1)What are the different types of retailers?

Answer: Retail industry includes all set of activities to sell the goods or services to the final consumers for personal, non business use. There are three types of retailers:1) Store retailers: operates on a fixed point of sale and depending upon the certain criteria they are divided into Department store, Discount Stores, Specialty Store, Category Killer, Convenience Store, Off-Price Retailer, Warehouse Clubs. 2) Non-store retailers: use various methods such as broadcasting of "infomercials" direct response advertising etc. They are categorized as Direct Selling, Direct Marketing, Automatic Vending and Buying Service. 3)Corporate Organization: achieve economies of scale, greater purchasing power wider brand recognition and better trained employees because of the central buying of the merchandising. They are classified as Corporate Chain Store, Voluntary Chain, Retailer Co-operative, Consumer Co-operative, Franchise's Organization and Merchandising Conglomerate.

2) Retail Categories: Service Level

Retailers attract customers not only with desirable products and affordable prices, but also by offering services that enhance the purchase experience. There are at least three levels of retail service:

Self-Service This service level allows consumers to perform most or all of the services associated with retail purchasing. For some consumers self-service is considered a benefit while others may view it as an inconvenience. Self-service can be seen with: 1) selfselection services, such as online purchasing and vending machine purchases, and 2) selfcheckout services where the consumer may get help selecting the product but they use self-checkout stations to process the purchase including scanning and payment. Assorted-Service The majority of retailers offer some level of service to consumers. Service includes handling the point-of-purchase transaction; product selection assistance; arrange payment plans; offer delivery; and many more. Full-Service The full-service retailer attempts to handle nearly all aspects of the purchase to the point where all the consumer does is select the item they wish to purchase. Retailers that follow a full-price strategy often follow the full-service approach as a way of adding value to a customers purchase.

3) What is Retailing?
Retailing is a distribution channel function where one organization buys products from supplying firms or manufactures the product themselves, and then sells these directly to consumers. A retailer is a reseller (i.e., obtains product from one party in order to sell to another) from which a consumer purchases products. In the US alone there are over 1,100,000 retailers according to the 2002 US Census of Retail Trade. In the majority of retail situations, the organization from which a consumer makes purchases is a reseller of products obtained from others and not the product manufacturer. But as we discussed in the Distribution Decisions tutorial, some manufacturers also operate their own retail outlets in a corporate channel arrangement. While consumers are the retailers buyers, a consumer does not always buy from retailers. For instance, when a consumer purchases from another consumer (e.g., eBay) the consumer purchase would not be classified as a retail purchase. This distinction can get confusing but in the US and other countries the dividing line is whether the one selling to consumers is classified as a business (e.g., legal and tax purposes) or is selling as a hobby without a legal business standing. As a reseller, retailers offer many benefits to suppliers and customers as we discussed in the Distribution Decisions tutorial. For consumers the most important benefits relate to the ability to purchase small quantities of a wide assortment of products at prices that are considered reasonably affordable. For suppliers the most important benefits relate to offering opportunities to reach their target market, build product demand through retail promotions, and provide consumer feedback to the product marketer.

4) Concerns of Retailers
Retailers are faced with many issues as they attempt to be successful. The key issues include:

Customer Satisfaction Retailers know that satisfied customers are loyal customers. Consequently, retailers must develop strategies intended to build relationships that result in customers returning to make more purchases. Ability to Acquire the Right Products A customer will only be satisfied if they can purchase the right products to satisfy their needs. Since a large percentage of retailers do not manufacture their own products, they must seek suppliers who will supply products demanded by customers. Thus, an important objective for retailers is to identify the products customers will demand and negotiate with suppliers to obtain these products. Product Presentation Once obtained products must be presented or merchandised to customers in a way that generates interest. Retail merchandising often requires hiring creative people who understand and can relate to the market. Traffic Building Like any marketer, retailers must use promotional methods to build customer interest. For retailers a key measure of interest is the number of people visiting a retail location or website. Building traffic is accomplished with a variety of promotional techniques such as advertising, including local newspapers or Internet, and specialized promotional activities, such as coupons.

Layout For store-based retailers a stores physical layout is an important component in creating a retail experience that will attract customers. The physical layout is more than just deciding in what part of the store to locate products. For many retailers designing the right shopping atmosphere (e.g., objects, light, sound) can add to the appeal of a store. Layout is also important in the online world where site navigation and usability may be deciding factors in whether of a retail website is successful. Location Where to physically locate a retail store may help or hinder store traffic. Well placed stores with high visibility and easy access, while possibly commanding higher land usage fees, may hold significantly more value than lower cost sites that yield less traffic. Understanding the trade-off between costs and benefits of locations is an important retail decision. Keeping Pace With Technology Technology has invaded all areas of retailing including customer knowledge (e.g., customer relationship management software), product movement (e.g., use of RFID tags for tracking), point-of-purchase (e.g., scanners, kiosks, self-serve checkout), web technologies (e.g., online shopping carts, purchase recommendations) and many more.

5) Ways to Categorize Retailers

There are many ways retailers can be categorized depending on the characteristics being evaluated. For our purposes we will separate retailers based on six factors directly related to major marketing decisions:

Target Markets Served Product Offerings Pricing Structure Promotional Emphasis Distribution Method Service Level

and one operational factor:

Ownership Structure

However, these groups are not meant to be mutually exclusive. In fact, as we will see in some way all retailers can placed into each category.

6) What is the four levels of retail services?

1. Self-service: The cornerstone of all discount stores, self-service allows customers to save money by carrying out their own locate-compare-select process. 2. Self-selection: Customers find their own goods, although they can ask for help. 3. Limited service: These retailers carry more shopping goods, and customers need

more information and assistance. The stores also offer services (such as credit and merchandise-return privileges). 4. Full service: Salespeople are ready to assist in the locate-compare-select process. The high staffing cost, the higher proportion of specialty goods, slower-moving items, and more services, add up to high-cost retailing.

