Convenience Goods, Shopping Goods and Specialty Goods

Convenience Goods

The items which are bought frequently, immediately and with minimum shopping efforts are convenience goods. These include candy, ice-cream, cold drinks, cigarettes, magazines, medicines etc. the shops which keep the convenience goods are called convenience stores. Often convenience goods are non durable.

Some common features:

1. Generally non durable
2. Purchased at convenient locations.
3. Regular and continuous demands
4. Generally small unit of purchase and low prices
5. Most of them are standardized in prices
6. Sales promotion, schemes etc. are very important.

Shopping Goods

Shopping is the activity of examination and selection of the goods or services from retailers with the intent to purchase at that time. The selection & purchasing is a result of a comparison of products based upon their suitability, quality, price, style and so on.. Examples are furniture’s, dresses, electronic items & appliances etc. Most of the shopping goods are durable. Some common features:

1. Generally durable
2. Generally high price in contrast with convenience goods.
3. Comparison is main factor in making purchase decisions.
4. Purchase is generally pre planned
5. Retailers have very important role to play.

Specialty Goods

The specialty goods incur special purchasing efforts and the items posses some special features. The buyers are willing to spend a lot of time & money to buy them in contrast with the shopping goods. The rare arts collections, antiques, prestige brands, style goods, automobiles etc. are the examples. The particular hotel, restaurant, hair salon, spa & resorts are examples of services. The comparison factor is absent in specialty goods. Some common features

1. Limited demand and limited number of buyers
2. Costly products generally
3. Sold at few places
4. Aggressive promotion is required.