Retail Dude

Following are the Mumbai Helpline numbers, please spread them around to help others in need:

Taj Hotel Helpline:  022-66574322, 022-66574372, 1800 111 825

Oberoi Hotel Helpline: +91-981095688, 011-23890606, 011-23890505

Trident Hotel Helpline: 022-23890606 20

J J Hospital Blood Bank: Contact Person : Dr.Ganesh , Dr.Nair — 022 - 23739400

Bombay Hospital: Contact Person : Ms.Purohit: 22067676 extn 216

Cama Hospital Blood Bank: 022-22611648

St. George Hospital Direct Blood Bank: Contact Person: Tarun: 022 – 22620344

US State Dept Call Center for Americans concerned about U.S. family/friends in Mumbai 1-888-407-4747

British Foreign Office help line in London: 0207 0080000

Air Ambulance helpline to help foreign tourists: http://www.free-press-release.com/news/200811/1227824362.html

List of Hostages Rescued from Oberoi Trident: http://ibnlive.in.com/news/list-of-hostages-rescued-from-oberoi-trident/79264-3.html

More info here, and you can follow twitter with keyword: #mumbai to stay upto date, in case you dont have direct access to television channels.

If you have more info, please post it in the comments section, Please spread the word around for more blood donations, Stay safe and God Bless all.

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How many of you would like to shop when someone else is paying for it ;) ? And yes my guess is true, ALL OF US! To enthrall you even more, this is no joke but an actual reality. Welcome to the concept of a Secret Shoppers aka Mystery Shoppers aka Spotters aka Virtual Customers.

Its a tool which stores and organizations such as The Gap, Walmart, Pizza Hut, Hooters and Bank One amongst many others use. They pay Secret Shoppers to shop in their establishments and report their experiences. On top of being paid for shopping you are also allowed to keep purchases for free. Although this concepts dates back to 1940’s but in todays scenario the perspectives may have changed. It is the practice of using shoppers who have been specially briefed to anonymously evaluate customer service, operations, merchandising, product quality, and in special cases, employee integrity. This tool is also commonly used by the research agencies looking for service quality, however a trained secret shopper is the one, who goes looking in for certain things and makes detailed observations as the experience unfolds.

This tool helps you understand what it is like to interact with your company from the customer perspective, if i were a retailer. Its also of importance to know whether we are doing enough to win our customers. Are the Sales Associates making it easier for customers to find what they’re looking for, and the right sales and closing techniques can help ring the register. Its not only retail shopping outlets but the tool is effectively used in Restaurant, Hotels, Financial Services, Automotive and even Call centres.

The Secret Shopper helps the retailer to churn out and evaluate almost all the points of initial contact, sometimes by phone, through the completed sale, and even the return of a purchase - all critical elements to future repeat business.

Mystery Shopping Providers Association is one of the largest Mystery Shopping Providers in the world. The MSPA is located in North America, Asia, Europe and South America representing one of the largest resources for businesses and shoppers in the industry. They also usually impart trainings to be one the secret shoppers. So you see, we also have a provider for it.

 So, you get to have fun, flexi hours, your opinion, try new things, spend time with family, you spend (someone else pays out), valuable work and after all this YOU GET PAID TO DO ALL THIS!

Dream Job eh……

Cheers!

- Sudip

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http://thedailyretail.com/Retail_news/Indian_rn/article/index.php?article_name=25nov01&mailer=1

The first one, as usual, took a long time coming! Big boys, you see, use all the resources to extend the first rapture. The “partner” should not feel cheated or dissatisfied. If that means an IPO viagra, so be it. One BIG, shattering run on board then?

http://thedailyretail.com/Retail_news/Indian_rn/article/index.php?article_name=25nov03&mailer=1

Not as explosive as the 1st burst. But longer, sweeter, mellower. Took more effort as most of the stored resources were spurted out in the “urban, glam retail” push-ups (debut). But this is a wonderful lingering feeling, makes one a wee bit “floaty” and the ambience feels surreal like a foggy winter early morning. BUT that’s fine, as we will either need to follow the tail-lights of that huge 16 wheel tractor trailor from Wisdom Roadways ahead of us. Rest can stop for a while, have a cat nap & move with renewed vigour when the sun’s up and strong. It always is…..

http://thedailyretail.com/Retail_news/Indian_rn/article/index.php?article_name=25nov02&mailer=1

Almost Heaven….FMCGiana, no-ridge arbi chips, bathing by the river….

