Products may be classified as:- 1. Convenience Goods 2. Shopping Goods 3. Specialty Goods 4. Industrial Goods.
Type # 1. Convenience Goods:
Convenience goods such as cigarettes, candy bars, blades, magazines etc. All these items are found clustered around the checkout stand of food stores, and food, of course, is usually a convenience good. Convenience goods are placed so that they can remind consumers that they are available when needed.
Type # 2. Shopping Goods:
Shopping goods are more expensive items that people buy less frequently. A key factor in the purchasing of shopping goods is the customer’s desire to make comparisons among an assortment of similar items, and as a result, retailers who handle shopping goods tend to cluster.
Examples of shopping goods are ready-made garments, clothes (for shirts, pants, or suiting), automobile scooters and cars etc. The role of sales people at the retail level assumes critical proportions in marketing shopping goods. Their blandishments and skills are not needed to sell cigarettes at retail, but they are certainly necessary in the case of clothing and automobiles.
Type # 3. Specialty Goods:
Specialty goods are those for which buyers will take extra ordinary pains to obtain.
The hobbyist, whose numbers are growing rapidly, is a typical specialty goods shopper. The mountain-climber who absolutely must have a certain down-filled sleeping bag provides another typical example.
Type # 4. Industrial Goods:
Industrial goods comprise of raw materials, semi-finished goods which must be converted into more finished products, machinery, equipment, supplies, containers and packaging materials, etc.
People involved in the sale and purchase of industrial goods behave remarkably unlike other consumers in some significant ways. Industrial goods purchases are intended to become part of the manufacture of a product which is later sold to consumers.
To explain, an automobile manufacturer has no personal need for steel; he buys steel only because consumers will later buy the automobile it makes from steel. On the other hand convenience or shopping goods are bought for personal use, therefore in such goods, a consumer is likely to be subjective in his purchases.