Retail Management

CASE 1
  1. What can an independent retailer learn from this case? (Retail management-Case 1, Q.1)

ANSWER:
An independent retailer can pull several insights from this reading. First and foremost the market is becoming severely competitive which means that independent retailers will have to adapt to the environment. Adaptations such as; benchmarking other retailers, pinpointing customer needs & wants, developing a long-term strategy for adaptation are to be made. It is imperative that retailers find ways to draw-in and maintain customers by changing with the market. Soft line specialty stores have found that the recent economic downturn has hurt the industry and in turn created intense competition for retailers to find new ways to get more sales from existing customers.

Some good ideas for retailers to consider after reading this case are, repositioning old images, continuing to target the youth market, and creating a life cycle of retailing whereas, when a customer outgrows a particular brand, you have another brand for the consumer to grow into. There are also many ways that our ever-advancing technology can be incorporated into retailing to aid companies in increasing revenues. All of these strategies are good starting points for soft line specialty store retailers to consider when planning strategies.

  2. What are the positive implications of this case with respect to the use of leased departments in department stores? (Retail management-Case 1, Q.2)

ANSWER:
The major positive implications of this case are: First off - you will pay a rental for the space used which is normally by the square footage however; some companies want a percentage of the business that would need to be fully investigated before taking on this type of facility.
However, you will have a building supplied normally the utilities like heat, light, water, etc., are in the rental agreement in some way.
You have the maintenance of the department covered, a guaranteed... [continues]

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