Take My Liberty BUSI 446 Class

Liberty's catalog opens BUSI 446 with a striking claim, that retailing and category management account for roughly a quarter of GDP each year, and describes a course that integrates the two, with category management drawn from both retail and supply chain perspectives.

Levy and colleagues' eighteen chapters are read in seven blocks. The first weeks cover the world of retailing, types of retailers, multichannel and omnichannel selling, customer buying behavior, retail market strategy and financial strategy.

The middle weeks cover location and site selection, then human resources, information systems and supply chain, and customer relationship management.

Weeks five and six turn to merchandise planning, buying, pricing and the retail communication mix, which is where category management sits most directly.

Week seven closes the reading with store management, layout and visual merchandising, and customer service.

A 50-point forum falls in each of the first seven weeks.

Project Reports 1, 2 and 3, worth 50 each, fall in weeks two, four and six, and the 100-point Final Report in week eight; exams of 100 points fall in weeks three, six and eight, and the 100-point faith essay in week seven.

BUSI 446 is carried around the Retail Management Project, because its four reports follow one retailer through the course and the final report draws them together.

The retailer is chosen at the start, ideally a chain with public information, such as a regional grocer, a sporting goods retailer or a dollar store, so each report can use real figures.

The early reports usually cover the retailer's strategy, customers and financial position, the middle ones its locations, systems and merchandise, and the last its pricing, communication and store experience, following the chapters of each fortnight.

The Final Report revises the three with your instructor's comments and closes with recommendations, often including a category review that recommends what to add, cut or reposition on the shelf.

Discussion posts test the week's chapters on a real chain: where a dollar store opens next, or how a supermarket uses loyalty-card data to rethink its cereal aisle.

The faith essay connects a biblical principle to retailing, such as honest pricing or care for employees and customers.

The three exams are yours to sit, untouched by the plan.

A BUSI 446 writer has worked in retail or consumer goods, as a store manager, a buyer, a category manager, a merchandise planner or a retail analyst, usually with a business or marketing degree.

That background shows in details students tend to miss: gross margin return on inventory, sales per square foot, open-to-buy, planograms and the difference between a destination and a convenience category.

They know how retailers and suppliers negotiate category plans, which keeps the category management parts of the project realistic.

Each report and the essay pass a second retail professional.

Your name stays with the coordinator, and the writer sees only the course and its prompts.

If an exam chapter is confusing, such as how a retailer sets an initial markup, a short explanation can be sent.

The faith essay is written with care by someone who relates scripture to business practice thoughtfully.

The forum rhythm is the first pressure, seven 50-point forums in seven weeks.

Retail math is the second. Markups, markdowns, margins, inventory turnover and open-to-buy need careful calculation, and exams test them.

Category management is the third, because it asks students to think like a buyer and a supplier at once, using sales data to decide shelf space.

The project is the fourth. Its four reports follow one retailer, and choosing a retailer without public data leaves later reports thin.

Location analysis is the fifth, with trade areas and site evaluation methods that are new to most students.

In week six a forum, Report 3 and Exam 2 all land.

Week eight brings the Final Report and Exam 3 at once.

Then there is the faith essay, worth as much as the Final Report, which students tend to underrate until they see it is a tenth of the grade.

Forum 1 opens the course and Report 1 follows in week two, so the class is best handed over before it starts.

Forum posts come ready ahead of each week, and each project report several days before its due date.

Expect the essay as week seven opens and the Final Report well before the last day.

Your price list shows seven forums, three reports, the final report and the essay; the exams are never on it.

A student who joins in week three begins with Forum 3, and the project picks up at Report 2.

The reports together are the largest share of the order, then the forums.

Students who already work in retail often keep the forums and hand over the project and the essay.