M019 Regular Assignment - Understanding Retail Essay

M019 Regular Assignment - Understanding Retail - Essay Example E- Tailing companies such as Onsale, @home, Webvan and Boo.com have experience their fair share of failures and were eventually closed down (Caroll and Casey, 2004:2). This goes ahead to prove that not all e-tailing companies have been successful in business. High street retailers have been in existence for a long time and have substantial loyalty and a wide customer base in the global market (Shepherd, 2007:66). They have strong brand names that are easily recognised by the consumers and this makes it easy to sell their merchandise on their online stores. Renowned fashion lines, mobile companies, food joints have a well established online business that contributes to a considerable amount of their income. New entrants have a hard time competing with these high street companies. High street companies have a competitive advantage since they have more resources, state of the art technology and better customer loyalty. It can be noted with a lot of concern that e- tailing is a relativel y new concept in some parts of the world. However, they are slowly catching up with the spread of the internet across different parts of the world. ... In conclusion, although e-tailing has grown rapidly in some parts of the world including the UK, US and some parts of Asia, there are those that that are not aware of the concept. It entails a wide array of businesses ranging from auction sites, entertainment sites and consumer based sites. In addition to, e- tailing facilitates the electronic usage of goods and services between buyers and sellers and helps bridge the language barrier (Cuthbertson, 2012:57). Recent studies reveal that e- tailing has opened new opportunities for companies from various parts of the world. It has helped companies reach a high number of shoppers from all over the world and has been shopping to be a fast and hustle free experience. This has led to a considerable increase in revenues gained by high street companies. Retail Internalisation Nearly thirty years ago, every retailer in the global scene was a pure nationalized firm with an irrelevant share in the international market. Currently, retailer interna tionalisation is one of the most momentous trends that have accelerated immensely in the past two decades. It can be argued that retail internationalisation is much more than the opening of stores abroad as it includes a wide range of issues (Wrigley et al., 2005:440). A close look at the 200 top global retailers reveals that they operate numerous countries and have established a remarkable capacity in the global market (Hanf and Pall, 2009:2). In fact, many retail companies earn a considerable share of their revenue from foreign markets. There are various companies that have established their subsidiaries in the international market and failed miserably. This goes ahead that there is much more to retail internalisation than open stores in various parts of the world.