Impact of COVID-19 on Retail Sales: A Burberry Case Study

"Impact of COVID-19 on the retail sales-A case study of Burberry"

Abstract

Introduction: This chapter has included all the necessary information regarding the topic of the research including rationale and significance. It has focused on introducing the topic of the “impact of a covid-19 pandemic on the retail sector in the UK”. One of the most renowned brands, Burberry has also been affected by the pandemic and through its analysis, the impact on the retail sector has been showcased. The structure of the dissertation has been provided in this chapter.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Introduction

1.1 Introduction

This chapter introduces the topic of the research which is to analyse and critically discuss the “effect of Covid-19 on the retail sector” in the context of a fashion brand named Burberry, a UK based luxury fashion brand (burberry.com, 2022). The retail sector is one of the largest sectors that makes a generous contribution to the UK GDP rate and economy. In 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic hit the UK retail sector due to which the UK economy also faced a downfall. This chapter would explicitly discuss the research rationale, aims, objectives, research questions, significance, structure and provide a summary. This will help to properly conduct the research and develop a brief understanding of the topic.

1.2 Background of the research

In 2020, every sector in the UK was faced with the challenges imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic. In the UK, the retail sector comprises 5% of the GDP and according to the reports, total retail sales volume was 19% lower compared to February (ons.gov.uk, 2021). The retail industry faced the challenge as it requires customers to be physically available at the stores to make a purchase and contribute to the growth of company revenue. The first lockdown in England had significantly affected the people and the businesses which led to considerably less card spending. Due to the offline stores being closed, companies had to focus on shifting their business to the online platform. Online sales rose by 34% in the retail sector which helped in gaining stability (ons.gov.uk, 2021).

The research has focused on how pandemic has affected the market of Burberry, a luxury fashion brand in the UK. As stated by BIONDI (2020), Burberry faced immense challenges when the “operating profits fell by 57% to £189 million and the sales declined by £2.5 billion”. The brand stores remain closed in many countries due to the lockdown and pandemic. To systematically approach the pandemic effect, the brand has completely focused on luxury doors and reduced the wholesale network in the US. Due to the pandemic, the retail stores faced the disruption of the supply chain which was caused due to the reduction of drivers and increased monitoring.

Figure 1.2: Impact of lockdown on Burberry stores

(Source: BIONDI, 2020)

1.3 Research Rationale

The issue in this research is “the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the retail sector in the UK”. Retail sector is one of the largest sectors in the UK that contributes positively to the UK economy. However, ever since Covid-19 affected people, the UK government had to exercise control over the movement of the general mass and impose lockdown which has increased e-commerce (Sayyida et al., 2021). The pandemic resulted in the complete lockdown of stores and offices which led to the downfall of businesses. Burberry is a renowned fashion and luxury brand that operates business in the UK which has faced considerable challenges due to the lockdown. It has become a major issue as the UK economy is facing a problematic situation that requires recovery to a large extent.

Figure 1.2: Fall of retail (fashion and shopping) sector

(Source: ons.gov.uk, 2021)

Retail sales dropped by 1.9% in the year 2020 which was the largest annual fall. The pandemic has had a terrible effect on consumer retail stores by 22.5% in 2020 (ons.gov.uk, 2021). It is required to be understood that the economy of the UK was hampered due to the imposition of pandemic restrictions to control the spread of the virus. Burberry has reported the fall of sales since 2020 due to all the retail physical stores being closed down. As per Jolly (2021), the shares of the company fell by 5% which made it the “biggest fallers on the FTSE 100” in 2021. The pandemic restrictions in the Asia-Pacific region made it difficult for the company to make targeted sales as per their assessment. Initially, it has been recorded that the volume of “retail sales grew by 0.3%” in December as the restrictions were eased down.

1.4 Research aims and objectives

The research aims to evaluate the "impact of COVID-19 on retail sales-A case study of Burberry".

