Retailers in Marketing

8 Key excerpts on "Retailers in Marketing"

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  Consumer Behaviour NQF4 SB

  TVET FIRST

  • Sparrow Consulting(Author)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • Macmillan

    (Publisher)

  They sell supplier-owned products primarily to retailers and other wholesalers for a commission or fee. What is a retailer? By this time, you should be very familiar with this term, so we will just quickly review what you already know. Retailing involves selling merchandise (products) and services to consumers for their personal or family use. Figure 11.2 illustrates the concept of the retailing process: Did you know? Research in the USA has shown that sales by manufacturers’ sales branches and agents accounted for approximately 40 percent of all sales by wholesalers. Broker: This is an agent who facilitates bargains and contracts and acts as a middleman or negotiator between two other parties, usually the producer and the wholesaler or retailer. Agent: This is a person or company acting on behalf of another party, not on their own personal behalf; that is, when they buy something, it is bought in the other party’s name. Commission: A fee for work done which is based on a percentage of the amount that is received or collected or agreed upon. Words & Terms Did you know? ‘Retail’ is derived from the French word, retaillier, which means ‘to cut a piece off or to break bulk’. 111 Module 11: Demonstrate an understanding of wholesalers and retailers Figure 11.2: The retailing process. The range of stores in the retail industry Department stores , like Stuttafords, discount stores , like Hi-Fi Corporation and Game, speciality stores , like Sterns Jewellers and Toys R Us, and supermarkets, like Shoprite Checkers and Pick n Pay, are all examples of retail stores. Service providers, like dentists, hotels, hair salons and online stores, like Amazon.com, are also retailers. It may sometimes be difficult to distinguish exactly what type of business it is, for example: • There are businesses, like Makro, that are both wholesalers and retailers, because they sell to consumers and small retailers.

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  Retailing (RLE Retailing and Distribution)

  Shopping, Society, Space

  • Larry O'Brien, Frank Harris(Authors)
  • 2012(Publication Date)
  • Taylor & Francis

    (Publisher)

  CHAPTER 2

  Marketing and Retailing

  Introduction

  Getting the right goods to the right markets in response to or anticipation of consumer demand is the key function of marketing. Unlike selling which is primarily concerned with the needs of the seller, marketing is primarily concerned with the needs of the buyer. The relationship between buyer and seller is not, however, an entirely random process. Consumers are able to exert a degree of sovereignty over what they buy but producers and sellers can help to fashion that demand by monitoring consumption patterns through time and over space, and in focusing demand on images, lifestyles and products through advertising and special promotions. The processes which link the investigation of the characteristics of the market with production, distribution, sales and after-sales service is termed the ‘marketing channel’.

  The demand for retailing services in Britain is widely distributed geographically and reflects the major patterns of population. However, the shops and factories supplying them are much more focused spatially. There is thus a practical problem in moving goods over space from producers via shops to consumers. The high cost of this process requires careful coordination and planning. To meet a high level of consumer demand the industry needs to ensure the production of goods in bulk, as well as their storage, packaging and transport to the shops. Once produced, bulk has to be broken into quantities which consumers, predominantly households, will be prepared to buy. Each stage in the sequence from raw materials to final product incurs costs which cannot always be passed directly to the consumer. The ability to introduce procedures to save money depends on the goods being handled and the nature of the channel.

  Marketing considered

  Marketing is a discipline in its own right with a considerable literature. For the purposes of this book, we have selected only those aspects which we felt necessary to support our discussion of the development and geographical expression of retailing markets in Britain. The books by, for example, Enis and Cox (1988), Cannon (1986) and Kotler (1980) provide a much more comprehensive treatment of the subject.

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  MKTG

  • Charles Lamb, Joe Hair, Carl McDaniel, , Charles Lamb, Charles Lamb, Joe Hair, Carl McDaniel(Authors)
  • 2020(Publication Date)
  • Cengage Learning EMEA

    (Publisher)

  However, if a book is needed immediately, it will have to be purchased at retail—for example, at the school bookstore—and will include a markup. ● Market characteristics such as how many buyers are in the market and whether they are concentrated in a general location also influence channel design. In a home sale, the buyer and seller are localized in one area, which facilitates the use of a simple agent– broker relationship, whereas mass-manufactured goods such as automobiles may require parts from all over the world and therefore many intermediaries. Retailers are the firms in the channel whose primary function is to sell directly to consumers. A critical role ful- filled by retailers within the marketing channel is that they provide contact efficiency for consumers. Suppose you had to buy your milk at a dairy, your meat at a stockyard, and so forth. You would spend a great deal of time, money, and energy just shopping for just a few groceries. Retailers simplify distribution by reducing the number of transac- tions required by consumers and by making an assortment of goods available in one location. Consider the example illustrated in Exhibit 13.1. Four consumers each want to buy a tablet computer. Without a retail intermediary like Best Buy, tablet manufacturers Samsung, Microsoft, Ap- ple, and Lenovo would each have to make four contacts to reach the four consumers who are in the target market, for a total of 20 transactions. But when Best Buy acts as an intermediary between the producer and consumers, each producer needs to make only one contact, reducing the number to nine transactions. This benefit to customers accrues whether the retailer operates in a physical store location or online. 13-6c Channel Functions Performed by Intermediaries Intermediaries in market- ing channels perform three essential functions that en- able goods to flow between producer and consumer.

