Retailers

A retailer sells goods directly to the ultimate consumers, the people who will actually use them, in small quantities. It does not matter how or where the sale is made. A person selling pens on a bus and a farmer selling vegetables by the roadside are retailers just as much as a big store.

Services to manufacturers and wholesalers:

• Help in distribution: retailers bring goods to buyers spread far and wide.
• Personal selling: they explain products to customers face to face.
• Enabling large-scale operations: manufacturers and wholesalers need not sell to thousands of consumers one by one.
• Collecting market information about customers' tastes and needs, and passing it back.
• Help in promotion: displays and local advertising.

Services to consumers:

• Regular availability of products.
• Information about new products.
• Convenience in buying: shops near home, open at handy hours, selling in small amounts.
• Wide selection of goods from many makers.
• After-sales service: home delivery, repairs, spare parts.
• Credit facilities for regular customers.

Traders use standard terms of trade in their documents:

• COD (cash on delivery): the buyer pays when the goods are delivered.
• FOB (free on board) or FOR (free on rail): the seller pays the cost of getting the goods onto the ship or train; the buyer pays from there on.
• CIF (cost, insurance and freight): the price includes the goods, their insurance and the freight to the destination.
• E&OE (errors and omissions excepted): printed on bills to say that mistakes in them can be corrected later.