For the first assignment, students will research the supply chain strategies of their retailers.  Supply chain strategies are based on many elements but will initially start with the retailers brand strategy an assortment of national brands, an assortment of private label brands, or a combination of both.  The second determining factor will be the categories of products within each brand.  The products not only will determine where and who is most capable of providing these products but also the quality level of the products, how quickly they can provide the products, and if they can meet corporate social responsibility standards. There will be additional considerations, but these tend to be the most critical in determining a supply chain strategy.

This assignment should cover the following requirements:

  1. Retailer background – State who your retailer is with a brief overview of their retail presence types of retail formats they operate in, global locations, the approximate number of stores, and target customer. 
  2. Product Brand strategy  Identify if they provide national, private label, or a combination of both including their dominant brand names.  Include the dominant categories of products under each brand and price range. 
  3. Supply Chain & Sourcing strategy  Identify dominant countries of origin for each product category by brand.  If you are able to go to a physical location, it will be easier to provide accurate information especially as related to the country of origin.  Retailers are only required to provide imported on their websites if the products are not produced in the USA.  If your retailer primarily provides private label brands, please also compare the countries of origin used by their competitors.  Accessing Panjiva through the FIDM online library will provide country info as well.  Please see the Panjiva handout in the Week 2 Road Map under Activities on how to access and use the site to help identify countries and products that are being imported by your retailer.  Also, openapparel.org is another site where you may be able to access factory locations used by the retailer.  Information on how to access and use the site is also provided in the Week 2 Road Map.  For both your retailer and the competitors, please provide your analysis of why you believe each retailer (or their national brands) selected these countries of origin for their supply chain strategy.  Make sure you consider product quality in your analysis.  There will be other determining factors.  This section should be a minimum of 2 pages.
  4. Logistics and Retail distribution network  In assignment 4, you will provide greater detail on both of these strategies, so this section will be a one-paragraph overview of what types of transportation and warehousing/distribution are most likely used.  This is information that may be gathered from Panjiva as they provide the type of transportation and carrier name.  In the case of private brands, the retailer may have products shipped to their own distribution center/s and then to their stores.  In the case of national brands, the brand will most likely have the products shipped to their own distribution center and then to the retailers distribution center/s or direct to stores.  The frequency of shipments to stores should be noted.  Distribution to fulfillment centers for online orders should also be noted. 
  5. Competitors  list 2 top competitors and compare with a brief overview of the differences in the information listed above for the assigned retailer.
  6. Speed to Consumer  To wrap up this section of the project, please state how the information in the above research helps to satisfy the customers need to have the right product, at the right place, and at the right time.

Please include a title page and works cited (MLA format).  All statistics and direct quotes should be in-text cited.


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