Chapter 5

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

In this chapter we will able to discuss the results of the study as well as their conclusion

and the impact for future research anchored on the themes developed during data analysis. The

focused of this study is challenges of merchandise retailers against big players.

This is a phenomenological study which focuses on what is the challenges of those retailers

against their big competitor. Moreover this study not only focuses on the challenges but it tackles

deeper on the analysis on the experiences, challenges, strategies and coping mechanisms of the

respective individuals involved on this study. This study also investigate how do retailers survive

despite of the bigger challenges they faced.

According to Creswell (2007), phenomenology is more concern on the human perception

of the events created that was perceived in the actual world. Using these kind of methodology, it

allow us to know the “real essence” of our study which cannot be revealed by just an ordinary

observation or any means of statistical tools. Phenomenology helps researchers to explore the

concepts from new and fresh perspectives of each of the participants. (Creswell, 1998; Sanders,

1982; Cohen, Kahn & Steeves, 2000).

Phenomenology wants to discover the implicit structure and meaning of those individual

experiences by those people involved in this study, this methodology is really useful especially

when the topic cannot be defined by means of quantification. Phenomenological inquiry is

motivated by both humanitarian and intellectual purposes. Researchers strive for meaningful
“human sciences” about individuals and societies rather than natural science-like knowledge.

(Sanders, 1982; Von Eckartsberg, 1986; Moustakas, 1994).

Manen (1990) added that phenomenological study aims to define the meaning of different

individuals of their lived experiences of a concept or a phenomenon. Researchers must focus on

describing what all the participants have in common as they share the same phenomenon. The

basic purpose of this methodology is to reduce individual experiences with a phenomenon. The

researchers collect data and develops a composite description of the essence of the experiences of

individuals and this consist of “what” they experienced and “how” they experience it. Moustakas

(1994) highlighted that phenomenology must have a deep understanding of a phenomenon

experiences by sever individuals. Knowing some common experiences can be very valuable to the

participants of the study. The participants of the study must be carefully chosen to be individuals

who have all experience the phenomenon in question, so that in the end researchers can create a

common understanding.

In the interview researchers become the learners and the participants become the expert.

Thus in conducting the study the participants play the most important role, as this study is a

qualitative analysis of a narrative data which are different in quantitative methods of research.

Participants were asked in an open ended questions, so that their specific experiences can be

distinguished. The respondents of this study were the merchandise retailers of Nabunturan who

have been in the business for a very long time. The participants through an in-depth interview and

focus group discussion share the same experiences, strategies and coping mechanism. Also we

highlighted the challenges and strategies of those business people in able to get a reliable

information for the results of this study. In order for those participating individuals not to be
hesitated and feel awkward we gave them the assurance that we are conducting the study with

proper ethics in conduct of the investigation and we are maintaining confidentiality.

In conducting the study we feel that there are participants who are uncomfortable in sharing

their experiences and in the same time they feel awkward if they are directly been questioned but

because we gave them the copy of our questions beforehand, the interview went smoothly Each

of them gave the answer we’ve been asking for. They participate well despite of the awkwardness

they feel. Their participation gave us these following themes which are the results of the

information we get from them.

Decreased on Sales and Profit. Most of the business were operated for more than how

many years, for those years they operated, their sales and profit were extremely good. Despite of

the other competitors who are arising they are able to maintain their good profit, but when those

giant business came around and took advantage of investing their business in that locality,

businesses around the capital feel the burden of decreasing sales and profit. Despite of their long

years in the business this tragedy still affect them. Most of them answered that their sales and profit

have been positively decreasing since the arrivals of this big business. They sold less than what

they earn before this incident happen. As we asked them they quickly answered that the major

effect of this events to them was their business is now having a decreased on sales and profit.

Negative revenue variances occurs when revenues from a business project are lower than expected.

This may occur because the expected budget was different from the actual budget and the return

on investment was not high enough as it was. It may occur also when the income reports from one

year are lower than the previous year. (Lacoma, 2018).

