The Role of Buyers in the Retail and Merchandising Industry

Retail and
Merchandising
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction .....................................................................................................................................3
Main body........................................................................................................................................3
A strategic perspective.................................................................................................................3
The role of buyer..........................................................................................................................4
Implications of suppliers relations...............................................................................................6
Appropriate examples..................................................................................................................7
Evidence of appropriate theory and practise................................................................................8
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................9
References......................................................................................................................................11
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INTRODUCTION
In the present scenario, retail industry is one of the leading and fastest growing industry
in the world. It can be stated that along with higher growth rate, the industry has also witnessed
high degree of competition. At the time of carrying out their operations, businesses in retail
industry come across with two different terms which are merchandising and sales (Varley, 2014).
However, it can be argued that both the terms of completely different from each other and people
often gets confused between the two. The present study demonstrate a strategic perspective of
the principles and process which being employed by retailers operating at large scale. Along with
this, this report also highlight the role played by buyer in the retail industry.
MAIN BODY
A strategic perspective
In simpler term, the word merchandising can be defined as the process in which
businesses present their services and products in front of customers. The objective behind such
presentation is to increase sales and profits of retail companies. It can be stated that
merchandising is not an easy task and organizations are required to put wide variety of efforts.
They are required to the best location where each product can be displayed (Doyle, 2012). Along
with this, retail companies also need to develop eye catching displays so that more and more
customers can be attracted to buy a particular product. It can be expressed that countries such as
UK, are largely benefited from their retail sector as it is contributing a lot in its overall economic
development of the nation (Kent, 2007). In the present scenario, there are some retailers which
has managed to earn higher sales through innovations.
On the other side of this, few businesses in the industry are not able to earn adequate
profits because of the highly competitive business environment. The retail industry is very
important for the overall economic development of UK as it has contributed a sum of £310
billion in the year 2013. In addition to this, the industry also act as a major link between all the
manufacturer (producers) and customers. It has also played very crucial role in lowering down
the rate of unemployment in nation by employing more than 3 million individuals. In terms of
strategic perspective for large scale retailers, it can be stated that the government of UK, is well
aware of the importance of retail industry and has always developed strategies which support its
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growth and development (Kumar and Patel, 2010). Nowadays, government and businesses in the
retail industry are working together in order to deal with major issues faced and enhance the
existing growth rate. The strategies developed by government and large scale retailers in the
country lay emphasis on exploring more business opportunities at international level. The
development of strategies such as UKTI Retail International Action Plan has resulted in
providing potential opportunities for global growth and development. In addition to this, the
strategy also focuses on providing easy access to other international markets which offers higher
sales and growth rate. On the other side of this, the government and large scale retailers are also
working in partnership in order to eliminate trade barriers and encourage free flow of services
and products within nations (Pretious and Love, 2006). The laws developed at local level in
terms of retail are also made easy in order to reduce their complexity. In the current scenario,
many large and medium sized retailers has started operating with online store. The trend of
online promotion and sale of products in retail is growing with a very good pace. It can be stated
that in last one decade, entire retail industry has gone through a drastic change.
Nowadays, large businesses has developed new and more potential channels for
marketing and sales of its products. This includes emergence of platform such as e-commerce
and m-commerce from which customers can buy products from large retailers. Many companies
have developed their own online retail stores in order to make the entire shopping experiences of
customers more convenient (Megicks, 2007). Furthermore, brand such as Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury
have also developed their mobile application from where individuals can buy different products
with the help of mobile phones. These strategies of using new channels has resulted in increasing
sales and profits of large scale retailer. Along with this, it has also resulted in lowering down the
rate of footfall.
The role of buyer
In the present scenario, buyer has started to play very important role in growth and
success of business enterprise in retail sector. In simpler terms, retail buyer can be defined as the
one which buy different products and services with an objective of reselling them. At the time of
carrying out their operations, there are various things which needs to be taken into consideration
(Hart and et,al. 2007). This includes sales trends, assessing changing needs of customers and
current stock available. It can be stated that a retail buyer is the one who is completely
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