The expediency and urgency of improving regional policy regulation of retail trade in the region is substantiated in the article. They lie in the fact that poorly controlled development of this kind of economic activity has led to a defective performance of its basic functions and, on the contrary, the effective regulation of the retail trade in the region leads to the growth of GRP, an increase in local budgets’ revenues, employment growth, improvement of the quality of life and increase of the investment prospects of territories. The aim of the article is to identify the shortcomings of regional policy of retail development regulation in order to create a list of priority areas and activities of regional authorities that will lead to a more rational development of the industry. As a result of the study the technique of qualitative evaluation of the effectiveness of regional policy of retail trade development regulation has been improved by means of decomposition of trends and the components of the corresponding institutional and economic mechanism. This provides the academic novelty of the obtained results. The main directions have been identified, in which it is reasonable to carry out evaluation of the regional policy effectiveness of the formation of institutional and economic development of the retail trade regulation mechanism at the regional level. The defects of the institutional and legal and regulatory and procedural directions of the retail development regulation have been identified at the regional and subregional levels. The major disadvantages in the area of institutional and organizational regulation of retail trade development in Zakarpattya region are low efficiency of operation and failure to comply with basic functions by state regional and local bodies, which are responsible for the development of the industry, in respect of managed retail development, the lack of adequate planning and programming of a balanced development of the industry, poor institutional infrastructure of state and civic support of qualitative functioning of retail sector. The gaps in economic approach to stimulation of a balanced development of the retail trade have been identified in the paper. The practical significance of the study consists of the identification of the most problematic areas, which regulation ensures higher efficiency of the regional police of retail trade development regulation. Further research should deal with the strategy and tactics of regional policy of creation an effective institutional and economic mechanism of retail regulation.