The development of retail clinics has been in the increasing end in most jurisdictions. The retail clinics provide convenient, cost effective, timely and quality medical services that satisfy patient’s needs. However, the concept has been receiving criticism from doctors and nurses who doubt its credibility.
This explains why institutions, such as US pharmacy chain that seeks to open up a clinical corporation, should execute a comprehensive evaluation of the concept’s viability in prior.
The Stakeholders Who Have an Interest in the Legal and Regulatory Standards
As indicated, the key stakeholders who hold strong interest in the legal and regulatory standards in a retail clinical setting include the nurses, physicians and patients. The government and health care organizations also form key stakeholders.
Particularly, physicians and nurses’ foremost concerns in the legislative process relate to their welfare that includes terms of work, remuneration and job security. That is why the legislation should guarantee their rights pertaining to professional, social and economic aspects.
Variably, patients expect quality, affordable and timely delivery of health care services. They have immense interest in the process of formulating health care regulations since the laws influence the realization of their expectations. Authorities and health care bodies also have a strong interest in the process.
Their interest appertains to the development of pertinent laws that hold strong development orientation. That is why the laws should be able to mitigate the prevailing health care complications. They should also ensure that the services of the pharmacy chain remain relevant.
The Stakeholder’s Position
Evidently, nurses and physicians who hold conflicting thoughts about the legislation, which drive operations in the clinical sector, are expected to take a cautious position. This is to help in mitigating the conflict between the two professional bodies through the formulation of non-discriminatory regulations.
In this regard, the government and the professional bodies such as physician and nurse licensing authorities may adopt a non-partisan legal position through mutual understanding. This seeks to facilitate sanity in the sector and eradicate the rising conflict between the key stakeholders.
Further, patients are expected to take a proactive position for ensuring that the legislative process yields favorable terms of engagement. This is also to facilitate the provision of quality health care with minimal cost implication.
The Best Public Policy Solution
Indeed, harmonization of the activities of the professional bodies remains viable and can be considered as the best public policy solution because they share a common goal of improving patients’ health standards under health ethical code of conduct.
This will reduce the formulation of divergent interests and unwarranted competition between the stakeholders that have been an impediment to effective service delivery.
There is a space of about 1500 square feet outside the Stamford Residences and this will be used for selling casual apparels to the middle class. The retailing event will target young people between the ages of 21 years and 35 years, who are evidently thrilled by designer and casual clothes. The event will showcase both women and men’s clothes at the two week retail pop-up stores.
Sellers, designers, advertisers and other business people will use the open space to display and sell their clothes. The whole concept is to ensure that customers access exclusive wear at a discounted cost. It is hoped that this strategy will be effective in making the sales as well as advertising the old apartments that needs to be refurbished into modern houses (Barrows 421).
The Stamford Residences are located in central Australia and offer a range of exquisite services that are in line with the theme of casualness. The services offered by Stamford Residences include an Opera House, Botanical Gardens, theatres and a range of very fine restaurants. The residences offer 164sqm of floor in each of the room which also offers spacious living rooms.
The Theme of the Event
The theme of the event will be ‘casual is a look’. This is uniquely designed to exploit the retail concept and exhibition of the casual clothes. The designers and seller will display the clothes on racks in the open spaces while others will bring in their minivans with their products. It will be an event similar to what is called a ‘flea market’. There will be a lot of established brands on display including Giordano and Denim, among others.
The spaces will be designed in a similar fashion to that found on shopping mall or a supermarket. Chains, tables, the floor and chairs will be painted and decorated to display the ambience of carefree living (Belasco & Scranton 519; Siskind 56). The event will showcase new music artists to capture the attention of the media.
Since the event aims at using the media a lot to market the event, there are a number of images generated in this regard. The image below has is one of the images developed for use in the media campaigns and will appear next to the event them of ‘casual is a look’. The image is also proposed to be the event logo.
Marketing objectives
The developers of the property plans to conduct an exhibition of the apartments that will be refurbished and then marketed to potential clients. A cocktail shall also be conducted in the evening at the apartments. The attendants will be given a guided tour around the facility.
Explanation of the Theme – Marketing Objectives
The design of the apartments will be in such a manner as to offer the best quality service to the occupants (Belasco & Scranton 521). The potential future benefits of the occupants like a long-term a playground, ample parking, IT centre and an entertainment spot shall all be put into consideration.
The demand is anticipated to be very good and will increase faster after the facility has been refurbished. This is because the apartments had previously been ignored and now they need a facelift. These apartments are set to help support the projected demand for picnic, Information technology, and entertainment in Meridian.
The pop-up retail event will be held on the facility for two weeks to facilitate the sale of casual clothes. The apartments shall also be advertised on billboards. This will enable the participants to get a firsthand feel of what they are likely to experience when they rent one of the apartments after the refurbishment. Essentially, they will have access to a number of important services all under the same property (Weinreich 27).
At this event, the owners will have the chance to explain all the facilities and their benefits. To start with, the residents will have ample parking space, and an entertainment spot (Weinreich 27).
They will also have a chance to use the playground and the gym facility for exercise and fitness. There are also picnic shelters and these will transform the place into an ideal home for relaxing and refreshing following a long and tiresome week at the workplace.
How the Event will promote the Apartments for Refurbishment
The event will showcase designer T-shirts and pairs of hard worn jeans of different colours. There will be music inspired T-shirts, as well. These T-shirts will also have the apartments advertised on them. There will be billboards and posters at the venue, all of them trying to promote the refurbishment of the old apartments (Hall et al 39; Scott 34).
This special event is set mainly to create awareness of the new project of refurbishing the apartments. The money accruing from this project will then flow to the developers and into the bank accounts of the owners. This event shall enable for the attainment of publicity in a number of ways including the use of media, and exhibition (Schlentrich 45).
This event needs a novel concept that will not only attract that right audience but turn the audience into prospective clients. Doing a pre-event advertising is essential in creating event hype. Other than using media, it is important to use word of mouth advertising. This will be achieved by informing relatives and friends about the events and encouraging them to also tell other people that they know.
This will generate more interest and commitment than the general media adverts. The second part of the idea wil involves organising a promotion for participants. Such a promotion will involve prices and attractive rewards for attendants who show commitment (O’Guinn et al 481). These rewards will involve discounted offers for clients who make commitment within a short time.
Furthermore, clients will be given an opportunity to decide o how the particular units they buy will be remodelled. This will give them a sense of ownership and impress create an impression that those clients are actually building their own home (Diversified Business Communication 5).
The event shall be a grand opening for many more similar projects. A few stunts will also be displayed to catch the attention of the media and enhance the coverage of the event (Schlentrich 45: O’Guinn et al 481). The planners have bought a number of huts and invited a magician who will ‘pull out a rabbit from a hut!’. It is expected that this will cause a public frenzy.
The Media Plan
The event will be covered by a local television channel and radio stations. It will also feature in some of the newspapers (Gregory & Wiechmann 10). Event owners have finalised negotiations with newspaper editors to run a specific event headline that reads, ‘there will be A Rabbit Pulled out Of the Apartments- Snowball Fight a Guarantee’. This is expected to generate curiosity from the target audience.
The other stunts that will be covered include a media related action (Getz 518). The event will be decorated by billboards promoting domestic electronic gadgets, movies, a TV channel, and the main entertainment and media houses in the region. This will revive the feelings of the clients have better entertainment while away from home (Hoyle 129).
They will also tend to get attached to the product being marketed thanks to the ambience inspired by the media coverage (O’Guinn et al 481). Since the event targets young people who have a sense of fashion, using such forms of media especially the TV station will strategically project the event to the target audience who makes a majority of those who come into contact with the forms of media identified above.
Because the theme of the event is ‘casual is a look’ the images generated for sue in the media will also project this message. The event is intended to influence prospective buyers of the apartment to adopt a casual style of living. The apartments will combine luxury and the freedom of the spacious natural environment to create the necessary casual style of living.
As such, the image below is one of the proposed images that will be used to decorate the event. The image background is a virgin natural flora which portrays a sense of freedom; the concept is further enhanced by the lady on the foreground who also portrays every sense of casualness and freedom.
Event delivery
The concept developed here is the use of a cocktail event to create awareness of the new and modern apartments with the necessary social amenities ranging from entertainment (Allen 69), communication, physical fitness and romantic picnics (Levy & Marion 94). There are a number of players involved in the planning of the event.
The media house owners, the proprietors and owners of the business, the general public and the owners of the neighbouring properties (Allen 69) who are also expected to attend the event. The guest of honour shall be a politician (the name still remains anonymous until he confirms attendance) who is also expected to contribute to the success of the day since politicians ‘pull’ people.
Works Cited
Allen, Judy. The Executive’s Guide to Corporate Events & Business Entertaining. Mississauga, John Wiley and Sons, 2007, p. 69. Print.
Barrows, Clayton. Food and Beverage Management, SAGE Handbook of Hospitality Management, London, SAGE, 2008. p. 421-442. Print.
Belasco Warren and Scranton Philip. Food Nations: Selling Taste in Consumer Societies. New York, Routledge, 2002. Print.
Diversified Business Communication. Exhibitor Marketing Giude. n.d., p 5. Web.
Getz, David. Event Design and Management, SAGE Handbook of Hospitality Management, London, SAGE. 2008. 518-39. Print.
Gregory James and Wiechmann Jack. Marketing Corporate Image: The Company as Your Number One Product, Chicago, NTC Business Books, 1999. p. 10. Print.
Hall, Martin., Sharples, Evan., Cambourne, Brian., and Macionis, N. Wine and Food Tourism around the World: Development Management and Markets. Oxford, Butterworth, 2002. Print.
Hoyle, Leonard. Event Marketing: How to Successfully Promote Events, Festivals, Conventions and Expositions, West Sussex John Wiley and Sons, p. 129. Print.
Levy, Barbara and Marion, Barbara. Successful Special Events: Planning, Hosting, and Evaluating, Sudbury, Jones & Bartlett Learning, 2004. p. 94. Print.
O’Guinn, Thomas., Allen, Chris & Semenik, Richard. Advertising and Integrated Brand Promotion, New York, Cengage learning, 2004, p. 481. Print.
O’Toole, William and Mikolaitis, Phyllis., Corporate Event Project Management, West Sussex: John Wiley and Sons, 2009, p. 18. Print.
Schlentrich, Udo. The MICE Industry: Meetings Incentive, Conventions and Exhibilities, SAGE Handbook of Hospitality Management, London, SAGE, London, 2008. 400-420. Print.
Scott, David Meerman. The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use Social Media, Blogs, News Releases, Online Video, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers. Hoboken, NJ: john Wiley, 2010. Print.
Siskind, Barry. Powerful Exhibit Marketing: The Complete Guide to Successful Trade Shows Conferences, and Consumer Shows. West Sussex John Wiley and Sons. 2007. Print.
Weinreich, Nedra Kline. Hands-On Social Marketing: A Step-By-Step Guide, SAGE, London, 2002. p. 27. Print.
Bank customers act as both suppliers and consumers to the banks. The customers supply the bank with money, which is the raw material for financial institutions. On the other hand, customers act as consumers by being the buyers of various products of the financial institutions.
Therefore, it is vital for a bank to have customers who would be able to supply it with large amounts of money and consume huge quantities of the bank’s products (Wright, Watkins and Ennew 65). Big banks prefer to attract corporate customers. The high value of the transactions of corporate customers reaps huge financial benefits to the banks. On the other hand, small retail customers undertake small value transactions.
However, the profit margins of financial transactions of small customers are usually higher than the profit margins of transactions of corporate customers. Increased competition in the retail banking market segment threatens to reduce the profit margin in this market segment (Quiry et al 264) However, big banks have enough financial resource to cope with the stiff competition in the market segment.
Problem Analysis
There is a steady increase in the amount of small retail customers that banks serve. This market segment offers a suitable growth opportunity for banks. The retail banking segment is the most profitable segment. Small retail customers require many banking services.
Some of the services include payroll management and investment products. Therefore, it is vital for banks to formulate strategies that would help in attracting small retail customers. Big banks have generally been unsuccessful in attracting and retaining small retail customers.
One of the major factors that lead to poor retention of small retail customers is the inability to offer high quality services to small retail customers. Big banks do not usually solve the problems of the small retail customers quickly and courteously. In addition, big banks charge high fees, which are prohibitive to small retail customers (Rezaee 88). Big banks do not usually have products that fulfill the needs of the small retail customers.
This is due to the wide variety of products that small retail customers need. In addition, small customers account for a small percentage of the revenue of big banks. Therefore, big banks do not prioritize the interests of the small retail customers. Mismatch of products makes small retail customers look for banking services in other financial institutions. The location of big banks is also one of the major factors that restrict big bank’s ability to attract small retail customers.
Big banks are usually located in upmarket areas, which are far from the location of the business establishments of small retail customers. This makes it difficult for small retail customers to access the services of big banks easily. Therefore, small retail csuromers seek financial services from financial institutions that are in their vicinity.
Solution Analysis
There is no single approach that would enable banks attract and retain small retail customers. For banks that wish to attract small retail customers, it is vital for the banks to understand the dynamics of their relationship with small retail customers.
Banks should understand the major factors that drive the profitability of the small retail customers. In addition, banks should understand the cross-selling opportunities that exist in this market segment. Cross selling would enable banks improve their profitability in this market segment significantly (Wright, Watkins and Ennew 154).
One of the major strategies that banks may use to attract and retain small retail customers is investing in innovative products. The innovative products should be responsive to the needs of the small retail customers. In addition, banks should formulate a strategy that would be responsive to the needs of the small retail customers.
Big banks should not just offer personalized products to customers; they should strive to realize the full value of their relationship with the small retail customers. Therefore, banks should offer services and pricing structures that appreciate the relationship that the bank has with the small retail customers.
Implementation Analysis
Big banks should ensure that they implement a strategy that would help to attract and retain small retail customers. However, the strategy should not contravene the major policies of the bank. Therefore, it is unlikely for big banks to move from their upmarket locations in order to attract small retail customers.
This is because the movement from upmarket locations may alter the image of the bank. This may be detrimental to the bank. However, the big banks can introduce innovative mobile and internet banking solutions that would help in attracting and retaining small retail customers. In addition, big banks should offer a wide variety of products that would fulfill the banking needs of small retail customers.
It is vital for banks to ensure that they introduce the measures that attract small retail customers systematically. Introducing drastic measures would be detrimental to image of the bank. This may trigger the exit of existing corporate customers. Big banks that attract and retain small retail customers while retaining their existing corporate customers guarantee their future financial prosperity.
Works Cited
Quiry, Pascal, Yann Le Fur, Antonio Salvi, Maurizio Dallochio and Pierre Vernimmen. Corporate finance: Theory and practice. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2006. Print.
Rezaee, Zabihollah. Financial institutions, valuations, mergers, and acquisitions: The fair value approach. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2001. Print.
Women in Saudi Arabia have not been participating in the retail industry at the same rate as men (Weston, 2008). The reasons behind the occurrence can be attributed to cultural, political, social, and economical parameters operating in the Saudi Arabian jurisdiction (Leavy, 2007).
The low participation means that women fail to get a chance to grow o other sectors of the economy (in most cases development and growth in business starts from retail segments. Men have dominated women and seem to have taken center stage in making decisions that continue the suppression of women in the community (Hyam, 2004). This proposal aims at conducting primary and secondary research to look reasons and obstacles for women to penetrate retail industry in Saudi labour market.
Literature review
Saudi Arabia is a highly populated country that falls in the category of consumer country; the large number of population makes the country a hub of activities including retail industry (Miner-Rubino and Jayaratne, 2007).
The market is dominated by national and international customers willing to purchase different products offered by the market. With the domination, high population and existence of variety of products, the market is appealing for retail businesses (Lykes and Coquillon, 2006).
The culture of Saudi Arabia is dominated by the Muslims; the religion can be seen as one of the main hindrance to low women participation in the retail industry (Hesse-Biber, 2007). According to Muslimism, women are given the role of taking care of their husbands, their children and are not seen to be involved much economic development (Halse and Honey, 2005).
Men have been socialized to believe that they should be the sole bread winner of the family thus they are the ones to work and seek economic development for a family (Robert, 2009). The religion belief has made much women to be left without an option other than depend on men for their live hood (Harding, 1987).
The economic environment of women and the financial power they have also is a hindrance to their involvement in retail sector. To start a business calls for capital that one can either get from bank loans, personal savings, friend or any other such means (Carmen, 2005). The avenues of getting the finances seem to be blocked for Saudi Arabian woman.
For instance they do not have the funds to save to start their business, again they cannot seek for help from their husbands or friends (Hesse-Biber and Leavy, 2008). When it comes to securing a loan facility, banks require the women to have securities of which they do not have. The securities of a family belongs to the husband thus in the event that the woman will get the security, she will have to pass through the husband; this becomes a challenge (Borland, 1991).
Another challenge that Saudi Arabian women have is lack of quality information that they can depend on to establish and see businesses grow (Turchin, 2007). Some women are married at tender age not giving them the chance to get quality education (Giuck and Patai, 2003).
When this happens it means that the cycle of poverty in the women side remains and continues to manifest itself in all aspects of her life (Brooks, 2007). The communities on the other hand seem to justify the system and are okay with the situation of the country (Leavy, 2007).
References
Borland, K. 1991. That’s not what I said: Interpretive conflict in oral narrative research. New York: Routledge.
Giuck, S. and Patai, D. 2003. Women’s Words: The Feminist Practice of Oral History. New York: Routledge.
Brooks, A. 2007. Feminist standpoint epistemology: Building knowledge and empowerment through women’s lived experiences. London: Sage.
Dill, T. and Zambrana, R., 2009 Emerging Intersections: Race, Class and Gender in Theory, Policy and Practice. NJ: Rutgers University Press.
Halse, C. and Honey, A. 2005. Unraveling ethics: Illuminating the moral dilemmas of research ethics. Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 30 (4), 2141-2162.
Harding, S. 1987. Introduction: Is there a feminist method? In Harding, S. (ed.), Feminism & Methodology. Indiana: Indiana University Press.
Hesse-Biber, S.N. 2007. The practice of feminist in-depth interviewing. New Jersey: Sage Publications.
Hesse-Biber, S.N. and Leavy, P.L. 2008. Feminist Research Practice. Cambridge: Sage Publications.
Hyam, M., 2004. Hearing girls’ silences: Thoughts on the politics and practices of a feminist method of group discussion. Gender, Place, and Culture, 11 (1), pp. 105-119.
Leavy, P.L. 2007. Feminist Research Practice. Cambridge: Sage Publications.
Leavy, P.L., 2007. Feminist postmodernism and poststructuralism. New Jersey: Sage Publications.
Leavzy, P.L. 2007. The practice of feminist oral history and focus group interviews. New Jersey: Sage Publications.
Leavy, P.L. 2007. The feminist practice of content analysis. Cambridge: Sage Publications.
Leckenby, D. 2007. Feminist empiricism: Challenging gender bias and “setting the record straight. New Jersey: Sage Publications.
Lykes, M.B. and Coquillon, E., 2006. Participatory and Action Research and feminisms: Towards Transformative Praxis. New York: Sage Publications.
Miner-Rubino, K. and Jayaratne, T.E. 2007. Feminist survey research. New York: Sage Publications
McHale, T. ,2000. A Prospect of Saudi Arabia, International Affairs. New York: Wiley.
Turchin, P., 2007. Scientific Prediction in Historical Sociology: Ibn Khaldun meets Al Saud. History & Mathematics: Historical Dynamics and Development of Complex Societies. Moscow: KomKniga
Carmen, B., 2005. Inside the Kingdom: My Life in Saudi Arabia, Grand Central Publishing. New York: Wiley.
Robert, L. ,2009. Inside the Kingdom. New York: Hutchinson.
Weston, M. ,2008. Prophets and Princes. New York: Wiley.
The Australian retail grocery market is composed of the most purchased commodities. This is similar to grocery business in other nations around the globe like the United States and United Kingdom. In Australia, the grocery market has a high number of customers who either purchase these products from chain stores or supermarkets. However, the biggest market shares in the grocery retail market of Australia are held by a few firms.
This has brought about competitiveness problems in the market in spite of the government carrying out market regulation (Gans, 2011). This paper thus discusses the grocery retail market of Australia by looking into the problem of market dominance and unhealthy competition in the market. The causes of these problems and measures of addressing the problem are also discussed.
Competition in the Grocery Market of Australia
The grocery market of Australia has regular customers as it is composed of goods which are consumed by the population each day. In Australia, there are two grocery market sectors, the independent grocery sector and the other sector that is composed of few dominant firms.
The biggest share of the grocery market is controlled by the non-independent sector which according to the business statistics of 2010 holds an 80 per cent share while the independent sector holds the remaining 20% market share (Wardle and Baranovic, 2009).
For any market system to be flexible in a liberalised market economy, there has to be competition as the main driving force in the economy and or market(s). When the Australian Grocery retail market is looked at, many questions remain pending on whether the market embraces competition. This is so because of the imbalance that is prevalent in that market.
The grocery market of Australia is dominated by a few firms, majorly two firms that control more than half of the market share. When there are a few firms controlling the market, that market cannot be termed as fairly or perfectly competitive. (2004). Therefore, with a good basis in economics, the Australian retail grocery market cannot be termed as a perfectly competitive market.
Perfect competition exists where the market power is left open and no firms hinder others from acquiring the market power. Obliteration of market power is usually prevalent in a perfectly competitive market.
Independent firms in such a market are free to participate in the market and help in bringing favourable commodity prices. The market is bigger than any single business firms in that market (Delforce, Dickson & Hogan, 2005).
Independent grocery stores in Australia are controlled by the National Association of Retail Grocers of Australia, and they only control 20% share of the market. By the year 2010, there were about five hundred independent grocer firms registered by the association. These firms employ slightly over two hundred thousand workers. The two firms that dominate the grocer retail market are Woolworths and Coles.
These firms hold about 50 per cent of the grocer market. The growth of these major firms in the grocer market has been as a result of acquisition of small, independent firms, and expansion of new sites. This has taken place rapidly form the year 1975 to date (National Association of Retail Grocers of Australia, 2010).
Being small as it is, the independent grocer market of Australia does distribute essential products to thousands of people in the remote regions and communities who are ignored by the major grocery chain stores.
Despite the role that is being played by the independent firms, the two dominant firms have continued to overpower the independent stores in the market.
