BA (Hons) Retail Management

Course details On this course you will usually be taught by a range of staff with relevant retail expertise and knowledge appropriate to the content of the unit. This will include senior academic staff, qualified professional practitioners, research students. You will also benefit from regular guest lectures from industry including many of our alumni. Previous guest lectures have included Jeremy Fennell, Marketing Director of Dixons Carphone and James Heese, Trading Director for Hobbycraft. Year 1 In your first year, you’ll look at a variety of subjects to help you understand the wider retail context. Core units Contemporary Issues in Retailing: Here, you'll learn about the nature, significance, organisation and development of the contemporary retail industry in the UK, and explore the issues affecting retail development through research. Retailing in the Digital Age: Familiarise yourself with operational and managerial uses of technology and management information systems that have helped the digitalisation of retailing. Learn about various methods of digitalisation in retailing how this has affected operational activities and the customer purchase journey. Retail Marketing: You'll come up with marketing strategies for retail organisations and markets. You'll learn about current marketing theories and how they're used in the retail industry. Finance & Business Research: Retail managers must have a good understanding of accounting concepts to control resources and interpret financial data. In this unit you'll gain business skills in accountancy and analysis. You'll be introduced to financial and management accounting, which will prepare you for performance analysis and decision-making later in the course and in the workplace. Global Economics & International Retailing: Retailers are increasingly exploring opportunities to expand beyond their domestic market. You'll explore the nature of the global economy, including how it's connected and measured, along with international retail mission in this. You'll learn about the characteristics and issues of retail formats. Retail Resource Management: An introduction to the most important parts of store-based retail operations, where you'll learn about vital aspects of a retail operation's sustained success. This includes legal requirements. Year 2 In your second year, you'll look at Head Office decision-making roles and the skills you'll need to work in Head Office. Core units Consumer Behaviour: Develop your understanding of the individual and social processes that influence human behaviour, and how this relates to people as consumers. You'll learn to evaluate and apply theories to the retail sector. Managing People: Understand the difficulties of managing people in the workplace. You'll learn about self-marketing, the HR framework governing business operations and the principles of social psychology and sociology. This unit will help you gain skills for your industrial work placement in Year Three. Retail Research & Analysis: Learn how to assess the range of research techniques retailers' use and how research is collected. You'll also learn about the benefits of different research methods, and assess their suitability for answering research questions. Omni-Channel Retailing & Supply Chain Management: Explore the changing customer purchase journey and the impact that omni-channel retailing has had on supply chain decisions and processes. You'll learn to apply the operational, managerial and strategic uses of technology and management information systems to an omni-channel retail environment, and consider the end-to-end process of product development in retail. Retail Buying & Merchandising: Learn about the processes of retail buying and merchandising in theory and practice, and how to recognise the links and differences between the roles of buyers and merchandisers in retail. Retail Design & Development: Demonstrate an understanding of concept design and associated performance issues within the changing retail consumer environment. Creatively explore current trends in retail that focus on retail concept design developments in theory and practice, mostly from a consumer perspective. You'll learn about visual and verbal forms of argument, and how design ideas are expressed and approved. Year 3 Placement: A minimum of 30-weeks supervised work placement in the UK or overseas where you'll get a chance to develop a practical understanding of retailing before exploring top-level management in in your final year. Year 4 In your final year, there will be a focus on the corporate decisions made at Board Room level. Core units Dissertation: A piece of independent work that involves collecting, interpreting and analysing data. You'll share your key findings through a sustained and balanced argument. The dissertation will develop your analytical and problem solving skills. You'll develop a critical attitude to research methods, and the ethical issues associated with researching. Strategic Retail Marketing & Management: Here, you'll look beyond the creation and value transfer principles of management and develop a view of managing a service-based organisation in a complex and dynamic environment. You'll build on your understanding of the current retail marketing environment so you can critique and propose a marketing-based approach to company decisions on segment branding, positioning and purchase targeting company in a retail sector. Retail Consultancy & Research: Research a business