Essay: Changing Face Of Retailing: Trends And Comparison Between Department Stores And Discount Stores.

The changing face of retailing: Now department stores and discount stores are evolving. Write a report on it and demonstrate country retailing trends.

Explanation of the discount retail based stores

The analysis in the report will be based on the ways by which the retail management based stores of different organizations have been able to develop their operations with the changes that have occurred in the external environment. The different types of retail stores which thereby operate in the industry can include, departmental stores and the discount based stores. The stores can thereby be compared with the help of merchandise that are offered by the stores in an effective manner. The management of effective customer relationships also play a major role in operations of organizations in the retail sector (Fernie and Sparks 2014).

The discount based retail stores of the company are mainly those which are able to sell the different types of products and the services to consumers in the industry at prices which much lower than the others in the market. The discount based shops mainly do not try to sell the products at the single price based points of the stores.

Example – A major example of retail store in the industry is Kmart which is known in the market for providing huge number of products at lower prices to the consumers. The major focus of these discounted stores are mainly based on the prices of the products and not the quality (Bernon, Cullen and Gorst 2016).

The department based retail stores are considered to be another major concept which is based on the ways by which the organizations try to deal with different types of products which are sold to the similar customers. The departmental stores mainly comprise of different departments which can operate in a separate manner under a single roof. The preferences of the customers are thereby analysed by the company in an effective manner. These needs thereby need to be fulfilled by the services and products that are offered to them (Church 2014).

Example – Target can be considered to be a major example of departmental store which has its operations in Sydney. The major motive of the company in this case is to provide the customers with appropriate services and products. Woolworths is also able to provide the products that are required by the customers. The products which are offered to the customers are based on their different types of needs (Ehrenthal, Honhon and Van Woensel 2014).

As discussed by, Fernie and Sparks (2014), the concept of retail market evolved in an effective manner in the last few years with the proper assistance of the modern technologies. The different approaches which are thereby made by different organizations have been based on the proper usage of technologies in an effective manner. The different modern organizations which are able to operate in the Australia retail industry with the help of various approaches mainly include, Target, Big W and Kmart. The online retailing based activities have thereby been started in different parts of Australian retail based sector on a global and local basis.

Explanation of departmental stores of the retail industry

The current situation has been able to depict that around 75% of total number of individuals in the Australian economy mainly tend to smartphones and other modern technologies and are an important part of the process which affects the purchasing power. The self-check our based system which has been used by the different Australian retail organizations are able to attract the customers of different companies (Garcia and Janssen 2018).

The different merchandise which are provided to the customers by the discount stores all over Australia are not same as those that are offered by the departmental market. The discount based stores are those kind of retail stores which mainly offer different types of products to the customers at highly discounted prices. The products which are offered by these stores are thereby quite different from those which are provided by the high end fashion based companies. The departmental stores are thereby related in a close manner with the discount stores which are able to provide appropriate products to the customers. The discount stores are mainly based on those which are able to offer the merchandise at cheaper prices to the customers as compared to the other retail based stores which operate in the environment (Greenland and Newman 2015).

The different types of retail stores are thereby an important part of the various franchises which operate in different parts of the country. The discount based stores are hugely present in different parts of Australia. The strategy that has been implemented by the discount organizations is based on gaining low profit related margins. The merchandises which are thereby offered to the customers are thereby based on lower prices as compared to the others (International and International 2018).

The different strategies which are thereby adopted by different discounted stores in the country are based high volumes of sales and low rates of margin as well. The Australian supermarkets are thereby able to provide similar types of services and products that are offered to similar types of customers. The services and products which are thereby offered by the discounted stores are quite similar in nature (Jary and Wileman 2016).

For example – Target has been able to acquire the position of an important discount based store that aims at fulfilling the different needs and the demands of the consumers at comparatively affordable prices. The different products that are offered by the company in different stores are quite specific in nature. These stores are thereby not able to provide wide variety of products to the customers at the discounted rates (Joseph 2016).

Evolution of the retail markets

The analysis of various discount based stores have thereby been able to depict that the discount stores are able to provide lower variety of services and products as compared to the normal retail stores. The trend based on discount stores had thereby started in 1962, when the organizations like Target and Kmart had started their discounted stores at different locations. The supercentres and the hypermarkets have been able to provide the different types of services and goods at affordable prices to the customers and different individuals in Australian retail based sector (Kasemsap 2018).

The various departmental stores in Australian retail sector are quite similar to the discount based stores which operate in the market. The major difference which has been analysed between the department stores and the discount stores is based on the various departments that are present within the stores.

The various departments that are available within the departmental stores thereby include, jewellery based items, clothing related items and different combinations based on the services and goods which are provided to customers at affordable prices. The major factor that has been noted in the department stores are based on the absence of play areas and food courts for attracting the families and children who visit these areas on a frequent basis (Piotrowicz and Cuthbertson 2014).

