Retailing After the Industrial Revolution

Abstract

Retailing is a sector seemingly permanently characterized by change. While it was among the earliest economic activities, since the industrial revolution retailers have developed an increasingly critical role as intermediaries and become powerful economic actors in their own right. This chapter shows how, from the nineteenth century onward, the sector experienced significant periods of change through the development of new formats and business models, ranging from department stores to supermarkets and chain stores to convenience stores, and how these traditional forms of store-based retailing are presently being challenged by digitalization and the emergence of new forms of intermediation, such as e-commerce aggregators, commercial platforms and others. The chapter also discusses the—somewhat belated—efforts by a number of retailers to grow through cross-border or global development of their businesses, although not always with success.