Organisation of the Retail Sector

Organisation of the Retail Sector For the purpose of this assignment, I shall start off the assignment by defining the term retailing. I shall then describe how the retail industry is organised include many ways and places in which retail is conducted and finally I shall describe the changes that are taking place in the industry structure. Retailing is to provide services and products and at a profit. Retailing consists of the sale of goods for personal or household consumption operating from an appropriate location offering wide range of access to its target audience. For example, Retail Park in (Lakeside) ensuring adequate stock is available to meet customer demand as well as offering attractive and distinctive products. Ways and places in which retail is conducted There are immense ways and places in which retail may be conducting in current environment, however the aim of all types of retails is to engage with customer effectively and achieve the organisation aims and objectives through the various strategies that may suit them. Some of the ways and places are mentioned in detail as following. Classification of types of store There are several classifications of types of retail store as shown in the table below. Type of retailer Example Independent Corner shop such as Multiple chains Pharmacy, Department stores John Lewis, Selfridge, Tesco Metro Supermarkets Iceland, Morrison, Mark Spencer, Tesco Catalogue stores Argos, Empire direct, kays Discount stores Pc World, Maplin, Currys, Comet, Superdrug Emerging store types There are number of new store formats have appeared recently as mentioned below Shopping village Outlet Stores, Factory Shops, Factory Outlets, there are many names but only one concept, and that is to bring you designer products at discount prices. For example, shopping village in Oxford provides designer cloths at discount prices through website. Factory shops The factory shop is attached to a factory. A factory shop normally sell imperfect produced in the adjacent factory. In other words goods that may not be satisfactory produced in nearby factory. For example, The original factory shop offering a wide range of merchandise Ladieswear, Menswear, Kidswear, Sportswear, Football, Electricals, Housewares, Toys and Gifts, Beauty and Fragrance all discounted. Much of what they sell is either branded or is originally made for other high street stores and supermarkets. Television sales channels In recent years cable or satellite channels companies have dedicated shopping channels such as QVC and Express Shop to allow the consumer to order online instantly through remote control. E -Retailing The internet has tremendous change on the shopping habit of consumers and selling and buying products over the internet continues to gain popularity. This is because the internet has tree main advantages such as Convince shopping over internet allows consumer to shop online without having to leave their house Choices this is seen as the biggest advantages as the internet allows access to wide range of products from across the world for example EBay, this gives advantage to internet over shopping centre. Cost in general, goods sold online are much cheaper than those sold in shops and the expenses to run the website is relatively less than running physical shops. Online and physical stores The combination of technology and physical appearance of store is combined together, for example an electric store Pc World attempts to combine both an online web store and a physical store as it allows customer to surfer to order online and pick up from the store as well as delivering at their doorsteps. Service versus product retailing Organisation providing high proportion of services emphasis on providing effective marketing mix, such organisation includes banks, estate agents, cafes e.t.c. however product retailer emphasis not as much as service providing organisation. It is because service can exists within customer and organisation for long time such as Tenants and agents and therefore the agents has to provide effective service to convey customer and not loss it, on the other hand retailer selling cable electrical products, if once sold to customer then it will be used as long as the fault becomes. Therefore the service can exist for a long time where as providing products can be flexible and quick. Classification of retailers Retailers can be classified from variety of viewpoints, for example higher number of employees and sales turnover is indication of a tall structured organisation. There are other factors as well such as the size and product strategy, for example very large stores such as ASDA and Morisons selling a full range of food and non food products. In the UK 11% of all enterprises are retailers operating from around 280,000 retail outlets. Location The places of shopping have become more diverse, todays there are local, city centre and out of town retail parks, plus regional shopping developments. Local