For the layman, not related to business, the concept of an object of commercial activity is unfamiliar. However, this term indirectly refers to all areas of our lives. According to the theory, objects of this kind include everything that can be bought or sold, that is, property of any purpose, including goods. We learn what is meant by this concept. In addition, we will reveal the main characteristics of the product and its classification.
Members
There are not so many types of commercial objects involved in any business process. The main ones are goods, services, securities, money and intellectual property.
The product is used to meet human needs and is characterized by three important features:
- Provides benefits to the acquirer.
- It has tangible (material) characteristics and qualities.
- It is supported by related services, such as service, delivery, warranty.
Services are activities that are not related to production. However, it also satisfies the needs of the population.
Money, securities or capital as an object of commercial activity can have two meanings:
- The funds invested by the entrepreneur in the business, that is, registered capital, stocks, property in the form of buildings, structures and equipment, profits redistributed for any commercial purposes.
- Cost that can create even more revenue.
In this case, the funds may be divided into own and borrowed. A way to increase capital as an object of business activity is the turnover. Which, in a simple way, can be called an exchange of a product or service for money.
The main object of commercial activity
This is how goods are defined in business by both novice entrepreneurs and commercial sharks. If you study the terminology, then a product is a product of labor that is produced for exchange for another product or for sale and receipt of cash in return.
Since the goals of the seller and the buyer are completely opposite, it is important for the first to receive profit in the form of income, and for the second - to purchase useful goods that satisfy any needs.
Price
Distinguish the exchange and use value of the goods. If the first is expressed in the ability to exchange for something else, including money, then the second is determined by the ability to satisfy human needs. This means that the usefulness of the item is evaluated in terms of use value. And the definition of the possibility instead of one product to acquire another is designated as exchange value.
Consumer is the usefulness of goods for an individual individual and satisfies a person as a commodity of personal consumption or as an instrument of production. It is believed that it is production that creates the use value of which the wealth of society consists. Of course, it does not express relations within any social group, but its meaning changes depending on external and internal conditions.
If the product of labor is made for itself, then it is valued only by those who produced it. If the product is made for others, then it can be expressed through social use value. It is worth noting that in addition to this quality, the product must have the ability to be exchanged for another.
What creates the value of the goods? It is known that this is the embodied labor of manufacturers spent on its manufacture.
As for exchange value, it is designated as the property of a product to be exchanged for others in certain proportions. The relationship between the two products is usually based on patterns, but may be random.
It happens that an item has a large usable, but very small exchange value. An example is ordinary water, which is undoubtedly very important for any person, but it is almost impossible to exchange it for something. On the contrary, diamond does not satisfy almost any human needs, but is a rather expensive commodity, that is, it has a large exchange value and negligible consumption value.
Classification
There are several signs by which you can divide the entire product. Let's consider them in more detail:
- The duration of consumption distinguish between short-term and durable goods.
- Tangible by material tangibility can be distinguished as an object or as a service.
- By frequency of acquisition: daily, special or passive demand, preliminary, impulse or emergency choice.
- By type of trade: food and non-food products.
- On demand: active and passive demand.
- By novelty and fame: old, new, improved, popular.
- At the place of production: export, import, local.
- By seasonality: permanent demand (hot commodity), seasonal, peak sales.
- By the number of consumers: mass, piece, exclusive.
- By origin: animal or vegetable origin, raw materials or goods obtained as a result of processing, mixed.
- By type of consumption: for personal or public use.
- According to the technologies used in production: simple and sophisticated products.
Duration of consumption
Short-term products include one that can be consumed one or more times. An example of this can be food, household chemicals, cosmetics and perfumes.
Durable goods are those that withstand long-term use. These include clothing, household appliances and manufacturing equipment.
Acquisition frequency
This indicator is one of the main in the formation of the range of goods. Businesses may relate to everyday products. In this case, the buyer acquires products often, does not think much and rarely compares with analogues. The product has a low cost, is sold in most outlets, is widely advertised.
Special consumer goods are usually purchased because of brand loyalty or because of the maximum satisfaction of the growing human needs. Despite the high prices, such products do not change. Whereas everyday products include food, household chemicals and cosmetics, in this category branded clothing, luxury goods and jewelry predominate.
