Benefits And Challenges Of Department Stores

Benefits And Challenges Of Department Stores Department stores represent a large retail organization which offers to consumers a large choice of goods and services. Consumers have the opportunity to compare price, quality, and service at different stores at the same time and in a limited place. So the company can profit from individual benefits other sectors. The strategy of F4U is not only to sell quality goods at a reasonable price , but also to offer a unique service .Its prices are neither as cheap as the lower end department store, nor as expensive as the high-end store. F4U will try to bring the immediate attention of consumer through visual effects like layout, displays and colored posters and will place itself directly in front of the shoppers. The company wants, thereby, to entice different target groups and gain those other brands according to the motto† good quality, fashion style, best price†. In addition F4U intend to retain its consumer through a bonus program and to collect their personal data to bui ld an aggregate profile of individual consumers to target them with special offers and appropriate advertisements. Benefits and challenges of Department stores: Department stores offer to the customer the direct experience to touch and feel the product and judge its quality as well as the possibility of living the purchase as experience (Steinmann 2011:27) .The customer can try the clothes and take them immediately. Whereby the number of returns can be decreased. The face-to-face contact is crucial for many consumers especially for old people or people who dislike shopping online. Another advantage is the longer opening hours compared to specialty retail stores especially on Friday and Saturday. Department stores have also many disadvantages such as the existing of a concrete and inflexible location. Consequently, the location is a crucial factor for the shopping place. In this context, many consumers opine that, the fixed opening hours and parking fees are unfavorable. In addition, the time exposure, due to the travelling time, could be also a problem for some consumers (Heinemann 2008:19) Furthermore, department stores emerge several costs for the company such as lease costs and staff costs. Catalog selling Catalog selling as a channel for F4U Catalog selling is one of the most popular strategies used in Fashion game. The approach involves the creation of a printed catalog with a listing of products for sale. Every product is explicitly described and clearly illustrated with a picture to make the shopping experience as real as possible for the consumer. The catalog contains also a size chart to help consumer choosing the appropriate size. F4U tries, across catalog selling, to expand its clientele and above all to attain consumers, who are not familiar with using the internet or who dislike to walk around the stores for buying clothes. The catalog will comprise different ordering informations. The consumer can choose between ordering by telephone and entering the order at the online site.F4u will also offer its consumers various delivery options .They range from shipment directly to the consumer’s address, to delivering the goods to a F4u retail store or simply to a Packstation.