Consumer Goods are final goods that are brought from retail stores to satify the needs and wants of human being. The consumer goods come in wide variety of product range including household items, personal care products, consumer electronics, utensils, nanotechnology devices, foods, clothing products, stationary, gift articles etc.
Types of Consumer Goods
Buying habits such as convenience goods, shopping goods, and specialty goods.
Durability such durable goods, semi-durable goods, and non-durable goods.
Convenience Consumer Goods: Goods which are easily available to consumer, without any extra effort are convenience goods. Mostly, convenience goods come in the category of nondurable goods such as like fast foods, confectionaries, and cigarettes, with low value. The goods are mostly sold by wholesalers to make them available to the consumers in good volume. Further, convenience goods can be sub-categorized into:
Staple Convenience Consumer Goods: Goods which come under the basic demands of human beings are called staple convenience goods. For eg: milk, bread, sugar etc.
Impulse Convenience Consumer Goods: Goods which are brought without any prior planning or which are brought impulsively are called impulse convenience goods. For eg: potato wafers, candies, ice creams, cold drinks etc.
Shopping Consumer Goods: In shopping consumer goods, consumer do lot of selection and comparison based on various parameters such as cost, brand, style, comfort etc, before buying an item. They are costlier than convenience goods and are durable nature. Consumer goods companies usually try to set up their shops and show rooms in active shopping area to attract customer attention and their main focus is to do lots of advertising and marketing to become popular. Goods like clothing items, televisions, radio, foot wears, home furnishing, jewelleries etc come under the category of shopping goods.
Specialty Consumer Goods: Goods which are very unique, unusual, and luxurious in nature are called specialty goods. Specialty goods are mostly purchased by upper-class of society as they are expensive in nature. The goods don't come under the category of necessity rather they are purchased on the basis personal preference or desire. Brand name and unique and special features of an item are major attributes which attract customer attraction in buying them. Examples of specialty products are: antiques, jewelry, wedding dresses, cars etc.
Non Sought Consumer Goods: Goods or Services like insurance which are available in the market but customer is not really interested in buying them are called non-sought goods.
Durable Consumer Goods: Goods which have long life span and usage period are called durable goods. Examples: furniture, kitchenware, consumer electronics.
Semi-Durable Consumer Goods: Goods which have limited life span or usage period are called semi-durable goods. Examples: cloths, foot wears, artificial jewellery, home furnishing etc.
Non Durable Consumer Goods: Goods have a very short life span and are perishable in nature are called non-durable goods. Example: Milk, bread.
