Retailers must be primed to face increasingly difficult trading conditions thanks to the rise of the internet, increasingly better informed consumers, technological advances and an often competitive environment. This established textbook, now in its third edition, helps to provide students with the necessary skills to understand and tackle these challenges. Retail Product Management explains the importance of retailing as a customer-focused activity and helps to provide students of courses such as "Retail Marketing", "Retail Management" and "The Retail Environment" with an excellent introduction to this important topic. With an emphasis on the operational side, this text incorporates features including expanded case vignettes, questions for further discussion, and application tasks. It also includes a new chapter on ethical and sustainable retail product management. Retaining the popular style and elements of the first two editions, Rosemary Varley's Retail Product Management will continue to find favour with students and lecturers involved with retailing.

..".Extraordinary: Gibbs has popped the hood and taken apart the engine of commercial design and development, showing us each individual part and explaining fit, form and function."--Yaromir Steiner, Founder, Chief Executive Officer, Steiner + Associates

..".the most comprehensive and expansive book ever written on the subject of Retail Real Estate Development. Gibbs is by far the most prominent advocate for reforming retail planning and development in order to return American cities to economic and physical prominence."-Stefanos Polyzoides, Moule & Polyzoides Architects & UrbanistsThe retail environment has evolved rapidly in the past few decades, with the retailing industry and its placement and design of "brick-and-mortar" locations changing with evolving demographics, shopping behavior, transportation options and a desire in recent years for more unique shopping environments.

Written by a leading expert, this is a guide to planning for retail development for urban planners, urban designers and architects. It includes an overview of history of retail design, a look at retail and merchandising trends, and principles for current retail developments.

"Principles of Urban Retail Planning and Development" will: Provide insight and techniques necessary for historic downtowns and new urban communities to compete with modern suburban shopping centers. Promote sustainable community building and development by making it more profitable for the shopping center industry to invest in historic cities or to develop walkable urban communities. Includes case studies of recent good examples of retail development

Climate change represents the most important environmental challenge of our time. Organisations are responding by implementing governance processes and taking action to reduce their own emissions and the emissions from their supply chains and value chains. Yet very little is known about how these efforts contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions (if, indeed, they make any substantive contribution at all) or about how they might be harnessed to deliver more ambitious reductions in emissions. This book explains when and where particular forms of governance intervention - including internal governance processes and external governance pressures - are likely to impact climate change. From this analysis, it offers practical proposals on the climate policy frameworks that need to be in place to facilitate or accelerate changes in corporate behaviour. The book is truly global: it focuses on the world's 25 largest retailers (including Walmart, Tesco, Carrefour, Sears and Aldi) and is based on detailed interviews with senior managers from these corporations, and with key global and national NGOs, corporate responsibility experts, politicians and regulators. These interviews provide clear insights into how external governance pressures and actions (public opinion, regulation, incentives) interact with internal governance conditions (management systems and processes, corporate policies, board/CEO leadership) to change and shape corporate actions on climate change and, in turn, the climate change impacts of these corporations. This book can be used as a core reference for any courses dealing with corporate governance and business strategy, in particular those relating to climate change and to environmental management more generally. It is also of relevance to business practitioners, public policy makers, investors and NGOs interested in ensuring that companies play a constructive role in the transition to a low-carbon economy.

This major two volume collection presents some of the most influential theoretical and empirical papers on the economic theory of auctions. Auction theory has been the basis of fundamental theoretical work in industrial economics, public economics, labour economics and finance, and has helped the understanding of price formation in markets. There has recently been an explosion of interest in its practical applications, especially in organising the sale of government assets (for example, treasury bonds, radio spectrum licenses, and firms to be privatised) and in developing new markets for electricity and transport. Because auctions are such simple and well defined environments, they provide a valuable testing ground for economic theory that has been increasingly exploited in empirical work. The book will also include important previously unpublished papers by P.R. Milgrom, R. Weber and A. Ortega-Reichert, and other hard-to-find papers by W. Vickery and others.

