A retail company can be defined as selling products and services to consumers via multiple distribution channels. According to Philip Kotler (renowned marketing author and consultant), retailing involves selling goods or services to customers. Retail shops are business companies that act as distribution channels for the supply of products to customers. Manufacturers sell their items via retailers or wholesalers. The retail company will help in understanding customer demands, develops a variety of useful products, and shows products in a presentable manner to consumers. Retailing is considered the final step in distributing goods for end-user consumption.
What is a Retail Company?
Retail companies sell products and services to consumers for their consumption, use, or enjoyment. Usually, they sell products and services in stores, but some products can be sold online or over mobile and shipped to the buyer. Examples of retail companies include grocery, clothing, drug, supermarkets, convenience stores, etc.
Different Types of Retail Companies
Different types of retail companies specialize in different sales techniques and cater to different types of customers. They each offer different experiences – sometimes offering to buy direct from a manufacturer or offer a range of merchandise. Others are more based on convenience.
- Convenience Store: This is a store in your area that has all the essentials you need on a regular basis. A convenience store is usually a small location with limited products. It may have only 2-3 variants of each product, but you will find this shop almost everywhere. You don’t need to go to the supermarket, check your bags or wait in long queues to buy products. Better to go to a convenience store near your house.
- Drugstore: This is a shop that sells medicine. It has a wide selection of medicines to meet people’s everyday needs. In addition to pharmaceuticals, drug stores provide health and health products, snacks, sunscreen, and water and have a pharmacist who can advise.
- Specialty Store: It focuses on offering customers a specific product type in which it specializes. For instance, a shop offering a selection of women’s clothing, furniture stores, florists, sporting goods stores, and bookstores would be considered a specialty store, given the breadth of products offered to customers.
- Supermarket and Grocery Stores: A supermarket is a retail shop selling food and household products. It is an advanced form of a grocery shop and helps in meeting the demands of domestic consumers. Food items like vegetables, eggs, meat, dairy products, and juices are the most common items. Bulk purchase of products in supermarkets is offered at discounted rates.
- eCommerce Store: It is an online shop that sells products over the Internet. Buyers who cannot find an item in the store will find it online due to their choice of modern platforms. They deliver products from various countries. Well-known examples of eCommerce shops include Alibaba and Amazon.
- Discount Store: It provides a wide variety of products with great discounts to attract consumers’ attention. Discount shops offer good discounts because they purchase items in large quantities from manufacturers at low prices. These shops have low prices and margins and sell large quantities of items. Walmart is the most recognized discount store.
What is a Supply Chain?
A supply chain is a process between suppliers and companies to deliver products to end users. It is how a product or service is provided to customers. Retail companies should understand their supply chain to make sure that they get the right items at the right prices within the right time frame. If something goes wrong in the supply chain, it can increase item price or delivery time.
A basic supply chain looks something like this from start to finish:
- Manufacturer & Wholesaler: Manufacturers have goods from raw materials using labor and machines. Once production is done, wholesalers buy the products and sell them to retail companies. Wholesalers sell goods in large quantities to retail companies at lower prices.
- Retailer (also called Merchant): Retailers buy items from wholesalers or manufacturers. From there, they would sell those items in small amounts to end users.
- Consumer (end-user): Buys products from the retailer in small amounts to meet demand.
What are the Legal Aspects of a Retail Company?
What are the legal aspects of a retail company you must consider before setting up one? Here are a few examples:
- Find out what you can import and sell in your business: Selling products your customers can’t find anywhere else in the U.S. is a great concept. Offering these products will attract a lot of customers to your business. However, you should know which items can be legally imported and which cannot before you import. By doing this, you will not get into legal trouble later.
- Find out what you can sell in your area: Before opening a retail store, it is important to understand what products you can offer. Some items may require approval before you can sell them. It will be easier for you to do business in the community if you know what you are allowed to sell and what you are not allowed to sell.
- Know the business rules in a community: If you’ve recently moved to a place like Texas, it’s quite important. You must comply with the specific company laws that each state has to offer. If you know and follow these laws, you will not have any problems with the community’s members.
List of Retail Companies in the United States
The following is a list of retail companies in the United States:
1. Walmart Inc.
The biggest giant in today’s retail enterprise is Walmart Inc. This is a global company in the retail sector and is in control of many warehouses and department stores around the world. It works under different names in different countries. It is the world’s largest retail chain and also the largest company in revenue. It employs more than 2 million people, making it the largest private employer.
2. Amazon.com Inc.
Amazon.com Inc is an online retailer and web service company. It offers apparel, auto and industrial goods, books, music, electronics, grocery, sports, sporting goods, beauty and health products, toys, jewelry, baby and children’s products, movies, appliances, and other related products. Also, it provides related support services, like online home delivery and shipping, cloud web hosting, and other services. Amazon offers these products for sale online and on its own physical platforms. Many other parties also offer their products using these channels.
3. Costco Wholesale Corporation
Costco Wholesale Corporation uses a network of membership warehouses where it offers discounted prices to businesses and individuals who belong to particular employee groups on a variety of name-brand products as well as its own Kirkland Signature brand. The membership warehouse-club idea first appeared in the early 1980s and quickly grew into a large industry that penetrated overseas markets. Costco is the largest and most successful network of its kind, with 360 warehouses in the U.S., Mexico, Canada, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, and the U.K.
4. Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc.
Walgreens is a health and beauty retail company with a pharmacy. There are two sections, namely International and United States. Through its retail drug stores, the U.S. sector sells a variety of retail goods, such as consumables, general products, wellness, health, and beauty products. Moreover, it offers mail services and central specialty pharmacy services. In the U.S., the company runs under the Walgreens and Duane Reade brands. Through its optical practices, pharmacy-based health and beauty retail locations, and boot.com, as well as a built-in mobile application, the international sector distributes prescription medications, personal care, beauty, health and wellness, and other customer goods.
5. The Kroger Company
Kroger is an in-store and online grocery retail company. It focuses on producing and distributing food via supermarkets. Across the country, it serves supermarkets, marketplaces, multi-department stores, drug stores, and jewelry shops. Pharmacy, general products, and organic and natural food departments are all included in its product line. Also, it offers pet stores and premium perishable items like fresh seafood and organic foods, electronics, home decor, toys, clothing, and outdoor living goods, as well as pet supplies.
Source :- https://consultwiki.com/blog/must-know-facts-about-retail-companies
