RETAIL GAME: Playing to Win - a Guide to the Profitable Sale of Goods and Services

An indispensable guide to the art and business of retailing showing owner-operators how to avoid pitfalls, understand the market, master strategic planning and succeed in their venture, whether bricks-and-mortar or online.

What does it take to start up, maintain and grow a thriving and profitable retail business? Learn from the experience of an expert, as Albert C. Plant provides both a sweeping overview of the Canadian retail landscape and a detailed, step-by-step approach to rewarding retailing for the independent owner-operator.

This comprehensive guide discusses all the major aspects of retailing goods and services in Canada, including retailing strategy; the optimization of the business, of customers and of finances; Canadian market dynamics; ownership and governance issues; and the many "detail" issues that retailers face. The technology of retailing has changed radically in the past decade, and entrepreneurs and retail managers will find that these pages offer valuable insight into the benefits and pitfalls of Web retailing.

Written by a man whose combined retail and consulting experience is both broad and deep, The Retail Game is an essential reference for anyone involved in retailing goods and services in Canada.

Albert C. Plant spent fifteen years in the pulp and paper industry in British Columbia and Quebec, then held executive positions with a number of national retail companies. He established his own management consulting business in 1985 and has been the retail industry adviser for RBC Royal Bank since 1995.