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Pros And Disadvantages Of Retailing

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Which business considers every individual as a customer? Which business accounts for more than 10% of the worldwide labour force and is the single largest industry in most nations? What is common between Wal-Mart, Big Bazaar, Flipkart, and the neighbourhood kirana stores? The answer is retailing. Retailing is the last link in the chain of distribution. The distribution of consumer products begins with the producer and ends at the ultimate consumer. Between the producer and the consumer there is a middleman - the retailer, who links the producers and the ultimate consumers.

Retailing has become such an intrinsic part of our everyday lives that it is often taken for granted. The nations that have enjoyed the greatest economic and social progress …show more content…

Therefore in order to survive in retailing, a firm must do a satisfactory job in its primary role i.e., catering to its customers.

According to Philip Kotler: "Retailing includes all the activities involved in selling goods or Services to the final consumers for personal, non-business use." A retailer or retail store is any business enterprise whose sale volume comes primarily from retailing. Any organisation selling to final consumers whether it is a manufacturer, wholesaler or retailer is doing retailing It does not matter how the goods and services are sold (by person, mail, telephone, vending machine or internet or where there are sold - in a store, on the street or in the consumer's home)”.

The word retail is derived from the French word ‘retaillier’, which means to cut off a piece or to break the bulk. A retailer may be defined, as a 'dealer or trader who sells goods in small quantities' or 'one who repeats or relates'. Retailing thus may be understood as the final step in the distribution of merchandise, for consumption by the end consumers. Put simply, a firm that sells products to the final consumer is performing the function of retailing. It thus consists of all activities involved in the marketing of goods and services directly to the consumers for their personal, family or household

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