Wal-Mart is America's largest retailer. The national chain of stores is a powerful stand-in of both the promise and perils of free market capitalism. Yet it is also often the target of public outcry for its labor practices, to say nothing of class-action lawsuits, and a central symbol in America's increasingly polarized political discourse over consumption, capitalism and government regulations. In many ways the battle over Wal-Mart is the battle between "Main Street" and "Wall Street" as the fate of workers under globalization and the ability of the private market to effectively distribute precious goods like health care take center stage. In Wal-Mart Wars, Rebekah Massengill shows that the economic debates are not about dollars and cents, but instead represent a conflict over the deployment of deeper symbolic ideas about freedom, community, family, and citizenship. Wal-Mart Wars argues that the family is not just a culture wars issue to be debated with regard to same-sex marriage or the limits of abortion rights; rather, the family is also an idea that shapes the ways in which both conservative and progressive activists talk about economic issues, and in the process, construct different moral frameworks for evaluating capitalism and its most troubling inequalities. With particular attention to political activism and the role of big business to the overall economy, Massengill shows that the fight over the practices of this multi-billion dollar corporation can provide us with important insight into the dreams and realities of American capitalism.Rebekah Peeples Massengillis a Lecturer in the Department of Sociology at Princeton University.

A collection of Eleanor Crow's beautiful watercolours of classic shopfronts. Published in partnership with Spitalfields Life Books, this timely volume celebrates the small neighbourhood shops of London. As our high streets decline into generic monotony, we cherish these independent shops and family businesses that enrich the city with their characterful frontages and distinctive typography. This collection includes more than 100 of Eleanor Crow's fine illustrations of the capital's bakers, cafes, butchers, fishmongers, greengrocers, chemists, launderettes, hardware stores, eel & pie shops, bookshops and stationers. The pictures are accompanied by the stories of the shops, their history and their shopkeepers - stretching all the way from Chelsea in the west to Bethnal Green, Clerkenwell and Walthamstow in the east. As well as beloved old and lost shopfronts, there are some recent examples of new shops that have been beautifully designed too - from cheesemongers to chippies. At a time of momentous change in the high street, this witty and fascinating personal survey champions the enduring culture of Britain's small shops.

Onlinehandler haben in den letzten Jahren massiv an Popularitat gewonnen und dadurch weite Teile des stationaren Handels in eine existenzielle Krise gesturzt. Um gegenuber dem Onlinehandel bestehen zu koennen, mussen stationare Geschafte sich ihres einzigartigen Potenzials zur Ansprache nicht-digitalisierbarer Kundenbedurfnisse bewusstwerden und Verkaufsumgebungen in Orte des Erlebnisses sowie der Entdeckung verwandeln. Ein wesentlicher Baustein hierfur ist die gezielte Schaffung sensorischer Erfahrungen, welche zum Eintreten und Verweilen in der Verkaufsumgebung motivieren. Aber wie? Um diese Frage zu beantworten, verschafft dieser Band der Reihe "Science meets Practice" Einblicke in die neuesten Forschungsergebnisse aus dem sensorischen Marketing zum Sehen, Hoeren und Riechen. Die Autoren beschreiben die teils uberraschenden Effekte sensorischer Eindrucke auf das Konsumentenverhalten und geben klare Empfehlungen fur die Marketingpraxis. Video per App: einfach die SN More Media App kostenfrei herunterladen, einen Link mit dem Play-Button scannen und sofort das Video auf Smartphone oder Tablet ausspielen. Der Inhalt Neueste Forschungsergebnisse zu Multisensorik im Einzelhandel Konkrete Hinweise, wie visuelle, auditive und olfaktorische Reize wirken Low hanging fruits: Wie kann die sensorische Verkaufsumgebung unmittelbar und mit Hilfe einfacher Anpassungen verbessert werden? High hanging fruits: Wie sollte eine multisensorisch abgestimmte Umgebung aussehen, um eine maximale Wirkung zu erreichen? Videos mit Experteninterviews