Research objectives

• To evaluate impact on the economy of the UK due to Covid-19 pandemic

• To analyse the impact of Covid-19 on the retail sector

• To identify and evaluate the impact of a pandemic on Burberry

• To recommend strategies to mitigate the challenges faced by Burberry

1.5 Research questions

1. How has the Covid-19 pandemic affected the UK economy?

2. What is the effect of Covid-19 on the retail sector?

3. How did Covid-19 affect the sales of Burberry?

4. What strategies can be recommended to mitigate the challenges faced by Burberry?

1.6 Research Significance

The research is significant to the current scenario developed in the UK economically and the position of the retail market. The research emphasises the retail market, its revenue structure, its losses and significant reduction to the contribution of UK GDP. The research should benefit future researchers, students and retail companies who wish to analyze the retail market during tough situations such as the Covid-19 pandemic. According to Forsythe et al. (2020), the impact on non-essential retail items has been severe compared to the essential products. Burberry is a luxury brand that is not accounted for as an essential retail item and hence, through the analysis of its loss and reduction in sales, the research has been able to display the loss in the retail industry.

1.7 Structure of research

There are five chapters in the research namely, “introduction, literature review, methodology, results and discussion and conclusion”. The introduction chapter has properly introduced and discussed the main points of the research. The literature review has critically provided views of eminent authors based on the topic and the methodology provides the necessary details on the collection and analysis of data. The results and discussion section has included all the research findings in the context of the research topic along with an extensive analysis of the key factors. Lastly, the conclusion chapter has focused on providing an overall understanding of the entire work.

Figure 1.3: Structure of Dissertation

(Source: Self-developed)

1.8 Summary

This chapter has provided the research rationale and significance that the Covid-19 pandemic has negatively affected the retail industry and the sales of Burberry has faced several challenges. The retail sector has been deeply impacted by the pandemic lockdowns in the UK which is required to be analysed properly. The company has accounted for a loss of £2.5 billion in the sales department. It has been understood that retail contributed to 5% of the UK GDP rate which was essential for maintaining stability in the economy. It has been found that reduced trade and commerce is due to the disruption in the supply chain has also affected the company.

Chapter 2: Literature Review

2.1 Introduction

The literature review aims to produce a critical context of the topic which is to evaluate and showcase the impact of Covid-19 pandemic on the sales of Burberry. the views and perspectives of various authors has been gained which has been used in the evaluation of the topic by comparing and contrasting their works. The retail market of the UK was largely impacted due to the closing down of the stores and shops. All the sectors had to face a major blow due to the exercising of control, monitor and pandemic restrictions across the UK. The review specifically contains a conceptual framework, key concepts highlighted through the research topic, a theoretical background, literature gap and a summary.

2.2 Conceptual Framework

Figure 2.1: Conceptual Framework

(Source: Created by the learner)

2.3 Impact on the economy of the UK due to Covid-19 pandemic

Due to the impact of Covid 19 in UK there has been a vast impact on the economy of UK. Due to the strict restrictions regarding the COVID-19 affected UK in many ways such as the closure of many small businesses and also restrictions on the transportation in UK. The economy of the UK was impacted in a severe way during the pandemic. After the Covid 19 hit UK due to the pandemic restrictions the GDP of UK feel down very steep. By the end of the year 2020 the GDP of UK decreased for about 9.8% in that year (commonslibrary.parliament.uk, 2021). This is the highest downfall that has been recorded by the UK after a very long time which was first seen in the year 1948 after that this is the first time that UK has seen such a decline in the rate of GDP.

While the first lockdown was going on The GDP of UK was 25% lower than back last two months that is in February. Which means that within two months the GDP of the country fell down for about 25% (commonslibrary.parliament.uk, 2021). After the GDP raised up in the middle of the year due to Some economic activity during the springs but it again falls down in the winter because of another lock down. United Kingdom’s public financial bank was hit very hard due to this COVID-19 pandemic situation as the government’s budget fell down massively due to less income and more spendings on the country. The restrictions on the transportation and the pandemic lock down have also affected many small businesses which was the closure of those businesses. Eventually the government had to do care of that and the standings of the Government increased more and more.

