Type of wholesaler.
Wholesale refers to all kinds of trade activities that sell goods for resale, further production and processing or other commercial purposes. Wholesale in a broad sense includes all acts of selling goods or services to any buyer except the final consumer. Here, only the wholesale business is limited to companies that focus on wholesale business, and those companies that specialize in buying and selling a large number of goods between industrial and commercial enterprises and other organizational markets are called wholesalers.
Wholesalers are in the middle stage of the circulation process. They buy a lot of goods from manufacturers (and also from other wholesalers) and then sell them to retailers, manufacturers or other wholesalers. Its main functions are centralization (acquisition and warehousing), balance (allocation and sub-packaging), diffusion (sales and transportation), service (financing service, information service, management service, consulting service and promotion service) and taking risks.
There are many types of wholesalers, and their degree is closely related to the development level of market economy in this country (region). The types of wholesalers can be divided into many types from different angles, and the internationally accepted classification is based on whether they have the ownership of goods. According to the ownership of goods, wholesalers can be divided into independent wholesalers and agent wholesalers.
1) Independent wholesaler
Independent wholesalers, also known as "merchant wholesalers" or "commercial wholesalers", refer to those wholesalers who first buy the ownership of the goods they distribute and then sell them. Independent wholesaler is the most important type of wholesaler. According to the items they provide services in marketing, they are divided into full-service wholesalers and limited-service wholesalers.
(1) full-service wholesaler. Refers to wholesalers who provide almost all wholesale services. They have fixed institutions, facilities and personnel, and they have inventory on hand, which can provide services such as credit, delivery and assistance in management. According to the different service scope, it can be divided into three types:
① Comprehensive wholesaler. This kind of wholesaler sells a wide range of products, involving different industries and specifications, mainly for retailers. Products usually include daily necessities, hardware and household appliances, stationery, health care products, etc.
② Professional wholesalers. This wholesaler only sells products of a certain industry. Such as hardware wholesalers, grocery wholesalers, pharmaceutical wholesalers, etc.
③ Specialty wholesalers. This wholesaler only distributes some products of a certain product line. For example, frozen food wholesalers in the food industry and button wholesalers in the clothing industry.
(2) Limited service wholesalers. Refers to those wholesalers who only provide a small amount of wholesale services. Such wholesalers are generally small in scale and mainly serve retailers with small purchases. Specific forms mainly include the following:
① Cash-and-carry wholesalers. This wholesaler distributes a small number of fast-moving products, mainly serving small retail stores. Buyers must buy in cash and bring their own means of transport to transport the goods away.
② Freight wholesalers. Wholesalers who mainly provide sales and delivery functions. They mainly sell perishable goods such as milk, bread and snacks. They send goods to grocery stores, supermarkets, restaurants, etc. Take a bus every day, usually in cash.
③ Mail-order wholesalers. This kind of wholesaler sends the product catalogue to customers such as retail stores, enterprises and institutions, and then mails the products or delivers them to your door after receiving the order. Their main customers are shops far from the city center. The products distributed are cosmetics, specialty foods and so on.
2) act as a wholesaler
An agent wholesaler refers to a wholesaler who is entrusted by the producer to engage in commodity marketing business, but does not obtain commodity ownership. Its main function is to provide trading services for buyers and sellers and charge a certain percentage of commission as a reward. The main types of agent wholesalers are:
(1) agent. Agents can be wholesalers or retailers. As wholesalers, agents mainly have the following types:
① Manufacturer's agent. This kind of agent sells complementary products on behalf of two or more manufacturers. They signed agency agreements with various manufacturers, including pricing policy, sales area, order processing procedures, delivery service, commission ratio and various guarantees. This is a wholesale form adopted by small companies that want to expand their exports but are understaffed or large companies that want to use agents to open up new markets.
② Sales agent. This kind of agent is entrusted by the manufacturer to sell all the products it produces. They play the role of producers' sales department, so they have a great influence on the sales price and trading conditions. Sales agents are generally not subject to geographical restrictions. This is the wholesale form adopted by those manufacturers whose products cannot be sold.
(2) brokers. The main function is to build a bridge between buyers and sellers and help to reach a deal. They charge customers a certain commission, but they don't own inventory, participate in financing and take no risks. Brokers are more active in the real estate and securities markets.
