Provides a comprehensive overview of the key themes surrounding luxury brand management and the core issues faced by luxury firms today; Each chapter is illustrated by well-recognized contemporary cases and examples to demonstrate how the theory translates to practice and provide an exciting teaching resource; Includes insights from a range of expert contributors from both research and consulting backgrounds

Despite the publication of several studies examining European retailing in relation to the USA, there is still a dearth of recent research, in English, that explores the development of retailing in specific European countries (with the obvious exception of Britain), over the twentieth century. Even for the UK, more research is needed to challenge claims such as the alleged "backwardness" of British retailing relative to North America, or the presence of formidable "environmental" barriers to the "industrialisation" of retailing in Britain. New Perspectives on 20th Century European Retailing showcases new research on various aspects of twentieth century European retailing, that challenges the traditional view that Europe was a "follower" of America in retail innovation. It brings together work by several - mainly early career - scholars, who are doing innovative, archival-based, research on various aspects of European retail history. Following a general review of European retailing by the editors (discussing key debates and new approaches) seven thematic chapters present work that either sheds new light on old debates and/or explores hitherto neglected topics. Collectively, they show that whereas retailers are often regarded as 'intermediaries', in fact they are actors in their own right and they challenge the traditional view that Europe was a "follower" of America in retail innovation. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the Business History journal.

Gender After Gender in Consumer Culture provides an updated discussion of how gender cuts across consumer culture, in light of increasing gender fragmentation and integration with other identity positions. Sex, the biological distinction male/female, and gender, which refers to a person's sense of being male, female, or any other combinations of these, inform issues as varied as personal identity, social interactions, and market behaviours. First, contributions account for the increasing fluidity and/or fragmentation of gender positions, which reshape the interplay between consumers and marketers. Second, they provide a timely illustration of how consumption and markets concur in contrasting gender inequalities, taken both individually and jointly (e.g., at the intersection of ethnicity or positions of market marginalisation). Third, chapters question the role of gender in granting personal and societal well-being, as they reflect on the collective capacity of constantly undoing gender stereotypes. Focusing on gender, this book allows the reader to trace the links among cultural categories (e.g. masculinity, femininity, gender identity), social phenomena, and market (dis)functioning. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue in the journal Consumption Markets & Culture.

Summarizing the extant research on marketing communications, social media and word of mouth, this book clarifies terms often incorrectly and interchangeably used by scholars and marketers and provides principles of effective marketing communications in social media for different brand types and in different geographic markets. Conversations among consumers on social media now have an unprecedented ability to shape attitudes toward people, products, services, brands and to influence buying decisions. Consequently, the digital era brings to the fore the importance of interpersonal relations and the power of personal recommendations. This book is the first to empirically investigate how the form and appeal of marketing communications in social networks influence electronic word of mouth, including an examination of brand type and geographic market. The author focuses on motivations and reveals why people exchange opinions about brands, products and services in the digital environment. The book summarizes the existing research on marketing communications, social media and word of mouth, provides a cutting-edge knowledge based on the analysis of the actual behavior of consumers and rules of effective marketing communications in social media. This research-based book is written for scholars and researchers within the fields of marketing and communication. It may also be of interest to a wider audience interested in understanding how to use social media to influence electronic word of mouth.

The Routledge Companion to Strategic Marketing offers the latest insights into marketing strategy. Bodo Schlegelmilch and Russ Winer present 29 specially commissioned chapters, which include up-to-date thinking on a diverse range of marketing strategy topics. Readers benefit from the latest strategic insights of leading experts from universities around the world. Contributing authors are from, among others, the U.S. (Berkeley, Cornell, MIT, New York University, Texas A&M), Europe (the Hanken School of Economics, INSEAD, the University of Oxford, the University of Groningen, WU Vienna) and Asia (the Indian School of Business, Tongji University). The topics addressed include economic foundations of marketing strategy, competition in digital marketing strategy (e.g. mobile payment systems and social media strategy), marketing strategy, and corporate social responsibility, as well as perspectives on capturing the impact of marketing strategy. Collectively, this authoritative guide is an accessible tool for researchers, students, and practitioners.

Consumers in eighteenth-century England were firmly embedded in an expanding world of goods, one that incorporated a range of novel foods (tobacco, chocolate, coffee, and tea) and new supplies of more established commodities, including sugar, spices, and dried fruits. Much has been written about the attraction of these goods, which went from being novelties or expensive luxuries in the mid-seventeenth century to central elements of the British diet a century or so later. They have been linked to the rise of Britain as a commercial and imperial power, whilst their consumption is seen as transforming many aspects of British society and culture, from mealtimes to gender identity. Despite this huge significance to ideas of consumer change, we know remarkably little about the everyday processes through which groceries were sold, bought, and consumed. In tracing the lines of supply that carried groceries from merchants to consumers, Sugar and Spice reveals how changes in retailing and shopping were central to the broader transformation of consumption and consumer practices, but also questions established ideas about the motivations underpinning consumer choices. It demonstrates the dynamic nature of eighteenth-century retailing; the importance of advertisements in promoting sales and shaping consumer perceptions, and the role of groceries in making shopping an everyday activity. At the same time, it shows how both retailers and their customers were influenced by the practicalities and pleasures of consumption. They were active agents in consumer change, shaping their own practices rather than caught up in a single socially-inclusive cultural project such as politeness or respectability.

Sell on Amazon and Make Them Do the Heavy Lifting Selling on Amazon has become one of the most popular ways to earn income online. In fact, there are over 2 million people selling on Amazon worldwide. Amazon allows any business, no matter how small, to get their products in front of millions of customers and take advantage of the largest fulfillment network in the world. It also allows businesses to leverage their first-class customer service and storage capabilities. Selling on Amazon For Dummies walks owners through the process of building a business on Amazon--a business that can be built almost anywhere in the world, as long as you have access to a computer and the internet. The basics of selling on Amazon Using FBA Getting started Deciding what to sell Conducting product research Finding your way around Seller Central Product sourcing, shipping and returns, Amazon subscription, fees, sales tax, and more How to earn ROIs (Returns on Your Investments) Selling on Amazon For Dummies provides the strategies, tools, and education you need, including turnkey solutions focused on sales, marketing, branding, and marketplace development to analyze and maximize opportunities.

With crisp and insightful contributions from 47 of the world s leading experts in various facets of retailing, Retailing in the 21st Century offers in one book a compendium of state-of-the-art, cutting-edge knowledge to guide successful retailing in the new millennium. In our competitive world, retailing is an exciting, complex and critical sector of business in most developed as well as emerging economies. Today, the retailing industry is being buffeted by a number of forces simultaneously, for example the growth of online retailing and the advent of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology. Making sense of it all is not easy but of vital importance to retailing practitioners, analysts and policymakers.

Retail history is a rich, cross-disciplinary field that demonstrates the centrality of retailing to many aspects of human experience, from the provisioning of everyday goods to the shaping of urban environments; from earning a living to the construction of identity. Over the last few decades, interest in the history of retail has increased greatly, spanning centuries, extending to all areas of the globe, and drawing on a range of disciplinary perspectives. By offering an up-to-date, comprehensive thematic, spatial and chronological coverage of the history of retailing, this Companion goes beyond traditional narratives that are too simplistic and Euro-centric and offers a vibrant survey of this field. It is divided into four broad sections: 1) Contexts, 2) Spaces and places, 3) People, processes and practices and 4) Geographical variations. Chapters are written in an analytical and synthetic manner, accessible to the general reader as well as challenging for specialists, and with an international perspective. This volume is an important resource to a wide range of readers, including marketing and management specialists, historians, geographers, economists, sociologists and urban planners.

The retail sector is an integral part of a national economy. From the political economy perspective, all consumer goods have surplus values locked up in them; the surplus values are not realized until the consumer goods are purchased by consumers through various distribution channels. As such, retailing is the essential link between production and consumption. The success of a retail business depends on two general factors: the location of the retail outlet, and management of the business. Both factors are equally important. If the business is located in the wrong place with the wrong customer base, it will not generate expected sales. Similarly, if the business is poorly managed and operated, it will not perform well even if the location is right. Influenced by both traditional and new location theories, Retail Geography is conceptualized and organized using the retail planning process as the framework. The technical and methodological chapters help guide the reader with detailed descriptions of the techniques and are supported with practical examples to reflect the latest software development. Retail Geography provides a state-of-the-art summary and will act as a core textbook for undergraduate and graduate students of economic geography interested in specializing in retail and business geography. The practical examples also make it a valuable handbook for practitioners in the field, as well as students of retail management and commercial real estate management.

