
THE RETAIL PROCESSES
- Planning. A plan is a proposed method of doing or achieving something. ...
- Buy. This is the process of acquiring the products which you will sell. ...
- Move. This stage describes the processes involved in getting the bought goods ready and available for selling.
- Sell. Selling could easily be said to be the main thing going on in a retail store. ...
How do I start a small retail business?
Plan: Choose a name, location, and blueprint for success
- Decide on a name. Who are you, anyway? ...
- Choose a location. In today’s tech- and cloud-enabled economy, many new business owners have more of a luxury for choosing where they do business than in past decades.
- Write a business plan. Most experts recommend that new entrepreneurs create a business plan—but what is a business plan, exactly?
What are examples of retail business?
- Gold Buying and Selling
- Drop Shipping
- Convenience Store
- Stationery Store
What does retail business mean?
Retail involves the sale of merchandise from a single point of purchase directly to a customer who intends to use that product. The single point of purchase could be a brick-and-mortar retail store, an internet shopping website, or a catalog. Retailing is all about attracting consumers through product displays and marketing.
What is retail operations?
Retail operations is a functional term that encompasses all the retailing activities physical storefronts, chains, and eCommerce sites depend upon to operate successfully. Given its scope — “all the retailing activities” (emphasis on all) — narrowing down the elements that matter most to your retail operations is vital.

What are the five 5 internal processes involved in retail management?
Needless to say, this isn't all that easy. But, it's not impossible, either.Internal planning.Procurement.Fulfillment.Promotions and sales.Sales, service, and support.
What are the 4 stages of retailing?
Marketing dictionary A theory of retail competition that states that retailing institutions, like the products they distribute, pass through an identifiable cycle. This cycle can be partitioned into four distinct stages: (1) innovation, (2) accelerated development, (3) maturity, and (4) decline.
What are the four main functions of retail operations?
What are the functions of retail operations management?Staffing. While online sales have certainly changed the landscape of retail, more and more customers are returning to brick-and-mortar stores for personal and hands-on shopping experiences. ... Inventory Management. ... Customer Service. ... Visual Merchandising. ... Omnichannel unity.
What is correct order of retail process?
This process is called order management, which is basically keeping track of customers' orders and handling the steps involved with fulfilling them. The process generally consists of accepting the order; picking, packing, and shipping the items mentioned in the order; and finally tracking them until they get delivered.
What are the main stages in retail delivery process?
The key steps undertaken by the retail delivery team include: Producing a project specific tenant handbook which details the client vision statement, unit specifications, design guides, the approval process, contractor site contraints and logistics plan and unit services information.
What is product life cycle in retail?
Product life cycle is the progression of an item through the four stages of its time on the market. The four life cycle stages are: Introduction, Growth, Maturity and Decline. Every product has a life cycle and time spent at each stage differs from product to product.
What are the 5s of retail operation?
Building on previous studies on retail operations, Pal and Byrom (2003) further developed the 'five S's' (stock, space, staff, standards, and systems) of retail operations, which provides managers with a useful guiding framework that can be exploited in the retail operations process. ...
What are the major types of retail operations?
What are the types of retail store operations?Visual merchandising (design and atmosphere) Visual merchandising covers the aesthetic aspects of each of your stores. ... Customer service. ... Cash handling. ... Store safety. ... Loss prevention. ... Product inventory. ... Administration. ... Store management.More items...
What is mean by retail operations?
Retail operations is the term used to describe all the activities that keep the store functioning well. It includes people management, supply chain, store layout, cash operations, physical inventory, master data management, promotions and pricing, and so on.
What is the importance of process in retail management?
Retail management saves time and ensures the customers easily locate their desired merchandise and return home satisfied. An effective management avoids unnecessary chaos at the store. Effective Management controls shopliftings to a large extent.
What are the different types of order processing?
There are two main types of order processing systems:Traditional order processing systems rely on handwritten files and manual labor. ... Modern order processing systems are technology-centric.
