Innovation at Marks & Spencer Food Store Assignment

Innovation at Marks & Spencer Food Store - Assignment Example The company possesses 360 franchised stores, wholly owned and partly owned stores in 42 territories across Middle East, Europe and Asia. At Marks and Spencer, customers shop through stores, phone as well as online. (Reuters, n.d.) According to the predictions of IGD, the size of the value of the online food and grocery stores will get doubled in 2014. It has been forecasted that the annual growth rate of grocery stores will get three times faster than the wider grocery market. With the penetration of internet and rising familiarity with broadband, the value of retail websites and online services will get enhanced. The online world is now increasingly influencing the decisions of shoppers. (IGD, 2009) Types of Innovation Innovation generally lies in the eyes of beholder. What may be innovative for one person cannot be innovative for other. There are many different types of innovations which company opts. The basic structure of innovation revolves around one of the following or all of the following. It includes: Product Under this category, organization usually changes the products or services they offer to their customers. Any modification, alteration, variants etc. come under the head of innovation in product category. Process Under this head, companies usually changes the way they create or deliver their products. This includes value addition. Positioning For positioning innovation, companies changes the context in which the specified products has to be communicated or framed. Paradigm Shift Paradigm shift refers to changing the mental modes of customers by providing other innovative ways of using the products. Paradigm shift usually shifts the perception of customers towards a certain product. (Innovation, 2005) Marks Spencer Food Store Apps Several applications have been developed for smartphone these days. Some of them have become so successful and useful that users consider them as an integral part of their lives. Great deals of applications have been deve loped for facilitating shopping at grocery stores. According to a recent research, Americans spend millions of dollars each day in grocery shopping. Due to such huge market of grocery shoppers, the type of application which needs to be designed must be the one which can facilitate shoppers in shopping for groceries. The type of innovation which has been selected comes under the head of â€Å"Process†. Innovation in Apps for Marks and Spencer Food Store Apps, which are to be designed for Marks and Spencer Food Store possess some innovative features which would help the shoppers in making it convenient to shop for groceries. The innovative features of apps include: By using this App, one can save money at grocery store; humans spend a great amount of money in the products related to food. This often affects the budget. Spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on food items raises the concern of budget. Without having a shopping lists, one can be prone to buying on impulse whic h leads to buying unnecessary stuff as well. By this app, shoppers can prepare a list of items along with their prices and can select accordingly. Buying local food; this feature will help in buying fruits and vegetables from local farmers which will not only reduce cost but will also be good for health. (Gamm, 2010) Coupons offered; by using this app, customers would need not to clip coupons from newspapers. Instead, a feature of this app would help in providing coupons available on some