Sales Strategies of Traditional Clothing Stores in Cuenca, Batangas (2024-2025 PDF)

CUENCA SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL SALES STRATEGIES OF SELECTED TRADITIONAL CLOTHING STORE IN CUENCA, BATANGAS: AN EVALUATION TOWARDS BUSINESS CONTINUITY A Research Paper Presented to the Faculty of Accountancy, Business and Management Department...

CUENCA SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL SALES STRATEGIES OF SELECTED TRADITIONAL CLOTHING STORE IN CUENCA, BATANGAS: AN EVALUATION TOWARDS BUSINESS CONTINUITY A Research Paper Presented to the Faculty of Accountancy, Business and Management Department In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for Practical Research II Abad, John Carlo C. Didato, Nawaf T. Palma, James Nathaniel F. Villarico, Mary Wen S. 2024-2025 ACCOUNTANCY BUSINESS MANAGEMENT  CUENCA SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL CHAPTER I THE PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND I. Background of the Study Purchasing is a part of daily routine of every people. It is a way to fulfill all their needs and wants. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the traditional way of buying has dramatically changed. It is the time where everyone is not free to go out as usual and many establishments were closed due to lockdown. And some open stores strictly ensured that the social distancing is being performed limiting the number of customers allowed inside the establishments. With these hindrance to physical stores, many consumers tried the other way of purchasing. Now, even after the pandemic ended, these practices are still being perform. This became one of the challenges that the Traditional Clothing Stores need to overcome too. The availability of the product they offer in the internet hinders the customers coming to traditional stores as they think it is more convenient to shop online and it is also a lot of cheaper. Cheng (2018) states that the continuous development of the economy and technology has caused a huge impact on traditional clothing store. However, in terms of pricing it is a lot harder to lower their price unlike other shopping modes because they have more expenses that they needed to meet like rent, electricity, staff, maintenance, and many more. Another challenge they faced is the inflation rate in ACCOUNTANCY BUSINESS MANAGEMENT  CUENCA SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL then Philippines. According to Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) that the inflation rate in the country increased to 2.30% in October 2024 from 1.90% in September of 2024. As the cost of their production and supply increased they can not do anything but to raise their selling price. That is why it is important for traditional clothing store to have different ways to survive this challenges and for their business to operate continuously. That is why the researcher decided to conduct a study about the sales strategies of selected traditional clothing store in Cuenca Batangas: An Evaluation towards the business continuity. This study will assess the different sales strategies of selected traditional clothing store here in Cuenca, Batangas and will identify whether these strategies are still effective and can guarantee the continuity of their business. After identifying their sales strategies and knowing whether it is effective to keep the business running or not, the researchers will propose the output promotional video to offer another sales strategy to the selected clothing stores. This output will help the consumers to realize that they should never abandon traditional clothing stores and have initiative to shop on traditional clothing store more. This study will also help the owners to attract and gain more customers to attain the business continuity. ACCOUNTANCY BUSINESS MANAGEMENT  CUENCA SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL II. Statement of the Problem The purpose of this study is to assess the sales strategies of selected traditional clothing store in Cuenca, Batangas. It specifically aimed to respond to the following research question: 1. What is the demographic profile of the respondents: 1.1 Age; and 1.2 Sex? 2. What are the existing sales strategies utilized by selected traditional clothing store in Cuenca, Batangas? 3. How effective are the sales strategies being implemented by the traditional clothing store to ensure business continuity in terms of: 3.1 Customer Engagement; 3.2 Daily Sales; and 3.3 Meeting obligations? 4. What output could be proposed based from the result of the study? ACCOUNTANCY BUSINESS MANAGEMENT  CUENCA SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL III. Conceptual Framework INPUT PROCESS Output What is the Distribution of An evaluation demographic profile of the respondents: survey towards business 1.1 Age; and 1.2 Sex? questionnaires continuity. What are the existing and e-mail sales strategies utilized by selected traditional questionnaires A basis for a clothing store in Cuenca Batangas? using Google proposed How effective are the Form. promotional sales strategies being implemented by the video. traditional clothing store in terms of: 1.3 Customer Engagement; 1.4 Daily Sales; and 1.5 Meeting their expenses an obligations? ACCOUNTANCY BUSINESS MANAGEMENT  CUENCA SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL Figure 1. Research Paradigm The figure above shows the visual representation of the