What is store management process?
Store management is the activity of running and monitoring all operations in a store. Its main responsibilities include working with employees, creating work schedules, communicating with suppliers, and dealing with customer complaints.
What are the stages of evolution of retailing?
The Industrial Revolution Stage: It brought dramatic changes in distribution and retailing. Due to urbanization, consumers clustered in smaller geographical areas that phenomenon led to emergence of a number of shops in market places.
What are the steps in retail strategic planning?
Steps of Retail Strategy PlanningObjective Setting.Situational Analysis.Customer Analysis.Tactical Planning.Implementation and Control.
What are the three general types of retail ownership?
There are three general forms of retail ownership—independent retailer, corporate chain, and contractual systems.
Why is it important to clean your retail store?
A daily thorough clean of your retail store will pay dividends when trying to make customers returning time after time. Customers are never going to return to a store where there is a complete mess, rubbish lying around, no basic maintenance, shelf wobblers on the floor, it is just a horrible sight to witness.
What is the priority of a store?
It is self-explanatory but the health and safety of your employees and customers when in store should be your top priority, of course, you are wanting to make a profit, have products fly off the shelves and make countless sales but these can never be achieved if the store is not fit to be opened.
Why is there a daily store opening checklist?
This Daily Store Opening Checklist was created to ensure that you never forget your keys again!
Is retail a success?
Retail stores are a must for today’s essential items. Not every retail store is a success, though, many smaller chains find out that the retail business is tough. If you don’t have a plan in place to help you fight the problems then you will struggle to make your business a success.
Do you need a lot of money to open a retail store?
You do not need a wealth of knowledge, experience or millions of dollars in the bank to open a retail store, all you need is passion, advice, determination and a can-do attitude and you’ll for sure be able to make your retail store a success.
Is opening a retail store a good idea?
Opening a new retail store can be exciting, stressful and tough. At some point in our lives we feel entrepreneurial and for some; opening a retail store can be a good place to start. If you are looking to follow in the steps of the Wal-Mart family, Starbucks, Home Depot or Target this Retail Store Opening Checklist is for you.
What is retail management?
The business dictionary defines retail management as the process of promoting greater sales and customer satisfaction. If you break this down, you will get all the aspects of running a retail business. For example, to achieve more sales, you must know what the market needs. Once you know what is needed, then making sales becomes significantly less ...
How many steps are there in retail management?
In retail management, there are four basic steps which have to be followed so as to achieve the goals set. Let us look at these.
Why is it important to have multiple suppliers?
In the retail industry, unless there is only one supplier of a product, it is best to have several suppliers you can buy from. This helps you stay in control of your business in case one is not able to deliver. In the sourcing stage, you will have to find out who is the best supplier.
Why is inventory management important?
Inventory Management. The inventory is the backbone of any retail business because the stock is what is making the business stand. Minus the goods, there is no business. This means that the inventory is your company’s main asset. You will recognize this reality when you learn about the effects of pilferage.
Where should goods be arranged?
Goods have to be arranged on the shelves where customers will pick them from. These arrangements should be done in ways which make it easy to be seen and picked.
Where do goods go when they are received?
Received goods will normally head to the allocated storage space first. If the products have run out at the shelf, then immediate replenishing should be done.
How to ensure maximum sales?
For maximum sales, you have to ensure that customers get assistance when in your store . You can consider empowering your shelf attendants for this task. Generally speaking, customers are likely to buy more and come again if they get assistance during shopping.
How to approach retail business?
One of basic approaches to retail business is consideration of a retail shop as a complex of business processes . Such an approach helps to define business processes which need to be improved and to provide business process optimization if necessary. This lets managers to enlarge manageability of retail business, reduce time spent on customer assistance and satisfy requirements of shop visitors. Nowadays the main direction of business process optimization is a maximum combining of functions of several job positions of a shop in one point with the purpose to reduce the number of personnel and increase in customer service rate.
What are the problems of retail?
