MODERN TRENDS IN RETAIL TRADE

Improvement in both economical and technical development have given both to various modern trends in retail trade.

Development in retail trade are:

1. Self – service
2. Branding
3. Credit cards
4. Pre – packaging
5. Credit cards
6. E – retailing electrical

SELF – SERVICE SYSTEM

Is a system where the customers walk round the stores to select whatever goods they want to buy from the shelves and pay to the cashier with or without any assistance from the attendants e.g. departmental stores.

FEATURES OF SELF – SERVICES

1. Provision of shelves and counters – erected and arranged or displayed.
2. Displayed of goods are neatly display on the shelves to encouraged impulse buying.
3. Provision of trolleys and baskets
4. Provision of spaces for movement
5. Price tags for customers to know the price
6. Payment near exists – payment made to the cashier who sit near the exist. They use automatic cash registers to calculate and issue receipt immediately.

ADVANTAGES

1. Increase in sales: beautifully displayed goods attract customers to buy even what they do not budget for. These increase sales.
2. Employment of few sales clerk: Employee sew sales clerk since customers pack what they want by themselves. This reduce overhead cost.
3. Time saving
4. Convenient shopping
5. No interference
6. It attracts customers

DISADVANTAGES

1. Possibility of pilfering: It encourages shop lifting and pilfering customers can steal without being caught.
2. Lack of proper inspection of goods: customers the not have the opportunity to inspect the goods thoroughly because most goods are pre – packed.
3. Less personal attention

BRANDING

Branding means giving name or mark to a product in accordance with the trade mark, which act in order to distinguish it from similar products manufactured by other producers e.g. the name is usually registered and keep other producer away by law from using it e.g. Totota, Sony, Chivita, Pampers.

ADVANTAGES

1. Uniform price
2. Easy recognition
3. Prevention of product adulteration: a producer may brand his product in order to prevent adulteration of goods
4. Ensures high quality
5. Standardization of product: the goods are standardized uniformly packed. Each branded goods has same weight, size and content.
6. It reduces cost of advertising
7. It helps to differentiate products.

DISADVANTAGES

1. High cost on advertising: there is high cost on advertising in order to impress product differentiation in the mind of consumers
2. Creation of false buying: it ensures that customers purchases more than what thy need.
3. It can confuse consumer
4. Leads to high price: goods are sold at high prices.

PRE – PACKING

This is a system where goods are packed, wrapped in containers, weighed and price before arranging them on the shelves in a store e.g. sweets

ADVANTAGES

1. Protection of goods against damages: goods are protected damages
2. A means of advertising
3. Increase in sales: pre-packing and wrapping attract customer
4. Recycling of package: after removing the contents they can be recycled for other purpose.
5. It is easy to handle
6. Pre – packing facilities self – services

DISADVANTAGES

1. Pre-packing products are expensive
2. Information on the pack may be deceitful
3. Actual inspection is not possible

AUTOMATIC VENDING

This is a retail automatically expenses, pre-packed items such as drinks, cigar, coffee, ice – cream in the machine when ever certain amount is inserted into the machine.

ADVANTAGES

1. Useful for selling convenience goods
2. It provides twenty – four hours services
3. There is uniformity in price
4. Customers serve themselves i.e. self-services

DISADVANTAGES

1. High cost of goods because of the machine
2. Low profit: the profit margin is low because it is expensive to operate and maintain
3. Automatic vending encourage pilferage and people can vandalise the machine
4. No provision for refund of balance

CREDIT CARDS

This is a techniques which involves the use of plastic cards to buy goods and services on credit from specified sellers.

ADVANTAGES

1. It encourages credit purchases
2. It is easy to carry the card about

DISADVANTAGES

1. Goods attract high price
2. There is no bargaining i.e. one cannot negotiate the price.
3. Shops owners face the problem of bad debts i.e debts are irrecoverable.

ELECTRONIC RETAILING (E – RETAINLING)

It is a new development in retail business on the internet for direct retail shopping with twenty-four hours global reach e.g. Jumia, OLX, Konga etc.

ADVANTAGES

1. It provides twenty-four hours services
2. It has multi – media prospects
3. It provides information to customers
4. It increase sales

See also

INSURANCE III

INSURANCE II

INSURANCE

INDUSTRIAL COMBINATIONS/INTEGRATION

TRADE ASSOCIATION/CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE