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In recent years, due to the improvement of living standard and the increase of national income, the market size of department stores has been expanding constantly .In addition to the greater number of development cases, there are many new department stores and shopping malls being built in succession. These situations make department stores confront with gradually increasing challenges. In such competitive environment, these department stores have become so called¡¨ the stronger gets stronger and the weaker gets weaker¡¨. In Taiwan, seventy percent of the total sales in department stores are nearly taken by several groups of department stores, and single business running has become considerably difficult. However, it can be found that HANSHIN DEPARTMENT STORE accounted for almost 37 percent of market sales which was in Kaohsiung in 2005 .Even HANSHIN DEPARTMENT STORE¡¦ s sales got nearly three times as much as that of the second place in Kaohsiung. Although HANSHIN DEPARTMENT STORE lacks abundant resources of chain stores, it can successfully take the sales top of department stores in Kaohsiung .In this case, its business model is worth exploring. Therefore, the object of this research is HANSHIN DEPARTMENT STORE. The purpose of this research is trying to find out the key success factors of how to manage department stores by reviewing relevant literature and making interviews. I hoped that these research results will be useful for department stores to improve development in the future.

Since the introduction of the internet, to go on a shopping spree doesn’t require more than a computer or a smartphone. Channels of communication for companies to reach out to consumers has expanded, and personalized marketing is a fact. For physical retailers, product placement and merchandising in the department store is one way to compete against e-commerce and personalized marketing. The purpose of this study was to examine how department stores works with product placement and other means to reduce consumers buying decisions with regard to modern e-commerce and personalized marketing. With qualitative, semi-structured interviews. These where analyzed using theories built with behavioral patterns of the individual and of theories about product placement. The results showed that product placement´s main role is to keep customers in the store longer and attract customers to more purchasing decisions. E-commerce is considered according to the department stores to not pose any threat. To create added value for customers in department stores are just as important as product placement, which is the largest difference between e-commerce and department stores.

For increasing competitions of department stores, how to reinforce the extent of selling skills of salespeople will affect individual or organizational achievement performance strongly. This study was intended to explore the relationships between selling skills and achievement performance of the salespeople. In this study, work experience, training and locus of control are independent variables, achievement performance is dependent variables, and the selling skills are as a mediator. This study examined the mediator effect of the salespeople¡¦s selling skills among of the work experience, training and locus of control. Besides, we defined the product type and reward as a moderator between the job experience, training as well as locos of control. The subject of this study is 316 salespeople of a department store in Kaohsiung. This research used the method of questionnaire. The results indicated that: 1. Training was positive significant to selling skills. 2. Training was positive significant to achievement performance. 3. Selling skills were positive significant to achievement performance. 4. Selling skills were found that play a part of mediating effect between training and assigned sales quota achieved. 5. Selling skills were found to have significant mediating effect between training and customer relationship operation. 6. Mutual effect between the product type and selling skills were positive significant to customer relationship operation. Those are some suggestions to the department stores, retailer, salespeople that have been working in this field; and also the directions were given in the future research in this study.

Since 1989, Taiwan local retail businesses started forming joint ventures with foreign wholesale chain stores to bring in wholesale business into Taiwan which changed the local consumer retail scene dramatically and sparked a new round of competition among different consumer products distribution channels, and with the then retail business leader ¡V the department store. This survey targeted the department and wholesale store consumers of greater Kaohsiung area, used structured questionnaire, took convenience sampling, and based on quantified data to investigate whether there were great differences of store impression and spending behavior between these two consumer groups. The goal is to explore the degree of overlapping between department and wholesale stores markets and their respective consumers in order to provide insights that can be used for setting future marketing policies¡C The survey results reviewed that there are great disparities of profession and average monthly income levels between wholesale and department stores consumers. In the area of lifestyle, department store consumers are more life-enjoyment type whereas wholesale store consumers are more time-oriented, traditional, and cost-conscious type. Regarding the store impression, the survey found that wholesale store consumers had a higher score for overall store impression, store attributes recognition and importance level than that of department store consumers. There are obvious attribute differences except for the following seven attributes (refer to Chapter 4 and Section 3 for more details): ¡ynew product introduction frequency¡z, ¡yprofessionalism of sales staff¡z, ¡yprovide complete peripheral shopping equipment¡z, ¡ycomplete shopping facilities¡z, ¡yexcellent store atmosphere¡z, ¡ystore cleanness¡z, and¡yexcellent store reputation¡z. In the area of consumer store visit behavior, the survey found there are great differences between wholesale store and department store consumers including¡ysource of shopping information¡z,¡ystore visit motive¡z,¡ymode of transportation¡z,¡ystore visit frequency¡z,¡ymost store visit time of day¡z, ¡ystore visit duration¡z, and¡yaverage amount spent¡z.

