Chapter 10 - Managing Retailing, Wholesaling, and Logistics

 

Any kind of business transaction involves different parties who add values to the product or service at the end of the process. The number of parties will vary based on the industry. In some industries, the producer directly contacts the customer to do the transaction. But in most instances, one more intermediary will take part in the process to add value to the offerings if the producer does not have the possibility to do so. Hence, the role of marketing intermediaries is significant in the process of meeting the producer and the end customer.

 

Marketing intermediaries

• Agents
• Distributors
• Wholesalers
• Retailers

 

In this chapter I mainly focus on the roles of wholesalers and retailers and their future with the development of seamless transactions.

 

Retailers

The duty of the retailer includes all the activities involved in selling goods or services directly to the end customers for their personal, but not for business use. The main transaction ends at this point since the end user comes into play. There are different types of retail shops as follows.

• Supermarkets
• Discount stores
• Specialty stores
• Department stores
• Convenient stores etc.

 

Most of the countries now have mass shopping malls which consist of many retailers. It is very convenient for the customer to shop under one roof to satisfy their needs and want over variety of options available. And it provides a different shopping experience for the customer as well as his/her family. In order to provide goods and services with a memorable shopping experience to the customer, retailers must think of different aspects to create a memorable shopping experience to their customers. However, their goal will be to maximize the profits. Some of the decisions can be mentioned as:

• Target market
• Product assortment
• Store atmosphere
• Prices
• Procurement
• Location etc.

 

With the development of technology, most of the customers prefer seamless transactions, which is very convenient since they can do shopping any time any where they prefer. As a result, the number of customer visits to the stores is declining making the stores idle in the city. If those stores do not move to mass shopping malls, they will be idle in the cities since most of the customers visit those shopping malls.

 

Wholesalers

The activities of a wholesaler include selling goods and services for those who buy them for reselling or business use. Some of those activities include selling and promoting, buying and assortment building, ware housing, transportation, financing etc. They add some value additions to the initial product since the producer is unable to do so or he does not have the capacity to add value to the product. In some instances, wholesalers act as agent to both buyer and seller and assist them to do their transaction. Based on the wholesalers’ functions, there are 3 types of wholesalers available in the market. They are,

Merchant wholesalers

The largest group of wholesalers and provide either full service or limited service to the customers.

 

Brokers and Agents

They have few functions, and they are specialized in either product line or customer type. Brokers help the buyer and seller to come together and assist them in negotiation. On the other hand, agents represent either buyer or seller.

 

Manufactures and retailers’ branches and offices

These types of wholesalers do not take the service of an independent wholesaler and this form includes either buyers or sellers who act as wholesalers by themselves.

 

In any form of transaction, the role of the wholesaler is important because they provide different kinds of services to both buyers and sellers. Even though society is moving towards seamless transactions, still the wholesalers are required.

 

The future of seamless shopping, what will happen to retailers?

We are spending our time in a technologically advanced society where everything is getting automated, and customers are now doing their own shopping without any assistance from a retailer. The seamless shopping concept is getting more popular among younger shoppers since they prefer enjoying the experience of using high-tech devices. Apart from younger generation, most of the professionals prefer this concept because of the convenience since they have busy life schedules. According to my understanding, there can be any other trends for others to select this option. Those reasons are as follows.

• Flexible ordering and pick-ups
• Seamless payments and transactions
• Refilling, reusing and recycling
• Real time proactive intelligence

 

Due to complexed and busy life schedules of individuals, they always seek for convenience and secured ways for their transactions which can be done at any time. Most of the time, customers are reluctant to spend time at retail shops to buy stuff for them, but they prefer roaming in online shopping sites for hours sometimes. The important point is that they do not like to carry cash like early days. Customers use debit or credit cards for their purchases which reduce the risk of carrying cash and the convenience of using them. As a result, there may be less customer visits to physical retail shops and they will be idled in the cities as I mentioned earlier in this chapter.

 

In my opinion, these methods are applicable to Europe and other western countries which are “developed”. But what if we apply this concept to developing countries? It is quite difficult to apply this concept for some areas in some countries due to lack of knowledge and technical developments. Most of the customers in those areas do not believe in technologically advanced devices since they do not have trust in them. Hence, the requirement of the retailer is highly appreciated for those types of customers because they prefer the traditional way of doing shopping. Even though we think that retailers are going to idle, their assistance is needed for those who prefer the traditional way of doing shopping. And from the company point of view, they can get real time customer feedback through retailers because the end users directly contact the retailer, and those customers will share their previous experiences with the retailer. Hence the company can use that valuable information for their future product developments.

 

References

1.      Avgeropoulos, I. (n.d.). Marketing Planning: Managing Retailing, Wholesaling, and Logistics (PPT) Chapter 10 - Managing Retailing, Wholesaling, and Logistics.pptx (sharepoint.com)