Term 3 Week 1

Learning Intentions

• Investigate ways in which businesses distribute their products to customers.
• Explore examples of different distribution channels and what affects business's choice of channel. 

• Can describe several ways to distribute products and the factors that affect this choice.
• Can provide examples of different distribution channels.

Place

Distribution (Place) ensures products are available to customers in the right quantity at the right time in the right place. It involves questions like:

• Where do consumers prefer to buy the product?
• How can we ensure the product is available to existing and potential customers?
• How important are speed, timing, cost, availability
• How much stock should we hold? Too little and we run out; too much and we tie up cash (that then cannot be used to pay daily expenses)
  

• The product - is it perishable, technically complex, a convenience item?
• The market - is it geographically spread out, highly competitive?
• The business - is It large, supplying producers or consumers?

• Retailer              sells direct to households / end users / consumers
• Wholesaler        sells products from different manufacturers to retailers; they 'break bulk' by putting large quantities into smaller packages
• Distributor         have a contract to sell a manufacturer's products 
• Agent                a 'go-between' who never owns the product and earns commission eg real estate, insurance, travel.
• Franchisee        allowed to trade under the the manufacturer's name; pays a fee and gives a share of the revenue to the franchisor
• Direct selling     door to door, mail order, sales reps 

Trends in distribution are: 

• more out of town stores and malls (in Europe, malls are closing); 
• fewer independent and more multiple / chain retailers; 
• more franchises (eg Jim's mowing); 
• online shopping and home delivery.
  
• drone and driverless delivery??

Extension activities (Optional)