The retail sector is an integral part of a national economy. From the political economy perspective, all consumer goods have surplus values locked up in them; the surplus values are not realized until the consumer goods are purchased by consumers through various distribution channels. As such, retailing is the essential link between production and consumption. The success of a retail business depends on two general factors: the location of the retail outlet, and management of the business. Both factors are equally important. If the business is located in the wrong place with the wrong customer base, it will not generate expected sales. Similarly, if the business is poorly managed and operated, it will not perform well even if the location is right. Influenced by both traditional and new location theories, Retail Geography is conceptualized and organized using the retail planning process as the framework. The technical and methodological chapters help guide the reader with detailed descriptions of the techniques and are supported with practical examples to reflect the latest software development. Retail Geography provides a state-of-the-art summary and will act as a core textbook for undergraduate and graduate students of economic geography interested in specializing in retail and business geography. The practical examples also make it a valuable handbook for practitioners in the field, as well as students of retail management and commercial real estate management.

Originally published in 1990, Urban Markets looks at how the informal sector of the economy should be encouraged to assist in the alleviation of problems of poverty and unemployment. Despite this rhetoric, few concrete, implementable ways have been developed. This book is concerned with one such potential strategy which the authors consider to be particularly effective: the creation of both built and open markets for very small retailers and wholesalers. Based on experience of observing such markets in several continents, the authors combine a discussion of the theoretical issues surrounding the creation of urban markets with practical hints of how to establish and run them.

The rise of hard discounters like Aldi and Lidl has been monumental. Explore the very real threat they pose to traditional retailers and brand manufacturers and what you can learn from their growth. Hard discounters are stores that sell a limited selection of consumer-packaged goods and perishables - typically fewer than 2,000 Stock Keeping Units - for prices that are usually 50-60% lower than national brands. The best-known hard discounters are Aldi and Lidl, but global brands include Trader Joe's, EuroSpin, Biedronka, Netto and Leader Price. Their rise has been monumental; they have irrevocably changed the face of retail in Europe and Australia and are making steady inroads into the US. Retail Disruptors is the first book that explores this upheaval, providing expert insight into the business models of the leading hard discounters, and what mainstream retailers and brand manufacturers can do to remain competitive in the face of disruption. Meticulously researched by two of the leading authorities in retail strategy, private labels, branding, and hard discounting, Retail Disruptors is essential reading for all brand manufacturers and retailers who want to retain the competitive edge.

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.

This book offers a unique analysis of how our definitions of luxury have changed over the ages, and with that the role and actions of both suppliers and buyers of luxury products. It traces the way luxury was seen as avarice and emblematic of morally corrosive behavior in past societies, to being viewed in more virtuous terms as the inevitable outcome of structural changes that legitimize the acquisition and display of wealth. It examines the origins of the shift from criticism to acceptance, and traces these changes to fundamentally different notions of what constitutes the basis for social order. Whereas pre-industrial hierarchies cloaked inequality in various secular and sacred guises to mitigate its presence, capitalism justified and reified inequality as a measure of individual success and initiative through interdependent market behavior. The result of this transformation is that status markers have become aspirational tools as hierarchies became porous and self-identity less ascriptive. Correspondingly, as demand for luxury became legitimized, the supply side underwent dramatic changes. Such changes are explored fully in the sectors of fashion, art and wine. As demand for high priced and scarce goods in each of these sectors has increased, in each case key actors have manipulated markets to purposefully either consolidate their pre-eminence or manufacture the requisite scarcity that affords them canonical status. The demand for and supply of luxury goods is now global; consumers seeking validation and affirmation of their status whilst producers engineer scarcity. Luxury is seen not only as good; it is virtuous, its demand possibly insatiable and extremely profitable.

This is the first major biography of Alexander T. Stewart, known during his lifetime as The Merchant Prince for his success in retail, wholesale, and manufacturing in New York City. At the time of his death in 1876, Stewart was one of the three wealthiest men in America, along with William B. Astor and Cornelius Vanderbilt. But, because he died with no surviving children, his name has all but been forgotten. In this work, Stewart is revived, his remarkable success as the father of the department store examined, and his great contributions to retailing acknowledged and recounted. Not only a definitive account, this story of a major figure in America's Gilded Age, as told by Stephen Elias, is also an absorbing tale.

This work fills a gap in the literature on American history and the history of our retail trade. It will be of use to historians, students of merchandising, and those interested in New York's golden age.