2. Marketing decisions of wholesalers
Wholesalers' marketing decisions are mainly embodied in six aspects, namely, target market decision, business scope decision, commodity purchase decision, sales price decision, promotion combination decision and sales location decision.
(1) target market decision
Like manufacturers, wholesalers can't serve everyone. Therefore, in marketing activities, we must first determine our target market. Because wholesalers serve retailers, manufacturers and other wholesalers, the demand characteristics of these buyers must be considered when choosing the target market; At the same time, because the service target of wholesalers belongs to intermediate consumption, the requirements of final consumers should be considered when choosing the target market. This way. Wholesalers should adopt various standards when making target market decisions, such as serving large buyers or small and medium-sized buyers according to the size of buyers; According to the geographical distribution of buyers, only local enterprises can be served, and local and foreign enterprises can also be served at the same time; According to the needs of buyers, it can serve both comprehensive buyers and professional buyers; Wait a minute.
Wholesalers should not only determine the customer groups they serve, but also find profitable customers within the customer groups, and establish good relationships with such customers to ensure the marketing benefits of enterprises. At the same time, you can also establish voluntary chain stores with small and medium-sized retailers you serve to expand product sales.
(2) business scope decision
Business scope decision refers to deciding the variety, specification and quantity of products and the services provided. From the requirements of retailers, it is always hoped that wholesalers can supply all the varieties they need, so that they can buy all the goods at one time in a wholesale station, thus reducing the purchase cost. But from the wholesaler's point of view, it is very difficult. On the one hand, it is difficult to fully meet the funds, and there will be some difficulties in warehousing equipment and supply; On the other hand, even if the inventory is really sufficient. Ensure timely delivery, enterprises will also lose profits because of excessive inventory. Therefore, wholesalers must carefully study how many product lines to operate when making decisions. In order to ensure profit income and meet the needs of buyers, wholesalers usually adopt "ABC management method" when making decisions, that is, the products to be operated are divided into three categories: A, B and C, in which A represents the most profitable variety, B represents the most profitable variety and C represents the least profitable variety, and the profits of enterprises are guaranteed by controlling the inventory levels of different varieties.
Wholesalers should also consider the number of service items when deciding the business scope. Service is very important for establishing a good relationship with customers, so it is necessary to decide which service items should be developed and which should be abandoned or charged. Here, the premise of decision-making is to find the special service combination that customers value.
(3) commodity purchase decision
Wholesalers' purchasing decisions mainly include purchase, purchase channels and inventory.
The core of the decision to buy goods is that the goods purchased should be marketable. Marketable goods usually refer to those high-quality products, brand-name products and varieties suitable for the requirements of the place of sale. At the same time, when purchasing goods, we should consider the life cycle stage of the product. If the product is depressed, don't buy a lot of high-quality products, so as not to cause a backlog.
Different purchase channels directly affect the price of products. There are two channels for wholesalers to purchase goods, one is from production enterprises, and the other is from other wholesalers. The purchase price of the former is lower than that of the latter. Therefore. We should try to purchase goods directly from the production enterprises.
In order to ensure that retailers can meet the supply when they need goods, wholesalers must have a certain amount of storage, but this kind of storage is not unlimited, and too much storage will occupy a lot of money, which is not good for enterprises. Therefore, it is necessary to determine a reasonable inventory to meet the supply without creating a backlog.
(4) Sales price decision
The traditional practice of wholesalers in price decision-making is to add a certain percentage of gross profit to the purchase cost of goods, which becomes their own sales price-wholesale price. Because wholesalers want to sell their products to retailers, and retailers will sell them to consumers after increasing their prices, the gross profit increased by wholesalers should not be too high. This way. After deducting various expenses, the average profit rate of wholesalers is usually low and can only be maintained by expanding sales. In recent years, wholesalers are looking for new ways to increase profits: first, win new important customers by cutting the profits of some product lines, thus increasing the purchase volume; The second is to persuade suppliers to give special price reduction concessions in order to win opportunities for suppliers to expand sales.
(5) Promotion combination decision
It has been a long time. Most wholesalers do not attach importance to promotion. They think that promotion is a matter for manufacturers and retailers, because they want to sell their products to thousands of households. The number of their own sales targets is small. So there is no need to do any publicity, as long as the salesman talks with each customer. This way of thinking makes some wholesalers get into trouble in the fierce market competition. Therefore, wholesalers must change their ideas, improve their understanding of promotion and make a good decision on promotion combination.
