Important Functions of Retailers are given below:
1. Providing an Assortment and Breaking Bulk:
A retailer buys in bulk and provides customers in smaller quantities. It also provides customers an assortment rather than one product only.
2. Bridge between Manufacturers and Customers:
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A retailer is a bridge between manufacturers on the one hand and customers on the other. It is the retailers who comes into direct contact with the customers and thus has the best feedback from them for upward communication to the manufacturers. The instructions received from the manufacturers about the use are also passed on to customers only by the retailers.
3. Adds value to Customers:
A retailer adds value to the customer. An online retailer may provide the facility of home shopping. An offline retailer may provide the facility of home delivery. Since most of the retailers of the same kind are located in the same vicinity there is a facility of comparison shopping to the customers.
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Retailers do provide different kinds of facilities to make their shopping experiential – Store hours, Parking access, Shopper- friendliness of store layout, Credit acceptance, Level & caliber of salespeople, Amenities such as gift wrapping, Rest room availability, Employee politeness, Handling special orders, Delivery policies, Time spent at check-out lines, and Customer follow-up. All of these are a few of these facilities that have a strong influence on total retail experience.
4. Creating Utilities:
A retailer creates Time Utility (making product available as and when customers need), Place Utility (making availability where customers can reach), Possession Utility (making things available for sale or hire), and Form Utility (enhancing the marketability of a product by changing its physical characteristics).
5. Innovation through Competition:
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Competition is at its maximum at the retail level. To attract more and more potential customers to buy from them, they go in for maximum innovation, either through providing new choices in terms of products and prices or extending credit facilities and extending other services.