Retail Dude

Money Kumar is an innovative as well as very meaningful initiative taken by RBI (Reserve Bank of India) to make people understand monetary policies. Money Kumar, the lead character of comic has tried to create awareness that how RBI affects each one of us in our daily life and what is it’s importance in economy. Many concepts which we find difficult to understand in our schools and colleges are explained in a simple manner by ‘Money Kumar’. Important concepts like inflation, price stability, steady growth, recession, financial stability etc. are made easy.

Retail Dude want its readers to have clarity on such important concept and revise it as these are very much required in current economic scenario. As consumers also, it is necessary to have awareness about it.

The comic is available in the download section of retaildude.com

- Rajeev Damani

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A pretty well known newsmailer writes this morning “Rural and bottom of pyramid (BOP) markets are being considered the next big thing after a considerable saturation in urban markets”.

Being considered? Next big thing? Considerable saturation?

Note that the operatives we are apprehensive about - Being, Big & Considerable!

The same article says “companies are increasingly focusing on customising their products to the needs of consumers” .

Amazing, isn’t it? We should be collectively grateful that “focus on consumers” are finally “increasing”!

On the article we also see another interesting finding - “Sachet marketing has also found favour as it not only makes products affordable, it also helps build brand loyalty”. Must admit it’s a little too late a finding! As early as 1996, a small & ambitious start-up, originally named Beauty Cosmetics, introduced the world’s first “pillow pack”, a transparent 20ml sachet, priced at Re.1. Pioneered by an oft forgotten visionary, Mr. Ranganathan.

The start up morphed into a 300 crore+ FMCG major, renamed Cavinkare Limited. They also were the 1st hair-care brand to introduce a 50p sachet.

Thousands of MBAs had to study this unique case-study, as the concept was unique, made unprecedented inroads into rural India, was a phenomenal success & most importantly - adopted as THE most innovative packaging by almost all FMCG MNCs, worldwide.

It’s obvious that after the 24 months spent in acquiring the “qualifying” suffix, most marketing hot-shots have conveniently forgotten about the case & why they had to study it, in the first place. Yesterday’s news you see!

It took an institution like Mr. Prahlad (interestingly his initials are CK too, as in CKL) to “remind” our brand-custodians that India IS in its hinterland.

Ranganathan, being a humble middle-class innovator, with no vowels next to his name, is history! No media-adorned marketing whiz-kid will bother to pay any respect to this man who not only had the vision way before CKP did, but, made it work! 

Do the “operatives” still look benign to you?

- Arnab

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Malls have always faced the problem of more browsers than buyers, but in the first of it’s kind report, more retailers are pulling out of malls for the want of sufficient footfalls. As seen historically any store in the mall gets a conversion of around 18-30% depending on it’s location and accessibility within the mall. And, if the mall is not able to attract large number of footfalls, any retailer would find it hard to earn enough to match the rising rentals along with the cost of operating the store. With little or no support from the mall developers in marketing the store this has become a spiraling problem for not only the large houses but even the smaller ones.

Another area which the article brings to light is the lack of understanding an imperative (from a retailer’s point of view) concept of “tenant mix”. The term simply connotes the mix of retailers who are present in a particular mall. It is palpable that in a single mall the kind of retailers should similar to each other, in terms of their price points, demography of their target segment and in some cases the merchandise on offer (eg. Gold Souk in Gurgaon). But, as retail professional I can only feel sorry for those retailers whose professionals fail to analyze these considerations before they zero-in on a particular mall.

Well, one of the recent examples is happening right now in my city, Dehradun. Looking at the tenant mix of the mall (one of the first) one can only wonder - Would a brand such as UCB, Reebok and Big Bazaar, be able to generate similar kind of revenue operating out of the same mall? If you ask me I’m more than dubious. Though, the company would have done the indispensable study of the catchment and the competitors but still the point that they missed out was the understanding the majority of customers who would visit the mall, considering that it’s anchor tenant is Big Bazaar.

Like a ubiquitous silver lining, there a lesson in this whole episode too. It’s time for smaller retailers, who are bent on following footsteps of their larger and more established counterparts, to step back and think again. It is crucial to decide on any location only after asking oneself a simple question –Would my target customers be comfortable to shop at the selected location and subsequently, would they return to the store every now and then?

-  Vivin

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After reading the article and surfing the sites as mentioned in article “Thrift Stores” , I came across the term “Give-away Shops“. Give-away Shops also known as freeshops, or free stores are second-hand stores where all goods are free. They are similar to charity shops, only everything is available at no cost. Whether it is a book, a piece of furniture, a garment or a household item, it is all freely given away. They reflect a switch over from scarcity to abundance brought about by increased material wealth due to technological advances. The idea of free goods still carries some stigma, so many people who use these shops are those who are led to them either by need (financially poor, such as students, single parents and the elderly) or by conviction (anti-capitalists). A free store is a temporary market where people exchange goods and services outside of a money-based economy.

I am able to find one pic of the free store —

Inside a free shop in Freiburg, Germany

From the picture you can depict that it is not that bad if you are getting a merchandise absolutely Free

The roots of the “free store” lie in the anarchist movement. Today the idea is kept alive by the new generations of environmentalists who view the idea as an intriguing way to raise awareness about consumer culture and to promote the reuse of commodities.Now the donors are often not motivated by financial need or strictly anti-capitalist conviction, but by a desire to get rid of what would otherwise be garbage without adding it to landfills.

Thus these give-away stores are not only helping society but also result in reuse of commodity which otherwise end up into waste or pollution for environment.

- Prateek Katiyar

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Recently I came across a website http://www.americasthrift.com and was convinced to post something on Thrift Stores. So, I did little bit of research and googling to come up with this article. A Thrift Store is basically a Retail store selling second-hand goods at reduced prices as to benefit a charitable organization. Thrift Stores purchases new and used items from local charities and department stores and provides additional, and often vital, funding for local Christian-based charities to benefit needy families and individuals. The ranges of items which are sold in a thrift store are clothes, footwear, CD’s, DVD’s, Home Furnishing, White Goods etc.

While going through all these details, the picture of thrift store which came into my mind was a small store having old goods arrange haphazardly and a group of unprofessional sales man selling the merchandise with no touch of Organized Retailing. But I was shocked after seeing a video on the America’s Thrift Stores website, check following link:

 http://www.americasthrift.com/shopping_a_thrift_store.php  

 The stores are no less than an organized retail outlet with proper fixtures, ticketing, clear aisles, good atmospherics, assortment, customer service, lightings etc.

 With rising gas prices and depreciating Dollar, popularity of Thrift Stores is increasing in America. Other benefits of buying from a thrift store are:

·         Good Bargains

·         Unique or hard to find items

·         Keeps merchandise out of landfill

But there are few challenges with Thrift Stores. In a recent national study of thrift stores conducted by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, an estimated 69 percent of the stores were selling at least one type of hazardous consumer product. Many of these were children’s products. So, ensuring safety is a challenge for thrift store.  (Check: http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/pubs/thrift/thrftck.html ) 

-          Rajeev Damani

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“TATA’s Khet Se, Which is a 50:50 JV between Tata Chemicals and Total Produce, Ireland is expanding, Reports suggest that they are opening up another distribution center in Mumbai “

 Previous posts related to “Rural Retailing” got me thinking! We all have read and acknowledged the fortune at bottom of the pyramid! So whenever a biggie (Read: Reliance) enters the market at the bottom! The numbers would just juggle me up! What is “Rural Retailing” after all? Is it organizing the retail mechanism in the rural parts of India? or is it about bringing rural India close to urban India? Where is the actual “Fortune”?

So I ended up “Googling” a bit about both the scenarios, while rajeev posted about “Reliance” entering the rural market, I stumbled across the news of TCL’s “Khet Se” setting up a DC in Mumbai. Both the players have the word “Rural” intact! One is going to the rural market, setting up a store there, and will provide agricultural inputs, Groceries etc. On the other hand “Khet Se” is playing a role reversal by bringing rural products to urban India, They are gambling upon revamping the way farm fresh products are warehoused and distributed.

“Khet Se” has its focus on registered B2B consumers, Which range from local fruit/vegetable vendors to local retailers, Who can directly buy farm fresh products from khet Se’s DC. In terms of value addition Khet Se is providing the technical know how to the farmers, to help increase the output and overall quality of the end product, While they are working on a efficient supply chain as well.