relationship of all the variables used in the study. The first figure shows the demographic profile of the respondents as well as the current sales strategies of the owners, the effectiveness of the existing sales strategies of selected traditional clothing store and the external factors that affect the operation of their business. While, the process shows how the study will be done and how they will collect all the data needed in the study. Lastly, the third figure shows how they will assess the gap and the output of the study where in they will have an evaluation towards the continuity of the business together with a promotional video that will help them gain more sales and attract more customers. IV. Scope and Delimitation This study focuses on the sales strategies of selected traditional clothing store and the evaluation towards their business continuity. It will examine the existing sales strategies being implemented at the store and the effectiveness of it to make sure of the continuity of the business. This study will be limited to the owners of the selected traditional clothing store in Cuenca, Batangas. The respondents of ACCOUNTANCY BUSINESS MANAGEMENT  CUENCA SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL the study are only the owners who have a physical store in Cuenca, Batangas and any of the owners who do not have will a physical store will not be included in this study. Any response from other people who is not consider as a valid respondents will not be included and relevant in the study. The objective of this study is to assess the sales strategies of selected traditional clothing store here in Cuenca, Batangas and to propose and evaluation for their business continuity and a promotional video to use as one of their sales strategies. V. Significance of the Study This research study is believed to be significant to the following: Business Owners. This study will be significant to all the business owners as this well help them identify whether their current sales strategies are still effective and to help them form a new sales strategies. Future Business Owners. This study will be beneficial to them because they can analyze the status of the market before they start to operate and can make a plan as early as possible to avoid bankruptcy. Customers. This study will benefit all the customers to realize the importance of traditional stores and help the owners gain more sales for the continuity of the traditional clothing store business. ACCOUNTANCY BUSINESS MANAGEMENT  CUENCA SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL Researchers. This study will benefit the researchers as they will gain more knowledge about sales strategies in the business and can apply it in the future especially if they are planning to enter the same field. Future Researchers. This study will help the future researchers who needs a related study to cite some statements that will support their study. They will also learn more about the same study they want to conduct by reading and understanding the whole paper VI. Definition of Terms Sales Strategies. This is the type of plan that is detailed in order to guide the sales team on how they will sell and attract new customers to hit the sale goals (Clari Team, 2023). In this study, this term is used as a dependent variable. Traditional Clothing Store. A place where you can shop clothes that requires you to be in the store physically (Cambridge Dictionary, 2024). In this study, this term will be used as an independent variable. Business Continuity. Talks about the plans, processes, and procedures a company puts in place to ensure that the company functions during and after a disaster or unexpected event (Ricalde, 2024). In this study, the term will be use as one of the output of the study. ACCOUNTANCY BUSINESS MANAGEMENT  CUENCA SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL Promotional Video. It is a video created to promote a certain product, activity, sale or event (Klass, 2023). In this study, the term will be used as an output of the study. Customer Engagement. It is the continuous development of the a relationship between an organization and its customers that extends long beyond the transaction (Miller, 2023). In this study, this term will be used as a factor to identify the effectiveness of the existing sales strategies. Daily Sales. The entire amount of money that the company gain from sales transaction each day that is measure by the Key Performance Indicator (Arab, 2024). In this study, the term will be used to identify whether the current sales strategies are effective. Meeting Obligations. It is a duty that an organization needs to fulfill or meet based on their agreement or contract (Hargrave, 2022). In this study, this will be used as one of the factor to consider if the sales strategies are effective. Business Owners. Refers to those people who establish and run a company engaged in commercial, industrial, or professional activity with the objective of profiting from it (Denise, 2022). In this study, this will be used as the participants of the study to collect all the data needed. ACCOUNTANCY BUSINESS MANAGEMENT  CUENCA SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE This chapter presents the overview of the relevant literature and studies that the researcher considered in strengthening the importance of the study. This will be divided into three main section which are the sales strategies, traditional clothing store and the business continuity. This chapter also provides the synthesis of the related literature to fully understand the research for better comprehension of the study. On Sales Strategies A sales strategy informs your sales team position the company and its product close to the new customers by having a set of decisions, actions, and goals (Decker, 2020). [The company seeks to apply the different marketing mix variable to optimize the product sales as one of the marketing and sales policies (Fauzi et al,. 