PROJECT OBJECTIVE
The objective of this graded project is to apply what you’ve
learned throughout the subject. You’ll select a retailer from
the list provided and research, examine, and report your
findings in the following three areas:
1. Strategic Analysis
2. Store Layout, Design, and Visual Merchandising
3. Internet Retailing
You will be asked to consider what you’ve studied and apply
it to a specific retailer by answering the questions for each
section. Your answers to these questions will be put together
to constitute your project for this course.
Be sure to answer each of the questions as completely as
possible, using the information in your textbook, information
from your research, and any other information you’ve learned
to support your positions.
INSTRUCTIONS
To satisfy the requirements for this project, you must prepare
the research project demonstrating your knowledge of the sub-
ject matter. There’s no minimum or maximum number of pages
required for the project. The number of pages will depend
on the retailer selected and the information obtained from
your research. Answers to the provided questions should
be well thought out, written coherently, and answered in
essay/paragraph format using the following guidelines. Use
MLA format for the paper. Any references should be cited. A
minimum of three citations is required. Although this is a
research project, attention to English and the writing of
research papers should be paid attention to and will be
graded accordingly.
The research paper will contain the following sections:
1. Title Page
2. Strategic Analysis
3. Store Layout, Design, and Visual Merchandising
4. Internet Retailing
5. Works Cited
Each section should begin on a new page and should be
labeled at the beginning (for example, Strategic Analysis).
The question(s) should be typed, followed by the answer(s)
in essay/paragraph format.
For this graded project, select a retailer that you’re interested
in from the following list:
Target, Bestbuy, FootLocker, Safeway, Whole Foods Market.
Prepare a paper and presentation using MLA format about
your retailer using the guidelines that follow. Your graded
project will be due after the completion of the lesson exams
for Retail Management.
STRATEGIC ANALYSIS
To ensure that you can get information about these retailers,
all of the listed retailers are publicly held companies, mean-
ing that you can access financial statements and annual
reports. Many reports can be found at the SEC’s website
(http://www.sec.gov), and annual reports can be found online at the company’s website or by calling the company and requesting a report be sent to you as a potential investor.
You’ll find the information you need to complete the assign-
ment using databases and resources, such as Yahoo Finance,
MSN Money, Market Watch, Etrade, and ScottTrade; any
provider of financial and industry news information, includ-
ing the Wall Street Journal, Investor’s Business Daily, Money
Magazine, MSNBC, or any other purveyor of news; magazine
articles; television; and Internet information. The assignment
will help you become familiar with the databases, industry,
market, and company reports, as well as other electronic
library resources. In preparing your report, be sure to cite
and reference the original sources that your information was
drawn from (not the database where you found the source).
Please don’t summarize information without giving credit to
the source from which it was drawn. (In researching and
preparing your paper, a minimum of three sources of infor-
mation are required for the project.)
1. Describe the current climate and situation that your
retailer finds itself in as it attempts to compete. Describe
what’s occurring in the industry. Provide a brief overview
of the retail sector in which the retailer operates. What
economic factors and environmental factors (if any) are
affecting the retailer? Describe competitive pressures,
changing demographics and buying preferences, consumer
behavior issues, image issues, and so on that affect this
retailer and how they conduct business. How has the
industry changed because of e-commerce and technology?
2. How has your retailer changed and evolved over time?
What is your retailer’s primary business? What is their
business model (how do they choose to operate)? What
is their corporate strategy? What are their goals? What
parts of their business are growing and generate the
most revenue? How is your retailer seeking to increase
revenue in the future?
3. Complete a corporate analysis by answering these questions:
Has the retailer been profitable during its last fiscal year?
What are its projections for the future? Is the retailer
expanding or contracting its operations? How does this
retailer compare financially to other retailers in its industry?
4. Do a financial analysis of your retailer and two to five of
its top competitors. Include revenue growth, ROA, Gross
Margin, Net Margin, GMROI, Inventory Turnover, and so
on. What does this analysis say about how your retailer
operates and its profitability? What can your retailer do
to improve its profitability?
5. Analyze the competition by answering these questions:
n
Who are the retailer’s competitors (both direct and
indirect)? How does your retailer compare to these
competitors in terms of its size, market dominance/
share, sales, profitability, and so on?
n
What is your retailer’s competitive strength? How do
they try to compete? Are there strategies that haven’t
worked for them?
n
What retailers have they identified as competitive
threats? Why?
6. Determine the retail market strategy:
n
Who is their target audience? (Describe the audience
demographically and psychographically, if possible.)
How does this compare to the competition?
n
What image do they want to convey? How do they
attempt to position themselves in the minds of con-
sumers in the market? What is their current image
in the industry and in the minds of consumers? Is
this image working for them? How does this compare
with the image of competitors?
