Sears, once a prominent name for a department store in Canada, is being driven out of the market by an increase in competitors and their inability to maintain customers.

With relatively low barriers to entry for international department stores, brands like Nordstroms and Target are making their way into Canada and differentiating themselves from Sears, taking away from Sears Value Proposition.

Although people generally view Sears as a trustworthy brand, they have lost their points of difference and are seeing this result reflected in their loss of revenues.

With the surge in online shopping, Sears once well known for their catalog and mail in orders, lost a huge branch of their business as competition from this new avenue emerged.

Sears, unable to use it’s strengths as a company to undermine these threats, lost a major point of revenue and subsequently their competitive edge. Through this complacency and inability to adapt, Sears is following Kodak onto the list of companies dying in the 21st century.

Sears would benefit by analyzing how Porter’s Five forces are applicable to their company, a lesson taught to first year Sauder students. By expanding on their points of difference in the department store industry segment, Sears has an opportunity to revive their business and avoid the downsizing and cost cutting that is currently occurring.

Sources:

Blog post by fellow Sauder Student Kathryn Huynh: https://blogs.ubc.ca/katbhuynh/2013/11/01/sears-canada-closes-flagship-store-as-well-as-four-other-locations/

http://www.ctvnews.ca/business/sears-canada-selling-stake-in-8-properties-will-keep-stores-open-1.1536988

http://business.financialpost.com/2013/11/11/sears-canada-montez-income-properties/?__lsa=6c4f-f975