Glossary

Assortment Selection of merchandise carried by a retailer. It includes both the breadth of product
categories and the variety within each category.
Backward Integration Situation in which manufacturers try to control or own their distributors or
other intermediaries.
Big Box Store Physically large retail establishment, usually part of a chain. The store may sell
general dry goods in which case it is a department store, or may be limited to a particular specialty
(such establishments are often called "category killers") or may also sell groceries, in which case
some countries use the term hypermarket.
Cash and Carry A form of trade in which goods are sold from a wholesale warehouse operated
either on a self-service basis, or on the basis of samples (with the customer selecting from specimen
articles using a manual or computerized ordering system but not serving himself) or a combination
of the two. Customers (retailers, professional users, caterers, institutional buyers, etc.) settle the
invoice on the spot in cash, and carry the goods away themselves.
Catalogue Retailing Retailing in which catalogues are mailed to the customers to choose from.
Category Killer (Power Retailer) Very large specialty store featuring an enormous selection in its
product category and relatively low prices. It draws consumer from wide geographic areas.
Convenience Store Well-located food-oriented retailer that is open long hours and carries a
moderate number of items. It is small with average to above-average prices and average atmosphere
and services.
Cooperatives A farm, business, or other organization that is owned and run jointly by its members,
who share the profits or benefits.
Cooperative Advertising Occurs when manufacturers or wholesalers and their retailers, or two or
more retailers, share the costs of retail advertising.
Department Store Large store with an extensive assortment (width and depth) of goods and
services that has separate departments for purposes of buying, promotion, customer service, and
control.
E-tailware Software for creating online catalogues, ordering forms, credit checking, and similar
services for Web sites that sells goods and services to consumers.
Flea Market Location where may vendors offer a range of products at discount prices in plain
surroundings. Many flea markets are located in non-traditional sites not normally associated with
retailing.
Forward Integration Situation in which manufacturers try to control or own their suppliers.

Franchising Contractual agreement between a franchisor (a manufacturer, a wholesaler, or a

service sponsor) and a retail franchisee, which allows the franchisee to conduct a given form of
business under an established name and according to a given pattern of business.
Hypermarket Combination store pioneered in Europe that blends an economy supermarket with a
discount department store. It is even larger than a supercentre.
Merchandising Activities involved in acquiring particular goods and/or services and making them
available at the places, times and prices and in the quantity to enable a retailer to reach its goals.
Multi-Channel Retailing A distribution approach whereby a retailer sells to consumers through
multiple retail formats (point of contact).
Off- Price Chain Features brand name, apparels and accessories, footwear, linens, fabrics,
cosmetics, and/or house wares and sell them at everyday low prices in an efficient, limited service
environment.
Opportunities Marketplace openings that exists because other retailers have not yet capitalized on
them.
Persuasive Advertising A type of product promotion that attempts to influence a consumer in
favour of a purchasing particular good or service.
Positioning Enables a retailer to devise its strategy in a way that projects an image relative to its
retail category and its competitors, and elicits consumer responses to that image.
Predatory Pricing Involves large retailers that seek to reduce competition by selling goods and
services at very low prices, thus causing small retailers to go out of business.
Pull Strategy when the manufacturer uses advertising and promotion to persuade consumers to ask
intermediaries for the product, thus inducing the intermediaries to order it.
Push Strategy when the manufacturer uses its sales force and trade promotion money to induce
intermediaries to carry, promote, and sell the product to end users.
Retailing Business activities involved in selling goods and services to consumers for their personal,
family or household use.
Retail Formats Store package that the retailer presents to the shopper.
Retail Mix The mix of variables, including location, merchandise, communications, price, services,
physical attributes and personnel, which form the overall strategic marketing components of
retailing.
Retail Vultures (Liquidators) a liquidator buys all the merchandising of the retailer at a price
lower than the wholesale price to protect the brands image and for stock clearance.
Specialty Store Retailer that concentrates on selling one goods or service line.
Supply Chain Logistics aspect of a value delivery chain. It comprises all of the parties that
participate in the retail logistics process: manufacturers, wholesalers, third party specialists, and the
retailer.

