In Class 9 Retail, Subject Code – 401, Unit 1, students learn about the meaning, importance, types, and functions of retailing. This foundational knowledge helps students understand the scope and career opportunities in the retail sector.
Introduction to Retailing Class 9 Unit 1 Notes
Session 1: Basics of Retailing
Concept of retail
Retail is a business deal in which the seller sells small quantities of goods to the customers as per their needs. In easy terms, the function of retailing is to sell products to final consumers by an individual or a firm.
Functions of a retailer
The retailer provides the products and services that the customer needs, in the required quantity, at the right place and time. There are four basic functions of the retailer:
- Breaking bulk into smaller quantities: To reduce the cost of long-distance transportation, producers ship the goods in large quantities; the middlemen, including the retailers, open these large packages and make the product available in much smaller quantities to the consumers, as per the needs.
- Providing product and service information to customers: The retailer or salesperson is an important source of information, especially about the features and workings of the different brands available. The salesperson has knowledge about the product being sold.
- Providing customer services: Retailers provide various services to their customers. These may include free home delivery, gift wrapping, credit facilities, and after-sales services.
- Creating a convenient, comfortable, and pleasant shopping experience for consumers: The aim of the retailer is to provide products required by the consumer conveniently.
- Providing feedback to producers about customer needs: With their firsthandinteraction with the customers, retailers have a good understanding of the customers’ needs.
Essential requirements of retailers
A retailer should:
- Establish the shop in a place where customers are attracted.
- Stock the goods that are needed by the customers.
- competitive in price and quality of goods to be sold.
- financially sound.
- Be cautious of overstocking or understocking of goods.
- Be up-to-date with trends in the market and its position.
- Ensure window and counter displays to promote sales.
- Always be accessible to the customers.
Retailer’s services to the customers
- Selling of goods in little quantities as per their need, at reasonable prices.
- Meeting the consumer demand and making available the required stock.
- Providing the consumer-necessary information for buying goods.
- Guiding replacement conditions for the damages.
- Displaying and demonstrating goods to attract the customers.
- Offering credit facilities to the regular and reliable customers.
Session 2: Organised and Unorganised Retailing
The retail sector is undergoing rapid growth in India. The retail industry is made up of two parts—organised and unorganised retailing.
1. Unorganized Retailing
Unorganised retailing is run as a small family business, like kirana stores. The features of a small family business are:
- Lack of adequate infrastructure
- Lack of modern technology
- Lack of funding
- Lack of skilled manpower
2. Organised Retailing
Organised retailing is running a business in a systematic and scientific manner. Organised retailing has remarkable benefits for consumers and has potential.
for employment generation and overall growth of the country’s GDP. In organised retailing, all the items are kept under a single roof, and a large number of brands and a variety of products are also available in one place.
Difference between organised and unorganised retail
Session 3: Store and Non-store Retailing
In India, a variety of retail stores exist to deliver different products to the end consumers. Retailing can be classified as store and non-store retailing.
Store retailing
When the goods and services are sold from a physical place or store, it is called store retailing. The basis of classification of store retailing is ownership and merchandise offered.
1. On the basis of ownership
- Independent retailer: A person who owns and operates with family members or assistants. He/she has direct contact with the customers. For example, the kirana store.
- Chain retailer or corporate retail chain: When a significant number of outlets are operated by a single owner, it is called a retail chain. For example, Reliance, Bata, Louis Philippe, Food World, etc.
- Franchising: A franchise is a legal contract between a company (franchiser) and the store owner (franchisee), which allows the store owner to conduct business under an established name. For example, McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, etc.
- Consumer cooperatives: A consumer cooperative is a retail store operated by member customers. This type arises largely because of dissatisfied consumers whose needs are not fulfilled by existing retailers. For example, Apna Bazaars in Mumbai, etc.
2. Based on merchandise offered
- Convenience stores: These are small-sized stores located in residential areas. They are open for long hours and offer a limited line of convenience. products like eggs, bread, milk, vegetables, etc.
- Supermarkets: Supermarkets are large retail stores selling a huge variety of consumer products, mostly food, items of household use, and groceries with a low marginal gain.
