Great book on Retail, but written more for large retail businesses.

Ok, but out of date | Start and Run a Retail Business (Start & Run a) | James E. Dion, Ted Topping

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	• Start and Run a Retail Business (Start & Run a) James E. Dion, Ted Topping Self Counsel Press, 2008 - 227 pages average customer review:based on 13 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

THIS BOOK IS THE BEST RESOURCE

Look no further for information on how to launch your retail business! This book has everything you need and more! Ted Topping is such an amazing resource on all things retail - he guides you in a practical, professional, thoughtful and caring way through every step of starting your retail business. If you want to be successful in starting your business - or if you need advice on your current business .... READ THIS BOOK!!! It is an invaluable guide which you will refer to for years to come.

Great book on Retail, but written more for large retail businesses.

I am starting a small retail business and found this books description to be along the same lines of what i wanted to know. But, I was disappointed when i recieve this book.

The book covers everything one would want to know about running a retail business. But, it was really written for large retail companies, not small businesses.

The book has chapters on merchandizing, buying, hiring sales people, managing sales force, etc. You will learn a great deal of information about analyzing your customers buying patterns, using formulas to calculate stock-to-sales ration, sales per square foot, gross margin return on inventory etc. You will also learn how to negotiate with suppliers, recruiting top notch sales reps and account managers, retail technology (ie. assett management systems), the in-store experience and analyzing competition.

If i owned a chain of retail stores, then this is a book i would want to read! If i owned a large department store, then this would also be the book i would want.

But, this book contains mostly useless information for small busienss owners. Its way too detailed for my purposes. If i had a dedicated person who did nothing but analyze my customer base and inventory and sales figures, then this is a book for that person.

As for "create a competitive niche business", well i didnt see much of any niche business discussion in this book.

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Ok, but out of date

This has some good information as noted by other reviewers, but also a few shortcomings. Some of its advice will be useful only for particular businesses. It contains many references to fashion retailing and will be very relevant for people doing that.

The major shortcoming is that the technology chapter is woefully out of date. Written in 1998, it contains such chestnuts as, "We believe that every one of the personal computers in your store should have a CD-ROM drive." and "Providing information over the internet is a much better business proposition than selling products over the internet. Even if you could get your home page address to a huge number of potential customers, we do not believe that you should try to sell things to them." Considering I bought ther book online, I must respectfully disagree with the authors. This is not to say the chapter is entirely irrelevant. No better website advice has ever been given than, "Customers are not interested in bells and whistles when they visit a website. Instead, they want useful information and they want it quickly." I would give a new edition of this book with an updated technology chapter a four star rating.

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Excellent primer

Looking into starting a retail business prompted me to look for books that would give an insight into the world of retail. This book has not dissapointed. The writing is light while providing good information and real world examples.

The resource CD contains spreadsheets and documents such as job descriptions, payroll budget, supplier checklist, balance of business which provide a great starting point for the owner.

Good content; light on colorful examples

The authors did a good job of explaining the academics of retail. They covered everything from strategies for purchasing, competing with big chains, advantages of technology and training for employees. This is a great book for those concepts. However, the authors explain these concepts in much the same way Ben Stein talks about dry eyes. Colorful retail experiences could be used to make fun examples and make the book more readable and less like a lecture from a finance professor. My only other gripe was that examples from the non-clothing world would have been great, such as selling technology items that lose value as they age on the shelf. Those gripes aside, I would recommend this book to anyone who needs to understand retail 101. You will definitely walk away thinking about your next trip to Abercrombie differently.

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- Beat the big-box retailers - Provide outstanding customer service - Use technology to your advantage

reviews: page 1, 2, 3

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