DOI: 10.36347/sjebm.2019.v06i03.005

Pages: 203-208

Malaysian departmental stores face intense competition in domestic and international markets due to trade liberalization and the rapid growth of electronic markets with more customers relying on online purchases. This paper examines the challenges that they faced and recommends competitive strategies to survive the competition. Methodology: Using a two phased approaches, the first stage was exploratory with data collected from a literature review and personal interviews. The second stage was descriptive and a web survey with 80 participants who were fully familiar with the strategies directions, management and the operations of department stores. The qualitative data was analyzed through content analysis with descriptive statistical techniques for the quantitative data. Results: Malaysian department stores are challenged by market situation and the resulting intense competition among the players, and the rapid expansion of online purchases. They have to adopt new business models to address the challenges and to offer quality services for customer loyalty. Conclusion/- and Recommendations: The findings revealed that Malaysian department stores have to adopt appropriate marketing and product strategies that cater to customer needs. They have to emphasize on service quality and creative marketing. They should also benefit from new technologies including the social media to effectively engage with customers. They also have to offer new products, better services and new shopping environment for achieving long term growth and sustainability.