How Can We Buy?

Commerce is an economic activity whose aim is to offer goods and services to consumers in order that they can acquire them and, in this way, satisfy their necessities.

Nowadays, there are a lot of ways of commerce according to the following criteria:

-Distribution circuit’ organization

->Independent Commerce

Commerce done, in most cases by family companies, in locals of a small dimension where there are few or no employees.

Example: Grocer's

->Integrated Commerce

Commerce in large that gathers the wholesale and retail functions and explore points of sale which has the same insignia, applying common management policies.

Example: Worten

->Associated Commerce

Commerce done by companies that individually maintain their legal independence, liking up in one or more activities in order to obtain vantages and to compete with integrated commerce.

Example: “Cooperativa Grula”

->Franchising

Franchising is a contract in which one company yields to another company, by a payment, the right to provide under its brand in order to sell goods and services.

Example: Benetton

-Strategies of Commercialization

->Traditional Commerce

Retail commerce located close to residential neighborhoods, in shops of small dimension where there are few employees that commercialize food, hygiene products and products for cleaning the house. This type of commerce provides a personalized relationship with customers.

Example: Bakery and Grocer's

->Hypermarket and Supermarket

Shops that work on a free service that could be medium-sized (Supermarket) or big-sized (Hypermarket). In this type of commerce, there are a big variety of products. Those shops are located in urban centers, in their periphery or in shopping centers.

Example: “Continente”

->Shopping Center

It is a large surface where there are shops of different types and one of them works as a pole of attraction for consumers. Those places are located at urban centers, near the main access roads and they have car park.

Example: “Colombo’ Shopping Center”

->Department stores

Shops that sell a big variety of products where sales are organized by department usually coinciding with a floor of the building.

Example: Harrod's and Macy's

->Specialized Commerce

Those shops are specialized in a concrete product (bookshop; shoe shop), in a certain type of costumer our in products that are related to a theme (diy, sports, decoration).

AKI

DECATHLON

IKEA

All of those types of commerce have the same aim: to sell. So, they develop different strategies to compete between all of them and, because of it, exist that differences between them.

Inês Estrelinha