Retailing encompasses the business activities involved in selling goods and services to consumers for their personal, family, or household use. While retailing can be defined as including every sale to the final consumer (ranging from cars to apparel to meals at restaurants), we normally focus on those businesses that sell “merchandise generally without transformation, while rendering services incidental to the sale of merchandise. Retailing today is at an interesting crossroads. On the one hand, retail sales are at their highest point in history. Wal-Mart is now the leading company in the world in terms of sales ahead of ExxonMobil, General Motors, and other manufacturing giants. New technologies are improving retail productivity. There are lots of opportunities to start a new retail business or work for an existing one—and to become a franchisee. Global retailing possibilities abound. On the other hand, retailers face numerous challenges. Many consumers are bored with shopping or do not have much time for it. Some locales have too many stores, and retailers often spur one another into frequent price cutting (and low profit margins). Customer service expectations are high at a time when more retailers offer self-service and automated systems. At the same time, many retailers remain unsure about what to do with the Web; they are still grappling with the emphasis to place on image enhancement, customer information and feedback, and sales transactions. Retail is the sale of goods to end users, not for resale, but for use and consumption by the purchaser. The retail transaction is at the end of the supply chain. Manufacturers sell large quantities of products to retailers, and retailers sell small quantities of those products to consumers. A person who wants to obtain a product for his/her own personal use will usually purchase it at a retail store or from some other retail marketing channel. Thus, retailing refers to the sale of goods or commodities in small quantities sold directly to ultimate consumers.