The decision-making of wholesaler's promotion mix mainly revolves around three aspects:
(1) Overall planning, so as to organically combine various promotion methods and activities. We should design the overall promotion strategy and plan according to the characteristics of the target customers.
(2) Establish a good corporate image, focusing on promoting technology. Because wholesalers handle too many kinds of products. We can't imitate the propaganda methods of manufacturers, so we can only promote enterprises instead of products.
(3) promotion methods should be combined with long and short, and used together. For example, advertising and personnel promotion can be used for a long time, and public relations and business promotion can be used for a short time. The key is to coordinate the propaganda content.
(6) Sales location decision
The location decision of wholesalers is mainly considered from two aspects: beneficial to themselves and beneficial to buyers. From its own point of view, the Mao Lijiao of wholesalers is low and fixed. Therefore, in order to increase profits, it is necessary to reduce costs, which determines that their sales locations are generally located in areas with low rents, taxes and fees, and less investment in storage conditions and office facilities. But from the buyer's point of view, they require convenient purchase, fast order processing, fast delivery and convenient transportation. Wholesalers must coordinate the two. Due to the development of traffic conditions, geographical location is no longer the main factor affecting retailers' purchase, and wholesalers should mainly work hard on sales and office conditions. Therefore, the automation of warehouse transportation and office conditions will be the focus of decision makers.
3. Types of retailers
Retail refers to the activity of selling goods and services directly to the final consumers. All acts of selling goods and services directly to final consumers for personal and non-commercial purposes belong to the category of retail. No matter which institutions are engaged in these activities, no matter how or where goods and services are sold. Commercial organizations whose sales mainly come from retail are called retailers.
Retailers are in the final stage of commodity circulation. They buy goods from manufacturers or wholesalers. Then sell the goods to the final consumers. Its main functions are purchasing, storing, disassembling, repackaging, selling, transmitting information and providing sales services. It is convenient to purchase and promote sales in terms of time, place and method.
With the emergence of new organizational forms, the types of retailers are also increasing. According to marketing methods, it can be divided into retail retailers and non-retail retailers.
(1) Store Sales Retailer
Store-in-store retailers refer to those retailers who have fixed business places for customers to choose goods. At present, most goods in China are sold through store retailers. There are many types of store retailers, which can be divided into full-service retailers, limited-service retailers, self-service retailers and self-service retailers according to the service level. According to the operation characteristics, there are eight main types:
① department store. Mainly engaged in daily necessities, clothing, shoes and hats, food and beverage, stationery, household items and other comprehensive stores. It is characterized by a wide range of business and many service items. Customers can buy most of the goods they need when they go to a store and get good service, so it has become one of the main sales methods adopted in many places in China.
② Professional shops. Specialized stores that sell a certain product category or meet the needs of a specific customer group, such as watch stores and women's products stores. The store is characterized by a small variety of products, but the colors and varieties of products within its business scope are complete. There are many services, and there are good services before, during and after sale.
3 convenience store. A small shop near a residential area. This kind of shops are characterized by long business hours, and the main varieties are convenient commodities with high turnover rate. Because these stores have few facilities, the goods they operate do not need special packaging and only provide limited services, so the prices are slightly lower than or similar to those of department stores.
Four supermarkets. A self-selected retail organization with large scale, low cost, low gross profit and large sales volume. Retail organizations are characterized by large business area, various products, low product prices and long business hours. With complete supporting facilities, customers can choose their own satisfactory products. This retail method is welcomed by a large number of low-income people.
⑤ Warehouse store. A shop with no frills, discounts for customers and a small amount of services. Its characteristics are large business area and few facilities; Located in the urban-rural fringe, the products are selected by the buyers themselves, and the commodity prices are lower than those of other retail stores. This kind of shop is very attractive to buyers who buy in bulk.
6 discount store. A store that sells standard goods at a lower price. Its characteristics are far from the city center and low rent; Less business facilities and low equipment cost; Highlight the sales of national brands. Quality is guaranteed: customers serve themselves in sales, and the sales price is lower than that of traditional stores. This kind of store can attract a large number of distant customers to buy.