According to a survey done by the Price Waterhouse Coopers in the year 2007 titled “the economic contribution of small to [the] medium-sized grocery retailers to the Australian economy”, it was found that approximately eighty per cent of the packaged groceries in the market are sold by the two firms.
A big change in market concentration levels of the retail grocery sector of Australia has not been observed since 1975. The entry of new firms, Aldi and Costco, has not evened market concentration. This is in contrast with the United States grocer market that can be cited as a good example of a perfectly competitive market (Ellickson, 2012). The US grocer retail market has two dominant firms which are WalMart and Kroger.
However, unlike the case in Australia where dominant firms hold more than 50 per cent of the market share; the firms in the US only hold a 20 per cent share of the grocery retail market. Market concentration in the grocer market of Australia has resulted in the reduction of competition in the grocery market. In a concentrated market like in the case of the grocer market in Australia, the room for competition is closed.
This is because very little space is left for the many small firms to compete, and this kills the spirit of competition. In the event there is competition, it is likely to be very unhealthy (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, 2008).
The retail grocer market of Australia befits the definition of an oligopoly market. This is a market whereby a few firms dominate a certain industry as opposed to the view that it is perfectly competitive. With the dominance of the grocer market by two retailers, a number of economists have categorised grocer market of Australia as an oligopolistic market.
The highest percentage in terms of total market revenues is produced by the dominant firms which are Coles Group and Woolworths Limited. Being the biggest shareholders in the market, these two firms do determine most of the market decisions and actions including the setting and determination of market prices.
The four dominant companies in the Australian Grocer Market: Coles Group, Woolworths Limited, David’s and Franklins contribute approximately 80 per cent of the total sales that are made in the grocer industry (Jones, 2006).
Workable Competition in the Australian Retail Grocer Market
Having noted that the grocer retail market in Australia has failed to meet the qualities of a market that has perfect competition; therefore, being equated to an imperfectly competitive market or an oligopoly market, the concept of workable competition can be employed to streamline this market.
This concept asserts that in economies that embrace technology and other propellers of development; and where principles of perfect competition cannot be easily and sufficiently attained; then it becomes crucial for policy makers to identify the competitive behaviour as it exists in the imperfect markets.
They should also draw up conclusions, which will be important in streamlining the behaviour. This is meant to make the market compatible with other economic structures like capitalism so as to promote economic development and welfare (Stiegert & Kim, 2009).
Various factors determine competition in a market.
These include the number of sellers and distributors in the market, differentiation degree of products in the market, market formation character, market structure and geography, distribution channels, market conditions in the sense of entry and exit conditions for firms, the prevailing degree of individual firm output and distribution channels and pricing methods among others (Ellickson, 2012).
Most economists have argued that it is hard to achieve a perfectly, competitive market. Also, in working to achieve a perfectly competitive market, only monopoly or oligopoly is reached. This is the case with the grocer retail market of Australia.
Workable competition can be used to ensure the survival and sustainability of even the smallest firms in the market and the general sustainability of customers through favourable price setting for the commodities. The oligopolistic oriented structure of the Australian grocer retail market has for a long time been the major cause of high prices of commodities. This has put a lot of financial pressure on the consumers.
This has been critiqued by many consumer protection groups (Beaton-Wells, 2003). Workable competition can be adopted through the reviewing of the microeconomic policies and principles in the country.
Though there is an argument that the rise in prices of grocer goods has not resulted from the dominant firms in the industry, it is important to control the level of dominance that these firms have by way of economic legislation in that a firm should hold up to a certain market share in the industry.
This will encourage the growth of other firms in the industry thus help pull down the price of goods. The prices at which the dominant firms buy fresh goods from consumers should also be regulated to prevent exploitation of the farmers by the firms as they aim to make outrageous profits (Delforce, Dickson & Hogan, 2005).
Vertical Integration of Major Grocer Retail Stores in Australia
Vertical integration is a concept in business and management control. In a chain of firms in a similar industry, this term implies that these firms attain unity by virtue of having a common owner. Firms can engage themselves during the production process, and at different stages.
This can be achieved through affiliations with other firms that are operating in the same line of production of the goods and services. Each of the smaller firms within the main firm produces different products or services which together works to meet the need of the consumer (Wessels, 2006).
This is the same style of management control in the grocer industry within Australia. This has been achieved through acquisitions which have been done by the giants in the industry. These firms have acquired several chain stores in the country and grown to the level that they exert control over the grocer market.
This has been argued to be the reason behind the control of the large portion of sales in the grocer retail market by the two companies in reference to a survey carried out by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (Wardle and Baranovic, 2009).
The government of Australia has had a lengthy development of its retail market. This is especially during the industrialization period in the 1950s and 1960s, which has led to the predominance of supermarkets in food retailing.
Rapid urbanization and economic policies that accompanied it brought into play conditions that favoured the supermarkets as dominant food stores in the country. This worked negatively in that it narrowed the number and variety of food stores in Australia. The traditional food markets were overpowered; therefore, their significance in the market faded (Richardson & Williams, 1995).
This is very different when a comparison is made between the retail market of Australia and those of other industrialised nations of the world. The industrialised nations such as the UK had a diversified retail grocer market that allows for the participation of many firms including the traditional firms.
The characteristic of the Australian market was thus behind the merging activities of firms in the market which led to the emergent of dominant firms (Jones, 2006).
The dominance of the market by the firms and the impact of the actions of the firms necessitated the government of Australia to come up with economic measures. These measures were meant to encourage new entrants into the grocer market to help eliminate the economic flaws resulting from the oligopoly grocer market.
These strategies include the reduction of barriers both tariff and nontariff which hindered the entry of foreign supermarkets into the Australian market. These barriers have been lifted in order to allow the new firms to enter the Australian market and bring competitiveness. This was intended to help regulate the market in a better way as opposed to market control by dominance.
These firms include Franklin’s, Pick’ n Pay and Aldi (Jones, 2006). With this, a considerable amount of success has been reached. The government has to mould its policies that will ensure a more open and level playing field for all the firms in the grocer industry.
When more firms are able to access that retail grocer market, inflation in the market is likely to come down. This will also move the market towards a monopolistic, competitive spectrum. This is significantly liberal and encourages competition as the chief determinant of the prices of commodities in a given industry.
Application of the Game Theory in Analysis of Entry of New Firms in the Australian Grocer Retail Market
It is quite easy to analyse the entry of the new firms in the grocer retail market of Australia. This has been made possible by using the payoff matrix that is part of game theory. The pay-off matrix analyses the possible mix of scenarios and actions in the market and displays the results in a simple form (Shelton, 1997).
In this pay off matrix, we consider the Woolworth Limited and Coles as the oligopolistic firms that have, for quite some time, been dominant in the market. The new firms in the market can be Franklin’s and Pick’ n Pay. Basing on the price that comes with each of the four firms in the market, the payoff will be as indicated in the matrix below:
New Retailer: High Price
New retailer: Low price.
Current Retailer : High Price
Better, Better
Best, Worst
Current Retailer : Low Price
Worst, Best
Worst, Worst
Figure 1.0: The pay off matrix for the new entrants into grocer retail market of Australia.
The bets case will be attained when both the new and old market entrants set prices that will be beneficial to the firm and affordable to the consumer. The pay-off is most preferred in such a scenario thus favouring competition.
However, when both firms set low prices in order to attract customers, a worst case will be attained. This is because many aspects will be compromised, including the quality of products. Therefore, this will affect the consumer and the firms as they will make either very low profits or losses.
Conclusion
The Grocery retail market of Australia has come under criticisms in the recent years due to the reducing competitiveness in that market. This has been due to market domination by two firms, which has brought about an oligopolistic market situation.
