What does retailed mean?
Retailed means that goods or services were sold to individual consumers, usually through a shop, website, or another retail business. The word is the past tense and past participle of retail and is especially common in commercial and historical writing: a business may have retailed a particular product, offered it at a specified price, or supplied an entire market. Unlike the broader word sell, retailed suggests sale to the public through consumer-facing channels rather than, for example, a transaction between businesses. The term is formal and businesslike, so a shop is more likely to say it sold an item, while a retailer’s report may state that it retailed the item. Retailed can also describe a service made available to the public, although it most often refers to physical merchandise.
verbTo sell goods or services to the public, typically through a shop or other business serving individual consumers. It is the past tense and past participle of retail.
- To sell goods or services to individual consumers, especially in shops or through other retail businesses.
- To make an offering available to the public in a commercial context.
"The store retailed the collection at affordable prices before the exhibition closed."
" The boutique retailed locally designed clothing and accessories."
"The company retailed the product nationwide through its online store."
Retail comes from a tradition of selling by the piece, turning an old word for a fragment of cloth into the modern world of consumer shopping.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does retailed come from?
The word retail entered English from Anglo-French and was ultimately associated with the Medieval Latin retallare, meaning to sell by the piece. Its development reflects an older practice of cutting material or merchandise into pieces and selling them individually rather than by a larger measure. The past form retailed was formed in English by adding the suffix -ed to retail.
Related word forms
How retailed is actually used
Retailed is formal and is more common in business, retail-industry, and historical contexts than in everyday conversation. It can be used transitively with a product or service, or intransitively when a business is the subject.