Dieses Buch ist eine kompakte Einfuhrung in das Duftmarketing und bietet Marketing-Verantwortlichen, die ihrem Unternehmen bzw. ihren Marken ein unverwechselbares Duftprofil verleihen moechten, zahlreiche pragmatische Hilfestellungen fur die Umsetzung. Es geht darum, mit Hilfe von Duftstoffen den Absatz von Produkten und Dienstleistungen positiv zu beeinflussen bzw. zu steigern, als auch das Markenimage und die Kundenbindung zu starken. Paul Steiner liefert fur die Unternehmenspraxis wichtige Ansatzpunkte zur olfaktorischen Gestaltung von Marken, die durch konkrete Beispiele - Singapore Airlines und MINI - illustriert werden. Interviews mit renommierten Experten aus Wissenschaft und Praxis runden das Buch ab. Der Inhalt Wahrnehmung und Wirkung olfaktorischer Reize Markenrecht - Die Duftmarke Duftmarketing Praxisbeispiele olfaktorischer Marken Ausblick Experteninterviews

Looking for a marketing book that ...Tells it like it is?... Can help you keep up in an ever changing world?... Is the right fit no matter your business type or size?
Mommy, Where Do Customers Come From? covers all aspects of marketing and selling products and services to a new breed of customer. Customers have become less loyal, more demanding and have more choices. With the proliferation of vehicles such as the Internet, Email, BLOGs, Podcasts and others, reaching the right customer with the right message is harder than ever before. Mommy, Where Do Customers Come From? deals with these issues and breaks down barriers like no other marketing book.
Helping businesses decipher and deal with this changing online landscape and its effects on the ever changing customer is the purpose of this book. Allowing a business of any size, location or type to not only understand when something needs to be done, but what that something is and what the outcome should be.
Mommy, Where Do Customers Come From? puts the business back in control of the message that is in front of its customers. Empowering readers to take action by taking an active role in the understanding and execution of their visible details. In this book, we strip away the nonsense from the common sense to uncover connective marketing messages that allow businesses to create what they really need the most sales.

Social media has grown up. What started just a few years ago as a quirky new way to find people, discuss events and connect has since woven itself into the fabric of our lives. 2 BILLION+ people now use social media on a regular basis as their single source for news, to research everything from cars to homes to burritos, to find, meet and marry and to connect and become part of the communities behind their favorite brands and companies. With so much competition it is difficult to stand out through the noise. In "Will the Real You Please Stand Up", leading social media expert Kim Garst shares with you the tips, tricks and techniques that have helped her rise to, and stay at the top of the social media world. However, this is NOT a "how to" book on social media. It is something much more powerful. It is a guided journey to discovering the most unstoppable force in nature, something which you already have but just don't know how to harness and unleash...

What Does it Take to Be an Online Rockstar JVZoo is an amazing resource for entrepreneurs to turn their knowledge into digital products and recruit hundreds or thousands in their field to promote those products. Whether you are a business consultant, lawyer, real estate agent, or even someone who knows how to build the perfect birdhouse, JVZoo allows you to put your knowledge into a format that can be sold and profited from. While the rest of the world looks for jobs, JVZoo's members create their own. In the three years that JVZoo has been around, it's members have generated over $100 million in sales revenue. Our members are mainly people who started making money online as a part-time venture. Rockstars of JVZoo is a compilation of case studies, written by people just like you, people who listened to their inner voices and created jobs for themselves. Everything you are about to read in this book has been achieved by ordinary people who did that one thing that separates entrepreneurs from the rest of society: they took action.

