Trade, Industry and Services are important factors for nation economy

 Trade, Industry and Services

Trade is a part of business. It is mainly concerned with buying and selling of goods to the consumers. Trade is divided into two types, they are,

1. Home Trade or Internal Trade

2. Foreign Trade or International Trade

1. Home Trade or Internal Trade: Trade within the country is called home trade. It is carried through Retailers and Wholesalers.

Retail Trade: Retailers carry out their trade at places where consumers live. They buy goods from the wholesalers and sell them to the consumers. They render various services to the consumers. Some of them are they are the last connecting link in the distribution of goods. They supply variety of goods produced by different producers to the consumers. They store the goods to meet the demand of the consumers. They take the risk of loss in business or loss of goods. They grade the goods and supply according to the tastes of the consumers.

They provide credit facilities to the consumers, give more information about the newly available goods in the market and suggest alternative goods for the goods that are not available. Retail trade is carried out in different ways. The important types are:

Permanent shops: They are opened at a fixed place and carry out trade. Itinerant or Mobile Traders: They do not have a fixed place to carry on their trade. The important among them are Hawkers, Peddlers, Street vendors and Market vendors.

Hawkers: They carry goods on Hawker their heads, move from “door to door” and sell their goods. They generally sell only one or two type of goods. e.g. - Vegetables, fruits, flowers etc.

Peddlers: They carry their goods on wheeled carts and sell them to the consumers at their doors. They generally sell more than one type of goods.

Street traders or Footpath seller: They display goods in busy street corners or on pavements and sell them  to the consumers.

Market sellers (shandy sellers): Weekly markets take place at villages or towns once in a week. Different traders take their goods to these markets and sell them to the consumers. Another specialty of these weekly markets is that the surrounding villagers bring the goods which they have grown or produced and sell them, e.g. vegetable, eggs, butter, agricultural implements, blankets etc.., With the money they get, they buy their requirements. At some places yearly fairs take place and here too the traders gather and sell the products to the consumers.

Market sellers (shandy sellers) Wholesale Trade:

Wholesale traders buy goods in large quantity from producers and sell them to the retailers in small quantities. Generally, they deal with one or two types of goods.

1. They help the retailers in many ways such as supplying goods to the retailers in small quantities.

2. They provide credit facility to the retailers, whenever required.

3. They advertise for goods on behalf of the retailers.

4. They supply market trends to the retailers.

5. They do not keep high margin of profit.

6. They render some services to the producers such as market trends, prices and taste of the consumers.

7. Advertise on behalf of the producers.

8. They also provide storage facility for goods.

2. Foreign Trade:

The trade between two countries is called foreign trade. Foreign trade can be classified into three types.

They are Import, Export and Entrepot trade.

a) Import: Import refers to a country buying goods from other countries for its use.

b) Export: Export refers to a country selling its goods to other countries for their use.

c) Entrepot: Entrepot Trade refers to buying of goods from one country with a view to sell it to other countries. Singapore and Middle East countries are the best examples for entrepot trade. Now a days many countries carry out entrepot trade.

Need for Foreign Trade: No country in the world is self-sufficient in all the natural resources. Some countries have plenty of natural resources. Using the available natural resources, they produce more goods than they require, and the excess is exported to other countries. In the same way some countries have deficit of some natural resources and depend on other countries for their requirement and import them. Thus, there is a great need for foreign trade. The need for foreign trade is increasing day by day. It also helps to foster friendship among the countries.