The effect of the Covid 19 was identified to be increasing in December 2021 as there was a new variant which was named Omicron. Due to this the government of UK had to shut down again and strictly prohibited public transportation, also initiated lock down once again to stop the spread of the new virus. No one knew how harmful was this new virus which again affected the GDP of UK due to the lesser economic activity in the country. According to Vidya and Prabheesh (2020), due to the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic situation the import and export of the UK was severely failed as the country was excepting anything from other countries so business was very low during this situation. This led to the downfall of the economy of UK as much of the revenue of the country depends upon imports and exports.

Because of this lock down in the country people have been restricting themselves and keeping them locked in their rooms for many months and they have been dependent on online orders and the consumer behaviour changed a lot during this pandemic which led to the downfall of many big companies who date of line businesses. Due to which again the economy of UK saw a decline of 2.4% during the second lock down (commonslibrary.parliament.uk, 2021). During this time the lockdown through all over the country gave an early alert that showed bad economic effects which the country is already experiencing. This effect includes a massive decrease in the traffic entering the store and also nullification of bookings in the hospital sector.

Figure 2.2: Fall of economy in the UK

(Source: Influenced by commonslibrary.parliament.uk, 2021)

2.4 Influence of Covid-19 pandemic on UK retail sector

The retail sector of the UK is one of the largest sectors that contributes to the growth and development of the economy of the country. The country’s GDP is benefitted through the retail sector largely which is accounted by 5.2% (ons.gov.uk, 2022). The retail sector is the largest industry to comprise of 3.1 million workers which also contributes generously to the employment rate of the UK. It is understood that the retail sector is known as the most influential industry and consists more than 300000 separate businesses. On the contrary, in 2019, the UK retail sector gained a massive revenue which accounted for its worth of 439 billion (brc.org.uk, 2022). It is required to be understood that being an integral part of the British economy, it was largely hampered due to the calamities imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic. The Covid-19 pandemic hit the UK land around March and lockdowns were imposed from April 2020.

With a rise of 9.7 million rise in the population of the UK, the retail sector helps the masses to maintain balance in the economy through the massive trading and commerce operated inside the UK land. It is required to stated that the sales of the retail sectors had increased exponentially due to the infusion of digital technologies and e-commerce into businesses. The growth rate accounted for digital transformation within organisations increased from 17% to 28.6% in 2019 (ons.gov.uk, 2022). Hence, it is essential to showcase the crucial impact of the pandemic on the retail sector such as 1.9% downfall in sales compared to 2019 (ons.gov.uk, 2022a). Retail industry accommodated basically food, supermarket chains and fashion sector. Thereby, large incorporation of technological advancements was noticed at the retail business to ensure continuation of operations and stability in the market.

The UK consumers had to stay back at home and stores were closed down due to the imposition of “Coronavirus Act 2020” by the Government (legislation.gov.uk, 2022). People had to adopt online shopping which soon became a better shopping option and all the companies had to provide online services to the gain customer attention. It became a necessity for the companies to ensure a sustainable business strategy which would help the companies to increase sales even through the pandemic situation. AI, machine learning and automation has helped the companies to improve customer services and help increase customer satisfaction and customer base.

Policy measures were introduced to control the spread of the virus and the UK government had to take such drastic steps to ensure the health and safety of the masses. However, the economy was compromised which led to the increase in the rate of inflation and the decrease in the GDP rate. On the other hand, Spennemann (2021) mentioned that cross-border trade was completely forbidden and international flights were closed down as well. Retail companies contribute to employment and creates provision for the growth and development of economic conditions of the UK. It is essential to understand how much the companies had to bear down due to Covid-19 pandemic.

