Kinds of market

A physical market is where buyers meet sellers in person and pay money for goods or services. It's the most common kind:

• weekly markets and haats, with vegetables, essentials and handicrafts on carts
• local markets with shops and street-food vendors
• malls: big multi-storey buildings full of stores

Today buyers and sellers don't have to meet. They can be thousands of kilometres apart, using shopping apps or websites on a phone or computer.

Online you can buy books, clothes, furniture, groceries, and electronics like TVs, phones and laptops, delivered to your door. Manufacturers (people or companies that make goods) can buy inputs (materials used to make things) online too. Even some services, like online classes, need no trip outside.

But not everything can go online. Some services need you in person: a tailor must measure you, a barber must cut your hair. You can't lie at home, tap a button, and get a haircut!

Some markets don't trade goods or services at all, like the share or stock market. You'll learn about it later.

A domestic market is buying and selling within the country. For example, the paper for this book came from paper mills inside India.

An international market crosses borders: sellers export to other countries, and buyers import from them. Some of India's trade:

And what India buys from abroad:

In 2024, India was the world's biggest importer of vegetable oils (palm, sunflower, soybean). Most palm oil comes from Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand.