Milestone Three

Over the last decades, the home improvement retail segment has been a major and essential industry in the economy which meets the immediate needs of the customer. Home improvement retailers focus on homogenous products with a high market concentration resulting into high price competition levels. Its relevance comes into play in that it makes products and services available to the customers at the ground level thereby improving accessibility (Lagakos, 2016). Unlike manufacturers who disburse goods in large batches and pylons, home improvement retailers meet the needs of different consumers by issuing a broad range of affordable products aimed at improving existing structures and creating new ones. Home improvement retailers also create physical stores from where final customers can access product in small quantities.

Home improvement retailing covers a wide variety of market by developing different consumer tastes. Like any other retail, home improvement retail depends on manufacturers and whole sellers as the major players since they do not produce their own goods but they are fully dependent on supplies from warehouses with discounted prices. The other player is the final consumer who provides ready market from these intermediaries. In some instances, manufacturers supply goods to home improvement retailers to trade them to consumers and receive a commission as a way of compensation. Therefore, home improvement retailers have compelling interests to be the best suppliers in the market and improve customer interaction despite the various drawbacks that set upon them.

Over the years, home improvement retailing has experienced major setbacks that have constrained the growth and survival of merchandisers. Primarily, wages and unemployment has been the major challenge in the industry. With the little available employment opportunities, parties have been unable to make discretionary purchase decisions (Yoshino & Taghizadeh Hesary, 2016). With the minimized expenditure on goods and services, retailers become unable to cater for the business expenses such as taxes and rent. Besides, interest rate levels have significantly affected consumer purchases as well as retailer survival substantially. Some of the high-end goods and household appliances are purchased on credit by customers. Due to the rising interest rates, such purchases become substantially more expensive and unaffordable to many consumers and therefore consumers withdraw their expenditure on such goods. Similarly, retailers become unable to acquire loans to boost their business due to high interest rates.

In addition, inflation has also affected retailers to a great extent over time. Inflation erodes the purchasing power of buyers thereby deterring buyers from spending their excess revenues after catering for the basics (Singh & Sharma, 2017). Customers cannot do impulse buying in major supermarkets, physical and online stores when prices are hiking. Consumers barely have enough to make savings due to the exploitation they face while ordering for basic household commodities.

Moreover, most of the home improvement retailers are small scale business partakers who barely invest well in the marketing of their products. For this reason, most of them end up failing not because they trade counterfeit goods or low-quality products but because consumers of such products are unaware of their products. They end up making insufficient sales that cannot cater for their business expenses. Finally, home improvement retailing is highly struck by competition. Most of the consumers have a taste of making purchases in big stores and that why supermarkets are always the leading retailers in the market. Other small scale businesses get surged and experience financial distress leading to the closure of premises.

Nevertheless, home improvement retailing similarly gets some favors that boost their growth. Primarily, the high population in the urban areas provides a ready market for final household appliances. Additionally, the accessibility of goods to the consumers has also boosted the trade significantly. Customers value commodity proximity and reliability since they do not wish to travel for long looking for products. For this reason, most online and physical stores have mastered the art of making goods deliveries at the customers’ place of comfort. The practice has substantially increased sales and business survival by extension. Home improvement rtailers also enjoy close association and interaction with the consumer more often and therefore they are able to understand the needs of their immediate consumers and develop their taste for commodities.

Home improvement retailers should be endorsed to master the art of electronic commerce in the substantial boost of sales. They should enhance their preparedness in seizing the opportunities of e-commerce by joining proposed talks among other members in the World Trade Organization (Wu, 2016). E-commerce encompasses all the efforts geared in making a customer platform that can support online purchases, identification of consumer location, and displaying a variety of products for consumers to choose from. Like large scale retailers and online stores, small scale home improvement retailers should prioritize the sustainable development dimension of e-commerce. Since the digital economy is growing twice faster than the overall economy and creating job opportunities almost three times faster, adopting e-commerce would be a wise and longstanding decision in the home improvement retailing industry. With the innovations in e-commerce, the retail industry cannot leap in the dark anymore.

E-commerce can be supported by various platforms such as websites, email marketing, mobile app, and social media. The core aim of e-commerce is to enhance the advertisement of goods by informing consumers what the business has to offer and enabling the ordering process. Web marketing sites should display the various products from which customers will have a variety to choose from. Aesthetics attract customer attention and drive them to make purchase decisions and probably prompt impulse buying. The webpage should allow the placement of orders by customers. Discounted prices may also be tagged against respective items on the web page.

The adoption of mobile apps to enable online purchases and deliveries is also adorable in enabling e-commerce trading among retailers. It should be customized to fulfill all customer needs. Social media platforms on the other hand can create brand awareness for consumers. Through posting on Facebook, Instagram, and other social platforms, customers can get aware of your business location and the kind of commodities it trades. They may also make orders upon which deliveries are expected.

E-commerce in impactful in that it allows businesses to conduct operations flexibly and it reaches many customers within the shortest time possible (Rini, Ginting & Sembiring, 2017). With just a click of the mouse at the retailers’ convenient place, brand awareness can be created and transactions can be carried out effectively. With e-commerce, retailing businesses may fail to recognize the need of acquiring rental spaces since orders are placed online and deliveries made at the customer’s doorstep. Additionally, target customers may be reached out easily and effectively. Retailers doing an online business can carry out market research to know the latest trends in the market and identify their niche. Accordingly, promotional brochures and emails can be sent to prospective customers of particular products. All in all, the future of the home improvement retail industry is highly dependent on digital marketing.