Exploring the Future of Retail Industry in Australia: A Case Study of Costco and Rivers

E-BUSINESS APPLICATION

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Background of Retail in Australia...................................................................................................2
Operation of COSTCO and RIVERS..............................................................................................3
Literature Review............................................................................................................................4
Conclusion and Recommendations..................................................................................................7
References........................................................................................................................................8
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Introduction
The future of the retail industry has been under a phase of transformation since the beginning of
globalization and technological revolution. With changing consumer orientations, strategies and
business models have evolved to adapt themselves with the various progresses in social and
technological arenas, in order to keep up with the dynamic business world (Kahn, Inman and
Verhoef 2018). With the advent of ‘online shopping’, the retail stores have been facing stiff
crisis as it fails to provide the easy-accessibility of products that the online shops have to offer.
Online shopping has reduced the extra labor of physically going to the market and selecting from
a variety of products—rather, it offers a spectrum of information and knowledge regarding the
available products, their contemporary alternatives, average price of the product, customer
reviews and much more. The accessibility of products at a mouse click away, with safe monetary
transactions, have proved to be a revolutionary advancement that sets the online retailing apart
from physical retail sector.
The project aims to explore the various aspects of retailing in order to understand in detail its
benefits and shortcomings (Huang and Gamble 2015). The research chooses two large-scale
companies from Australia, Costco and Rivers, to understand and analyze how the various
technological advancements can be applied in the organizational processes to improve its
efficiency as well as branding.
Background of Retail in Australia
The retail sector in Australia has been facing a backlash like every other country, with the
changing consumer trends, shifting from retail to online shopping. With the advent of overseas
businesses, the Australian market has experienced new changes in service delivery in retailing.
With changing social, economical and technological environments, Australian consumers are
now more tech-savvy, wealthy and busy. As the business approaches are becoming more
customer-oriented, it is becoming clearer how the consumer demands and expectations change
with the changing environmental factors like technology, economy and society.
In order to improve the retail sector in Australia, it is necessary to bring in appropriate changes
and developments in their particular approaches to retailing. Appropriate measures have to be
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