Department Store: A Large Retail Establishment

What is Department Store?

A department store is a retail establishment that offers several consumer products in several areas of the store, every area specializing in a category of product. In modern cities, a dramatic appearance is made by the department store and reshaped the habits of shopping permanently. The department stores include cosmetics, clothes, hardware, furniture, home appliances, sporting goods, and hardware. In addition, other types of products like stationery, baby products, jewelry, books, and foods are included. The customers check out the store’s front in the discount department stores generally, while the high-end department stores include sales counters in every department.

The department stores include accessories along with apparel for children as well as adults. All products are divided into departments along with divisions supervised by the buyers and the managers. There exists departmental divisions of budgetary control, accounting, service, advertising, and merchandising. The department stores are classified as per the types of products they carry along with the prices of those products. The typical categories consist of discount, specialty, fashion, and general merchandise. Many offer some additional services that include personal shopping, delivery, alterations, and gift wrapping.

Why are they called department stores?

A department store might be described as a huge retail organization that has several departments within one building under some centralized control. The department store is a huge retailing business unit that handles several types of specialty and shopping products and is also organized into different departments for the purposes of control, service, and promotion. Such kind of retail institution handles several types of merchandise under the same roof, with the products grouped into a defined department centrally controlled. The department stores deal in several types of products, and there are several departments that operate under the same roof, with all departments specializing in a specific kind of trade.

Every department is under centralized control as well as management. However, the operational expenses of the departmental stores are quite high. The departmental stores undertake several extensive advertisements for attracting more customers. The department stores are situated in a crowded space along with a crucial part of the cities. There is a need for a huge amount of money for starting departmental stores. The departmental stores offer efficient services to all customers through credit facilities, disapproved products’ replacement, and free as well as quick home delivery.

Avail Services

Types of Departmental Store

These are the stores owned by the retailer organizations that feature several types of products. There exist several types of department stores, such as:

Discount stores: A discount department store is a retailer chain like Walmart which features goods at a much lower price when compared to the market price. This store provides a huge range of discounts along with sections to buy a bulk quantity of products.
Outlet stores: An outlet store is owned by one single manufacturer brand, which features all products of that brand only. This type of store holds a huge range of products of that specific brand when compared to any other department store. For instance, an outlet of Nike will feature Nike products only. Further discounts could be availed at this type of store.
Off Price Stores: A product brand owns an off-price store. In this type of store, a customer could gain access to every discounted product of a specific brand as the customer will be directly buying from that manufacturer. All other features of this type of store are overproduced products and end-of-season products.
Warehouse Stores: A warehouse store is a huge departmental store that stores products of several brands. This type of store stores goods in huge quantities along with selling the products in the same manner. This type of store operates in a different manner, like providing a member-only store.

Features of Departmental Store

The departmental store’s concept has been created over time along with has taken on several shapes. The way these stores now operate has expanded by including technological innovations . Several self-checkout stores provide the ability in having AI-based checkout options, which reduces overall employee needed. There are a few of the features shared by the department stores of several sizes as well as types:

Larger establishment: The departmental stores are created of several sections along with their sizes override that of other kinds of stores. The departmental stores could be a part of bigger establishments like a shopping mall. The departmental stores that are owned by huge business chains are bigger when compared to the standalone ones.
Multiple departments:The department stores provide end-to-end shopping services, and they could be used as the means to buy every type of product. Every type of product is separated by the department such that the customers could locate all products easily.
Located centrally:A department store’s usual location is a city’s center. If any city is a big one, this is bound in having several departmental stores. In these cases, every store is located in a central location of that city’s each part. It provides access to several customers living within that area.
Numerous offerings:The departmental stores feature several kinds of products on sale. This is meant in serving as a wholesome experience of shopping. Hence, several brands of any one product will be founds within a departmental store. It ensures that the customers catering to certain brands will also find them under the same roof.

Avail Experts

What's the difference between a store and a department store?

A departmental store offers several types of products to the customer; however, a store sells only limited types of products. A departmental store is located centrally along with attracts several customers, whereas the stores are scattered all over the city. A department store provides several kinds of services to all customers through recreational facilities, services after the sale, and free home delivery; however, a store doesn’t extend these services. Though there exists uniformity in the charging prices by several branches of a store, different departmental stores might charge several prices for any same product. A departmental store is confronted with bigger business risks; however, the risks are reduced considerably for different stores.