VHL 3556 Retail II: Store Management, Expansion Strategies and Retail Chain Management
APPLIES TO ACADEMIC YEAR 2014/2015
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VHL 3556 Retail II: Store Management, Expansion Strategies and Retail Chain Management
Responsible for the course
Jan Ivar Fredriksen
Department
Department of Marketing
Term
According to study plan
ECTS Credits
7,5
Language of instruction
Norwegian
Introduction
Factors such as the store, customers, employees, goods and technological facilities are crucial for success. Single stores with success are the basic platform for growth and expansion. This course will actualize store and retail chain management with a focus on success in employee and leadership relations.
Retail 2 is the second of two courses in retailing. The focus is on store management, expansion strategies and retail chain management. Retail 1 considers competitive advantages, the experience of location and merchandise assortments.
Learning outcome
Acquired knowledge
The student will acquire knowledge and obtain adequate insight concerning the following:
- Relations between tasks and empowerment, acquired competence and challenges in work environment concerning the retailer’s organization structure and human resource management
- Analyses and processes concerning recruiting, hiring, compensation and reward of store employees
- Controlling costs and shrinkage, including relevant tools
- General approaches to service as a concept and service delivery processes with a focus on the customer’s sale and service experience
- Relevant approaches to gap analysis within customer service and service quality
- The roles of the leaders and employees concerning the service climate and the service delivery, including the employee’s role, empowerment and competence
- The dynamics of alternative service delivery, when technology replace human beings including self service systems and interactive technology
- Store layout, design and visual merchandising including category and space management
- Applying digital signage within sale, service delivery and visual merchandising
- Types of organizations and ownership in retail chains
- Important forces concerning a retailer’s expansion
- Important preparations and analysis in selection of organization and ownership structures when a retailer expands
- How a franchise concept, package and agreement are developed and designed
Acquired skills
On completion of the course the students will be able to:
- Make plans and efforts for recruiting employees in a retail company
- Make plans for and be able to manage systems including rewarding and career development in a retail company
- Apply analysis and efforts within cost and shrinkage controls
- Based on the retailers intended service level, develop and apply programmes for increasing customer and employee satisfaction, including training of employees
- Contribute to store design, category management, visual merchandising and store atmosphere
- Contribute to solutions based on combinations of multichannel retailing and traditional store designs
- Consider selection of organization structure and ownership within a retail chain
- Develop and apply a franchise concept, package and agreement
Reflection
The acquired reflections are identical for both retail 1 and retail 2 and include:
- The candidate will during and after the course realise the importance of multidisciplinary knowledge and skills for practicing retailing
- The students will be encouraged to reflect on the importance of analysis before and after implementations of the retailer’s strategies and concepts of management
- The students will increase their focus on the importance of the relationships and interactions between human beings, merchandise and technology within the store, and furthermore, the development of harmony, mental balance and financial security for managers employees and the retailer’s customers.
Prerequisites
VHL 3552 Retail I: Competitive Advantages, the Experience of Location and Merchandise Assortments
Compulsory reading
Books:
Fredriksen, Jan Ivar. 2010. Varehandelsledelse. Fagbokforlaget. Kapittel 7 - 10 og 12
Levy, Michael, Barton A. Weitz, Dhruv Grewal. 2014. Retailing management. 9th ed. McGraw-Hill/Irwin. Kapittel 16 - 18
Nilssen, Børge. 2009. Franchise : verdiøkende samarbeid mellom selvstendige parter. 2. utg. Fagbokforlaget
Articles:
Fredriksen, Jan Ivar og Sørebø, Øystein. 2013. Rekruttering av medarbeidere : fra intuisjon til strategisk forankring. Magma. 3. Fagbokforlaget. Link til artikkelen vil bli publisert på itslearning
Collection of articles:
Fredriksen, Jan Ivar (red.). Artikler som publiseres i itslearning under aktuelle temaer
Recommended reading
Journals:
Bransjetidsskrifter. Kjedemagasinet, Dagligvarehandelen, Tekstilforum m.v.
Course outline
Managing store employees
Organizing functions and positions
Roles of leaders and employees
Job analysis and descriptions, recruiting and selection, rewarding and compensating
Controlling costs and shrinkage
Employees and resource allocation
Reducing maintenance and energy costs
Reducing inventory losses
Service Management and Service Marketing
The customer’s experience of sale and service
Service delivery processes
Service quality and gaps analysis
Skills, motivation, empowerment and service climate
Personal service and self service technology
Service deliveries within and outside the store
Store layout, design and visual merchandising
Store layout and design
Visual merchandising
Space Management and communication
Category Management and communication
Store atmospherics
Website design and store design
The Retail chain, the way from local success to international brand
Expansion through establishing a corporate and/or franchise based retail chain
Conditions, analysis and preparations concerning the retailer’s expansion
The retail concept and the retail chain package
Selecting type of ownership
The franchise concept
The franchise package
The franchise agreement
Computer-based tools
None required.
Learning process and workload
The teaching of the course is process-based partly with classroom teaching, individual and group training and individual and group supervision.
The course is both practical and theoretical, which means that most of the theoretical issues and tasks are discussed in a practical context. The discussions and training tasks are based on the students own selected companies from the retail industry.
Coursework requirements:
During the course, the students will accomplish 2 training tasks with exact deadlines. It is recommended to work in groups of 2-4 students. Evaluation will be given to each group. The students will use the electronic tool “It’s learning” for sending in their papers.
Activity | Use of hours |
Participation in lectures | 36 |
Preparation before lectures | 33 |
Training tasks and work in groups | 65 |
Colloquium and student-based guidance | 26 |
Self study/reading literature/preparing for the exam | 40 |
Total recommended workload | 200 |
Coursework requirements
Completion of 1 out of 2 papers regarding the training tasks.
The coursework requirements must be approved for the student to be allowed to sit for the exam in the course.
Examination
An individual 5-hour written exam completes the course.
Examination code(s)
VHL 35561 – Written exam, accounts 100 % of the grade in VHL 3556, 7,5 ECTS.
Examination support materials
No support materials are permitted
Re-sit examination
A re-sit examination is offered every term.
Students that have not passed the course requirements must re-take the papers during the next scheduled course and must pass two of three papers.
Students that have not passed the written examination or who wish to improve their grade must re-take the examination in connection with the next scheduled examination.
Additional information