- Hypermarkets: A hypermarket is a combination of a supermarket and a general merchandise store. They are designed to attract customers from a significantly large area with their low price offers, unique range, and other offers.
- Speciality stores: A store specialising in one type of product (merchandise) or a single line of goods (furniture, jewellery, household items, consumer electronics, sports, domestic appliances, etc.) is termed a speciality store.
- Departmental stores: Departmental stores are those stores offering a variety of goods under a single roof, located in central places or a busy locality. It requires capital to maintain different departments and a huge stock of goods.
- Catalogue showrooms: Catalogue retailers usually specialise in hard goods (houseware, consumer electronics, etc.). A customer visits the showroom and makes his/her choice of the products using the catalogue, mentioning the code number of the item.
Non-store retailing
When the goods and services are sold without a physical place or store, it is called non-store retailing. Non-store retailing adopts a direct relationship with the consumer.
- Direct personal contact: Direct selling is making a face-toface (direct) contact with the end consumer. For example, cosmetics, jewellery, home appliances, educational materials, nutritional products, etc.
- Direct response marketing: The customer becomes aware of the products/services offered through non-personal media such as mail, catalogues, phones; television or the Internet is called direct response marketing. It includes various forms of communication with the consumers like:
- Mail order retailing: In retailing customer database is used to develop target catalogues to customers.
- Television shopping: In this kind of retailing, the product is promoted on television with the product features, price, and guarantee or warranty.
- E-shopping : This format allows the customer to evaluate and purchase comfortably from his/her home through the websites using the Internet. The products are delivered after online payment.
- Telemarketing: Telemarketing is the communication with customers through telephone, to promote products or services. Most companies give their tollfree numbers for customers to contact them. For example, banks selling credit cards, educational institutions seeking admissions.
Differences between store retail and non-store retail
Session 4: Indian and Global Retailers
The Indian population’s purchasing power is increasing with an increase in income, and this has led to an increase in the number of retail outlets.
Some of the leading Indian retail groups/ chains
Some of the leading groups operating in the country are as given below.
- Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Limited (Pantaloons): Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Limited (Pantaloons) mainly deals with clothing, leather products and footwear. It has about 130 retail stores in India.
- Future Retail: Future Retail is the flagship company of Future Group. Future Retail Limited focuses on the large sized, value department stores and small neighbourhood store like Big Bazaar, Big Bazaar GenNext, HyperCity, fbb, Easyday, Foodhall, eZone, Foodworld, WH Smith and Heritage.
- Reliance: Reliance retail is a subsidiary company of Reliance Industries Limited. Founded in 2006 and based in Mumbai, it is the largest retailer in India in terms of revenue. Its retail outlets offer foods, groceries, apparel and footwear, lifestyle and home improvement products, electronic goods.
- Shoppers Stop: Shoppers Stop Limited is a retail company, owned by the K Raheja Corp Group. There are 83 stores across 38 cities in India, with clothing, accessories, handbags, shoes, jewellery, fragrances, cosmetics, health and beauty products, home furnishing and decor products. The Company operates three business segments—Retail operations, Property options and others.
- Trent Limited: Trent is the retail hand of the Tata group. Started in 1998, Trent operates Westside, one of the many growing retail chains in India based in Mumbai, Maharashtra, and Landmark, a bookstore chain with brick and mortar stores in various locations of India.
- V-Mart Retail Limited: V-Mart Retail Limited worked as value-for-money retail segment as the first retail store in Gujarat in 2006, the name was changed to V-Mart Retail Pvt. Limited.
Global retail
Globally, retailing is a huge and highly regulated sector. Global retailers also find opportunities in different countries with strong and emerging markets, such as China and India. Rising GDP growth, burgeoning population, greater disposable income, and increasing consumer spending are combining to drive the Global Retail industry and opportunities for retail segment players.
Top 10 Global Retailers
Two types of retailing exist worldwide:
- physical retailing, done via retail store or retail outlets like Reliance, Big Bazaar, V-Mart, etc.
- e-retailing like Amazon, Snapdeal, Flipkart, etc. Physical and e-retail work in concert. A retail brand’s strong digital presence drives brick and mortar sales and vice versa.
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