Retail merchandising

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Retail Operations                I-Chun Chang

Introduction

Retail merchandising is a management system of strategic planning and tactical control, directed toward the financial enhancement of an inventory and the profitable distribution of that inventory to the retail consumer. Merchandising enables retailers to make the best use of space and layout. It creates part of the communication process with consumers and focuses on layout, design, traffic flow and display advantage points. It links in with the overall development of a company’s corporate image and strategies, and fits with the organisation’s objectives to enhance and promote image. The primary goal of retail merchandising is to influence the potential customers to purchase a particular merchandise product at a particular retail store. The techniques are used to focus customers’ minds on what is available and enable the customers to move freely from one area to another and to make the purchasing decisions easier. Visual merchandising techniques are logical, practical and can be taught to all of a store's employees. But first the retailer must instill in employees a sense of ownership of the merchandise.

Body shop was founded by Anita Roddick in 1976, started from one small shop in Brighton. Today, the Body Shop boasts over 1,900 stores in 50 countries, crossing 12 time zones and selling over 1,000 hair and skincare products. The body shop plc is famous for creating a niche market sector hi quality nature inspired skin and hair care products. It is estimated that The Body Shop sells a product every 0.4 seconds with over 77 million customer transactions through stores worldwide, with customers sampling the current range of over 600 products and more than 400 accessories. There are not many major competitors within the market. Although other retailers like Boots and Superdrugs do sell skin and hair care products as well but none of them do produce their own brand product like Body shop does.

Tesco was founded in 1924 by Sir Jack Cohen. It originally started as a cheaper retailer but since then has brought in new product ranges which are of improved quality has helped Tesco enter new markets and now Tesco is the ninth largest supermarket in the world. Tesco currently has stores in ten countries and are looking to expand into other countries. Their competitors include Sainsbury, Safeway, Asda and all other supermarkets. Moreover, Tesco is the biggest online food retailer in the world and have joined forces with Safeway in the USA to expand their food distribution to the USA.

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Store Image

A store’s image results from its marketing strategy. The type of customer a store attracts the way it differentiates itself as well as the store’s location, merchandise, atmosphere, price, advertising and service, all influence its image.

The store image of Body shop is likely to be good quality products with fair price. The price of their products is slightly higher than other brands but with better quality and more choices. The service in Body shop is very friendly which is very hard to find in other retail stores. ...

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