Q.Itinerant traders have been an integral part of internal trade in India. Analyse the reasons for their survival in spite of competition from large scale retailers.

Itinerant traders (peddlers, hawkers, market traders, street traders, cheap jacks) continue to thrive alongside big retailers because:

• Doorstep service — they carry goods right to the customer's home, saving buyers time and effort.
• Convenience of small quantities — they sell tiny amounts of daily-use items that suit lower-income buyers.
• Low prices and low overheads — with no fixed shop and limited resources, their costs are low.
• Reach into gaps — they serve residential lanes, fairs, station platforms and areas large stores do not cover.
• Personal, flexible service — direct contact and bargaining suit many Indian customers.

Who itinerant traders are. Itinerant retailers have no fixed place of business and keep moving with their wares from street to street in search of customers. They are small traders with limited resources, dealing mostly in consumer products of daily use — toiletries, fruits, vegetables and the like — with an emphasis on greater customer service. They include peddlers and hawkers, market traders, street (pavement) traders, and cheap jacks. Despite the growth of departmental stores, chain stores and supermarkets, these traders persist. The reasons lie in the genuine advantages they offer:

• Doorstep service (convenience): Their whole emphasis is on taking products right to the customer's doorstep. A hawker who comes to the residential street with vegetables or toys saves the buyer a trip to the market. This convenience is something a fixed large store, sitting at a central location, cannot match.

• Very low capital and overheads: With no fixed establishment, itinerant traders carry goods on a bicycle, hand cart, cycle-rickshaw or on their heads and keep their limited stock at home. Their operating costs are minimal, so they can sell at low prices — a strong pull for price-sensitive customers.

• Sale in small, affordable quantities: They deal in non-standardised, low-value products and sell in tiny lots. This suits lower-income customers who buy small amounts of daily necessities, exactly the segment large retailers (with their emphasis on service and higher-income buyers) do not focus on.

• Reach into gaps large retailers ignore: They operate in residential lanes, at exhibitions and fairs, outside schools at lunch break, and near stations and bus stands — reaching customers and locations that big stores, fixed at central spots, do not serve.

• Personal touch and flexibility: Direct face-to-face contact, the ability to bargain, and personal familiarity with regular buyers suit the habits of a large section of Indian consumers. Cheap jacks even offer services such as repair of watches, shoes and buckets, adding to their usefulness.

• Serving a distinct market segment: Because large-scale retailers target service-valuing, higher-income customers, itinerant traders and big retailers largely serve different segments, so they compete less directly than it appears — leaving room for the small mobile trader to survive.

A caution. Their goods are not always reliable in quality or price, but the convenience, low cost and doorstep reach keep them going.