INTRODUCTION – Retailer
Retailing is an important service industry, it is the activity involved in the sale of products to the ultimate consumer.
Retailing institution exists to ensure that the consumers who are the focus of any productive activity receive the goods and services at the right time, right place, right quantity and at the right price. Perhaps, the best known of the marketing institutions is the retailing outlet. This is largely due to the fact that he is the most often encountered. He serves as the final link between the manufacturer and the consumer.
According to Oladele (2009), he described retailing as one of the crucial functions of the marketing process. It consists of the activities involved in the sale of commodities to the ultimate consumer. In other words, the retailer is the last link in the chain of distribution. Producers generally rely on independent retailers to sell their products to ultimate consumers.
The retailer is a specialist in selling and the community looks to him for the supply of the needed goods at a convenient place, in convenient quantities, at reasonable prices and at a time when they are wanted.
The retailer is generally able to ascertain first hand needs and requirements of consumers. He also exercises a considerable influence on their buying decisions.
MEANING OF RETAILING
According to Kevin et al, (2003), they describe retailing as all activities involved in selling, renting, and providing goods and services to ultimate consumers for personal, family, or household use.
By Kotler (2006), he said retailing includes all the activities involved in selling goods or services directly to final consumers for personal use. A retailer or retail store is any business enterprise whose sales volume comes primarily from retailing. Any organization selling to final consumers whether it is a manufacturer, wholesaler, or retailer is doing retailing.
A retailer purchases goods or products in large quantities from manufacturers directly or through a wholesaler, and then sells smaller quantities to the consumer for a profit.
Retailing therefore, involves all activities necessary for the sale of goods and services to the ultimate consumers and users.
DEVELOPMENTAL TRENDS IN RETAILING
At this point, we can summarize the main developments retailers and manufacturers need to take into account in planning competitive strategies.
i. NEW RETAIL FORMS AND COMBINATIONS
Some supermarkets include bank branches. Bookstores feature coffee shops. Gas stations include food stores. Loblaw’s supermarkets have added fitness clubs to their stores. Shopping malls and bus and train stations have peddlers’ carts in their aisles. Retailers are also experimenting with limited – time – only stores called “pop-ups” that let retailers promote brands, reach seasonal shoppers for a few weeks in busy areas, and create buzz. When target launched its line of clothes designed by Isaac Mizrahi, it setup a temporary target store at Rockefeller center in New York City, which sold only the Mizarhi line. The publicity convinced shoppers to make the trek to the target store in Queens, an outer borough of New York city.
ii. GROWTH OF INTER TYPE COMPETITION
Different types of stores – discount stores, catalog showrooms, department stores all compete for the same consumers by carrying the same type of merchandise. Retailers that have helped shoppers to be economically cautions, to simplify their increasingly busy and complicated lives and provide an emotional connection, are the winners in the new retailing landscape of the twenty-first-century. The biggest winders: supercenters, dollar stores, warehouse, clubs and the internet.
iii. COMPETITION BETWEEN STORE-BASED AND NON-STORE-BASED RETAILING
Consumers now receive sales offer through direct – mail letters and catalogs, and over television, computers, and telephones. These non-store-base retailers are taking business away from store-based retailers. Some store-based retailers initially saw online retailing as a definite threat. Home Depot shocked its top vendors (Black and Decker, Stanley tools, etc) by issuing a memo implying that if they started to sell online, home Depot might drop them as suppliers. Now Home Depot is finding it advantageous to work with online retailers. Wal-Mart recently joined with America online (AOL) so that AOL will provide a low-cost internet access service that carries the Wal-Mart brand, and Wal-Mart will promote the service and AOL in its stores and through TV advertising. Stores such as Wal-Mart and Kmart have developed their own web sites, and some online retailers are finding it advantageous to own or manage physical outlets, either retail stores or warehouses.
iv. GROWTH OF GIANT RETAILERS
Through their superior information systems, logistical systems, and buying power, giant retailers are able to deliver good services and immense volume of product at appealing prices to masses of consumers. They are crowding out smaller manufacturers who cannot deliver enough quantity and often dictating to the most powerful manufacturers what to make, how to price and promote, when and how to ship, and even how to improve production and management. Manufacturers need these accounts; otherwise they would lose 10 to 30 percent of the market. Some giant retailers are category killers that concentrate on one product category, such as Toys (Toys “R” Us), home improvement (Home Depot), or office supplies (Staples). Others are supercenters that combine grocery items with a huge selection of non food merchandise (Wal-Mart). The supercenter is becoming the premier retail format in the United States: 63 percent of American Women shopped at supercenters in the last 90 days of 2003 compared to only 32 percent in 2003.
v. DECLINE OF MIDDLE MARKET RETAILERS
Increasingly, the retail market can be characterized as being hourglass or dog-bone shaped. Growth seems to be centered at the tope (with luxury offerings) or at the bottom (with discount pricing). Opportunities are scarce in the middle where retailers such as sear and JC Penney have struggled. Montgomery Ward actually went out of business. Supermarkets, department stores, and drugstores are most at risk or on the brink – since 2000, fewer consumers have shopped these channels weekly, as newer, more relevant places have come to serve their needs. As discount retailers improve their quality and image, consumers have been willing to trade down.
vi. GROWING INVESTMENT IN TECHNOLOGY
Retailers are using computers to produce better forecasts, control inventory cost, order electronically from suppliers, send e-mail between stores, and even sell to consumers within stores. They are adopting checkout scanning systems, electronic funds transfer, electronic data interchange, in-store television, store traffic radar systems and improved merchandise handling systems.
vii. GLOBAL PRESENCE OF MAJOR RETAILERS
Retailers with unique formats and strong brand positioning are increasingly appearing in other countries. US retailers such as MCDonald’s, The Limited, GAP, and Toys “R” US have become globally prominent. Wal-Mart operates over 700 stores abroad. Among foreign-based global retailers in the united state are Britain’s Marks and Spencer, Italy’s Benetton, France’s Carrefour hypermarkets , Sweden’s IKEA home furnishing stores and Japan’s Yaohan supermarkets.
REFERENCES
Aham Anyanwu (2000), Dimensions of Marketing. 2nd Edition. (Owerri: Pascal Publications), p.146.
Ben, Ogedengbe (2007), Small Business Management: A Contemporary Approach. 1stEdition (Kaduna: Data Prints), p. 152.
David Jobber (2009), Principles and Practice of Marketing. 3rd Edition. (New York: McGraw – Hill), p. 745 – 760.
M.O. Ode et al (2011), Fundamental of Marketing Principles and Applications. 6th Edition. (Kaduna: Devine Computers), p. 149-150.
Olajide Oladele (2009), Essentials of Marketing Management. 2nd Edition. (Lagos: Niyak Print and Publications), p. 79.
Philip Kotler, and Kevin Lane Keller (2006), Marketing Management. 12th Edition. (New Delhi: Pearson Prentice Hall), p. 466.
Roger Kevin et al (2003), Marketing. 7thEdition (New York: McGraw-Hill), p. 446 – 449.
William Pride, and Oliver Ferrell. (2008), Marketing. 14th Edition. (Boston: Houghton Miffin Coy), p. 373
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