A slightly mutialted line, borrowed from “country” king Denver. So, finally we are all singing the same song…country roads! We had to take a looooong break before we could regenrate our anatomies, before they could rise to the real challenge again. BUT what’s important is they DID. Hansa (remember Khichdi, the terrific comedy series?) would be saying “suppukk” & the ever-confident “Prafuls” have most probably been “blown” (mind Silly) away by now! That article was close to Nirvana, almost….

http://thedailyretail.com/Retail_news/Indian_rn/article/index.php?article_name=25nov04&mailer=1

As expected, this was hardly pleasurable! But, nevertheless, this was the least I could do, while NOT being in Texas. Oh! How I want to convert, to the Church, under that “godly” Bishop…. No, there was no glamour, no Givenchy, no Satya Pauls, but pure “truth” in the new, toned six-packs we see around us, dragging carts, drawing waters, hammering red-hot sickles. They are glistening, without any make-up. Ready to give me my final bliss of the day.

My eyelids are getting heavy…I am fading out….my dreams are on their way.

India can & will shine, brighter, stronger, longer than any other state. We just needed a little re-orientation, to look at the market, rather than “marketing”. 

Thank you guys. 4 in a row is ”rare, very rare”. BUT you guys must get it “well-done” this time around. Not all the cutleries are as sharp as their B-Schools claim

- Arnab

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“While nothing is certain in India’s future, we can be reasonably sure that consumption will grow rather than decline… Every rupee in the hands of the millions at the bottom of India’s consumption pyramid means another meal, another purchase, another incremental boost to growth – no matter how miniscule it may seem. That is what the retailers are counting on.”

Borrowed from The new book by John Wiley & Sons (Asia) Pte Ltd, India’s Store Wars: Retail Revolution and the Battle for the Next 500 Million Shoppers.

While I am in complete agreement with the words italicised in the opening para, I am not very sure if the last sentence in the same para holds water!

Take a look at the day’s “retail” headlines:

ADAG goes e-comming: http://thedailyretail.com/Retail_news/Indian_rn/article/index.php?article_name=24nov01&mailer=1

The Indian retail sector will feel the heat of the global financial crisis, though growth momentum may stay in some areas, experts feel: http://thedailyretail.com/Retail_news/Indian_rn/article/index.php?article_name=24nov00&mailer=1

There will be many more I am sure. Naturally. Obviously!

It’s never easy to shallow pride, more so when the bold headlines even 2 quarters back gave the unassuming junta a very different story.

Don’t tell me that the “experts” on boards of various “respectable” retail ventures never saw it coming! That they had no idea how the shamefully unorganised Mom & Pop across the country will unite and deal heavy blows and that they were completely oblivious of the Indian economy heading for a well-synced chaos, in tow with the world markets!

IF they were, it’s time they returned their high-value certificates to their supposedly unquestionable alma-maters! It may actually be a good idea for such institutes to start a buy-back scheme. They can take the papers back & return a percentage of the fees they had charged, after factoring in PBITDA and other mouthful management terms.

IF the certified guys were actually in the dark about the imminent future, in any case they’d need all the fund soon, to put brakes on their quick slide, from Blackberry Class to Fevicol Bus-back Class!

Worse, however, is IF, IF, IF they “knew” and still decided to have a party with stakeholders’ money!

In this case, the stakeholders should ideally use their gym-toned, trainer-adorned right feet to target specific anatomies of such managers and put out full-page colour ads with mugshots etc., to pre-warn future promoters. Yes, I do agree that the job market can hardly afford another such literally knee-jerk, kick-123 shock, but then, there will not be too many to go to press with.

By the way, too few “talent” hunters were / are willing to undertake ample due-diligence anyway! So, they can, safely put their fat packets in Fixed Deposits & live on the 10.5% interest rates, for a while.

Wishful thinking….even fantasies you may say!

I will agree, for once. Nothing will happen. Very few will ever take the pain of exploring “their illusive” BOP and promoters will only be too happy to woo such mavericks.

It’s the public’s money sweetheart!

Another Sting of that exotic Tequila anyone….? No…then let’s sing…Roxanne….!

http://www.lyrics-now.com/S/Sting-lyrics/The-Very-Best-Of-Sting-_AND_-The-Police/Roxanne.shtml

- Arnab

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You heard it right, in coming months, this is what you could be ordering at your favorite cafe coffee day, or CCD as it is lovingly known. The news is in, that CCD is pushing the bar, and now plans to open 900+ stores by 2009, and with that, some new formats too, and this is not it, out of these new stores, they plan to open at least 50 of them outside the Indian boundaries. They currently have 595 cafes across 100 Indian cities, Three in Vienna and Two in Karachi.

