The Future of Retailing

Retailers operate in fast-changing and harsh environment, which offers threats as well as opportunities. Consumer demographics, shopping patterns, and lifestyles are changing quickly, as are retailing technologies. Then, to be successful, retailers will have to select target segments carefully and position themselves powerfully. They will must take the following retailing developments into account as they plan and execute their competitive schema.

New Retail Forms and Shortening Retail Life Cycles

New retail forms carry on emerging to meet new situations and consumer requirement, but the life cycle of new retail forms get short. Department stores took approximate 100 years to reach the mature stage of the life cycle; more current forms, like warehouse stores, reached maturity in approximate 10 years. They must keep adapting to remain successful.

Various retailing innovations are partially explained by the wheel of retailing concept According to this concept; various new types of retailing forms start as low-status operations, low-margin, and low-price. They challenge established retailers that have become "fat" by letting their costs and margins enhance. The new retailers' success leads them to upgrade their facilities and offer more services. Their costs, in turn, increase forcing them to enhance their prices. Eventually, the new retailers become just like the conventional retailers they replaced. The cycle starts again when still newer types of retailers evolve with lower prices and costs. The wheel of retailing concept appears to explain the primary success and afterward troubles of supermarkets, department stores and discount stores, and the new success of off-price retailers.

Growth of Nonstore Retailing

Although most of the retailing still takes place the old-fashioned way across countertops in stores, now consumers have an array of alternatives, by including mail order, phone, television and online shopping. "

Increasing Intertype Competition

Today's retailers progressively face competition from various different forms of retailers. For instance, a consumer can buy CDs at specialty music stores, discount music stores, electronics superstores, video-rental outlets, general merchandise discount stores and through dozens of Web sites. They may buy books at stores ranging from independent local bookstores to discount stores .The competition  among  chain superstores and smaller, independently owned stores  has become specifically heated. Because of their bulk buying power and great sales volume, chains may buy at lower costs and thrive on smaller margins. The arrival of a superstore can rapidly force nearby independents out of business.

The Rise of Mega retailers

The rise of vast mass merchandisers and specialty superstores, the establishment of vertical marketing systems and buying alliances, and a spots of retail mergers and acquisitions have formed a core of superpower mega retailers. Concluded their superior information systems and purchasing power, these giant retailers are capable to offer better merchandise selections, good service, and powerful price savings to  consumers.  As  a  result,  they  grow  even  greater  by  squeezing  out  their  smaller,  weaker competitors. The mega retailers also are shifting the balance of command between producers and retailers. A relative handful of retailers now control access to giant numbers of consumers, by giving them the upper hand in their dealings from producer.

Growing Importance of Retail Technology

Retail technologies are becoming critically significant as competitive tools. Progressive retailers are utilizing computers to produce better forecasts, manage inventory costs, order electronically from suppliers, send e-mail amongst stores, and even sell to customers within stores. They all are adopting inspect scanning systems, electronic funds transfer, online transaction procedure, electronic data interchange, in-store television, & improved merchandise-handling systems.

Now one innovative scanning system in use is the shopper scanner, radar like organism that counts store traffic. Possibly in retailing technology the most startling advances concern the ways in which current's retailers are connecting with customers.