Proposal for River Island

Assignment structure
1. Introduction
River Island, a British born company founded by Bernard Lewis and his brothers
in 1948 in London, is a fashion retailer with over 60 years of experiences. River
Island leads the UK high street fashion brand with 300 stores and a thriving digital
business. Their product mix included clothing,accessories and footwear for both men
and women. River Island had a total net profit of £37 million for the year ended 29th
December 2018. The objective of this report is to critically analyse the opportunity for
River Island to adapt to the changing environment of the fashion industry by
identifying key strategic imperatives for the company to focus on adopting new
technologies to compete with its competitors and to satisfy the ever changing trends
among its customers.

2. Background
i)
Fast fashion
ADDITIONAL REASONS WHY RIVER ISLAND IS A FAST FASHION BRAND

 Between 2020 and 2021, River Island updated its sustainability strategy from
a simple Ethical Policy booklet (now taken down) to a 40-page Sustainability
Strategy. Despite this update, it still does not indicate the minimum age of its
workers, simply stating “Child labour shall not be used”. It should at least state
an age – most brands state a minimum working age of 14 or 15, which I still
find a terrible practice.
 One of its Key Targets is to reach ‘Net-Zero carbon Emissions by the end of
2040’. This is 10 years after the UN’s recommended timeframe of 2030.
 River Island touts its connection with Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC) and
Better Cotton Initiative (BCI) as sustainable credentials, when both have
issues.
 On its websites, River Island offers customers the use of Klarna, a
controversial buy-now-pay-later scheme that encourages higher value
purchases and getting customers into debt.
 River Island considers its partnership with disabled children’s charity NewLife
a ‘recycling program’, when in reality it is clothes donations at best.
 In 2022, River Island was found to have multiple links to JBS, a Brazilian firm
responsible for much of the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest through
cattle rearing and leather production.
Sustainable Materials

River Island are committed to improving the sustainable credentials of our clothing
and accessories; doing our bit to reduce the negative impact the fashion industry has
on people and planet. We want all Islanders to enjoy the pure joy of fashion, free
from worry or guilt. The journey is long, and we are not perfect, but we are working
hard to make positive change. Our goal is to reach at least 50% of our garments
made using sustainable materials by 2023.
To get there we are constantly improving our sourcing approach to make sure we
select materials with the lightest footprint possible. Our Sustainable Materials
Framework outlines the process in which we evaluate and validate the materials we
use. Any claims you see on our products meet that framework.
The framework sets out the minimum sustainable material mixes in order for any
sustainable claim to be made. For River Island, these minimums usually sit at around
50% composition with some materials up to 100%. In addition, all sustainable claims
must be accredited with relevant standards, for example GOTS, BCI or GRS, to
name a few. All fabrics must be accompanied by scope and transactional
certification in order to validate them.
Find out more about our most commonly used sustainable materials:
Organic Cotton
Traditional cotton farming typically uses genetically modified seed and a large
amount of water and chemical pesticides & fertilizers. Organic cotton is ecologically
grown without the uses of GMO seeds, chemical pesticides or fertilisers. It uses 71%
less water that conventional cotton. All River Island Organic Cotton materials is
Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) or Organic Claims Standard (OCS)
accredited.
Responsibly Sourced Cotton
Our responsibly sourced cotton is made using cotton from the Better Cotton Initiative
(BCI), of which River Island is a member. The Better Cotton Initiative exists to make
global cotton production better for the people who produce it, better for the
environment it grows in, and better for the sector’s future. BCI train farmers to use
water efficiently, care for soil health, reduce the use of the most harmful chemicals
and respect workers’ rights. Better Cotton is not physically traceable to end products.
However, BCI Farmers benefit from the demand for Better Cotton in equivalent
volumes to those we ‘source.’
Recycled Materials
Our recycled materials, most commonly cotton, polyester & nylon, can be made from
either pre- or post-consumer waste, and help to divert waste away from landfill; for
man-made fibres this means reducing carbon emissions by 54%. Our River Island
recycled materials are all Global Recycled Standard (GRS) or Recycled Claims
Standard (RCS) accredited.
The impact of online retailers
Amazon Web Services
 Some retailers, such as Marks and Spencer, have shied away from Amazon
Web Services. The most popular theory is that this is because of Amazon's
status as a general retailer. As such, some brands see the ecommerce giant
as a competitor and are concerned that, by using its hosting service, they are
disclosing their data for Amazon to access and learn from.

 However, River Island is getting around this fear by not using Amazon Web
Services as a full-service hosting platform.

 "They could probably see a lot of the tracking coming off of the M&S website,
but the stuff we've got is in a secure place and I'm pretty sure Amazon has no
access or interest in it," said Gardner. "We've got space, tin and tooling off
them, but we're not using them as a managed platform. We weren't like a
start-up that already had digital capabilities inside us, and the fact they were
willing to work with us on our transformation when we had almost zero
percent of the skill set needed internally was a big influence in going for them.
They were the keenest partner, really interested in our business, and really
engrossed themselves into it."

 The next stage for River Island, now that the main infrastructure of its
ecommerce platform is in place, is to begin the process of converting old
legacy systems into modern ecommerce tools built for the modern digital
marketplace.

Final Thoughts
River Island has come a long way already in its digital transformation journey, but
still has some miles to go. However, by using the best bits of Amazon Web Services
and taking steps to avoid some of the concerns felt by other brands such as Marks
and Spencer, it has a good chance of continuing to serve modern consumers far into
the future.

