A sole trader called Robbie Peers in 1947 with one grocery shop in the midlands set up Tecsave. It became a private limited company in 1957, by which time the business owned 56 shops, all which were sited in the midlands. In 1965 it went public and by 2002 the company owned 187 supermarkets in various parts of the United Kingdom. To achieve and maintain top position in the “big five” league tables, Tecsave must be constantly looking at possibilities for future developments and growth and always take into account the actions of its competitors.

Future growth will necessitate the use of all factors of production, including staff. Therefore, recruitment and retentions are import issues for the company as it seeks to ensure high level of staff and customer satisfaction. An important factor is that the majority of Tecsave’s staff are part time. Tecsave is aware that some of its competitors have moved into e-commerce and have established online shopping services, allowing customers to place orders for their sopping using the internet and have it delivered to their homes.

Tecsave’s own research has shown that there would be a significant take-up from a wide range of customers including the more elderly. Other areas that are being considered for development are mini-supermarkets, or convenience stores and product diversification. As they seek to ensure future growth, the directors must constantly monitor the state of the market and the performance of the company, balancing the interests of the different stakeholders involved. Tecsave will decide whether or not to use Internet shopping to develop their business and become the top of the five of the main competitors.

Methodology To decide whether or not I think tech save should use Internet shopping or not I am going to carry out different types of research to enable me to decide whether or not Internet shopping would be the best idea to increase sales for the business. Types of research are the following Market research is the collection of information or data to better understand what is happening in the market place. A firm’s marketing department needs to know about economic trends, as well as consumers’ views.

Based on this information, they can put together a marketing plan, which will meet their own needs as well as those of their consumers. Obtaining new data for a specific purpose. The marketing department of a firm or a specialist research organisation can provide this. Typically, the data is gathered by face-to-face interviews, by telephone or by post, using questionnaires. This is called a survey. Sometimes potential consumers are asked to test products, and their responses are recorded. Field research has the advantage that the firm itself has control over the whole process.

The disadvantages are that it takes longer, and costs more. Secondary or desk research This is the use of existing data that has already been collected. It can be anything from a company’s own sales statistics to Department of Trade and Industry reports. Other secondary sources of information include journals, company reports, government statistics, and surveys published by research organisations. Traditionally, these have been paper-based, but more and more information is now available on CD-ROM or on-line through the Internet. Desk research has the advantages of being cheaper and quicker than field research.

The disadvantages you do not know if the findings are accurate, or how relevant they will be to your product. For primary research I will design a questionnaire, which will consist of around 10 questions. The aim of my questionnaire is “to find out would an online shopping service achieve business growth for Tec save? ” I will try and make my questionnaires easy to interpret and so they mean the same to everyone. After conducting the survey on a sample audience I will gather the data and put them in some sort of graph or chart for example a pie chart so I can analyse the data easier.

For my desk research I intend to go on and see which companies have Internet shopping facilities and what these facilities are and how simple they are to set up. I also intend to visit some shops to try and gather leaflets to see what they offer online. I will also gather this information and draw up some charts so it easy to spot trends and useful information I could need. After performing these researches I will write up my findings on Internet shopping and form a conclusion to whether or not Tec save should use Internet shopping to expand their business.