The Future of Retail Sector in UK Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

The Future of Retail Sector in UK - Essay Example It is evidently clear from the discussion that retailing includes all the activities involved in selling products or services directly to the final consumers for their personal, non-business use. Many institutions are the retailer but in recent years non-store retailing has been growing faster than the store retailing. That means non-store retailing includes selling to final consumers through direct mail, catalogs, telephone, internet, TV home shopping shows, home & office parties, door-to-door contact, vending machines & other direct selling approaches. Retailing is one of the major economic sectors of UK as retail sales of about 22l billion, about 3 million people are employed here and about 300,000 shops are on an operation. At both the business and the store level the scale of polarization is noticed. There are huge retailers & the existence of multinational businesses those are dominating the sector in the country. Retail stores come in all shapes & sizes, & new retail types kee p emerging. Thus they can be classified in terms of the amount of offered service, the breadth & depth of the product lines, the relative prices that are charged, & the organization module. Retailers operate in a harsh & fast changing environment which offers threats as well as opportunities, to become successful, retailers will have to choose target segments carefully & position themselves strongly. In this view, the airlines business of UK is one of the best examples of the retail sector. It is more competitive today than ever before, it serves consumers more choice as well as cheaper fares than before. There is no surprise that the number of passengers of UK airports is continuously increasing, from 70 million in 2000, 86 million have been flown in 2004. Retailers are always searching for new market strategies to attract & hold customers. Service differentiation has also eroded. Retailers first decide their target markets & then decide how they will position themselves in this ma rket. The product assortment should differentiate the retailer while matching target shoppers expectation. Then the price policy must fit its target market & positioning, service assortment & competition. After, to use one or all-promotional tools - advertising, selling, sales promotion, & direct marketing are required to reach to the customers. Place decision points to three critical factors in retailing success: location, location & location. The environmental analysis should be a continuous flow of planning aspect.