Local shops are located and serve suburban areas or smaller towns. They generally consisted of significant number of stores. The aim of such stores is to provide flexible shopping for consumers in a given locality enabling them to shop close by where they live rather than having to travel far away. In town stores and shopping centres It is commonly known as typical high street which is consisted of Department stores (such as Mark Spencer) Multiples (such as new Look) Service retailer (such as building societies and banks) The aim of such town stores and shipping centres is to provide large coverage and access to all possible products and services that is commonly used by consumers such as cloths, food and non food products, banking e.t.c. it is to maximising the efficiency of providing everything at located places. Out of town retail parks and regional centres There are huge regional shopping complexes located in several out of town sites in the UK. They have more attraction than shopping mall on large scale, these provides wide range of facilities such as restaurants, cinema, cash points as well as train stations and motorway access. Other out of town includes stores such as Comet, Dixons, Pc World, MF and BQ. The reason for such stores is that it is easy to park, prices are competitive and the size of these stores is huge means a great variety of goods is on sale. Ownership The ownership of retail stores reflects the diverse nature of the industry. Independent retailers are organisation with fewer then ten branches. Independent retailers tend to offer specialist range of products for example medicines, they also sell a range of products including groceries household goods, wine and spirits. Multiple retailers are organisation with more than ten branches. Some multiples are classified as specialist such as Burtons for clothing. Multiple variety stores like Boot s and Mark Spencer offer wide range of food. These stores tend to be in busy shopping areas and the prices tend to be relatively low. Voluntary chain retailers choose to buy most of the stock from the certain wholesalers whose price tends to be relatively low due to their buying power such as SPAR. Franchised retailers are granted the rights in a geographical area. In simple words, it is legal right given to a person who wishes to run the branch of established business or organisation an example would be Mc Donald or KFC. The franchisee pays a fee based sales or even agrees to buy supplies from the franchisor. Structured of the retail industry The structured of the retail industry has become more diverse due to expansions of brands in different type of location. The structure of retail can be noticed from number of perspectives such as the size and profitability, Trends in sale and other aspects. Size The size of UK retail industry continues to grow but not as rapid as it was from year 2000 to 2007. This is due to competitive market and economic turmoil in the current environment which is forcing industry size to be limited or even reduce it as the sales begin to slump. Trends in sales Form the past two year the retail sales have fallen dramatically due to the affect of recession on their sales, some retailers have reported of 10% sales being fallen. This has reduced the growth rates of the UK retailers. UK retail sales values fell 0.1% on a like-for-like basis from August 2008, however Retail sales in central London in November were 13.3% higher on a like-for-like basis than a year ago, when sales had fallen 0.4%, as financial turmoil hit consumer confidence especially in the City. This shows the glowing picture of sales. Profitability The formula for better profit is high sales and similarly low sale contributes to low profit. The retailers from across the country have reported improved sales from the last three years this means presumably healthy profit. however it cant be neglected that the uncertainty still remain in the British economy. But for the mean time the retailer are enjoying the volume of profit. Store size and location Some of the retailers such as Tesco have expanded in terms of the size and location. The management have made changes into physical structure enlarging it even further in some of the stores. Tesco have also begun to deploy stores in community such as Tesco Express in local community where the local shops are also operating. In general, it is noticed that retailer are committed expand the physical size as well as location such as retail park to provide maximum access to consumers. Not-for-profit and public place retailers There has been a growth in not for profit retailers such as Oxfam, Cancer research. They sell goods brought in by donors and use voluntary staff. The growth can be as people are becoming aware of their aims and objectives and thus feel compassionate towards their cause. Public retailers also have common variety of diverse venues, for example there has been noticeable rise in the products available from vending machines as it provide more services such as hot drinks. Similarly, there has been increased in retailers in main rail station for example, WHSmith is a common sight at many UK rail stations. Employment characteristic The retail industry employee approximately 3 million people, over the last five years employment in retailing has grown by 141,000. However, from the last year there has been decline in retail employment due to economic turmoil and the demand of employment has reduced significantly. Conclusion In this assignment, I have defined the term retailing described how the retail industry is organised through many ways and places in which retail is conducted and I have described the changes that are taking place in the industry structure