Written by marketing experts, this authoritative and comprehensive full-colour textbook made up of both accessible research and theory, real-world examples and case studies including Prada, Gucci and Burberry, provides students with an overview of the global fashion industry and fashion marketing, strategy, branding, communications, retailing and distribution, as well as the psychological factors involved in consuming fashion and luxury. The role of social media, celebrities and influencers such as Kim Kardashian and Lil Miquela are discussed, as is the ever-increasing role of ethical fashion and sustainability. The authors also offer an expanded view of fashion and luxury by moving beyond just clothing and apparel to include other fashionable and luxurious products and services, including technology. Packed with attractive visuals from fashion and culture, and accompanied by chapter summaries, questions and exercises, this textbook is essential reading for students studying fashion, luxury, marketing, management, retailing, branding and communications. Also provided for educators are supporting PowerPoint slides and an instructor's manual to support use of the textbook with students. Suitable for Fashion Marketing/Fashion Consumer Behaviour modules as well as a general text for Fashion Marketing programmes. The text will also appeal to Luxury programmes (MBA etc) and Retail Marketing modules (UG).

Die Automation von Marketing und Sales ist in Zukunft erfolgsentscheidend. Nur so koennen B2B-Unternehmen dem Wettbewerbsdruck weiterhin standhalten. Doch der Aufbau eines digitalen Marketing- und Salesprozesses ist aufwendig und komplex und stellt insbesondere kleinere B2B-Unternehmen vor die herausfordernde Frage: Wie kann die Digitalisierung moeglichst kosteneffizient vorangetrieben werden? Anhand von Erfahrungswerten aus uber 100 B2B-Digitalisierungsprojekten haben Laura Mader und Marc Gasser das Modell der digitalen B2B-Roadmap entwickelt - eine Schritt-fur-Schritt-Anleitung fur die Planung, Steuerung und Skalierung von digitalem Marketing und Sales. Mithilfe der digitalen B2B-Roadmap Leads automatisiert entlang der Customer-Journey fuhren, einen Wettbewerbsvorteil erreichen und den Umsatz steigern. Dieses Buch ist fur B2B-Unternehmer, Visionare und Impulsgeber, die veraltete Marketing- und Salesmodelle auf den Kopf stellen und Innovation effizient vorantreiben wollen.

The geography of American retail has changed dramatically since the first luxurious department stores sprang up in nineteenth-century cities. Introducing light, color, and music to dry-goods emporia, these "palaces of consumption" transformed mere trade into occasions for pleasure and spectacle. Through the early twentieth century, department stores remained centers of social activity in local communities. But after World War II, suburban growth and the ubiquity of automobiles shifted the seat of economic prosperity to malls and shopping centers. The subsequent rise of discount big-box stores and electronic shopping accelerated the pace at which local department stores were shuttered or absorbed by national chains. But as the outpouring of nostalgia for lost downtown stores and historic shopping districts would indicate, these vibrant social institutions were intimately connected to American political, cultural, and economic identities. The first national study of the department store industry, From Main Street to Mall traces the changing economic and political contexts that transformed the American shopping experience in the twentieth century. With careful attention to small-town stores as well as glamorous landmarks such as Marshall Field's in Chicago and Wanamaker's in Philadelphia, historian Vicki Howard offers a comprehensive account of the uneven trajectory that brought about the loss of locally identified department store firms and the rise of national chains like Macy's and J. C. Penney. She draws on a wealth of primary source evidence to demonstrate how the decisions of consumers, government policy makers, and department store industry leaders culminated in today's Wal-Mart world. Richly illustrated with archival photographs of the nation's beloved downtown business centers, From Main Street to Mall shows that department stores were more than just places to shop.

Keine in die Zukunft gerichtete Investition ist vollig risikofrei. Die Betriebswirtschaftslehre beschaftigt sich seit Jahrzehnten mit dem Problem der Investitionsrisiken und hat dazu eine Vielzahl von Instrumenten entwickelt. Das vorliegende Buch widmet sich dem Risiko bei Investitionen in Immobilien, wobei die zentrale Frage untersucht wird, welche Instrumente der Betriebswirtschaftslehre sich mit welchen Veranderungen auf Immobilieninvestitionen anwenden lassen."