The significant part of difficulties which occur in retail business is impossibility to enlarge the volume of business due to the fact that the personnel are not able to respond corporate standards and to provide a necessary speed of work. Everyone knows the situation when sales managers are busy looking ...
How to optimize business processes?
General directions of business process optimization: 1 Acceleration of the processes (elimination of the process of weighing goods in a salesroom, integration of the processes of weighing and scanning a barcode); 2 Reducing of the number of responsibility transfer points (store and warehouse management as a whole, without the transfer of responsibility for the goods); 3 Reducing of the number of direct subordinates to the head of a retail shop (the head of a store should communicate with only three employees – director of procurement, chief accountant and salesroom manager).
What is business process optimization?
Correct description of business processes simplifies retail shop automation and implementation of the software significantly. However, business process optimization often leads to changes in the system of personnel motivation, the necessity to pay more attention to personnel trainings, team building and corporate culture.
What is acceleration of the processes?
Acceleration of the processes (elimination of the process of weighing goods in a salesroom, integration of the processes of weighing and scanning a barcode);
What is retail planning?
In retail management, planning is what makes the business to walk on a successful path. Planning itself is divided into many subparts:
What is retail management?
Retail management is the process of making the customer procure the things from the shop of their likings. This process helps the customers to guide to the retail shop and made them buy their required merchandise. Retail management makes the shopping experience of the customers, a pleasurable one. And try to make sure that when they leave ...
How did digitalization affect the market?
The digitalization of the market had made more online customer than the customer who likes to go to the shops. There are still many people who want to feel the product before they buy, they want to experience the shop and then buy their things.
Why is it important to have a good plan for retail management?
It is necessary to have a good plan so that the resources are utilized well or there is no misuse of the resources. In retail management, planning is what makes the business to walk on a successful path.
Will you ever walk into that shop again?
Will you ever walk into that shop again? No, you will not visit the same shop twice, where you have gained a bad experience , right.
Who Is It Suitable For?
This program is designed for people who sell or market to retailers and people joining a retailer for the first time. It will also benefit merchandise suppliers who sell directly to retailers, those who market to retailers to get their content specified in retail products and for IT teams who need to understand the retail business more fully.
Detailed Content
Learners completing the mastery test and obtaining an 80% pass mark will also receive a mastery certificate upon completion.
Benefits of Studying This Program
Learners studying this program will gain familiarity with the retail industry faster, shortening their path to full productivity.
Customer Feedback
A survey of over 70 of our learners rated this class in response to 4 key questions as follows:
Resources Included
The class includes the following downloadable resources for printing and review:
Price
The price for a single student is US $68, or UK £54 or EU €62 . This includes one year’s access to the class.
After This Program
This program is a module from our Fundamentals of Retail training suite. The next logical program in developing learners’ knowledge is Retail IT Architecture.
What is retail operations?
The field of retail store operations concerns all of the activities that keep a store functioning well each day. In the best-run stores, everything is carefully considered, planned, and executed. Operations includes many aspects, such as store design, display placement, customer service, money and credit handling, shoplifting prevention, ...
What Is Meant by Retail Store Operations?
Typically, when people use the term retail store operations, they’re referring to most of the functions and jobs in stores. How the term translates for individual operations depends on the type of store and the specific company’s organizational chart.
How does customer service help a store?
Much of a store’s success depends on customer service - how it treats its customers. Customers may not always be right, but they’re always the customer, representing a potential sale and potential review. With excellent customer service, stores can increase their competitiveness, and even make up for shortfalls in other areas, such as convenience or pricing. Positive, personalized customer service can help the little guys compete against the big guys, and it can help brick-and-mortar stores compete against online operations. However, online operations have been increasingly good at providing remote customer service, with services such as convenient returns. The best-run stores comprehensively train their employees on how to treat customers and provide superior service to keep them coming back.
How does data help stores?
