ZIMSEC O Level Business Studies Notes: Marketing: Introduction to markets

  • A market is an actual or nominal place where buyers and sellers interact directly or through intermediaries to trade goods, services, instruments, contracts in exchange for money or other mediums of value
  • Markets can be physical or infrastructural buildings that can actual be observed in the real world for example Mbare Musika, the World Trade Center, the Johannesburg stock exchange, a town or city
  • they can also be in the form of a system or arrangement for example eCommerce sites such as Amazon.com
  • A key feature of a market is that they allow buyers and sellers to seek and find each other
  • They allow said buyer and seller to exchange items of value

Features of a market

  • Markets include mechanisms or means for:
  • Listing items available for trade
  • Determining and communicating prices of such items
  • Facilitating deals and transactions
  • Facilitating distribution of products

Types of markets

  • Consumer markets e.g. Mbare
  • Financial markets e.g. Zimbabwe Stock exchange the Johannesburg Stock Exchange
  • Illegal markets
  • Black market-an illegal underground market that operates according to free market principles and usually surfaces as a result of government intervention in the market

To access more topics go to the O Level Business Notes