Technology and Retail Industry
Retailing is the sale of goods and services to a consumer. The retailer is the last link in the distribution chain. A retailer 's purchases are usually made from a wholesaler, who in turn buys from a manufacturer (Retail, 2014). According to the U.S retail industry, two-thirds of the total US GDP comes from retail consumption. The latest annual report of the U.S department of Commerce for 2013 says that total retail sales in 2011 was $4.7 trillion an increase of 8% from 2010 numbers. Retailers have turned from being an intermediary between the manufactures and consumers to a visible power who can influence both producing and consuming decisions. Be it the vast expanses of the countryside or the crowded streets of cities, a Walmart, Target, or Staples are a common sight.
The role of retailers in the distribution channel has grown in tremendous proportions in the last few decades. The last two decades have been a time of technological innovation for retailers. In just about every area – from executive suite to the ceiling floor, to the warehouse – new technologies promise to transform retail operations (Burke, 2002). Imagine walking into a hypermarket, the door opens automatically welcoming you, in the process recording the store traffic. We pick an item from the shelf which usually has a barcode imprinted on it. When the product is scanned at the register, it automatically triggers the process of updating the virtual inventory records and
Tesco is the largest UK store, founded in 1999 by Cohen. It is currently among the principal retailers in the world (Akridge, 2012). The company has undergone different steps to put up with customer demand (Piercy, 2012). Because of these steps, changes have occurred that have increased customer satisfaction (consortium, 2006). This has introduced self checkout systems which have increased sales and save more time while shopping (Jones 2008). These systems also bring challenges (infrastructure network 2002). Different solutions can be used to counter these problems
Walmart’s approach means frequent, informal cooperation among stores, distribution centres and suppliers and less centralized control. The company’s supply chain allowed consumers to effectively pull merchandise to stores rather than having the company push goods onto shelves by tracking customer purchases and demand. Through the use of universal product codes, implementation of Retail links at the store, use of RFIDs and smart tags, suppliers and manufacturers within the supply chain synchronize their demand forecaste under a collaborative planning, forecasting and replenishment scheme, and every link in the chain was connected through technology that includes a central database, store-level point-of-sale systems, and a satellite network. As per report, there was a 16% reduction in out-of-stocks with the use of RFIDs and pointed out that the products using an electronic product code were replenished three times as fast as items that only used bar code technology. These strategies have made Walmart to be the dominant force over other competitors with information and technology helping its supply chain strategy attain greater
Retail industry sector encompasses companies and individuals that are engaged in selling products to consumers. As the biggest economy in the world, retail industry in the U.S. is one of the biggest industries in the world with total sales of nearly $5 trillion in 2016 as per www.census.gov. National retail foundation’s report mentions retail industry as the largest private sector employer in the United states with about 15 million people working in the industry. Retail industry in the united states comprises brick and mortar stores and a growing e-commerce sector.
The retail sectors are specializing in the selling of products that the consumers need in specific times and places. However, it is hardly the retailer's responsibility to produce the goods. The retailers just act agents, as they get the products to the consumers. Industrial retailing will focus more on the sale of small quantities of the products to the buyers. Transformational processes are not integrated in the retailing processes, as the retailers neither produce nor manufacture any goods. Initially, retailing was just transacted in stores and shop. Presently, technological upgrades and developments have affected the retailing process positively, leading to the use of electronics to do transactions. In most cases, the retailers will transact with cash specifically during payment of the products (Retail Council of Canada, 2009).
In the United States, their are about 1 million outlets (stores), and numerous amounts of online retailers that sell items to the public. The demand in this industry is primarily driven by spending and interest rates. Due to this fact economic health affects consumer confidence and spending. But overall there has been a consistent trend of sales in the sector as a whole. Overall in the United States, the industry has a combined revenue of about five trillion dollars. Revenue (in current trading dollars) for retail trade in the US is to forecasted to grow an annual compounded rate of five percent between 2015 and 2019. In addition, total United States retail sales increased 2.1 percent in the first ten months of 2015 compared to the same period in 2014.
The retail industry is a sector of the economy that is comprised of individuals and companies
The retail industry has always been a large portion of the U.S. economy. In 2012, the industry had nearly one million stores and accounted for four trillion dollars in revenue. An estimated two-thirds of the U.S. GDP
Retailing is one of the largest industries in the United States and accounts for approximately 10 percent of the gross national product. A retailer is someone who purchases items from a supplier or wholesaler for re-sale at a profit. The retailer earns his or her living by making a profit on the re-sale. Retailers purchase a product, mark up its cost, and advertise it for sale. The mark-up process is the key to the retailers business because if the product is marked up too high, consumers will not buy it. If it is marked too low then the retailer will have lost profits and the supply may be quickly exhausted. Another key to the retail business is knowing what the customer needs or wants and when, how much the customer is willing to pay for the product, what the competition is charging, and where to find the product at the best possible cost to make a profit.
Effective retailing technology allows companies to manage inventory by efficiently storing, shipping, and stocking items that its customers want. Inventory management is the key to a company’s success or failure, and Kmart seems to be the poster child of poor supply chain management. Since as far back as Joseph Antonini’s leadership, Kmart has had logistics issues (Young, 2002). Another recent CEO, Chuck Conaway, went so far as to admit that supply chain management was “the Achilles Heel” of Kmart (Carr & Cone, 2001). This paper will examine how investing in redundancy, having an increase velocity in sensing and responding, and by building an adaptive supply chain community could have reduced the risk that is damaging to a supply chain.
The grocery retail industry worldwide has grown in recent years to become one of the most intensely competitive industries due to the continuous amounts of new entrants. A grocery retailer is one that sells food and other general household items. Hypermarkets, supermarkets, discounters and small grocery retailers are all under the grocery retail umbrella. Between 2003 and 2008, the grocery retailing industry accounted for 45% of store-based retail values sales over the world. The figures
Retail stores, are one of the biggest and largest businesses around the world. They produce thousands of hundreds in revenues and they are some of the biggest employers industries. WALL-MART, IKEA, TESCO, ARGOS, MACYS, WALLGREENS and OFICCE DEPOT are some of the well-known retail stores that supply us every day with different kind of goods and services. For a better understanding, one of the main definitions of retail is: “...store commonly a shop or stall for the retail sale of commodities, but also a place where wholesale supplies are kept, exhibited, or sold…” What this means
Retail is when business sells products and provide service to the customer to make a profit. An example of a retail business is TESCO. There are many different types of retail sectors in UK which have different organisation and structures. In order for business to operate they will need to find the appropriate location, products they will sell to customer in order to gain profit for the business.
Inditex ensures that its fashion is fast through its supply chain efforts. They have created new methods to enable store managers to order and display merchandise faster and added cargo routes for shipping goods. The company ships clothing straight from the factory to stores and makes two-thirds of its goods in Spain and nearby countries, compared to most competitors who manufacture most of their clothing in Asia. Inditex has their sales managers monitoring computers, which are reporting sales at every store around the world. When a garment does well or fails, they are able to quickly tell designers if they need to come up with new ideas. They also have generated
Sector: Retailing as a sector includes subordinated services, such as delivery. The term "retailer" is also applied where a service provider services the small orders of a large number of individuals.
Consumers have many choices when deciding where to purchase their goods. While retailer managers are deciding how to win the consumer’s business and increase revenue, they are also constantly trying to figure out ways to reduce costs. Technology helps retail managers improve areas of inventory and supply chain management as well as customer satisfaction and loss prevention (Green, 2002). This paper explains how technology