Anticipating that marketing will experience a strategic change in the new normal post COVID-19, this book sets out to capture interesting insights from researchers and practitioners through in-depth research on the myriad aspects of industrial transformation. It discusses the facets in which markets can be reached sustainably delivering value to people, planet and create prosperity. Sustainable Marketing and Customer Value establishes an overview and framework for major ideas that connect marketing, consumption and sustainability. It addresses dominant areas of research of sustainability from the marketing perspective, the origin of interest in sustainability, as well as the practice of deprioritising sustainability ideas in pursuit of short-term business goals. Research scholars and business students will find this book of primary relevance, but it is also written for marketing academics and professionals, especially those in large corporations.

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.

HOW TO: design an enjoyable and/or eff­icient shopper experience. adapt your retail format to new societal trends while keeping the retail brand differentiating. energise supplier-retailer relationships and face the challenges ahead in an open and a collaborative way. Retail is going through tremendous change as a result of new types of competitors and ever higher consumer expectations. An abundance of products, media and data has become available. Digitisation and the demand for an inclusive and a sustainable society call for new ways of defining the future together. Everyone needs to be mobilised, and the category level holds the right meeting point for suppliers and retailers. The Retail Innovation Toolkit offers practical tools and case studies on the way forward, so that professionals on both retail and supplier sides can start addressing category challenges immediately. The 42 tools help professionals to analyse, grow, innovate and even reinvent categories in a fun and a quick manner. The Category Management concept is refreshed by integrating tools from Experience Design and Product Innovation to create a new set of innovation skills and mobilise collaboration within and among retailer and supplier organisations. This is an excellent toolkit with practical approaches to growing the category and reinventing the retail game.

Retail is going through difficult times and is suffering the consequences of both the economic crisis and the digitization of society. Fundamentally, there is a bigger problem: stores cannot keep up with the changing behavior of customers who are connected 24/7, customers for whom there is no distinction between online and offline.The End of Online Shopping: The Future of New Retail in an Always Connected World describes how the smart, the sharing, the circular, and the platform economy are shaping a new era of always connected retail. Retailers urgently need to innovate if they want to stay relevant in a world dominated by marketplaces and sharing platforms. The book contains inspiring examples from different industries - which include the usual suspects such as Amazon, Alibaba, and Google, but also local startups - and covers all aspects of the customer journey, from orientation and selection to delivery.The End of Online Shopping provides an excellent overview of shopping trends and developments worldwide, and offers readers indispensable insights into the future of retail.

An award-winning journalist's investigation into Amazon's true impact on inequality. The market value of Amazon.com has exceeded one trillion dollars. In 2020, its annual revenue increased by over 100 billion dollars. As the company insinuates itself ever further into our lives, Alec MacGillis investigates how it is reshaping society. With empathy and breadth, he tells the stories of those who've thrived and struggled in this rapidly changing environment, and shows how Amazon has even become a force in Washington, DC. The result is an intimate account of contemporary capitalism: its drive to innovate, its dark, pitiless magic, and its remaking of our world with every click.

Measuring productivity is often considered a difficult task for industries in the services sectors. This book offers a solution in the form of the 8M approach - Management, Manpower, Method, Money, Market, Make, Material and Message. This 8M framework is used to analyze the many facets of productivity and make pertinent solutions and suggestions to lift productivity in enterprises, especially those in the retail and food services sectors.This book consists of 10 chapters. Each chapter is an in-depth study of a specific measure, be it a technological system, a manpower strategy or a marketing program to improve the performance and productivity of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the retail and food services sectors in Singapore.Technology-driven solutions are the highlight of this book. Every study presented involves field work in terms of surveys, interviews or focus group discussions with stakeholders. The findings of the studies lead to policy recommendations and suggestions for improving the productivity performance of SMEs in the retail and food services sectors.

Retail is the essential link between production and consumption. The dynamics of a nation's economy cannot be fully understood without a good understanding of its retail sector. This book is written to achieve three broad objectives. First, it provides a comprehensive assessment of the changes in consumption patterns in China, the current size of the Chinese consumer market, and the regional variations. Second, it presents an interpretation of the changes in the country's regulatory system and the corresponding policy initiatives, including the new state spatial strategies devised after its admission to the WTO. Third, it delivers a systematic analysis of the transformation of China's retail sector. This includes the entry and expansion of foreign retailers, the development of indigenous retail chains as a national strategy to modernize China's retail industry, and the changing retailer-supplier relations. This book is a useful reference not only for university students and faculty researchers, but also for international retailers and commercial real estate developers who contemplate business and investment opportunities in China.