2021). They also suggests that one of the way to increase the sale volume is to have a product differentiation and product diversification.[Additionally, one of the things we should look out for is not the product but the consumers, coordination of marketing activities and the consumer satisfaction (Putri, 2017).[Furthermore, the statement of Panagopoulos and Avalonitis (2010) was used by Eggert et al., in 2015 to support their study that the effective ACCOUNTANCY BUSINESS MANAGEMENT  CUENCA SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL implementation of the sales strategy leads to competitive advantage of the owners in the business markets. [According to Cespedes (2014), even if the sales team are trained to negotiate and use sales tactics, the implications for the target priorities are being left out either because the company did not give a clear direction or because the leaders are afraid of leaks to the competition. In addition to this, the three variables that the drive the productivity of the sale are the customer call capacity, close rate and profit per sale.[Also, the study of White (2018) states that the perception of customers on the different sales strategies are positive effects on the hypothesized relationship dimension. [Additionally, a company who have a strong sales strategy plan have a strong foundation for an effective and successful sales organization (Decker, 2020).[ In relation with this, according to Washington State University (2023) a company have a high percentage of failing if they do not have an effective sales and marketing strategy. It was shown that 18% of the businesses in the United States fail in their first year and after five years the percentage of failed businesses rises to nearly 50%. [Furthermore, the actions of the salespeople that produce the performance of the company is the key actors in an organization (Terho et al., 2015). [Similarly, the result of the study of Inyang and Jaramillo (2019) says that when a salesperson uses the sales strategy as part of ACCOUNTANCY BUSINESS MANAGEMENT  CUENCA SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL their sales process, it has positive effect on their sales performance. [The sudden appearance of the global health pandemic hinders many businesses and the society o operate traditionally forcing all the organization to alter their sales strategies and adjust to the ‘new norm’ going forward (Good et al., 2022). [Apart from this, the study of Han and Zhou (2023) shows that the sales strategy effectively improves the Original-Destination shared ticket and total revenue ticket by 9.55% and 2.26% respectively. Showing that as long as you have a good and effective sales strategy the revenue will continue to rise. On Traditional Clothing Store Traditional clothing stores allows the customers to see and examine the clothes physically that is not available to other shopping way (Xiang, 2018). The sudden changes on the consumer’s preference, is one of the challenges faced by the traditional clothing stores and the shifting of the price and inventory management are also examined (Katiyar, 2024). They also need to adapt to the changing of the economy in order to stay competitive. [Furthermore, Burgul (2021) states that the shopping ways of consumers entails going to malls, shopping centers, shopping online and shopping on the go, the customers are seeking for a convenient, quick and cheapest way to attain the number of repetitive activities. [Also, the study of Jung et al., (2020) applies that sustainability of ACCOUNTANCY BUSINESS MANAGEMENT  CUENCA SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL the traditional clothing store are much needed not only for the space of commercial functions and attractions but also a place to carry out community activities. [Additionally, many of the students still prefer to shop at traditional clothing stores so the study recommends that if they can manage to lower the prices it could help the clothing stores to have a successful and profitable operation (Dunton, 2017). [In contrast with the previous statement, Yue (2017) states that elderly consumer are most likely to visit traditional clothing stores when buying clothing. [Moreover, Canaves (2024) shows that nearly 40% of the clothing customers discover new fashion products by visiting traditional clothing stores, the ability to try on the clothes in person before buying still has no comparable with virtual equivalent. [In 2014, the global clothing has already achieved $758.4 billion with compound annual growth rate of 7.5% (Wood, 2019). [Furthermore, the study of Chentao and Yongle (2014) encourages the people to shift from online to traditional clothing store to utilize services and vice versa. [Apart from this, by ensuring the offline transactions of the traditional clothing stores as well as the consumers experience plays a vital role to have a good reviews, which in return, impacts the potential