The Children’s Place Inc. (PLCE) Analysis and Recommendation

According to The Children’s Place Inc. (PLCE) case study on the opportunities and threats of 2017, reflects on factors such as study for consumer behavior and change in market trends. Consumer behavior is central to PLCE because it helps to analyze what the consumers need. It is essential for businesses to understand consumers to remain competitive in the market. The study reveals that consumers’ preference for clothing relied on prices. The highest population of consumers are teenagers who are not in the job market and still want to remain trendy at an affordable price.

Moreover, the majority of teenage mothers also needed to afford to buy clothes within their affordability. Understanding Consumer behavior in micro perspectives helps a firm to achieve the sales objectives. In this case, understanding the societal or macro perspective provides knowledge about consumers on the aggregate level. Therefore, to survive in the present and future market, it is essential to know that consumers have a significant influence on the quality and level of living standards. Take, for instance, the case study reveals that most clients are young people surviving on menial jobs or none at all. Therefore, bringing products that they cannot afford will amount to losses. There were many PLCE shops which closed while competitors continued to thrive is failing to study the consumer. While the products might be great if the consumers are not willing to buy there will be no significant sales. 

Another aspect revealed by the case study changes. While most organizations are rigid towards change, this has strained PLCE as a business. Its model does not accommodate the need for change, and this is problematic when it comes to competition. A good business strategy would be to look at the trends in the market and try to align the business model with them. For instance, similar businesses like Amazon are thriving using the digital platform. Most buyers find it less time consuming and more comfortable to log online and shop. As a result, consumers are becoming less and less in the shops while increasing their online presence. In the age of digitalization, a significant number of people have access to mobile phones, and this has helped them do their shopping from the convenience of their houses. On the other hand, PLCE is still stuck on the analog side which does not help with attracting consumers and reducing the backlog. As a result, most PLCE shops have closed as opposed to opening. 

Looking into these factors shows that the study of consumer behavior and change of the business model will help PLCE survive in the present market. Most consumers of apparels now prefer to shop with fewer hustles. Similar business models are paying attention to consumers’ preferences and changing their systems to accommodate consumers. As a result, they can capitalize on sales by paying attention to what the clients want. 

The present market place has thrived through adopting changes as technology. Other competitors to PLCE have noted that consumers are taking advantage of their phones to seek information about things such as prices, logging in to online shops, making purchases. IT has provided a competitive advantage for the competitors because instead of expanding offline, they have increased their online presence by changing their business model. At times the market place forces business to adopt new changes because of the consumer’s preferences and new technological advances.  According to the five Potter’s SWOT analysis, PLCE can take advantage of the technology opportunity to eliminate threats such as competition and new entrants. The retail stores should move from operating the old fashion way and create a digital system to verify customers transactions, scanning products, organizing activities such as sales, payments and so on.

Another opportunity to exploit is targeting teenage shoppers. At present, teenagers are spending their budget on their items such as phones, videos games, and trendy fashions. Retailers are appealing to this population by offering low prices. PLCE can benefit from this due to the number of newborns that continue to grow. As mentioned earlier, there is also the aspect of teenage pregnancies that continue to grow by the day. Concerning these factors, PLCE can target younger moms as they continue to incorporate new technology that will help in the buying experience.