Retail Management

Retail Management combines theoretical material about the retailing management process with discussions of the creative development of etailing and retail.

While other texts primarily cover issues related to the development of and issues associated with a brick-and-mortar store (thereby downplaying the role of other retailing methods), this text takes a "big picture" approach covering concepts of brick-and-mortar retailing, etailing, catalog retailing, and emerging retailing methods.

The text will center on customer-related issues, such as how consumers shop at the point-of-sale, customer-centered web design, and how to design retail catalogs with the customer in mind.

The text is organized to support this focus, by providing the following material: Part I provides a definition for customer-centered retailing, along with information to help students understand how and where customers shop, specific buying behaviors, and how to do market research.

Part II provides information on the planning and management functions of retailing, including creating a retailing strategy, finding an appropriate market, planning the finances, and managing human resources. Part III then focuses on executing the plan, tying together the customer-focused material with the more strategic material, and discussing etailing, multi-channel retail operations, integrated marketing communications and the ethics of retailing.

Specific features of this text include: A customer focus, to provide students with information on designing retailing strategies that will meet the customer where they are Retailing in the Real World feature discusses issues that the authors have experienced or consulted about and provides students with an accurate look at how retailing works Ethical and Legal Considerations are included in each chapter.

As reviewers noted, it is important to understand and deal with these issues as they may arise in the retailing process.

Therefore, each section relates ethics and legal issues back to that particular chapter,s material to give students an accurate look of the retailing world.

Critical Thinking Exercises: Review questions, exercises, and illustrations will be used throughout the text to give students the opportunity to think critically about retailing. Integration of Etailing Material: The authors plan to incorporate on-line (etailing) issues with the text itself, including issues of Web usability and design.

As such, there will be links to important web sites that deal with specific issues as they appear in the text.

A discussion of multi-channel and cross-channel retailing, along with the issues and solutions involved with each of those areas The inclusion of emerging and alternate retailing methods such as cell phone, television, and vending machine retailing will to provide the most up-to-date material possible