Garden Centre management has professionalised in recent years as garden centres have become more highly developed retail operations. Many students of horticulture are expected to go into retail management and so the topic has increasingly appeared on the further education curriculum. This book is equally targeted at students, garden centre managers and professional courses in garden centre management. It provides a practical approach backed up by management theory. The text covers consumer behaviour, staff management, stock management, marketing and productivity.

Proposing a comprehensive account of the global fashion industry this book aims to present fashion as a social and cultural fact. Drawing on six principles from the industry, Godart guides the reader through the economic, social and political arena of the world's most glamorous industry.

Dieses Buch zeigt dem stationaren Einzelhandel einen Weg auf, wie er sich nach Corona neu erfinden kann, um gegen die starke Konkurrenz des Online-Handels bestehen zu koennen. Im Zentrum stehen die zentralen Themen, die den Handel der Zukunft pragen. So muss vor allem der stationare Einzelhandel heute mit intelligenten Systemen datenbasiert arbeiten und Methoden ubernehmen oder sogar ubertreffen, die die grossen Online-Marktplatze schon sehr lange und erfolgreich einsetzen. Diesbezuglich spielt auch kunstliche Intelligenz im Einzelhandel eine grosse Rolle. Dabei geht es nicht bloss um Automatisierung und um die UEbernahme von Tatigkeiten durch Roboter, sondern in eigentlich allen Handelsfunktionen auch darum, dass Instrumente und Maschinen in der Lage sind, selbst zu lernen und Schlusse zu ziehen. Dieses wird immer schwieriger, denn unser Einkaufs- und Suchverhalten andert sich fortwahrend. Ein Kunde sollte deswegen im Geschaft intelligente Empfehlungen erhalten, die auch auf seinen bereits bekannten Interessen und Verhaltensmustern beruhen. Gerrit Heinemann zeigt, wie intelligentes Handeln den stationaren Einzelhandel in den Innenstadten und in Shopping-Centern retten kann. Der Inhalt* Vom stationaren Einzelhandel zum Intelligent Retail* Bedrohungen des stationaren Einzelhandels* Basisvoraussetzungen und Erscheinungsformen des Intelligent Retail* Beispiele fur intelligenten Einzelhandel der Zukunft* Risiken fur Intelligent Retail

