What are the critical success factors of David Jones department store?

Answer 1

• A strong balance sheet - Careful management of working capital (particularly stock management and management of each customer's monthly accounts) is directly related to a business' ability to absorb operational shocks or interuptions.

• Effective forecasting - A rolling 13 week cash flow forecast, focusing on daily sales volumes, will assist in assessing a business' ability to generate cash to fund current working capital requirements.
• Stock control - Adequate stock monitoring systems and processes will highlight changes in demand in a timely manner so that re-ordering can be increased/decreased as needed. Also, identifying high demand products can significantly increase profits as they can generally be sold at a higher price and therefore achieve greater profit margin.
• Market position - Market positioning projects a clear and consistent image of the business and enables small and medium sized businesses to compete against larger players. Retail business owners and managers should consider product branding as well as physical location.
• Proximity to market - Understanding your target market demographic and ensuring your retail business can be easily accessed by that market will facilitate purchases (e.g. online store versus shopping strip, shopping centre, etc). It's worth noting the trend in online shopping and how prominent this has become in other parts of the world, particularly Europe. It's only a matter of time before Australia follows suit.