Final answer:
The step preceeding the establishment of specific objectives and resource allocation in the strategic retail planning process is evaluating strategic opportunities.
Step-by-step explanation:
Steps in the Strategic Retail Planning Process
The strategic retail planning process involves several crucial steps to ensure successful retail management and decision-making. Before a company can establish specific objectives and allocate resources, a critical previous step must be undertaken. This previous step is evaluating strategic opportunities. This evaluation involves a thorough analysis of potential markets, understanding the competition, and assessing the company's internal capabilities to determine where it can gain a competitive advantage. Once the evaluation is done, and strategic opportunities are identified, the company can proceed to determine its specific objectives.
Common Confusion in the Process
It's essential not to confuse this step with other parts of the planning process, like defining the business mission or developing a retail mix, which respectively usually come first and later in the sequence.