Does your product business feel unpredictable, slightly terrifying, and hungry for money? If so, you're not alone. Retail is the fastest growing small business sector, and for good reason. With accessible selling technology and billions of people shopping online, reaching your ideal customer is easier than ever before. But the truth is that making money in a product business is harder than it first appears. And without profits, your business becomes incredibly difficult to manage and almost impossible to grow. Fortunately for you, big retailers have spent decades developing methods of monitoring profit margins, forecasting and growing sales and managing stock to maximise their bottom line. In this book, small-business retail expert Catherine Erdly shows you how to easily apply those big business tools and perspectives to understand your business, get clear on what you need to do to grow profitably, and, ultimately, tame your tiger.

Retailing in the countries of Asia Pacific is changing dramatically. Changes which took decades, even centuries, elsewhere are happening in a few years. The growth of larger firms and the arrival of international retailers are changing the business landscape, bringing the consistent supply and presentation of wider ranges of goods to consumers, and leading to the development of new kinds of retail stores and modern shopping malls, often in new locations. All of these developments are important for economic growth and for consumers and their lifestyles, They raise questions for governments about foreign investment, about social and environmental change, and about the fate of traditional retailers. This book examines the trends, seeking to understand how far they are global and how local circumstances affect developments. International retailers have spread across the region, but not always successfully. Studies in several countries look at their processes of growth and some of the reasons for success and failure. A review of changing regulation across the region suggests regulators should be concerned to avoid the problems of overconcentration of retail power, and country studies reflect on the effects of regulation as well as cultural and other influences on change.

This book was published as a special issue of Asia Pacific Business Review.

ED-L2L, Learning to Live in the Knowledge Society, is one of the co-located conferences of the 20th World Computer Congress (WCC2008). The event is organized under the auspices of IFIP (International Federation for Information Processing) and is to be held in Milan from 7th to 10th September 2008. ED-L2L is devoted to themes related to ICT for education in the knowledge society. It provides an international forum for professionals from all continents to discuss research and practice in ICT and education. The event brings together educators, researchers, policy makers, curriculum designers, teacher educators, members of academia, teachers and content producers. ED-L2L is organised by the IFIP Technical Committee 3, Education, with the support of the Institute for Educational Technology, part of the National Research Council of Italy. The Institute is devoted to the study of educational innovation brought about through the use of ICT. Submissions to ED-L2L are published in this conference book. The published papers are devoted to the published conference themes: Developing digital literacy for the knowledge society: information problem solving, creating, capturing and transferring knowledge, commitment to lifelong learning Teaching and learning in the knowledge society, playful and fun learning at home and in the school New models, processes and systems for formal and informal learning environments and organisations Developing a collective intelligence, learning together and sharing knowledge ICT issues in education - ethics, equality, inclusion and parental role Educating ICT professionals for the global knowledge society Managing the transition to the knowledge society

Paco Underhill, the Margaret Mead of shopping and author of the huge international bestseller Why We Buy--praised by The New York Times as "a book that gives this underrated skill the respect it deserves"--now takes us to The Mall, a place every American has experienced and has an opinion about. The result is a bright, ironic, funny, and shrewd portrait of the mall--America's gift to personal consumption, its most powerful icon of global commercial muscle, the once new and now aging national town square, the place where we convene in our leisure time. It's about the shopping mall as an exemplar of our commercial and social culture, the place where our young people have their first taste of social freedom, and where the rest of us compare notes. Call of the Mall examines how we use the mall, what it means, why it works when it does, and why it sometimes doesn't.

A cantankerously funny view of books and the people who love them. It does take all kinds and through the misanthropic eyes of a very grumpy bookseller, we see them all--from the "Person Who Doesn't Know What They Want (But Thinks It Might Have a Blue Cover)" to the "Parents Secretly After Free Childcare." From behind the counter, Shaun Bythell catalogs the customers who roam his shop in Wigtown, Scotland. There's the Expert (divided into subspecies from the Bore to the Helpful Person), the Young Family (ranging from the Exhausted to the Aspirational), Occultists (from Conspiracy Theorist to Craft Woman). Then there's the Loiterer (including the Erotica Browser and the Self-Published Author), the Bearded Pensioner (including the Lyrca Clad), and the The Not-So-Silent Traveller (the Whistler, Sniffer, Hummer, Farter, and Tutter). Two bonus sections include Staff and, finally, Perfect Customer--all add up to one of the funniest book about books you'll ever find. Shaun Bythell (author of Confessions of a Bookseller) and his mordantly unique observational eye make this perfect for anyone who loves books and bookshops. "Bythell is having fun and it's infectious."--Scotsman "Virtuosic venting ... misanthropy with bursts of sweetness." Guardian "All the ingredients for a gentle human comedy are here, as soothing as a bag of boiled sweets and just as tempting to dip into."--Literary Review "Any reader finding this book in their stocking on Christmas morning should feel lucky...contains plenty to amuse--an excellent diversion"--Bookmunch

This volume is a collection of selected papers using the framework of inframarginal analysis of the division of labour held at Monash University on 6-7 July 2001. This framework, pioneered mainly by Professor Xiaokai Yang, (with joint researches involving all the three editors and many of the authors), has been recommended by Professor James Buchanan (Nobel Laureate in Economics) as the most important analysis in economics in the world today.

