Honours (Higher) Diploma on
Retail Management & Administration
This valuable Programme has at its heart the successful retail management of products, with a focus on the operational side of merchandising to satisfy the needs of consumers, and to tackle the competitive environment.
This important and contemporary Programme deals with many inter-related topics, including retail and business management, retail and business marketing, and retail and business strategy. It deals with the relationship between products, consumers and the various places where product exchange takes place. Retailers, sellers and business people have to ensure that their operations (stores/shops/sales premises) are set up to provide a smooth flow of goods to the paces and at the times the buying public wants, all the while ensuring the right goods are made available and that the business is competitive. This Programme covers all of these areas and more, teaching retail and marketing managers what to do and how to do it with operational effectiveness and efficiency, to ensure successful sales and profitable businesses.
ALSO:
(1) Anybody enrolling for this Programme before 31st December 2024 will also be enrolled FREE for a Course on Strategy, Quality & Contemporary Business Concerns; the only requirement is that you provide your personal email address to the College on enrolment.
(2) During the “Covid-19” (Corona) virus pandemic and in lock-down periods, affected Members may be allowed to take Assignments (home-based course work) instead of or in addition to sitting Examinations to complete the Programme; details can be provided on request after enrolment onto the Programme.
- Summary of major topics
- What is included
- Related courses
- Study & Career development
The Programme comprises of four key ‘courses’, all of which are compulsory/mandatory, as follows:-
- Retail Marketing Management & Customer Relations
- Marketing & Sales Management
- Business Management & Administration
- Advanced Management & Administration Theory & Practice
Further details of each course comprising the Honours Diploma:
RETAIL MARKETING MANAGEMENT & CUSTOMER RELATIONS
- Scope and concepts of retail product management
- Products, retail product sectors, strategic project factors
- Retail product management: process and people
- Traditional and contemporary retail buying and purchasing
- Centralised, decentralised and international buying
- Category management, product category lifecycles
- Category management strategy and efficient customer response (ECR)
- Product range planning and selection
- Assortment (stocking) plans, consumer trends and new product development
- Brands and branding, concessions, price/value/specification criteria
- Managing the supply base, suppliers and sourcing
- Evaluating and monitoring suppliers, developing relationships
- Product quantity decisions and stock management
- Economic order quantity, stock management, forecasting, merchandising budgets
- Managing the response to sales, ordering and replenishment systems
- Allocating retail space to products - a planned framework
- Practical and customer considerations in space management and allocation
- Retail store and outlet design, materials, atmosphere, lighting, signs
- Store image, location, life-styling and strategic factors
- Visual merchandising, planning and positioning, product presentation
- Stores layout, displays, window displays, online merchandising
- Communicating the product offer, communication channels, advertising
- Promotional product planning, publicity, personal communications, packaging
- Evaluating retail product management performance
- Assessment of profitability, sales, productivity, cost reduction, negotiation, quality performance
- Ethical retailing and customers, sustainable and ethical product management and supply
MARKETING & SALES MANAGEMENT
- The principles of selling and salesmanship - achieving sales, income, profit.
- Internal sales personnel and commercial travelling salespeople.
- The methods of selling: creating interest, giving demonstrations, making sales transactions.
- Types and categories of consumers, commercial and corporate buyers.
- Making ongoing sales, building customer relationships, generating and following up sales leads.
- The principles of management: recruiting, training, remunerating, controlling and motivating sales personnel.
- Building effective sales teams, setting and monitoring sales targets, deciding upon sales areas.
- The organisation and control of sales teams, and the special issues regarding travelling salesmen.
- Market research: consumer research, market surveys, advertising research; their meanings, importance and the activities involved.
- Reasons for undertaking and the types of test marketing.
- Techniques and importance of sales forecasting.
- Planning, budgeting, budgetary control in sales and marketing, variances and their implications.
- Segmentation of markets, the role of brands, psychology in sales and marketing.
- Channels of distribution; which to choose, advantages and disadvantages; wholesale, retail, franchise.
- Credit and setting terms, credit limits, control over credit customers.
- The types and purposes of different discounts allowed: trade, quantity, cash, others.
- Sales forecasting and planning in connection with the product life cycle (PLC).
- Pricing strategies, factors in setting prices, the objectives of pricing.
- Direct and indirect advertising and publicity, media and their importance, sales promotion, roles and management of public relations; sales letters & literature, direct marketing.
- The Internet as a marketing and sales tool; website design, social media.
- The sales office, records, graphs, statistics, collection and analysis of data, computerised sales data.
- Export selling, international marketing, customs duties, researching overseas markets, expansion of markets and the customer-base.
BUSINESS MANAGEMENT & ADMINISTRATION
- Capital and the financing of businesses, sources of capital, share issues.
- Working capital, cash and funds flow; revenue, income, expenditure, overheads.
- Business units: sole-proprietors, partnership firms, limited liability companies.
- Board of Directors, formation, responsibilities and duties.
- Business organisation; structure, reporting, spans of control.
- Business environment, trading enterprises; factors in business location.
- Planning and forecasting in business, the business plan; starting or taking over a business.
- Budgeting and budgetary control, the master budget and sub-budgets.
- Management of personnel: recruiting, selecting, inducting, training, controlling, remunerating.
- Motivation, human resources; health and safety in the workplace, communication, job analysis.
- Principles of selling, sales and marketing management, market research, sales promotion.
- Prices and pricing policy.
- Office management, office organisation, set-up, equipment, data and information.
- Production management, production methods, materials handling.
- Credit, credit control, credit limits and bad debts; discounts: trade, quantity, others.
- Stock and inventory control, stocktaking.
- Purchasing and resourcing, suppliers.
- Financial accounting, books of account, interpretation, accounting ratios.
