Q.What is meant by a retailer?

A retailer is the trader at the very end of the distribution chain who buys goods — generally from a wholesaler, occasionally directly from a producer — and sells them in small quantities directly to the person who will actually use them. Retail trade is this last stage of the chain of distribution: producer to wholesaler to retailer to consumer. What separates a retailer from a wholesaler is not the type of goods handled but the size of the transaction and who the buyer is — a retailer's customer is the final consumer buying for personal use, in small, everyday quantities, while a wholesaler's customer is another trader buying in bulk for resale. This basic idea of a distribution chain, and the retailer's place at its end, underlies the whole of this chapter and is common ground across most Indian commerce curricula, including CBSE Business Studies's treatment of channels of distribution, even though Tamil Nadu's own syllabus and question pattern present it independently.