Retail Strategy

Abstract

Small local shopkeepers and superstore managers alike face many daily decisions, for example about ordering fast-moving and slow-moving items, staffing rotas, customer complaints and shoplifting. They also have to take more complex decisions relating, for example, to redesigning the layout of a floor, or how to react to a period of prolonged economic recession and high interest rates. In taking both these types of decisions, retailers are essentially responding to fairly short-term changes, problems and opportunities in their own companies and in their immediate trading environment. However, many retail companies are also concerned to develop a planned and rational view of their long-term goals and objectives. This process is known as retail strategy, and we will look at two particular aspects of strategy, namely growth and positioning, in this Unit. Growth relates to the expansion of a company’s business, while positioning concerns the desire to develop a distinct and clearly identifiable position within the overall retail market.