Some of the planned store formats include, Cafe Day Square and Cafe Day Lounge, While the square format would be the flagship outlet, specialising into single origin coffee’s, The lounge format would be where they will experiment to give you a dine-in feature, by coupling food with coffee, and a slow ambiance for you to settle down. The third, but yet-not-disclosed format is speculated to be a coffee bar, with right attitude and music.

This article should be of a help to settle down your CCD’s exapansion queries, while I keep my fingers crossed, that the expansion plan is not inflated, and they don’t end up like starbucks, coz I love my Tropical Iceberg

- Sarthak

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This news did bring a wide smile to my bearded face http://www.indiaretailing.com/news.aspx?topic=1&id=2755

No, it was NOT the comment by Mr. Goenka’s, who generalised “his or his group’s own pov” as that of the Indians’! I am surprised by his “understanding” of the Indian “Consumer-Set” at the same time.

Anyway, what does make me happy is use of the following sentences, by very “qualified” retail managers:

1. it is the bottom of the pyramid where innovation will lead to sustainable consumer markets,

2. An encouraging regulatory environment and more physical investments are required to stimulate development,

3. No such thing as ‘average consumer’ exists in today’s consumer markets. It is very important to understand the diversity in terms of the type of consumers along with connecting to the consumers locally,

4. Customisation according to the local needs of the customer and simultaneously tapping the existing global opportunities is a big challenge facing the Indian retail business today,

5. Several resource constraints will provide the opportunity to rethink existing business and product models. Diversified product range, recreating value chain according to consumer needs & that India needs more innovative models like e- chaupal developed by ITC.

Though I am no visionary, I must blow my dusty, rusty trumpet sometimes!

It was around Jan/Feb’08, when I floated the idea of retail and real-estate entering dead-end-ahead lanes, on my Linkedin page. I also, in the same breath “publicly” offered a “fresh & unique business-model”, which could (and still would) add real-bottomlines to the retail business. If implemented, the model would have added at least 800 Crores to the wise retailer’s kitty, this fiscal. WITHOUT adding almost any cost! The messages should be available even now, in case you’d like to verify claims from a minnow.

Though I took pains to send the proposal to ALL retail big-wigs in India, no one bothered to even reply! As a matter of fact, my good friend Rajeev Karwal, who was tuned-in to this model, went to the extent of suggesting that I go ahead, on my own!

Today, when the big guys are feeling small in front of the mounting debt burdens, skyrocketing interest costs & dwindling productive footfalls, I do feel a perverse sense of vindication. Though it’s not really a sentiment I admire, there’s little I can do to be stoic about it!

Along with the times, the dimes that “can” keep organised retail “rolling”, if not “rocking”, have switched wallets…no, pockets!

Well, loose-change, in India, will always be the ONLY constant!

- Arnab

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Click image to enlarge

From the above pie it’s very clear that our readers are very positive about Retail and they don’t think that there is a slowdown in retail. 56% of voters said that there is no slowdown, 20% voted in favor of slowdown where as 12% preferred to wait and watch. As per the polls there is no slowdown. In Retail rather these are happening as people are panicking from US recession. This is a temporary situation which has been created as people jumped into Organized Retail band wagon in an unorganized manner and so closures and decline in sales are part of long awaited corrections and consolidation in Retail. But a major chunk of voters are of opinion that the hold in expansion plans and closures are due to slowdown in retail as consumers have started spending less and market size is decreasing. Well no body agrees that losses in balance sheet of retailer are a proof of slowdown.

- Team: RETAIL DUDE.

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No, I hardly qualify for anything, leave alone as a “Shrink”.

Guess many of you have read the article today, on Retail Shrinkage? For the uninitiated, this term has nothing to do with the economy or trend! In simple words, it is the Thefts / Pilferage phenomenon that plagues organised retailers, the world over.

Read more at: http://thedailyretail.com/Retail_news/Indian_rn/article/index.php?article_name=18nov01&mailer=1

However, my take from the article is a bit different. I will also take refuge under some number-crunching in the process. Given my limited education & complete absence of professionally acceptable suffixes, there are chances that the arithmetic will be full of errors. So, start reading with E&OE as embedded, please.

India has the highest “Shrinkage Rate” - 3.10%, among 36 countries covered in the study, followed closely by Mexico, Thailand, South Africa & Malaysia.

The lowest rates of shrinkage were found in Japan, Austria and Switzerland (all 1.01%), Germany (1.10%) and Denmark (1.20%).