Passive goods are very rare, not common, the buyer knows little about them and does not have much interest in them. These products include life insurance or government loan bonds.
Buyers have been preparing for the purchase of pre-selection goods for a long time, comparing prices, quality and style of different manufacturers. The number of outlets is less than that of everyday products. This category includes household appliances, clothing, furniture and equipment.
Type of trade
Depending on the type of product, the type of trade is also determined. Russian manufacturers, like foreign companies, sell various products. So as to satisfy the demand of different customers. Thanks to this, we easily acquire domestic and foreign food and non-food products.
The first include food products in processed or natural form, water, alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks, dietary supplements.
In the category of non-food products distinguish:
- clothes, shoes and textiles;
- hygiene items;
- goods for decoration;
- cultural and domestic products;
- transport;
- household goods.
Active and passive goods
The first category includes all those products that a person needs at regular intervals. Passive goods and services need constant advertising, because people often don’t know about them, and if they do, they don’t think about purchasing them. An example is any complex technical products or insurance, landfills for burial or ritual services, life and real estate insurance.
New or familiar purchase
It happens that the hostess, for example, acquired several years or decades ago a good tool for household chemicals. She liked it, and the woman uses it with pleasure. Today, the product can be called old in terms of use by this particular housewife.
However, during its existence, the product has undergone changes. The manufacturer in commercials began to note the presence of additional components, which indicates a change in composition. In this case, we are dealing with an improved product.
If the release of this product ceased, and the company began to produce other goods of a similar purpose, then it is called new.
It is worth noting such a course of events when the new product went on sale, but the maximum volume of sales remains for a long-known product. In this situation, the goods from the category of the old goes into the category of popular goods.
Where they made and why
Products for export are those products that are manufactured for export from the country of manufacture and sale outside it.
Import is called everything that is imported from another country and sold outside its borders.
Local goods are sold in the same place where they are produced.
Seasonality
This is undoubtedly an important factor both in production and in the sale of products.
Hot goods are important all year round, but there are subtleties. For example, food is in constant demand. However, we all know that tangerines are most delicious in winter, so we get them at this time of year. Young cabbage is in demand in spring and early summer, although cabbage as a vegetable is purchased constantly. So the goods of permanent demand can fall into the seasonal. Also seasonal, include clothes, shoes, goods for going outdoors, hiking, for sports. A special category is products of peak sales. This increase in supply and demand for thematic products, for example, significantly increases sales of Christmas tree decorations for the New Year, Easter cake molds, cards and symbolic gifts for Valentine's Day.
Number of customers
The consumer goods market as a set of relations between sellers and buyers is built on the basis of supply and demand. In this regard, there are several types of products:
- massive, which is necessary for everyone and is sold in large quantities (clothing, shoes, food, household appliances);
- boxed (original jewelry, luxury cars);
- exclusive (special products made to order in a single copy).
Origin
Russian manufacturers as well as foreign companies can have a wide range and range of products or products. Depending on the direction of activity, five types of goods are distinguished:
- the feedstock is animal products;
- production is based on plant components;
- raw materials are extracted from the bowels;
- the product is the result of processing;
- mixed origin, when several directions are used at once.
What is the difference between nomenclature and assortment
An assortment is a variety of products manufactured by one manufacturer or sold at one outlet with a common attribute.
The product range is a list of all products that are manufactured by the manufacturer in his company.
Thus, the assortment implies that the products belong to the same group, which, in turn, may vary by end-user (children, youth, elderly people, people with disabilities), by field of application (clothing, cosmetics, food) or be in the same price range .
The nomenclature of goods is determined in a completely different way. This concept is much broader and refers to everything that is sold in a store or produced at an enterprise. An example is a sporting goods store. Here, the nomenclature can be understood, for example, winter and summer inventory options. In the winter group the assortment will be represented by skates, skis, sledges, and in the summer - skateboards, bicycles, pools, rollers and tourist tents.
Any realizer thinks about the formation of a trading assortment. And if professionals work at large retail outlets, it is much more difficult for individual entrepreneurs. After all, usually small business is conducted by one owner or with the participation of two or three assistants (seller, accountant, cleaner).
