Retailing, Retailing

Purchasers may be individuals or businesses. In commerce, a "retailer" buys goods or products in large quantities from manufacturers or importers, either directly or through a wholesaler, and then sells smaller quantities to the end-user. Retail establishments are often called shops or stores. Retailers are at the end of the supply chain. Manufacturing marketers see the process of retailing as a necessary part of their overall distribution strategy. The term "retailer" is also applied where a service provider services the needs of a large number of individuals, such as a public utility, like electric power.

Shopping streets may be for pedestrians only. Sometimes a shopping street has a partial or full roof to protect customers from precipitation. Online retailing, a type of electronic commerce used for business-to-consumer (B2C) transactions and mail order, are forms of non-shop retailing.

Many shops are part of a chain; a number of similar shops with the same name, selling the same products in different locations. The shops may be owned by one company or there may be a franchising company, that has franchising agreements with the shop owners. Sometimes online retailing replicates existing retail types, such as the online shop or virtual marketplaces used by Amazon.com.

Source: Wikipedia > Retailing