However, in the current times, efforts are being made to avert the situation. This is by giving significant room for other firms in order to encourage competition that would help in the regulation of prices of commodities in the industry.
References
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. (2008). ACCC inquiry into the competitiveness of retail prices for standard groceries. Web.
Beaton-Wells, C. (2003). Proof of antitrust markets in Australia. Sydney: Federation Press.
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National Association of Retail Grocers of Australia. (2010). Competition and Consumer Legislation Amendment Bill 2010. Web.
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2004). Australia: 2004. Paris: OECD.
Richardson, M., & Williams, P. L. (1995). The law and the market. Sydney: Federation Press.
Shelton, R. B. (1997). Gaming the market: Applying game theory to create winning trading strategies. New York: John Wiley.
Stiegert, K. W., and Kim, D. H. (2009). Structural Changes in Food Retailing: Six Country Case Studies. Madison: FSRG Publication.
Wardle, J., and Baranovic, M. (2009). Is lack of retail competition in the in the grocery sector a public health issue? Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, 33(5): 477-481.
Wessels, W. J. (2006). Economics. Hauppauge, N.Y: Barron’s.
Retail landscape has undergone continuous change from the growth of railroads and big cities to modern department stores to shopping malls and now to e-tailing. The changes that have set in have transformed the way consumer expectations have transformed, evolving retailing strategy. Retailers, therefore, had to continually adapt to the changing situation in order to survive.
The latest trend in retailing is digital retail that has and will transform the way shopping was done before. In 2011, research firm Forrester forecasted a growth of 15 to 20 per cent for digital retailing globally (Rigby 66). Three new expectations that customers have already started exhibiting and will intensify in future are instant gratification, customization, and borrowing (Thau par. 6).
Shopping experience in future will change with the advent of the constant up-gradation and development of technology. Future shopping experience will change and so will the retail space. This essay discusses the change in shopping experience in the physical and the digital space and how it would enhance customer satisfaction. I believe in 2025 the gap between the physical and digital retail space will be narrowed with the aid of virtual reality applications and help in enhancing customer retail experience.
The physical retail space will change radically in future. Converging customer needs have pushed both physical and digital retailers to innovate their strategy to enhance customer satisfaction. For instance, Amazon is planning to incorporate physical pop-up shops (Whitney par. 1), gadgets like Google Glass, Oculus Rift, and Apple iWatch will assist in shopping for future consumers (Adie par. 1), and IBM’s Walter an artificial intelligence software will assist customers with their shopping indecisions (Clifford par. 4).
Digital marketing will shift from computers to mobile phones and virtual reality technologies will bolster digital interfaces to create an all-encompassing retail space. Thus, the future technology will bridge digital and physical divide through virtual reality.
The new trends foreseeable for retailing are applications that will become personal concierges for all. Retailers will focus on enhancing customer experience by providing a personalized mobile application that will analyse relevant as well as personal content to help customers to shop. For instance, when a shopper would enter the retailer’s store, these applications will analyse their data to show them where their favourite products are available. Further, it will also provide additional information to shoppers regarding the product.
Virtual fitting rooms and aisles will help customers through the maze of large shopping marts (Mehta par. 10). Interactive mirrors and augmented reality will help retailers to allow their customers to manoeuvre their path through the large shopping malls (Hellings par. 9). This technology would enable the customers not only to try on dresses through a virtual window or visualise how a piece of furniture would look in their living room, but also provides suggestions based on their requirements.
With the availability of consumer information through social network research, retailers have to amalgamate an exhaustive database that would help them to drive out specific information for the retailer to help the customers. For instance, if a consumer goes to purchase fitness equipment, the retailer will simply access her data to find out her health status, body oxygen, level, blood pressure etc. in order to suggest the right kind of equipment she requires. Retail sales will no longer remain selling by a smiling face or a pleasing personality. Retail sales will be based on information gathered and delivered in real time.
Therefore, in-store technology will be essential not only for physical but also for digital retailers. Using and delivering information to the customers will become the essence of retailing and delivering customer satisfaction. For instance, retailers have to provide their prices openly on the digital forum that the customers can access and find out where they can get the best bargain. Presently, only the digital retailers provide such information. However, physical retailers of the future too would have to provide this information in order to remain competitive.
Incorporation of new technology to enhance in-store experience of the customers will require training for the sales force. Earlier, physical sales people were inadequate technologically. However, in future they have to efficient in handling technology in order to provide better services. Therefore, the retailers have to invest more on training their sales force in the latest technological inclusions in their stores.
In order to bridge the gap between digital and physical retail, in-store experience has to be enhanced through incorporation of technology within the store and therefore, increase in-store connectivity. Digital retailers have a plethora of knowledge about their customers through their online search history.
However, physical retailers still rely on customers telling them what they want. In future, this divide will be obviated. Loyalty programs will be utilised to garner information about customers, which will help to manage customer expectation. Cloud based customer relationship management (CRM) systems will help physical retailers manage customer expectations better.
The only solution that physical retail stores have to bridge the gap between digital and physical divide is through incorporation of digital technology in physical retail space. As there is a drive towards omni-channel retail in future, even e-retailers like Amazon have started to enter the physical retail space.
Apparently, this does not seem as a good idea, as digital retailing is on a growing curve. However, the digital retail industry is only a minuscule part of the total retail in the US and globally. Hence, large retailers like Amazon are eager to capture the untapped market. Making their presence known physically is important for their future sustenance. However, for physical retailers, online presence and inclusion of new technology is essential in order to meet changing customer expectations.
The customers of future are highly influenced by peers through social networks, brand experience, and new technology and expect to experience them in-store. Physical stores have one advantage over digital retailers and that is they are in a position to deliver brand and product experience.
However, time constraints and availability of choices has made it increasingly difficult for physical retailers to meet the customers’ expectations. This is where technology will help the physical retailers to provide what the digital retailers provide to their customers and more. For instance, virtual reality assistance has helped IKEA to help customers visualise furniture in their home. Therefore, these retailers have used a new and evolving technology to enhance customer experience and thus, deliver greater satisfaction to them.
The question that arises is how the retail space, both physical and digital, will transform in 2025. I believe, the retailers of future will shed the difference between digital and physical and incorporate an omni-cahnnel retail space that will bridge the gap between the two.
The experience that helps in forming customer satisfaction apart from the product or service delivered will play a central role in shaping the retail space of future. Therefore, the retailers will have to invest more on in-store technology and enable free exchange and usage of information with their customers to serve them better.
Practically every person at least once in a lifetime had a desire to get a glimpse of the future. At the same time due to the rapid development of modern technologies, it is rather difficult to predict what the world will look like in the future. A short ten years ago, there were no such things as smartphones, tablet computers and social networks. At that time these things have been unimaginable, nowadays it is impossible to imagine our life without them.
Under the circumstances of the competitive market, information means everything. Apart from successful management, branding and advertising, one of the keys to success for any company is the ability to foresee tendencies for changes in consumer demands and shopping capacity.
There are many examples in history when the ability of a management team to predict future events contributes to success of a company. With this purpose, leading companies hold various opinion polls trying to adjust to new rapidly changing realities. In any case, in modern world to be successful means to keep up with the times.
In this regard, many leading companies conduct different researches that help to imagine how retail will look like in several years. For example, the study Global E-Tailing 2025, which has been conducted upon the initiative of the Deutsche Post DHL, suggests several scenarios of the development of global online retail.
These different forecasts of the development of retail are based on the analysis of the most important factors, from the energy prices, technological and social factors up to patterns of consumers behavior.
In the nearest ten years, the role of online retail will increase. It is expected that logistics will play the key role. A delivery of an order will be realized within several hours. Moreover, there will be flexible terms of a return of commodity.