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  Commerce

  Made Simple

  • Geoffrey Whitehead(Author)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • Made Simple

    (Publisher)

  Although we are so familiar with the idea of retail trade, there is still a great deal we need to know before we can fully understand the vital part retail traders play in commerce. 3.3 Definition of Retail Trade Retail trade is that part of commerce where goods are sold to the final consumer. 3.4 Persons Engaged in Retail Trade Not all the people engaged in retail trade are traditional retailers per-forming the full functions of a retailer. There are many wholesalers these days who act as retailers by selling goods direct to the consumer. This is a recent development that took place after the Resale Prices Act of 1976 finally ended Resale Price Maintenance (dealt with more fully on page 63). We also have many manufacturers today who sell to the general public by mail order, or even direct from sales departments in factories. The traditional pattern of the retail trade has changed very greatly in the last 20 years. 44 Commerce Among the different types of retail trader we must include: (a) Small-scale retailers operating as sole traders or partnerships. (b) Large-scale retailers operating as limited companies, and often performing wholesaling as well as retailing functions. (c) Co-operative societies, which are often manufacturers, wholesalers, and retailers. (d) Wholesalers selling direct to the consumer by mail order or through discount-trading schemes. (e) Manufacturers selling direct to the consumer either by mail order or to personal callers who live in the locality. 3.5 The Functions of the Retailer The chief functions of a retailer are: (a) To provide a local supply of goods. (b) To break bulk. (c) To serve the public personally. (d) To prepare goods for resale. (e) To arrange hire-purchase finance. (/) To provide after-sales service. (g) To act as a liaison between the consumer and the manufacturer. The chief points about each of these functions will show the retailer's services to the consumer.

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  Start Your Own Retail Business and More

  Brick-and-Mortar Stores, Online, Mail Order, Kiosks

  • Entrepreneur Press(Author)
  • 2011(Publication Date)
  • Entrepreneur Press

    (Publisher)

  Most retailing involves buying merchandise or a service from a manufacturer, wholesaler, agent, importer, or other retailer and selling it to consumers for their per-sonal use. The price charged for the goods or services covers the retailer’s expenses and includes a profit. Each year, this vital sector of our economy accounts for approx-imately two-thirds of all economic activity. The National Retail Federation (NRF)— the world’s largest retail trade association—reported that economic activity generated by retail sales in America reached 1.3 trillion in 2007. Storefront ventures run the gamut from clothing boutiques and health-food stores to hardware stores, coffee shops, bars, laundry mats, convenience stores, and so on. Among the more recent arrivals are shops, day spas, and “pop-up” retailers, which set up shop for only a few days or weeks at a time—like Target’s short-term venture in the Hamptons, Vacant, which sets up shop in various cities for a few weeks, or the holi-day stores you see at Christmas and Halloween—but there are retail shops for just about anything else you can imagine. The NRF says there are more than 1.5 million retail establishments in the United States. Most are store retailers, though there are other types of enterprises—such as electronic commerce (e-tailing), mail order, automatic-merchandising (vending) machines, direct retailing (door-to-door selling), and service providers. The service 3 1 / Introduction to Retail Every Stripe and Shape R etailers continue to redefine and plan new shopping environ-ments to provide customers with a variety of places, prices, and merchandise.

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  Introduction to Business

  • Lawrence J. Gitman, Carl McDaniel, Amit Shah, Monique Reece, Linda Koffel, Bethann Talsma, James C. Hyatt(Authors)
  • 2018(Publication Date)
  • Openstax

    (Publisher)

