COMPETITORS

COMPETITOR RESEARCH

• https://craft.co/new-look/competitors

- evidently NL has much less gross profit than Asos, with Asos having £1.2b and NL having £612.1m

H&M

https://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/568624/profile_of_handm_a_pioneer_of_fast_fashion

SIMILARITIES

• fast fashion companies 
• strong presences in prime shopping locations 
• striking advertisements 
• have collections for women, men and teens alongside sportswear, homewear, underwear, shoes, cosmetics, accessories 
• https://academic.mintel.com/sinatra/oxygen_academic/display/id=980458?highlight both are affordable 
• both have 'sustainable' collections - H&M have a 'conscious range' https://www2.hm.com/en_gb/sustainability.html which includes basics which are 100% sustainably sourced cotton basics
• H&M and NL both have 30/31% of their consumers between the ages 16-24 (https://academic.mintel.com/display/983224/?highlight), both have the biggest category of consumers that live in cities (53 and 41%) and the biggest category of consumers that are in the lowest DE socio-demographic (less affluent consumers) - 33 and 29%

DIFFERENCES

• H&M enlists high profile celebs and designers to reinforce brands image e.g Karl Lagerfeld, Rei Kawakubo, Jimmy Choo and Victor & Rolf (https://www.vogue.com/article/hm-designer-collaborations-ranked)
• H&M have a strong product concept in a growing number of countries 
• H&M has children collection 
• H&M's profits are higher; in 2018 it was $1.7b
• H&M's profits are growing; https://academic.mintel.com/sinatra/oxygen_academic/display/id=980458?highlight - risen by 25%, net sales also increased by 12% during their 3rd quarter to £5.14b, 30% rise in online sales, operating profit margins increased to 8% from 7.1% (due to digital investments and a strong demand for summer collections) 
• https://academic.mintel.com/sinatra/oxygen_academic/display/id=980458?highlight H&M have a customer loyalty programme which has 43 million members and is being expanded with a shop-now pay-later function whether shopping in-store or online. In 2018 members doubled from 15m to 30m
• H&M are more sustainable, offering a £5 voucher to customers who donate  bag of unwanted clothes to be recycled 
• H&M have a 'how to care for your clothes' section on their website 
• H&M have more male customers than NL; 44% compared to 30% (https://academic.mintel.com/display/983224/?highlight)

OTHER RESEARCH ON H&M

• they are in the midst of a digital transformation, strengthening their online presence, slashing inventory levels (don't have a stock room in the H&M in Meadowhall) and cutting back on discounting 
• https://academic.mintel.com/sinatra/oxygen_academic/display/id=980458?highlight H&M is Europes 2nd largest fashion retailer, they are a Swedish multinational fashion retail, operating 7 clothing brands (including Monki and Weekday. 4739 stores in 71 markets, 47 online. Sales increased by 11% in the 1st half of 2019 and the company reported more full-priced sales, lower markdowns and increased market share.   

BOOHOO

• https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-44451139 

- NL targets 16-44 year olds, boohoo targets 16-24 (boohoo's age gap is smaller which arguably works more effectively as NL try to appeal to too many different shoppers, this has led to NL not appealing to any as its 'proposition is unclear')

- NL's products are less exciting and more safe, boohoo's are more daring 

- boohoo is more in tune with millennials; its designs are trend led and push boundaries

• https://www-statista-com.hallam.idm.oclc.org/statistics/312912/leading-ladies--clothes-stores-in-the-uk/

- graph to show: leading ladies clothes stores ranked by number of customers in GB 2018 (in 1000s)

- these results are interesting as although New Look is a failing brand, it still had significantly more customers in 2018 than H&M did, despite H&M gaining greater profits in that year 

- this however reflects the affordable costs of NL, and the fact that customers probably only bought one or two things whereas they probably spent more and bought more items at H&M 

- this applies to Primark too, given that it is at the top of the list, which reflects its very cheap garment prices 

• https://www-statista-com.hallam.idm.oclc.org/statistics/829665/plus-size-womenswear-preferred-shopping-locations-united-kingdom-uk/

- this is a graph to show "preferred locations for clothing shopping among plus-size womenswear consumers in the UK in 2016"

- consequently this shows that only 19% of consumers would prefer to shop in New Look for their plus-size range (as it is part of the major city high street' section 

- consequently online websites and smaller local high streets stores are New Looks biggest competitors for their plus-size range 

• https://academic.mintel.com/display/959048/?highlight#hit1

- this graph is to show customer attitudes towards who they would regard as trusted 

- evidently these results suggest that Asos and River Island are New Look's biggest competitors in terms of them being seen as trustable, which is a major factor that encourages consumers to purchase from a brand