Retail Management and Merchandising Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Retail Management and Merchandising - Term Paper Example It is evidently clear from the discussion that the growth of online retailing is observed everywhere in the world, the global eCommerce environment is highly diverse as different countries and regions are at various stages of online retail maturity. In the developed countries, the online retail sales account for 5% to 15% of the total retail business. In South Korea, this share is almost as high as 13%. On the other hand, the share of eCommerce in the retail sector in the developing countries is much lower than the developed countries due to low penetration of internet and huge contrast in the income between the high-income classes and the middle and low incomes classes. Though there is a significant difference in the online retailing between the developed and the developing countries, the gap is predicted to be shortened due to huge growth potential observed in the emerging economies. For example, though the U.S. has been projected to lead the world in retail business the till 2017, China will occupy the second place. In the 1970s, the retail distribution system was very much different from where it stands in the recent times. In those days, only the suppliers and the shops existed in the retail market. This indicates that the suppliers directly supply its products to sell in the shops. Later in the 1980s, centralization was introduced in the retail system. A retail distribution center was established in order to facilitate interaction between the producers and the shops. In the 1990s, most of the economies were economically liberalized and international trade was introduced. Goods were imported from another country which first arrived at the retail import center and then reaches the central distribution center and finally gets distributed among the shops. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, eCommerce entered the retail industry and as a result involved the parcel network in the sector.