A Comparative Analysis of the Domestic Retailing Systems of Canada and Sweden

Abstract

This article relates the structural developments of retail systems in Sweden and Canada to the comparative distribution and retailing literature. The two countries have similar types of market and marketing system development. The emergence of strong consumer markets has brought about corresponding structural changes in the distribution systems of both countries. Similarities and differences in the retailing systems of the two countries are examined systematically in relation to demographic, socioeconomic, and cultural factors of the environment. The differences in the retail systems indicate that each country's retail industry is at a different stage of development. Canada has higher total retail turnover (retail turnover as percentage of personal expenditures) and a higher total number of retail stores, but Sweden has higher per capita sales and per store retail turnover, and a larger population per store. These comparisons pinpoint the nature and structure of the prevailing Swedish and Canadian consumer markets and the emerging retail distribution systems of the future. The study also offers certain important policy implications to both marketing practitioners and marketing scholars with regards to the workings of retail systems in multiple environments.