Big companies like Tesco, ASDA, Sainsbury had opted for omnichannel marketing, selling and distribution. However, smaller retail stores had completely shut down during the first two months of lockdown. The nationwide lockdown caused people to face the challenges of acquiring food and basic necessities. However, with the integration of online selling and purchasing, businesses were still operated. The supply chain was completely wrecked due to the shortages felt in truck drivers. Prior to the pandemic, there was a shortage of 60000 truck drivers in the UK, which amounted up to 100000 during Covid-19 era (bbc.com, 2021). The lack of drivers caused problems in trading; supply of goods could not be facilitated.

2.5 Disruption of the supply chains in retail sector due to the pandemic

In UK retail sales dropped unexpectedly low due to the COVID-19 effect as each and every people were spending all the money into pubs and also some restaurants as they just got released from the restriction of epidermic lock down that is the main reason why retail sales dropped from around 2.8% due to this. Taking into account the latest news in EU about the retailer’s sales of non-food and raw materials decreased by 23% on the month of the 1st lockdown (oecd.org, 2020). After the lockdown was open and releasing of the hospitality restrictions that had an influence, with the public that are raising their spending on mainly the social activities that mostly include eating and drinking in restaurants, pubs and bars. This is the result of lockdown that kept people in their homes for months and now they are free.

Figure 2.3: Change in need for essential and non-essential items

(Source: oecd.org, 2020)

Some of the other main reasons behind the drop of sales in retail stores is that transportation was vastly impacted due to this lockdown (Gkiotsalitis and Cats, 2021). There was a lack of workers, transport shippers and people who transport goods from place to place in UK. Due to lockdown people went back to their home and were not ready to go back to their jobs due to the virus effect through all over the UK. As the effect was very impactful and people were dying due to that that is the main reason why people were not able to work during the lock down. After the lockdown the window of transportation of goods was allowed in UK. This is a reason by which the retail store shops were not being able to transport goods from place to place and where short of supplies and that broke the supply chain of retail.

Because of the lockdown restrictions for UK the truck drivers were not available for transport or any other workers because the virus effect was very serious. Contrastingly, as stated by Garnett et al. (2020), businesses were faced with several challenges due to the lack of drivers to transport goods from place to place in the UK which potentially caused the breakage of the supply chain. Another Main reason for the disruption in the supply chain of the retail has to do with the pandemic restrictions as due to this lock down in UK flights were not been allowed come from countries and no new goods products were being imported or exported in UK this was the main cause of disruption of supply Chain of the retailers in UK.

The government of UK are taking number of steps regarding the shortage of HGV drivers which include that foreign driver can come to UK and work there. However, the UK government made immigration arrangements for a number of foreign drivers came to UK to fill up the shortage of HGV drivers and numbering to around 5000 (lordslibrary.parliament.uk, 2021). The government is also providing temporary visas for this reason to HGV drivers. But even after doing so only 200 to 300 applications were being submitted. There is a shortage of more than 100,000 HGV drivers in UK and for the government it is almost impossible to fill up that gap.

Figure 2.4: HGV drivers’ shortage in the UK

(Source: lordslibrary.parliament.uk, 2021)

2.6 Opportunities created for retail industry

Retailers in the UK faced massive downfall of finances and revenues generated were almost half as that of the previous year, 2019. Statistical records have accounted for such grave positions of the retail companies and small SMEs. However, the national lockdown brought about countless opportunities for innovation and development to the retailers which has scope for profitability (Rai and Yadav, 2021). 2020 has been a year of deaths as time stood still for people everywhere fearing from the pandemic, financial instability and future uncertainty. For the retailers, it was challenging as the situation got tougher due to the concerning health challenges and the imposing economic downfall.

The extended lockdowns across the nation have caused fear of bankruptcy in businesses. However, through strategic implementation methods have been developed that led to the growth of powerful measures which helped companies to overcome the pandemic. Big companies had already implemented such strategies earlier; however, due to the pandemic, these measures became much more active and powerful. The growing digital market became a boon to the companies which was noted as the table turning situation (Böttcher et al., 2021). The retail industry explicitly focused on the adoption of technology, online channels for marketing, promotion and selling. Through such measures, companies started home delivery. The system developed such as people would remotely purchase goods and services while companies implemented efficient logistics and delivery systems.

