RETAIL MANAGEMENT
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ABSTRACT
Retailing encompasses the business activities involved in selling goods
and services to consumers for their personal, family, or household use. While retailing can
be defined as including every sale to the final consumer (ranging from cars to apparel to
meals at restaurants), we normally focus on those businesses that sell “merchandise
generally without transformation, while rendering services incidental to the sale of
merchandise. Retailing today is at an interesting crossroads. On the one hand, retail sales
are at their highest point in history. Wal-Mart is now the leading company in the world in
terms of sales ahead of ExxonMobil, General Motors, and other manufacturing giants. New
technologies are improving retail productivity. There are lots of opportunities to start a
new retail business or work for an existing one—and to become a franchisee. Global
retailing possibilities abound. On the other hand, retailers face numerous challenges. Many
consumers are bored with shopping or do not have much time for it. Some locales have too
many stores, and retailers often spur one another into frequent price cutting (and low
profit margins). Customer service expectations are high at a time when more retailers offer
self-service and automated systems. At the same time, many retailers remain unsure about
what to do with the Web; they are still grappling with the emphasis to place on image
enhancement, customer information and feedback, and sales transactions. Retail is the sale
of goods to end users, not for resale, but for use and consumption by the purchaser. The
retail transaction is at the end of the supply chain. Manufacturers sell large quantities of
products to retailers, and retailers sell small quantities of those products to consumers. A
person who wants to obtain a product for his/her own personal use will usually purchase it
at a retail store or from some other retail marketing channel. Thus, retailing refers to the
sale of goods or commodities in small quantities sold directly to ultimate consumers.
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Key words : Retail Management, Factors Influencing Retail Management, Career
Opportunities Are Available in Retailing, Need for Retail Management, Retail
Management In India.
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*A research paper presented at National Seminar held at Department of Commerce, M. K.
Bhavnagar University on 14th February.
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Introduction:
Retailing is an important field to study
because of its impact on the economy, its
functions in distribution, and its relationship
with firms selling goods and services to
retailers for their resale or use. It encomasses
the business activities involved in sellig goods
and services to consumers for therepersonal,
family, or household use, it includes every
sale to final consumer ranging from cars to
apparel to meals atresturants to movie
tickets. Retailing is the last stage in the
distribution channel. The various processes
which help the customers to procure the
desired merchandise from the retail stores
for their end use refer to retail management.
Retail management includes all the steps
required to bring the customers into the store
and fulfill their buying needs. Retail
management saves time and ensures the
customers easily locate their desired
merchandise and return home satisfied.
Retail management is to rightly manage all
the activities needed to carry out to make
products or services available to customers
from vendor for personal or family use. It
carries all the activities that are being done in a business like raising capital, buying
products and services, deploying accounting
and management information system for
control activities, managing warehouses and
distribution, developing new products and
also the marketing activities. Managing all
these activities in retail is what we call retail
management.
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Objectives
Retailing may be understood as the final step
in the distribution of merchandise for
consumption by the end consumers. Retailing
is responsible for matching final consumer
demand with supplies of different marketers.
Retailing is high intensity competition
industry, The reasons for its popularity lie in
its ability to provide easier access to variety
of products, freedom of choice and many
services to consumers. The Indian retail is
dotted by traditionally market place called
bazaars or hats comprises of numerous small
and large shops, selling different or similar
merchandise
New retailers often enter the market place
with low prices, margins, and status. The low
prices are usually the result of some
innovative cost-cutting procedures and soon
attract competitors. With the passage of time,
these businesses strive to broaden their
customer base and increase sales. Their
operations and facilities increase and become
more expensive. They may move to better up
market locations, start carrying higher
quality products or add services and
ultimately emerge as a high cost price service
retailer. By this time newer competitors as
low price, low margin, low status emerge and
these competitors too follow the same
evolutionary process.
The wheel keeps on turning and department
stories, supermarkets, and mass merchandise
went through this cycles. From the customer
point of view, the retailer serves him by
providing the goods that he needs in the
required assortment, at the required place
and time. From an economic standpoint, the
role of a retailer is to provide real added
value or utility to the customer. This comes
four different perspectives
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What is Retail Management?
The various processes which help the
customers to procure the desired
merchandise from the retail stores for their
end use refer to retail management. Retail
management includes all the steps required
to bring the customers into the store and
fulfill their buying needs.
Retail management makes shopping a
pleasurable experience and ensures the
customers leave the store with a smile. In
simpler words, retail management helps
customers shop without any difficulty.
“Retailing includes all the activities involved
in selling goods or services to the final
consumers for personal, non business use”.
Retailing encompasses the business activities
involved in selling goods & services to
consumers for their personal, family, or
household use.
It includes every sale to the final consumer –
ranging from cars to apparel to meals at
restaurants to movie tickets.
..Retail Function in Distribution..
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Factors Influencing Retail Management
Social
How consumers, households and
communities behave and their beliefs. For
instance, changes in attitude towards health,
or a greater number of pensioners in a
population.
Legal
The way in which legislation in society
affects the business. E.g. changes in
employment laws on working hours.
Economic
How the economy affects a business in
terms of taxation, government spending,
general demand, interest rates, exchange
rates and European and global economic
factors.
Political
How changes in government policy might
affect the business e.g. a decision to subsidies'
building new houses in an area could be good
for a local brickworks.
Technological
How the rapid pace of change in
production process and product innovation
affect an organization.
Career Opportunities Are Available in
Retailing
Although the typical entry-level positions in
retailing for a postsecondary graduate
include retail management trainee,
department/sales manager, and assistant
buyer, it is generally difficult to classify retail
career opportunities—because there are so
many of them. Most large retail organizations
can be described as “small cities.” As such,
these retailers offer career paths in almost
every aspect of business, such as buying,
store operations, accounting, financial
management, human resources, advertising,
public relations, marketing research, and so
on.
The ideal candidate pursuing a retail career
should possess the following qualities:
● Be a “people person” to understand
customer needs and be an effective team
member.
● Be flexible to be able to perform a variety of
tasks throughout the workday.
● Be decisive to make quick decisions that are
well thought out.
● Have analytical skills to analyze data and
predict trends.
● Have stamina to be able to work under
pressure for long time periods.
What makes retailing so fascinating is the
constant change that a retail executive must
understand and manage. Among the areas of
retailing that are now undergoing rapid
change are the increased importance on
nonstore retailing. the focus on customer
satisfaction, and the application of technology
to all areas of retailing. These changes
represent both opportunities and challenges.
Need for Retail Management - Why retail
management ?
Peter wanted to gift his wife a nice
watch on her birthday. He went to the nearby
store to check out few options. The retailer
took almost an hour to find the watches. This
irritated Peter and he vowed not to visit the
store again.-An example of poor
management.You just can’t afford to make the
customer wait for long. The merchandise
needs to be well organized to avoid
unnecessary searching. Such situations are
common in mom and pop stores (kirana
stores). One can never enjoy shopping at such
stores.Retail management saves time and
ensures the customers easily locate their
desired merchandise and return home
satisfied.
Last decade has seen tremendous changes in
Retail Business – from made to order to ready
to wear, from counter sales to self service,
emphasis on value