The Retail Growth Strategies on the International Market and the Global Development Opportunities for Retailers

For decades, strategic management has analysed the alternative routes to company growth. In present, retailers need to devote more attention to long-term strategic planning to cope effectively with the growing intensity of retail competition as well as shifts in customer needs. The changes in the global retail environment are the result of the emergence of new competitors, formats, technologies, and globalization. The retail strategy indicates how retailers will deal effectively with their environment, customers and competitors. The desire to grow business and increase its value is often a fundamental objective from the very beginning. A very important element in a retail strategy is the retailers approach to building a sustainable competitive advantage by capitalizing the development opportunities. Establishing a competitive advantage means that the retailer, in effect, builds a wall around its position in a retail market, that is, around its present and potential customers and its competitors. When the wall is high, it will be hard for competitors outside the wall (i.e. retailers operating in other markets or entrepreneurs) to enter the market and compete for the retailers target customers.