Will the Euro Survive? Essay -- European Union, Greek Crisis

"Europe must prevent Greece from becoming an out-and-out catastrophe and make sure that the same fiscal 'remedy' is not applied to other weak economies" -- Franziska Brantner The brutality of the World War II and the anguish of the Cold War enforced nations in Europe to establish the European Union for peace and unity in the region. With ratification of the Maastricht Treaty by members of the European Community in 1993, an economic and political union; the European Union is formed. In December 2012, the European Union awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for its â€Å"historical accomplishments†. Nevertheless, the member states of the European Union are still facing the crisis that started in the Eurozone since 2009. One of the major causes of the crisis is the common currency – the euro which has weak structural formation. The creation of a currency, the euro, is one of the major parts of the European Union. The German Chancellor Gerhard SchrÃâ€"der said in a speech in 1999 that â€Å"The introduction of the euro is probably the most important integrating step since the beginning of the unification process.†(Yeager, 30) Therefore, in this essay I would like to study the history of creation of the euro, lessons that the European Union draws from the euro crisis and analyze the future predictions of specialists about the euro. I will use the publication â€Å"Economic and monetary union and the euro† by the European Commission as the main source and other credible sources about the euro in my paper. Since the start of the European Coal and Steel Community with the Treaty of Paris in 1950s, the leaders of the European Community have higher ambition to create the new â€Å"common currency†. Politicians rather than economists pushed for it, and the idea is... ...urrent crisis, the future of unified European Union is higher. Works Cited European Commission. Economic and monetary union and the euro. Publications. Luxembourg: Publication Office of the European Union, 2012. Document. Grauwe, Paul De. "The Political Economy of the Euro." The Annual Review of Political Science (2013): 153-170. Academic Search Complete. Schwartz, Pedro. "Why The Euro Failed And How It Will Survive." Cato Journal (2013): 521-534. Academic Search Complete. Schwarzer, Daniela. "Crisis and Reform in the Euro Area." Current History (2013): 83-87. Academic Search Complete. Witte, Mark Dawson and Floris de. "Constitutional Balance in the EU after the Euro-Crisis." The Modern Law Review (2013): 817-844. Academic Search Complete. Yeager, Leland B. "The Euro Facing Other Moneys." Cato Journal (2004): 27-40. Academic Search Complete.

Arrow Electronics Case Assignment Essay

Arrow was founded in the early 1935 as a retailer of radio equipment. Later the company expanded to sell entertainment products and electronic parts. In 2002 Arrow’s global sales were $7.4 billion. The semiconductors products generated over half of the company revenues. Since then, the company has engaged in valued added services. Value added is used to describe instances where a firm takes a product that may be considered a homogeneous product, with few differences from that of a competitor, and provides potential customers with a feature or add-on that gives it a greater sense of value. A value added product can either increase the product’s price or value. For example, offering one year of free support on a new computer would be a value-added feature. Arrow enhanced its products and services before offering the product to customers. The company invested heavily in a sales force and logistics capabilities. Arrow Electronics knew they had to pay close attention to operations. The company knew the goals of the organization and developed a clear vision of exactly how operations will help achieve them. It involved translating the goals into implications for the operation’s performance, objectives, quality, speed, dependability, flexibility and cost especially at their distribution centers. Management knew inventories are considered an important asset and are critical for business success. Arrow used a lot of technology and inventory data at Arrow were extremely accurate. In order to keep inventory data accurate, Arrow invested