1. My office at school is Business and Science 219.  I am generally in on class days.  Please leave a message or call my home office if you need to reach me in an emergency.  If you need an appointment and cannot make these office hours, please see me to schedule another time.

2. Telephones:
Rutgers Office Phone:856-225-6592 / Rutgers Fax:  225-6231/Secretaries:   225-6218
Home Office Phone/Fax: 429-1045 (ans. Machine and fax, late calls ok)

E-MAIL:  ckaufman@camden.rutgers.edu. This is the best way to reach me with your questions.  You should each have an E-mail account and know how to use it; if you have never used E-mail before, please make an appointment with me.  Periodically, during the semester, you will be sent class notes, questions, hints, and ideas to keep you up to date.

 Course Description/Objectives

This course provides the student with a comprehensive view of retailing and an application of marketing concepts in a practical retail managerial environment. We will use a series of interactive, Web-based exercises to analyze current retail strategic changes and developments.  Retailing is changing today, and the successful business will know how to identify, adapt, and plan with the changes!  We will consider:  the development of a retail format and its strategy, the analysis of a target market,  site selection, personnel management, and merchandise planning.    Buying, financial analysis, and pricing will also be investigated.

The course will investigate the changing role of e-commerce in retailing as a major topic.  However, we will also cover the major building blocks of retailing, such as site-selection and display analysis.You are expected to read in advance of each class and think about how you’d respond to the questions that are noted on this syllabus. Much of our class time will be spent in discussion of case examples. Many are in the text, so bring it regularly.

The development of store image through communications with consumers and the dynamic relationship with the environment are emphasized. Course projects are designed to enable students to observe retail management in the field and conduct ongoing retail research.

 Teaching Methodology

Retailing today takes advantage of cutting-edge technologies, such as geodemographic mapping, website development, and database management.  If you work with me, you will build strong analytical skills for retail market evaluation and have current retail information at your fingertips.  You are expected to be up-to-date in class readings and make connections between retail strategies with topics discussed in class.

My approach in teaching this class is to consider you as the future business leaders in Southern New Jersey, not merely as students who are attempting to complete a class (although some of you may fall into this category!).   This semester your class at Rutgers will examine the impact of the E-Commerce on Retailing.  Your text is a great resource in this area.  My goal is to place you on the cutting edge of knowledge in making strong and actionable recommendations to retailers.

TEXT:  Retail Management:  A Strategic Approach (8th edition) by Barry Berman and Joel R. Evans.  Macmillan Publishing Company, New York  2001.

a. A major feature of this text is that it provides many skills for small retail businesses, which simply are not found in other comparable textbooks.  Many Rutgers students have shared that they intend to start their own businesses, or are already participating in a family-owned business.  I have chosen this text to directly address these needs.  The cases and examples are full of up-to-the-minute problems and decisions of actual retail firms, and provide you with a wealth of information.

b. Another important feature is the integration of E-commerce information.  We will use the internet throughout the course and develop skills you need for retailing on the Web.

c. I will be using several other texts, articles, and references in presenting course material. While we will follow the outline order of your text, classes will present in-depth discussions of major TOPICS in Retailing and E-Commerce.

d. Updated outlines of class topics are posted on my web page, generally after each lecture. This will help pinpoint important topics.  However, the notes do not substitute for class!

Preparation:  Assigned chapters and cases should be read prior to their discussion in class.  Web assignments MUST be read prior to class.  Class meetings will organize retail concepts, clarify the material and correlate real examples from the business world. Handouts, notes, and films will be included on examinations.

Attendance and Late Work, etc.:   Excessive absences will be reflected in the final grade.  All assignments must be handed in on time; late work will receive reduced credit.  No makeup exams will be scheduled without prior notification and a physician's excuse.

Participation:  You are expected to participate in class; just sitting there isn't enough.  Your contributions are expected to help the class learn and understand the topics under consideration.  Negative participation (talking, unnecessary interruptions, etc.) will result in deductions from the participation component of your grade. Here is where excessive absences come in; you can’t participate if you are not in class.

