Departmental Store

Large retail establishment with an extensive

assortment in variety and range of goods,
organized into separate departments. All
departments are housed under the same roof to
facilitate buying, customer service,
merchandising, and control. They stock retail
primarily non-food items such as apparel,
footwear, accessories, cosmetics and household
products with the multiple brands and variety.
 Origin

Jhon Lewis (formerly Bainbridge) in Newcastle upon Tyne is the world’s oldest Department
Store. It is still known to many of its customers as Bainbridge, despite the name change to 'John
Lewis'. The Newcastle institution dates back to 1838 when Emerson Muschamp Bainbridge,
aged 21, went into partnership with William Alder Dunn and opened a draper’s and fashion in
Market Street, Newcastle.
John Lewis Newcastle retained its original name of Bainbridge until 2002, when the store was
rebranded as John Lewis Newcastle.
 Characteristics

 Large stores ranging from 20000-50000 sq. ft, catering to a variety

of consumer needs

 Many shops under a roof.

 Every product is available.

 Free services and facilities.

 Good quality merchandise.

 Managed stores.
Merits and Demerits
 Advantages
 The various advantages of a departmental store are:
 The customer is spared from the botheration of going different places to collect
his desired articles as most of the requirement of a customer are found in a
departmental store.
 Since the departmental store goes for huge purchases, it avails a good number of
trade discounts which helps to reduce the selling good number of trade discounts
which helps to reduce the selling price of the products. So the selling price per
unit becomes very low because of large volume of sales.
 The customers are assured of quality of the products and have the advantages of
selection because a departmental store stock a wide variety of commodity.
 A departmental store can afford to advertise on large scale and thereby attracts a
large number of customers.
 A departmental store can afford to employ specialists which provide expert
knowledge on various functions.
Merits and Demerits

Disadvantages

•A departmental store suffers from the following disadvantages:

•People living at a distant place cannot avail the advantages of departmental
store because these are located at a central of the cities.
•The cost of running the departmental store is higher because of certain free
services which they give. The cost of free services are much and as such it
increases the prices of the product.
•The cost of advertisement and publicity is much higher.
•Fluctuation in prices adversely affect the operation of these business houses
as they go for bulk purchases.
•Customers are not given individual attention because these establishments
are too large.
• Genuine items
• No fear of cheating
• Service Elements
• Home delivery.
• Easy Advertisement.
• Center location.
• Benefits of specialization.
• Economies of large scale business.
Merits
• Fixed price no bargaining.
• Social discrimination.
• No credit facilities.
• Lack or personal attention.
• Costly goods.
• Increase operation expenses.
• Away from ordinary customers.
• Need huge capital.
Demerits
The Retail Evolution In
India
 MAJOR PLAYERS

Ebony Retail Holdings Ltd., a part of the DS Group, is a

Delhi-based retailer with seven stores in seven North Indian
cities spread across 1,50,000 sq.ft of total retail space.
Having started off with a store in New Delhi in 1994, Ebony
has expanded its presence in the years since. The chain also
has an online B2C shopping portal (www.Ebonyclick.com)
that offers customers a non-store retail format to shop from.
MAJOR PLAYERS
In India
Thank you