Retail Theories and Strategies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Retail Theories and Strategies - Essay Example Retailing is an activity of enormous economic significance to most developed nations. In Britain, 2.5 million people are employed in retailing, comprising 10.5 percent of all employees (National Statistics, 2001a). Retailers provide the goods and services needed--from food, auto parts, apparel, home furnishings, appliances and electronics to advice, home improvement and skilled labor. Retailing is one of the fastest-growing segments of the economy. As one of the nation's largest employers, the retail industry provides excellent business opportunities. At least one-third of the 100,000 or so new enterprises launched each year are retail operations. The entrepreneurs behind these ventures risk their capital, invest their time and make a living by offering consumers something they need or want. Most retailing involves buying merchandise or a service from a manufacturer, wholesaler, agent, importer or other retailer and selling it to consumers for their personal use. The price charged fo r the goods or services covers the retailer's expenses and includes a profit. Each year, this vital sector of the UK economy accounts for about 08 percent of our gross national product--more than $1 billion.. Most are store retailers, though there are other types of enterprises--such as e-commerce, mail order, automatic-merchandising (vending) machines, direct retailing (door-to-door and home party sales), and service providers. ... Strategically, food retailing has become a highly competitive industry increasingly answerable to the City and shareholder pressure. Labour represents the second largest financial outlay for the retailer after merchandise costs. The most efficient means of labour utilization are therefore a strategic priority. Attempts to improve market share and increase profitability have resulted in operational changes that have influenced the structure of the retail food labor market.It is essential that retailers are aware of the advantages and disadvantages of different methods of targeting a particular segment of customers which needs to be done considering the suitability of different options to their kind of business and the environments in which they wish to operate. In a retailing environment, it requires major market analysis to understand what type of customers needs to be targeted for a specific product. This is highly time - consuming and irrelevant and inappropriate data might result in the loss of the retailer. Another important task involves, UK retailers and their suppliers of retail branded products must take "all reasonable precautions and exercise all due diligence", in the development, manufacture, distribution, advertising or sale of food products to the consumer. Segmenting Retail Markets Every customer has a different set of needs, wants and motives, but in few consumer goods market it is feasible fully to tailor the retailing mix to the level of the individual customer. Hence the need to identify reasonably homogeneous groupings, or segments, of shoppers to be the target(s) of retail marketing