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Importance of the retail industry to the world economy
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Retail industry Trends
A trend simply reflects what seems to be going around at any given time. A trend can be in any area and doesn’t only reflect fashion, pop culture and entertainment. There can also be a trend in the stock market to be bullish or bearish, depending on economic indicators, or a political trend reflecting on a nation’s current mood (Vocabulary.com, 2016). Trends impacting the retail industry include social, environmental and technological trends, in ways that can either negatively affect or be beneficial to the industry. There are almost 140, 000 retail businesses in Australia, accounting for 4.1 percent of GDP and 10.7 percent of employment. The retail industry exhibits great diversity by: size, region, retail format, competition and the nature of goods sold. The retail industry has met many competitive challenges in the past. Online retailing and the new entry of new innovative global retailers are just the latest. The intensified competition between retailers is good for consumers, but is challenging for the industry. (Commonwealth of Australia, 2016)
A social trend currently affecting the retail business is the increase of casualization within the
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Purchases on social media has gone from 0 to $1 billon in just two years (Kim-Mai Cutler, 2016). Social media was initially used by brands to connect with their consumers as a way of advertisement. However, social media platforms have evolved to offer far more than cost effective, target media space. Social network platforms such as Twitter and Instagram are creating “one-click purchase” buttons and “Like2Buy” functionalities (figure 2) that will prompt a direct response from the retailer or brand. (Smollan, 2015) Whilst still in its early phases, one can only be intrigued and excited about the possibilities that social media has to offer as a shopping
Mayer, M. L. (1989). 1949-1989: retail reflections. Journal of Retailing, V65 n3, p 396. JAI press, Inc.
Many researchers have made efforts to study retail change, based on the assumption that they can gain an...
Topshop has focused on the social media platform not only to make the brand name known but to trap some revenue from the online sales. It has seen Topshop being ranked among the companies with the extensive range of customers across all the social media platforms. The most targeted group in this strategy is the younger population, hence this makes social marketing easier for the company (Schmidt & Iyer, 2015). Social media acts like an online shop without necessarily requiring their clients to walk into the store.
In conclusion, retailers differ to attract different customer bases. Retailing proves to be rather complex because it “encompasses the business activities involved in selling goods and services to consumers for their personal, family, or household uses” (3). Wal-Mart and Apple Inc. strive to satisfy their consumers by appealing to them in different ways with the computers. The purchasing process differs between the two retailers as well. Overall, how one purchase a product, such as a computer shows how every process and activity we do in business plays a
The retail industry is as old as human civilizations, and it’s worth noting the retail sector is much better geared to change than most sectors. Over the past couple of decades there has been a wide range of changes in the retailing business. The retail sector dates back to the early 1800’s when the first local corner store sold common household items and basic groceries. As its name states, the corner store was just that, stores strategically placed on corners on high foot traffic areas for easy access. As society started to grow so did the need for new consumer goods and how a consumer would reach those goods. Department stores became popular simply because they were able to offer an assortment of categories and a variety of items within those categories all under one roof. The first two cities to start developing large scale department stores were New York City, and Chicago. In New York in 1846, the first building was built offering a variety of goods at fixed prices that were shipped from Europe. Department stores moved away from the idea of bartering and all items sold were considered fixed. However, department stores did offer discounts and coupons as a way to get customers in the door. In 1862, the largest department store was built during this time in New York City. The department store was on a full city block with eight floors and nineteen departments of dress goods, furnishing materials, carpets, fine china, toys and sports equipment. All these items were arranged around a central glass-covered court. The glass windows quickly became a staple in the department stores design. The act of window shopping was introduced and quickly all department stores had floor to ceiling windows advertising the newes...
Levy, Michael, Barton A. Weitz, and Dhruv Grewal. Retailing Management. ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education, 2014. Print.
Social media is known as ‘Collective of online communications channels dedicated to community-based input, interaction, content-sharing and collaboration.’ Rouse, M. (2012) It is a method of marketing and selling that businesses must make good use of in order to match or surpass their competitors. Although a relatively new phenomenon, social media is rapidly turning into a vital part of the modern marketing mix. Most businesses now have a social media based platform and managing a flexible presence on each of the "BIG THREE" (Facebook, Twitter and Google+), has become a must for any business aiming to sell or promote their business.
