Retailing and Consumer Science (RCSC)

Examine and develop retailer strategies in response to global environmental and social challenges. Sustainability requires a critical shift in how retail businesses operate, in particular with respect to climate change mitigation and adaptation. The course provides an introduction into the business perspective on environmental and social sustainability, the concept of the circular economy, industry standards, integration of sustainability across the supply chain and customer management, and best practice cases.

Design, interpret, and apply primary and secondary research techniques used to generate customer insights and guide retailers' decision-making. The course combines textbook learning with real-world examples and applications so that students can engage in consumer research in practice.

Explore leadership and management concepts and practices that lead to more effective, ethical and socially-responsible organizations. Build your professional leadership capabilities in organizational planning, business decision making, negotiation and influence, teamwork, employee motivation and training, organizational goal setting, and business communications. Develop skills for managing the challenges and opportunities of diversity and cultural differences within organizations and the global marketplace. Evaluate and reflect on your career path and career development.

Examine consumer behavior in the context of global environmental and social challenges. Sustainability requires a critical shift in consumers' mindset to effectively respond to these challenges. We will discuss adaptation and mitigation strategies for consumers with special emphasis on overconsumption as the main driver of climate change, the reduction of individual and collective ecological footprints, the boundaries in effectively adapting materialist lifestyles, and the intersection of economic, ecological and social inequity. The course provides an introduction into environmental and social sustainability, including the science, theoretical concepts, and practical approaches used to analyze and reduce negative impacts of consumer behavior. 

Social media and digital influencers have a direct effect on consumer decisions, attitudes, and satisfaction. Learn about the role of social media and digital influencers in consumer decision making, brand awareness and associations, and the theory and practices of digital word-of-mouth (WOM). In this hands-on workshop course, students will engage in applied learning activities and digital experiments including developing a socially-native brand, creating a content marketing campaign, building an influencer persona, and designing a social commerce site. Students will use professional authoring tools to create videos and other multimedia content.

Survey of digital retailing methods and practices for marketing products and services in direct-to-consumer business models. The course will cover website and mobile design, digital authoring and publishing tools, e-commerce business models, electronic merchandising theory, terminology, resources, and practices. Students will learn about digital commerce via applied learning activities and development of a fully functional digital store.

Supply chain management is the design and management of seamless, value-added processes across organizational boundaries to meet the real needs of the end customer. With increasing competition around the globe, supply chain management is both a challenge and an opportunity for retailers. Investigate supply chain challenges, including how to cope with demand and supply uncertainty, how to build and optimize the supply chain organization, global perspectives, and optimization of logistics, inventory, and international trade-related costs.

Marketing principles and practices for the retailing and services sectors. Learn how to manage the marketing mix (product, price, promotion, distribution) to create competitive advantage and deliver value to consumers, firms, and society at large in a semester-long marketing planning project. Discuss some of the opportunities and major challenges marketing managers face.

Creating a new, innovative retailing venture can be both challenging and rewarding. Explore theories and practices of innovation and entrepreneurship in the retailing industry. Learn about what it takes to be an entrepreneur, how to identify new opportunities, the role of innovation, and how to launch and manage the growth of a new retail venture. Students will create and develop an innovative, new retailing concept.

Understanding customers and delivering optimized, personalized experiences can increase customer satisfaction, engagement, and loyalty. This course will cover customer experience (CX) design, testing and evaluation, and management for real-world, digital, and omnichannel shopping environments. Students will use CX consumer research tools including ethnography, video analysis, emotion detection, and digital usability testing (UX) incorporating professional UX applications, eye movement tracking and biometrics. Students will also explore CX management processes including service quality evaluation and management, service blueprinting, customer journey mapping, customer lifecycle model analysis, and customer lifetime value. In this hands-on course, students will learn how to use prototype, develop, and test websites, mobile apps, and store experience concepts for testing and build a CX/UX portfolio.