Sustainability of Income. Another effect also of the arrival of those giants, were the

problems in terms of sustainability of income. Business individual are not capable enough of
sustaining their income, due to decreasing sales and profit they sometimes increased their long

hours of work for them to have a greater sales. Some of them said that their business is declining

but their expenses remain the same. They cannot sustain well the business which lead them have

a problem on where they will find resources to cover those expenses. Business has its four phases

this includes recovery, prosperity, decline and recession or depression. These phases may result to

increase employment and income or result to unemployment and lower incomes which may lead

in change in sales, profits, and cash flow that must be anticipated and planned for. (Makris,Ilias

A., 2014).

Incapacitation to Compensate. Due to the decreasing sales and profit, there are certain

business who cannot afford to cover up all those expenses. There liabilities is much greater than

their assets, sometimes they only depend to what their store could carry. It is difficult for them

because their sales has been aggressively decreasing due to arrivals of these giants. They cannot

bring back all those losses they have. If before they are known to be the most expensive retailer

now they are just a mere business who only look for an income to sustain their business. Rhodes

and Shelter (2009) discusses that we don’t have an easy solutions and direct effective strategies to

anticipate crisis effects. In the wake of the economic crisis, many firms were faced with severe

threats that called for an immediate action to ensure firm survival. When choosing the measures

to cope with the crisis situation, responsible decision makers were confronted with challenge to

manage well the trade-off between the benefits and costs of short term crisis.

Market Price. Bigger competitors means strong competition. Due to those declining sales

market price were greatly affected. Business people tend to lower their price for them to attract

their customer and have their sales. They usually don’t care how much is their mark-up, they only

care was to have a sales so sometimes they lower their profit and in the same time they gave bigger
discounts than they usually could. We’ve been witnessed how big were the discounts they gave to

their customers. We’ve been seen also how cheap their prices were. Business individuals took the

risk of offering a lower prices despite of the possibility that they may receive a smaller income.

It has been said by Montenegro (2017) that the price has a major influence on sales. In

essence, a high price can maximize short term profit, while low price can maximize long term

profit, as it generally attracts more customer and helps the business gain market share price. There

are businesses who use discount pricing to sell low priced products in high volumes. With this

strategy, it is important to decreased costs and stay competitive. Large retailers are able to demand

discounts as they buy in bulk, but not alone discounting can compete with other business (Melanie,

2017).

Coping up with the Merchandise Retailers Challenges

In the information we gather through the in-depth interviews and focused group discussion,

we came up to the following themes about how the participants cope with those challenges faced

by the merchandised retailers: marketing strategy, friendly approach to customers or sales talk, cut

down expenses, and financing.

Marketing Strategy. But despite of those negative effects, those effects sometimes can be

a great advantage. Lower prices means more customer, as consumer finds way to lessen their

everyday cost they tend to prefer to buy their needs in those business who offer lower prices.

Where they can also ask for a discount, not like those malls which they cannot ask for a discount,

another strategy they were using was to know the basic needs of the individuals, those businesses

around the capital were operated by the owners also. They have the direct contact to the customers

which lead them to know directly what the needs of their customer are. Especially if there are
special events in that locality, they were the first person to know what the necessities are. They

also ride on what is in, they are updated to what is new trends of today, if the malls has their

customer loyalty card, those businesses also has their own way of patronage card. According to

Business Queensland (2016), marketing strategy will help a certain business to realize its goals

and can build strong foundation in the business. A good strategy helps you attract customers, it

can involves creating two or more ideas which can raise awareness and sells your products.

Montenegro (2017) also discusses that when a customer went to your store and cannot find the

things they need it can create a negative impact to your customers which might lead to losses of

your sales. Overall a business must use their tactical marketing mix using the 7P’s of marketing if

a certain business can able to choose the right combination of marketing across product, price,

promotion, place, people, process, physical evidence, then your marketing strategy is more likely

to be a good success. (Business Queensland, 2016).

Friendly Approach to Customers or Sales Talk. Because of long years in the business,

owners and managers have these strong connection to the customer, they have their own suki.

