RETAIL MANAGEMENT

INTRODUCTION
A perfect example of a dream come true is the story of Sam Walton, the founder of WalMart. From a single store, Wal-Mart has grown to become the worlds largest retailer (in terms of revenues). As a store owner in Bentonville, Arkansas, Sam Walton had a simple strategy: to take his retail stores to rural areas of the United States and then sell goods at the lowest prices around. Sam was convinced that a large discount format would work in rural communities. Today, Wal-Mart Canada has more than 230 stores and five Sams Clubs, employing more than 60,000 Canadians from coast to coast. Wal-Mart has become a true textbook example of how a retailer can maintain growth without losing sight of its original core values of low overhead, the use of innovative distribution systems, and customer orientationwhereby employees swear to serve the customer. So help me, Sam.

RETAILING DEFINED
The word retailing has its origins in the French verb retailer, which means to cut up, and refers to one of the fundamental retailing activities which is to buy in larger quantities and sell in smaller quantities. For example, a convenience store would buy tins of beans in units of two dozen boxes, but sell in single-tin units. However, a retailer is not the only type of business entity to 'break bulk'. Wholesalers also buy in larger quantities and sell to their customers in smaller quantities. A generally accepted definition of a retailer is 'any establishment engaged in selling merchandise for personal or household consumption and rendering services incidental to the sale of such goods'. The term retailing applies not only to the selling of tangible products like loaves of bread or pairs of shoes, but also to the selling of service products. Companies who provide meals, haircuts and aromatherapy sessions are all essentially retailers, as they sell to the final consumer, and yet customers do not take goods away from these retailers in a carrier bag. The consumption of the service offering coincides with the retailing activity itself.

CHARACTERISTICS OF RETAILER
The ideal candidate pursuing a retail career should possess the following qualities: Be a people person to understand customer needs and be an effective team member. Be flexible to be able to perform a variety of tasks throughout the workday. Be decisive to make quick decisions that are well thought out. Have analytical skills to analyze data and predict trends. Have stamina to be able to work under pressure for long time periods.

RETAIL MANAGEMENT
Retail management can refer to the way business is conducted in the retail sector, the very stage in which goods and services are delivered to their end users. As a job sector, retail management offers positions with name like retail store manager. depending on the business model, management can be conducted local or central where by the approach is local, national or global. It is the way business is lead in the retail sector with retail being the delivery of goods and services to end user last station in the production process.

RETAIL MANAGEMENT IN INDIA

A dose of reforms in India have been changed the entire economy of super power house of Asia. India is a sleeping lion in Asia. A lion appearance is enough to control the situation in its environment. Incredible but true, way back in 1700, India was actually the world's largest economy accounting for 22.6% of world income, second only to china. India has the second largest population of able-bodied men and women in the world. The estimated workforce is 46 crores in overall population of about 108 crores. The unemployment present rate is 9 % in India.

Now the digital economy stimulates higher level of gross domestic product and the stock markets crosses 18,000 points of Sensex which is a memorable journey in the Indian stock markets. The strong dose of reforms, good monsoons, and flow of foreign funds put together to reach the higher levels of Sensex. India ranks second in the world in sale of two-wheelers. Car sales are over a million per annum. India is the 6th largest market for color television sets. 70% of television purchases were from the rural areas during 2001-04.

India consists of 43 lakhs stock market investors. Its retail banking customers crossed 14 crores. 10 crores of insurance policy holders in India. 31 crores people in India are young people aged 10-24 years as per the Registrar General Reports, 2001. There are more than 13 crores of mobile users in India and adding every month new customers of 6 lakhs.

INFLUENCING FACTORS
Local knowledge is the most important and influencing factor in survival of the business. India is a country with many traditions and culture and different tastes. The important constituents in the retail management is food, beverage and tobacco account for 65% of the total business followed by personal care products at 5% and apparels at 7% , footwear, furnishings, consumer durables and IT furniture, jeweler and watches, medical care and recreation are the next most sought after items according to a study by Technopark. Geographical location is another important and influencing factor in successful of retail management. Retail management is not only India but also throughout the world they exist. The establishment of shopping mall location is more important because the world wide experience exposes much realty. For ex: in Malaysia, a hypermarket is normally built about 3.5 km away from housing estates or a city centre. In Indonesia, it is 2.5 kms from for hypermarkets with a floor area of 40,000 sq.ft. Similarly in Thailand, the distance is about 15 kms for stores that are 10,000 square feet or more in area.

CONCLUSION
Small retailers no longer remain the basic sources for the monthly sopping basket. The salary earners will buy goods at monthly basis at malls and at the end of the month, the needy merchandise may be bought from the nearby their residence. Therefore there is no chance of close down of small stores exists. The daily needs goods are always commanding demand for the livelihood of the population. However the emerging of shopping malls will bring good cheerful movements to the farmers. They buy goods directly from factories in case of consumer goods and food components are directly procured from the farmers without any middle men.