Academic Dishonesty Policy:  Cheating in any form will result in a grade of "F" being submitted in this course.  Cheating is just that:  it cheats YOU of learning and understanding the material covered in class.

Testing:  You are expected to be in class at the scheduled exam times.  The instructor MUST be notified IN ADVANCE if you are unable to take an exam on time.  Make-up tests are given only in the case of an extreme emergency or serious illness.  Substantiation is required.

Incompletes and Problems:  If you find that you are having trouble completing course work or need further explanation of class topics, please schedule an appointment with the instructor.  If you need this class for graduation, you should be sure that your performance is up to standard throughout the course.

It is too late to wait until the last week of classes to ask for help.  Office hours are held throughout the entire semester for this purpose. "Incompletes" will only be given through prior consultation with the instructor, under extreme circumstances.

The entire syllabus plus weblinks can be found at my webpage: http://crab.rutgers.edu/~ckaufman/

NOTE:  Dates are approximate; any changes will be announced in class.  The goal is to distribute the work throughout the semester according to a balanced schedule, arranged to maximize course coverage and build student knowledge and experience.

1:  Jan 22, 24
Chapter 1:  Introduction and overview; changes in retailing, what's happened to the dot-com's?
Chapter 2:  Building and Sustaining Relationships through customer value

What are basic principles of good retailing?  How can retailers create customer value? What about customer complaints?  Does e-tailing correct some of the complaints? Or create new ones? What is meant by the buzzword “relationship marketing?”  What is unique about service retailers? Could the School of Business apply any of these principles to its relationship with you? What about ethics and social responsibility?

Web Exercises:   http://www.amazon.com, web site and Amazon VIDEO - read the "about Amazon.com section on their web site.  What's new?
 
 

2:  January 29, 31
Chapter 2 (cont), Chapter 3:  Strategic Planning in Retailing,  Discuss Homework 1 – due Feb. 7

Developing a retail strategy:  what is your mission?  What are your goals?  Who are your customers?  If so, what is the marketing mix and location that will let you achieve your goals? How can you control your activities and predict those factors that you cannot control?

a.  What is a prototype?  WaWa handout, Burger King case
b.  Lands’ End:  What are they doing right?  See:  VIDEO and http://www.landsend.com
c.   Read Sears Comprehensive Case.  Has Sears accomplished its goals?  What is Sears doing today?  How did they decide what to do?  What to change?

The Impact of the Legal Environment (see Table on pages 92-93) is a list of laws. However, each law is dynamic.  Consider the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and retailing responsibilities under Title III. This is one of my areas of study.

Web Exercises:  How can we apply the ADA to real stores?  See the U.S Dept of Justice illustrations of
small town examples:  http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/ada/smtown.htm
 

3:   February 5, 7 (Homework 1 due)
Chapter 4, 5: Ownership and Strategy Mix Issues

Retail institutions can be categorized by ownership, type of store and its typical strategy mix, nonstore sales, and service versus product retailing; why are these classifications useful?  Will independent stores disappear as large chains move into their areas? What are the pros and cons about franchising?

How does retailing change over time, and change back again?  What is meant by the Wheel of Retailing?  Which retailers are likely to survive the next 10 years?  Look at the shaky position of Kmart and the demise of so many dot.coms. Look at the success of WalMart and the increased profits of Amazon.com.  What are some of these firms doing that others are not? How do we know that scrambled merchandising will be profitable? There are certain operational definitions of the various store types that are used by industry to establish benchmarks for performance.  These help us to know if our stores are operating profitably. Let’s consider traditional supermarkets, multichannel supermarkets, and online delivery services.

Case discussions:  Case 1: Why has Starbucks succeeded?  http://www.starbucks.com
                            Case 2: Page 173, Megaplex and Multiplex comparisons
 

4:  February 12, 14
Chapter 6:  Web, Nonstore and Nontraditional Retailing
Begin Chapter 7 – How Can Consumer Behavior Theory Predict Retail Shopping Behavior?
Discuss Homework 1 – What did you find?  Be prepared to discuss your top finding with class

This week we will focus on several growing forms of retailing;  e-tailing, direct marketing, direct selling, and vending machines.  We will develop skills in website development for retailers, and consider other related forms such as video kiosks and video catalogs.  What info should be built into databases?  What are recommendations for effective websites.

