Unit 1 Exploring Business Activity Assignment 3 M3

Unit 1 Exploring Business Activity Assignment 3 M3.John Lewis External factors have had a major impact on John Lewis; these external factors include the political, environmental, social and technological details. Without these external factors inflicting the business it would not be where it is today and certainly wouldn’t be making as much profit. Political The political factor has impacted John Lewis enormously. New laws bring limits on what they can do and what is legal to do. There are a few major laws that have affected John Lewis more than others: Sales of good act 1979, goods must be:  To a satisfying standard  Made to work for the purpose known by the seller  As described This law makes sure that John Lewis produces goods to a satisfying standard and that they actually work for the purpose that the seller knows. All products must be as described making the marketing job harder as they must not be biased. Trade descriptions act 1968, good must be correctly described including:  The way they were made or processed  What they are made of  Their fitness for purpose This is similar to the sales of goods act and ensures the customer that the items are correctly described. Data protection act 1998, the information collected by marketers must be:  Obtained fairly and lawfully  Used only for the purposes stated during collection  Adequate, relevant and not excessive in relation to the intended use  Accurate and where necessary kept up to date  Not kept for longer than necessary  Protected from unauthorised use  Available for inspection and correction by the individual  Subject to procedures to prevent unlawful processing, accidental loss, destruction and damage to personal data  Protected from transfer to an area outside the European Economic Area (EEA), unless adequate protection exists for that data in the area Unit 1 Exploring Business Activity Assignment 3 M3 This study source was downloaded by from CourseH on :54:26 GMT -06:00 Jed Hatton A quite recent and very important act, the data protection act, makes sure that John Lewis do not exchange personal data collected from customers in order to gain money from niche market lists. Environmental Environmental factors are new and are fast growing with the rise of Copenhagen. Everyone is talking about how to cut emissions and carry out activities in an eco friendly way. A carbon footprint is a measure of the impact our activities have on the environment, and in particular climate change. It relates to the amount of greenhouse gases produced in our day-to-day lives through burning fossil fuels for electricity, heating and transportation etc. There is more pressure than ever for john lewis to reduce its carbon footprint. They have made small changes over the years, such as recyclable paper and energy efficient cars but they hope to make more changes in the future like powering a department off of solar panels. Social There are many social factors that have affected John Lewis but the main factor is the trend of fashion. Massive boom in fashion has paid John Lewis well with a lot of people shopping at their store for branded items; this includes anything from clothing to kitchen appliances. Technological The massive advancements in technology mean a lot of changes to John Lewis. Since they started in the 1800’s they have experienced the introduction of the internet. The internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP) to serve billions of users worldwide. With the power of the internet John Lewis have been able to sell products online, message customers electronically and send out advertisements on the web. In the past month a faster broadband has been released of 50mb, this gives john lewis the power of ultimate speed and efficiency when trying to function online. The introduction of the chip and pin makes it easier for customers to pay for items and prevents them from having to carry loose change around. It makes John Lewis’ process faster