Goods and Services

We can say that goods are tangible , usable or consumable items which are provided to us by the producers in exchange for money. These products, commodities or articles can be characterised physically in the form of their looks, weight, shape, size , etc. People buy goods in order to fulfil a certain utility which can be provided by the good itself.  However, it depends if the good is made of a one time use Or it is reusable. The goods are usually made by a company in bulk with all the similar goods having similar looks and functions . The company manufacturing the goods usually decides the process in 3 parts: production, distribution and consumption. 

Examples of goods are pencils, tiffin boxes, bags etc. 

Now, services are those intangible products which are provided by the customer’s demand , it is usually done by someone for someone. 

Services cannot be owned, they can be utilized for once . The services provided by a particular service provider cannot be differentiated usually as it is not a physically present commodity and hence we can say that it lacks physical identity. It mainly depends on the requirement of the customer and his/her want for that particular service. Services cannot be owned by a person availing the service as it’s just a one time use intangible product , for example :- if you study in a school, you avail the service of education provided to you . You don’t actually own the school where you study. 

Differences between goods and services. 

Nature 

Goods are those products which can be touched or felt. It can also be said that goods are physically relevant. Whereas services are physically irrelevant as they don’t have any physical form or presence. They are the intangible products availed for getting the results or the benefits after getting the service. 

Return 

Goods have different grounds to be returned to the manufacturer and in some cases it can be replaced completely. On the other hand a service cannot be returned to the service provider even if you don’t like the service you got. 

Definition

Goods are defined as that item which can be seen, touched and felt . Goods can even be sold to customers and the customers can show the physical product and claim its ownership. Services are the facilities which can be provided by a service provider . Services are availed by the customer during any need of the benefits the service and provide. 

Ownership

When you buy a good you get the right to call it your property as you get the ownership of the good along with it. On the other hand services can only be availed for the number if you pay for it repeatedly, obtaining the service doesn’t make someone the owner of the service providing Institute or company.

Storage 

Since the goods are tangible items , they need a place to be stored in . This is because it might be so that things don’t get sold and the company has to store it for future market prospects and after getting sold each and every item needs some storage place for it to be kept . However services are intangible and cannot be stored in any manner. 

Process of production and usage

Products take a lot of time to be manufactured from raw materials and this time is a part of the time difference between the production and the actual usage of the goods. On the other hand services do not need time to be produced and the usage can be done nearly as instant as a few minutes. This is so because the service just involves providing the service without anything to be produced Or manufactured . 

Comparisons

It is easy to draw comparisons between similar goods as their physical forms and presence helps you spot significant differences which someone might like or might not like in a product. Services cannot be compared because the same services can be provided by different companies in different methods and it actually depends on the consumer , which one they prefer. 

Conclusion

Although goods and services have a lot of differences they have some similarities too. They mainly focus on providing the consumers with the benefits they require . However goods can be touched and felt as they have a physical presence whereas services cannot be touched or felt, but it can’t be denied that both are equally important for us and help is in different ways.