J.C. Penney SWOT Analysis 2024 – J.C. Penney Corporation, Inc.

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J. C. Penney SWOT Analysis analyzes, J. C. Penney, an American department store, was founded in 1902. It is located in Texas, USA. J. C. Penney sells clothing, shoes, cosmetics, electronics, homeware, jewelry, and other products.

Did you know? Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart, got his start in retail working as a management trainee at a J. C. Penney in Des Moines, Iowa, according to The New York Times.

These products are not the only ones it offers. It also has a number of leased departments like Seattle’s Best Coffee and Sephora. Salons, optical centers, jewelry, and salons. J. C. Penney, a well-known chain of American mid-range department shops, is considered one of America’s largest department stores. J. C. Penney operates its business in approximately 1095 locations across 45 states and Puerto Rico. As shopping centers have grown in popularity, it has the majority of suburban stores. J. C. Penney introduced many private brands after some suppliers denied them access to the anticipated inventories.

This can only be achieved through a firm with extensive knowledge, experience and innovative strategies. To determine the strengths of the company potential, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, it is necessary to conduct a SWOT analysis by J. C. Penney.

J. C. Penney At A Glance – J. C. Penney SWOT Analysis

Company: J. C. Penney Corporation, Inc.
Founders: James Cash Penney
Year of establishment: 14 April 1902, Kemmerer, Wyoming, United States
CEO: Jill Soltau
Headquarters: Plano, Texas, United States
Employees (Dec 2020): 60000
Ticker Symbol: JCPNQ
Type: Public
Annual Revenue (Dec 2020): US$11.17 Billion
Profit net income (Dec 2020): US$-368 Million Loss

Products & Services: Clothing | Cosmetics | Electronics | Footwear | Furniture | Housewares | Jewelry | Toys | Appliances

Company Website: www.J. C. Penney.com

J. C. Penney Competitors 

Competitors: Burlington Stores | Macy’s | Target and Kohl’s | Walmart | Dillard’s | Kroger | Sam’s Club | Home Depot

J. C. Penney SWOT Analysis – SWOT Analysis Of J. C. Penney

SWOT Analysis Of J. C. Penney analyzes the brand based on its strengths weak points, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. With J. C. Penney SWOT Analysis it is clear that the advantages and disadvantages are internal factors, while threats and opportunities are external elements. Here we are going to talk about J. C. Penney SWOT Analysis. Below Is The Detailed SWOT Analysis Of J. C. Penney.

J. C. Penney Strengths – J. C. Penney SWOT Analysis

  • Strong dealer community – It has built a culture among distributor & dealers where the dealers not only promote company’s products but also invest in training the sales team to explain to the customer how he/she can extract the maximum benefits out of the products.
  • Highly skilled workforce through successful training and learning programs. J. C. Penney is investing huge resources in training and development of its employees resulting in a workforce that is not only highly skilled but also motivated to achieve more.
  • Reliable suppliers – It has a strong base of reliable supplier of raw material thus enabling the company to overcome any supply chain bottlenecks.
  • Strong Free Cash Flow – J. C. Penney has strong free cash flows that provide resources in the hand of the company to expand into new projects.
  • Successful track record of integrating complimentary firms through mergers & acquisition. It has successfully integrated number of technology companies in the past few years to streamline its operations and to build a reliable supply chain.
  • Automation of activities brought consistency of quality to J. C. Penney products and has enabled the company to scale up and scale down based on the demand conditions in the market.
  • Strong distribution network – Over the years J. C. Penney has built a reliable distribution network that can reach majority of its potential market.
  • High level of customer satisfaction – the company with its dedicated customer relationship management department has able to achieve a high level of customer satisfaction among present customers and good brand equity among the potential customers.

J. C. Penney Weaknesses – J. C. Penney SWOT Analysis 

  • High attrition rate in work force – compare to other organizations in the industry J. C. Penney has a higher attrition rate and have to spend a lot more compare to its competitors on training and development of its employees.
  • The company has not being able to tackle the challenges present by the new entrants in the segment and has lost small market share in the niche categories. J. C. Penney has to build internal feedback mechanism directly from sales team on ground to counter these challenges.
  • Not highly successful at integrating firms with different work culture. As mentioned earlier even though J. C. Penney is successful at integrating small companies it has its share of failure to merge firms that have different work culture.
  • There are gaps in the product range sold by the company. This lack of choice can give a new competitor a foothold in the market.
  • Not very good at product demand forecasting leading to higher rate of missed opportunities compare to its competitors. One of the reason why the days inventory is high compare to its competitors is that J. C. Penney is not very good at demand forecasting thus end up keeping higher inventory both in-house and in channel.
  • Need more investment in new technologies. Given the scale of expansion and different geographies the company is planning to expand into, J. C. Penney needs to put more money in technology to integrate the processes across the board. Right now the investment in technologies is not at par with the vision of the company.
  • Financial planning is not done properly and efficiently. The current asset ratio and liquid asset ratios suggest that the company can use the cash more efficiently than what it is doing at present.

J. C. Penney Opportunities – J. C. Penney SWOT Analysis 

  • The new taxation policy can significantly impact the way of doing business and can open new opportunity for established players such as J. C. Penney to increase its profitability.
  • Organization’s core competencies can be a success in similar other products field. A comparative example could be – GE healthcare research helped it in developing better Oil drilling machines.
  • Stable free cash flow provides opportunities to invest in adjacent product segments. With more cash in bank the company can invest in new technologies as well as in new products segments. This should open a window of opportunity for J. C. Penney in other product categories.
  • Decreasing cost of transportation because of lower shipping prices can also bring down the cost of J. C. Penney’s products thus providing an opportunity to the company – either to boost its profitability or pass on the benefits to the customers to gain market share.
  • The new technology provides an opportunity to J. C. Penney to practices differentiated pricing strategy in the new market. It will enable the firm to maintain its loyal customers with great service and lure new customers through other value oriented propositions.
  • New trends in the consumer behavior can open up new market for the J. C. Penney . It provides a great opportunity for the organization to build new revenue streams and diversify into new product categories too.
  • Lower inflation rate – The low inflation rate bring more stability in the market, enable credit at lower interest rate to the customers of J. C. Penney.
  • Economic uptick and increase in customer spending, after years of recession and slow growth rate in the industry, is an opportunity for J. C. Penney to capture new customers and increase its market share.

J. C. Penney Threats – J. C. Penney SWOT Analysis

  • Imitation of the counterfeit and low quality product is also a threat to J. C. Penney’s product especially in the emerging markets and low income markets.
  • New environment regulations under Paris agreement (2016) could be a threat to certain existing product categories .
  • Increasing trend toward isolationism in the American economy can lead to similar reaction from other government thus negatively impacting the international sales.
  • Shortage of skilled workforce in certain global market represents a threat to steady growth of profits for J. C. Penney   in those markets.
  • Rising raw material can pose a threat to the J. C. Penney profitability.
  • New technologies developed by the competitor or market disruptor could be a serious threat to the industry in medium to long term future.
  • Growing strengths of local distributors also presents a threat in some markets as the competition is paying higher margins to the local distributors.
  • Intense competition – Stable profitability has increased the number of players in the industry over last two years which has put downward pressure on not only profitability but also on overall sales.

J. C. Penney SWOT Analysis Template 

JC Penny SWOT Analysis Template

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