⑦ Chain stores. Many retail stores in the same industry form an organic whole according to the principle of unity, in the same Types of shops under commercial image. This is a form of retail organization in which many stores unite. It is characterized by wide distribution and large scale, with at least 10 stores. The sales price of goods is low, and all stores implement unified and standardized management, unified procurement, unified distribution and unified price. Unify service standards and sales policies; Shops are located in places where residents are concentrated, which is convenient for consumers to buy.
According to the property rights of stores, chain stores are divided into three specific forms:
One is a regular chain store. Also known as "direct chain store", it refers to a chain formed by establishing multiple stores under the same capital. The headquarters has complete ownership and management rights for all chain stores, and implements highly unified management, which is lower than other stores with the same service level in price. This is because they operate on a large scale and have low procurement and transportation costs; High-quality personnel and high sales efficiency; Less circulation links, saving circulation costs; Unified promotion, the promotion fee shared by each store is low.
Second, join a chain store. Also known as "contract chain stores" and "franchise chain stores". Refers to the franchisor in the form of contract. A retail organization formed in association with a franchisee. Franchise chain stores are formed on the basis that franchisees have unique products, services or unique management methods, trademarks, patents and proprietary technologies. It is characterized by decentralized ownership and centralized management rights, and has the advantage of formal chain, which is deeply welcomed by franchisees and consumers.
The third is a voluntary chain store. Refers to the independent retail store group led by wholesalers and voluntarily formed by each store. Its characteristics are unified procurement and decentralized sales, thus reducing the sales price.
(8) consumer cooperatives. Retail stores owned by consumers themselves. This kind of retail store is located in the residential area of the community and mainly serves the residents in this area. This kind of shop is characterized by its low selling price.
(2) Retailers without store sales
Retailers without store sales refer to those retailers who have no fixed business premises for customers to choose goods. There are three kinds of retailers without store sales: direct sales, direct sales and automatic sales.
① Direct selling. As a retailer, there are two kinds of direct selling, one is that manufacturers set up sales branches or specialty stores in various places, and the other is pyramid selling. Foreign pyramid schemes are multi-level pyramid schemes, that is, by developing different levels of consumers as pyramid schemes to expand the retail model of commodity sales. The process is: MLM company develops buyers for MLM personnel and spreads product information by word of mouth. Develop new buyers to become pyramid sellers, so as to achieve the purpose of expanding sales.
The remuneration of MLM personnel comes from a certain percentage of discounts on goods sold, and they also get a certain percentage of rewards from the performance of other MLM personnel they have developed. China introduced MLM in the early 1990s, and the State Administration for Industry and Commerce issued "MLM Management Measures" with 1997. Only first-class MLM is allowed, and the products of MLM are mainly health care products, cosmetics and some daily necessities. However, pyramid selling was banned on May 1998+00 because it was not suitable for China's national conditions and there were many problems in its implementation.
② Direct marketing. Direct marketing refers to the marketing method that enterprises use one or more advertising media to introduce products to customers, so that customers have a positive response, thus achieving the purpose of trading.
The specific way is: retailers choose the media that can get the largest order volume to advertise their products, customers can order by letter, telegram, telex or telephone, and operators organize delivery or mailing.
The specific forms of direct marketing are: a. mailing list. Retailers mail catalogues or requests to selected customers, customers order by letter or telephone, and retailers send or send goods. B. direct mail order. After determining the list of potential customers, retailers send advertisements to them, and customers order according to their needs. Telemarketing uses the telephone to sell goods and accept orders. Television marketing. Introduce products to customers through TV advertisements or teletext, and customers order goods by telephone. E. network marketing. Using computer network system to transmit information to customers, customers can place orders at their own network terminals, and retailers deliver goods according to users' requirements.
③ Automatic sales. That is, using money-controlled machines to automatically sell goods. The advantages of automatic sales are long business hours, 24-hour sales and convenient purchase; Automatic service, no need for sales staff. The disadvantage is that vending machines are expensive, so the prices of goods sold with them are higher.
