Like every other industry new retail firms have brought innovative approaches in retailing.
Theories In Retail
Like every other industry new
retail firms have brought innovative approaches in retailing. Retail
development can be looked at from different theoretical perspective, as no one
theory is universally acceptable. The reason for this unacceptability is mainly
because of different market conditions, different socio-economic conditions in
the market. This session deals with the following theories namely
• Wheel of Retailing
• Retail Accordian Theory
• Theory of Natural Selection
• Retail life cycle
Wheel of Retailing
This theory talks about the
structural changes in retailing. The theory was proposed by Malcomb McNair and
according to this theory it describes how retail institutions change during
their life cycle. In the first stage when new retail institutions start
business they enter as low status, low price and low margin operations. As the
retail firms achieve success they look in for increasing their customer base.
They begin to upgrade their
stores, add merchandise and new services are introduced. Prices are increased
and margins are raised to support the higher costs. New retailers enter the
market place to fill the vacuum, while this continues to move ahead as a result
of the success. A new format emerges when the store reaches the final stage of
the life cycle. When the retail store started it started low but when markets
grew their margins and price changed. The theory has been criticized because
they do not advocate all the changes that happen in the retail sector and in
the present scenario not all firms start low to enter the market
Retail Accordian Theory
This theory describes how general
stores move to specialized stores and then again become more of a general
store. Hollander borrowed the analogy ‘accordian’ from the orchestra. He
suggested that players either have open accordion representing the general
stores or closed accordions representing narrow range of products focusing on
specialized products. This theory was also known as the general-specific-general
theory. The wheel of retailing and the accordion theory are known as the
cyclical theories of retail revolution
Theory of Natural selection
According to this theory retail
stores evolve to meet change in the microenvironment. The retailers that successfully
adapt to the technological, economic, demographic and political and legal
changes are the ones who are more likely to grow and prosper. This theory is
considered as a better one to wheel of retailing because it talks about the
macro environmental variables as well, but the drawback of this theory is that
if fails to address the issues of customer taste, expectations and desires
Retail Life cycle
Like
products, brands retail organizations pass through identifiable stages of
innovation, accelerated development, maturity and decline. This is commonly
known as the retail life cycle. Any organization when in the innovation stage
is nascent and has few competitors. They try to create a distinctive advantage
to the final customers. Since the concepts are new at this stage organizations
try to grow rapidly and the management tries to experiment. Profits will be
moderate and the stage may last for a couple of years. When we talk about our
country e-buying or online shopping is in the innovation stage.
In the accelerated growth phase
the organizations face rapid increase in sales, competitors begin to emerge and
the organizations begin to use leadership and their presence as a tool in stabilizing
their position. The investment level will be high as there are others who will
be creating a lot of competition. This level may go up to eight years.
Hypermarkets, Dollar stores are in this stage. In the maturity stage as
competition intensifies newer forms of retailing begin to emerge, the growth
rate starts to decline. At this stage firms should start work on strategies and
reposition techniques to be in the market place. Supermarkets, cooperative
stores are in this stage. In the final stage of the retail life cycle is the
declining phase where firms begin to loose their competitive
advantage. Profitability starts to decline further and the overheads starts to
rise. Thus we see that organizations needs to adopt different strategies at each
level in order to sustain in the marketplace Tags : MARKETING MANAGEMENT - Retailers And Wholesalers
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