Short notes

1.Category killer is a term used in marketing and strategic management to describe

a product, service, brand, or company that has such a distinct sustainable competitive
advantage thatcompeting firms find it almost impossible to operate profitably in that industry.
The existence of a category killer eliminates almost all market entities, whether real or virtual.
Many existing firms leave the industry, thereby increasing the industry's concentration ratio.

An example of a category killer business is eBay. The online auction site has a near-
monopoly because buyers and sellers naturally gravitate to the largest, most liquid market. As a
result, the site has almost no competition and has forced similar auction sites (like those run
by Yahoo!) into a very small portion of the market. Jupiter Communications has estimated that
eBay earned 90% of all revenues in the consumer-to-consumer auction market in the year 2000.

One of the best examples of a category killer is WAL-MART, their chain has put smaller stores
in a wide range of specialized categories out of business.

2.E-tailing is known by electronic tailing and is used for selling retail goods on the internet. This
term was used in internet in 1995 and is almost an inevitable edition to e-mail, e-business and e-
commerce. E-tailing is similar as business-to-consumer transaction.

An e-tailer is a retailer that primarily uses the Internet as a medium for customers to shop for the
goods or services provided.
Types of e-tailers

Two distinct categories of e-tailers are pure plays and bricks and clicks. A pure play e-tailer uses
the Internet as its primary means of retailing. Examples of pure play e-tailers
are Delland Amazon.com. A brick and click e-tailer uses the Internet to push its goods or service
but also has the traditional physical storefront available to customers. Combining this new type
of retail and the old of a general store is a new type of store which is part of the green
economics movement, promoting ethical consumerism.
Advantages to e-tailing

E-tailers who take part in pure play–type business have the opportunity to turn higher profit
margins, due in part to the fact that many of the overhead expenses associated with a physical
retail space, such as labour, retail space, and inventory, can be significantly alleviated. Pure play
allows for a retailer to be able to reach customers world wide, while still only maintaining one
location for each and every customer to visit, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Disadvantages to e-tailing
Many studies have shown that e-tailers are failing to meet the needs of online customers and that
they generally only have one chance to make a good impression if they want their customers to
return. It is said that the three most important things that e-tailers today must work on to ensure
profitability are "search, support and promotion.

3.Everyday low price ("EDLP") is a pricing strategy promising consumers a low price without
the need to wait for sale price events or comparison shop. EDLP saves retail stores the effort and
expense needed to mark down prices in the store during sale events, and to market these events;
and is believed to generate shopper loyalty.[1] It was noted in 1994 that theWal-Mart retail chain
in America, which follows an EDLP strategy, would buy "feature advertisements" in newspapers
on a monthly basis, while its competitors would advertise 52 weeks per year.[1][2]

Procter & Gamble, Wal-Mart, Food Lion, and Winn-Dixie are firms that have implemented or
championed EDLP.[2]

One 1992 study stated that 26% of American supermarket retailers pursued some form of EDLP,
meaning the other 74% were Hi-Lo promotion-oriented operators.[2]

One 1994 study of an 86-store supermarket grocery chain in the United States concluded that a
10% EDLP price decrease in a category increased sales volume by 3%, while a 10% Hi-Lo price
increase led to a 3% sales decrease; but that because consumer demand at the supermarket did
not respond much to changes in everyday price, an EDLP policy reduced profits by 18%, while
Hi-Lo pricing increased profits by 15%

4.Cross-docking is a practice in logistics of unloading materials from an incoming semi-trailer

truck or rail car and loading these materials directly into outbound trucks, trailers, or rail cars,
with little or no storage in between. This may be done to change type of conveyance, to sort
material intended for different destinations, or to combine material from different origins into
transport vehicles (or containers) with the same, or similar destination.

Cross-Dock operations were first pioneered in the US trucking industry in the 1930s, and have
been in continuous use in LTL (less than truckload) operations ever since. The US Military
began utilizing cross-dock operations in the 1950s. Wal-Mart began utilizing cross-docking in
the retail sector in the late 1980s.

In the LTL trucking industry, cross-docking is done by moving cargo from one transport vehicle
directly into another, with minimal or no warehousing. In retail practice, cross-docking
operations may utilize staging areas where inbound materials are sorted, consolidated, and stored
until the outbound shipment is complete and ready to ship.
5.Visual merchandising is the activity of promoting the sale of goods, especially by their
presentation in retail outlets. This includes combining products, environments, and spaces into a
stimulating and engaging display to encourage the sale of a product or service. It has become
such an important element in retailing that a team effort involving the senior management,
architects, merchandising managers, buyers, the visual merchandising director, designers, and
staff is needed.

6.Signage is any kind of visual graphics created to display information to a particular audience.
This is typically manifested in the form of wayfinding information in places such as streets or
inside/outside of buildings.

Types of signage:

 Oil Stock sign - massive signage for Oil Stockage.

 Street signage - signs stamped out of metal with lettering embossed or printed (or both).
 Neon signage - Electric lighting
 Modular signage - A signage system that consists of pre designed elementary units.
 Custom-made signage - Signs that are built from scratch to suit a specific requirement
presented by a client or a specific project.
 MCFT (Modular Curved Frame Technology) — A contemporary fusion between custom-
made signage and modular sign systems that features a curved profile.
 LED sign (light-emitting diodes technology) — LED lighting