Mass-Market Retailer

What Is a Mass-Market Retailer?

A mass-market retailer, or mass merchandiser, is a company that reasonably sells large amounts of goods that appeal to a wide assortment of consumers. Mass-market retailers are not really known for selling durable, excellent merchandise or for having uncommon customer service, however they truly do meet consumers' needs and needs at reasonable prices.

Instances of mass-market retailers include big-box stores like Target, Sam's Club, and Best Buy, as well as brands can imagine Levi Strauss and Gap, and e-retailers like Amazon. Supermarket, drugstore, mass merchandise, and warehouse chains are undeniably viewed as mass-market retailers.

Understanding Mass-Market Retailers

Mass-market retailing is one of the different subsectors of the retail trade sector in the United States. The retail trade sector is filled by consumer spending and includes both traditional brick-and-mortar retailers and retailers that exist just online.

Mass-market retailers frequently operate on thin profit margins. In order to remain in business, mass-market retailers center around large sales volumes and achieving economies of scale that permit them to charge not exactly smaller retailers.

Mass-market retailers that have physical locations — like Costco, Target, and Walmart — operate stores with a large footprint. According to Costco, the average size of one of their warehouse stores is a sprawling 145,000 square feet. This tremendous amount of physical space permits retailers the opportunity to offer customers an immense assortment of goods. And not just merchandise you'll find in these stores — numerous retailers have expanded to offer services, like in-store drug stores, optometrists, and audiologists.

Incredible inventory control and supply chain management are critical for a mass-market retailer's profitability. Fruitful companies frequently depend on a just-in-time (JIT) inventory strategy, which is a system that guarantees retailers just have sufficient inventory on hand to meet their short-term needs. This enables them to eliminate the need to store large amounts of inventory, which is more efficient and decreases the amount of money tied up in products that aren't selling.

Mass-Market Retailers versus Luxury Retailers

Rather than mass-market merchandisers, luxury retailers sell products targeted at affluent consumers who purchase upscale things. These products will generally be far off, financially, for the average consumer, despite the fact that optimistic consumers might purchase them in any case. Luxury retailers are associated with higher quality and unrivaled customer service. Instances of luxury retailers include Bergdorf Goodman, Barney's, Tiffany, and Saks.

Sales of merchandise through mass-market retailers address a substantial portion of the revenue created from consumer goods and basic food item purchases in the United States. In different countries, there might be a preference for smaller retailers or mom-and-pop stores that serve networks and nearby locales. In any case, as additional urban communities worldwide become all the more thickly populated, mass-market retailers might immediately jump all over the chance to secure themselves in such markets.

In the U.S., mass-market retailers are part of the retail trade industry, which in 2020 has an estimated market size of $5.4 trillion.

Advantages of Mass-Market Retailers

However neighborhood dealers in the United States address a staple part of the economy, mass-market retail chains have secured themselves as the predominant sellers of consumer goods in the country. The concentration of a wide assortment of goods at discount prices in a single location gives convenience to consumers who need to combine various types of purchases into one trip to a store.

Mass-market retailers are frequently able to sell products at lower prices than small, private retailers in view of their bulk buying power. This stems from the volume of goods that mass-market chains travel through their channels compared with privately-owned retailers that may just have one location. Besides, the size of each mass-market retail store can be essentially larger and sell more volume than a privately owned store.

The product mix is one way for mass-market retailers to be competitive with one another. There might be specific brand items that a mass-market retailer sells that are not available through rival stores.

Special Considerations

The dynamics of mass-market retail have developed with online commerce. Big-box retailers continue to dominate in the overall mass-market retail space. In any case, the growth and reach of Amazon, in particular, has constrained brick-and-mortar retail companies to turn out to be more competitive online, also.

Every one of the major retailers have invested vigorously in expanding their online shopping platforms. In response to consumer demand for more convenience, retailers, for example, Walmart and Target offer online ordering and delivery, alongside online ordering combined with in-store or curbside pickup.

Features

• Mass-market retailers sell large amounts of a wide assortment of consumer goods.
• The products are generally cheap and offered at a discount due to the retailer's bulk purchasing power.
• Instances of mass-market retailers include Target, Walmart, and Best Buy.