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Issues in retail management
Issues in retail management
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The article on "Major challenges faced by retail stores" reports on how ecommerce is growing rapidly and is more preferred than retail stores nowadays. In order to attract customers, retail stores need to create new multi-sensory experiences such as workshops and other activities that give customers a hands-on experience. Retail stores should collaborate with startups that analyze customers' journeys and shopping habits. Besides, they should provide barrier-free and streamlined shopping experiences to customers. Pop-up stores can showcase new or extraordinary products in physical shops, thus creating buzz and encouraging more sales. With the help of technology, stores should unify brand experiences and multiply touchpoints with consumers. …show more content…
With the help of certain startups, ecommerce can easily track down the shopping habits of customers. Ecommerce can personalize customers' online shopping experience by displaying more of the customers' favorite items, increasing sales directly as customers are more likely to spend on favorite products. However, there is a way for retail stores to counter this problem. UK companies such as Waitrose and Boots have tried to come up with new schemes that allow customers to select a few specific favorite items that they would like to receive discounts on for every visit to the store. The Pick Your Own Offers scheme increases customer loyalty by allowing Waitrose loyalty cardholders to choose 10 products that they would like to get a 20% discount on. (Tugby, …show more content…
Some people find shopping and queuing up a leisure activity which helps to kill time and reduce stress. A study by TNS Global reported that half of Americans have engaged in retail therapy, which helps improve mood and relieve stress. (HuffPost, 2017) Retail stores can also utilize technology to allow customers to pay using debit and credit cards in order to provide a hassle-free shopping experience. On another note, shopping online can incur extra shipping costs on purchasers. Online purchases may also fall short of consumers' expectations, and it is very troublesome to return the goods to the suppliers. In order to allow customers to make prompt payment, many retailers, both online and offline, have choose to implement debit and credit cards into their systems. According to an article in Huffington Post, 94 percent of transactions made with debit or credit cards are in retail stores while 6 percent of them take place online. Thus, this proves that barrier-free payment is not necessarily a huge challenge to retail stores. (New,
The development of department stores in Canada gave way to a new modern era of Canadian society. Through the development of mass retail in 1890 and 1940, Canada experienced a spur in the retail industry as large stores such as Eaton’s, Simpson’s and HBC emerged. Donica Belisle's book “Retail Nation: Department Stores and the Making of Modern Canada”, is useful to understand the expansion of the retail industry as it examines department stores activities along with the responses of consumers, employees, governments and critics to gain insights on the evolution of consumer capitalism in Canada through a feminist perspective. In this essay, I will give a brief summary of the book as well as a review based on my opinions of the book and author.
In a world ran by money, Paco Underhill has discovered a way for stores to generate a larger profit. In “The Science of Shopping”, Malcolm Gladwell reports on retail anthropologists to examine their theories they use. Gladwell does this to inform store managers on how to set up their stores to maximize their profits. Paco Underhill has shopping down to a science. Inside American Eagle, Meijer and Hollister his theories of the decompression zone, invariant right, and zoning can be found.
In times of overconsumption shopping is considered today to be a stressful, exhausting and time consuming situation to the postmodern consumer. In order to bring back the interest of the postmodern consumer to visit the store, retail has surrender to Internet by providing all the necessary information on the new trends in social platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and main Websites that gives us the opportunity to participate in the new means of consumption by giving us voice as society became dominated by the power of digital information, also allowing us to shop online. The disadvantage of a postmodern society to brands and capitalists is that consumers can now dictate their own methods of consumption therefore opting to avoid a physical shop visit and instead it can be possible to do it at their homes. By understanding the story of branding spaces and its cultural impact I intend to share my ideas on the current social and political situation of retail by using local examples such as the extravagant yet powerful Selfridges flagship store in London by describing their methodologies used for a effective costumer experience in comparison to its competitors, their ethos towards the environment and how it relevant it became for the British economy. In this essay I will also share my opinion (as a costumer) on what could be done for an improvement within brands and how does it affects society moralities and the cultural impact.It can be understood by statement above the importance of an environment that stores should provide to its costumers. Without any excitement factors within the space there will not be any other reason for costumers to spend their money in stores. As well as product quality and set prices, the more ex...
