Retail Management Concentration (B.Com.) (15 credits)
Offered by: Management (Desautels Faculty of Management)
Degree: Bachelor of Commerce
Program credit weight: 15
Program Description
The Retail Management concentration will combine business fundamentals together with real-time, experiential learning opportunities recognizing the growing complexity of the retail sector. Through interaction with the state-of the-art Retail Innovation Lab, students will have the opportunity to learn firsthand about managing all levels of a retail operation using the latest technologies. The practical experience will link directly to the study of consumer behaviour, experiential marketing, omni-channel retailing, pricing analytics, efficacy of different payment systems, and global value chain management.
Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized.
Required Courses (9 credits)
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| MRKT 459 | Retail Management. | 3 |
Retail Management. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Principles and methods of marketing management as applied to retailing, including strategy and tactics: market structure; consumer behaviour; competition; financial management; human resources planning; promotion; presentation; merchandising; operations; pricing; planning and attaining retail profits. Lectures, text material, outside reading, planned retail visiting, cases. | ||
| RETL 402 | Innovations in Retailing. | 3 |
Innovations in Retailing. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Exploration of emerging trends, consumer behaviour and technologies and how they can lead to retail innovations that can significantly improve operational efficiency, customer satisfaction and provide a foundation for a sustainable and improved society. | ||
| RETL 407 | Retail Management Project. | 3 |
Retail Management Project. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A team-based, experiential project that involves defining actual problems and recommending solutions in the realm of an organization, or at the interface of different organizations (e.g. supply chains), including strategic and operational issues in retail management. Each project is multidisciplinary or multi-functional in nature and will have significant impact on one or more operational/competitive capabilities of the organization. | ||
Complementary Courses (6 credits)
Selected from the following:
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| INDR 294 | Introduction to Labour-Management Relations. | 3 |
Introduction to Labour-Management Relations. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An introduction to labour-management relations, the structure, function and government of labour unions, labour legislation, the collective bargaining process, and the public interest in industrial relations. | ||
| INSY 440 | E-Business. | 3 |
E-Business. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Build the knowledge base and skills needed to face today's electronic business challenges, opportunities, and issues. Explore important concepts, models, tools and applications related to e-business. | ||
| INSY 442 | Data Analysis and Visualization. | 3 |
Data Analysis and Visualization. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Overview of methods and tools for analyzing business data to improve business decision-making, focusing on data visualization using hands-on learning. | ||
| MGSC 403 | Introduction to Logistics Management. | 3 |
Introduction to Logistics Management. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Managing logistics systems, including transportation management, facility location, procurement, distribution management, and supply chain management. | ||
| MGSC 431 | Operations and Supply Chain Analysis. | 3 |
Operations and Supply Chain Analysis. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. This course introduces students to operations concepts and techniques with application to supply chain management. A supply chain consists of all activities involved in fulfilling customer demand and the management decisions have a direct impact on a firm's performance, such as operating cost, market penetration and customer service. The course covers both classical tactics and evolving new strategies to reduce cost, increase responsiveness and maintain sustainable growth in a firm's supply chain. | ||
| MRKT 355 | Services Marketing. | 3 |
Services Marketing. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Services are fleeting and involve direct contact between the supplier and the buyer. Inventories disappear every time an aircraft takes off or the night passes for an hotel. Yet services have become the largest sector in modern Western economy and their importance shows every sign of continuing to grow. This course focuses on the key differences between product and services marketing and the skills that are necessary for the services sector. | ||
| MRKT 451 | Marketing Research. | 3 |
Marketing Research. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Theoretical techniques and procedures common in marketing research. Topics include: research design, sampling, questionnaire design, coding, tabulating, data analysis (including statistical techniques). Specialized topics may encompass advertising, motivation and product research; forecasting and location theory. | ||
| MRKT 452 | Consumer Behaviour. | 3 |
Consumer Behaviour. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A study of basic factors influencing consumer behaviour. Attention is focused on psychological, sociological and economic variables including motivation, learning, attitude, personality, small groups, social class, demographic factors and culture, to analyze their effects on purchasing behaviour. | ||
| MRKT 455 | Sales Management. | 3 |
Sales Management. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Responsibilities of the sales manager as they relate to the sales force. These include the selection of process, training alternatives, compensation and incentive plans, supervision and evaluation and budgeting and forecasting. Case studies and discussions of sales force models are used. | ||
| RETL 408 | Omni-Channel Retailing. | 3 |
Omni-Channel Retailing. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Introduction to the fundamentals and different problems in the operations process of omni-channel retailing. The focus will be on multi-channel supply chain management and integration. Combination of theoretical models with study cases and data to review the challenges and solutions in omni-channel retailing. | ||
| RETL 409 | Digitization of Retailing. | 3 |
Digitization of Retailing. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Exploration of digital retailing models such as e-commerce marketplace, freemium, and peer-to-peer two-sided marketplace. Examination of how digital technology is driving innovation in these models, and how the models can improve competitiveness, operational efficiency and customer satisfaction. | ||
| RETL 410 | Sustainable Retail and Entrepreneurship. | 3 |
Sustainable Retail and Entrepreneurship. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Stages of developing a business concept in sustainability and retail. The experiential learning component culminates in a competition where student teams will pitch their business ideas to a panel of external business experts. | ||
| RETL 434 | Topics in Retail Management 1 | 3 |
Topics in Retail Management 1 Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Topics will be selected from current and emerging issues in retail management. | ||