Retail and Sales

The retailing sector is Finland’s largest industry by providing jobs for nearly 300,000 people. The Finnish retail industry is also the largest employer in the economy measured in GDP. It accounts for about 10 % of Finland’s GDP (see more information: www.kauppa.fi).

Currently, the entire retail industry is going through huge transformation as digitalization is speeding up and new innovative business models are emerging from new technologies. There are also numerous other drivers that shape retail industry at the moment such as new forms of consumption (e.g. collaborative consumption) and increasing concern on the environmental related matters. It is obvious that retail industry needs help in this transformation.

In the field of retailing and sales, we focus on:

• Educating retail experts and leaders for the future: we provide students with comprehensive understanding of strategic retail planning and management, retail business models, and consumer-driven retail marketing.
• Contributing to retail industry through impactful and high-quality research: we conduct ambitious retail-specific empirical research and theory development.
• Engaging research collaboration with the leading retailing organizations and other significant stakeholders in Finland and abroad as well.
• Developing international networks and academic partnerships in the area of retail-related research and teaching.

Our aim is to become the leading academic unit in the area of retailing and sales in the Nordic region, recognized for ambitious and highly relevant research, education and societal impact.

Currently we are exploring the topics such as retail business models, global marketplaces and ecosystems, retail entrepreneurship and value-based selling.