The advancements made into digital world has really helped the retail companies gain efficiency in their working operations and fight the pandemic. Without technology, the economy of the entire world would have collapsed, because the lockdown was undertaken as safety measures to stop the spreading of the virus and control death count. As per Grewal et al. (2021), retailers ensured customers were satisfied with their services, so they implemented AI into their systems, incorporated machine learning, automation and robotics so that physical labour is minimised. Employees can remotely work for their part within the organisations with highly smart digital tools.

Hence, the opportunities created for the companies can be listed as enhanced strategic business operations, improved customer service, emerging business markets and infusion of ecommerce into retail industry. To elaborate the above statement, retailers have obtained chatbots, AI and home delivery to continue business, which in turn, has satisfied customers extremely. Other than that, omnichannel marketing and selling has been adopted by retail organisations to facilitate in-store and remote shopping experience (Caro and Sadr, 2019). Consumers have shown favour in online shopping even after lockdown which has given insight into consumer mindset. Therefore, it can be understood that companies have effectively identified a proper scope to gain customer base and upgrade business through digitalisation.

2.7 Theoretical Framework

The topic concerns the impact of pandemic explicitly on the retail industry which requires to identify the challenges and the positive factors. Through evaluation of literary context, three theories have been identified which will be aligned to the subject. “Transformational Leadership Theory”, “Fiedler’s Contingency Theory” and “Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs” as the motivational theory. The three theories would deal with three specific areas of the topic. One area concerns the management of organisation during the pandemic, one concerns the employees and the psychological impact due to crisis period and lastly, the role of leaders. Therefore, it is essential to contextualise the theories as per the assigned areas to explicitly gain understanding of the concerned elements.

Transformational Leadership Theory

This theory has been able to provide deep insight into the role of leaders during crisis and change management. In the world of business, it is known that risk is always around the corner and it is important to remain prepared. The main role of leaders is to lead the business, protect it and all the stakeholders. During the pandemic, true leadership roles were identified when businesses had to face critical challenges of lockdown, economic landslide and inflation. As stated by Bresser-Pereira (2020), the UK especially was subject to high inflation and this caused problems for the vendors and retailers. It has been found that the leaders of big retail companies took strategies as per the situation.

Figure 2.5: Factors in Transformational Leadership Theory

(Source: Influenced by Smith et al., 2018)

The theory concerns leadership style where a leader takes decisions suitable to the given situation so that is effective enough (Smith et al., 2018). In other words, the leader caters to the needs of the crisis situation so that the organisations and its stakeholders are benefitted. However, it is required to be understood that the leadership style is required to fit the situation so that the strategic decisions taken should complement the organisation. Contrasted to the other leadership styles, Ansell et al. (2021), stated that crisis management usually requires this style of leadership and the pandemic brough about economic, organisational and financial crisis. Due to this scenario developed across the UK, most of the companies took up this leadership role to mitigate the challenges.

Fiedler’s Contingency Theory

The theory states that a leader is required to effective and make changes as per the demand of the situation (Kundu and Mondal, 2019). This theory is similar to the leadership theory; however, the leadership focuses on the development and role of leaders. This theory is aligned to the area of management of the organisation. The management of the organisation has the responsibility to look into the financial situation, crisis faced and the critical scenario developed due to impending risks. The Covid-19 pandemic created such a scenario for the companies due to which all the retailers had to obtain various strategic decisions for facing the challenges.

