What is retail logistics?Is it similar to physical distribution?

Logistics is the function of making goods and other
resources physically available for use as and when required. This generally includes two
basic activities of moving or transporting these resources, and storing them at
different location till required for use or further transportation. Logistics as applied
to business is broadly divided in three section - incoming logistics, in-plant logistic
and out-bound logistics.

The out-bound logistic is
concerned with transportation of goods from a manufacturer to locations away from it.
Mostly this is for the purpose of supplying the products manufactured to the customer.
This aspect of logistics is also called distribution logistics. However the outbound
logistics may also include other activities such as transportation of material from a
plant to subcontractors for outsourced
manufacturing.

Retailing is one of the activities within
the overall distribution function. Thus we can consider retail logistic as one part of
the physical distribution systems. The terminology of logistics and the boundaries
between difference logistics activities are not very clearly defined or fixed. However,
we can say that retail logistics includes transpiration of goods to the points of retail
sales and storage there. It also covers any additional activities for door delivery of
goods to the customers.