Web Exercises:
a.  Why DO people shop on the web? Compare your answers with chapter 6
b.  Why CAN’T people shop on the web?  Design for persons with color deficiencies:  http://www.vischeck.com
c. Case 2: Advertising and Marketing on the Internet (p. 210) - does banner advertising work?

How do retailers use key ideas from Consumer Analysis to understand their customers?  What unmet needs do consumers have related to shopping?  How can demographic tools assist retailers in developing an effective strategy?  Psychographics?  Social class?  Household life cycle?  What types of shopping decisions are consumers making?

Here are some sources of current information of consumer behavior and e-tailing.
E-Commerce Times:  http://www.ecommercetimes.com/

Jupiter Media Metrix:  http://www.jmm.com/

Forrester:  http://www.forrester.com/
There are several sections in the Forrester reports that you should read on a regular basis. For instance, The Forrester Online Retail Index measures online shopping based on data collected from online shoppers. The monthly Index is based on 5,000 responses to an online survey fielded by Greenfield Online. The panel is weighted to Forrester Research's Benchmark Panel, which surveyed nearly 90,000 US members of a consumer mail panel developed by NFO Worldwide, a market research firm.
 

5:  February 19, 21
Finish Chapter 7 and Chapter 8:  Consumer Analysis and Marketing Research

What tools from Marketing Research enable retailers to stay competitive?  How should information be gathered and processed to take advantage of today’s database and e-commerce technologies? How can a retail information system (RIS) be built and managed? What is datamining and datawarehousing? What types of data would need to be collected in order to answer specific retail questions.

Web Exercises:   a.    RIS software, go to the Solutions section:  http://www.retailpro.com/
                           b. Data mining systems: http://www.nuedgesystems.com/ind_solutions/retail/index.html
Go over Project One
 

6: February 26, 28
Chapter 18, Retail Atmospherics, Establishing and Maintaining a Retail Image
Review for Midterm (covers chapters 1-8, and Chapter 18)

What are the elements of retail atmospherics?  How can the retailer design their store environment in order to maximize customer satisfaction?  Can these same ideas be applied to e-commerce?  How can web sites be designed in order to maximize customer satisfaction?

Case 1 (p. 627) -  How has Target created a unique store atmosphere?
 
 

7:  March 5th (Midterm) and March 7
Chapters 9 and 10, Review for Midterm (covers 1st 8 chapters)

Have you ever noticed a retail store that just keeps changing owners? Or that goes out of business frequently?  Many times this is related to a poor selection of site. We begin our next section on location and site selection.  Trading area analysis is founded on some of the basic models presented in chapter 9.  Let’s try to develop some insight into what factors contribute to a profitable location.  We need to consider concepts such as retail overlap, points of indifference, buying power indexes, and how GIS systems can greatly add to our abilities to make good strategic location choices. What types of relationships are the formulas trying to capture?

Think about Route 73 and Route 70 intersection, and the growth on Rt. 73 just south of that traffic circle. This is a good illustration of trading area overlap. Let’s take a look using several online mapping programs..
a. http://www.esri.com/data/online/quickmap.html
b. Try a live demonstration of mapping at:  http://www.esri.com/ims
c. Tiger Maps are found at http://tiger.census.gov
d. You can create maps at http://tiger.census.gov/cgi-bin/mapbrowse
e. Another commercial source is found at this site.  Go to the retail, restaurant, and real estate section:  http://www.claritas.com
 

8, March 12, 14:  Finish Chapter 10, Chapter 11 (Human Resources)
March 12th:  Project One due, Go over project two

Site selection also depends on certain patterns that are often related to locations.  We need to consider what is meant by isolated locations, unplanned business districts, and planned shopping centers.  For instance, Historic Haddonfield attempts to plan, organize, and influence business and community events, much like a shopping mall would.  What will be the Central Business District (CBD) of the future?? Why are charts like 10-1 on page 335 important in retail planning and strategy development?  What criteria can be used in evaluating a retail site?