To critically contextualise, big companies obtained integration of digital technologies, omnichannel marketing and selling and induced customers towards online shopping. According to Kurachi et al. (2018), through the incorporation of AI, machine learning, IoT and chatbots, the consumers are satisfied with improved customer engagement, services, and efficient logistics systems. Hence, it is understood that proper leadership and management of organisation is enhanced through the development and integration of task-oriented measures. Thereby, it can be opined that contingency theory facilitates the implementation of a business environment that caters to a crisis situation as the retailers of the UK has done during the pandemic, so that management of organisation becomes easier. Remote working facilities were provided to the employees and leaders made use of online team communication apps and platforms such as MS Teams and Google Meet.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

This theory has been aligned to the provided scenario to showcase the problems faced by the employees and their psychological needs. During the pandemic, retailers faced so much financial crisis that they had to cut down human workforce to a drastic rate (Leone et al., 2020). A huge number of employees were laid off so that the operational costs of the company could be reduced. The retail corporations had to take such drastic measures for reducing the expenditure to secure financial resources. However, this had affected the psychology of the employees massively and destroyed their motivation. The basic needs of the people were deprived of due to unemployment.

The theory stated that people are motivated to work up higher as each of their needs are fulfilled. During the pandemic, instead of going higher, the motivational needs of the employees have been faced with downfall. The people faced hunger, unemployment, death and lack of financial security (Siddiqui, 2020). Hence, motivation was completely destroyed due to lack of jobs in the nation. Many organisations focused on securing the jobs of employee and did not want to sacrifice the human workforce, tried to figure out alternative solutions. Hence, it can be understood that this theory emphasises on the impact of pandemic on retail sales from the aspect of loss of employment.

Figure 2.6: Inflation and unemployment rate in the UK

(Source: Influenced by Siddiqui, 2020)

2.8 Literature Gap

The literature review does not focus on the impact of pandemic on economy all over the world or any other industries across the world. It has not contained any data on other industries or their problems which has been faced due to the pandemic. Also, it does not focus on any particular concepts of loss of employment or pandemic affecting food retail or other sub sectors under retail industry. The research exclusively focuses on the development of the idea concerning fall of retail sales due to pandemic, the impact on the supply chain of the retail industry and the disruption caused in the trade and commerce of the fashion industry.

2.9 Summary

It can be summarised from the above chapter of the literature review that retail industry and the UK economy was massively affected due to the pandemic. It is required to be understood that the disruption in the supply chain, the lack of HGV drivers and the restrictions of the pandemic affected the sales and marketing of the companies in the retail sector. The fashion industry especially faced a lot of challenges as people were not in a position to focus on purchasing luxury items. The unemployment and inflation rate across the UK increased greatly due to the loss of trade and commerce. Hence, it has been showcased in the literature review how the retail industry, specifically the luxury fashion industry was impacted due to the restrictions of the covid-19 pandemic, which imposed closing down of the stores, o9ffcies, factories and international flights.

Chapter 3: Methodology

3.1 Introduction

In this chapter, the main parameters of conducting the study have been mentioned to develop a proper methodology for the research. It is essential to focus on the development of appropriate research methods which caters to the objectives to the research and helps in obtaining suitable results. Hereby, the methodology outlines the philosophy, approach, design, data collection methods and sampling techniques in the study. Appropriate justifications have been provided to the choices made for collecting and analysing the data gathered in the research. It is important to gain insight into the techniques applied for gaining data. Also, ethical considerations for collection of data and the reliability and validity have been mentioned accordingly.

3.2 Research Onion

Figure 3.1: Research Onion

(Source: Saunders et al., 2007)

3.3 Research Philosophy

Positivism is the main philosophy that has been applied in this research. Since mixed research methods, secondary qualitative, primary quantitative and qualitative data has been gathered in this research, positivism has been obtained to facilitate the proper collection of the mixed data. Positivism allows the collection of quantitative data, but also works with qualitative data as it obtains highly structured and large samples (Al-Ababneh, 2020). Positivists offers the understanding of the social world in a way that is clearly objective. It focuses on the dissociation of the personal values and viewing it as an independent observer to critically understand the factors and key concepts in the topic.

Justification

Research philosophy is focused on the gain of knowledge and nature of the study which is required to be conducted. There are 4 research philosophies namely, “pragmatism, realism, positivism and interpretivism”. It is essential to understand the significance of a research philosophy which is “to deal with the source, nature and development of knowledge”. In order to facilitate the collection of proper data catering to the objectives of the research, it is necessary to identify and obtain a proper philosophy (Dawadi et al., 2021). As the topic concerns to evaluate the affect of pandemic on the sales of Burberry, it emphasises on obtaining proper information and real time data based on company. other philosophies would not have facilitated the collection of large samples.