The department stores of Australia have thereby implemented many different strategies for the purpose of operating in the retail sector. The analysis of departmental stores is important for the purpose of deciding the types of customers who are an important part of the operations of these stores. The company different types of products that are offered by the consumers are based in different departments which are a part of these stores. The levels of popularity of the company can be maintained in an effective manner with the help of different types of products that are offered to consumers. The revenues and the overall levels of profitability of the company have been increased with the help of the different departments that are available within the organizations (Samli 2015).

For example – The most suitable example that can be considered for the purpose of depicting the department based stores in Australian retail industry is Woolworths. The organization thereby helps the consumers to receive different types of services and products in an effective manner. The free delivery based services which are offered to the consumers are thereby an important part of the operations of Woolworths in New Zealand and Australia. The different departments which are thereby present in Woolworths mainly include, the groceries, the magazines and beauty and health care based products. The popularity that has been gained by the company in the industry is thereby based on the product and service based offerings (Shagal, Shagal and Sharma 2016).

Discount based market merchandise in the country

The technology based capabilities have also played a major role in the proper operations of the organization which operate in the retail industry. The modern technologies are used effectively by majority of the population in Australia. The offers and discounts are thereby checked in an effective manner with the proper usage of technologies (Trent Duvall 2018).

Example – The modern technology based services which have been implemented by Woolworths mainly includes, self-check-out and self-service. The approach which was implemented in this case was quite successful for the proper operations of the company in the Australian retail sector. The merger related operations which were made by the two major organizations like Kmart and Target was not quite successful in the retail sector of the country (Upadhyaya 2016).

The retail based concept has also gone through huge changes during the past few years. The number of supermarket was quite less previously as compared to the number of discounted stores in Australia. The implementation of proper innovations within the organizational processes have led to huge changes in the retail market based scenario in the industry. The location of the stores has also gained huge importance in deciding the levels of profitability in the industry (Zarkada-Fraser and Fraser 2015). The most important factors that need to be considered while deciding the location are,

• The proper analysis of positioning of the products is important in case of taking proper decisions based on the competitors of the company in retail industry.
• The potential of products in the market also needs to be analysed in an effective manner with the help of proper demographic variables.
• The appropriate process of the identification of various sites or locations needs to be analysed in an effective manner in order to place the products for the consumers (Shagal, Shagal and Sharma 2016).

The containment based costs and the value driven costs are analysed in different stores of the organizations like, Target and Woolworths. The concepts which are thereby implemented by the companies in order to sell the goods or the services are quite different from each other.

The preferences and tastes of the consumers need to be analysed by the companies in order to manage the various innovative processes. The appeal based power of the organizations is able to help in the identification of the different individuals or segments who need to be identified effectively. The different types of shopper thereby include, the online shoppers, in home shoppers and the out shoppers (Kasemsap 2018).

The retail market of Australia will face some major changes in the coming future within 5 to 8 years. The demands of the consumers will thereby be able to play the most important role in the operations of retail companies The different types of retail stores in Australia which include, the departmental stores and discount stores will be forced to include quality in their services. The online security based issues will further gain importance in the future operations of different organizations (Bernon, Cullen and Gorst 2016).

Conclusion

The report can thereby be concluded by stating that the scenario in Australian retail industry has changed a lot in the past few years. However, the fast changing external environment will further lead more number of changes in the effective operations of the companies which are a part of this sector.

References 

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Ehrenthal, J.C.F., Honhon, D. and Van Woensel, T., 2014. Demand seasonality in retail inventory management. European Journal of Operational Research, 238(2), pp.527-539.

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

Garcia, D. and Janssen, M., 2018. Retail channel management in consumer search markets. International Journal of Industrial Organization, 58, pp.162-182.

Greenland, S. and Newman, A., 2015. Retail Distribution Channels. Wiley Encyclopedia of Management, pp.1-2.

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Joseph, F., 2016. An Analytical study on impact of Customer Relationship Management in Retail sector. International Journal of Research in Social Sciences, 6(12), pp.427-434.

Kasemsap, K., 2018. Retail management and electronic retailing. In Supply chain management strategies and risk assessment in retail environments (pp. 139-158). IGI Global.

Piotrowicz, W. and Cuthbertson, R., 2014. Introduction to the special issue information technology in retail: Toward omnichannel retailing. International Journal of Electronic Commerce, 18(4), pp.5-16.

Samli, A.C., 2015. Retail Marketing Strategy Development. In Coping with Retail Giants (pp. 17-25). Palgrave Macmillan, New York.

Shagal, S., Shagal, G. and Sharma, A., 2016. Visual merchandising: a key element in retail industry. Management, 2(2), pp.115-120.

Trent Duvall, B. 2018. Future of retail in Australia. [online] KPMG. Available at: https://home.kpmg.com/au/en/home/insights/2018/04/bernard-salt-next-5-years-retail-future-australia.html [Accessed 30 Aug. 2018].

Upadhyaya, R., 2016. Empathy of Customer Relationship Management in Emerging Retail Sector. International Journal of Business Insights & Transformation, 9(2).

Zarkada-Fraser, A. and Fraser, C., 2015. Integrating social and economic orientated marketing: A study of retail management. In Proceedings of the 2000 Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) Annual Conference (pp. 219-223). Springer, Cham.