The total shrinkage in India in 2008 is a US $ 2.543 billions (1000 Crore+) which is equivalent to 3.10% of retail sales – an increase of 6.9% as compared to 2007, when the figure was 2.90%.

Customer theft contributed around 44.7% of shrinkage losses, employee theft was responsible for 23.7% as compared to 8.4% by Suppliers / Vendors. Rest are mostly accounting / admin errors.

Further among the Internal retail theft; merchandise theft was thought to be responsible for 27.8% of internal fraud, whereas cash, coupons, vouchers or gift cards contribute 32.0% of internal fraud, refund fraud and false markdowns contribute 14.6% of internal fraud with a collusion of 19.1%. Besides this large financial frauds were responsible for 6.5% of the internal retail theft of 2008.

In the Asia-Pacific regions including Australia, India, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore & Thailand; highest average rates of shrinkage were seen in apparel/clothing and fashion/accessories(1.71%) followed by vehicle/autoparts/DIY hardware/building material retail (1.70%) and cosmetics/perfumes/beauty supply/pharmacy (1.66%). The lowest rates were in footwear/shoes/sports & sporting goods (0.66%), jewellery/watches (0.83%)

This data is indeed very interesting & might be a pointer to the following possibilities:

1. Shrinkage is considerably lesser in “developed” countries,

2. The thieves (customers + employees + vendor resources) are likely to be from middle / lower middle households,

3. Many of these may constitute of casual visitors who turned to lifters rather than shoppers,

4. The most popular stolen items are NOT essential commodities or food! and

5. Therefore has a large enough “buyer” base.

Once I add the possibilities with Fin Min PC’s request to “Reduce MRPs” & our yesterday’s debate (Gates Syndrome), that sinking feeling gets very strong!

Hope we ARE thinking, differently, for our own sake!

- Arnab

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I remember watching a live broadcast few years ago. Mr. Bill Gates & co were addressing the press, most probably at the launch of an OS or something similar. Now, I am not quoting verbatim of course, but more or less the gist of the discussions.

One lady, who looked Asian, asked a question very close to my heart: “We all know how piracy is affecting legit sales of software. Why can’t MS reduce sticker price of their OS to $10, instead of $100 & bring a true fight to this menace?”

The answer, however, wasn’t & still isn’t one of my favourites: “It does not make business sense to sell such a sophisticated (???) product at such prices! We would rather sell limited quantities, unlock the value quicker & keep using the same to provide more sophisticated products to the world (???). Who has the time, infrastructure or wherewithal to make commercial sense of a $10 product?”

In short, Gates & Co. were happy to sell, say 1 million official OS discs & also made enough money thereby. IF the rest of the 9 million users were operating their cheapskate PCs off pirated software, so be it!

If we look at MS’s POV clinically, it does make “some” sense. After all a software is NOT soap! It’s NOT supposed to used by anybody & everybody. And even if they aspire to, they should NEVER forget that they CANNOT ever AFFORD the “real thing”. Come on, inclusive is a word that belong’s in the Dictionary of Political Democracy, right?

Wrong.

Remember T Series in the eighties? They literally upgraded the Indian radio junkies to Compact Cassettes & portable tape-recorders! Yes, SONY, HMV & their ilks did have their archives on audio-cassettes, before T Series did, but cassettes, for them, were “sophisticated” products….like Windows may be?

Ms Moser Baer was absolutely on the ball when they took on the “DVD” format a-la T Series. However, their front-end failed to sweat and muddled things up quite a bit, during the 1st few years. Today Moser Baer has got the reins back and I am certain they will have their act together, pretty soon.

What am I driving at? The same! Just as pirated / spurious goods do not contribute much to a nation’s vital economy, “elitist” products too end up fattening a very few hand-picked wallets.

Unless we address the mass, grow usage exponentially (of all consumables), our economies will inevitably keep getting cyclically top-heavy & then topple.

We need to cure our Gate’s Syndrome & push Rs.10 as the most monetizable MRP. The sooner, the better.

- Arnab

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Hey Readers!

Time for some serious fun. Here is a Retail and Branding quiz for all you guys. The quiz has been prepared to let you know your RBQ. And thats your Retail and Branding quotient. Another First from Retail Dude Team.
Get the presentation here at

http://www.4shared.com/file/71772231/a7ca13c0/Retail_Quotient_Tracer-Quiz.html

Do let us know your feedback and we will be more committed towards bringing you the best and more interactive learnings.

Dude it up Guys!

- Sudip

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