A business can simply be defined as any activity satisfying the needs and wants of humans. Trade is the most important activity carried out by a business among all other activities. In order to make trade easy and efficient, supporting services are essential. The supporting services and trade are mutually related i.e. supporting services facilitate the growth of trade and trade facilitates the growth of supporting services.
Trade
Trade means buying and selling goods and services. In simple terms, trade can be explained as purchasing and selling of products. In trade, the ownership of a good is transferred from one party to another. This transfer occurs based on a monetary value.
Trade has expanded its scope into domestic and international areas. The categories of trade can be depicted as follows.
Domestic trade
Trading activities that occur among different parties within a country are domestic
trade. In domestic trade, payments can be made in the currency used in that country.
Domestic trade occurs in different ways.
1. Retail trade
2. Wholesale trade
Retail trade
Consumers require purchasing various goods and services in order to fulfill their
wants. These goods are sold to them by the retailers. Accordingly, retail trade means
selling goods and services for final consumption.
Example :-
When a student buys the required exercise books from the trading shop, trader has carried out a retail sale.
The person who carries out retail trades is known as a retailer. At present there are
both large and small scale retail shops.
Characteristics of retail trade
# Selling goods and services for final consumption.
# Supplying required goods in required quantities at the required time to consumers.
# Close proximity to consumers - Retail shops are available in any area in order to facilitate consumers to
fulfill their needs. Retail shops are located closely to consumers.
# Providing a variety of goods - Most of the retail shops sell various goods that fulfill the same need. Further
more, at present there are retail shops that sell most of the goods required by
a household.
Importance of retail trade
Retail trade is important as it provides the following services.
# Providing goods and services to consumers to fulfill their daily needs and
wants.
# Introducing new goods to consumers.
# Providing goods on credit at times.
# Supporting to improve the quality of goods by informing consumer
feedback to producers.
Types of retail traders
At present, there are small scale retail traders as well as large scale retail traders.
Depending on their nature they can be categorized as follows.
Fixed large scale retail traders
Examples :-
Supermarkets
Fixed small scale retail traders
Examples :-
Groceries" Beauty salons
Small scale mobile retailers
Examples :-
Retailers selling goods by visiting houses – Peddlers
Retailers selling goods by traveling from fair to fair
Mobile retail stores built on vehicles
