Principles of Marketing, 17/e

Retailing

Author Comment

You already know a lot about retailers. You deal with them every day—store retailers, service retailers, online and mobile ­retailers, and others.

What is retailing? We all know that Costco, Home Depot, Macy’s, and Whole Foods Market are retailers, but so are Amazon.com, the local Hampton Inn, and a doctor seeing patients. Retailing includes all the activities involved in selling products or services directly to final consumers for their personal, nonbusiness use. Many institutions—manufacturers, wholesalers, and retailers—do retailing. But most retailing is done by retailers, businesses whose sales come primarily from retailing. Retailing plays a very important role in most marketing channels. Last year, retailers accounted ...