Learn the how, when, and why of entering Asian markets Retailers entering Asia are faced with not only a consumer and retail culture very different from their own, but with a variety of cultures that vary greatly among countries within the continent. International Retailing Plans and Strategies in Asia examines the strategies of Western retailers entering into Asian markets and provides specific case examples showing why some companies have failed in Asiaas well as factors that helped others succeed. Important concepts for international retailers exploring Asian markets are clearly explained, and the material is particularly relevant to current WTO and UNCTAD debates about the globalization of retail markets. Helpful tables, charts, and illustrations make complex information easy to access and understand. International Retailing Plans and Strategies in Asia examines: how foreign investment influences domestic retail systems how strategies for entering European markets can be adapted and applied to various Asian markets the important practice of incorporating local cultural values into trading relationships in Asian markets the investment of Japanese retailers in China and the trend toward internationalization in Asia by Asian retailers the evolution of foreign investment in Koreawith a look at foreign firms' specific investment strategies issues of local competition and the need for foreign firms to adapt to local consumer cultures, particularly as analyzed in case studies of Metro Cash and Carry, Toys R Us, and Carrefour what understanding foreign markets means in terms of adaptation and success for retailers and wholesalers The material in these pages will help to inform business decisions about how to (and how not to) enter foreign markets and whether or not it is proper for governments to intervene. The chapters in this book, originally presented as papers at a workshop held at Chung-Ang University in Seoul in November 2003, address issues of diversity in international retailing and distribution in Asia. International Retailing Plans and Strategies in Asia is designed to be essential reading for international marketing students, retail researchers, business managers, and policymakers, and to be a useful addition to university business school library collections.

International Retail Marketing combines a broad thematic overview of the key issues concerning international retail marketing with a series of incisive cases and examples of industry practice from markedly different sectors as fashion, food and healthcare. The authors provide an accessible and wide-ranging outline of the fundamentals of the subject, such as trends in retail marketing, strategy and logistics, and buying and merchandise management within an international perspective. Contributions from Europe, North America and Asia show the dynamics affecting international retailing through a variety of case. Key discussion points are highlighted throughout the text, giving a hands-on focus.

Despite the rapid surge of new product introductions into the grocery product distribution system, relatively little is known about the process and acceptance criteria of trade buyers. In this work, Edward McLaughlin and Vithala Rao examine the crucial role played by trade buyers, and its place in the success of new product introduction. Their study integrates scholarly research and industry information as it explores the various processes used by manufacturers and trade intermediaries in developing and introducing new products.

The book begins with a background survey of the overall structure of U.S. grocery distribution, along with a discussion of the key participants in new product introduction and their standard operating procedures. A broad framework for analyzing new product introductions is presented, and various methodologies that are useful in the process are explained. This is followed by an account of the extensive research conducted by the authors, focusing on new product acceptance by trade buyers, and drawn from three sources: publicly available information, survey data of actual buyer decisions, and buyer decisions based on hypothetical descriptions of new products. The statistical results on the relative importance of decision criteria are used to develop several management tools, including an expert system. The work concludes with a discussion of the implications of these results for marketing managers, procurement executives, and public policy makers. This book will be an important reference tool for practitioners involved in product procurement, as well as for students of marketing and sales.

It explains why we have more than a hundred more record shops than we had in 2009, and how others have gained the reward from their hard work. Budget turntables, manufactures, supermarkets, chain stores, clothes shops, pressing plants and even the government are amongst the many who have benefited from their efforts. Graham Jones has spent 32 years travelling the UK selling to independent record shops and visited more record shops than any other human. This book guides you around the record shops of the UK who sell new vinyl. He has gathered some fascinating and funny anecdotes told him by our much-loved record shop staff so that when you visit you will feel like you already know the characters behind the counters. It is perfect for vinyl fans to keep with them on their travels around the country.

Japanese retailing has long been regarded as traditional or even backwards when in reality it has constantly demonstrated its innovation and dynamism. This book highlights these developments by looking at: innovations and underlying driving forces; responses of Japanese retailers to deregulation; increasing competition; changes in consumer behavior; and internationalization during the 1990s. All of these factors are analyzed through a thorough investigation of innovative activity from the 1950s onwards.

I3E 2001 is the first in a series of conferences on e-commerce, e-business, and- government organised by the three IFIP committees TC6, TC8, and TC11. It provides a forum, where users, engineers, and scientists from academia, industry, and government can present their latest findings in e-commerce, e-business, and- government applications and the underlying technology to support those applications. The conference comprises a main track and mini tracks dedicated to special topics. The papers presented in the main track were rigorously refereed and selected by the International Programme Committee of the conference. Thematically they were grouped in the following sessions: - Sessions on security and trust, comprising nine papers referring to both trust and security in general as well as presenting specific concepts for enhancing trust in the digital society. - Session on inter-organisational transactions, covering papers related to auditing of inter-organizational trade procedures, cross-organizational workflow and transactions in Business to Business platforms. - Session on virtual enterprises, encompassing papers describing innovative approaches for creating virtual enterprises as well as describing examples of virtual enterprises in specific industries. - Session on online communities containing three papers, which provide case studies of specific online communities and various concepts on how companies can build and harness the potential of online communities. - Sessions on strategies and business models with papers describing specific business models as well as general overviews of specific approaches for E- Strategy formulation.

