Perspectives on Retailing

The Intensity of Rivalry among Competitors in an Industry (High): Equally balanced competitors exist within the industry such as BCF and KMD; these firms also face competition from retailers and wholesalers. The growth of the industry is relatively agile in both financial and technological aspects. The intensity or rivalry is further accentuated by relatively high storage and fixed rental costs, extensive product differentiation and minimal switching costs.

Low product differentiation and economies of scale: There isn’t much product differentiation at play in the retail industry as there are well known manufacturers whose products are offered for sale, which leaves price to compete on. Current well established retailers with thousands of stores enjoy the economies of scale to control their cost that a new entrant might not be able to replicate after immediately entering the industry.

The Five Forces Model as defined by Dr. Michael Porter of Harvard University uses five different strategic factors to explain Competitive Rivalry a company or industry faces. The fiver forces that comprise the model are Bargaining Power of Suppliers, Bargaining Power of Buyers, Threat of Substitute Products, Potential Entrants and Completive Rivalry (Porter, 2008). The intent of this analysis is to rank-order each of these five factors from the standpoint of their influence on Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT) and their competitive position in the retailing industry. Each of the five forces are rank-ordered in terms of their importance to Target.

The economic success of retailers greatly depends on their ability to reach customers and meet customer demands in ways that is convenient for the customer. No longer can retailers expect customers to only shop at their retail stores. Retailers are required to provide customers with the multiple shopping channels and flexible fulfillment options that they demand. Companies who fail to do so will see their customers take their business to competitors who are both willing and able to serve customers based on consumer demand (xxx)

Selective distribution is a type of retailing that is used by Nordstrom. The company examines each possible site for a new department store prior to building in that area. This type of retailing helps them to keep up the distinctive quality that they are popular for. According to the authors:

To gain a better understanding of the retail and commercial activity in the Toronto area, two different types of retail will be evaluated in the following report. The character, market orientation and location of a retail space all play crucial role in contributing to the success of the business. All three aspects of the retail spheres will be carefully assessed in order to make direct comparisons between the two types of retail businesses. The two retail systems that will be contrasted includes the ancillary retail system in downtown Toronto and the Retail Strip on Spadina, south of Baldwin.

According to the textbook, the retail life cycle consists of the introduction, growth, maturity, and decline. (Perreault, Jr., Cannon, & McCarthy, 2011) To keep a local suburban regional shopping mall from reaching its decline, one must spend time and money during the maturity phase to keep with today’s trends.

Working in retail, entails patience and knowledge of the products in the store. Customers should

The retail industry is a sector of the economy that is comprised of individuals and companies

During the past decade, retail markets have undergone many changes in their processes, services, and formats. The last part of distribution of the market strategy, retailing serves as a bridge between the final consumer and the mass producers of products. Retailing has reached every corner of the globe, and Wal-Mart has been eying areas where the

Retailing is one of the largest industries in the United States and accounts for approximately 10 percent of the gross national product. A retailer is someone who purchases items from a supplier or wholesaler for re-sale at a profit. The retailer earns his or her living by making a profit on the re-sale. Retailers purchase a product, mark up its cost, and advertise it for sale. The mark-up process is the key to the retailers business because if the product is marked up too high, consumers will not buy it. If it is marked too low then the retailer will have lost profits and the supply may be quickly exhausted. Another key to the retail business is knowing what the customer needs or wants and when, how much the customer is willing to pay for the product, what the competition is charging, and where to find the product at the best possible cost to make a profit.

Chicago is known for it 's innovative spirit. The Chicago History Museum has an exhibit titled Second to None that highlights some of Chicago 's inventions and innovations. Modern Retail is an exhibit within Second to None that focuses on Chicago 's retail history. The information provided by the CHM on Modern Retail is a little disappointing. The CHM has the resources to tell a wonderful story on the history of modern day retail, but instead chooses to keep the exhibit simple. Modern Retail has about fifteen plaques to read and a few dull artifacts. The exhibit takes about five minutes to read and enjoy. Sadly, it seems the CHM 's definition of retail is narrow. Retail in

Retail stores, are one of the biggest and largest businesses around the world. They produce thousands of hundreds in revenues and they are some of the biggest employers industries. WALL-MART, IKEA, TESCO, ARGOS, MACYS, WALLGREENS and OFICCE DEPOT are some of the well-known retail stores that supply us every day with different kind of goods and services. For a better understanding, one of the main definitions of retail is: “...store commonly a shop or stall for the retail sale of commodities, but also a place where wholesale supplies are kept, exhibited, or sold…” What this means

Inditex ensures that its fashion is fast through its supply chain efforts. They have created new methods to enable store managers to order and display merchandise faster and added cargo routes for shipping goods. The company ships clothing straight from the factory to stores and makes two-thirds of its goods in Spain and nearby countries, compared to most competitors who manufacture most of their clothing in Asia. Inditex has their sales managers monitoring computers, which are reporting sales at every store around the world. When a garment does well or fails, they are able to quickly tell designers if they need to come up with new ideas. They also have generated

The economies of scale in the retail industry are huge. All of the companies in this industry have first mover advantage. Many of the competitors in this industry already have immense and diverse relationships with many of the suppliers they obtain and any new competitor will have a tough time trying to squeeze into the dealer network in order to establish themselves as any type of threat to another retailer.