With the invention and development of the Internet, communication has changed in to a revolutionized platform. The Internet has evolved from a means to facilitate data, to a stage of public communication through the use of social media. Social media has affected every aspect of interaction from personal lives to the business world. The business world however, has been especially impacted by the application of social media. Social media has opened up a plethora of opportunities for businesses to advertise, promote and market themselves to consumers. Social media “is one of the fastest growing and most promising strategies a business can employ to boost sales and conversions” (Adobe). As social media continues to grow as a marketing tool, more and more companies have incorporated social media into their daily business activity for brand awareness, target market reach, business expansion and customer interaction.
1 Introduction 1.1 Title An Investigation of the impact of social media on customer purchase decision in retail industry: a case study on J Sainsbury, UK. 1.2 Background of the Study: With the development of internet, different social network along with social media has become potential communication media among the people. They share their opinion, choice, experiences, and knowledge through these media.
...s trend means fighting a paradigm that is inevitable. The tricky part is balancing the rate of closing store without losing out on possible sales that each store could accumulate.
Today, consumers are driving the purchase process using social platforms, blogs and websites. By the time they enter a store or become visible in the sales funnel, they know what they want to buy and how much they want to pay. It doesn’t stop there. Once the sale is completed, consumer use the same platform to tag and share their experience. New technologies and channels cut through new opportunities that can make a company stand out from the rest of the crowd. Opportunities to build an ongoing conversation with consumers.
The increased interest of social media usage has led numbers of company and business to provide new experiences for their customer to leverage media platforms to make more efficient and effective purchases (Rad, 2010). In addition, the emergences of Web 2.0 technologies are dramatically changing the web collaboration concepts, which made the web more social and interconnected. The aforementioned phenomenon is called “social commerce”. It is a subset of electronic commerce, which utilize social media, or online media that support interaction and user contributions to enhance the online purchase experience.
Social media in marketing is used as an apparatus that builds an identity for a brand and gives awareness that they thought they could have. It does not only respect buyers, but also customer allegiance. Social media is widely-ranged so it can be used in whatever way that best conforms to the strategy and wants of the business. In accordance to the social media marketing report of 2014, a considerable (64%) of marketers use social media for at least 6 hours or more and 41% for 11 hours or more weekly, more importantly nearly (19%) of marketers use up to 20 hours each week on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and many more. The report also showed 7 social media platforms that led in 2014 which are Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Youtube, Pinterest and Instagram.
The nature of the business of retailing puts retailers at a assumed risk of incurring costs because products are bought with the assumption that consumers will purchase. Additionally there are external factors that may also pose risks such as natural disasters, theft, spoilage and fire. In other circumstances retailers also extends financial credit to customers in the form of credit sales which facilitates the smooth transition from retailers to the marketplace. Retailers are in constant contact with customers which gives them the opportunity to research and study buyer’s behaviour. This involves collecting information about changes in customer preferences, perception and shifts in the demand curve. Through advertising within their stores retailers are able to exhibit and introduce existing and new products to the marketplace. Ultimately retailers are in the business of selling products to customers to achieve their goals of generating
Thau was inspired by the Bashar Nejdawi, president of Ingram Micro Mobility that is a provider of technology and supply chain services. According to Nejdawi, “In five years, consumer electronics stores as we know them today won’t even exist, and the same rings true for our favorite apparel brands”. He also asserts that three influential factors will change the retail landscape: instant gratification, borrowing and customization. A good example of instant gratification is Uber or Amazon. The Uber customer can see in real time where the Uber car is and when is going to arrive. In the same way the Amazon provide fulfillment program that allow retailers to sell products that are not physically in storage. In this way the retailers do not have to care about inventory and can concentrate on marketing. Secondly, the borrowing culture is going to grow. As an example is Zip Car or Netflix applications. On the Zip Car program someone can borrow a car just for few hours. Likewise, some business offer a mobile device rental program that allow a customer to lease the latest device for a fraction of the cost. Further, the customization program permits customers to choose their preferences before the product is being made. As an example is miAdidas company that gives to the clients the possibility to create