The Market Structure of the U.S. Retail Industry: 1984-2003: The Importance of Underlying Structure to Understand An Industry

Retail structure may be changing dramatically due to the diversified retail formats, increased size of retail stores, new technological developments, and the changes in consumer behavior. The study of retail structure has a place in the historical research on retailing but has been generally the descriptive type. There is a lack of any empirical work on the structure of US retailing in whole or part. With the significant growth of the Internet retailing, it is more important to see the potential market structure in this new area of retail. Therefore, this book is designed to follow the changes in the US retailing from1984-2003 and look at the market structure in Internet retailing. By examining key metrics, this book outlines structural changes in overall retailing and each segment of retail. This book also examines the predictive ability in the retail industry and further forecasts retail structural changes in the next five years. The findings will provide empirical evidence for the various structural models conceptualized in the texts and also give some support for retailers and public policy makers on their market strategies or public policies toward better market performances.