Essay: Retailing In The Asian Pacific Region - A Case Study Of Malaysia.

Retailing in the Asian Pacific Region” (you can choose any country in this region except Australia as a case study). This assignment should be completed in groups of 3- 4 students. Each group must submit a written list of group members and contact details, as well as get approval from their lecturer on the country they have selected by week 6. Note that you may not get the assignment submission links unless you are registered in a group on Blackboard. In this assignment, you need to explain in detail how retailing differs in your chosen country from Australia. It is advised that a number of group members are well acquainted with the country of choice through either being born there or having lived there.

It is also possible to do this assignment without having visited the country of choice but you will then need to rely more on published materials. The types of differences that may be relevant would examine topics such as: are there shopping centres in the same form as we have in Australia? If not, how do they differ? Are there supermarkets that are the same as those in Australia? If not how do they differ? – For example, in Malaysia beer and wine may be purchased in the supermarket along with other products rather than being separated as in Australia. The department stores and discount stores that we know in Australia such as David Jones, Myers, Target, Kmart and so on may be different in other countries.

Try to identify all the differences you can and explain how these differences affect the retailing of products in your chosen country.

Retail Industry in Malaysia

The purpose of the following report is to discuss upon the several important things related to the retail management issues in Malaysia. The retail industry has been flourishing in Malaysia and the various retail organizations are beginning to come up. The retail industry in Australia has been very much successful with the presence of the various shopping centers and the supermarket chains like Coles and Woolworths. The issues will have to be identified that are the main contrasts between the retail industries in Australia and Malaysia. The departmental and discount stores are also there within the spheres of Australia. This is why the differences will be very important to be discovered within the spheres of the retail industry (Pantano 2014). The various issues within the retail industry of Malaysia will have to be discovered and the most important issues within the market will have to be explained within this paper. The retail industry in Australia will have to be compared accordingly as well.

The growth of the Malaysian retail industry has been very rapid and the companies have earned high profits in the industry indeed. As per the economy of the country, it falls under the upper middle class income country. This means the average annual income of the families of the country is high enough to afford the high priced things in the retail industry market (Hübner, Kuhn and Sternbeck 2013). Malaysia is considered to be one of the luxurious countries in the entire Asian continent. However, the biggest markets in all industries are mainly in China and India. The economic growth of the country is very much related with the job employment opportunities of the country (Pantano 2014). The customer segments of the country will depend very much on the ways that the organizations will prepare their products and tag their prices. This is why it will be highly important for the retail industry organizations to make a proper survey of the socio-economic conditions of Malaysia and make the proper strategies on how they will cater to their problems and provide them with the proper services and products of the retail industry (Mukherji 2012).

The growth of population has been rapid and incessant in Malaysia over the last few years. This is the reason as to why the developments in the booming of the retail industry have been taking place. The robust economic growth and the rising population and the growth in the tourism industry have been regarded as the main reasons why this retail industry has been improving. Another important issue in the development of the growth of the retail industry is that of the increase of the youth segments of the industry (Hübner, Kuhn and Sternbeck 2013). The consumer trends of the retail industry are constantly changing and this is the very reason the retail organizations are putting up the show of wide range of products in their repertoire. This means the retail industry is constantly flourishing with the country. The purchasing power of the consumers is increasing so it will be a huge gain for the retail industry traders (Mukherji 2012). As per the critical experts, it has also been noticed that the various international retail industry giants are also entering the arena as well (Kurnia et al. 2015). 

Retail Industry in Australia

The Malaysian Government is also looking to explore the different opportunities that will be prevalent in the industry. The Food industry has been very dominant in the country as well since the introduction of the Halal food has been pivotal in this case. The disposable income of the widely varied population has been increasing in this country (Kurnia et al. 2015). This is why the retail industry organizations will surely look to improvise the chances that they have. As the unemployment has been rising in Malaysia, this will hamper the growth of the retail industry to some extent as well. There are some barriers and challenges in the growth of the retail industry in Malaysia as well. The government policies might sometimes affect the growth of the industry in different ways as well. The growth forecast for the organization will be very much important in this discourse as well.