With smart use of customer data, stores can guide targeted customers toward sales and offers, build their loyalty, and improve customer service to them - while increasing the store’s bottom line . Stores can also use data to root out bottlenecks and discrepancies, thereby increasing efficiency and timeliness.
What is the design of a store?
Store design and layout: The store’s exterior and interior design sets the tone for the shopping experience. Design can signal a clean, well-organized but relatively spartan discount store (think Target), a well-stocked, industrial looking warehouse (Home Depot or Lowe’s) or an upscale, well-appointed department store (Nordstrom’s) or clothing boutique (Anthropologie). Another consideration is the display layout. Racks, shelves, or displays can be arranged straight, at angles, or in a geometric pattern to create visual interest in addition to organization. Similarly, traffic patterns for customers can be gridded, almost like streets, looping or curving, or more free flowing. Changes in these patterns can affect what customers see and what they purchase.
What is a pop up store?
Pop-up stores - also called pop-up retailing, pop-up shops, and flash retailing - are temporary sales spaces often designed to take advantage of a trend. They may be in regular retail spaces, as a store-within-a-store, in mall kiosks, or in vendor stands, shipping containers or even motorized vehicles (taking a cue from the food truck trend). Because of the temporary nature of pop-up stores, operations may be sized down to a manageable level. For example, there’s often less space for inventory or storage, so more regular shipments arrive to keep the pop-up store stocked. You may remove cash from the premises upon closing for security. Advertising and promotion often needs to take place quickly, since there might not be time for a slow build of business.
How does a store succeed?
For a store to succeed, it needs to have the products to satisfy its customers. This is the fourth area of retail operations: inventory management. Stores do their best to balance supply and demand for products in a constant cycle of selling and restocking. If a product doesn’t move well, it is replaced with something that does. If a product does sell well, the store increase its inventory. It may sound simple, but the quirks of supply and demand can make inventory management difficult. Problems in the supply chain can make it hard to get hold of desired products. A sudden shift in demand, such as a new product making an older one less attractive, can catch a store by surprise.
What is a Retail Sales Flow Chart?
A retail sales work flow is a visual representation of the processes conducted by a retail organization. Retail sales flow charts, or workflows, are integral to the day-to-day operations of retail organizations. Retail sales flow charts illustrate each step of a purchasing, inventory, customer service, accounting, or other business process. Process models across the retail industry can look similar, due to well-established best practices that have had years to develop. Regardless, knowing these workflows helps retail sales organizations increase revenue by identifying process improvement opportunities and areas for automation.
What is product knowledge?
Product Knowledge: The acquiring of knowledge about a specific product or service.
Why are returns flow charts important?
Standardized returns flow charts can help keep returns processing on track.
Is a retail sales organization a process flow?
Individual departments within a retail sales organization are likely to have adopted their own unique process flows. These workflows, however, are usually not standardized or optimized internally, resulting in reduced operational efficiency and hampered automation efforts. Instituting constant and proactive retail sales process management is the best way to get the full benefits with flow charts. A few processes ideas that can jump start your flow chart analysis for process improvement and robotic process automation initiatives include:

Internal Planning
Procurement
- Procurement means finding a supplier — that is, the rightsupplier for your business. When sourcing a supplier, there are a number of factors to consider, such as: 1. The pricebeing offered for the products in question (along with any discounts or deals the supplier may offer for bulk orders or other circumstances) 2. The quality of serviceprovided by the supplier (i.e., their delive…
Promotions and Sales
- Once your products are ready to be displayed in-store (or on your eCommerce website), you can then present them in a way that clearly communicates their value to your customers. This process, known as visual merchandising, will look verydifferent depending on the type of retail store you run and the type of products you sell. For example, fashion retailers often showcase e…
Sales, Service, and Support
- Your products won’t always“sell themselves,” no matter how effective your approach to merchandising may be. This is why talented salespeople and support staff need to be on the ground, ready to help your in-store or online customers at a moment’s notice. For customers in the preliminary stages of the buyer’s journey, your staff should be able to: 1. Help them navigate …