Retailing in Britain: Traditional Retailers vs Discounters
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Code : COM0081
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Region : Europe
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Retailing Landscape in Britain The history of British retailing industry dates back to early 19th century, with small scale, independent retailers selling a limited variety of products in towns across the country. In the second half of the nineteenth century with urbanisation and development of mass production of consumer goods, particularly in consumer durables, led to the emergence of large-scale retailing - chain stores and branding of products. By 1860, such stores replaced the then existing draper stores such as Shoolbred in London and JW Campbell in Glasgow, as product lines extended beyond the narrow range of drapery... Traditional Retailers Loosing the Turf Nearly 200 foreign retailers11 entered Britain between 1980 and 1994. Although foreign multinationals were late comers to the well-established British retailing industry, they had strong competitive advantages to oust the incumbents. For example, in cloth retailing, Gap - a cloth retailer from the US, Sweden's Hennes & Mauritz and Spain's Zara brought with them global fashions, just-in-time manufacturing and economies of scale that the home-grown retailers lacked. Leveraging on their advantages, foreign retailers redefined apparel business in Britain, as The Economist observed, ".....fashion is no longer all about pricey designer-brands. Gap, H & Mand Zara prove that. Fashion has gone upmarket and downmarket at the same time."... |
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