Multi-Channel Retail Marketing

This module covers a wide range of operational issues, particularly the technological changes which have led to new forms of non-store shopping and the growing importance of eWOM and social media.

Students will gain a deeper understanding of the effect of these changes on the:

consumer search process in retail and the impact of factors such as risk, intangibility and perishability;

reorganisation of store networks and the related supply chains;

implications for the management of manufacturer and retailer brands;

impact of the type and location of management decisions and responsibilities.

The module will bring together a number of the current topics and trends in retailing and marketing to show how theory is expressed in the practices of modern retailers.  It will also emphasise the problem that even radical change often has to take place within or alongside existing structures and thus show some of the compromises that managers have to make in trying to respond to changes in consumer behaviour.