Page 7 - DMGT552_VISUAL_MERCHANDISING

Visual Merchandising

Notes the activities involved in the sale of product and services. Retailing is a high-intensity competition
industry and second largest globally. The reason for its popularity lies in its ability to provide
easier access to a variety of products, freedom of choice, and many services to consumers. The
size of an average retail store varies across countries depending largely on the level of a particular
country’s economic development. The largest retail store in the world is Walmart of USA.
Retailing is the world’s largest private sector contributing to 8% of the GDP and it employs one
sixth of the labour force. The estimated retail trade is expected to be 7 trillion US $. Many
countries have developed only due to retailing and presently we see there is a vast change in the
retail industry. As far as India is concerned it contributes to 14% of our GDP and it is the second
largest sector next to agriculture which provides employment to more number of persons.
Now according to a survey, India is classified in to the fifth most attractive retail destination and
second among the countries in Asia. Worldwide it is ranked as fifth most attractive retail
destination.
In this unit, we will discuss definition and meaning of retailing, retailing formats, relating retail
with customer profile and also will discuss Indian retail Industry.

1.1 Retailing: Definition and Meaning

Retailing is the business activity of selling goods and services to the final consumer. Retailing
can be defined as the business products and services to consumers for their own use. According
to Kotler, “Retailing includes all the activities involved in selling goods or services to the final
consumers for personal, non-business use”.
Retailing is the activity of selling goods and services to last level consumers for their use. It is
concerned with getting goods in their finished state into the hands of customers who are prepared
to pay for the pleasure of eating, wearing or experiencing particular product items. Retailing is
all about the distribution of goods and services because retailers play a key role in the route that
products take after originating from a manufacturer, grower or service-provider to reach the
person who consumes. Retailing is also one of the key elements of a marketing strategy facilitating
the targeting process, making sure that a product reaches particular groups of consumers. It is
important in a marketing strategy to match the arena in which a product is purchased to the
benefits and characteristics of the product itself and its price. Retailers provide a collection of
service benefits to their customers such as being located in convenient places, editing product
ranges according to shopping tasks, and selling goods in quantities that match personal
consumption levels. Ensuring that this process runs smoothly presents a host of managerial
challenges. Retailing is therefore a deceptively simple management process – yet fascinatingly
complex in its detail.

!
Caution The term retailing applies not only to the selling of tangible products like loaves
of bread or pairs of shoes, but also to the selling of service products.

Companies who provide meals, haircuts and aromatherapy sessions are all essentially retailers,
as they sell to the final consumer, and yet customers do not take goods away from these retailers
in a carrier bag. The consumption of the service product coincides with the retailing activity
itself.

From a traditional marketing viewpoint, the retailer is one of several possible organisations
through which goods produced by manufacture flow on their way to their consumer destiny.
These organisations perform various roles by being a member of a distribution channel. For
example, chocolate producer like Cadbury’s will use a number of distribution channels for its

2 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY