read the following discussion opinion, and give reply to these opinion.

(you don’t. need any recourses, just your personal opinion is fine)

which competitor will be harmed the most and which the least? and why?

E-commerce has slowly been on the rise over the years, and the trend of online shopping has exploded as of late. Retail stores were already starting to take a hit, however, Covid was a lot of stores’ final straws. When Covid hit, retail fronts shut down, and the only way to buy stuff was online. This killed so many stores that were already struggling such as Sears and Toys R Us mentioned in the video. These stores, that don’t have any real necessity pull or online buying options, are getting hurt the most by Amazon and the E-commerce giants. Amazon has taken the retail world by storm and acquired every company in their path. They have provided fast free shipping, movies, and so much more with their membership. Other retail stores are not going down without a fight. Target and Walmart are the two companies that stand out to me that are trying to rebuild their business model to be like Amazon. Target acquired Shipt which allows Target to offer specialized grocery and goods delivery to their customers. Walmart has offered many hassle free shopping methods such as delivery, curbside, and in-store pickup. These companies are the example of adaptive business strategies necessary to combat Amazon, and these are the companies who won’t be as hurt. Small businesses have a long uphill fight for them however due to the lack of resources needed to offer platforms like these. It will be very interesting to see how these companies respond and see if they can get consumers back through their doors instead of on their phones.

Consider in your discussion the components of the macro-environment, the five force model of competition, common weapons for competing with rivals, and game changing strategies.

Using Porter’s Five Forces Model we can look at potential competitors, bargaining power of suppliers, competition in the market, substitutes of products, bargaining power of consumers. Given these forces we believe retailers such as JCPenneys and Macy’s are the biggest in danger as they are very one dimensional. They have substitutes of many of their products and there is a lot of competition in their markets, which leads to lower profit margin and no room for error.These companies will have to come up to speed with the new wants and needs of the markets; if not, they will become like other giant retailers that have failed in the past. On another note, major retailers are not the only ones suffering, for local/small businesses are in the same situation. Some have even ended up closing their doors and turned to the virtual market completely. They find this best as they can reach more people, cut costs, and make more sales At a macro level, we can see that Amazon and Walmart are out competing these retailers in online and brick-and-mortar sales. Also, up and coming brands, such as Zappos, which is owned by Amazon, is taking a stride to overcome these dying brick-and-mortar stores. With Macy’s and Jcpenney, and other similar stores, a way to approach this would be to come up with a simple and accomplishable plan to break into similar markets, such as selling third party items, in order to compete with Amazon. Unfortunately, it may be too late for JCPenney to adapt and make changes since they recently filed for bankruptcy. For others in similar situations, it would be best to make changes now to give the consumers what they want- or else they will take their business elsewhere, going along with Porter’s model.

Provide a common sense approach for dealing with this situation.

The solution to this situation is to adapt to the times. Ecommerce has been on the rise for many years now and with everything going on it started to become the main source of buying. Adapting to the situation is the most efficient way and best way to be able to stay afloat, with that also having a decent marketing team/ idea is important also to be able to stay front of mind to consumers. With bigger companies, I think they should go the route Amazon is taking with Amazon Go to get people coming in and have a safer experience. Sam Club has also taken this route where you sign in on your phone and scan the items you have and at the end, there is a person at the door to scan the QR code on your phone and are able to leave. Due to the times, that ability makes me feel safer and is faster to shop there than Walmart or Target. I feel as if Target and Walmart should start looking into upgrading to this feature so they can gain the people back in-store while being safe. Getting shoppers in the store is more important for bigger companies than letting them shop online because that loses the impulse shoppers mainly.