7) Retail Self-Service
Whether for retail POS systems, including self check out and self service kiosks, bill payment or gift registry, depend on NCR. Our versatile self-service kiosk solutions raise the bar for speed, convenience and control in your retail operations. Our retail POS systems are found worldwide in virtually every retail format.

8) Retail and self-service - innovation

In the third part of just-food's briefing on self-service in retail, Glynn Davis looks at two of the key trends driving innovation in the sector - the need to cater for weekly shopping and the rise of mobile phone technology. While much of the activity has been around developing compact units for small basket sizes there has also latterly been a desire to handle the bigger shopping baskets and this has led to the creation of tunnel scanning. US retailer Kroger is testing new tunnel scanning technology from Fujitsu at its store in Hebron in Kentucky. It is the world's first store to be equipped with such technology, which Kroger calls its 'Advantage Checkout'. It is designed for very large baskets (four or five trolleys in volume), and involves shoppers placing their items on the belt before they move under the scanner. Kellett says it has the capacity to read barcodes from any angle and also read letters and potentially take a photograph for optical recognition of goods. Chris Hjelm, chief investment officer at Kroger, has stated: "We are currently evaluating and looking to expand the Advantage Checkout into additional Kroger stores to determine its ultimate potential. The response from both customers and associates has exceeded our expectations." What both enjoy are levels of reading accuracy (98.5%) that reduces the bane of self-service checkouts manual interventions. This is where a store assistant has to intervene as a result of a failure of the device to read a barcode. They can also be called in to deal with customer errors and for age verification when shoppers are purchasing knives and alcohol etcetera.

Other manufacturers are also developing tunnel scanners but are finding there are still issues to be overcome. Both US technology company NCR and retail hardware and software supplier Wincor Nixdorf have stated that the packing/bagging element is the nut that still needs to be cracked. Gordon Klein, product manager at Wincor Nixdorf, says: "The scanner is so fast at 60 articles per minute - the new challenge is packing. We've a new traffic jam in the bagging area and at the moment we're designing a special solution for this challenge." When these issues have been addressed, Klein predicts a great future for the technology. "There will be big demand for these units for heavy, big basket sizes and for those customers who've not used a self scanning gun. They will not replace scan and bag but they will take away some of the traditional lanes [in food stores]." As well as the bagging issue, NCR area industry director for retail and hospitality John Curnow says he is also sceptical of how beneficial to retailers and customers are the 98% scanning rates that are now being claimed by his rivals. "What about the other two per cent?" he asks. A solution could be the use of 3D recognition technology in the scanning process, which has until now been too costly to implement. Fujitsu retail consultant Sarah Kellett, for one, questions whether cost is still an issue and she expects 3D recognition technology to be a feature of selfservice checkouts in the near future. Meanwhile, mobile is undoubtedly opening the doors to customers being more pro-actively engaged in the whole shopping process by enabling them to potentially undertake more selfservice activities. One of the more possible consequences is that customers' own devices will replace the existing hand-held self-scanning units that are currently used by a number of retailers including Casino and Auchan in France, as well as Coop in Switzerland. "In-store scanners will have only a short time-frame because customers will not want to pick up another hand held device in addition to their mobile phone," Ken Duffy, marketing manager for retail store solutions at IBM, says. Nevertheless, he notes that retailers will easily be able to repurpose the scanners for use, say, in the stock room. An example of shoppers using their own mobiles can be seen at the Ahold-owned US chain Stop & Shop where the retailer has worked with Modiv Media to produce an iPhone app that duplicates its existing Scan It! Hand held device (from Motorola) that has been in use for nearly four years and accounts for 10% of its sales. From the customers' own mobile phone it is now possible for them to scan goods, check-out and receive personalised offers at the three trial stores. There is no doubt that this sort of personalisation will play an increasingly big part in customers' shopping journeys in the future.

Personalisation plays a role in a development from US technology company NCR. John Curnow, area industry director for retail and hospitality at NCR, says its personalisation software platform enables self-service devices to recognise a customer's pre-set preferences. For instance, this could involve them highlighting that they are left-handed (making it easier to use a kiosk) and selecting the payment card that they prefer to use (so they dont have to enter their card details each time). These preferences can be set through a retailer's existing loyalty scheme or via the newly introduced NCR Enterprise Preference Manager. These preferences are then recognised on any self-service device that the shopper subsequently uses in the retailers' stores. Kiosks sit comfortably in this personalisation eco-system, which might make life easier for shoppers bearing in mind that such devices can be used for an almost unlimited array of functions. However, Duffy believes kiosks also have a limited shelf-life because shoppers will be performing most kiosk functions on their own mobile devices in the near future. Undoubtedly laying the foundations for more personalisation is the move by Tesco to introduce wi-fi into its stores, which will lead to many imitators. This will link consumers closely with retailers and lead to the interchange of much information between them. Tesco recognises the current desire for customers to scan products in-store and compare prices with other retailers but, rather than potentially losing sales to rivals, Curnow says the UK retailer can instead use it as an opportunity to drive sales. "Why wouldn't a retailer say: 'We realise you are looking at televisions so heres a discount voucher if you buy a set from us today'? It's a brilliant opportunity to utilise the power of [realtime customer] data that wi-fi will bring to retailers," he suggests. Such innovations are merely scratching the surface of what mobile devices will do for selfservice activities in food retailers' stores. They, along with customers' rapid adoption of such devices, will be the big driving forces in changing the way technology influences the relationship between retailers and consumers within the physical store.

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