Comparative Analysis Of Discount And Departmental Retail Stores In Australian Market (essay).

The changing face of retailing: How department stores and discount stores are evolving. Prepare a report which cover historical development of department stores and discount stores in any country of choice.

Discount Retail Stores

The report throws a light on analysing the evolution of the different retail management stores in the entire economy. There are various kinds of retail stores such as discount and departmental stores in the economy which are required to be compared in terms of the merchandise along with emphasis is required to be provided on the different kinds of brand and customer relationship management which are being performed by the organizations.

Discount retail stores is defined as the stores which sells various kinds of products and services to the customers in the market at lower price than the original market price. Moreover, this has been noticed that discount shops are not the variety kind of stores wherein all the goods are being sold at a single price point (Chernev and Hamilton 2018).

For example- Kmart is one of the suitable examples which can be taken into consideration which is situated in Australia which offers wide assortment of the goods and services to the different customers wherein the main focus is on price rather than the service or display. 

Departmental Retail Stores is the other concept in which this is the assortment in which the companies deal with various kinds of products and they are selling the same to the customers under one roof as well. However, this has been seen that in departmental stores, there are various types of the departments which are separately working under one roof which will help in analysing the preferences of the customers and try to fulfil their needs effectively as well (Pearlson, Saunders and Galletta 2016).

For example- Target Australia is one of the examples which is situated in Sydney, Australia and the main motive of the company is to provide their target customers with various products along with services under one roof. Similarly, Woolworths is the other department store which is situated in Australia which provides the customers with the different kinds of products under one roof and this helps the company in meeting demands of the customers efficiently as well.

As commented by Hill, Jones and Schilling (2014), the retail market concept has evolved in a drastic manner over the last few decades with the help of the advancement of the technology in the different approaches which are being adopted by the different companies such as Kmart, Target and Big W. With the introduction of the retail markets in the market, this has introduced the online retailing in the market of Australia both globally as well as locally.

Departmental Retail Stores

In the present scenario, Kacker et al. (2016), has opined that more than 75% of the individuals in Australian economy are using smartphone and the technology has become a part of the entire process which is affecting the purchasing power of the customers in the market as well. On the other hand, Pinto et al. (2018), has commented and hypothesised that Woolworths has introduced the self-check out system in the various stores across Australia in which this has been helpful in nature for attracting more customers in the organization.

In discount market, the merchandise is different in nature in Australia in comparison to the department market. It can be analysed that the discount stores are one kind of retail stores which helps in offering merchandise for the discounted kind of price to the customers in the market (Kacker et al. 2016). However, this is different from high end fashion and department stores in the market as discount stores offers wide variety or assortment of goods and services to the different customers. It can be analysed that department stores are same and closely related to the department stores as both of them provides different discount to the customers on the products which are being sold by them. Discount shops helps in offering merchandise to the different customers at cheaper price in comparison to the other stores which are termed as the retail stores as well (Pinto et al. 2018).

Furthermore, this has been noticed that the different kinds of discount stores are part of the different franchises or the chains operating in different parts of Australia. It has been noticed and identified that discount stores in Australia apply for high volume along with low profit margin strategy which helps the company in allowing themselves to offer merchandise in lower rate in comparison to the other stores in the market. 

There are various types of strategy which have been adopted by the discounted stores in Australia in which the low margin and high-volume strategy has been adopted by the different Australian supermarkets which provides similar products and services at similar kinds of prices which are lesser than the other retail stores (Chernev and Hamilton 2018).

For instance- Target is one of the discount stores which helps in meeting the different demands of the customers at an affordable rate and this offers various products which are available in other stores in a specific manner and there will be no such wide range of the goods which is sold at discounted stores.

Impact of Technology on Retail Markets

Lastly, in the discount stores this has been seen and analysed that there are different kinds of products and services which is lower in comparison to the other stores in the same kind of vicinity. The actual trend of the discount stores has come into trend after the world war II and in the year 1962, Kmart and Target have tried to open their respective discount stores at the first locations. The different kinds of hypermarkets and supercentres are the different kinds of discounted stores which provide the different goods and services at an affordable ate to the different individuals in the market (Fernie and Sparks 2014).

On the other hand, this has been noticed that there are different department stores in the Australian market which is similar in nature in comparison to discounted stores. In departmental stores, this has been noticed that there are separate departments in one single store which is being sold at one single store but at various departments (Lasserre 2017).

In the department stores, there are various departments such as clothing, jewellery along with other combination of goods and services at an affordable rate. On the other hand, in case of the different department stores, this can be noticed and analysed that there is no such separate food courts or the play area available for the different children or the families who will be visiting the store (Scarborough 2016).

There are various kinds of strategies which are being adapted by the different departmental stores in the Australian market. In departmental stores, this is required to be analyzed that all the customers can shop for variety of the products such as jewelry, clothing along with different accessories under one roof which will be essential for the company in managing the popularity as well (Shin et al. 2017). In department stores, there are various kinds of discounts which are being offered to the customers in the market and this helps the companies in being more popular and gain competitive advantage as this increases their overall profitability.

For instance- Woolworths is one best example which can be taken into consideration which helps the customers in receiving all the goods and services such as free home delivery on purchase of the items form the stores of Woolworths in Australia and New Zealand. Moreover, this has been seen that in Woolworths, there are various departments such as groceries, magazines along with DVDs and in the recent times, the company has introduced the health and beauty care products for the customers in the market which is helping them in becoming popular in the comparison of the other competitors in the entire world.

Location and Market Importance

The technology plays a major role in the retail stores in all over the world as this is the new technology. This has been analysed from the survey that there is more than 85.65% of the individuals in the Australian economy who are using the different kinds of technology such as mobile phones. They check out the various offers and other discounts which are being offered by the retail stores in Australia (Varley 2014).

