Types of Retail Trade

You can classify the retailing business on the basis of size as small scale, medium scale and large scales. On the basis of forms of ownership, it may be sole proprietorship, partnership, cooperative society or joint stock company. But the most common way of classifying retailing business is whether they have any fixed place of business or not.

On this basis, there two categories of retailing business:

  1. Itinerant Retailing
  2. Fixed shop Retailing

1. Itinerant Retailing

Itinerant retailing is a type of small-scale retail trade in which retailers move around and sell a variety of items directly to the consumers. They do not have a fixed shop where they can sell. You must have seen them distributing newspapers early in the morning - selling peanuts, bangles, toys etc. in buses and trains; selling fruits and vegetables in your locality using a cart, selling ice-cream, namkeens, etc. on a cycle; selling rice, earthen pots or even carpets by using a cart, etc. You can also see them on pavements in your locality.

In towns and cities we come across different type of itinerant retailers. There are traders who sell their articles on fixed days at different market places. In villages these market places are called "Haat" and in towns or cities they are called "weekly bazars". The itinerant retailing also includes persons selling products from door to door. In most cases, the price of items is not fixed and mostly settled through bargaining. Moreover, in most cases the items sold are not branded products.

2. Fixed Shop Retailing

Here, the retailers sell goods and services from a fixed place known as shop. They do not have to move from place to place to serve their customers. These shops are usually located at market places or commercial areas or near residential localities. 

These shops normally deal with a limited variety of goods. On the basis of the volume of transaction or size of their operation, fixed shop retailing can be classified as:

  1. Small scale fixed shop retailing
  2. Large scale fixed shop retailing