Your Business Room

View Original

C1 Retail Outlets

Unit 16: Visual Merchandising

Department stores are large outlets organised into different departments that sell different categories of products. Typical sections include fashion, sportswear, cosmetics and homeware. Examples include John Lewis and House of Fraser.


Discount stores sell goods at prices below normal retail price. Methods to keep costs low include bulk buying, selling past season stock, 0efficiency in distribution and lowering store costs such as staffing. Examples include Sports Direct and Matalan.

Supermarkets are large self-service stores that sell a wide range of food and household goods that are purchased by most households on a regular basis. Supermarket sections include fruit and vegetables, bakery goods, meat and fish, dairy products, confectionary and tinned goods. Many supermarkets now include homewares and clothing. Examples include Tesco, Asda, Morrisons and Sainsburys.

Hypermarkets are large self-service retail stores that combine groceries and homewares found in supermarkets with department stores. They are usually found on the outskirts of towns in order to accommodate car parks. This is due to the large number of purchases usually made. Examples include Tesco Extra and Asda Superstores.


Convenience tobacco newsagents (CTNs) are small retailers where people make impulse purchases of a small number of products. CTNs rely on being situated in convenient locations with good foot traffic to cater for customers who need to make a purchase. Examples include Spar and 711.

‘Pop-up’ shops are temporary retail spaces set up in areas with high foot traffic to sell goods for a short period. This may be to create attention for the launch of a new product or brand, to sell products that have a short product life cycle or to test market a new product without committing to long commercial rental contracts.

Factory outlets are retail outlets where brands sell directly to the consumer. They usually sell damaged or out-of-season stock at discount prices. Factory outlet villages have emerged which consist of multiple factory outlet stores in out-of-town locations with parking to create convenience for customers. Examples include Cheshire Oaks.

https://www.mcarthurglen.com/en/outlets/uk/designer-outlet-cheshire-oaks/ 


Not-for-profit retailers are outlets set up to raise funds for specified causes. A common example is a charity shop where the public can donate items sold to raise funds. Other examples may include shops where staffing consists of people in need and any money made is reinvested. An example of this is the Kindness Matters shop in Hong Kong.

https://www.kindnessmattersshop.org/ 


Farm shops are retail outlets situated on farm premises that sell produce grown or reared on the farm. This may include meat, cheese, milk, eggs and vegetables. Farm shops may offer produce from multiple farms in the areas and may also offer on-site catering through restaurants and tea rooms.

Back to unit 16 homepage