The retail industry in Australia has been very much developed in terms of the profit and incomes in the presence of the giant retailers Coles and Woolworths. These two companies occupy around the 80% of the market share. The performance of the retail industry in Australia has been quite satisfactory as well (Kobe et al. 2015). However, the main differences should be outlined as per its comparison with the Malaysian retail industry. There are several shopping centers within Australia. The shopping center industry has been very much pivotal for the overall success of the retail industry (Ahmed 2013). The shopping center industry is regarded as the new era for the shopping and retailing. New shopping centers have been opening in the country over the years. The customers will be able to experience the one-stop shopping experiences for their benefits. Several other things are predominant as well. The infrastructure of these shopping centers is very much beneficial for the customers in a wide range of ways. The convenience and comfort of the customers will be the most important things for the service providers. Apart from that the organizations would like to provide the best sort of facilities for the customers by low-cost parking areas and best quality materials and products (Kobe et al. 2015). 

As opined by the experts it can be said that the growth of the Malaysian retail supermarket industries has not been that much with the as per the growth of the Australian supermarket industry. The socio-economic conditions and preferences of the consumers have been different in some ways as well. These issues are quite unique invariably as well (Ahmed 2013). The prices of beef are quite different in Australia and the countries in South East Asia like Malaysia and Indonesia.

The introduction of the hypermarkets has been a good contradiction with that of the shopping centers in Australia. These hypermarkets in the countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and others have come into practice in the last few decades. The rising incomes of the people and the urbanization process have been a very important factor for the benefit of the organizations (Rosenbloom 2012). The diversity of the products has been wide since the organizations would look to provide the customers with the best products that would be desired by them. Just similar like the Australian retail industry, the Malaysian retail industry will also look to provide the best and wide range of products to the customers. The opportunities have been increasing for the growth of the retail market within the region as well. These convenience stores and the hypermarkets will also grow in the countries like Malaysia and Vietnam since they are getting a good response in this matter.

Comparison between Retail Industry in Malaysia and Australia

Some other matters are also prevalent in the retail market industry in these two countries as well. One of these factors is the cultural impact of the customers and the employees of the retail organizations (Rosenbloom 2012). There are several departmental stores that exist in Australia as well. The names of some of these stores are David Jones, Kmart, Myers and others. However it is very important to discuss about the market structure, size and profitability of the retail market industries of these two countries.

The Australian retail industry has been a very important source for the employment of the youth and economic growth of the country through its GDP. More than 70% of the retail companies are running in profits and this is a huge boost for the economic development of the organizations (Dibb 2012). However, it can be said that the overall growth of the industry has been much slow in the last few years. This is why the organizations have been trying to improve their sales and supply chain logistics for their growth. (Rose et al. 2014). Despite the presence of the various retail giant companies like Woolworths and Coles, the overall productivity has not been that much huge as compared to those companies of North America and Europe. This is the reason as to why the retail market of Australia is generally based on the different categories and sub-categories related to the increase of the overall productivity of the region. These are the reasons why the organizations will need to push the managers and employees for higher sales volumes and higher rates of growth.

In Malaysia, the development of the hypermarkets and their expansions has been the most important factors for the growth of the industry. The modern concepts of retail marketing in these countries of the South East Asia are shaped by the dominance of these hypermarkets (Rose et al. 2014). While the customers of Australia rely on the giants of retail market in Australia like Coles and Woolworths, the people of Malaysia generally depend a lot on the smaller supermarkets and the grocery stores that are more convenient for the customers. However, it has been seen that the non-grocery stores in Malaysia have shown a good improvement as well (Huang and Sarigöllü 2014). The stores that have the proper layouts can serve the customers in a large number of ways indeed. The alcoholic beverage products like wine and beer are sold in these retail hypermarkets. On the contrary, these products are sold in different stores in Australia.  

