What are the different types of retail sales transactions?

Different payment methods directly in the store are:

• Cash payments, which is rare these days and is usually used for purchasing less expensive products. This payment method is one of the safest methods from a seller's perspective because they immediately get the money for sold products. Because they are paid in full, they can manage and plan ahead more easily.

• Paying with a debit card is common practice for most people today. It enables individual to be careless about whether they have enough cash in their wallet. Based on the amount they have on their bank account, they know how much they can spend in any given moment. This method is also acceptable for sellers because money is being transferred from the customer's bank account to theirs in a very short period. The specific situation that can occur here is that customers might shop later at night, which means that the seller won't see the money in their account until the next morning. However, even though the money transfer is not instantaneous, once the customer accepts to pay, they can no longer withdraw the transaction.

• Paying with credit card is also a good option for the seller because same as with debit cards, they get the money for the complete expense of the product right away. However, the bank did not transfer the money from the customer's account to the seller's account, but from their own. It means that the customer is in debt with a bank now, not the seller. That way, the bank will charge monthly instalments for the customer from now on until the debt is paid (plus the interest).

Payment methods in which the store does not get the money right after the sale is closed:

• Layaway sales mean that the customer committed to buy the product in the future. It means that the seller will remove the product from the offer for other customers and wait for the first customer to decide whether they are going to finalize the purchase. To ensure themselves, the seller requires the customer to give them some sort of deposit, just in case the customer changes their mind and gives up on the purchase. If the customer decides to continue with the purchase, the deposit value will be subtracted from the final product price. This practice is more common with expensive products, like a house or an apartment. It is clear that the customer does not have the full price amount right away, and they have to get bank credit. Approval of the credit can sometimes take up to a few weeks, or even months, so to make sure that the seller does not sell the house to someone else, they are going to give them a deposit as a guarantee that they will purchase the house in the future.

• On-approval sale is a method in which the store gives its customers an opportunity to take the product home and within some predefined period, decide whether they want to buy it or not. If they choose to buy it, then they have to return to the store and pay for it. If they decide not to buy it, then, before the end of the defined period, they have to return the product in the same condition as it was in the beginning. In this situation, the store usually takes the customer's credit card information, just to insure themselves in case of potential problems. This practice prevents customers from any malicious attempts of these methods. For example, they might not return the product, they might return it long after the determined period or return it highly damaged. If the customer returns the product in the original shape, then the store has to erase all the collected data.

• Cash-on-delivery sales are most common in online shopping. Here, the customer starts the shopping process online but pays for the products only when it has been delivered to them. It gives the customer the opportunity to make sure everything is in order with the product right on the spot. This approach also protects the customer from buying products that were damaged in transport. For example, buying glasses that are very sensitive products. If one of the glasses that customer ordered gets broken in the transport, the customer can request a new set of glasses without any additional expenses. This approach also puts the seller in an awkward position because even if there is no valid reason for the customer to give up on the purchase, and they do so, the seller still has to pay for the delivery expenses.