Retail and Wholesale
The retail and wholesale sector are diverse and dynamic and have coped with emerging distribution channels and changes in customer buying trends.
Retail
Retail is one of the UK's largest commercial sectors and spans a wide range of activities from the small corner shop to the large chain of high street stores.
The ever-increasing trend of cross-sector retailing means that some of the bigger stores will encompass additional activities, for example bookshops and clothes stores now have restaurant areas.
This sector is still growing and shopping is recognised as one of the main social activities in the UK.
Wholesale
The Wholesale sector covers the intermediate provision of goods from manufacturer to retailer. This brings different problems across the huge range of goods that will move. For instance the movement of food and fruit needs to be time efficient whilst the distribution of clothes needs more storage. The activities that wholesalers engage in can be broken down into three different categories;
- Stockholding - the warehousing of goods for delivery to stores at a later time
- Breaking bulk - wholesalers receive large orders and distribute to a number of retail outlets
- Retail distribution - the facility run by the larger stores as their own wholesale operation to supply their own locations