Integrated marketing communication (IMC) that is gaining popularity in the U.S. and European markets in recent years has become a topic in the industrial and academic communities of marketing. While price slashing competition in Taiwan¡¦s retail trade gets sizzling hot, the tactic however does not necessarily translate into sales growth. Some businesses now start to look at other marketing strategies to replace the traditional price cutting technique. This study purports to tackle the following issues concerning the marketing strategies of department stores through case study of a specific department store. 1. Do Taiwan¡¦s department stores meet the criteria for adopting IMC? 2. To what degree do Taiwan¡¦s department stores implement IMC? 3. What are the issues encountered by Taiwan¡¦s department stores in the process of implementing IMC? This study employs the methodology of single case study by focusing on a specific department store. Through secondary data gathering and questionnaire survey, the study also finds suggestions to the department stores and that subsequent research on IMC.

The growth rate of GDP of mainland China in 2003 is 11.48% and the average growth rate of GDP in recent five years is about 9.50%. The growth rate of total retail amount of social consumer goods is 9.00% and the average growth rate of it in recent five years is 10.16% which make mainland China the most prospective market. After joining the world trade organization¡]WTO¡^in 2001, the retail business in China went through a huge variation. Not only the keen competition between China enterprises and foreign businesses, but also the rivalries among various retail types of operation in China retail market make the progress of retail business in China. This study reviews literature to understand the research on the revolution of the retail type of operation, collects and organizes the inferiority materials to know the development of present economic circumstance in mainland China, probe into the growth and future trend of the consumption and retail market. The three most attractive retail types of operation in recent mainland China are department store, supermarket and specialty shop, this study analyses the financial statements of the benchmarks of the three retail types of operation to obtain a deeper comprehension of the future development trend. The result of this study shows the diversification of the development trend of recent retail type of operation in China which is different from the past situation. Every retail type of operation grows prosperously in China, and the performance of supermarket is even better than that of department store. According to the retail life cycle theory, department stores in mainland China are in the maturity phase and have to re-segment its target customers to raise its market share and revenue. The result of this study also shows the polarization of the trend of the retail type of operation in China, which the three most attractive retail type of operation represent. According to the dialectic model, there will be a synthesis between thesis and antithesis retail type of operation possesses the advantages of them. We can also learn from the three wheels of retailing theory that the department store will improve its return ratio by imitating and learning while supermarket will improve its turnover rate to strengthen its differences. Keywords: Retail business in China, type of operation, department store, supermarket, specialty shop.

Nowadays, a hyper-connected consumer is not satisfied with using only one channel of everything the brand offers, but rather looks for the diversity of options to make their purchase. This research seeks to analyze how the customer experience is during the purchase process developed in the omnichannel strategy of the department store. The study used qualitative research methods to data gathering and analysis. To best capture customer experience, semi-structured interview, using open-ended questioning, was suited to data gathering. The participants were 13 customers who consented to be interviewed. Recruitment of participants concluded when data saturation occurred. It was evident how the omnichannel strategy works in a synchronized and positive way in the department store, without any interruption to consolidate the purchase.

This thesis looks at Thalhimers department store through the lenses of story, history, and theory. It first introduces the intertwining narratives of the author's paternal family and the store's history, then shares the author's personal story of Thalhimers. The second half outlines the master narrative of the American department store then applies "fantasy-theme analysis" and the symbolic convergence theory to stories and artifacts related to Thalhimers. A conclusion discusses the end of the department store era including a deeply personal goodbye from the author.