Develop an External Factor Evaluation matrix in Excel format.Include the opportunities,threats,weights,ratings and weighted score.Sum all the weighted scores.

External Issues

Athletic Shoe Stores

The athletic shoe store industry in the United States generates over $15 billion in revenue annually with growth around 3 percent expected through 2022. The industry is fragmented with over 3,000 businesses, many small mom and pops with the two top players Foot Locker and Nike accounting for 32 and 18 percent of sales, respectively. Unlike many retail outlets, the industry is healthy as a growing number of consumers in the United States are world wild are becoming increasingly health conscious. In addition, a growing trend referred to as athleisure grew over 40 percent between 2009 and 2016 where consumers are increasingly wearing athletic apparel in every day settings including at work. Many work environments are calling workers back to the office and requiring increased levels of dress code, so it remains to be seen if the athleisure industry can continue to grow at such a rapid pace. Online merchants are also growing, and as athletic apparel becomes more popular, department stores that tend to offer business casual clothing are increasing their athletic shoe store spaces. Unlike most all clothing categories where women are the primary customers, men account for nearly 60 percent of athletic shoe sales with women and children both around 20 percent. The industry enjoys a fairly even distribution of sales volumes from varying age groups but customersunder55 account for 75 percent of sales. Nike holds nearly 50percent of the athletic-footwear industry based on market capitalization, followed by V.F. Corp at 14percent. UA has only 2.5 percent of the athletic-footwear industry.

Technology

Many athletic apparel firms are now experimenting with t-shirts made of conductive yards that can even transmit heart rate and other data directly to the user's doctor. A spinoff of Samsung, IOFIT is a sports-smart shoe where golfers have their swings and balance analyzed. Chinese based Xiaomi released in 2017 a smart running shoe with a chip powered by Intel. Google and Levi have partnered to produce a smart jacket worn by cyclists.

Brand Polygamist

Some experts in the apparel field are dubbing customers today as brand polygamists in reference to customers' decrease in brand loyalty over the last decade. A decrease in brand loyalty is a serious problem for most firms in the industry as customers are now purchasing increasingly on price or extra product features rather than simply buying for the status of a logo or brand name. The trend has cut into gross margins and increased rivalry within the industry. It also allows newer start-up firms a larger chance as customers are increasingly willing to look at all options closer. UA has purchased several apps for phones and smart watches and developed their own to attract customers to the UA product lines. Nike for example now has a NikeID program where they allow shoppers to design their own shoes, apparel, bags and other items online in an attempt to attract more customers through personalization. However, schemes such as this are expensive and firms like Nike are often not able to charge significantly more to offset the extra cost of say,producing 100,000 of the same blue shirts. Do not mistake the value of brands such as Nike, Adidas, UA, and others; they remain a powerful force in the industry but simply having customers to purchase based on a logo alone may be extinct.

Direct-to-Consumer Sales

There is increased momentum in the athletic sportswear industry for direct-to-consumer sales through factory shops, thus using the Internet to bypass traditional retailing merchants. An advantage to Internet sales other than cutting out a middleman is that firms can design customer products as Nike does with NikeID. In total, e-commerce sales as a whole, including all industries, grew 15 percent in 2016 versus the less than 3 percent growth for retail sales over the same time period.

Using the direct-to-consumer business model, firms are also able to collect accurate data on customers' habits who purchase and don't purchase and tailor advertising and marketing strategies to customers based on their likelihood to purchase or not purchase. For example, profiles are developed for customers who are not likely to purchase without a coupon versus customers who will likely purchase either way; in addition, profiles may be developed to determine what length of time after a purchase do you need to offer an incentive to attract the customer to purchasing again. The information garnered from having a robust direct-to-consumer sales medium is arguably priceless.