Retail Trade

A retailer is a business enterprise engaged in selling goods and services directly to the ultimate consumers. The retailer normally buys goods in large quantities from wholesalers and sells them in small quantities to final consumers.

The final stage of distribution: Retailing is the branch of business devoted to selling goods and services to ultimate consumers for their personal, non-business use. It is the last link where goods pass from the hands of manufacturers or wholesalers to the final consumers or users.

How and where retailing happens: Goods may be sold in many ways — personally, over the telephone, or through vending machines — and at many places — in a store, at the customer's house, or anywhere else. Examples from daily life include selling ball pens or a book of jokes in a roadways bus, selling cosmetics or detergent door-to-door, or a small farmer selling vegetables at the roadside. Whatever the how or the where, as long as the sale is made directly to the ultimate consumer, it is retailing.

Functions a retailer performs:

• Buys a variety of products from wholesale distributors and others
• Arranges proper storage of goods
• Sells in small quantities to suit customer needs
• Bears business risk
• Grades the products
• Collects market information
• Extends credit to buyers
• Promotes sales through displays, participation in schemes, and so on …