The retail industry is under significant pressure. Not only are retailers grappling with rising costs, but they are trying to keep up with rapidly changing consumer behaviours, technological advancements and ever-increasing competition. To win, retailers today have to learn how to serve customers equally well both on and offline. This means integrating the physical seamlessly with the digital and creating something that is flawlessly omnichannel as, more than ever, customers are seeking convenient, personalized and unified shopping experiences, regardless of when or where they choose to engage. An omnichannel approach to retail delivers the potential to boost footfall, enhance customer insight, improve service, grow loyalty and ultimately drive sales. Omnichannel Retail serves as a practical guide for businesses on how they can better serve customers to fuel their growth by harnessing the opportunity that being digitally enabled and data-driven brings. This fully updated new edition explains how to build engaging loyalty schemes, deliver personalized marketing and how to maximize the power of customer data. Featuring case studies from omnichannel leaders worldwide such as Asda, Woolworths Australia, Target and Pret A Manger, this book provides tangible and proven examples of how retailers can capitalize on the opportunity that our hyper-connected and always-on world presents.

First published in 1998. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

First Published in 1998. This is Volume XV of the eighteen in the Sociology of Work and Organization series and this book on The Shops of Britain follows the author's publication on Retail Trade Associations, a new form of monopolist organization in Britain. After the book had been completed, the Report of the Census of Distribution Committee, published in March 1946, urged the necessity of providing more statistical information about the distributive trades. One of the purposes of this book is to display how complex the structure of retailing is and to show that it is dependent on a great variety of economic, social, occupational and sociological factors which cannot be adequately assessed without a comparative analysis of all the various trades concerned with retailing.

When people think of a grocery store, they have a multitude of images from a neighborhood shop on the corner to the modern-day supermarket. The grocery store has had a rich history, as business conditions have contributed to changes in both its economic and its architectural character. This book provides a history of the grocery store. Beginning with the public markets and general stores of our early cities and the general stores of small towns and hinterlands, this volume traces the evolution of the all-purpose grocery store with the advent of mass distribution, the growth of the supermarket, and the present-day convenience stores, co-ops, warehouse markets, hypermarkets, and wholesale clubs.

This book provides a comprehensive overview of digital trends, innovations, and strategies in fashion retailing. As consumers adopt new technologies and ways of shopping, fashion brands are constantly looking for ways to innovate and achieve digital transformation. Combining theory with practice, the authors take a deep dive into the impact of digital technologies on fashion brands communication and social media strategies; on consumer behaviour and customer participation strategies; and on entrepreneurship and e-tailing strategies. The book covers topics such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), fashion recommender systems, virtual fitting rooms, customer models, gamification, online shopping, mobile-shopping, videogames, digital media and virtual worlds. The book also explores the concepts of cocreation, storytelling and interactivity in real-life crowdfunding campaigns and in the digital world. Bringing a cutting-edge insight into the state of the fashion business, this book will help scholars and practitioners in fashion retailing, discover how to digitalise and gamify products, services, experiences and open new enterprising avenues through innovative strategies, leadership and management.

How can retail brand power be built and maintained? What are the implications of this for 'producer brands' like Coca-Cola? How will retailing look in the twenty-first century? This book sets out strategies and implementation programmes for building strong brands in retailing, to create competitive differentiation and superior financial returns. It begins with an analysis of how retail and 'own label' brands have leap-frogged traditional producer brands. The authors argue that this is changing the consumer goods industry. To meet these new challenges, the book sets out action plans and examines branding strategies in a number of different market sectors. It also uses analysis and case-studies from around the world, particularly the USA, Europe and Japan.

This write-in workbook is an invaluable resource to help students improve their Maths and English skills and help prepare for Level 1 and Level 2 Functional Skills exams. The real-life questions are all written with a Retail context to help students find essential Maths and English theory understandable, engaging and achievable. Written by Carole Vella, a lecturer with a wealth of experience in the Retail and Business Administration industry, this workbook is an invaluable resource to support Maths and English learning in the classroom, at work and for personal study at home.

Since 1985, the process of European unification has accelerated. Physical, technical, and fiscal barriers that separate the 12 countries are being removed, creating the largest mass market in the world. However, the market is not a homogeneous one. Cultural differences still exist; language barriers remain. If there is a Euro-retailer it will be a Euro-retailer that communicates in many languages, anticipates the unique tastes of countless cultures, and maximizes the economies of scale in production to offer the most attractive and unique merchandise at competitive price points.

Distribution logistics within each country are presented along with case studies of major retailers. Internationalization strategies and strategic alliances of retail companies are analyzed. The return of German retailers to the former GDR and distribution opportunities within Eastern Europe are highlighted. Extensive use of on-line financial reports produced by major security offices provide the most current information about this dynamic industry.