Perhaps it would be correct to say that Wal-Mart is the leader of the retail industry. What started as a humble venture is a multibillion-dollar industry with stores in almost every continent. Manufactures of goods rely on retailers to get their goods to the customers. Retail is different from wholesale or bulk sale. Although some wholesalers do sell directly to individual clients, most of them do sell to large retailers.

The growth of retail industry has created other related businesses like commercial real estate, which is the management and development of real estate targeting mainly the retail business because retailers need premises from where to operate from. Commercial property is big business and is governed by different rules from residential property.

There do exist many types of retail businesses, as there are products. One can engage in the very lucrative retail clothing business or even computer retail. There are also many jobs associated with retail business like retail display, which is an art in itself. Retail store design is very interesting and one can find courses to take if interested in this kind of work. It aimed at maximizing the experience of the customer in store. Another interesting job is the development of retail software that is used by retailers. Depending on the size of the business one can develop very complex or very simple retail software. Some software can handle the storefront operations that are daily selling and also the back store operations of inventory and ordering.