Retail Dude

“Bollywood” is one of the biggest entertainment phenomena that rules India.

Last year Future Group came up with merchandise ‘inspired’ by Saawariya, which reflected the colour theme, tone, background, ambience and concepts of the movie, specially-created Saawariya merchandise was available across categories such as clothing, home, bed, bath (well Ummm..!!) , linen & beauty accessories for women and male apparel.

“Om Shanti Om” apart from a merchandising deal with Shoppers’ Stop (which involved almost 50-50 revenue sharing), also signed up with brands like Videocon, Nokia (which was the mobile-phone maker’s first such tie-up in Bollywood), cosmetics company Maybelline (Deepika Padukone is the brand endorser), and SIA Jewelry. These are just not brand associations but carry a lot of endorsement value with them both for the Actors and the products.

Well Bollywood merchandising is not a new concept really, yet, what is interesting is the scale that it has been/will be taken to.

From just one-off examples, which had a few corners dedicated to a particular movie’s merchandise, we will now see entire Bollywood Experience zones come up at retail stores.

Future Group and Percept have entered into a joint venture through which an initial investment of Rs 50 crore will create Bollywood cafes, theme parks, walk-ins and even museums at Future group’s retail outlets. Though the project seems to be going slow from what we see right now but still the business obviously seems to have become quite profitable for companies to create special experience zones to pull in more customers.

So, while apparels, accessories for men, women and children have generally been the criteria for forming separate zones till now, we have a new one henceforth- Bollywood.

There will be enough good news that bollywood’s association with retail will also give us in near future. Thanks to the desperate efforts of retailers to market their product differently and make it more attractive to buy. More recently for those who have seen “Ghajini” must have noticed Aamir khan wearing Van Heusen, a Madura Garments brand (which crafted a special range for the movie) and sporting Xylus(Titan) watches off and on.

 Ghajini gives you another reason to rejoice. The pic above is actually a campaign currently running and one which you can avail right away. You can get the ticket money reimbursed on the bill value of your purchase from the Van Heusen Ghajini collection. So for those who have still not seen the movie go ahead, it is paisa wasool all the wayJ!!  For those who are luckily still carrying the ticket, its still worth discount on your favourite shirt. I’m sorry for giving the information late for those who have thrown the tickets.

Happy Shopping the Bollywood Ishtyle !!

- Roli

 Email  Print Make a Comment »

Consumers are now avoiding visits to malls for their grocery shopping’s in order to reduce their impulse purchases.Rather they are switching back to mom-n-pop (Kirana) shops. This has resulted into increase of demand and pressure on them. Kirana stores are not able to meet the demand for home deliveries of consumers. Typical kirana stores are getting almost 200-250 calls daily for home delivery. So, in order to meet their demands, kirana stores in Mumbai have decided to charge extra for home delivery and employ more delivery boys. According to them, it will help them to deliver goods in time and retain their loyal customers.

“Due to the current financial situation where everybody is seen trying to save, we too want to tighten our budget and raise extra to provide for delivery services,” says Chandrakant Gala, secretary of the Bombay Suburban Grain Dealers Association.

But generally customers prefer kirana stores because of the unique services like credit and free home delivery. So, I just hope that by doing so they don’t loose on their customers again.

Some kirana stores had already started charging for delivery. They are charging Rs. 10 for each order below Rs. 500 whereas they are delivering orders above Rs. 500 for free. And they have not seen any negative reaction from the customers, so hopefully it may work.

- Rajeev Damani

 Email  Print Make a Comment »

Dear Readers,

Being committed to bring you the best of class information, here is just another very very useful read on Category Management. From being a very strong tool by retailers across the globe, category management has evovled and is now the mantra of the merchandising process in itself.

http://www.4shared.com/file/77534463/cecd9736/Category_Management.html

The slides have the basic knowhows of it. It has been shared by Mr Umesh Dhand who is a professional with over 12 years of work experience including 8 years of buying & merchandising experience in retail across lifestyle & value retailing across several categories. Currently he is the GM - Merchandising at Aditya Birla Retail Ltd, and has also worked as a Category Manager at Shoppers Stop in the past. A big thank you to him.

