International Retailing by Dr. S L Gupta and Arun Mittal

Book Review

Title: International Retailing: Text and Readings
Authors: Dr. S L Gupta & Arun Mittal
Publisher: Excel Books
Edition: First-2010
Pages: 488

Price: Rs. 325/-


Retail business is now opening great opportunities of international expansion. Retailers are crossing domestic borders with various motives. International operations in retailing are different from other business formats. Retailing is directly concerned with the end consumers. In retail business it becomes important to understand many aspects from customers’ perspectives.

‘International Retailing: Text and Readings’ is a pioneer book in the field of international retailing, which makes the approach true that retail is now an international business. This book is a perfect blend of International Business and Retailing concepts. It highlights the modes and strategies for’ Internationalization of Retailers. The book has been divided in two parts. First part contains text material regarding International retailing. Second part of the book contains contemporary research papers and case studies on the concept.

The first part contains twenty two chapters. First five chapters include introductory thoughts about international marketing, International trade and Business, International Marketing Environment, International Marketing Research, International market Segmentation and Product Decisions in the context of retail business. The next five chapters have been thoroughly and deeply devoted to the discussion of internationalization of retailing from all perspectives. These include Introduction to International Retailing, Trends in International Retailing, Motives for International Retailing, Market Selection for International Retailing and Entry forms suitable in International Retailing. All of these chapters figure out successfully precise and comprehensive aspects of internationalization of retailing in international context. Next four chapters stress in constituting the very important aspect in internationalization of any business, i.e. competitive environment. This section includes the most vital and imperative issues of International marketplace such as Competing in Foreign Markets, Multi-Country and Global Competition, Competitive Advantage in Foreign Markets and Competing in Emerging Foreign Markets etc. The next section including four chapters explain briefly the applications benefits and other postulates regarding various Entry Methods in International Marketing, Process of Internationalization of Domestic Retailers, Retail Positioning and Brand Image, Market Research, Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning and Market Mix, Pricing and Distribution. The last section of first part of the book is comprises of all methods of Promotional Mix such as Advertising, Sales Promotions, Public Relations/Publicity, Direct Marketing and Personal Selling. These all have been discussed considering the international context for retail business.

Second part of the book includes noteworthy case studies and research papers on International Retailing. This part of the book presents worth reading cases on ‘Internal Expansion and Operations of Wal-Mart’ Organised and Unorganised Retail Markets: Case study of Oman, International Retailing Strategies: A Case Study of Carrefour in Asia, Case Study of Subhiksha for International Retailers and articles on International Supply Chain Management, Financing decision in International Retailing, CRM in International Retailing, Competitive Prices and Customers’ Perception, Global Scenario of Retail Business, A qualitative approach to analyze retail communication methods and customer categories, Branding in Retailing- Role of Private Players and Consumers Images towards Retail Stores. This section will certainly unveil a wide variety of issues related to international retailing.

Contemporary topic, Suitable Case Studies, duly updated data and Glossary of terms at the end make this book a complete and useful text on International Retailing subject.