Career Focus

This course is designed to address the challenges of marketing, selling, and managing in the new era of retail following years of digital transformation and disruption. It is appropriate for:

• Managers in retail companies;
• Entrepreneurs building retail startups;
• Consultants engaged with retailing businesses; and
• Investors seeking to evaluate the potential of new business models.

Course Content and Educational Objectives

Retail is dead. Long live retail!

Throughout our lifetime we have witnessed the ever-changing ever-evolving retail landscape: from the rise of e-commerce, to the premature death announcements of the physical store and the shopping mall, through the emergence of many digitally native players who first eschewed physical retail and then later embraced it, to the reemergence of a new kind of physical store experience powered by retail-tainment, interactive and social experiences, and immersive technology. Most prominently, many physical stores are now owned by some of the digitally native players that set to bypass such stores in the first place. Changes in consumer preferences and behavior, the competitive environment, and advances in technology are making the new era of retail an exciting space. The new era is consumer-centric, experiential, personalized, social, omnichannel, and connected.

The course will explore central challenges and opportunities for retail. For new players, the challenges have been how to scale up and be profitable, for incumbent players, the challenges have been keeping up with the changing competitive landscape, mostly the low cost and convenience offered by online players. For all players, the future is around the corner, and they must prepare for next retail frontier, which will likely include AR/VR and other metaverse technologies.

The course will explore three major classes of retail businesses: retailers, i.e., retailers of goods and services not made by the firm (such as Walmart, Amazon), direct-to-consumer companies, i.e., sellers of goods and services made by the firm (or bought directly from manufacturers) (such as Gap or Harrys.com), and two-sided marketplaces, i.e., matchmakers between supply and demand for goods and services (such as Etsy). Students will gain a deep understanding of retail, and be able to explore what the future holds, mostly through cases and guest protagonists. Additionally, students will dive into simple applied retail analytics and practice data-driven decision making in this setting (no prior data analytics experience or programing skills are required, basic Excel knowledge is sufficient).

Grading:

Grading in the course will be based on class participation (50%), and an Exam or Project (50%).

Copyright © 2022 President & Fellows of Harvard College. All Rights Reserved.