To correctly formulate the assortment of goods, a number of factors should be considered:
- type of store;
- area of the room;
- technical capabilities and equipment;
- supply chain;
- number of customers;
- transport accessibility;
- social status of visitors;
- nationality of the contingent served;
- parking and other amenities;
- nearby competitors.
Undoubtedly, even the most serious work on assortment formation and customer acquisition can be crossed out by the sale of low-quality or expired goods and the rudeness of the staff.
Type of use and production technology
Goods may be produced for personal or public use. If, for example, hygiene products, cosmetic products and clothing are produced for a specific buyer, then turnstiles in the subway, ATMs, libraries and theaters can be used and visited by all individuals.
Also, the goods are divided into simple and sophisticated. From the point of view of legislation, complex ones are those that have a complicated device and are manufactured using special technologies. The list of goods of this category is approved by Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of 10.11.2011 No. 924 and includes:
- Vehicles and aircraft based on an electric motor and ICE.
- Equipment and machinery used in agriculture.
- Wireless and navigation equipment.
- System units, computers, tablets and satellite TV kits.
- MFC laser and inkjet.
- Monitors, televisions, projectors, optical video equipment and game consoles with a digital control unit.
- Digital video cameras and lenses.
- Appliances.
Specifications
Products can not only be classified, but also distinguished by properties and attributes.
The main characteristics of the products are:
- High-quality, distinguished by a certain combination of consumer properties of the goods within one species.
- Assortment, which determines the social and functional purpose of the product.
- Quantitative, when the properties of the goods are expressed through units of measurement and physical quantities.
- Cost - determines the priority of the purchase.
What is code? How is it assigned?
Coding of goods is their symbol with the use of numbers or letters. Typically, a label is assigned to a specific product or an entire group. The need for coding of goods arises for their classification, ranking and identification among many other objects.
There are a number of rules that must be observed during this procedure:
- The code must withstand a certain structure adopted in a particular field of activity.
- In the process, established signs should be used, the set of which should fulfill the function of arranging samples.
Under the structure of the code understand the composition and sequence of certain numbers, letters or other designations. It has an alphabet, base, rank and length.
The alphabet in this case is the accepted system of signs. Distinguish between digital, alphanumeric, alphabetic or line alphabet. The basis is the specified number of signs. Under the discharge understand the sequence of arrangement of numbers, letters or strokes. The length is the number of all characters used, excluding spaces.
Usually, a ten-digit bar code is used in the manufacturing process, which is convenient for processing by modern readers. Such an identifier consists of dark stripes of various thicknesses between which there are white gaps. Also on the product packaging, the code is duplicated in numbers. This means that any product can be identified both by strokes and by the signs written under them.
Certificates What is it and what is it for?
Certification of goods means the process of checking them for compliance with certain requirements by a third party and the issuance of a document of a standard form. , .
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Voluntary is carried out at the request of the company, which decided to receive a document on the conformity of products with certain quality characteristics, standards, specifications, etc. It is carried out on the basis of the Law of the Russian Federation dated 10.06.1993 No. 5151-1 “On certification of products and services”. The advantages of carrying out a procedure of this kind and obtaining a document are as follows:
- The manufacturer receives the right to participate in tenders and tenders, and the certificate distinguishes it from other participants.
- May assist in dealing with supervisors in terms of simplifying audits and licensing.
- It contributes to a positive decision when conducting mandatory certification.
However, the voluntary submission of an application for verification of a product or service is unpopular in Russia due to the high cost and length of the process.
Mandatory certification involves carrying out the procedure and confirming only those product parameters that are required at the legislative level. The list of products requiring the receipt of a verification document is approved by Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of 13.08.1997 No. 1013 and includes goods:
- for children;
- for the treatment of diseases and for the rehabilitation of persons with disabilities;
- food purpose;
- textile;
- sewing and knitwear;
- household;
- for entertainment and leisure activities;
- furry and fur;
- cosmetic and perfumery;
- household purpose;
- sports;
- household purpose;
- automotive industry;
- garden destination.
In addition, certification requires electrical equipment, electrical appliances and equipment for fire safety, as well as services of the following nature:
- repair and maintenance of household machines, appliances and radio equipment;
- dry cleaning;
- repair and maintenance of vehicles;
- for the carriage of passengers;
- hairdressing services;
- housing and communal purposes.
We hope that now the topic has become closer and clearer to you.