Happy Learning!

Sudip

 Email  Print 3 Dudes Commented »

Hey guys, for those who do not have a job, do you just want any job or have you given a thought what would be the best place to be in these times of recession. For those who have a job, are you still looking forward for the ‘Retail Boom’ to happen or you know where your job is taking you and where you can actually be. Here is a little weekend analysis from me on both these situations. Sit back and read, hope it gives all of us who get lost living by the day, some clarity on what we want.

For those looking forward to a job; alright there is no ‘Boom’ round the corner; but still Retail Sector is the answer. There is ample good news to look forward to, few are listed here and I’m sure all my readers would have one such news with them.

While most companies are trying to find strategies to beat the global slowdown, consumer goods companies have not only decided to increase manpower, but also to scale up their research and development (R&D) spends.

• LG Electronics plans to invest $50 million (around Rs 250 crore) to enhance its manpower and R&D in India by 2009.

• According to ITC’s sustainability report, ITC’s payroll expenses grew from Rs 541 crore in FY06 to Rs 630 crore in FY07 and Rs 733 crore in FY08 and the company remains bullish on hiring.

• Aditya Birla Retail (ABRL) has announced plans to open ten hypermarkets in India within the next two years under the ”More” banner. It also aims to have 1500 supermarkets and 100 hypermarkets by 2013. According to CEO Sumant Sinha, ABRL the company will invest a total of US$2.5bn on its expansion plans.

Those with a passion for retail just remember one thing, in the short term it might seem more important to get a job that gives the best compensation, but in the long-term, most employees are chronically dissatisfied until they get a job that provides the best personal fulfillment.

For those in Retail Industry, this is what we can look forward to, because this will be the solution to the ongoing slump.

Good with Consumer Psychology and creative at thought you can be a “Consumer Psychologist”. Consumer psychologists study people’s emotional, cognitive, and behavioral responses to a wide variety of stimuli including advertisements, packaging, marketing promotions, communications, products, services, and experiences. From these studies the consumer psychologist can help decision makers determine design and development changes that will produce an improved consumer response and produce an increase in sales. As the field gains credibility, consumer psychologists are being given high level management and policy level positions in marketing, advertising, and retail organizations. Your primary responsibilities as a consumer psychologist will be research, analysis and development.

You feel you have amazing selling capabilities, and you can sell almost anything you can be a “Personal Shopper”. Personal shoppers provide expert advice and give the highest level of customized service possible to individual shoppers. By giving personalized attention and providing advanced knowledge of products, services, and trends, personal shoppers become trusted consultants for shoppers who want an enhanced buying experience which is easy, inspiring and productive. You will be responsible for building a client base of loyal shoppers who make frequent purchases. The result of your efforts should be higher sales ticket averages and extreme customer satisfaction.

For all those good at Retail Numbers, business, analysis and strategies, you can be a “Retail Competitive Intelligence Analyst”. As a Competitive Intelligence Analyst, you will be keeping an eye on the strategies and pricing of your employer’s competitors, and making recommendations for marketing, promotions and strategic initiatives based on the data you collect and analyze.

All these Job Profiles will not come without the required skills. Its possible only if we indentify our passion and work towards it. For complete details on these Job Profiles like the skill set required, the compensation etc. please visit http://retailindustry.about.com/od/retailjobsprofiles/Retail_Jobs_&_Your_Retail_Career_Path.htm

-Roli

 Email  Print 2 Dudes Commented »

We just “love” acronyms! ASSOCHAM, FICCI, IIT, NatGeo, SET et-ce-te-ra.

Oops! Forgot MBA completely ;-P  Oh My God, the title above can also be called MBA. Just joking!

There was this article on Mint, yesterday (read at http://epaper.livemint.com/Default.aspx?selpg=883&selDt=12/15/2008&BMode=100 ). Many other news-media have been reporting similar analysis, of the “Organised Retail” scenario, one after another.

Factually, retail takes 3rd place after economy & terror, on print media!

At the same time I find bold expansion plans or entry plans of new corporations, into this same hot-spot! What’s up guys? Agreed that organised retail has a very long way to go, from the measly 5% share. Also agreed that retail real-estate prices/rentals have “corrected” by at least 20%. And I do agree that FMCG consumption is likely to remain bouyant too.