buyers and sales (Lemon and Verhoef, 2016). ACCOUNTANCY BUSINESS MANAGEMENT  CUENCA SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL ON BUSINESS CONTINUITY The business field always consists of high uncertainty, variability, unpredictability, and more risks that make it hard for a business to sustain and obtain competitive advantage while surviving in such volatile environment (Zamborsky, 2021). [Business continuity as defined by Venclova et al., in 2013 and used by Radenovic (2022) in her study, is the daily operations that is carried out to ensures that a business is stable, profitable and consistent. [Additionally, the the effectiveness of the management of business continuity in managing all the risks and sustaining the business functions depends on the organization’s understanding of its business continuity capacity (Wong, 2019). [In addition with the previous statement, Namdar et al., (2021) states that a well prepared and well thought business continuity plan can lessen the impact of future disasters that might occur on a business. [However, 25% of the small companies in the United States result to never operating of business caused by not developing a business continuity plan (United States Small Business Administration, 2020). [Furthermore, according to Gillis (2024) the first step to business continuity is deciding on what functions are essential for the business and allocating the right amount of budget available. [Moreover, having an effective disaster preparedness is strongly related with the business continuity that is important to undertaken (Dushie, 2014). [In contrast with this, the study of Ali and Ali (2023) ACCOUNTANCY BUSINESS MANAGEMENT  CUENCA SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL shows that there are no significant relationship between business continuity plan and the business performance in Cotabato City Enterprises. [Apart from this, traditional stores should enrich creativity and innovation in marketing, enhance product offerings and provide better customer service to effectively compete with other competitors to ensure their business continuity amidst competitive pressures (Syariah, 2015). [Also, the results of the study of Andrian and Supardi (2021) shows that the place variable has no impact on the business continuity of an organization but the product availability has a positive significant effect on the business continuity of an enterprise. Synthesis of the Review or Related Literature and Studies The sudden appearance of different shopping modes hinders the traditional clothing stores to operate normally. Especially, when the Covid-19 pandemic happens and greatly affect the global economies resulting to the demand of the raw materials being higher. Even after the pandemic ends, the sudden change in the economy greatly affect the daily operations of traditional clothing stores and it does not help that the inflation rate in the Philippines are continuously increasing that hinders the traditional stores to lower their selling price. Other obligations that they need to met also affect their business unlike other shopping ways who does not require to pay for rent, electricity, maintenance and other expenses. ACCOUNTANCY BUSINESS MANAGEMENT  CUENCA SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL Nowadays, many consumers have many options where to purchase clothes. The gap that the traditional clothing stores need to assess is to identify their sales strategies and whether these strategies are still effective for their business to operate and earn profit despite of the risks and competitors in the market. The sales strategies is the one ensures that a business is still capable to operate and survive in the market. The important thing that the owners should look out for is how to form a sustainable sales strategies and what factors they should consider while forming those strategies. Putri (2017) states that one of the things we should look out for is not the product but the consumers, coordination of marketing activities and the consumer satisfaction to have a successful sales strategy. Giving importance to the customers are very crucial because this will help to build your brand identity and that is when you can only say that the business is being sustain. In relation with this, one of the challenges faced by the traditional clothing store is the sudden change on the consumer’s preferences (Katiyar, 2024). That is why it is very important for the Traditional Clothing store to have a new and unique sales strategies to achieve their sales goals. By implementing all of this can lead to sustaining the business amidst the many external factors being faced by the enterprise. According to Gillis (2024) the first step to business continuity is deciding on what functions are essential for ACCOUNTANCY BUSINESS MANAGEMENT  CUENCA SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL the business and allocating the right amount of budget available. Allocating time, effort and money in making a sales strategies can lead to an effective sales strategies and business continuity. The statements above shows the importance of sales strategies on the continuity of the operation of a business. The researchers have observed that many factors are affecting the operation of Traditional Clothing Stores in Cuenca, Batangas. That is why the researchers have decided to conduct a study to identify the sales strategies of the selected traditional clothing