Retailing and Wholesaling
Retailing:
All activities involved in selling goods and services directly to final consumers for their personal, non-business
use. The individual or business involved in selling goods or services to final consumers is called retailer.
Retailers sell product in small quantities with high frequency and to a large population of consumers.
Retailing is essential to any organization as final consumers are not willing to buy directly from manufacturers.
There is a wide range of products which are retailed all over the world, from consumer personal care product,
to electronics, from food and beverage to shopping items, from home furnishing to specialty product all are
sold through retailing. All Service institutions are retailer such as TCS courier, Allied schools, Shoukat Khanum
hospital or Bank Al-falah etc. All businesses are involved in retailing directly or indirectly. Retailing is present in
various forms such as:

Pure retailers such as Al-fateh, Wall-Mart, K-Mart, Sears, Kroger etc

Wholesaler-cum-retailer such as Metro, Macro and Hyperstar

Manufacturer-cum-retailers such as Nisha store, Gul Ahmad Ideas, House of Ittehad, Stylo, Apple store
etc.
Types of Retailers:
Retailer can be classified into various types based on amount of services, Depth and breadth of product line,
relative prices and form of ownership.
Types of Retailer
Amount of service
Depth of Product line
Price
Ownership
 Self-service retailers

Specialty store

Discount stores
 Limited service

Departmental store

Warehouse club
 Retailer cooperatives
 Full service

Supermarket

Off-price retailer
 Franchise Chains

Convenience store

Superstore

Service retailer
o Independent off
price retailer
o Factory outlets
 Corporate Chains
Wholesaling:
All activates directly or indirectly involved in selling goods and services to those buying for resale or business
use. Wholesaling encompasses of 50% of all business activities in any economy. On one hand Wholesalers may
be serving retailing institutions for reselling and on the other hand some wholesalers serve manufacturers for
production etc.
Functions of Wholesaling:
Buying and selling
Product assortment
Promotions
Sub-dividing
Transportation
Warehousing
Financing
Risk bearing
Insurance of goods
Market Information
Types of Wholesalers:
Types of Wholesaler
Merchant Wholesaler
An independently owned business that takes title to
the merchandise (Transfer goods to their ownership)
Agent Wholesaler
An independent business who does not take
title to goods they trade in.

Full service wholesaler

Brokers

Wholesale merchant

Agents (Types)

Industrial distributor
o Manufacturer agent

Limited service wholesaler (Types)
o Selling agent
o Cash and carry wholesaler
o Truck jobbers
o Drop shippers
o Rack jobbers
o Mail order wholesaler
o Purchasing agent