Adjacent Words

Retailing definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

RETA'ILING, ppr. Selling in small quantities.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: the activities involved in selling commodities directly to consumers

Merriam Webster's

noun Date: 14th century the activities involved in the selling of goods to ultimate consumers for personal or household consumption

Britannica Concise

Selling of merchandise directly to the consumer. Retailing began several thousand years ago with peddlers hawking their wares at the earliest marketplaces. It is extremely competitive, and the failure rate of retail establishments is relatively high. Price is the most important arena of competition, but other factors include convenience of location, selection and display of merchandise, attractiveness of the establishment, and reputation. The diversity of retailing is evident in the many forms it now takes, incl. vending machines, door-to-door and telephone sales, direct-mail marketing, discount houses, specialty stores, department stores, supermarkets, and consumer cooperatives.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Retail Re*tail", v. t. [imp. & p. p. Retailed;p. pr. & vb. n. Retailing.] [Cf. F. retailler to cut again; pref. re- re + tailler to cut. See Retail, n., Tailor, and cf. Detail.] 1. To sell in small quantities, as by the single yard, pound, gallon, etc.; to sell directly to the consumer; as, to retail cloth or groceries. 2. To sell at second hand. [Obs. or R.] --Pope. 3. To distribute in small portions or at second hand; to tell again or to many (what has been told or done); to report; as, to retail slander. ``To whom I will retail my conquest won.'' --Shak. He is wit's peddler, and retails his wares At wakes and wassails. --Shak.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

Retailing is the activity of selling goods direct to the public, usually in small quantities. Compare wholesaling. (BUSINESS) She spent fourteen years in retailing. N-UNCOUNT: oft N n

Moby Thesaurus

accouterment, agency, armament, barter, bartering, brokerage, buying and selling, catering, chandlery, consumer preference study, consumer research, consumer survey, dealing, direct-mail selling, doing business, endowment, equipment, exchange, finding, fitting out, furnishing, furnishment, give-and-take, hard sell, hawking, high-pressure salesmanship, horse trading, huckstering, interchange, investment, jobbing, logistics, low-pressure salesmanship, mail-order selling, market, market research, marketing, marketing research, merchandising, outfitting, peddling, preparation, procurement, promotion, providing, provision, provisioning, purveyance, reinforcement, replenishment, resupply, retail, sales, sales campaign, sales promotion, salesmanship, selling, sellout, soft sell, subsidization, subsidy, subvention, supply, supplying, swapping, trade, trading, trafficking, victualing, wheeling and dealing, wholesale, wholesaling