Even then, how does it make sense to sink fresh investment in retail, at this juncture? Specially by the “unititiated”? If you read the Mint article carefully, you’ll find definite insecurities (about the industry), expressed in very subtle terms. Example: “If the organised retailers get on to the right model, it can grow by 20-25%”. Key words here - If, right model, can. All very “iffy”.

Big bosses like KB & others are all doing some “cutting-shutting” (remember that ad featuring two kids?) Which is very appropriate. Surgery is almost always the 1st resort. Chemo comes closer towards the end.

This scenario is very dicey! Who has so much surplus funds, to let them earn returns on such a long-tail cycle? If they do, why aren’t they investing the same in much safer (in the short term at least) ventures? Is there a grey area here?

India cannot afford to lose more money chasing bad. The effects will be catastrophic! I really hope we are not turning into a country run by Blind managers, following in the footsteps of our blinkered politicians.

Belt up, we are perilously close……

- Arnab

 Email  Print 2 Dudes Commented »

These days came to fill some colors to the black and white balance sheets of american retailers, or we can say black, cyber and mobile days came to save the holiday season in this weak economic period. And as a result retailers not only got huge footfall but also an awesome sale. Some store managers quoted –

“Morning traffic was “awesome”, and “even better than last year.”

“I’m guessing it was about 85 percent credit and 15 percent cash,”

“People are happy, and few — if any — mention the economy.”

 As soon as I heard about these black Friday and cyber Monday, one thing came into my mind and that was Big Bazaar. It’s the only retailer in India who leveraged these similar occasions in India like “Maha Saver theen din” on Dhanterash and something similar even on Independence Day(I am not saying other retailers don’t do these kind of promotion but the kind of advertisement Big bazaar do just overwhelm all others). And because of this it made huge retail sales, regardless of razor thin margins due to offers there was profit, reason was volumes. But there is negative aspect of these days and that is handling tremendous traffic and rush, which Big Bazaar many a times failed to handles and same happen on Black Friday, retailers were unable to handle rush and on Cyber Monday most of the retail websites goes down too often causing inconvenience to customers. But in the last what matters were the sales for retailers and special offers to consumers.

And whats there in this for Indian retailers – a lesson to form a community not a competition and organize these days nationwide and organized retail wide, together they will be better equip to handle rush and to make profits.

- Prateek Katiyar

 Email  Print Make a Comment »

Being a Post-Graduate in Retail and a RetailDude, I was not able to avoid writing this post. It basically covers my experience in Big Bazar near one of the busiest area in Bangalore i.e. ITPL. It’s a big huge outlet but lacking at all the so called customer touch points.

During my Post-Graduation, I was lucky to be taught by one of the most renowned name in the field of CRM i.e. Prof. Mukesh Chaturvedi of Birla Institute of Management Technology (BIMTECH). I will not write about him in this post as this space will be less and I won’t be able to do justice to his Knowledge and Experience. But the insight he gave us on how can we increase customer service by using customer touch point to our (Retailers) benefit helped me to understand that how bad is Big Bazar at it.

I and my friend Pranshu went there to buy a 21” Television which was already selected on net and we just went there to pay and pick. My dissatisfaction begin from the baggage counter (1st touch point) where the person refuse to keep helmet of my friend and said that it can be kept only if we can adjust it somehow in our bag. Anyhow we carried the helmet with us. Then as we went inside, air conditioner was not working and store was stinking. People didn’t had much idea that where exactly electronics department is located in store. Somehow we managed to know that it is in 1st floor. When we went there we find some televisions with a layer of dust over it, but no executives to assist us. After a little bit of search we found that all executives were busy watching a South Indian Movie in LCDs which were displayed for customers. I can’t tell you how badly they were using that LCD. How can someone buy this used LCD at the price of new one? When we went there we asked the department head that we want to look for a 21” television. That dude didn’t even bothered to look at our face and pointed an executive to assist us while he continued with his movie. We were feeling very much sorry for the executive whom we interrupt in mid of the movie. So, he asked us what you want and very quickly told that what the options they have are. He was actually in hurry as he was missing important scenes of the movie. Somehow we felt that we should not disturb him anymore and we decided to go back.