Dieses Buch unterstutzt Hersteller und Handler, die fur sie richtige Amazon-Marktplatz-Strategie zu entwickeln. 14 ausgewiesene Experten erlautern im Detail, wie eine erfolgreiche Implementierung auf dem Amazon Marketplace funktionieren und wie das Amazon-Ecosystem effektiv genutzt werden kann. Fallstudien aus dem B2B- und B2C-Bereich zeigen, wie Amazon-Verkaufsstrategien erfolgreich umgesetzt werden koennen. Trotz des enormen Marktanteils des E-Commerce-Riesen schenken viele Unternehmen diesem Verkaufskanal immer noch nicht die noetige Aufmerksamkeit. Dies gilt nicht nur fur den B2C-Markt, sondern auch im B2B-Umfeld, fur das das Unternehmen aus Seattle unter Amazon Business die Moeglichkeit bietet, schnell und unkompliziert zu verkaufen. In diesem Buch erhalten Sie Antworten auf Fragen wie "Amazon - ja oder nein?" oder "Wie sieht eine erfolgversprechende Amazon-Vertriebsstrategie aus?" sowie umfangreiches Entscheider-Wissen: von der Gestaltung einer verkaufsstarken Produktdetailseite uber relevante Logistikanforderungen bis hin zu Markenschutz und rechtlichen Aspekten. Die Themen Amazon verstehen und passgenaue Strategien entwickeln Exemplarische Amazon-Strategien (Seller defensiv, Seller offensiv, Vendor B2C-B2B) Optimierung der Produktdetailseiten Einsatz von Amazon Sponsored Ads Produktbewertungen auf Amazon Gesetzliche Anforderungen und Amazon-Richtlinien Logistikkompetenz als wesentlicher Treiber Produkt- und Markenschutz auf Amazon Amazon Readiness: Prozesse, Systeme und Organisation fur Profitabilitat und Skalierbarkeit Das OEkosystem rund um Amazon B2B- und B2C-Fallstudien "Wie halte ich es mit Amazon? Das ist und bleibt eines der wichtigsten Strategiethemen fur Handel und Industrie. Deshalb kommt "Amazon fur Entscheider" zur richtigen Zeit. Es beleuchtet die Amazon-Welt aus unterschiedlichsten Perspektiven und liefert so wertvolle Einsichten, indem es die Moeglichkeiten gleichermassen in Theorie und Praxis untersucht. Amazon-Insider und Branchenbeobachter mit langjahriger Erfahrung scharfen den Blick auf Amazon."Jochen Krisch, excitingcommerce.de Aus dem Inhalt TEIL I. AMAZON VERSTEHEN UND PASSGENAUE STRATEGIEN ENTWICKELN Amazons Masterplan (Christian Stummeyer) Das Prinzip Amazon (Benno Koeber) Der E-Commerce-Treiberbaum beim Vertrieb uber den Amazon Marketplace (Christian Stummeyer) Entwicklung einer Amazon-Strategie (Ralph Ch. Hubner) Plattformzeitalter: Alternativen zu Amazon (Ralph Ch. Hubner) TEIL II. ENTSCHEIDENDE ERFOLGSBAUSTEINE KONZIPIEREN UND IMPLEMENTIEREN Optimierung der Produktdetailseiten und deren Reichweite auf dem Amazon Marketplace (Adrian Jaroszynski) Strategische Grundlagen fur den Einsatz von Amazon Sponsored Ads (Adrian Jaroszynski) Produktbewertungen auf Amazon: Relevanz und Handlungsfelder fur Unternehmen (Christian Driehaus) Gesetzliche Anforderungen, Rahmenbedingungen und Amazon Richtlinien beim Verkauf uber den Amazon Marketplace (Sabine Heukrodt-Bauer) Logistik als wesentlicher Treiber des Erfolgs fur und mit Amazon (Oliver Lucas) Amazon Readiness: Prozesse, Systeme und Organisation um den Amazon Marketplace profitabel und skalierbar zu bespielen (Martin Himmel) Fulfillment by Amazon (Benno Koeber) Amazon Business fur den B2B-Markt (Lennart Paul) Produkt und Markenschutz auf Amazon (Jochen Schafer) Das OEkosystem rund um Amazon (Benno Koeber) TEIL III. FALLSTUDIEN Vom Amazon Pure Player zum Multi-Channel: Fahrradzubehoer von AARON (Hans Mina) Seller-Fallstudie: Bavaria Shop (Andreas Greipl) Vendor-Fallstudie: B/S/H Bosch und Siemens Hausgerate (Holger Holzapfel)

"The best retail buying book available. It combines concepts with actual calculations. This provides you with a better understanding of the topics." - Katherine Annette Burnsed, University of South Carolina, USA Learn the skills needed to become a successful buyer in any area of retail. This book has step-by-step instructions for typical buying tasks, such as identifying and understanding potential customers, creating a six-month merchandising plan, and developing sales forecasts. It covers math concepts throughout and shows you how to analyze and interpret data with practice problems to prepare you for the professional. You'll also learn about important retailing trends, including global buying and sourcing, omni-channel retailing, online retailing, mobile technologies, and social media. STUDIO Resources -Study smarter with self-quizzes featuring scored results and personalized study tips -Review concepts with flashcards of essential vocabulary and basic retail math formulas -Practice your skills with downloadable Excel spreadsheets to complete the end of chapter Spreadsheet Skills exercises -Enhance your knowledge with printable worksheets -Watch videos related to chapter concepts featuring step-by-step solutions to common retail buying math problems Instructor Resources -Instructor's Guide provides suggestions for planning the course and using the text in the classroom, supplemental assignments, and lecture notes -Test Bank includes sample test questions for each chapter -PowerPoint (R) presentations include images from the book and provide a framework for lecture and discussion

