SWOT Analysis on Urban Outfitters Business & Marketing Essay

Student’s Name:
Professor’s Name:
Course + Code:
Submission Date:
SWOT Analysis of Urban Outfitters
A SWOT analysis is a strategy that companies use to examine their market share and competitive advantage and position in their business environment. Urban Outfitters Inc. can use this analytical method, which entails the identification of the company's strengths and weaknesses, as well as the available opportunities and threats in the market that the company is likely to face from its external business environment (Fern Fort University para. 7). In an upshot, Urban Outfitters (UO) is one of the leading companies in its industry. Hence, the firm needs to conduct a SWOT analysis regularly and use it to informed strategic decisions that would, in turn, help it to retain its current position in the market. This paper examines UO’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in relation to Asos, American Eagle, Topshop, and Fashion Nova as its major competitors.
Strengths
First, Urban Outfitters has relatively stronger brand equity compared to American Eagle Outfitters, which has only three million followers on Instagram compared to UO's nine million followers. This makes the company one of the most searched for and favorite stopover for online shoppers. Secondly, Urban Outfitters comparatively stronger distribution network. The company has built an outstanding and reliable distribution framework, which has enabled the firm to reach out to the majority of its prospective customers (Williams and Seide para. 5).
Additionally, the company has built a reliable and efficient team of professionals who have enabled the company to post superb performance in New Markets. In return, the firm has diversified its economic cycle and built a new revenue stream. As a result, UO uses affordable pricing as one of its competitive strategies in the fashion industry. The automation of the company’s activities has developed and upheld the consistency of the quality of the firm's products, which has enabled UO to scale down and scale up in tandem with the market’s demand conditions.
Weaknesses
Compared to American Eagle and Topshop, Urban Outfitters has a relatively higher workforce attrition rate. The company is thus, compelled to spend a lot to develop and train its employees compared to Asos, Topshop, and American Eagle. Besides, UO needs to invest more in technologies compared to Fashion Nova. The latter firm has appropriately and effectively managed to integrate technology in the development of its brands. For instance, FN was ranked the most searched for a fashion company in 2018 (Williams and Seide para. 3). Moreover, UO does not conduct efficient and proper financial planning, which has, in turn, limited the scope of its target audience compared to Asos, which has clien...