I came down and enquired for customer service desk. Thankfully it was in ground floor only. There I find a group of employees chit-chatting. I went and briefed my experience. They said this is something which is happening on regular basis why don’t you write a complain. I was shocked to know this again. I wrote a complain and left with a feeling that nothing will be done for this complain.

I don’t have any enmity against Big Bazar. I have earlier had good experience in Big Bazar near my home in Delhi at EDM. It is just the result of expansion drive with which they are not able to provide uniform experience at all of their stores which is ultimately reducing customer loyalty. It’s happening in almost all the companies in this format. We cry that we don’t have sales, cost are increasing blab blab. But this experience shows that how we lose customers who come with a fix mindset of buying a pre-decided product. Result was that we went to a local dealer and bought the television where we had a very good experience. And I don’t think that I will enter any Big Bazar store in near future!!

- Rajeev Damani

 Email  Print 2 Dudes Commented »

At this time of great global economic hit, where everybody is trying to predict the future of retail, I thought to look back and have a peek into the history.

So folks, let me ask you a question – “Which is world’s first original department store?” I know answers will vary from Walmart to Macy to J.C. Penney but none of these are right. However, department stores were not conceived by Americans. Those were French who created Department stores and then Americans followed their example. Allow me to introduce a man who had the first real department store in Paris, France. A man named Aristide Boucicaut. His dry goods store was called Bon Marché and it was transformed into what we now call a department store.

Aristide Boucicaut, born on 14 July 1810,the son of a banker, he began as a simple clerk in Bellême before he left to become a fabric salesman selling shawls. In 1829 he settled in Paris. He set up Le Bon Marché as a goods store in 1838, but his innovations in distribution became most noticeable after 1852. After this the store grew to be among the, if not the, largest in Paris, where he spent the rest of his life. The World’s Fair in 1855 gave him further ideas on how to innovate. These involved the notion of browsing, greater advertisements, fixed prices and in 1856 a catalogue. His wife also played an important role in expanding the business.

Bon Marche differed from the specialty and dry goods houses that came before in four significant ways.

First, the initial theory of dry goods houses was to sell items with a high mark up and a slow turnover of goods. Boucicaut sold his merchandise at a small mark up. Compensating for this smaller profit margin was the high turnover of goods. The volume of goods sold and the speed at which they were sold differentiated department stores from the ordinary specialty shops and other dry goods stores. Another difference was that goods were offered at a fixed price in Bon Marche. The prices on goods would be the same for every shopper; a certain kind of equality was offered. Previous to this, bargaining in stores was not only allowed but expected. The third conceptual change made by Boucicaut was the custom of free entrance. Every person could enter the shop, inspect the goods, and be free from the obligation of purchasing anything. This denoted a shift in expectations; people were obligated to buy something upon entering the specialty and dry goods stores that came before this. The last major change that was instituted by Boucicaut involved the idea that customers could return the goods they had purchased. If they wanted their money back they could get it or if they preferred to exchange their returned item for something else they were allowed.

Boucicaut’s success was impressive. He went from a total of a half- million francs in sales in 1852 to five million in sales in 1860. Because of this boom, Boucicaut diversified his lines of merchandise. He started by selling only piece goods, and expanded to offer dresses, ladies’ coats, underwear, and shoes. These new lines were carried in the same store but in separate departments. This change occurred around 1860. Boucicaut’s new handling of goods and how they were offered represented the first real department store.

The United States was the first country to follow the French example. Though there were many successful apparel and dry goods stores, many of them did not immediately follow Bon Marche’s model. Stores like Lord and Taylor (1826), Jordan Marsh (1841), Macy (1858), Wanamaker (1861), and Marshall Field (1866) still limited their merchandise to dry goods and the traditional retail lines. The first stores in America that followed the Parisian example were A.T. Stewart of New York (that was later a part of Wanamaker), Wanamaker of Philadelphia, and Marshall Field of Chicago. This occurred in America in the 1870’s. These stores refer to Boucicaut as their source of inspiration.