stores to know whether the different external factors greatly affect the effectiveness of their sales strategies and will it became a hinder for their business continuity. The researchers also aims to evaluate the selected stores towards their business continuity as well as to make a promotional video to help them have more sales strategy. ACCOUNTANCY BUSINESS MANAGEMENT  CUENCA SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY This chapter presents the different method used in the study. Firstly, this part will discuss the chosen research design together with the participants and sampling method that will identify who is the best respondents in the study in order to collect all the data needed. Secondly, the research instrument, sampling technique and ethical consideration will also be presented. The last discussion will be all about how is data will be collected, as well as the description of how the data will be analyze. Research Design In this study, a mixed method research design will be used to focus on studying the sales strategies of selected traditional clothing stores in Cuenca, Batangas. This method allows the researchers to collect both qualitative and quantitative data needed and analyze them separately. This method will provide the researchers with concrete numbers and data that are both reliable and valid. This study will be non-experimental and will use a descriptive research design that will valuable to explore the different sales strategies of the selected traditional clothing store as well as whether it is still effective and to what extent does the external factors affect the effectiveness of their sale strategies. This assessment will help to recognize all the effective sales strategies that can attract more ACCOUNTANCY BUSINESS MANAGEMENT  CUENCA SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL costumers and earn more sales and to also identify whether those sales strategies will ensure the continuity of the business. Participants and Sampling Method The participants of this study are the owners of the selected traditional shopping store here in Cuenca, Batangas. This study will used a non-probability sampling and will be gathered using a convenience and snowball sampling. Convenience sampling will allow the researchers to select the participants who are available in the time of data gathering. The researchers may also ask the participants to refer a potential participant who have the same characteristics needed in the study as this research will use snowball sampling as well. This method will be use until the researchers will gain at least 30 participants to be part of the study. Specifically, the owners of the traditional clothing store who will be willing to participate in this study. This method will ensure that all the needed sample will be collected and reduce any form of bias statement. ACCOUNTANCY BUSINESS MANAGEMENT  CUENCA SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL Research Instrument The researchers will use a Likert Scale survey questionnaire and unstructured interview in the study containing sets of questions that were used to gather all the necessary data from the respondents about the their sales strategies being implemented on their shop. The likert scale survey questionnaire consists of four different parts: the first part includes the demographic profile of the respondents. The second part will tackle the different existing sales strategies of the selected traditional clothing. The next part is the effectiveness of the sales strategy. And the last part will tackle how the external factors affect the effectiveness of the sales strategies. The selected respondents were required to specify their level of agreement to every statement in a scale ranging from (1) Strongly Disagree, (2) Disagree, (3) Agree and lastly (4) Strongly Agree. And since, this study will use a mixed method it is also needed to give the participants a set of open-ended questionnaire to collect more data to effectively made the research possible. These methods will allow the researchers to collect both quantitative and qualitative data to analyze and asses the existing gap in the study. Sampling Technique The chosen sampling technique of the researchers are convenience sampling and snowball sampling. This sampling technique is particularly suitable for gaining comprehensive ACCOUNTANCY BUSINESS MANAGEMENT  CUENCA SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL understanding of the numbers of traditional clothing store owners here in Cuenca, Batangas. By choosing the respondents that are accessible and readily available ensures that there is no such pattern needed in acquiring those participants. A snowball sampling also allows the researchers to ask their participants for assistance in identifying other potential subjects. This type of approach is just fair to all participants because all of them have the choice to decline and not be part of the study if they are not available during the data gathering. This will avoid any bias answer as all of them have agreed to be part of the study and all of them is free on that time. This approach aims to capture the perspective of the different participants, allowing the researchers to identify the effectiveness of the sales strategies of the traditional clothing store that would ensure their business continuity. Lastly, with the accurate and efficient data collection it allows the researchers to save more