ADVANCED MANAGEMENT & ADMINISTRATION THEORY & PRACTICE
- The evolution of management theory, principles of management.
- The classical and early theorists; Fayol, Weber, Taylor, Mayo, scientific management, authority, discipline, modern developments.
- Organisational theory: objectives, categories, ownership, environmental factors and interaction.
- Open and closed systems theory.
- Coordination, cooperation, structure, control.
- Communication and communication theories and channels.
- Organisational structures, planning, growth and development, organisation charts.
- Systems and systems diagrams.
- Duties and responsibilities of executives, delegation, responsibility.
- Mission, vision, values, MBWA.
- Motivational theory: human relations, social psychology; self-realisation, motivation-hygiene, expectancy theory.
- The theories of Argyis, Maslow, McGregor, Likert, Herzberg, Vroom, Handy; intrinsic and extrinsic factors.
- Leadership theory: traits, style, contingency; theorists.
- Building and developing workgroups, group behaviour, norms, cohesiveness.
- Managing change, creating and managing culture.
- Moss Kanter, learning organisations and entrepreneurship.
- Strategic management; the theories of Fayol, Chandler, Andrews, Ansoff, BCG, Porter, SWOT.
- Environmental and competitive barriers to entry, industrial competitiveness.
- Corporate objectives, policies, business ethics, social responsibilities.
WHAT IS INCLUDED IN THE FEE FOR THIS HONOURS GROUP DIPLOMA PROGRAMME
Your CIC Fee includes:-
- Your enrolment/registration with Cambridge International College, and your own high-quality, professionally produced and illustrated comprehensive International CIC Core Study Publications for each of the four (4) ‘courses’ of study.
- CIC’s detailed, professional ‘Study & Training Guide’ with full instructions on how to study to achieve success and gain top results. The Guide includes detailed advice on how to answer Tests and Examinations.
- Training Tests, Questions and Exercises (which can be used as ‘Past Papers/Questions’), and Recommended Answers for most of them.
- An Examination set for each of the 4 core courses; each Examination is sat under Invigilation/Supervision in your own area - full details, guidance and explanation of how your Examinations will be arranged and how Invigilation is conducted will be provided when you register. Note, CIC arranges Examinations in over a hundred countries worldwide for thousands of Members every year; it is a flexible, straightforward process and will be arranged when YOU are ready to write your Examination.
- A prestigious Cambridge International College Diploma on successful completion of Study & Training and on passing the Examination for EACH of the 4 core courses, PLUS the International Honours Group Diploma when all 4 courses have been completed - this is a total of 5 awards - 4 individual Diplomas plus the Honours Diploma.
- Your personal page on CIC’s Member Services website with access to results, despatch details, advice and guidance, and more: www.cambridgeinternationalcollege.co.uk
- Regular information and news including: Newsletters with details of special offers and new Programs and much more; and Competition Forms; by email and post.
- Everything needed for your Study & Training success is included in the CIC Fee.
Additionally:
Further Study and Training Advice, and Assistance is available before, during and after CIC Study & Training; Members may ask CIC’s team of experienced Consultants for advice on further study and Programmes to improve career prospects and advancement.
CIC’s experienced and helpful staff can assist with numerous special requests, such as reference/recommendation letters and transcripts, and more, by post and email.
- Advertising & Public Relations Diploma 12 months (flexible)
- Marketing Administration Honours (Higher) Diploma 21 months (flexible)
- Marketing Administration (BMA) Baccalaureate 2 years (flexible)
- Marketing Administration EBA: Executive Business Administration 3 years (flexible)
- Purchasing & Resourcing Management Diploma 12 months (flexible)
This Programme provides students and professionals with very useful and practical knowledge, insights and awareness of the contemporary challenges facing retail managers - and provides the skills to understand and tackle these challenges. Covering a wide breadth of retail, merchandising, supply-chain and customer-focused operations, it provides access to employment in three key areas: the people, process and products involved in the wide retail management environment; product planning, supply chain and stocking/inventory; designing retail spaces and stores, merchandising and making visual the products on offer, communications, advertising and performance appraisal; specialisations and careers can be forged in any of those areas and more, or in all of them (such as for business and retail outlet owners and managers).
This Honours Diploma Programme skills and knowledge which are suited to, if needed, undertaking related and similar study areas as are covered by this interesting and varied syllabus. These include further retail, merchandising, sales and marketing, branding, advertising, public relations and international marketing courses; as well as for studies on strategic management, purchasing and supply chain management, ethics and product development courses.
There is a wide range of options for further study - see the "Related Courses" section for suggestions – which include the ‘wider’ syllabus ABA & Baccalaureate Programmes and the EBA Programme, and more. You are welcome to ask the College for advice, and of course you can see details of these Programmes on this website.
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Duration & Assessments
The standard Study Period is 21 to 24 months, but this is flexible; the course can be completed in a shorter period, or longer if required.
READ MORE »To gain your Honours Diploma you need to sit and pass a written Examination/Assessment on each of the 4 Subjects in your Honours Diploma ‘group’. Full and clear details about this are provided to you, including in your personal Study & Training Guide, after you have enrolled. The clear information explains when, where and how your Examination/Assessment will be arranged - it is a simple and straightforward process, which hundreds of thousands of other Members have successfully gone through. If you study well and follow the advice in the CIC Study & Training Guide, then you should be able to achieve your prestigious Honours Diploma in good time!
(See the “WHAT IS INCLUDED” section for this Course, and/or the “FAQs - Frequently Asked Questions” section of this website, if you would like more information.)
Result
Four Diplomas AND the Honours Diploma, showing you have high levels of knowledge and expertise in retail management, sales, marketing, business and management.