heavily in information technology. The inventory tracking technology resulted in a better bottom line and a more profitable business. Effective inventory management augmented by technology helped Arrow keep track of inventory, streamline ordering and track items throughout the product’s sales cycle. The three information systems they used were the sales desktop, the mainframe system, and the WMS. The system sales desktop allowed the sales representatives to view the products information, cost, and their buying patterns. The mainframe system maintained the customer inventory, orders and the logic for sales order processing. The system acted like a repository of all data and converted the orders received from the  sales desktop. The mainframe system was the core operating system. The system was impeccable in its ability to track inventory at detailed levels. Fortunately Arrow’s approach to inventory accuracy is not excessive because the system actually saves them money on their inventory management. Inventory management software helped Arrow automate processes and better manage systems to prevent losses from hidden costs. Because Arrow’s major systems were develop in house, they are going to have difficulty using commercial software if their software have issues. A rrow Electronics purchased the company Eagle Semiconductor. Eagle traditional strategy of operating several regional warehouses and moving the inventory into Arrows primary distribution center was a business decision that needed to be made by Betty Jane Scheihing, Senior Vice President of Worldwide Operations at Arrow Electronics. The warehouses performance, customer complaints, and inventory management were bad. Scheihing should explain to management and Eagle’s centers When inventory inaccuracy occurs, inventory management associates should address the issue in a way to reduce the risk of bad performance in the centers. They should request an immediate recount, adjusting the inventory records accordingly. The management associates should evaluate their options in terms of shipping cost, delivery date and time, and the urgency. Companies like Arrow depend heavily on inventory accuracy to operate or fill client orders. Inventory is the major company asset that assisted with tasks such as planning. Thus keeping accurate inventory record s as a major management tool has multiple benefits. When accurate inventory records are kept, the data tells whether you can take on client requests or particular projects with the inventory on hand. Arrow can get a sense of when they will need to order new items. Arrow also can review the inventory records to identify inventory trends over time and make some basic predictions about inventory that might run out faster than usual. All of these elements mean they can plan and strategize. This is critical to developing and maintaining relationships. Good inventory records mean that when customers call or write with inventory-related questions, they can find the answer quickly. A fast response time usually means the customer gets a better impression of the company. When they know exactly what inventory they have and where it is stored, they can retrieve it promptly and fill customer orders efficiently. The ability to deal with inquiries and fill orders  quickly means the company is able to serve more customers and move more inventory th rough the company, resulting in higher profit. If customers have to wait for responses or products, they may cancel orders and go to other companies. Inventory inaccuracy could possibly have a significant impact on the Arrow’s performance. Inventory inaccuracy increases the time spent on the inventory management process. Additional time in multiple departments is spent on researching discrepancies, correcting systems data, and communicating concerns. Inventory inaccuracy impacts the organization’s financial performance in terms of the cost of goods sold. Increased costs are the result of expediting shipping, additional labor, and loss of production. Arrow had inventory inaccuracies when they gave low level warehouse operators the responsibility of finding and correcting inventory errors. Having a group of people with inadequate training and experience count and adjust inventory was a little advanced for their pay grade. Arrow should of made sure who had control over affecting inventory. This is especially true in manufacturing operations where the priorities of machine operators and production supervisors are meeting the production schedule, keeping the machines running, and ensuring the quality of the product being produced. Inventory accuracy should never be a primary responsibility of those types of positions. Once Arrow came to this realization, it was easy to see the benefits of putting inventory and material handling responsibilities in the hands of people whose primary job is auditing and oversight. Overall Arrow Electronics Operational Execution was great. They invested heavily in technology to manage their operations.

