The Changing Face of Retailing: Evolution of Departmental and Discount Stores in Australia

The changing face of retailing: How departmental stores and discount stores are
evolving

Table of Contents
Introduction..........................................................................................................................3
Retailing Concept................................................................................................................3
Departmental Store..........................................................................................................3
Discount Store.................................................................................................................3
Retail Lifecycle................................................................................................................4
Wheel of Retailing...........................................................................................................4
Evolution of Departmental Stores and Discount Stores in the Retail industry....................6
Future trends of retail Industry in Australia........................................................................7
Conclusion...........................................................................................................................7
References............................................................................................................................9
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Introduction
Through digital revolution, Grewal, Motyka, & Levy., (2018) suggest that the traditional
retailing concept will undergo massive revolution in the way they operate. In this regard,
research points out that the traditional departmental stores and discount stores will undergo
certain changes in order to stay competitive (McArthur, Weaven, & Dant, 2016). This report will
focus on the evolution of the retail industry, putting emphasis on the trends, driving force and
other factors that affect retailing. In this regards, this report will analyse the departmental and
discount stores of Australia.
Retailing Concept
Departmental Store
A departmental store is a type of retail establishment, which offer wide range of products.
The various product segments are segregated through departments (Bailey, 2017). This is
modern form of retailing commenced during the middle nineteenth century. These store types
sells, wide range of products starting from furniture, home appliances, cosmetics, electronics,
stationeries, groceries, etc. The departments may have their own payment desk or, the whole
department may have a single series of payment desks (Ikeler, 2016). In case of large national
retail chains such as Myer, each of the department may have their own sales counter, while in the
case of independent stores such they may have totally segregated sales counter. They target their
customers based on their product categories. The cumulative service offering is their prime
competitive advantage. Their merchandising technique and effective departmentalisation is
critical for enhancing their store attractiveness and sales (Thangam and Karthikeyan, 2015).
Discount Store
Unlike departmental stores, discount stores are those stores that typically sell products
lower than that of the market price (Reyhle and Prescott, 2014). A discount store can be a
standalone local store or can be a mass marketer such as Aldi in Australia. A discount store can
sell wide variety of products or can sell a single category of products. In the case of wide variety
of products, a discount store is similar to departmental store, in which case, they are also called
discount departmental stores such as Aldi (Richey and Skinner, 2015). Unlike departmental
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