For instance- Woolworths is one such company which tried to implement the service of self service and check out, however this was seen that the approach was not successful in the different stores of Woolworths as well. Furthermore, this has been surveyed that in case of merger of Target and Kmart, the approach of merger was not successful and this created huge issues for the reputation of the firm as there are loss of target customers in the company as well.

Furthermore, this has been noticed that the retail market concept has changed from the past as in the past, there were few supermarkets or other retail discounted stores which were known by the different individuals in the economy through the newspaper article or advertisements which were provided by them (O'brien 2015). However, the entire scenario has changed in a complete manner as there are various types of changes in the adoption of the innovative techniques in the technology used by the customers such as posting advertisements on social media websites.

On the other hand, the location plays a vital role in gaining huge importance in the market as there are different kinds of positioning is essential in nature. The main criteria which are required to be taken into consideration are as follows:

• The positioning is required to be analysed effectively as this will provide a brief overview in process of decision making as this will help in analysis of the different competitors present in the market (Haines 2016)
• Secondly, the market potential is required to be analysed such as analysis of the demographic variables which will impact the company effectively (Goworek, McGoldrick and McGoldrick 2015)
• Appropriate identification of the different location or sites is required to be analysed which will help in managing the different kinds of competition effectively in the market which are present in an efficient manner and appropriately as well (Frow et al. 2015).

Both value-driven and containment of cost is used in different stores such as Woolworths, Target supermarket as this increase and maximises the overall productivity of the organization in an efficient manner (Chertykovtsev et al. 2015). Woolworths and Target Market are the two organizations which includes two concepts in the selling of goods and services as this helped the organization in becoming successful in their approach in purchasing various products.

The tastes and preferences of the customers are required to be analysed in an effective manner which will help in managing the different kinds of innovative procedures. The appealing power is essential to be adopted by the company as this will identify the behaviour of the customers in a specific area or geographic region (Gunn et al. 2017). There are various segments of the individuals in the market who are required to be identified effectively as this will help in managing the shoppers such as:

• Online shoppers
• In hone shoppers
• Out Shoppers

Merchandise Types in Discount and Departmental Stores

There will be implementation of few severe changes in the retail market of Australia in the upcoming 5-8 years as there can be different inclusion of various stores in the market of Australia. The customer demands have to be analysed as there will be different demands of the different customers in the market that can be analysed through various surveys. In the future scenario, the companies such as both discount and departmental stores needs to include quality along with online security of the different customers when they are purchasing various kinds of goods and services. The digitization process will help in changing the overall experience of the customers and this will make the tasks of the different shopkeepers tougher in nature as well.

Conclusion

Therefore, this can be analysed from the above scenario that there are various kinds of retail market segments in the entire competitive economy as this has helped in managing the different kinds of expectations and demands of the customers efficiently in the market. The recommendations have been provided in which this has been seen that in future the expectations of the different customers are required to be taken into consideration which will be helpful in managing their preferences.

References

Chernev, A. and Hamilton, R., 2018. 6. Price image in retail management. Handbook of Research on Retailing, p.132.

Chertykovtsev, V.K., Grigoryants, I.A., Chebykina, M.V., Shatalova, T.N. and Bobkova, E.Y., 2015. Principles and mechanisms of retail management in conditions of instability of the external environment. Yelm, WA: Science Book Publishing House.

Fernie, J. and Sparks, L., 2014. Logistics and retail management: emerging issues and new challenges in the retail supply chain. Kogan page publishers.

Frow, P., Nenonen, S., Payne, A. and Storbacka, K., 2015. Managing co?creation design: A strategic approach to innovation. British Journal of Management, 26(3), pp.463-483.

Goworek, H., McGoldrick, P.J. and McGoldrick, P.J., 2015. Retail marketing management: Principles and practice. Harlow, UK: Pearson.

Gunn, F., Lee, S.H., Cappuccitti, A. and Taylor, H., 2017. Profiling people’s perceptions of retail management careers. The International Review of Retail, Distribution and Consumer Research, 27(5), pp.515-532.

Haines, S., 2016. The systems thinking approach to strategic planning and management. CRC Press.

Hill, C.W., Jones, G.R. and Schilling, M.A., 2014. Strategic management: theory: an integrated approach. Cengage Learning.

Kacker, M., Dant, R.P., Emerson, J. and Coughlan, A.T., 2016. How firm strategies impact size of partner?based retail networks: Evidence from franchising. Journal of Small Business Management, 54(2), pp.506-531.

Lasserre, P., 2017. Global strategic management. Macmillan International Higher Education.

O'brien, J., 2015. Category management in purchasing: A strategic approach to maximize business profitability. Kogan Page Publishers.

Pearlson, K.E., Saunders, C.S. and Galletta, D.F., 2016. Managing and Using Information Systems, Binder Ready Version: A Strategic Approach. John Wiley & Sons.

Pinto, G., Ribeiro, H., Alves, S.R. and Veloso, C.M., 2018. CUSTOMER SATISFACTION, PRODUCT AND SERVICE QUALITY IN RETAIL MANAGEMENT: THE CASE OF A FAST FOOD CHAIN. In Economic and Social Development (Book of Proceedings), 28th International Scientific Conference on Economic and Social (p. 483).

Scarborough, N.M., 2016. Essentials of entrepreneurship and small business management. Pearson.

Shin, J.K., Moon, M., Oh, M.O. and Kim, J.H., 2017, July. EFFECTS OF ECO-FRIENDLY VMD ON GREEN CONSUMER BEHAVIOR IN FASHION RETAIL MANAGEMENT. In 2017 Global Fashion Management Conference at Vienna (pp. 369-370).

Varley, R., 2014. Retail product management: buying and merchandising. Routledge.