Classification of Retail Businesses

Retail is the sale of goods, usually in small consumable quantities from a fixed location such a departmental store, a kiosk, or even a boutique. The retail business has grown in bits and bounds to even involve other services such as free delivery. It involves individual purchase or businesses. Over the years, the retail business has been a subject of middlemen. In most cases, they buy goods or products in large quantities from manufacturers or importers, but through wholesalers then selling the same to consumers, usually in small quantities. They are at the end of the supply chain, and quite often bear the pain of high prices. Nevertheless, retail is an important segment in the supply chain without which goods and services will not reach customers.
In a marketplace, there exists various retail shops, each with a unique service. In various parts of the World, the retail business is still dominated by small stores, which are mostly family-owned with a small capital. Retails are mostly classified accordance to their line of operation. These may include food products, hard goods such as appliances and electronics, as well as soft goods such as clothing and fabrics products.
In terms of specialization, there are a number of retail outlets. These include the following:
● Departmental Stores.
These are very large stores which sell a wide range of good goods. They usually have a large assortment of goods with relatively average prices. Besides that, they employ workers, hence provide considerable quality of customer service.
● Discount Stores
These are stores with a wide range of products on offer. Discount stores are more or less focused on price cuts by offering discount to customers. They resemble departmental stores in a manner of ways.
● Supermarkets.
Supermarkets are spread across major towns in most countries. Unlike the first two, supermarkets mostly deal in fats moving consumable products like food. They have price tags and in most cases do