Managing retailing, wholesaling, and logistics

Delivering value -- Chapter 16 -- summary

Retailing includes all the activities involved in selling goods or services directly to final consumers for personal, non-business use. Retailers can be understood in terms of store retailing, non-store retailing, and retail organizations.

Like products, retail store types passed through stages of growth and decline. As existing stores offer more services to remain competitive, costs and prices go up, which opens the door to new retail forms offer a mix of merchandise and services at lower prices.

The major types of retail stores are:
specialty stores
Department stores
supermarkets
convenience stores
discount stores
off-price retailers -- factory outlets, independent off-price retailers, warehouse clubs
superstores
catalog showrooms

Although most goods and services are sold through stores, nonstore retailing has been growing.

The major types of nonstore retailing are:
direct selling
multilevel network marketing
direct marketing -- e-commerce and Internet retailing
automatic vending
buying services

Although many retail stores are independently owned, an increasing number are falling under some form of corporate retailing. Retail organizations achieve many economies of scale, such as greater purchasing power, wider brand recognition, and better trained employees.

The major types of corporate retailing are:
corporate chain stores
voluntary chains
retailer cooperatives
consumer cooperatives
franchise organizations
merchandising conglomerates

Like all marketers, retailers must prepare marketing plans that include decisions on target markets, product assortment and procurement, services and store atmosphere, price, promotion, and place. These decisions must take into account major trends, such as the growth of private labels, new retail forms and combinations, growth of intertype retail competition, competition between store based and nonstore-based retailing, growth of giant retailers, decline of middle market retailers, growing investment in technology, and global presence of major retailers.

Wholesaling includes all the activities involved in selling goods or services to those who buy for resale or business use. Wholesalers can perform functions better and more cost effectively than the manufacturer can. These functions include selling and promoting, buying and assortment building, balk breaking, warehousing, transportation, financing, risk bearing, dissemination of market information, and provision of management services and consulting.

There are four type of wholesalers:
merchant wholesalers
brokers and agents
Manufacturers and retailers sales branches and purchasing offices
miscellaneous wholesalers such as agricultural assemblers and auction companies

Catholic retailers, wholesalers must decide on target markets, product assortment and services, price, permission, and place. The most successful wholesalers are those who adapt their services to meet suppliers and target customers needs.

Producers of physical products and services must decide on marketing logistics -- the best way to store and move goods and services to direct destinations; to coordinate the activities of suppliers, purchasing agents, manufactures, marketers, channel members, and customers. Major gains in a logistical efficiency have come from advances in information technology.