International Trade in Services.pdf - DSpace at Khazar University

142 International Trade in Services
Box 5.1: Principal Activities in the Distribution Sector
Wholesale distribution services include warehousing, bonded sites, cold storage, and
associated trucking and other transport facilities.
Retail distribution is predominantly comprised of family businesses and small
outlets. The common types of retail stores include the following:
• Grocery stores: selling mainly fruits and vegetables, but also various other food
and nonfood items.
• Convenience stores: in effect, small grocers stocking a limited line of highconvenience
snack foods and drinks. Some are sited at gasoline stations and also
sell car-related items.
• Supermarkets: self-service stores larger than grocers with various departments
offering a variety of food and household goods.
• Superstores and hypermarkets: extensive retail facilities that carry a wide range of
products, including full lines of grocery and general nonfood items.
• Independents: retailers with a limited number of branches.
• Multiple or chain stores: retailers with more than 10 branches that may be specialty
shops, including shops that sell furniture, clothing, books, and periodicals.
Other descriptions of retail activities cover public markets, cash and carry stores,
discount stores, drugstores, specialty stores, super-centers, DIY (do-it-yourself)
outlets, home improvement outlets, food services, e-commerce, virtual stores,
informal hawkers, and small stands. Nonstore retailers include catalogue, telephone,
and Internet sales; market stalls; door-to-door direct sales, and vending machines.
Services related to wholesale and retail include maintaining inventories, breaking
down bulk for redistribution in smaller lots, assembling selected goods, home
delivery services, and sales promotions.
Commission agents trade as wholesalers on behalf of others (including commodity
brokers) by supplying products, usually owned by the producers, to retailers and
wholesalers or to large customers.
Franchising service suppliers purchase the right to use a business format designed
by a franchisor or to sell certain of a franchisor’s trademarked products or services in
return for a fee or royalty paid to the franchisor. The contract between the franchisor
and franchisee covers the product, the service, and the trademark, as well as the
entire business format.
Source: Authors’ compilation based on data of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development.
reasons consumers in many developing countries lack access to safe and affordable
products.
For most developing countries, the prospective gains from trade in distribution
services are predominantly linked to the inflows of capital, technology, and
efficient supply chain practices stemming from a more open domestic market.
Greater competition in the distribution sector is likely to raise standards and
help modernize distribution practices because market participants are required
to improve their offerings to customers. This, in combination with properly