What about Wholesale & Retail?

Science, engineering and technology have a major influence on the products sold in the shops. The latest game consoles, digital cameras, mobile phones and other gadgets regularly top the nation’s wishlists, but science also has an impact on everything from the food we eat to the clothes we wear.

There is always a demand in the retail sector for research and development, new products and services. Product development, technologies and customer demands are all evolving rapidly and retailers have to stay abreast of the latest developments to survive.

Technology has changed not only what we buy, but the way we buy. Nowadays, you can bypass the high street and shop for almost anything online, from the comfort of your own home. Internet sales have skyrocketed over the past decade, with 6.5% per cent of all UK sales taking place online in 2006. Many wholesale purchases by businesses also take place online.

Maintaining online shops and ensuring that such transactions can take place securely is therefore a top priority for all major retailers, with one in five businesses employing ICT staff.

Typical activities

Working with scientists, engineers and technicians savvy retailers have been defining what may be the future of the industry. Get involved in wholesale and retail and you could find yourself:

• Advising customers on using products or services,  e.g. demonstrating a newly-launched gadget;
• Promoting a new products or new technology;
• Ensuring stock is readily available, usually done with the help of computer software;
• Designing promotional materials, sometimes using computer-aided design (CAD);
• Designing and managing "virtual stores" for online retailing outlets.

Getting in 

The qualifications in this industry vary considerably. Traditionally, retail was seen as a low skilled profession. However, increasingly, retailers are seeing the skills of its workforce as vital to giving a business the edge over its competitors.

Because of this there has been a push for “up-skilling” and a number of the larger companies are now offering apprenticeships. NVQ/SVQs are also available in areas such as IT services, retail operations or sales management.

As e-commerce becomes more important, the sector will need more people with technical skills to design, build and run systems, and for online marketing and customer services. There will be a need for widespread computer literacy.

Remember, retail also depends on the supply of new products. There are opportunities here for technicians, scientists and engineers from a variety of backgrounds.

Typical Employers 

This is a dynamic and evolving industry that has enormous relevance in everybody’s lives, with over 291,000 businesses in the UK, and accounting for around 35 pence in every pound we spend:

• Boots
• Dixons  
• Tesco
• the Gadget Shop
• Amazon
• ebay

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