Symbolism in The Lord Of The Flies. - 812 Words

William Golding was a British writer. He has written several novels, and has won the Nobel Prize in Literature. His best known novel is The Lord of The Flies, published in 1954. In The Lord of the Flies, William Golding uses different themes and symbols to get the point of the novel across. These symbols include the pigs head, the conch, and even the boys themselves. The author uses symbols to show societys’ rules and faults. The first symbol is the conch. Ralph and Piggy discover the conch in the beginning of the novel on the beach. They use it as a horn to call any other survivors there may be on the island after the plane crash separates them all. The conch indicates order and civilization in The Lord†¦show more content†¦It’s a fire that Jack and his followers have started in their hunt to kill Ralph. Piggy is the smartest and most logical of the boys, and it simply seems natural that his glasses are a symbol of intelligence. This symbolic implication is clear from the start of the novel; the boys use Piggy’s glasses to start a fire by focusing sunlight. When Jack’s hunters attack Ralph’s camp and steal Piggy’s glasses it means the loss of rational thinking and savagery is starting to take over the boys’ minds. The little ‘uns believe that there is a â€Å"beastie† in the woods. It stands for primal instinct of savagery that is within every human being. The beast frightens the boys, and only Simon is able to realize that the reason they are afraid of the beast is because it exists within each of them. Their belief in the beast grows stronger as they become more and more savage. Near the end of the novel, some of the boys treat it as a god and leave it sacrifices. Many of the novels characters signify important themes. Ralph shows order, leadership, control and society. Piggy represents the logical and intellectual characteristic of life. Jack is a symbol of savagery, and the longing to rule. Simon and Roger portray the good and evil in humans. Some might see the boys’ society in a political point of view, the little ‘uns as the common people and the older boysShow MoreRelatedLord Of The Flies : Symbolism1012 Words   |  5 PagesBabatunde Carter (Jnr) English 102-0501 Mrs. Geneva Cannon 16th, November , 2015 Lord of the flies : The Symbolism of the Conch For Centuries philosophers and scholars have bantered about the topic of whether man is naturally fiendish. William Golding offers this conversation starter in his sensible novel â€Å"Lord of the Flies†. Set on a tropical island amid World War II, the novel starts when school boys from Incredible England are being traveled to well being and their plane is shotRead MoreSymbolism in Lord of the Flies1365 Words   |  6 PagesSymbolism in Lord of The Flies William Goldings Lord of the Flies is a novel about a group of English school boys who are stranded on a tropical island after their plane has been attacked and crashes during World War II. In the beginning, the boys like being on their own without adults. The boys separate into two groups, led by Jack and Ralph. Jack is obsessed with hunting, and he and his group pay do not pay attention. Ralph is concerned about keeping a rescue fire lit so they will have a chanceRead MoreLord Of The Flies Symbolism Analysis1131 Words   |  5 PagesIn Lord of the Flies (LoF) by William Golding, symbols are used to illustrate Golding’s bleak views of the basic instincts of man. 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In the case of Jack, he could be said to represent the evilness in humanity, proven by three established concepts in the story: the true nature of his hunting tendencies, the progression of events that happen in his dancing rituals, and his intera ctionsRead MoreLord Of The Flies Symbolism Analysis968 Words   |  4 Pages Lord of the Flies In William Goldings novel Lord of the Flies, he demonstrates the struggle of being trapped on an island containing no civilization and the attempt to remain safe. As the conflict starts to occur on the island, the battle to stay alive and hope to be rescued becomes more challenging for the boys. Throughout the novel, many symbolic elements become significant and are prominently used to get the reader to interpret things differently and see things in other perspectives. In theRead MoreLord Of The Flies Symbolism Analysis752 Words   |  4 PagesLord of the Flies, by William Golding, is full of symbolism and allegories. Three important symbols are the conch shell that represents civilization, the fire that represents hope, and the outside world that the boys represent. The conch shell represents civilization, order, and power. For example, in the beginning of the novel, Ralph blows the conch shell, in hopes of attracting other boys that may be on the island; and, soon, other boys do appear. The conch has brought the boys together, andRead MoreSymbolism And Symbolism In Lord Of The Flies By William Golding892 Words   |  4 PagesThroughout the novel, author William Golding includes symbolism that hints at irony, foreshadowing, and a variety of themes. These symbols contribute to the depth and meaning of the story, allowing the characters to act under their influence. In Lord of the Flies, there is a numerous amount of symbols, such as the signal fire, the conch, and the ritual. The signal fire possesses many symbolic meanings essential to the story, Lord of the Flies. In the beginning of the novel, Ralph started a signal