INTRODUCTION At the beginning of the 21st century, retailing has experienced a significant change due to the increase of competition strategies. This report will illustrate the traditional concept of retailing and introduce three new kinds of retail forms and combination’s that has emerged, which includes co-branding retailing, limited time only stores and retail entertainment in the global market. RETAILING
Retail, in the traditional sense includes all the activities in selling goods or services directly to final consumers for personal and non-business use. This includes any organisation selling to final consumers, whether it is a manufacturer, wholesaler or retailer. (Kotler. P, et al 2009) The major types of retailer we are familiar with in today’s society includes specialty stores which sells narrow product lines, example include The body shop.
Department store, selling several product lines, this includes Myer, David Jones; Supermarket which sells large low-cost, low-margin, high-volume, self-service store designed to meet total needs for food and household products; convenience store, which are generally opened in residential areas for 24 hours a day seven days a week with limited line of high-turnover convenience products, famous example would be 7-eleven; Discount stores which offer standard of specialty merchandiese at low-price, low-margin, high-volume stores, an example includes BigW, Target; Off-price retailer that offers leftover goods, factory outlets, independent off-price retailers, an example includes Direct Factory Outlet (DFO); superstores, which occupies large selling space, which could be either category killers like Bunnings and Officeworks, or hypermarkets such as Carrerfour and Costco; lastly there is catalogue showroom where a broad selection of high-mar-up fast moving brand named goods are sold by catalogue at discount, with customers picking up the merchandise at the stores, an example includes the bike shop in the US. Retailers in the past have generally maintain its customers loyalty by offering better service than its competitors, trying to arrange a convenient location for shoppers and provide special assortments of goods to attract and offering store credit and secure their loyalty. This has changed due consumers becoming smarter shoppers, recognising more brands in the market especially with the use of internet and with many department stores cutting down on services.
The internationalisation of the retailing industry remains in its infancy, and most leading players have considerable scope to expand their international operations, especially grocery retailers, as they often do not operate through franchises. The economic crisis in developed markets increases the need for many international retailers to become more present in emerging markets in the long term, in order to reduce their dependence on mature developed markets, although in the short term it has the effect of reducing their profits and their ability to invest abroad THE NEW RETAIL ENVIRONMENT Today retail environment has led retailers to either react and respond to the market, or risk the chance of going out of business. The following are retail developments that are changing how consumers purchase goods and services, and how manufacturers and retailers sells. Pop-Up stores
Another form of new retail that has emerged successfully would be the limited-time-only stores, more commonly known as pop-up stores that started in 2003 where designer outlet Vacant open a store for one-month-only in major cities including New York, London, Tokyo, Shanghai, Paris and more. According to Trenchwatching (2004) their showcase was a range of one-off limited edition products and locations were sent through by email to members only before it opened. The concept of this was due to an increase in new products coming into the market and leaving. This lead businesses to consider using this method to promote brands, to launch any products, possibly reach seasonal shoppers for a few weeks in busy areas and most important of all, create Buzz.
A common tendency for these pop-up stores would be generally its unannounced or only tells a few and let work of mouth spread amongst consumer, it quickly draws in the attention of the crowds and then would either disappear or mutating into something else (Retailtimes, 2007) The use of pop-up stores are not limited to just be used like this. Many businesses use pop-up store as a new retail form to increase awareness of their brand, build brand loyalty and even possibly used to research consumer behaviour and trend analysis. It can be used to test a new retail concept and venues in high-end locals, where the investment to construct and a retail store would be prohibitively expensive without guarantees of success.
This concept has become exceptionally popular with brands targeting the younger generations, creating the feeling of exclusiveness, and attracting ‘the idea of here now, gone tomorrow (Retailtimes, 2007) Another benefit of pop up store is that its not only good for the tenants which can use the space at lower cost without the commitment of a long term lease, at the same time is good for the landlord as pop up stores fills in the vacancy allowing them more time to search for a more permanent tenant. The longer a retail space stays unoccupied, the more the perceived value of the space is reduced. therefore, by bringing in pop ups, the landlord can give the space a real point of difference. (The Age, 2006). According to Lisanti, T (2008), especially during the economic crisis, retail space is easily available and more affordable, as retail traffic in the US drop to 16. 7% in November of 2008. With this downturn across the world, a fundamental shift has occurred with consumer habits. Aggressive retailers can gain long-term benefits using this attractive new retail format.
Not only so, companies can use this to expand their business as retail rents fall and properties become readily available. (new concept of retailing) UNIQLO AND eBAY The two examples that would be discussed in regards to pop up stores would be Uniqlo and Ebay. Uniqlo, a Japanese low cost casual wear company delivered pop-up stores constructed from ships cargo container to various locations in Manhattan and went on for over eight weeks. The exterior of the container stores is made from metal and inside fitted with shelves. These cargo containers which were delivered straight from Tokyo was transported from the pier, lifted by cranes and placed in streets throughout New York.
This had the effect of sending New Yorkers a clear literal message, that’s they were literally coming from Tokyo to New York(Gogoi, p, 2007) Their target market for this retail would have been focused on people living within the area. EBAY opened its first pop-up store in the holiday seasons of Manhattan in late 2009, using it as a way to boost sales online. As store-based retailers improve their online offer and exploit the benefits of a store network to the full, internet specialists had to take the benefit by developing a physical presence. (global retail, new concept pg 23) Although the merchandises on display were non-purchasable, computer terminals were set up in order for consumers to bid.
As with other retailers, eBay has taken an impact to the recession and is seeking for consumers to come back and spend more money. http://abclocal. go. com/wabc/story’section=news/consumer=7134375 The location that was used by ebay also preciously featured other pop-up stores such as diet coke, Fortunoff, Bulgari and Coach. The landlord of the site in 3 West 57th Street Manhattan is seen to be earning an estimate of $5 million in annual rent(Curan, C 2009). There are even real estate websites that promote the concept of pop-up marketing, providing tenant short term leases with potential pop-up sites and stating out the prices and availability of the space (popupinsider, 2010)
