West Marines Inc. Business Research Assignment Papaer (Case Study Sample)

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West Marines Inc.
West Marines Inc. has its origin in the 1960s and has established itself as one of the leading retailers in marine equipment. It has placed itself as one of the leading boat suppliers in the United States of America and offers both wholesale and retail options. The has created a portfolio of being the leading provider in powerboats and sailboats. Also, it is known to be a leading company in boat supplies for recreational purposes, apparel, sporting goods and other stylish navigational equipment of excellent quality (Bakir, 2007). The company has a well-distinguished company division which assists in maximizing its sales and proper operations which have its operation a major success. The Stores have a high retail rate of more than 80%; Direct sales which include catalogs and internet retail caters for about 6% of the volume of sales; port supply which is in wholesale caters for a similar 6% of the sales. Through this unique set up of the company, West Marines has about 400 stores spread all across the Puerto Rico, United States of America and Canada (Bakir, 2007).
As West Marines Inc. establishes itself as the leading market holder in the distribution and sale of marine equipment in America, some threats and vulnerabilities are prone to arise due to this venture. First is the risk of opening many stores which come with an enormous challenge of management (Hill, 2009). One of the toughest responsibilities has always been known to be the management of people, therefore, with the growth in the number of stores, there arises a daunting task in the management and employment of staff. The company priding itself as American iconic company places in a position it has to use local resources in the manufacture of its equipment’s, labor in America is usually quite expensive as compared to outsourcing to other Asian countries such as China which offers a cheaper labor force (Hill, 2009). Therefore, it is quite expensive having to compete with other American based companies which have their products shipped in from Asian countries. It creates massive economies of scale which are not in their favor since a huge percentage of their income gets spent on the recurrent expenditures such as salaries and wages to the employees. It is a threat since the labor laws of America keep progressing for the workforce, and this creates an imminent danger to the company (Hill, 2009).
Like any other company that uses online marketing and sales, West Marines Inc. has susceptible to threats of cybercriminals which has become a huge threat to the business community in the US and the world as a whole (Cordesman, et al., 2009). It's hard to predict the current patterns of cyber crimes since with the growth in technology also raises new threats in the sector. Therefore, West Marines finds itself in the same spot as other huge companies which has portions of its sales transacted through online sales. Therefore, the company has to continually evaluate its firewall capabilities to avoid undergoing cyber attacks which are a real threat to the business (Cordesman, et al., 2009).
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