Assignment 1 Retail MGMT PDF

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MKT 3210

Spring 2019

Macy’s Radical Plan: Answer Form Student Name:

Hannah-Grace Preston

Grading Criteria 1) This assignment requires formal business writing. Your writing tone should be formal. 2) All sentences must be complete. Bullet points are not acceptable. 3) Use proper grammar. 4) You must use your own words in your answers. Do not copy and paste sentences from the assigned articles. 5) The majority of your grade will be based on correctness and quality. Regarding quality, an answer with fewer than four (4) lines will be considered as a poor-quality answer.

Q1) To what types of retailers have department stores been losing ground to since the 1980s? Since the 1980s, department stores have been losing the retailers that take their time. People used to like the shopping experience of shopping around for a while, flipping through racks, and enjoying displays. But in today’s world of shopping, people want things fast and easy, even if they have to order online. That is an entire generation of retailers that Macys, along with other department stores, are losing. The generation of trying on clothes, browsing racks, and taking shopping trips is ending and we’re moving to an online shopping world; which caused department stores to lose so many retailers since the 1980s.

Q2) How have traditional retailers coped with too much space in their stores? There are few ways that a traditional retailer can cope with having too much space in their store. There are a lot of stores that closed down locations, like Sears, while other stores tried different ways to make things work. Big stores started making room for smaller stores within them. By doing so the larger store fills up floor space, brings in a new group of customers, and those smaller stores help with some of the cost of the space. This is helping traditional retailers stay afloat with their once full stores that are now so empty.

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MKT 3210

Spring 2019

Q3) What are the features of Macy’s “magnet stores”? Macy’s new magnet stores featured 350 stores that were getting a complete makeover. These stores were giving the store a new image by adding new floors, lights, and carpets. Some of the beauty departments got new mirrors that had the technology to put makeup on whoever was looking in it so that they did not have to sample all of the colors. Many of these new magnet stores also received more employees, and a larger dress section. The idea of the “magnet stores” generated new customers and a better image for the Macy’s brand.

Q4) Discussing Macy’s digital operation and its brick-and-mortar stores, its CEO said “You can’t just do one without the other.” What do you think he meant? When opening up more options digitally, people are going to use it more often. This is essentially pushing customers out of the stores and into their homes to shop online. While with today’s technology, it is almost impossible to have a store on ground but not online. But that does not mean that the physical store can just stop. Many companies could not stay in business off of online sales alone, because they still have successful business within the physical store. All of this is because of such a huge difference in generations, technologically speaking, stores have to offer both. This is what I believe the CEO meant when he said, “you can’t just do one without the other.”

Q5) The assigned articles mention two key performance metrics commonly used by retailers. What are they? One key performance metric is to shrink stores to make things easier for consumers to shop. By lowering the square foot of a store, the customer can come in and find what they need quickly. This generation of shoppers do not want to have to wander around for a long time to find what they need. By shrinking the stores, retailers are able to make it to where consumers can get in and get out with what they need easily and efficiently. This also provides opportunity to have other smaller stores move in to bring more customers in. Another performance metric that is being used by retailers is magnet stores. The process of remodeling your store to be more visually appealing and have better technology features will bring more customers in. Especially when the retailer can make this store stand out amongst competition.

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