time, money and make the study mode possible. Ethical Consideration The researchers secured their authorization letter to the school administration to continue conducting the study. Before conducting the survey, the letter of invitation to participate together with the consent form which will be signed by the respondents participating in the study will also be done first. The respondents will receive a detailed explanation about the purpose of the survey. ACCOUNTANCY BUSINESS MANAGEMENT  CUENCA SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL In accordance with RA 10173 known as the Data Privacy Act, the anonymity of the respondents shall be observed to protect the privacy rights of the respondents. The researchers also ensure that responses are kept private, and no one is identified. Participants who are not available during or after the study are not forced to participate. The researchers will also make sure that the participants have an option to refuse or withdraw from the study any moment without being questioned. Data Gathering The researchers will use a close ended and open ended survey questionnaire to be able to obtain all the required information. The researchers will also distribute the constructed questionnaire to the readily available and recruited participants to further enhance the research design for business owners of traditional clothing stores in Cuenca Batangas. This survey will be conducted through face to face interactions with the respondents, emphasizing a direct and personal approach with guidance of the research teacher. The permission and willingness of the teachers and school administration will also secured by the researchers. On that particular day, the researchers will visit the designated place during the respondents vacant time. The researchers will provide the respondents with a brief introduction and the study's intended purpose to facilitate a comprehensive understanding of the survey ACCOUNTANCY BUSINESS MANAGEMENT  CUENCA SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL and be able to ensure the thoughtful response. After answering the close-ended questionnaires the researchers will proceed to ask the open-ended questions on the participants. The responses will be examined and interpreted after the researchers collected all the necessary data. Data Gathering Tool Table 2. Verbal Interpretation Rate Scale Range Verbal Interpretation 4 Strongly Agree 3.26-4.00 Very High 3 Agree 2.51-3.25 High 2 Disagree 1.76-2.50 Low 1 Strongly Disagree 1.00-1.75 Very Low The table illustrates the verbal analysis of the study. The table shows how the responses will be interpret using the scale, range, and verbal interpretation. The four-point scale is made up of strongly disagree, disagree, agree and strongly agree, these are the available response options for participants. The flexibility in the research design allows to meet the needed information in the research without the unnecessary repetition or redundancy. Furthermore, these levels or scales will allow the researchers to measure the respondent’s opinion for each particular questions. ACCOUNTANCY BUSINESS MANAGEMENT  CUENCA SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL Another data gathering tool that will be use is the unstructured one- on-one interview. Unstructured interviews is a two way conversation that permits the researchers to collect accurate and detailed responses. This kind of gathering method relies on asking open ended questions to the respondents to collect the data with no set of patterns. This will allow the researchers to analyze their opinions with no such limitations. Data Analysis The researchers discussed this as a researchable topic, which resulted to assessing the sales strategies of selected traditional clothing stores in Cuenca Batangas: An evaluation towards business continuity with the adequate collaboration with the research adviser, the researchers considered this as their research study. Furthermore, the researchers deemed that assessing the. A close- ended and open-ended survey questionnaire created by the researchers will be used to collect the different sales strategies of the selected traditional clothing store that would give a lot of insight on the business owners whether their existing sale strategies can ensure the sustainability and continuity of their business. The open ended data gathered will be analyze using the thematic analysis. This analysis method will let the researchers to closely examine the data and identify the common answers of the participants. This will define and describe the data to identify all the themes that are ACCOUNTANCY BUSINESS MANAGEMENT  CUENCA SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL being answered repeatedly. The step-by-step process of the Thematic Analysis are familiarization, coding, generating themes, reviewing themes, defining and naming things and writing up. The results gathered from the questionnaire will be statistically tabulated and evaluated. The weighted mean was calculated using the following formula: X= Mean f= Weighted given to each respondent x= Number of respondents N= Total number of respondents Mean: X= ∑x/N Standard Deviation: D= √∑ f (x -x) 2/∑f The presented formula helped the researchers in determining whether the current sales strategies of the traditional clothing store in Cuenca, Batangas are effective and can guarantee their business continuity. ACCOUNTANCY BUSINESS MANAGEMENT