Source: Virginia University

-Prateek Katiyar

 Email  Print 2 Dudes Commented »

I apologise for a late entrance & a late welcome to Roli.

Getting back to business, that of Retail now…There is general misunderstanding, among most, about Recession & Depression.

Recession is broadly defined as “a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months, normally visible in real GDP growth, real personal income, employment (non-farm payrolls), industrial production, and wholesale-retail sales.”

A sustained recession may become a depression.

Generally, periods labeled “depressions” are marked by a substantial and sustained shortfall of the ability to purchase goods relative to the amount that could be produced using current resources and technology

Therefore, the time is hardly ripe, to judge general consumer spend-trends & specifically that via organised retail.

FMCG consumption via Indian organised retail is just about a “single” digit of the total, naturally. On top of this, we need to understand that juxtpaosition some tactically publiseh trends, though “textually” similar sounding but actually worlds apart, may not be addressing the real problem at all.
For example, Roli mentions “17-18% FMCG growth, followed by “more foreign brands” entering India & so on so forth”.

IF we agree to FMCG’s lion’s share selling through unorganised retail, these observations are very unrelated!
A daily labourer who bought 2 extra packs of Lux, because he could not afford two new sets of clothes, for his teenaged daughters could well be the scenario!

We can safely presume that at least 70% of our population (check if your housemaid knows) are quite unaware of the turn world / Indian economy has taken! And “that” is a BIG number of Indians, consuming a BIG chunk of FMCG! Of course there will be growth here!

In a very disturbing report, recently, we also get to know that many “global” retail biggies are actually conducting “experiments” in partnership with glamorous Indian partners! Needless to say, we Indians ARE the guinea-pigs. The same learning will again to “sold” to us at high prices. Look at the pharma industry, for instance.
As I have posted in various earlier rolls, I request the fresh minds, like yours’ to look “beyond” the made-up retail face. Scratch & peel off the foundation, it’s just a few layer-years deep! The surface below has been shaped & moulded by decades of austerity, food-control & malnutrition. All “actionable” like British rule was, through the fight for independence!

Yes, organising retail, developing supply-chains, eliminating fakes/spurious products - all these have huge potential in India.

The path, however, is nowhere close to the high-speed expressways we’ve been sold on. There are huge undulations on this road which will shake our confidence, miles of dust which may choke our verbose throats, rocky dry riverbeds most likely to challenge the J-Lo ish Michelins & steep climbs on where it will be easy to lose grip - the glitzy CRVs & Beemers will not make it I’m afraid!

But then, that does not mean they’ll run amok in the city streets either!

- Arnab

 Email  Print 3 Dudes Commented »

There are somethings money cant buy, for everything else there is the “Great Recession”.

After noticing tremendous spurt in retail rentals over the years, finally the recession period has brought a smile to the retailers. Retailers are going bullish over expansion plans, as they are getting prime coveted retail space at prices 35 per cent lesser than the last year. Infact a news headline todays says, Benetton will open a store every 3 days this month. Beat that…Phewwww.

Whatever the retailers are booking now, will be delivered a year down the line, and therefore will reduce their rental cost substantially. Despite the slowdown and high inflation, compainies remain attracted by the growth opportunity in organised retail. 

The much needed correction finally has happened to the retail rentals. For the record, lease rentals for a specialty/small store should be around 12-15 per cent of the revenue. However, retailers were paying over 20 per cent making their business. Grocery and Apparel retailers were paying 10 to 20 per cent of their sales as rent against an ideal payout of 6 to 12 per cent respectively. Meanwhile, even as they expand, retailers are also closing or shifting unviable stores. RPG group’s Spencer’s Retail has shifted 30 stores in the last year in West Bengal, Kerala and Karnataka to other locations due to high rentals and lower footfalls. Industry sources say initially most malls in the same micromarket had similar rental rates. But as they became operational, the rentals started to get aligned with revenues and footfalls. Further according to me, due to increased interest rates and fluctuations in the industry market has negated growth of demand for residential space. The realtor has definately been hit for sure. But nevertheless, its a green go for growth in retail.

Cheers!

Sudip

Excerpts from BS, ET and DNA

 Email  Print Make a Comment »