The Retailer's Illusion By Dr. Gaurav Bawa

Plenty of store owners work flat out and still can't figure out why the profit never seems to match the effort. Dr. Gaurav Bawa - a third-generation retailer himself, with a doctorate in Business Administration from the Swiss School of Business and Management in Geneva - wrote The Retailer's Illusion specifically for that frustration. Rather than abstract theory, the book leans on real-life retail examples and clear, usable frameworks to help store owners get a genuine handle on pricing, stock and systems, moving from constant firefighting to something that actually runs on structure. One retailer quoted on the back cover credits Bawa's coaching with a 2.5x increase in profits and opening a second store using existing stock alone - a fairly concrete result for a business book to point to. This is a strong pick for independent retailers, shop owners, and small business readers who want practical, battle-tested retail strategy rather than generic management advice, from someone who has actually run a retail business rather than just studied one from the outside.