This book charts the changes in Birmingham's Jewellery Quarter over the last twenty years, and is the first work to look beyond the area's unique early history and the jewellery trade itself. Today the quarter is a vibrant urban village, and here former Jewellery Quarter regeneration director Andy Munro tells the story of its transformation. The regeneration of the area sought to achieve the difficult act of revitalising the area while protecting its unique jewellery trade and heritage. This book offers a fascinating insight into the successes and failures of the initiative and draws on interviews with the many interesting characters who were players in this regeneration game.

Despite the recent misfortunes of many dotcoms, e-commerce will have major and lasting effects on economic activity. But the rise and fall in the valuations of the first wave of e-commerce companies show that vague promises of distant profits are insufficient. Only business models based on sound economic propositions will survive. This book provides professionals, investors, and MBA students the tools they need to evaluate the wide range of actual and potential e-commerce businesses at the microeconomic level. It demonstrates how these tools can be used to assess a variety of existing applications.

Advances in web-based technology--particularly automation and delegation technologies such as smart agents, shopping bots, and bidding elves--support the further growth of e-commerce. In addition to enabling consumers to conduct automated comparisons and sellers to access visitors' background information in real time, such software programs can make decisions for individuals, negotiate with other programs, and participate in online markets. Much of e-commerce's economic value arises from this kind of automation, which not only reduces operating costs but adds value by generating new market interactions.

This text teaches how to analyze the added value of such applications, considering consumer behavior, pricing strategies, incentives, and other critical factors. It discusses added value in several e-commerce arenas: online shopping, business-to-business e-commerce, application design, online negotiation (one-to-one trading), online auctions (one-to-many trading), and many-to-many electronic exchanges. Combining insights from several years of microeconomic research as well as from game theory and computer science, it stresses the importance of economic engineering in application design as well as the need for business models to take into account the "total game."

As the only serious treatment of the microeconomics of e-commerce, this book should be read by anyone seeking e-commerce solutions or planning to work in the field.

Building Co-operation traces the development of The Co-operative Group and its predecessor, the Co-operative Wholesale Society (CWS), over the course of 150 years. Born from the efforts of the Rochdale Pioneers and others who established successful consumer co-operatives across Britain in the mid-nineteenth century, by the 1860s the proponents of the CWS were ready to pioneer a new effort: a federation, democratically run and collectively owned, that would enable co-operatives to become their own suppliers. From humble origins, the CWS grew into one of Britain's largest businesses within a generation, pioneering modern retailing and distribution on a national scale, expanding into factory production and financial services, and establishing an international supply network that stretched across Europe, and beyond. Throughout the late nineteenth century and well into the twentieth, co-operative societies provided essential services to millions of members across Britain, ranging from food and clothing to banking, insurance, travel agency, pharmacy and even funeral services. However, in the second half of the twentieth century co-operatives experienced a protracted period of decline, facing a series of internal structural challenges, fierce competition amongst food retailers, and a rapidly-changing marketplace. By the turn of the twenty-first century, when many commentators were ready to consign co-operatives to the past, The Co-operative Group emerged with a revitalised business model that has helped to re-invigorate the British co-operative sector and bring new attention to the important role of co-operative and mutual enterprises worldwide. Based on extensive archival research, including many records available to historians for the first time, Building Co-operation is the story of a distinctive business model as it evolved over time. While since the inauguration of the CWS in 1863 the commercial landscape has changed nearly beyond recognition, the values at the heart of The Co-operative Group have remained relevant to succeeding generations, focusing on member benefits and a commitment to ethical trading.