4. Retailers' marketing decisions
Retailers directly deal with consumers and need to do more marketing services, so their marketing decisions are more complicated than wholesalers. It mainly includes the following eight aspects:
(1) target market decision
Target market decision is the most important decision for retailers, and it is also the basis for retailers to make other decisions. Only by identifying and outlining the target market can retailers make decisions on business scope, business characteristics, price, store location, procurement, sales and promotion.
The retailer's target market decision starts from the stage of preparing to build a store. When making investment decisions, it is necessary to decide whether to face high-income, middle-income or low-income people, and whether the goods provided are high-grade, middle-grade or low-grade. Many retailers have no clear target market. They think their market is huge, and they serve all customers who enter the store. None of the results can be really satisfied. So no matter what type of retail store you belong to, you must have a clear service target.
After determining the target market, we should also position the market according to customer requirements and competition. Because the choice of target market focuses on the demand difference of buyers, the market positioning should focus on the situation of competitors. According to the size of the target market and the situation of competitors, we should decide our appropriate positioning.
(2) business scope decision
In order to meet the requirements of target customers, retailers have to make business scope decisions. Retailers' business scope decision is to determine the width, depth and relevance of their product lines.
The business scope of retailers must meet the purchase expectations of target customers. If it is to meet the needs of customers in a certain specialty, then its product line should be deep and narrow. If it meets the needs of mass consumers, its product line should be wide and shallow, with little or no correlation.
In the decision-making of business scope, in addition to variety decision-making, quality, style, packaging, trademark, service and other factors should also be considered. Through the reasonable collocation of the above factors, the purchase demand of customers can be met.
(3) Management characteristic decision-making
Operating characteristics are the sharp weapon for all enterprises to seek development in the fierce market competition. The decision-making of retailers' operating characteristics is mainly manifested through the differences between products and services, store atmosphere and corporate image.
The difference between products and services is the primary factor reflecting the operating characteristics of retailers. The product and service differentiation strategies that retailers can adopt in decision-making are:
(1) is characterized by a unique national or world brand that competitors do not have; ② featuring the store's own brand; (3) The commodities are novel and changeable; (4) Take the lead in launching the latest products; ⑤ Having large-scale and unique sales activities; ⑥ It is characterized by providing customized goods; ⑦ Provide special products with special customer needs; Characterized by providing quality services.
In the above content, different service combinations are the main means to achieve differentiation among stores in non-price competition, and also the main tool to win customers under the buyer's market conditions. So we must make a good service decision. Retail stores have many sales services. A large retail store offering full services can have as many as thirty or forty services. See table 12 for its main services.
Store atmosphere is the second factor that reflects the characteristics of retailers. First of all, the atmosphere of the store is expressed from the capacity and appearance of the store. For example, some stores are luxuriously decorated and some are simple; Secondly, from the layout of the store, for example, some are dark and crowded, and some are bright and spacious; Thirdly, from the music played in the store, the smell in the store, etc. Some sounds are very noisy and smelly, some sounds are very nice and smell very fragrant.
9. The atmosphere of the repair shop is the second factor that reflects the characteristics of retailers. First of all, the atmosphere of the store is expressed from the capacity and appearance of the store. For example, some stores are luxuriously decorated and some are simple; Secondly, from the layout of the store, for example, some are dark and crowded, and some are bright and spacious; Thirdly, from the music played in the store, the smell in the store, etc. Some sounds are very noisy and smelly, some sounds are very nice and smell very fragrant. Different atmosphere will produce different sales effects.
The third factor that reflects the operating characteristics of retailers is the corporate image. Corporate image is a comprehensive reflection of corporate marketing activities, which is manifested by many factors. The performance factors of corporate image of retail stores vary with different types of retail stores. The good corporate image of large retail stores is mainly manifested in the following 10 aspects: ① pleasant atmosphere in the store; ② Convenient shopping in the store (including going upstairs and downstairs, describing the distribution of counters, picking up goods, etc.). ); (3) Providing various services; (4) There are many kinds of goods and complete specifications; (5) high-quality goods, no fakes; 6 the clerk is serious and efficient; ⑦ The clerk is kind, sincere, childlike and helpful; (8) Reasonable commodity prices; Pet-name ruby convenient for other shops; Attending is convenient to go home.
(4) Price decision
For retailers, price is a key positioning factor, which must be determined according to the target market, business scope, business characteristics and competition. Retailers' pricing decisions include determining pricing methods and pricing strategies.
