Unit 29 Task 1
Definition of Retailing
Retailers point of view – Selling of goods or providing a service for outsiders to consume.
Consumers point of view – Receiving a product or service from a company.
The Size of the UK Industry
The UK industry is constantly growing. They employee over 4.4 million employees in the
539,000 businesses that are already in the industry. They produced over £180 billion
last year in sales. In online stores, £1.1 billion was spent by consumers. According to an
online website, British retail sales saw a growth in the last 2 months of 2.9%. In 2014,
retail shops contributed 11% to the UK economy.
The top 10 retailers includes: Tesco, Sainsbury, Asda, Morrisons, Kingfisher, Co-Op, John
Lewis, Marks and Spencer, Alliance Boots, and Home Retail Group. The retailers that
produce the most money are supermarket stores. The reasoning for this is that they
provide such a wide variety of products and are in well-populated areas.
How Retailing has changed over the past 20 years and why?
Over the past 20 years, time has changed with regards to what people are interested in
buying and how much disposable income they have. Lately, consumers have been more
interested in buying cheaper priced items from shops such as Aldi and Lidl rather than
Tesco. Supermarkets such as Tesco have been in the media lately for negative news.
This has impacted their customer base and have seen a decrease in sales and footfall.
Stores similar to Aldi offer products at a reduced price and do not carry stock that is a
well-known brand. For example, they do not stock Kellogg’s but instead have their own
brand.
Retail shops such as Woolworths, Blockbuster, Comit and Jessups all went out of
business in the last 15 years due to getting into debt and not getting enough customers.
Although businesses such as Woolworths provided products for a cheaper price, they did
not stock the modern day stock that consumers want. Nowadays, companies have to be
on the ball with upcoming trends and finding out what their consumers want out of their
company.
The internet has grown over the past 20 years and most, if not all retailers have adapted
their businesses in order to gain more business online and out of store hours. This
means that when businesses close, they are still able to gain a profit due to online
shopping being available. Online has become a way of life for retailers, it is more
accessible for customers and it can also show deals online compared to having to go into
store and looking for the deals yourself. Businesses that weren’t able to develop into the
Definition of Retailing
Retailers point of view – Selling of goods or providing a service for outsiders to consume.
Consumers point of view – Receiving a product or service from a company.
The Size of the UK Industry
The UK industry is constantly growing. They employee over 4.4 million employees in the
539,000 businesses that are already in the industry. They produced over £180 billion
last year in sales. In online stores, £1.1 billion was spent by consumers. According to an
online website, British retail sales saw a growth in the last 2 months of 2.9%. In 2014,
retail shops contributed 11% to the UK economy.
The top 10 retailers includes: Tesco, Sainsbury, Asda, Morrisons, Kingfisher, Co-Op, John
Lewis, Marks and Spencer, Alliance Boots, and Home Retail Group. The retailers that
produce the most money are supermarket stores. The reasoning for this is that they
provide such a wide variety of products and are in well-populated areas.
How Retailing has changed over the past 20 years and why?
Over the past 20 years, time has changed with regards to what people are interested in
buying and how much disposable income they have. Lately, consumers have been more
interested in buying cheaper priced items from shops such as Aldi and Lidl rather than
Tesco. Supermarkets such as Tesco have been in the media lately for negative news.
This has impacted their customer base and have seen a decrease in sales and footfall.
Stores similar to Aldi offer products at a reduced price and do not carry stock that is a
well-known brand. For example, they do not stock Kellogg’s but instead have their own
brand.
Retail shops such as Woolworths, Blockbuster, Comit and Jessups all went out of
business in the last 15 years due to getting into debt and not getting enough customers.
Although businesses such as Woolworths provided products for a cheaper price, they did
not stock the modern day stock that consumers want. Nowadays, companies have to be
on the ball with upcoming trends and finding out what their consumers want out of their
company.
The internet has grown over the past 20 years and most, if not all retailers have adapted
their businesses in order to gain more business online and out of store hours. This
means that when businesses close, they are still able to gain a profit due to online
shopping being available. Online has become a way of life for retailers, it is more
accessible for customers and it can also show deals online compared to having to go into
store and looking for the deals yourself. Businesses that weren’t able to develop into the