Comprehensive Case:  What is a Little Box from a Power Retailer?  (e.g. Staples at the Phila Airport)

Dividing and organizing the tasks in retail organizations.  Basic plans used by retailers.  Selecting, training, compensating, motivating retail employees.  How have some firms built skills and pride into the relatively mundane tasks. Consider the last time you shopped in a bricks and mortar store. Were the sales personnel knowledgeable and courteous?  Are customers turning to the web to avoid poorly trained personnel?

VIDEO:  Sears training video “Excelling at Customer Service for People with Disabilities”
 
 

SEMESTER BREAK
 
 

9: March 26, 28
Chapters 12 and 13, Operations
We also turn to Operations Management; we will consider both financial and operational planning.  Given the number of retail bankruptcies and reorganizations, what can we learn from those firms in keeping our business healthy?  Montgomery Ward and Bradless announced their closings. Sears and Home Depot recently closed several stores nationwide.  How did they choose which stores to close?  Will such a move be effective? What are some of the benchmarks that we track in order to make corrections before problems become too large to handle? The Strategic Profit Model provides many cues and the financial ratios are important signals for strategic corrections. See text for some sample benchmarks. These relationships must be in balance for a firm to prosper. Correct retail decisions create the balance. E.g. How much must we sell, at what level of margin, to turn inventory efficiently to stay in business?

Suppose that you were planning how to set up a store format that maximized the right choices for customers, but minimized inventory costs.  In this section, we consider store space, stock allocation, inventory planning, and so forth.  What is meant by prototype stores and how are they developed? What is the impact of category management? How can we use skills from Operations Management to streamline our inventory? How can store shrinkage be controlled?
 

10:  April 2, 4
Chapter 14 and Begin Chapter 15:  Developing and Implementing Merchandise Plans
How can information on trends be used to try to maximize on merchandise planning? See table 14-3 for ways that Retail Assortments are generally analyzed.  How can understanding depth and width of assortment help us in creating an efficient merchandise mix that also minimizes inventory costs and stockouts?  How can we determine the optimal mix of brands and sizes? What is category management? See Figure 14.11 to consider strategies.  How can we develop ways to plan for inventory and for reductions?  How can we plan to have buying resources when we need them (Open-to-Buy).

VIDEO and case, page 486:  Category management for condiments, discuss extension to web grocers.
 
 

11:  April 9, 11 (Project Two Due)
Finish Chapter 15 and  Chapter 16 on Financial Merchandise Management

How can a retailer forecast demand?  Consider the disappointing holiday season for December 2000.  Were retailers so far off in their forecasts? See what’s discussed at the International Council of Shopping Centers: http://www.icsc.org/

VIDEO and Case, Planned Purchases and Open to Buy, p. 553.
 

12: April 16, 18
Chapter 17 Pricing in Retailing

How can retailers determine optimal prices?  How can they work with multiple placements of discounts:  coupons, in-store promotions, Web-based promotions, etc.?  How much pricing information is at consumers’fingertips today?  How is pricing related to demand?  What are some basic types of pricing practices?  How does government regulate the prices that can be charged?  How are discounts related to selling prices and to overall strategies?  Other pricing strategies have evolved that assume that consumers are responsive to price certainty:  e.g. EDLP.  And yet others appeal to the bargain seeker through formats such as dollar stores.

Web exercises:
a.  Comparison web site:  http://www.mysimon.com
b. Will sites like this be able to continue?http://www.priceline.com
 
 

13:  April 23, 25
 19 Establishing and Maintaining a Retail Image, Promotional Strategy

How do retailers create desired images in the minds of  their customers?  Why is Neiman’s upscale and the Dollar Store a bargain center?  Why do certain people shop at Home Depot, while others prefer their local, neighborhood hardware store?  We will consider all the parts of retail image:  exterior, general interior, store layout, and interior displays.  How do these work together to form a servicescape?  How can store layouts, décor, and displays contribute to customer satisfaction?  What is the impact of the Americans with Disabilities Act?  Browsing in stores and on web sites.  Let’s discuss how the Term Project relates to these concepts.

