Aggregation of products - Essentially, the role of a retailer in the distribution chain - that is, bring-in

Aggregation of products - Essentially, the role of a retailer in the distribution chain - that is, bring-in to one place a variety of products that will appeal to a large number of customers - aggregation of products is the identification, sourcing, ordering, receiving, storage and display of goods for sale. Such activities represent a significant expense for a bricks-and-mortar retailer, but for the online retailer much of this cost is reduced, particularly those that operate as a virtual business. Amazon, for example, does not have to carry the stock of books as do offline book stores.