COMMON SHIPPING TERMS Some of the common shipping

COMMON SHIPPING TERMS Some of the common shipping arrangements include: F. O. B store, F. O. B factory, P. O. B. shipping point, C. I. F. passed foreign post , and C. and F. named foreign port. Shipping of the merchandise from the supplier to the retailer is considered an important factor influencing business entrepreneurship since the cost of movement of the goods also affects the cost of pricing. The most efficient means of transportation which is convenient and reasonable in terms of service to the retailing business should be favored. Thus the common shipping arrangements are given; �

F. O. B. factory. This scheme means that the goods are free on board from the factory or source of supply to the buyers place of business. In this scheme, the buyer pays all transportation charges, and that the buyer can be held responsible for the payment of the goods even if it has not been received for as long as there is evidence that it has been sent. � P. O. B shipping point. This arrangement requires the supplier to pay for the cost of transportation from the source of supply to the point of shipping , and from the point of shipping to the buyer’s place of business, the buyer pays for the cost of transportation. �

C. I. F. passed foreign post. Cost insurance and freight of goods are free when the merchandise passes foreign post. It is the sender who undertakes the payment of all sorts of transportation involved in the movement of goods from the shipper to the receiver. For example, foreign authored books or other educational materials or research findings in book forms are sent from a foreign source to another country’s library as free materials. � C. & F. named foreign port. Cost and freight of merchandise are shouldered by the sender to a named point. Title to goods changes when it arrived at this point, which is usually the point of entry and not during the time the goods or merchandise is being shipped. �

MERCHANDISE PLANNING Merchandising operations need to be controlled through proper and objective planning. The objective to succeed in entrepreneurship is the ultimate goal. According to J. R. Gomez the steps in planning to control and manage the retail business operations are as follows: � 1. Analyze of past records � 2. Careful planning for the future �

3. Checking of results against plans � 4. Continually trying to prove results. The preparation of the merchandise plan considers some important factors that influence the success of business entrepreneurship. These factors may include the following: � 1. The business atmosphere, which is actually the business condition in the locality. The retail entrepreneur is able to analyze the trend of employment, income level, industrial development, peace and order condition, movement of population, and such other socio-economic conditions of the community to be able to predict the prospects of business in that particular community. �

� � 2. Competitive situation. By competitive situation this means the presence of various types of business competing or the presence of one type of business owned by different proprietorships competing to supremacy. The latter in unwholesome competition. The worst is the presence of a giant business complex trying to strangle the small retail entrepreneurship. In this condition, there is a need for a type of business leadership to unite all the small business entrepreneurship to compete with the bigger establishment. 3. Fushion merchandise. The entrepreneurship should be extra careful in handling merchandise of fusion value. He should determine whether what is fashionable in one locality is also fashionable in another. He may try introducing the fashion in yogne in another locality to his community, but he must be extra careful not to lose in that particular business through obsolescence.

� 4. Transportation facilities. This is very important factor which poses limitations to the business entrepreneurship. When the transportation is irregular some deliveries of merchandise maybe delayed, and oftentimes the goods stay longer in shipping storage in poor-condition, and when these reach the retailer many are already damaged. � 5. Seasonal sales fluctuations. A wise entrepreneur is able to determined the fluctuation of sales caused by such seasonal factors: harvest time, planting time, Christmas, New Year, Valentine, and local fiestas. Each of these occasions will require careful selection of merchandise to suit the customer’s demand. School opening and graduation are two seasonal happenings which take place every year. A wise entrepreneur knows how to meet these various occasions to develop customer patronage.

� 6. Condition of the supplier. Suppliers may be classified as the factory or procedure and the wholesaler. In some instances however, the source of merchandise is both the producer and the wholesaler. As in the case of RTW (ready to wear) items, some wholesaler are also the producers, thus the supply of these merchandises is heavily affected by the foreign market condition especially the flow of the raw materials. When the raw materials entering the country do not come regularly, the supplier is affected, thus the entrepreneur has to program his sales in a manner that his merchandise on sale will always be available.

� 7. Money market condition. The availability and scarcity of money affects business even to the lowest form. The flow of money in the same manner also affects business. Is the money abundant only in the metropolis or it is also in the village. The ideal is to make money flow widespread. The business linkage of the farm to the metropolis makes sound business entrepreneurship. That is one should not exploit the other. Insurgency may choke the flow of raw materials and other farm goods to the metropolis, on the other hand, business manipulation may limit the flow of consumer goods to the farm due to limited supply of money for agricultural loan due to excessive interest. Both conditions are not development oriented, therefore must be tolerated.