For example, a fashion catwalk showing the latest fashion trends (ASDA 2015); applying 3D printing in its York store to produce the 3D model of customers in full colour and mini figures; and launched ‘food for now’ (small items for one pound, such as chicken nuggets) and ‘food for later’ (take away easy eating item) for fulfil time pressured customers (ASDA, 2015). Moreover, E- Commerce is laid in the centre of new strategy, as the online grocery currently plays the fastest growing department for the organization, which is already worth£1 billion (ASDA 2015). Taking advantage of Walmart’s global ecommerce platform, ASDA could access and analysis the largest collection of commerce data in the world (Walmart, 2015). Therefore, it is possible that delivering personalized shopping experience and making customers shop anytime and anywhere online and offline.
Nordstrom’s retail positioning strategy provides it with the competitive edge it needs to differentiate it from competitors who also serve similar markets.
Increasing in-store traffic is something every retail manager grapples with daily. There is a tendency to breathe a sigh of relief as the numbers steadily climb. In reality, higher traffic counts mean nothing, if conversion rates remain lackluster. Driving consumers to a brick-and-mortar location is only the first step, albeit a crucial step, on the road to financial success. Converting location visitors yields revenue.
Increased Visibility of a particular brand on the shelf increases their success rate. Therefore many of the major stores are promoting their own brands by giving them a larger shelf space which is bigger then their market share. This reduces the visibility of other branded products at the same time.
Often, people come back because they like the place, and it is the convenience for them. Finally, the data from anthropologists’ study are helping the retailers improve their business performance. The product will catch customers’ attention because they know exactly where to put it. That leads to more product sales and more money being generated.
The computerized self-checkouts kiosk is appearing in more and more retail stores throughout the United State. Many popular retail customers have adopted this technology and investing heavily into it. As technology grows, the way we pay for goods and services at retail stores have been and will continue to change. Traditional Point of Sale (POS) computers and registers have been updated with tablets, mobile phones, and self-checkout kiosk. Stores like Walmart say automated self-checkout kiosks can increase customer convenience and choice.
Customers desire a similar shopping experience across all channels. Let’s explore how to meet (or even exceed) their expectations.
With the growing concerns on the equality of persons with a disability, people become more aware on the provision of barrier free environment in publicly accessible premises. Lack of ramps, uneven flooring, narrow corridors and absence of tactile guide path are only some of the examples of the physical barriers for these people. Hong Kong government has been taking an initiative role in formulating legislations and providing codes of practice so as to safeguard the interests of the persons with a disability. Along with the government efforts in raising the awareness of society on the issue, media, statutory bodies and advocacy groups also have an active participation in fostering the interests of their concerned groups of disabled people.
Customers are quick to fall into the category of “belonging” found in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. They feel as if in order to belong or to feel loved and respected by others they must try to attain what everyone else has or wants. This is especially true during the holiday season when people feel that what they buy reflects how they feel about the people they buy presents for. If you feel that you must purchase a certain present that you know will be out of stock and hard to find, you are better off shopping online or by mail. Shopping online and by mail is becoming the new wave of shopping and it is a smart, convenient, and timesaving process.
In a simple way, the retailer needs to create a warm, friendly and an approachable retail space to attract consumers.The visual displays is an imperative element of branding of any store. If the stock is presentable, it is bound to appeal to the shoppers. If the shoppers appreciate the store layout and product, they are likely to spend more time in the store, and in return reward the store with sales. Along with the products for sales, the staff, the décor, the store interiors, the trial rooms arrangement, the lightings and music also form an inclusive elements boosting store sales. (fibre2fashion, 2008)
For instance they can purchase anything at any point of time without going out to any physical store; they can compare the prices of the product from different websites and can purchase from the site where they are getting cheaper; it also saves time; customers can also avoid pressure when having a face to face interaction with the salesperson etc. We can summarize these factors into 4 categories:
In order to look out for their customers, Pick n Pay released a customer rewards programme called “Smartshopper”. The programme, launched in March 2011, allows the franchise to get to know and understand each customer better by observing each individual’s shopping habits and references. The company has direct access to many Smartshopper customers via e-mail and/or sms, which allows the business to communicate with their customers in a more engaging manner. Pick n Pay asks for feedback from customers, and sends targeted marketing communications directly to them. All of this is done in an effort to both design and execute marketing campaigns and product ranges which are more relevant to their customers by extracting insights from the customers shopping habits data, as well as to assist the company in growing their sales volumes – which will ultimately lead to an rise in profit (FastMoving, 2012).