New Viewpoints On The Formation Of Retail Business Units And Distribution Channels – The Case Of The Republic Of Croatia

The grounds for this paper are the disharmonies in a quantitative development of retail capacities (sale area) and the economic results achieved in the overall national economy.On the basis of available literature, the paper analyzes a retail business unit form (a retail format), its characteristics, and an importance of connection in a distribution channel and in a supply chain. Due to the development of the new logistic tasks of a retail company, the very distribution channels are modified as well, concerning the physical, informational, and financial flows in these channels. However, in addition to a modification in the distribution channel types, the retail business unit forms of the existent, the so-called “stationary” retail, are changed as well.The paper analyzes the fluctuations in the growth and development of the retail industry and the retailing capacities in the Republic of Croatia in the 1989 – 2014 period. Furthermore, the achieved level of an overall economic development (per capita GDP) is being compared for the year 2013 with regard to the retail capacities (sales areas) in the Republic of Croatia and in other select countries of the European Union. Also, the data on the realized retail sale pursuant to the retail business unit forms and the shares of electronic retail sale in the overall retailing are compared for the select European countries. The analysis deploys the data of the Croatian Bureau of Statistics and Eurostat. It has been found that an enlargement of sale areas occurred more rapidly than the level of an overall economic development in the Republic of Croatia and in some other countries, for the retail development in a technical-technological sense has been missing. Thus, the achieved level of electronic retail is more adequate to the level of an overall economic development of a country.The paper should serve as a foundation for further research and evaluations of the role of retail industry in the functioning of economic systems in certain countries.