How can a firm relate it promotional strategy to its goals?  What should be the balance among web and traditional promotions? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each type of medium.  Let’s also consider some major firms that base their success on creative image delivery:

Debriefing on Project Two
 

14:  April 30, May 1
Discuss Chapter 20 Integrating and Controlling Retail Strategy

What are the significant differences between a service retailer and a goods-based business?  Consider the examples on page 674. How does a successful retailer put all this together and maintain the business over time, relating each step in the retail strategy to long- and short-term goals?
 

FINAL EXAMINATION: Friday, May 10th, 2-5 pm
 

NOTE:  Detailed handouts will be given on Projects One and Two.

This assignment simply requires you to identify a cutting-edge topic in retailing and e-commerce, and the future of web-based retailing. What are retail analysts saying about shopping on the Web?  What do they want to know?  What do we know about shoppers and their preferences?  Their fears?

1. First, pick a focused subtopic about retailing on the web that you would like to study. For instance, you could study people’s fears about security when using credit cards, or the reasons that several RETAIL dot-com’s have failed, or the principles of web design for RETAILERS. There are many possibilities; pick one that you are interested in examining!

2. Identify 5 sources of information that help you to learn about your topic. Follow the guidelines given in class. Make sure that the articles contribute to your examination and understanding.

3. Your writeup should contain the following items

a. A complete and CORRECT bibliographic reference, including the authors' name, title of article, source document, reference volume or year, publisher, pages, etc. If you are citing an EMAIL source, please give me the HTTP or your method of finding the source.

b. A short summary of each article in your own words.  This should explain why it is important, what the paper is about, and its implications.

c. A copy of the article you judge would be the most valuable for the class to read.  Present your argument about why this article is important for the class to read. I will select the best for the class’s use in further assignments.
 

1.  Library: http://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/rul/indexes/biz/biz.shtml
a. Business and Industry Database on the RU Library Web site
b. Dow Jones Interactive: This is a premier source linking you to the Wall Street Journal (domestic and international editions), the New York Times, the Washington Post, and others. You should use this daily for all your classes.
c. ABI-Inform (now accesses ProQuest, providing full-text articles)

2. The Journal of Interactive Marketing, available full-text online through IRIS.

3. E-Commerce Times:  http://www.ecommercetimes.com/

4.  Jupiter Media Metrix:  http://www.jmm.com/

5.  Forrester:  http://www.forrester.com/
There are several sections in the Forrester reports that you should read on a regular basis. For instance, The Forrester Online Retail Index measures online shopping based on data collected from online shoppers. The monthly Index is based on 5,000 responses to an online survey ielded by Greenfield Online. The panel is weighted to Forrester Research's Benchmark           Panel, which surveyed nearly 90,000 US members of a consumer mail panel developed by NFO Worldwide, a market research firm.

6.  Ernst and Young trends in online retailing:  http://www.ey.com/global/vault.nsf/US/2001_Retail_Study/$file/GOR.pdf

7. National Retail Federation: http://www.nrf.com/default-java.htm
http://www.nrf.com/ecommerce/ecommerce.htm
Internet Commerce Council:  http://www.shop.org/

8. International Council of Shopping Centers: http://www.icsc.org/
http://www.icsc.org/ecommerce/
 

NAME: __________________________; preferred EMAIL ___________________________

Your major ____________________________________________________

Interested in Marketing Association? _______________________________

Employment?___________________________________________________

Approximate Hours per Week______________________________________

Other Marketing Courses taken in the past?
 

Other Marketing Courses being taken this semester?
 

Any retail experience or skills?
 

Any experience with disabled shoppers?
 

Do you shop on the Internet?___________   Why? ________________________
 
 

What would you like to learn in this class? Any specific topics of interest?