3.4 Approach and design

In this research, deductive theory is to be used for research approach. Deductive approach focuses on the development of a hypothesis from an existing theory which is actually evaluated to check its effectiveness under certain circumstances (Woiceshyn and Daellenbach, 2018). The deductive approach has been applied to the study to facilitate the proper analysis of the quantitative and qualitative data. Inductive or abductive reasoning would not have catered to the interests of the study and justified the actions taken to conduct the research. Deductive reasoning is focused on an expected pattern which is tested against observations.

There are several advantages of using deductive reasoning such as a scope to describe the relationships between the concepts and variables in the study. It facilitates the measurement of concepts quantitatively and generalises research findings to an extent. Deductive reasoning has also facilitated abundant sources to be gathered which also helps in the critical production of research results (Saribas and Çetinkaya, 2021). Deductive reasoning does not allow risk during the conduction of the study. Other than that, it can be understood that the topic would have required to understand the concept of pandemic affecting sales of a big luxury brand. Also, it is known that inductive approach does not allows the development of hypothesis and objectives.

Similarly, the research design is basically a framework for study or research methods and techniques that helps them to utilise the selection of other parameters in the methodology section for successful development of the research. The main aim usually in the methods section is to identify proper parameters that would help to deliver the objectives and develop a suitable conclusion to the study. The research design adopted in this study is descriptive, which has allowed the researcher to properly observe and describe the key concepts related to the topic (Moser and Korstjens, 2018). The context focused on the development of various factors in the pandemic that affected the sales of the retrial sector, a case study focused on the luxury brand named Burberry.

Among various types of research designs, descriptive design was chosen due to the fact that it allows 5 main tasks which facilitates research. The major components of the research design include, “research questions, propositions, analysis, linking the gathered data to the propositions and interpreting the findings”. In a descriptive design, all these components are carried with a notion of explaining the key factors of the findings. Mohajan (2018) stated that the descriptive study has allowed the researcher to identify the essential elements in the study and clearly explain such as understanding of the pandemic factors impacting the company, the sales rate, the employment rate and finances.

3.5 Data collection methods

It is important to note down that secondary qualitative, primary quantitative and qualitative data for the proper development results and discussion. The research has required to contextualise the concept of pandemic affecting the sales of the fashion retail market due to which real time data had to be collected. The primary quantitative data has been gathered from a survey conducted and the qualitative data has been obtained from conducting an interview (Al Khajeh, 2018). Real time data would be obtained if large amount of data is gathered from the employees of the company. The employees or managers of the company would be able to provide explicit review on the topic and insights into the impact of the pandemic. The company is well-known luxury fashion retailer in the UK which has faced severe challenges due to the restrictions of the pandemic and the downfall of the economy. Hence, primary quantitative and qualitative methods have provided the scope to analyse the key concepts concerning the same and facilitate the development of a suitable conclusion.

3.6 Sampling

Sampling is a technique used in the research during the collection of primary quantitative and qualitative data. It refers to the method of selecting individuals for the statistical references and the qualitative data which would help to provide insights into the various components of the topic. Kayikci et al. (2020), stated that there are various types of sampling techniques used by the researchers to ensure the adoption of credible data for the explicit development of results and discussions in the research. The study is completely based on the information gathered which can be obtained from various mangers or employees of the company or the sector focused on the research.

3.7 Primary quantitative analysis

The primary quantitative analysis has been conducted through a survey to obtain a large amount of data. Surveys provide critical representation of the topic which is discussed in detail in the analysis and discussion section so that the topic can be properly contextualised. Hereby, in this research, the survey has been conducted whereby 50 participants were gained among 100 employees of the organisation, Burberry. To gain proper real time data and opinion of the employees, the participants were randomly selected for the survey. Random sampling technique helps in the selection of non-biased data from the participants as the participants are selected arbitrarily (Torres and Judson-Torres, 2019). Also, it is essential to understand that random sampling technique creates provision for the gathering of any participants as there is a probability or chance for any participant to get selected.

