Product Retailing Vs. Service Retailing. MBA Marketing Study Material.

Service section in every economy is as important as a product since it’s been proved that public spent 50% of its earning for all personal use of service. This post describes the differences between product retailing and service retailing.

Product Retailing	Service Retailing
Products are tangible in nature, consequently, overriding factors in product retailing which define the success of product are cost and quality of a product.	Services are intangible in nature, hence factors that overriding in service retailing which describe the success of service are timeliness, behavior and knowledge of service delivery professionals.
As products are physically available the relationship between retailers and customers can be developed by the frequency of consumer’s visit to the outlet or website in case of online business.	In case of service retailing, services are not physically available and cannot be touched and so the relationship between retailers and customers can be developed by only start buying it at least once.
In product retailing, it can be sorted, arranged and organized well.	In service retailing, services are intangible in nature and so cannot be sorted.
Standardization is an important factor which can be maintained in product retailing through a consistency in the production method.	In case of service retailing, standardization cannot be maintained due to the involvement of human being as service delivery professionals.
Transfer of ownership is possible in case of product retailing. Once the product gets purchased by consumers the ownership of the product is transferred automatically from the retailer to the consumer.	Transfer of ownership is not possible in case of service retailing. Consumers are the end users of service hence the ownership will remain with service provider only.
Products are not perishable and can be stored for future use. In product retailing, production is the first process where a product can be invented before storing it.	Services are perishable and cannot be stored for further use. Production and consumption is a simultaneous process in service retailing. Therefore it’s difficult in this case to balance supply and demand in same time.
In a product retailing, customers or the end users are not necessarily present at the time of a transaction.	Here at service section, customers or end users must be physically present at the time of service delivery transaction.