A retailer is a word that has an English origin and in the original looks like a retailer. This is the name of a specialist or company that is engaged in retail. The latter denotes retail, trade. In more detail, that this is a retailer, and related concepts will be described in the article.
The general concept of retail
The literal translation of the word retail from English is "retail." This is a retail store, outlet. The first thing that can be called an example of illustration of this concept is shops and markets. The oldest form of retail is street retail, which means “street trading”.
If we consider the concept in a broader sense, not only as some kind of retail outlet, then it can be described as the principle in accordance with which trade is organized. This is an option to work with any buyer who can come and freely purchase goods.
Retailer Definition
This is such a company whose activity is retail. Here we are talking about a supermarket, car dealership, clothing store and other facilities.
They are characterized by special trading technologies that are associated with:
- placement of retail trade enterprises in compliance with certain location rules;
- offering a grouped assortment of goods in constant demand;
- the use of commercial equipment;
- using trade marketing;
- optimization of the number of sales staff;
- using customer self-service;
- automation of procurement, storage and accounting of goods;
- improvement of retail space, logistics.
A distinctive feature of a retailer is a wide variety of goods and services that it offers, collecting them in one place. This leads to a reduction in the cost of servicing each client, minimizes costs and, as a result, acts as a factor that increases competitiveness. The use of retail technology makes it possible to sell retail products in such large volumes that are comparable to the volume of wholesale sales.
Network retail
It can be described as a network of one-format stores that are united by one owner, a single logistics and procurement system, and a common product policy. Much less often, a chain of stores is multi-format.
All these methods allow large retailers to achieve even lower levels of costs and offer customers prices for products that are much lower than in other non-network points. Due to the low price and constant availability of the main assortment, as well as the availability of outlets, network retailers manage to attract a large number of consumers and receive significant profits due to large turns.
At the same time, in super- and hypermarkets, large-scale purchases are usually made once a week. Regarding consumer goods, we can say that consumers prefer shopping in small stores closer to home.
Income
In their structure, the first place is occupied by the trade margin on goods that comes from wholesalers in the retail network. But this is by no means the only source of income. There are a number of additional services paid by suppliers of products and bringing tangible income to retailers.
As such are:
- the very possibility of delivering goods to retail;
- the ability to display goods at a specific place in the sales area;
- marketing services.
In addition to the above, the retailers' earnings are the holding of promotion actions, advertising.And also there is a sale or lease of retail space for exhibiting non-core goods on them.
Prospects for retailers in Russia
In recent years, investors have become increasingly interested in retail. Today, the retail market in Russia is among the ten largest in the world and the five largest European counterparts. In terms of investment attractiveness, Russia is in third place among developing countries, and in 2004 occupied a leading position.
The share of food retail trade is stable and amounts to 45% of the total retail sales. The largest Russian retail chains occupy less than 9% in it. And only in Moscow do they cover 35% of the food market. This circumstance indicates the presence of great potential for growth and development.