It is no wonder that every scenario suggests a rapid growth of digital technologies. Such devices as “data glasses, smart contact lenses and other wearables will become indispensable parts of everyday life” (“Global E-Tailing 2025” par.9). Basing on this it is possible to imagine a shopping center of the future. The main tendencies that will determine the development of digital retail will be a personification of orders and an individual approach to a customer in general. Even nowadays contemporary technologies permit to determine a customers profile and hereafter this tendency will increase.
It is an open secret that it is possible to trace a history of purchases made by any person by means of internet as well as to trace websites visited by this person. In spite of the existence of the laws, which guarantee a free choice of residence and a non-intrusion into privacy, even now attempts of any government to control its citizens may be observed. It may be illustrated by attempts to implement digital passports and to integrate these passports with credit cards. I think that this tendency will increase.
The same technology will be used by leading retailers in order to study consumers demand. As Kean puts it “screens and posters will display different images based on the information on your mobile – your purchase history, the brands you like on social platforms, who your friends are, as well as your gender and age” (par.10).
By means of in-depth analyses of a customers personal profile, his habits, his life style and occupation it will be possible to make precise individual propositions. Moreover, a customer will be provided with information concerning newly designed products in a stock by means of all existing channels in accordance with his personal requests. The amount of information, which now is considered as spam, will be reduced. A consumer will receive only that information which will be interesting for him. In such a way, advertising and marketing activities will become more effective.
For instance before entering a shop, a customer will be identified by means of special digital system (“7 Predictions for Shopping in 2025” par.5). After that, he will be at once proposed those goods, which will correspond to his interests. “Technologies like near field communication and facial recognition will allow retailers to personalize product assortments in real time so they are tailored to a consumer’s purchase history” (Scultz par.6).
According to one of the scenarios proposed by Global E-Tailing 2025 “intelligent avatars will serve as virtual shopping assistance” (“Global E-Tailing 2025” par.9). It is possible to suggest that by 2015 the majority of employees in big shopping centers will be substituted with automatons. The role of an employee will be control and maintenance support of these automatons.
Nowadays the problem of any big supermarket is its size. From time to time, it is possible to observe a situation when customers, especially those who have never been before in this shop, resort to a help of an employee asking to show a place where a required product is situated. Different kinds of signboards are not very helpful in such a situation. It is possible to suggest that in future this problem will be solved with mobile devices, which will be equipped with some analogue of the GPS system. For instance, before entering a supermarket its map will be automatically downloaded into a customer’s device.
The tendency for personalization will have its impact on the demands to logistics. For instance, a choice of a delivery method will depend upon an individual demand of a client.
The Food Marketing Institute represents one of the futuristic visions of a grocery store of the future. In the attempts to predict the tendencies in this sphere, the researchers of this Institute provide the example of “a grocery store with shifting walls that transforms into restaurant at night and a farmers market on Saturday mornings” (Scultz par.1). Moreover, they predict that an assortment of stores will differ depending upon seasons of a year, times of a day and even weather.
It is more than likely that such thing as virtual fitting room will appear. For instance, while buying a coat, apart from an evaluation of its quality a consumer will have an opportunity to check with the help of virtual reality whether this coat will suit him or not.
In addition, it goes without saying that the number of online sales will increase to a great extent. In this respect, there are two opposite opinions. On the one hand, it is suggested that the majority of purchases will be realized by means of online technologies and in such a way the role of a huge supermarkets will be diminished (Charas par.3).
On the other hand, the tendency for globalization strongly suggests an existence of huge shopping centers, which will meet market needs of a whole community (Dunne, Lusch and Carver 619). In any case, making forecast is not an easy task and we have to wait scant ten years in order to see what the future will look like.
Works Cited
7 Predictions for Shopping in 2025. 2013. Web.
Charas, Lars. Supermarkets in 2025. 2012. Web.
Dunne, Patrick, Robert Lusch and James Carver. Retailing, Mason, USA: Cengage Learning, 2014. Print.
The retail grocery industry has increasingly become very attractive in the recent past. Many firms have realized that this industry is lucrative given the increase of the number of people looking for healthy foods. In order to understand the attractiveness of this industry, Porters five forces will be used.
The first force is the risk of entry by other potential competitors. This risk is relatively low because most firms these products highly perishable and therefore, prone to high risk if customers are not accessible in time. The bargaining power of the buyers is relatively low because they are convinced that such healthy foods are worth high prices.
They are always willing to pay such high prices. The bargaining power of the suppliers is also low because they are always striving to release these products while they are still fresh. They would try to avoid situation where they stay with the products for long because they can go at serious loss.
The threat of substitutes in this industry is extremely low. It is not easy for the customers to find a perfect replacement for these products. This makes retail grocery industry very attractive. Whole Foods is one of the leading firms in this industry.
The macro environment has a number of factors that affect the retail grocery industry in general, and Whole Foods in specific. The Political environment would dictate ease of doing business in this country. With political stability, the industry will have the needed security to conduct business.
The economic environment may also affect players in this industry. With economic recession, the industry may experience low sales because consumers will have less disposable income. As shown in the case, the economic environment is a main factor that has been considered to affect players in the industry.
The social environment may dictate the nature of products that players in this field may stock. Technology is coming out strongly as another important factor in the external environment. Environmental concern is another important factor. The Green Movement is a clear indication that consumers expect firms to be environmentally friendly.
Finally, the legal environment is a factor that must be considered in the external environment. In the internal environment, the financial position of a firm heavily affects its operations. A firm must understand its sales and the net income. The figure below shows the sales and net income of Whole Foods.
The figure above shows the sales made by this firm and the net income from the year 2005 to 2010. From the figures above, it is clear that this firm has been experiencing a steady increase in sales over the years.
Although the net income was a little unsteady, especially in 2008 and 2009, it started rising again in 2010. The slow rate of income in 2008 and 2009 can be attributed to the 2008/2009 economic recession in the country.
Based on the above findings, the main recommendation that the management should consider taking seriously is the need to increase its sales volume by going beyond its current market.
The management should consider moving to other European markets besides United Kingdom. China and India can also make very attractive market for this firm given the huge population they have. This will help in increasing their net income.
Retailers add value to goods and services. Hence, consumers prefer buying goods and services from retailers to buying from manufacturers. They add value through breaking bulk, offering a variety of products and services, providing services, and keeping records. All these undertakings ensure that consumers not only get value for their money but also access goods and services whenever they need them.
Favorite retailer
My favorite retailer is Wal-Mart. The reason I like this retailer is that it offers tailor-made products and services. Besides providing customized products and services, Wal-Mart also sells its products at low prices relative to its competitors. The retail performs most of the wholesaling activities, thus reducing the cost of its products and services. For competitive retail to get my patronage, it needs to demonstrate that it cares about my needs. The retail ought to offer quality products that meet my needs and also sell them at reasonable prices.
Benefits and limitations of purchasing home entertainment system from component manufacturers rather than the retailer
The primary advantage of purchasing a home entertainment system from component manufacturers is that one can understand the functionality of each component thus buying one that meets their desires. It is difficult for retailers to tell all the features of the products, especially if they are not involved in their manufacture. The limitation of buying an entertainment system from component manufacturers is that one would waste a lot of time moving from one manufacturer to another.
Intertype competitors for 7-eleven
Intertype competitors refer to businesses that offer similar products or operate in the same line of business. Some of the potential intertype competitors of 7-eleven include McDonald’s, Wal-Mart, Kroger, and Subway. All these companies focus on food products, mainly fast food, and, in some cases focus on the same target market. Firms are said to be intertype competitors if they operate in the same line of business and offer similar and competing products.
