The economic activity of the state includes many areas, among which retail trade occupies an important place . Therefore, the analysis of retail turnover seems to be a necessary component of strategic planning for economic development.
The most important indicator of the effectiveness of retail is the magnitude of its turnover. This retail turnover represents the total value of goods that were sold to the country's population for cash by enterprises and state-owned companies. Typically, these products are purchased for personal consumption or personal use. The retail turnover reflects the real revenue of organizations and trade enterprises from the sale of goods to the country's population, provided that they are paid in full or even partially.
An important, if not the most important, factor in the effectiveness of this type of activity for the state is the very fact of the availability of products that can be offered for sale to the public. Therefore, in a natural way, the problem of filling the market is formed, that is, the problem of procurement by state-owned trading enterprises. Public procurement, in fact, forms the retail turnover. The dynamics of retail turnover also depends on their timely implementation and quality organization.
One of the proposals for solving these problems is to create a modern approach to the classification of goods purchased by the state and to determine a set of procedures corresponding to the selected classification.
Since the choice of procedure in one way or another depends on the price and quality of the purchased goods, it is proposed to base their classification on the criterion of the definability of qualitative characteristics, because the retail trade turnover today, by and large, is determined by the quality of the goods consumed.
The basis for this classification of purchased goods can be taken as the division of goods into inspection, experimental and trust. Inspection includes goods whose quality can be established without the involvement of experts and before concluding a contract. To experimental ones, those whose characteristics are established only after the conclusion of the contract and delivery of the goods.
Confidential ones include those whose properties can be evaluated only after some, possibly long, time after their consumption.
In order for the retail turnover to correspond to the parametric characteristics of the market and the purchasing power of the population, public procurement should be classified according to the quality indicators of the purchased goods and the availability of analysis of these characteristics for consumers.
Inspection goods include those whose characteristics can be formally fixed in the terms of reference. Only goods can be assigned to this class, since the quality of work or services can be determined only after their delivery, i.e. conclusion of a contract. The customer can fix an acceptable level of quality of all necessary characteristics of such goods in the terms of reference, evaluate their quality at the time of delivery and, in case of delivery of goods of unsatisfactory quality, go to court. Thus, the customer is dealing with standardized goods, the quality of which can be established on the basis of specifications, standards, and technical conditions.
An example is office supplies (paper, stationery, computer equipment, etc.) or standardized building materials (sand, cement, etc.). The quality of such a product is standardized and easily determined at the time of delivery. Inspection goods may be purchased through quotations or auctions.
Experimental ones include those whose qualitative parameters can only be estimated during use. These include, as a rule, non-standardized ones, the quality of which can be established by the customer only after consumption. In this case, the costs of canceling the contract and conducting the repeated procurement procedure are significantly higher than for inspection goods. The customer is faced with risks caused by uncertainty and a lack of reliable quality information. Such uncertainty can be reduced by increasing awareness of the supplier’s qualifications, which is greatly facilitated by specialized institutions that allow the customer to reliably assess the quality of the goods (certification, licensing, etc.).
If vendor certification exists on the market by third parties or market participants, the customer can use the certificate as a mandatory requirement for a potential supplier. The presence of such a certificate can confirm the reputation of the supplier on the market and its technical equipment, for example, the presence of properly equipped product warehouses. The introduction of such a requirement does not relieve the customer of the risk of receiving defective goods, however, it significantly reduces such risks.
The quality of trusting goods cannot be evaluated by the customer independently, either before or after delivery. In addition, the quality of such a good may be relative, i.e. perceived by different agents differently. Trust benefits are not standardized, their quality is not verifiable, i.e. even if the customer knows that the quality of the delivered goods is unsatisfactory, he cannot always prove it in court. An example of a trusted good is educational services.
Discounted merchandise is also included in retail sales. It does not include only the value of those goods that are sold to social organizations, individual entrepreneurs and catering establishments.