problem, identify solutions and making proposals that satisfy a corporate client’s needs and circumstances. You'll use the skills you developed on your placement for a management consultancy exercise (You can choose this unit or one from the list below as an alternative). Option units (choose one) e-Business: You'll analyse and evaluate the implications of changing information communication technology, in terms of how this might affect or has already affected the service sector. You'll explore the opportunities and threats technology presents to consumers, businesses and public sector organisations. Fashion Marketing: The fashion industry is present in all areas of the service sector. You'll get the opportunity to explore how fashion can be used, through marketing, in this sector to appeal to fashion-conscious consumers. You should consider choosing this unit if you'd like a career involving fashion. Languages: Language skills for social and professional contact at home and overseas. It builds on your previous learning by introducing you to a range of occupational situations and strategies for effective business communication. Professionalism & Leadership: Improve your professionalism through personal reflection, group feedback and experiential learning. Analyse your leadership and management skills in situations you might encounter, and identify opportunities in large companies and training schemes. Retail Place & Space: Learn about places and spaces for retail and the types of consumer experiences, including leisure, recreational and tourist perspectives on service spaces. These theories come from intense studies of three key areas that have created philosophical and conceptual interests in recent decades. This covers more than the service and retail industries. Small Business Management: Learn about the role of small businesses in the economy, along with their aims, strengths and weaknesses. You'll develop enterprise awareness and an entrepreneurial mindset, which will help you assess business opportunities. Digital Marketing: This unit will provide you with practical and theoretical knowledge for using and evaluating digital marketing. You'll develop a sound understanding of digital marketing principles. Financial Management: An opportunity to study financial management, building on your earlier studies in finance and accounting. You'll develop an appreciation for how organisations make financial decisions within the context of corporate strategy, and an understanding of financial management roles in organisations. Creative Media & Events: The 21st Century is marked by the rise of computing, digital and social media technologies. This unit will interrogate these technologies and explore how they've changed the event industry's markets, policies, professional actions and products. You'll critically explore the positive and negative potentials of these rapidly evolving technologies in a social-cultural context, and create innovative product applications for the event industry. Please note that option units require minimum numbers in order to run and may only be available on a semester by semester basis. They may also change from year to year. Scheduled learning and teaching activities The emphasis of this course is in guided independent learning, which helps you develop into a self-motivated learner. When not attending lectures and seminars, you will be expected to read around the subject. Your typical week’s activities will include reading books and journal articles, working on group projects, preparing presentations, conducting library research and writing your assignments. The hours below give an indication of how you can expect to spend your time during each year of this course. Year 1 – 25% of your time will be spent in timetabled learning & teaching activities Learning and teaching: 247 hours Independent learning: 953 hours Non-assessed learning and teaching: 73 hours Year 2 – 20% of your time will be spent in timetabled learning & teaching activities Learning and teaching: 181 hours Independent learning: 1019 hours Non-assessed learning and teaching: 6 hours Year 3 (placement year) Year 4 - 17% of your time will be spent in timetabled learning & teaching activities Learning and teaching: 243 hours Independent learning: 966 hours Non-assessed learning and teaching: 10 hours 51% of the course is assessed by coursework Year 1: 45% Year 2: 75% Year 3: 0% (placement year) Year 4: 85% Throughout the course you will be assessed by coursework culminating in your final year research project, but you will also undertake group work and written exams. Programme specification Programme specifications provide definitive records of the University's taught degrees in line with Quality Assurance Agency requirements. Every taught course leading to a BU Award has a programme specification which describes its aims, structure, content and learning outcomes, plus the teaching, learning and assessment methods used. Download the programme specification for BA (Hons) Retail Management. Whilst every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the programme specification, the information is liable to change to take advantage of exciting new approaches to teaching and learning as well as developments in industry. If you have been unable to locate the programme specification for the course you are interested in, it will be available as soon as the latest version is ready. Alternatively please contact us for assistance. 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