Utility An economic term referring to the total satisfaction received from consuming a good or
service.
Value Embodied by the activities and processes that provide a given level of value for the
consumer- from manufacturer, wholesaler and retailer perspectives. From the customers
perspective, it is the perception the shopper has of the value chain.
Value Proposition the whole cluster of benefits the company promises to deliver.
Vertical Integration Situation in which manufacturers try to control or own their suppliers,
distributors or other intermediaries.
Visual Merchandising Proactive, integrated approach to atmospherics taken by a retailer to create
a certain look, property display products, stimulate shopping, and enhance the physical
environment.
Assortment Display: An open or closed display in which a retailer exhibits a wide variety of
merchandise
Assortment Merchandise: Apparel, furniture, autos, and other products for which the retailer must
carry a variety of products in order to give customers a proper selection.
Atmospherics: Reflection of a stores physical characteristics that are used to develop an image
and draw customers. The concept is also applicable to nonstore retailers.
Bottom-Up Space Management Approach: Exists when planning starts at the individual product
level and then proceeds to the category, total store, and overall company levels.
Box(Limited-Line) Store: Food-based discounter that focuses on a small selection of items,
moderate hours of operation (compares with supermarkets), few services, and limited manufacturer
brands.
Business Format Franchising: Arrangement in which the franchise receives assistance in site
location, quality control, accounting, startup practices, management training, and responding to
problems- besides the right to sell goods and services.
Category Management: Merchandising technique that improves productivity. It focuses on
product category results rather than the performance of individual brands or models.
Central Business District (CBD): Hub of retailing in a city. It is synonymous with downtown.
The CBD has the greatest density of office buildings and stores.
Channel of Distribution: All of the businesses and people involved in the physical movement and
transfer of ownership of goods and services from producer to consumer.
Combination Store: Unites supermarket and general merchandise sales in one facility, with
general merchandise typically accounting for 25 to 40 percent of total sales.
Community Shopping Center: Moderate-sized, planned shopping facility with a branch
department store and/or a category killer store, in addition to several small stores. About 20,000 to
100,000 people, who live or work within 10 to 20 minutes of the center, are served by this location.

Depth of Assortment: The variety in any one goods/service category (product line) with which a
retailer is involved.
Destination Store: Retail outlet with a trading area much larger than of a competitor with a less
unique appeal. It offers a better merchandise assortment in its product category (ies), promotes more
extensively, and/or creates a stronger image.
Everyday Low Pricing (EDLP): Version of customary pricing whereby a retailer strives to sell its
goods and services at consistently low prices throughout a selling season.
Flexible Pricing: Strategy that lets consumer bargain over selling prices; those consumers who are
good at bargaining obtain lower prices than those who are not.
Food-Based Superstore: Retailer that is larger and more diversified than a conventional
supermarket but usually smaller and less diversified than a combination store. It caters to
consumers complete grocery needs and offers them the ability to buy fill-in general merchandise.
Gap Analysis: Enables a company to compare its actual performance against its potential
performance and then determine the areas in which it must improve
Image: Represents how a given retailer is perceived by consumers by consumers and others.
Impulse Purchases: Occur when consumers buy products and/or brands they had not planned to
before entering a store, reading a catalog, seeing a TV shopping show, turning to the Web, and so
forth.
Lifestyle Center: An open-air shopping site that typically includes 150,000 to 500,000 square feet
of space dedicated to upscale, well-known specialty store- that is rented to outside party.
National Brands: Produced and controlled by manufacturers. They are usually well known,
supported by manufacturers ads, somewhat pre-sold to consumers, require limited retailer
investment in marketing, and often represent maximum product quality to consumers.
Neighborhood Business District (NBD): Unplanned shopping area that appeals to the convenience
shopping and service needs of a single residential area. The leading retailer is typically a
supermarket or a larger drugstore, and it is situated on the major street(s) of its residential area.
Neighborhood Shopping Center: Planned shopping facility with the largest store being a
supermarket or a drugstore. It serves 3,000 to 50,000 people within a 15-minute drive (usually less
than 10 minutes).
Parasite Store: Outlet that does not create its own traffic and has no real trading area of its own.
Planned Shopping Center: Group of architecturally unified commercial facilities on a site that is
centrally owned or managed, designed and operated as a unit, based on balanced tendency, and
accompanied by parking.