What is retailing?

By Sai Verano

Going back to my college days, we have a subject about retail management. At first I thought if this particular matter would concern me as a business-minded person as well as a marketing student? As a whole, by the end of the semester, I realized that understanding retailing would help an individual in running a successful retailing business.

Definition. From my own point-of-view, whenever I hear the word retailing I think of smaller quantities being sold in convenience stores like 7-eleven and Ministop. But in principle, retailing is a set of business

activities that adds value to the products or services sold to consumers for their personal or family use (Levy and Weitz). Retailing is not limited to selling tangible products only but also of intangible products like the service offered by videotape rental shops, pizza deliveries and washing your car. Aside from this, retailing is not limited to 7-eleven or Ministop. Retailing can occur online especially nowadays that online stores, from home-based to large companies, are everywhere. I even have my own online store in Multiply.com and understanding retailing pretty well can give retailers a competitive edge over other players in the same market.

Retailers. Retailers are not only natural personas but also include juridical persons. Juridical persons are businesses, either partnerships or corporations, treated or recognized as a person by law. Retailers are businesses that sell product and services  to consumers for their personal and family use (Levy and Weitz). They are considered as the final businesses in the distribution channels that link manufacturers with consumers.

Functions performed by Retailers:

• Providing an assortment of products and services. Retailers have a wide variety of different products from different manufacturers providing consumers with so many choices of the same product. Just look at convenience stores, they are retailers which offer many brands of soap, noodles, beverages and biscuits.
• Breaking bulk. Retailers sell products in smaller quantities to final consumers unlike manufacturers and wholesalers who sell products in bulk. Retailers make buying convenience products and shopping products much cheaper for consumers compared to buying them in bulk directly to manufacturers and wholesalers.
• Holding inventory. Retailers keep inventory for consumers. They must have a good inventory of products which meet the demand of the consumers to avoid highly demanded products out of stock. This particular function of retailers make it convenient for buyers to buy any products without worrying that what they need is out of the market.
• Providing services. Retailers provide services to consumers which are very convenient for consumers, either through payment methods or plain services. Some of the most common services offered by retailers are credit card payments, product displays, having a salesperson/sales associate to handle and answer customer inquiries and to provide other information about a particular product and parking spaces for easy shopping.
  
• Increasing the value of products and services. Since other services are being integrated in a product, its value (price per say) is being increased. This is for the convenience that retailers add to the product or service that final consumers are enjoying