Merits:

1. Limited capital requirement: Mail order business does not require heavy expenditure on building and other infrastructural facilities. Therefore, it can be started with relatively low amount of capital. 

2. Elimination of middle men: The biggest advantage of mail order business from the point of view of consumers is that unnecessary middlemen between the buyers and sellers are eliminated. This may result in lot of savings both to the buyers as well as to the sellers. 

3. Wide reach: Under this system the goods can be sent to all the places having postal services. This opens wide scope for business as a large number of people throughout the country can be served through mail. 

4. Convenience: Under this system goods are delivered at the doorstep of the customers. This results in great convenience to the customers in buying these products. 

5. Absence of bad debt: Since the mail order houses do not extend credit facilities to the customers, there are no chances of any bad debt on account of non-payment of cash by the customers.

Limitations:

1. No credit: Super markets sell their products on cash basis only. No credit facilities are made available to the buyers. This restricts the purchasing power of buyers from such markets.

2. No personal attention: Super markets work on the principle of self-service. The customers, therefore, don’t get any personal attention. As a result, such commodities that require personal attention by sales people cannot be handled effectively in super markets. 

3. Mishandling of goods: Some customers handle the goods kept in the shelf carelessly. This may raise costs in super markets.

4. High overhead expenses: Super market incurs high overhead expenses. As a result these have not been able to create low price appeal among the customers. 

5. Possibility of abuse: This type of business provides greater possibility of abuse to dishonest traders to cheat the customers by making false claims about the products or not honoring the commitments made through hand bills or advertisements. 

6. High dependence on postal services: The success of mail order business depends heavily on the availability of efficient postal services at a place. But in a vast country like ours, where many places are still without postal facilities, this type of business has limited prospects.