What is Retail? What are objective of Retail?

The counterpart of shopping is retail: the sale of commodities in small quantities.

Retailing encompasses the business activities involved in selling goods and services to consumers for their personal, family, or household use. It includes every sale to the final consumer.                                                                                                        – Philip Kotler

Retailing is the set of business activities that adds value to the products and services sold to consumers for their personal or family use.                                              – Levy & Weitz

Hence, one can say that retailing is concerned with all the business activities that add value in selling goods or services in small quantities directly to final consumers for their personal, non-business use.

Retail is many processes:

1.      It is supplying to meet demand.

2.      It is creating demand.

3.      It is the business processes of distribution and marketing.

A retailer or retail store is any business enterprise whose sales volume comes primarily from retailing.                                                                                                            – Philip Kotler

            OBJECTIVES OF RETAIL:

1.      Customer Satisfaction: Retailers know that satisfied customers are loyal customers. Consequently, retailers must develop strategies intended to build relationships that result in customers returning to make more purchases.

2.      Acquiring the Right Products: A customer will only be satisfied if they can purchase the right products to satisfy their needs. Since a large Percentage of retailers do not manufacture their own products, they must seek suppliers who will supply products demanded by customers. Thus, an important objective for retailers is to identify the products customers will demand, and negotiate with suppliers to obtain these products.

3.      Product Presentation: Once obtained, products must be presented or merchandised to customers in a way that generates interest. Retail merchandising often requires hiring creative people who understand and can relate to the market.

4.      Traffic Building: Like any marketer, retailers must- use promotional methods to build customer interest. For retailers a key measure of interest is the number of people visiting a retail location or website. Building “traffic” is accomplished with a variety of promotional techniques such as advertising, including local newspapers or Internet, specialized promotional activities, such as coupons.

5.      Layout: For store-based retailers, a store’s physical layout is an important component in creating a retail experience that will attract customers. The physical layout is more than just deciding in what part of store to locate products. For many retailers designing the right shopping atmosphere (e.g., objects, light, and sound) can add to the appeal of a store. Layout is also important in the online world where site navigation and usability may be deciding factors in whether a retail website is successful.

6.      Location: Where to physically locate a retail store may help or hinder tore traffic. Well placed stores with high visibility and easy access, while possibly commanding higher land usage fees, may hold significantly more value than lower cost sites that yield less traffic. Understanding the trade-off between costs and benefits of locations is an important retail decision.

7.      Keeping Pace With Technology: Technology has invaded all areas of retailing including customer knowledge (e.g., customer relationship management software), product movement (e.g., use of RFID tags for tacking), point-of-purchase (e.g., scanners, kiosks, self-serve checkout), web technologies (e.g., online shopping       carts,   purchase recommendations) and many more.