All activities involved are known as retailing in which goods or services are sold directly to the final consumers for their personal, non-business use and the person who involved in all such activities is known as retailer.
Retailing is done by several wholesalers, manufacturers and retailers. But retailers perform most of retailing, the sales of the businesses comes primarily from retailing.
Although much retailing is performed in retail store, in current years nonstarter retailing has been growing much quicker as compared to store retailing.
Read More: Major Retailer Marketing Decisions
Non-store retailing contains selling to final consumers through catalogs, direct mail, home & office parties, home TV shopping shows vending machines, door-to-door contact, Online services and the Internet and other direct retailing approaches.
Types of Retailers
Retail stores come in all sizes and shapes and latest retail kinds emerging. They can be grouped into different classes on the basis of many characteristics the depth and breadth of their product lines, the amount of service they offer, how they are organized and relative prices they charged.
Amount of Service
Different amounts of service are required by different products, and customer service preferences differ. One of the three levels of service may be offered by the retailers which are full service, limited service and self-service.
The customers who are agree to do their own “locate compare select” process to save money is served as self-service retailers.
Self-service is the foundation of all discount functions and particularly employed by sellers of convenience goods and fast moving, nationally branded shopping goods.
More shopping goods are carried about which more information is required by customers by limited service retailers which provide more sales assistance.
They have higher prices because of their enhanced operating costs. Salespeople help customers in every phase of the shopping process in full service retailers like first-class department stores and specialty stores.
More specialty goods are generally carried by specialty stores for which customers are willing to be “waited on”. Their operating costs are too much higher because they provide more services and these enhanced cots are reflected in their enhanced prices.
Product Line
By the length and breadth of the product assortments, retailers can also be classified. Some retailers take narrow product lines, like specialty stores, with deep categorization within those lines.
The enhancing utilization of market targeting, market segmentation and product specialization has consequences into potential requirement of stores that focus on particular segments or products.
On the other hand huge variety of product line is carried by departmental stores. In current years, department stores have been squeezed between lower price, more efficient on one hand and more flexible, focused specialty stores on other hand.
Promotional events and “bargain basements” are added by many in response in order to meet the discount threat.
Store brand programs, “boutique” and “designer shops “are setup within department stores by others. Still others are struggling telephone, mail-order and website selling. The basic differentiation factor remains the service.
The most frequent shopped kind of retail store is the supermarkets. Their sales growth is slower currently however, because slower population growth and enhancement of competition from discount food stores, convenience stores and super stores.
The rapid growth of out-of-home eating has also been hit hard on the supermarkets. Improvements are made by most supermarkets to appeal more customers.
Smaller stores that carry a confined line of increased turnover convenience goods are referred to as convenience stores. The convenience store industry suffer from overcapacity in the 1990s, as its primary market of young, blue collar men have reduced.
As a consequence, redesigning of several chains are taken place with female customers in mind. The image of “truck shop” is dropping by them where men go to purchase cigarettes, beer and magazines. Instead fresh, prepared food and cleaner, safer environments are offer by them.
Micromarketing is used by several convenience chains in which each store goods is tailored according to its surrounding neighborhood. A much larger than regular supermarkets are superstores and offer a big categorization of everyday purchased nonfood items, food products and services.
The so-called category killers are stores that feature the size like airplane hangars that contain a very high classification of specific line with knowledgeable staff.
Category killers are predominant in huge variety of classification including baby gear, books, toys, home improvement products, electronics, linens and towels, sporting goods, party goods, even pet supplies.
Read More: Factors of Price Changes
Hypermarkets are another superstore variation that is like big stores as big as six football fields. The product line is actually a service for some retailers. Service retailers contains banks, hotels & motels, airlines, hospitals, colleges, movie theatres, bowling alleys, tennis clubs, repair services, restaurants, hair care shops, repair services and dry cleaners.
Relative Prices
Classification of retailers is also based on the prices they charge. Many retailers offer normal quality products & customer service and charge regular prices while others charge high prices by offering high quality products and customer service. Low price retailers are discount stores, catalog showrooms, off price retailers.