They maintain their relationship very well. They took good care of them. For them customers are

as valuable as a precious stones. Their sales agent has their good way to approach their customer,

the way they entertain them was as if they were long term friends. They talk like they know them

for how many years. Yes this is indeed a good strategy. For in the business world, customers is the

most precious people you’ve met. You need to good care of them like a good father in the family.

Malls may have their customer’s loyalty but they don’t have this kind of connection between their

agents and customer like those business people who treated their customer as their long-time

friends. Communicating and establishing relationships are really the essence of a business. They

don’t have to take a long time and often happen in an instant. Do not let your customer be your
enemy. More than likely, a negative relationships has been created before any business are

transacted. These connections, as simple and quick as they are, are moments of truth for the

customer. (Dummies).

Cut Down Expenses. In able for the business to survive, they must have their proper cost

control. Those businesses who experiences unsustainability in their business, cut down their

unnecessary expenses. We lessened their expenses and did some adjustments so that their

expenses will exceed to their sales which might can lead them to any losses. There are businesses

also who have cut down their number of employees for the business to survive. Customer

communication management is a form of business process management that focused on cutting

the expenses while improving the customer services. (Porter, 2010). It means that you can cut

unnecessary expenses which cannot affect the business those which are not important on running

down the business. When a financial institutions get fail to get it right, then the cost is high. It sets

off a chain reaction that reverberates throughout the organization. It has the power to frustrate and

alienate customers; consume significant resources; breach compliance issues and can create

unfunded liabilities; result in inefficient customer service and jeopardize relationships. (Porter,

2010).

Financing. Some businesses are incapable enough to compensate their losses. They need

to add capital in the business. Not only because they are incapable, but because there are business

who have been demolished because the location on where they stand for how many years is the

same location on where those giant business where to be built and because of that they need extra

capital to refinance their business. So most of the business had their loan to add up to their capital.

Capital planning and capital structure are identified with financing and speculation choices of the

firm. The corporate fund writing in the past has concentrated broadly on the investigation of long
term budgetary choices, especially investments, capital structure of the company or valuation of

choices. (Raheman and Nasar, 2007). As the three general authors (Robbins and Pearce 1993),

Michael and Robins, 1998, Latham 2009) discussed that the most important victims of a prolonged

crisis, such as economic downturns, because of limited resources and dependence on banks’

lending, paying such high interest rates are the SME’s.

Implication for Practice

This study shows what are the challenges faced by merchandise retailers amidst big

players, its importance and benefits. In line with this it must be acknowledge the importance of

those challenges and strategies who are facing bigger competitors which can give an impact in the

performance of the businesses.

On the Philippine Government. The government is dependent on the income of a business, taxes

which are impose are the life blood of our economy, without these taxes our economy cannot

survived because it doesn’t have any funds which can support the need of our country. So it must

be very important that the government must ensure that the owners will provided enough

knowledge on how they can able to survive in this kind of situation , especially to those areas

where infrastructure are about to grow. Government can provide seminars that offer business

individual with the proper knowledge on how to face this bigger challenges.

On the Community. Community is where the market can be found. The market is where the

consumers and the suppliers met. In this place entrepreneur can able to find information they can

use for the future. The realization and importance of how to face bigger competitors and how to

cope with it may give the community the chance to provide the immediate help for those

entrepreneur in regards of this kind of situation.

Implications for Future Research

In as much as this study where concern in the business individuals in the locality of Nabunturan,

Compostela Valley, and the following researches are recommended:

First, since the findings of this study are not generalizable between the sixteen participants,

future research may be conducted on challenges of merchandise retailers amidst big competitors

with another group of participants in order to strengthen the validity on the findings of this study.

Second, future researchers may conducted in some other places in the Region XI and other

regions to add more information and insights from other merchandise retailers on the respective

places.

Third, future research may be done by conducting a re-interview with some other

individuals to find out if their views have not change in about challenges of merchandise retailer’s

overtime.

Fourth, a different study may be conducted, investigating how merchandise retailers faced

the challenges and survive amidst the bigger competitors in their own respective way.

The results of this study were collected from the voices of the owners, managers and

supervisors of their respective businesses who have the knowledge on the operation of the

business. Further related or similar study may be conducted in order to confirm the results of this

study.