Wal-Mart’s contribution to the community
Every retailer has a duty to give back to society by partaking in one or more corporate social responsibilities. Wal-Mart is not an exception to this. The company contributes to the community by running campaigns aimed at fighting hunger as well as helping those faced with catastrophes like earthquakes. In 2011, the company donated $5 million to help earthquake and tsunami victims in Japan. The company is currently implementing policies aimed at exempting the low-income earners from incurring the cost attributed to value-added tax.
How people decide on the retail store to visit
People consider different factors before opting to visit particular retail stores. One of the reasons why an individual would prefer buying men’s suits from a specialty store to buying from a departmental store is the trust that the specialty store offers quality and customized products. The fact that specialty stores focus on a particular product or service makes consumers view them as providing quality products. Departmental stores offer quality products. However, it is hard to convince the consumer that he or she can get the same or even better product from a departmental store.
Comparison between the departmental store and discount store
Departmental store
Discount store
It offers its products at variable prices.
Departmental stores provide a variety of goods like cosmetics, clothing, toiletries, toys, and furniture.
Departmental stores are not price motivated.
It offers its products at discounted prices
The stores focus mainly on prices rather than the quality of services they offer.
Discount stores may concentrate on one particular product like electrical appliances or jewelry.
Evading middlemen
There are instances where retailers do not add value to the product. In such a case, manufacturers may sell their products to customers without involving retailers. For the case of pens, I would advise the entrepreneur to sell her pens directly to consumers. By doing this, she would be guaranteed that the pens are sold at an affordable price, which would boost her sales. Moreover, she would have an opportunity to come into contact with her potential customers thus getting first-hand feedback regarding the pens.
Retailing as a potential career
Retailing rates are high as a possible career relative to other job opportunities. It does not only require limited capital to start, but also offers a wide area to select. While one cannot be guaranteed securing an office job, he or she can be guaranteed earning a living by venturing into retailing. One needs only to identify a potential market and come up with products or services to satisfy the market.
Impacts of corporate social responsibility on stock value
Corporate social responsibility such as supporting local schools and participating in environmental conservation projects may help in raising the value of the stock of a retail store. Such an undertaking leads to consumers associating themselves with the store because they enjoy a share of its returns. Eventually, the store’s sales volume increases boosting its reputation. Apart from increased sales volume, engaging in corporate social responsibility helps the store to get consumer feedback regarding its products. Consequently, the store gets an opportunity to improve product and service delivery, thus consolidating its market. Such a store attracts potential investors making the value of its stock rise.
In Saudi Arabia, the retail business accounts for a large percentage and is very dynamic in the business industry. The business set up in the retail industry is seen by many as a success because of the friendly environment created by the various factors. For example, the country produces oil that makes it very strong economically when compared with other countries dealing with retail business at the global level. Research has shown that the retail market enjoyed a friendly environment created by the financial crisis in America through imported goods. The retailers also follow efficient strategies and business tips that enable them to survive in the competitive market. This includes advertisements that spend a lot of money annually as well as a close link to their customers.
Introduction
Retailing in Saudi Arabia comprises of selling of goods from a particular place such as shop as well as through posting and is normally done in small quantities by an individual who is usually the direct consumer. Other services that may accompany retailing include delivery of the goods. The one who purchases the goods can be a business or just an individual where goods are bought from importers or local manufacturers. The purchase can be direct as well as through a wholesaler where the same goods are later sold in reduced quantities to the final consumer. The whole process follows a chain that is characterized by the retailers completing the process and aggressive marketing along the chain to promote awareness of the goods as an important strategy. The outlet of the retail shops may be located near the residential areas or along major streets that may not be necessarily residential as well as shopping centers. However, most of the retail shops are located in the central business district and where they are located along the streets, they target pedestrians. With the recent form of technology introduced through the internet, much significant retailing in Saudi Arabia is going on online; better known as e-commerce or as non-shop. The main objective of shopping through retailing is a way of obtaining basic needs such as clothing and foodstuffs. Research however has shown that it can also be done as a form of recreational activity characterized by window shopping where the customer goes looking for the goods without buying, sometimes resulting in the prospective purchaser not buying the items at all (Gesteland, 1996).
The setting of retail prices
Studies have shown that the majority of retailers prefer cost-plus pricing to other techniques that are done through the addition of a mark-up percentage to the cost of the retailer and this determines the profit margin that the retailer is going to obtain. Another method of fixing the prices of the goods in the retailing market is through suggested pricing that is commonly done by the manufacturers and is characterized by the price of the commodity being marked on the sold product. This means the retailer has no chance of fixing his/her own price. Retail pricing in western countries is commonly known as psychological pricing where they are displayed on labels. Studies have shown that pricing can be discriminatory because of various reasons and this involves the retailer fixing particularly higher prices to some individuals while reducing the price for the same commodity for others especially if he/she realizes the willingness of the customer to buy the commodity is low. This is caused by a number of reasons such as determination of buyer’s wealth by the retailer and carelessness of the buyers as well as little knowledge about the price of the commodity by the buyer that may even be made worse if the buyer is too eager to have the commodity. Another commonly used practice in the fixing of the prices is to provide a discount to students as well as youths (Miller, 1980).
Transfer of goods in retailing
A consumer of goods may have goods of interest from the retailer through a number of mechanisms that are designed to fit the status quo of the prospective buyers. One of such mechanisms is counter service where the buyer is not in a position to obtain the goods he/she wants and has to rely on the seller. Goods that are normally transferred through this mechanism are those that are small but expensive such as jewelry as well as controlled goods such as drugs and alcohol. This mechanism was very popular in the US before 1900 and research has shown that it is still popular in some countries. Another mechanism used for goods’ transfer is known as self-service where the buyer has the opportunity to handle the goods of his/her interest sometime before he/she makes the decision to buy the good. This method has gained popularity for close to a hundred years now. The delivery mechanism is another form of transfer where the commodity is transported directly to the final user in his/her place of residence or workplace. The mechanism makes use of mail orders or a telephone call based on the advertised goods in the catalog as well as from other forms of advertisements such as newspapers and television. Online shopping has gained popularity in Saudi Arabia as well as globally since 2000. The person directly involved in the sale of the goods may also decide to travel with the goods from door-to-door and this does not require the end-user to have ordered the goods (Katakura, 1977).
Types of a retail building in Saudi Arabia
The retail market refers to the place where most of the customers meet to make a common buying or selling of goods. Most of the retail markets are located in the town squares or along busy streets and do not have to necessarily include permanent structures and therefore most of them are in form of stalls. However, retail buildings having been changing in design over time where initially, the stalls could handle just one type of article in a covered marketplace that was mostly adjacent to the producer. Today, it is common to find several shops adjacent to each other and selling different articles in a general store. In such cases, prices of goods are usually fixed to minimize the problem of haggling and enhance browsing (Shankarmahesh, 1990).
Genres in retailing
This refers to the mode of operation of the retail shops such as the type of goods being sold. For example, a retail shop could be selling specifically new or second-hand commodities especially if it is a profit-making retail shop. If the shop is non-profit, individuals may volunteer to donate different commodities to a particular shop for sale or to be given for free. The retail shops could also be functioning on a consignment basis where people place items in them and if they happen to be sold, the owner of the shop benefits from a certain percentage of the profit generated. This form of the genre is advantageous in that, the shop exposes the available goods to more able buyers (Hassan, 1994).
