Retail Trade

Retail trade is the business of selling goods or services to end user consumers and shoppers. Retail has a long history as an industry, dating back to before the origin of money itself. Retailers often provide goods such as food staples, clothing, or furniture, but can also provide personal services such as hair grooming or nail manicuring. Retailers will rarely produce the goods for sale, but will instead rely on channels of wholesale distribution.

Most modern retailers will specialize in a given product, or group of products, or tight group of services, for example, a deli and cheese shop, or a hair salon.

Retail trade is often done via a physical “bricks and mortar” locations. These could be a street-front shop, a specialty retail plaza, or a large indoor mall or “big box” store. Businesses could be independently owned, or large chain stores. Of course, increasingly, retail sales are completed online, with all large companies having an online store, and with many small independent stores leveraging platforms such as ebay, Shopify, or Amazon. Support services may also include offering of credit, delivery of goods, consumer advice and product or service selection.