Evaluate the international retail environment and discuss how changes over the last decade have influenced the development of retailing. Essay Example
Evaluate the international retail environment and discuss how changes over the last decade have influenced the development of retailing.
International retail environment is competitive, rapidly developing and increasingly dynamic environment. It has a great impact on our lives and lifestyles as it all around us. In terms of economic significance, the retailing sector makes a major contribution to the Gross Domestic Product of countries and employs a large number of people. (Fernie et al., 2003) At the same time, retail environment is influenced by larger societal factors, such as political, economic, socio-cultural, natural and technological, that affect the retailer and marketing decisions. Due to this, retailers have to be flexible, adapt to changing structures, react consistently to the environment and satisfy their consumers by meeting their needs. For the purpose of this essay, I am going to consider the key trends which influenced the retail industry over the last 10 years. First of all, it can be seen that the most radical change has occurred owing to the technological progress. Technological environment is continually changing and it has already affected the retail industry by different inventions like EPOS, PDCU, which enabled to provide accurate sales data, improve the promotions and reduce the costs of production. Further development has led to the growth of non-store formats and especially to E-Tailing that have become so popular because of increased consumer access to the internet. By 2002, it was estimated that the number of Internet users numbered 450 million (Fernie et al., 2003) and that figure continues to rise. Many companies, such as Amazon.com or eBay.com have started to sell and promote their products over the Internet. Moreover, eBay has enabled individuals working from their home to become microretailers reaching a global marketplace. Today, it has the largest Web site for the buying and selling
International retail environment is competitive, rapidly developing and increasingly dynamic environment. It has a great impact on our lives and lifestyles as it all around us. In terms of economic significance, the retailing sector makes a major contribution to the Gross Domestic Product of countries and employs a large number of people. (Fernie et al., 2003) At the same time, retail environment is influenced by larger societal factors, such as political, economic, socio-cultural, natural and technological, that affect the retailer and marketing decisions. Due to this, retailers have to be flexible, adapt to changing structures, react consistently to the environment and satisfy their consumers by meeting their needs. For the purpose of this essay, I am going to consider the key trends which influenced the retail industry over the last 10 years. First of all, it can be seen that the most radical change has occurred owing to the technological progress. Technological environment is continually changing and it has already affected the retail industry by different inventions like EPOS, PDCU, which enabled to provide accurate sales data, improve the promotions and reduce the costs of production. Further development has led to the growth of non-store formats and especially to E-Tailing that have become so popular because of increased consumer access to the internet. By 2002, it was estimated that the number of Internet users numbered 450 million (Fernie et al., 2003) and that figure continues to rise. Many companies, such as Amazon.com or eBay.com have started to sell and promote their products over the Internet. Moreover, eBay has enabled individuals working from their home to become microretailers reaching a global marketplace. Today, it has the largest Web site for the buying and selling