that means arrival of new technologies.

A developing the marketing through 21-05-2013-238.odtthe internet

Threats

new competitor

Lack of financial recourses (donation)

Because of the economic situation

Increased competition

Falling sale because the income level became low.

Decreasing profits

Conclusions

SVP shops, which are almost nationwide, are a very important aspect of the service SVP provides. Over the last ten years the Society has established retail units nationwide to provide a more efficient service.

The main factors of this analysis are the strengths of the shops because it has a strong brand name and the customer has a loyalty to the products, a good reputation among the customer, good location and has Good opportunities for the future. The weaknesses that the shops are managed by small number of professional, a large voluntary force few of them well educated and by community employment trainees. Lack of new technology. There are the external factors which affect on the organization services the political policy, economic factors which affect the purchasing power of other shops customers this may increase the number of the customers of the shop, and they can find high quality of used goods, clothes and furniture at low prices.

Recommendations

ï‚· disseminate new ideas, information and best practice, and that can contribute to making the discipline of the shop sale more sustainable.

ï‚· develop methodologies, tools, and training for the staff to allow them to provide better services, and contribute in the growing of businesses.

ï‚· New technology in the shops. .

ï‚· create a sense of donation amongst the people, this can increase profits