An Exploration of the impact of direct sales vs retail sales on the buying behavior of consumers

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to gain an in-depth understanding of how retail sales and direct sales can have an impact on the buying behavior of consumers from the perspective of the seller in an organizational context of Company X, with reference to how it benefits or impedes an organizations sales. There are both advantages and disadvantages of perusing retail and direct sales strategies as well as components that need to be considered when selecting whether to implement retail or direct methods of selling to promote the brand image in a favorable manner. What is currently known is that when looking at both retail and direct sales one may see that both have evolved immensely and so have their consumers, consumers are a lot more informed on products and brands due to the web and social media. This forces both retail and direct selling to adapt and grow with their consumers in order to remain successful and grow. Consumers may have a certain preference when it comes to the type of selling and how they react to it, all the way from their thought process to their buying behavior consumers are constantly changing. What is currently not known when looking at direct or retail forms of selling it is difficult to analyze which form of selling is more effect without fully understanding how each effects the buying behavior of consumers, however this can only be done through extensive research which needs to be gathered and analyzed. Consumers have evolved extensively and so it is vital that companies know exactly how to best approach their target market and make use of retail or direct sales with regards to their product in order to make a profit and remain current. In order to get the best understanding of the topic one will need to go in depth into the theoretical approaches related to the impact of direct sales vs retail sales on the buying behavior of consumers with regards to Company X by using concepts and previous literature gather from academic resources and other resources available. The objective of the research below is to answer the research question what is the impact of direct and retail sales on the buying behavior of consumers with regards to Company X and achieve the objectives with regards to the topic being studied, because the study is an explorative in nature it will be a qualitative study and not a quantitative study to stay narrower and not go to broad in the category that is retail and direct sales.