All retailers hope to sell at high prices and expand sales, but it is difficult to do so in practice. Because high-priced goods can only be sold to high-income people, and the number of high-income people is limited, which determines that high prices cannot be sold more. Therefore, retailers should always refer to cost-oriented, demand-oriented and competition-oriented pricing methods when pricing, and make two decisions: high bonus, low sales volume and low bonus and high sales volume. The former is suitable for high-end specialty stores, while the latter is suitable for large-scale comprehensive shopping malls. As for the specific price, it can be further subdivided according to the situation.
Pricing strategy decision mainly focuses on the buyer's psychology and promotion. For example, most consumer goods use odd-numbered price strategies to show their low commodity prices and accurate calculations. In order to promote sales, we can also adopt strategies such as discount price and special price.
(5) store location decision
Another competitive factor for retailers to attract customers is how they choose stores. The location decision of large retailers includes three levels: first, it is necessary to decide which areas of a country to open stores, such as east, west, south, north, middle and northeast; Secondly, it is necessary to decide which cities to open stores in these areas, such as Shenyang and Harbin in the northeast and Chongqing, Chengdu and Kunming in the south. Thirdly, we should decide which area of the city the store is located in, such as the city center, suburbs and so on. For most retailers, the store location decision may only consider the third level.
The most important point in the decision of store location is which blocks or lots of a city to set up stores. Retailers can choose to open stores in the central business district, regional shopping centers, community shopping centers or residential shopping areas of the city.
The Central Business District is the oldest, most congested and concentrated area in the city, such as Wangfujing Street in Beijing. Nanjing Road and Huaihai Road in Shanghai. These areas are all gold business districts with large daily passenger flow, but the cost of opening a store is generally high.
Regional shopping center is a new type of commercial district built according to the regional planning of the city, with a large area. Because it is newly built, the design is reasonable. There are famous big shopping malls, many small shops and many franchise stores. In addition, there are spacious parking lots, restaurants and entertainment facilities, which are increasingly attractive to customers.
Community shopping center is a small centralized business district located near residential areas. With the development of housing construction. Shopping centers serving the community have been formed near various residential areas. There is generally only one big store in the center, and the rest are small stores.
Residential shopping area refers to a group of small shops located in residential areas to buy daily necessities and oil, salt, sauce and vinegar services for residents in this area. This kind of shop mainly meets the urgent needs of local residents.
The above four areas have their own advantages and disadvantages. The central business district and regional shopping centers have a large passenger flow, but the investment requirements for opening stores are high. There are few passengers in other areas, but the requirements for investment are also low. Therefore, retailers must comprehensively weigh and choose the most favorable store location. Four indicators are mainly used to evaluate the sales benefits of shops in different locations: ① the average number of people passing by every day; (2) the proportion of people arriving at the store; (3) the proportion of customers among customers; (4) The average purchase amount of each transaction.
When taking other people's shops as samples for your own investigation, you should exclude those non-geographical factors. For example, the reasons for the slow business of a store may be: ① inconvenient transportation; (2) In the past, fewer people came to the store; Diners just browse and don't shop; 4 customers buy too little at a time. Among them, only the first reason is improper location, and the other three reasons are related to advertising, window display, the quality and price of goods and the sales skills of salespeople.
Retailers should also solve the problem of whether to set up a large store or several small stores in the store location decision. Retailers should set up enough stores in a city to obtain economies of scale in promotion and distribution. The bigger the store, the greater the coverage. However, due to different types of goods, the coverage of different goods varies greatly. For example, cars may attract buyers from the whole city, and clothes can be chosen by customers from more than half of the city, but foods such as bread may only cover a small area. Therefore. The number of stores to be considered must be treated differently.
(6) Purchase decision
Retailers' purchasing decisions include purchasing varieties, purchasing channels, purchasing time, purchasing methods and so on.
(1) The general requirement of purchasing variety decision-making is that the purchased goods should meet the needs of target customers, so as to sell them as soon as possible and speed up capital turnover. But it involves varieties, specifications, quality, styles and so on. , but also consider the trend of consumption and changing trends.
(2) Purchase channel decision refers to choosing the best channel to buy goods. The retailer's purchase channels mainly include production enterprises, wholesalers and professional sales organizations, which are different from each other.