The Australian retail market has a huge potential for the growth. The companies like Woolworths and Coles have dominated the market in wide ways (Gregory 2015). They dominate more than 80% of the market share in the industry. The future success opportunities for the industry are quite high and the organizations will definitely try to pull it off in the best ways. The market analysts have estimated around 10-20% in the next 10 years.  The online retail market growth has been very much in the recent times. The Australian people prefer the online retailing more than the physical stores (Huang and Sarigöllü 2014). 

Factors Influencing the Growth of the Retail Industry in Malaysia

The experts have analyzed the Malaysian retail market and assumed that the industry can achieve a 11% growth rate by the end of 2018. This is why the retail organizations in Malaysia are expanding in other countries as well. Some of the big names in the Malaysian retail chain industry are Poh Kong, MyNews.com KK Super mart, Pets Wonderland. As compared to Australia, the Malaysian retail market has not flourished that much at all (Chaffey and Ellis-Chadwick 2012).

Apart from the opportunities the changing habits of the customers are very challenging for the customers. The global retailing competitors have been posing the challenges in front of them through the market entries. This will be a huge challenge for the Australian retail organization. The recent worldwide inflation will hamper the effective operations of the retail companies since the organizations will have to cut down their raw material costs (Chaffey and Ellis-Chadwick 2012). They will also suffer of employee shortage since they will not be able to recruit because of their inability to pay them the wages (Shimomura and Thisse 2012). These things will be very problematic for the organizations in a huge manner.

The retail industry market will also face some definite challenges in this scenario. The annual sales growth of the overall retail industry has not been that much as well. This is why they will; have to make the retail online procedures very popular for their customers. The weak supply chain and logistics have been the main problems for the rapid growth of the organizations as well. The departmental stores and supermarkets have not experienced a huge growth (Salleh, Nair and Harun 2012). This is why they will have to cope up with these challenges. The increasing costs of the raw materials have been other challenges.

The retail marketing also has a deep connection with the country cultures they are operating in. When the retail market organizations operate in Australia, they will have to confront the individualism culture i.e. much prevalent in Australia. The cultural set of beliefs, norms and values are completely different from that of Malaysia that believes in the collectivism culture.

The employees and managers in Malaysia are more emotional in nature and they believe to work together. They participate in the innovation programs with the collective efforts (Sutton-Brady, Kamvounias and Taylor 2015). They are committed to bring out the best in them so they can experience the proper growth. However, the organizations in Australia would give the employees much freedom and motivate them to work to achieve the objectives of the organization. The Malaysian retail managers are also very supportive towards their employees and always support their values and beliefs. The online marketing efficiencies will also have to be practiced as well (McAuliffe 2015). 

Some significant recommendations would be given in this section as to how the several organizations in the retail industry in Malaysia and Australia would be coping up with the challenges that have been discussed earlier. The retail industry would be benefitted if they can cope up with these challenges in the best ways.

• The industry will be required to distinguish their target markets in the proper ways so they can understand the desires of the customers.
• The organizations would have to focus more on the online retail marketing process (Tuten and Solomon 2017).They will have to strengthen the supply chain and logistics networks.
• The organizations in both the countries, especially in Malaysia would need to make their visions clear and sound. This will lead them to achieve the goals in the proper ways.
• The retail industry organizations must have to keep the financial records properly so they can measure their performance and compare it with the older ones (Christopher 2016).
• The needs of the customers will have to be understood by the suppliers and service providers. Then only they would be able to provide the best resources to the customers indeed.
• The leadership skills within the organizations in the retail industry would be the most significant thing indeed. The leaders will have to practice the democratic leadership program.

Conclusion:

As discussed in the above sections, it can be concluded that the organizations in the retail industry in both Australia and Malaysia have been facing several problems. These problems are indeed very challenging for the growth of the industry. The important differences between the retail industries of Australia and Malaysia have been identified. These differences will be very important for the resolution of the problems within the organizational operations. The practice of the proper culture within the retail industry is very much important as well. The organizations would have to function well to increase the sales volumes.

References:

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