b) The wheel of retailing theory reveals three basic strategic positions involved are low end, medium and high end

Thee wheel of retailing is a hypothesis which explains the life cycle of a retail organization. Given below are the medium and high level strategy of the same.

Wheel of retailing - medium level strategy

In this phase, the retailer attempts to pool in more investment into the business. The medium-end strategies of stage are as follows:

• Selling of a better & improved variety of products.
• The organization also provides additional facilities like home delivery, online shopping, etc.
• More services like customer support, demo etc. are rolled out
• Even the initial prices are raised moderately, to increase profit margin.
• The organizationraises goodwill in the market and builds its reputation.
• The business location is shifted to prime market place.

Example - Let's look at the rise of WalMart. Walmart had started to develop into a higher-end department store in the 1960s. To reach the process they had started to improve and move their facilities, upgrade store fixtures, and multiply their sales force. This change took place using the above strategies and soon customers crammed Walmart stores in large numbers. Walmart’s founder Sam Walton introduced clever policies like the option wherestore employees could put a certain percentage of their paycheck towards purchasing subsidized Walmart stock. By the 1970s, Walmart was hugely technologiy driven. They soon began with operation of credit and other payment methods.

Wheel of retailing - high level strategy

The succession of medium level is the high-end strategies, which is discussed below:

• The retailer sells only premium and superior products at this stage.
• The organization takes up a high position, reputation and status in the market.
• Premium facilities are cateered to the high-end consumers.
• Special services like five years warranty are rolled out
• There is a high price level in the product catalogue
• The company pays huge attention to the preservation of its status.
• Slowly the business starts declining while new entrants take up the market

Example - Let us again look at WalMart and its progress with the high level strategy. Following their medium level phase Walmart was on top. They were far ahead of their competitors technologically, and were heavily based on data-driven methods to lead the company on a nationwide, and eventually global scale. These institutional changes which included huge investments and purchase of small units, improved facilities, stragtegic location selection  and larger sales forces meant higher costs which consequently led to prices being somewhat higher. At this point the competitors of WalMart were still not where they were today and hence WalMart was then in a phase of high stage