How do they make use of technology (web and
e-commerce, supply chain management, information
systems, and so on)? How has technology affected
the way they conduct business?
n
What is their global presence and strategy? What
countries have they entered? How successful have
they been expanding into these countries? What
obstacles have they faced?
n
What is their location strategy? Why have they
chosen this strategy?
n
What is their approach to managing human
resources (if this information is available)?
n
Describe their merchandising strategy: how they buy,
what they buy, breadth versus depth of merchandise,
and so on. How is it reflected in their financial strategy?
n
What is their pricing strategy, and how does this
affect their profitability?
n
Describe their approach to advertising and sales
promotions. Has it been effective for them?
n
What challenges does your retailer face in terms of
the retail strategy variables just described? Do some
appear to be working better than others?
7. Summarize your retailer’s primary strengths and weak-
nesses and support your assessment. What are the retailer’s
largest opportunities? What are their biggest challenges
now and in the future? How are they preparing to meet
those challenges? What do they view as their opportunities for the future?
8. What do you think the future holds for this retailer?
If you were hired as the CEO, what specific strategies
would you pursue in the future for this retailer? What
opportunities would you capitalize on? Why?
Go to the retailer and evaluate the store layout, design, and
visual merchandising techniques employed. Be sure to refer-
ence the concepts you’ve learned in your chapters. (You may
want to let an employee or manager know that you’re taking
notes because you’re a student at Penn Foster doing research
for a graded project.)
Select a particular product. You’ll be using this product to
compare with your Internet shopping experience. Review the
next section on Internet Retailing to understand the informa-
tion that will need to be gathered complete the next section of
the research project.
Explain your answers to the following questions:
I. Appearance
A. Is the store layout, design, and visual merchandising
techniques used consistent with the exterior of the
store and the location? What does it say about the type
of store this is and the market it is trying to attract?
B. Is the store’s ambiance consistent with the merchandise
presented and your expectations as a customer?
C. Does the store need a face-lift, update, remodel, or
renovation? What improvements would you suggest?
II. Fixtures
A. Does the lighting highlight merchandise,
structure space, capture a mood, or downplay
unwanted features?
B. Are the fixtures consistent with the merchandise
and the overall ambiance of the store?
C. What type of image do the fixtures portray?
III. Promotion
A. Evaluate the store’s signage. Does it effectively sell
merchandise?
B. Has the retailer used any theatrical effects to help
sell merchandise?
C. Does the store make creative use of wall space to
sell product?
D. Does the sales staff use suggestive selling?
E. Is the sales staff friendly and helpful?
F. Is the image of the staff consistent with the image of
the store?
IV. Layout
A. Does the store layout help draw people throughout
the store? Why or why not?
B. How does the layout facilitate purchases?
C. What type of layout is used? Would another type of
layout be better?
V. Merchandising
A. Has the retailer employed any techniques for
achieving greater space productivity such as
using the “cube,” downsizing gondolas and racks,
minimizing no-selling space, and so on?
B. Are there any displays that increase interest
in the products being offered? If not, would
you recommend any?
C. How has the retailer organized merchandise?
What improvements could be made?
VI. Summarize your suggestions on how this retailer can
improve the shopping experience for their customers,
increase sales, and improve their image.
Go to the retailer’s website and shop for a product. (You do
not need to purchase any products or services.) Select the
product and place it in the shopping cart. Go through the
checkout procedure up to the point where you’re asked to
enter credit card or checkout information. Answer the following
questions in detail:
1. How do you compare your experience shopping on
the Internet to shopping in a local store for this type
of product?
2. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the
Internet shopping experience?
3. Describe the Internet shopping experience using the
following criteria:
n
Price
n
Suggestive selling
n
Website features
n
Design of website
n
Ease of website use
n
Closing of the sale
PROJECT FORMAT
1. Create a title page with the following information:
a. Title: Retail Management
b. Your name
c. Your student number
d. Graded project number: 08001400
e. Current date
2. Prepare your questions and answers to the three sections
in a word-processing program. Each section should begin
on a new page. Each answer for that section should be
labeled by its number/designation and question and
should be answered in an essay/paragraph format.
3. Double-space your answers, with left and right margins
of 1 to 1.25 inches, flush left and ragged right. Use a
plain 12-point font, such as Times New Roman.
4. Incorporate and properly reference any sources of
information you’ve used to develop your answers.
To cite your sources, please follow this procedure:
a. Use in-text citations to indicate references to infor-
mation from outside sources. Include the author’s
name and the relevant page number(s) in parentheses.
Here’s an example: Human beings have been described
as “symbol-using animals” (Burke 3).
b. At the end of your paper, include a Works Cited
page, listing all of the sources you’ve consulted.
Use MLA format for this page.
5. Read over your work carefully. Make sure it’s professional
with correct formatting, grammar, spelling and citations,
along with adequate support for any arguments you make.
6. Submit the final draft of your work, along with the title
page, only after you’ve completed writing your questions
and answers to each section.