"In the last five years, a lot of retailers were entrenched in trying to ignore what's
going on and didn't invest like we had - and now we're coming out of the other side
with maturity and acceleration," concluded Gardner.
ii)
Question:
How do they serve top style and trends?
research objectives:
The purpose for which the creators of River Island make fashion .
3. Analysis of marketing planning
Evaluating the organization capability for planning its future marketing
activity
 Strength of River Island
Strength of River Island is that it make innovative product and keep the price
lower as compare to its competitor.It respond to the changes which help in retaining
a customer for a longer period of time (Niederwieser, Horowitz an Iida, 2016.).It
makes product which are different from its competitor which lead to increase in sale
and profitability. Quality of its product is also good which lead to increase in sale and
increase customer satisfactions.
 Weakness of River Island
Weakness of River Island is that change in season is a big problem which is
faced by River Island because of the rise in global warming.This make hard for
organization to predict weather of next month according to which it can make
products (Sarwar, Ramachandran and Hosseinian-Far, 2017).Its another weakness
is that online presence of River Island is very weak so it unable to target large
number of customers.There are many people who are not aware of its product and
services.
 Opportunities of River Island
River Island have opportunity to expand its business by making online
presence strong (McCamley and Gilmore, 2016). It can make online website so that
people came to know its company product and services. Further it can adopt
advance technology which help in making innovative product at lower cost of
productions.
 Threats of River Island
Threat of River Island is its competitor which are making same product for
customers (Niederwieser, Horowitz and Iida, 2016). It have not enough finance
available for adopting new technology which is one of the threat of River Island.
Hence, above mentioned SWOT analysis of River Island show the strength
and weakness which help in proper planning of future marketing activity.
4. Recommendations/Conclusion
,,Answear for question”
River Island is an icon of the British high street. Inspired by the latest trends
and our archives of traditional styles, we've been serving cutting edge style
and trends for over sixty years.

,,Recommendations for solving the problems of the struggling retailer or,

suggestions for Continuing the Good Practices of the Well-Managed Retailer”

Technology for Staff

And it's not just customer-facing digital enhancements that River Island is
experimenting with. Staff are also being empowered with new technology as
well – namely through the provision of Android devices which contain the new
store system.

In the first instance, using these handhelds, in-store representatives are able
to perform a number of back-office functions, such as updating stock
information right from the shop floor, thus improving productivity. But, more
importantly, the devices help representatives keep up-to-date with customer
and River Island website information, and, as such, deliver a better service to
shoppers.

"So no longer will it be the days the customer comes into our store with a
mobile phone and has more information than our store staff," Gardner
explains. "We're going to enable them to serve the customer and have the
knowledge so the customer will be able to engage with our store in a relaxed
comfortable way."

The Future Is Omnichannel

As River Island's digital transformation initiative continues to expand,
customers can expect the online and the physical to be further linked through
seamless digital experiences. Indeed, if one thing's for sure it's that the retailer
will continue to innovate in an omnichannel direction, forsaking neither bricks
nor clicks in favor of the other, but rather continuing to develop new ways to
connect the two.

The last word goes to Gardner:

"People still want to buy stuff instantly and try things on and touch it and feel
it and so on. People moved to digital for convenience but they still want that
in-store experience so we have to provide the best of both, and make them
work together."
5. Bibliography
River Island was introduced by Bernard Lewis in 1948, a family business and it
started out as a small shop in Londonwith the trading name of Lewis Separates.
There have been many changes to the brand name such as Chelsea girl and
Concept Man and not until 1989 its officially became known as RiverIsland today.
Between the period of twenty years, from the 1960s to 1980s, Chelsea Girl was a
well known high street store and was famous for its long haired girl logo. A group of
approximately 45 students from Uxbridge and Middlesex has teamed together with
the store to regain its reputation in the name of Chelsea Girl.

6.Apendice
 Survey questionnaire
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/
1FAIpQLSedohmxIhfkQjILJ0dXTwNXIxr_oRygqLLj7j_l2qte6W16mg/viewform?
usp=sf_link

Structure of the proposal

1.Introduction
River Island, a British born company founded by Bernard Lewis and his brothers in
1948 in London, is a fashion retailer with over 60 years of experiences. River Island
leads the UK high street fashion brand with 300 stores and a thriving digital
business. Their product mix included clothing,accessories and footwear for both men
and women. River Island had a total net profit of £37 million for the year ended 29th
December 2018. The objective of this report is to critically analyse the opportunity for
River Island to adapt to the changing environment of the fashion industry by
identifying key strategic imperatives for the company to focus on adopting new
technologies to compete with its competitors and to satisfy the ever changing trends
among its customers.
2. Background
A. River Island are committed to improving the sustainable credentials of
our clothing and accessories; doing our bit to reduce the negative
impact the fashion industry has on people and planet. We want all
Islanders to enjoy the pure joy of fashion, free from worry or guilt. The
journey is long, and we are not perfect, but we are working hard to make
positive change. Our goal is to reach at least 50% of our garments made
using sustainable materials by 2023.
B. This topic was chosen by me to learn more about River Island and to
perceive some knowledge about fashion and clothing making or
materials used

3. Purpose and scope

We have carried out the articles above and the arguments set out above and
found that River Island is a capable brand with the quality of the staff
advantage as well as a developed marketing strategy.

4. Methodology
Methodologically, the research was done based on SWOT analysis and well-
detailed explanations about River Island.

5.Gantt chart