3.8 Primary qualitative analysis

In this research, for gathering primary qualitative data, interviews have been scheduled. The participants for the interview will be 5 managers of the organisation, Burberry from essential departments such as the HRM, finances and marketing. Their insight into the topic has been gained for the study so that critically the statistical data and the literary information gained can be aligned to the propositions. The sampling technique used for selecting the managers from the organisation is stratified sampling technique. According to Peterson et al. (2019), stratified sampling technique facilitates the researchers to maintain a similarity within the participants so that the data collected is structured and produced to allow the observation and study of the population in one particular segment or stratum. Hence, the managers have been asked to be the participants for the study so that their perspective and voices on the topic can be recorded and used as the basis of findings in the study. The interview has been conducted over the telephone to maintain the pandemic protocols and reduce the cost charges of the research.

3.9 Ethical considerations

Every research study is required to be produced ethically and honestly so that it contributes to the academic developments and growth. In this research, to maintain the ethical policies, the data gathered based on the company and other details has not been used for commercial purposes. As per the regulations of the “Data Protection Act 2018”, it is the responsibility of the researchers to keep and store data in encrypted folders (legislation.gov.uk, 2022). Other than that, all the data gathered based on retail industry, impact of covid-19 pandemic and the company has not been disclosed anywhere and has been used for academic purposes only.

Also, the participants in the research have been provided with a consent form to gain their consent before the survey and interviews. To ethical responsibility, none of the participants have been forced to answer any question. They have been provided with freedom to leave the interview as per their wish. For literary data, websites, articles, and authentic journals have been used. By maintain ethics for the company, the data gained have been deleted after its usage for developing analysis on the topic during the study. None of the data has been passed onto other researchers.

3.10 Validity and reliability

Validity and reliability of a research work is essential, as it proves the authenticity of the work produced (Parsons et al., 2019). It has been found that researchers often obtain wrong references or sources due to which their work is completely wrong and baseless. In order to gain a proper research work, the supporting materials have to be proper. The validity of the secondary resources can be proved accordingly due to the fact that the resources are not more than 5 years old. Other than that, the only authentic sources have been used for gaining literary perspectives on the topic such as “Google Scholar, Proquest and Pubmed”. The reliability of the data gained from the literary sources can be proved as the articles, journals are peer-reviewed and written or produced by scholars.

In the light of reliability and validity, it can be stated that the statistical data and the primary qualitative data is also authentic. The primary qualitative data has been gathered from the company managers who have been working in the company for more than 6 years. They are accustomed to all the procedures of working and are a part of the decision-making team. Hence, the data obtained from them is authentic and proper due to their knowledge on the domain and their perspectives on the various problems faced by the company.

3.11 Credibility and reflexive analysis

The research has been conducted based on the data gathered from the authentic sources, such as managers viewpoints and secondary qualitative data gathered from the scholarly articles, journals and books. Other than that, the survey has also provided statical data to develop an understanding of the context of the topic. The credibility of the secondary sources can be proved from the corroboration of information against other such journals and the reliability can be proved from the references (Irwin and Mandel, 2019). The interpretation of the information should be accurate and the data should not be changed. The secondary data are easily accessible compared to the primary data. It is essential to include credible sources as it would be providing the support required for the assertations made across the research paper.

Reflexive Analysis allows the researcher to acknowledge the process of gathering qualitative data and focus on the adoption of certain methods which have been developed to produce the study (Johnson et al., 2020). The prior experiences of the researcher are reflected in the analysis of the data gathered and the tough process is reflected in the results and discussion section. It is required to be mentioned that during the primary qualitative research, all the managers were extremely supportive of the research and collaborated in a great way. The managers had guided the best to lead the researcher towards proper outcomes based on the topic in the context of pandemic affecting the sales of the company.

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