  We will look first at the entities that make up a distribution channel and then examine the functions that channels serve. Marketing Intermediaries in the Distribution Channel A distribution channel is made up of marketing intermediaries, or organizations that assist in moving goods and services from producers to end users and consumers. Marketing intermediaries are in the middle of the distribution process, between the producer and the end user. The following marketing intermediaries most often appear in the distribution channel: • Agents and brokers: Agents are sales representatives of manufacturers and wholesalers, and brokers are entities that bring buyers and sellers together. Both agents and brokers are usually hired on commission basis by either a buyer or a seller. Agents and brokers are go-betweens whose job is to make deals. They do not own or take possession of goods. • Industrial distributors: Industrial distributors are independent wholesalers that buy related product lines from many manufacturers and sell them to industrial users. They often have a sales force to call on purchasing agents, make deliveries, extend credit, and provide information. Industrial distributors are used in such industries as aircraft manufacturing, mining, and petroleum. • Wholesalers: Wholesalers are firms that sell finished goods to retailers, manufacturers, and institutions (such as schools and hospitals). Historically, their function has been to buy from manufacturers and sell to retailers. • Retailers: Retailers are firms that sell goods to consumers and to industrial users for their own consumption. Chapter 12 Distributing and Promoting Products and Services 461 Exhibit 12.2 A Typical Supply Chain (Attribution: Copyright Rice University, OpenStax, under CC BY 4.0 license.) At the end of the distribution channel are final consumers and industrial users. Industrial users are firms that buy products for internal use or for producing other products or services.

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  Principles of Supply Chain Management

  • Richard E. Crandall, William R. Crandall, Charlie C. Chen(Authors)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • CRC Press

    (Publisher)

  Viewing people as inputs has led retailers to recognize they must be more aware of and responsive to the differences in consumers. As with product variety, people variety is impossible to leave unmanaged. Consequently, retailers attempt to target segments of the total market instead of trying to meet all of the needs of that market. For example, they may decide a certain age group—young adults—as their target market and design 187 Distribution and Retailing their business offerings around that target market. While they may not turn away busi-ness from other groups, their main thrust is only the segment of the market in which they are interested. Transformation Process The transformation process is the step during which the inputs are converted to outputs. For retailers, it is a combination of elements, such as the classic four Ps of marketing, as shown in Figure 6.2. Kotler classifies the first four Ps as tactical—product, price, place, and promotion. He also stresses that businesses must first perform the strategic four Ps of • Probing : Analyzing the marketplace, commonly called market research • Partitioning : Segmentation of markets into clusters • Prioritizing : Ranking the segments on which to concentrate • Positioning : Pinpointing the competitive options in each segment to target (Kotler 1989) While the marketing function plays a major role in the design of the elements shown in Figure 6.2, the operations management function plays an equally important role in the final design and implementation of these elements, especially in the product and place/ distribution elements (Zikmund and d’Amico 1995). Retailers are trying to put more emphasis on providing customer service; to do this, they want their salespeople to have more time available for selling and less time required for moving and modifying merchandise.

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  The Retailing Reader

  • John Dawson, Anne Findlay, Leigh Sparks(Authors)
  • 2020(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  A second process is also at work here, however. In addition to consumer evaluations of retailers and the development of a retailer’s reputation through consumer interactions, retailers can be more proactive. In seeking to attract consumers, retailers aim to differentiate themselves from their competitors. Some retailers may be able to differentiate themselves in terms of the supply of exclusive products or services. Other retailers begin to recognize where they are ‘better’ than the competition and thus have an advantage. This advantage or difference can be built upon, marketed and used to attract consumers. Retailers thus gain a reputation for their operations and how well or not these meet either general or particular consumer needs. They actively promote this reputation or image to attract more consumers and spending and thus to become more profitable and expand.

  When retailers were essentially the passive recipients of products from manufacturers, the ability to differentiate was somewhat constrained and was related mainly to advantages of location and the personality of the independent shopkeeper. With the development of chain-based retailing, so efficiencies in operations and supply could be developed and marketed to the consumer. In modern-day retailing, the retailer has the potential to position themselves away from the competition and to ‘stand’ for something in the consumers’ minds. They thus promote, market and operationalize this image or position in their retail and support activities. Tesco’s ‘Every Little Helps’ or Wal-Mart’s ‘Lowest Prices – Always’ are convenient shorthand for the positions these retailers want consumers to believe. Simply mentioning IKEA, Aldi, Zara, Next, Primark or Dollar General to consumers conjures up an image or position in their minds.

  As retailers have gained power in their channel relationships, so their scope to promote themselves over competitors and manufacturers has increased. The development of common retailer fascias and brands has allowed centralized promotion and advertising by the retailer. Retailers have seen the potential within this for the development of their own retail brands, which have taken an increasing share of spending. Retailer brands are not new, but the modern conceptualization amongst some retailers is far removed from the original ‘name on a product’ trademark or indeed from the ‘private label’ approach, where the true potential of retailer branding has perhaps been less well developed and understood. Retailer brands can go beyond a ‘product label’ by making a statement and positioning the retailer in consumers’ minds. This is perhaps most obvious in high-fashion brands such as Louis Vuitton, Dolce & Gabbana or Alexander McQueen, but is equally apparent in mass-market retailers such as Tesco, where arguably the conceptualization and operationalization of the retailer brand power is even stronger, as a broader brand architecture has been developed.

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