Techniques of retail selling
Research has shown that there are several factors that are considered in retail selling other than just selling. In Saudi Arabia, owners of big corporations share similar characteristics where they try to beat their competitors through massive advertisement. They hire companies that are popular in merchandising solutions to design for the displays that are workable for the best advertisement in their stores. This is aimed at attracting a large number of buyers through a particular demographic and the retailers end up spending a lot of capital in this strategy alone on yearly basis. The program for the promotion however has to match the season and so it keeps on changing with the change in the products. Studies have shown that retailers may even go to an extent of using facing in order to bring a new outlook for the available goods even when this is not real. Another technique commonly used in retail selling is where a group of customers will agree to make a common visit to the particular shop that could be acting as an anchor mall supplying smaller retailers (Attia, 1999).
Trends of retailing in Saudi Arabia
The insight of the retailing market in Saudi Arabia highlights the major issues affecting the retail industry such as retail channels in the sector. These channels are made of department stores, a retailer in food products as well as health and cosmetic products, clothing, furniture, and retail goods for households. There are well-established profiles of major retailers that provide analysis of their performance as well as their challenges in the retail market. Retailing in Saudi Arabia comprises alternate channels such as kiosks, online retailing, shopping at home as well as service stations. Research has shown that the Saudi retail business is among the largest retail industries and is very dynamic in the market. As far as the current values are concerned, they reached the peak of the retail industry in 2007 which was far beyond the past records. The fact that Saudi Arabia is an oil-producing country has contributed significantly towards the growth of the economy in comparison with other countries in the world. Currently, the economy is enjoying the increase in the price of oils at the global level. The retail market industry has also been favored by the socio-demographic factor where the growth of the population is estimated at 3% in 2007. The increase in the cost of fuel has been seen as the major factor favoring the retail market. Research shows that this affected to a great extent most of the imported goods such as groceries as well as other products. Statistics from the central department have revealed that the rate of inflation was recorded as the highest since 1999 where it reached 3% in 2007. This sudden increase in the retail prices was caused by a decline in the value of the dollar which has a great influence on the Saudi riyal. This consequently increased the price of goods that were imported from Europe. Research has shown that the retail market in Saudi Arabia continued to enjoy a favorable environment from other hidden factors that impacted positively on the general market. Some of these factors included a review in legislation in early 2007 in retail trade that paved a friendly path to investments in foreign countries. Disposable income from per capita also increased, real state industry started to experience booming and the majority of giant retailers designed aggressive plans to expand their business in the course of the year (Gesteland, 1996).
Effects of the strong gains by major retailers
Studies have indicated that strong gains are associated with a faster concentration process in Saudi Arabia. The retailing market has consequently become fragmented with a characterization of single-outlet channels being witnessed in major retailing markets and independent grocers. This has also spilled to a specialist in food as well as retailers in personal goods and leisure. However, a close analysis of the trend shown by past review in the previous years, 2007 experienced more gains with giant retailers operating chained outlets and this increased concentration process. Among the major dynamic retailers that lend in the market were: Azizia panda, Al Bandar trading, Axiom telecom Al Sawani group. These retailers enjoyed strong gains because they were aggressive in expanding their business by increasing the volume of outlets and thus the space for selling their goods (Miller, 1980).
Contribution by non-grocery retailers
In 2007, retailers dealing with non-grocery goods also had a continuous share of the favorable retailing business where studies have shown that they registered even higher gains than those dealing with grocery. A higher percentage of the non-grocery retailers dealt with clothing as well as footwear, household furniture, and non-perishable goods such as leisure products. This kind of goods brought a high-profit margin because of the booming experience in real estate as well as aggressive expansion by the major retailers. In the majority of shopping malls, a lot of influence is being felt from key players of multinational as well as local brands such as Mothercare, Esprit, and next that are dealing with fashions in clothing. An increase in per capita income is also creating a friendly environment for these shopping malls owned by the majority of Saudis. Another contributing factor for the booming business in the retails business in Saudi Arabia especially for non-grocery goods was the high demand for mobile phones, laptops, and many other recently discovered technology goods (Katakura, 1977).
Retail business forecast in Saudi Arabia
The projected growth in the sale of products in the retail project by the year 2012 is expected to exceed 5% per annum. This sudden growth in the retail market will proportionately increase the spending power as well as impact positive progress in the living standards of many people. Research has shown that this will consequently make major retailers expand their industries. Most of the citizens of Saudi Arabia are therefore likely to have more buying power through an increased workforce and increased establishment of shopping malls as well as hypermarkets. There is also a high likelihood of an increased number of retailers dealing with durable goods and expansion of furniture stores. All these stores have extensive spaces and this continues to increase every year in Saudi Arabia (Shankarmahesh, 1990).
Tips aimed at increasing retail sales
Sometimes retailers face what is commonly known as a slump because of factors that are beyond their control and also because of seasonal sales as well as a reduction in foot traffic. However, the retailers in Saudi Arabia normally make use of the following tips to survive during such times. First, they advertise more especially at times when sales seem to be declining to match with the market competition. Another tip normally used is to create a buzz anytime something noteworthy takes place within the retail business. This is done by sending the concerned information to the media houses with an intention to influence them to have free coverage if the media finds it necessary. This can also be enhanced through more participation in community events such as organizing community classes and several meetings in the retail shops.
Most retailers in Saudi Arabia normally consider a close analysis of their strategies in pricing whenever they purchase products. They ensure the cost of goods is properly considered and the concerned retail shops have the capacity to generate a high-profit margin through the same price that has been fixed. The cost of the fast-moving goods is made competitive while at the same time the retailers ensure that they are profitable. However, research has shown that the right price is that which is affordable to the majority of the final consumers of the products because they increase the will of the customers to have the products.
Studies have shown that the design of a particular retail store has a great impact on the number of sales that are made within a given time. Most retail markets benefit from the opportunities provided by the strategies of cross-merchandize as well as opportunities for impulse sale. Other important tips that can greatly impact the designing of the retail stores include good lighting as well as creativity in the display of the products because studies have shown that, this attracts a lot of customers. In addition to this, the product’s education is enhanced through the use of videos and other forms of entertainment for the customers as well as any other promotional tactic (Hassan, 1994).
Conclusion
Retailers ensure that they are well linked to their customers for efficient delivery of excellent service to them as a way of increasing the volume of sales within a short time. The link also enables the retailers to give attention to their customers and satisfy their needs all the time. It is also common to find all the retailers making effort to appreciate the business with their customers as well as letting them know about how they recognize their contribution to the business. Research has also indicated that retailers in Saudi Arabia go an extra mile to educate their customers on the various issues regarding the products they are dealing with including their usage. This link with the customers by the retailers is enhanced if the customers are provided with a mailing list in which they fill their contact details. For a successful retail business, it is also very important for the retailer to ensure that the business money is managed properly although this is normally assumed by most people who think it is an obvious step in any business. This is important because sometimes the retailers are too busy with major activities regarding the business ignoring minor details of their business through which they end up failing to account for some financial transactions. To avoid such occurrences, retailers are advised to prepare budgets because this is the only way that they can account for every cent spent as well as having a good follow-up of the cash flow.
References
Gesteland R. (1996): Cross-cultural Business Behavior: Handelshojskolens Forlag pp. 46-53
Miller A. (1980): Saudi Arabian Oil and American Foreign Policy: University of North Carolina Press pp. 34-38
Katakura M. (1977): A Study of a Saudi Arabian People in Transition: University of Tokyo Press pp. 29-333
Shankarmahesh C. (1990): footwear exports in the semi periphery: Greenwood Press pp. 67-73
Hassan S. (1994): Global Marketing: Perspectives and Cases Dryden Press pp. 97-103
Attia A. (1999): Marketing ethics: a comparison of American and Middle-Eastern marketers: Elsevier pp. 49-54
