Macro Enviornment Factors in Retailing

What do you mean by retail environment? A retail marketing environment consists of the external actors and forces that affect the retailers ability to develop and maintain successful transactions and relationships with its target customers. We can distinguish between the retailers’ micro environment and macro environment. The macro environment consists of legal, social, economic and technological forces.

Demographic Enviornment

The first environmental fact of interest to retailers is population because people make up markets. Retailers are keenly interested in the size of the population, its geographical distribution, density, mobility trends, age distribution and social ethnic and religious structure. Demographic structure is seldom static for long and changes in its composition often test the residency of a marketing firm.… Read the rest

Micro Enviornment Factors in Retailing

What do you mean by retail environment? A retail marketing environment consists of the external actors and forces that affect the retailers ability to develop and maintain successful transactions and relationships with its target customers.

We can distinguish between the retailers’ micro environment and macro environment. The micro environment consists of the actors in the retailer’s immediate achievement that affect its ability to serve its markets: Suppliers, intermediaries, customers, competitors and publics.

Micro Enviornment Factors

Every retailers’ primary goal is to profitably serve and satisfy specific needs of chosen target markets. To carry out this task, the retailer links himself with a set of suppliers and a set of intermediaries to reach its target customers.… Read the rest

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Indian Retail

Introduction to Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Indian Retail

The recent clamor about opening up the retail sector to Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) becomes a very sensitive issue, the most important factor against FDI driven “modern retailing” is that it is labour displacing to the extent that it can only expand by destroying the traditional retail sector. This is because the primary task of government in India is still to provide livelihoods and not create so called efficiencies of scale by creating redundancies. As per present regulations, no FDI is permitted in retail trade in India. Allowing 49% or 26% FDI (which have been the proposed figures till date) will have immediate and direct consequences.… Read the rest

Retail Formats or Classification of Retail Firms

Regardless of the particular type of retailer (such as a supermarket or a department store), retailers can be categorized by (a) Ownership, (b) Store strategy mix, and (c) Non store operations.

1. Form of Ownership

A retail business like any other type of business, can be owned by a sole proprietor, partners or a corporation. A majority of retail business in India are sole proprietorships and partnerships.

  1. Independent Retailer: Generally operates one outlet and offers personalized service, a convenient location and close customer contact. Roughly 98% of all the retail businesses in India, are managed and run by independents, including barber shops, drycleaners, furniture stores, bookshops, LPG Gas Agencies and neighbourhood stores.
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Retailing Decisions: Factors To Consider

There are many factors for retailers to consider while developing and implementing their marketing plans. Among the major retailing decisions are these related to (a) Target markets (b) Merchandise management (c) Store location (d) Store image (e) Store personnel (f) Store design (g) Promotion, and (h) Credit and collections.

  • Target Markets: Although retailers normally aim at the mass market, a growing number are engaging in marketing research and market segmentation, because they are finding it increasingly difficult to satisfy everyone. Through a careful definition of target markets, retailers can use their resources and capabilities to position themselves more effectively and achieve differential advantage.
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Margin Turnover Model of Retail

Successful retail operations depend largely on two main dimensions: margin and turnover. How far a retail enterprise can reach in margin and turnover depends essentially on the type of business (product lines) and the style and scale of the operations. In addition the turnover ,also depends upon the professional competence of the enterprise. In a given business two retail companies may choose two different margin levels, and yet both may be successful, provided the strategy and style of management are appropriate.

Margin Turnover Model

Ronald R. Gist “Suggested a conceptual frame work, using margin and turnover, for understanding the retail structure and evolving a retail strategy.”… Read the rest