Chapter 2

General Trends in Retailing

•       New Types of Retailers

•       Increased Concentration

•       Globalization

•       Growth In Services Retailer

•       Demise of Pure Electronic Retailers

•       Growth in Use of Multi-Channel Retailing by Traditional Retailers

•       Increase Use of Technology to Reduce Cost; Increase Value Delivered

Types of Retailers

•       Retailers Use Different Retail Mixes

                -merchandise: variety (breadth) / assortment (depth)

                -services

                -store design, visual merchandising

                -location

                -pricing

•       Infinite Variations

Merchandise Offering

Variety (breadth of merchandise): wide vs. narrow - The number of merchandise categories

         Assortment (depth of merchandise): deep vs. shallow - the number of items in a category (SKUs)

Prices and the cost of offering breadth and depth of merchandise and services

Many SKUs = Inventory Investment Cost Higher

Merchandise/Service Continuum