Now we just have to wait and watch, Who gets to the fortune first! Which model is more beneficial for the “Rural India”? My bet is with Khet Se! How about yours?

- Sarthak

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Reliance BIG TV DTH, a wholly owned subsidiary of Reliance Communications, announced the launch of a revolutionary feature, Picture-in-Picture (PIP) that would enable viewers to watch twelve TV channels at the same time on any TV set in the country.

BIG TV DTH service is available at 1 Lakh retail outlets, including over 240 Reliance World and 2000 Reliance Mobile Stores, across 6500 towns in the country. The country’s largest distribution and customer service infrastructure for Home Entertainment Service built by BIG TV DTH enables it to serve over 5 million new customers every year. The customer service and support infrastructure comprises of an army of 5400 specially trained installers, capable of installing over 15,000 connections daily and within 48-72 hours of every customer order.

“In a market where close to 80 Million out of 120 Million homes already use Cable or DTH; explicit differentiation of service and enriched applications is of prime importance. BIG TV’s Picture-in-Picture (PIP) feature would bring in a revolution of similar magnitude on TV sets what SMS brought on a Mobile Phone”, said Mr. Mahesh Prasad, President – Application Services Group, Reliance Communications. “The Mosaic application, which enables the PIP feature, changes the ease in selecting the program of choice from the bouquet of over 200 channels using BIG TV’s unique Picture menu. The 12 screen Picture Menu overcomes the significant constraint of demographic and geographic variations which a Text-based menu cannot”, he added.

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I am not going to give you  tips on becoming HULK But as I talked lot about the green initiation and sustainability plans of the big retailers and the future strategies of the small retailers to become eco friendly in the near future, but what about you as a person are doing to help our mother earth? No no no don’t worry I am not going to give you a check list of items saying switch off the lights, use solar power, say no to plastics etc. I am gonna tell u a simple step in which without doing u will become eco friendly. As everyone of as use computers as a part of office work or as a entertainment medium in home or to find location of friends home on google maps, we all use PCs and PC use power to run. So here is a freeware which can tune your PCs power usage as per your parameters and also help you to save energy as well as your money. Edison ( ya the name will make you to recall man who invented bulb to use energy but ironically in virtual world is helping in saving energy) will help your PC to go Green. Edison allows you to set different energy preferences for work and non-work time, then choose the times you want each profile to run. The power settings determine how long your PC should wait before turning off the display, powering down your hard drive, and suspending your computer. After you set your preferences, Edison also estimates your yearly savings in terms of money, energy, and CO2 emissions. Edison is freeware, requires .NET 2.0 and an email address for registration.

You can find this freeware here

Just give it a try

-Prateek Katiyar

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CRM magazine, the industry’s leading publication, announced the winners of its 2008 CRM Market Awards in conjunction with the magazine’s destinationCRM 2008 conference. It is 7th CRM Market award which aims at awarding vendors, consultants and end-user companies focusing in CRM.

This year company gave award in 10 categories, each having a Market Winner, four Market Leader & One to Watch. Market Winner is the one having highest score in that category.  

Note: Click on the image to enlarge.

- Rajeev Damani

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Indian IT Diversification:

We all know that Indian IT industry is facing a big time challenge with subprime crisis in US and appreciating Indian Rupee. Credit crisis in US Subprime-Mortgage Industry resulted into loss of business from global banks and financial institutions, which is one of the main source of income for them (BFSI).

In order to compensate for this slowdown, Indian IT industry is forced to identify new ways of increasing their overall sales. So, instead of waiting for customer orders, they started developing innovative products which will improve customer’s business processes and will help them serve their customers in a better manner. Some of these innovation and inventions are:

·         Wipro is building set-up box for digital televisions and marketing it to American Cable Companies.

·         Infosys has developed a cosmetics mirror. When a radio-tagged lipstick is brought close, it turns into an information screen and recommends coordinating colors and products to customers.

·         Infosys is working on “smart shelves” which automatically track which piles of shirts customers have picked up the most often. This will help Retailers to identify which are the products which attract customer attention but they don’t buy it for some reasons.

·         TCS has developed a radio tagged pass for airline customers which will help them to check in by just swiping it and avoiding other formalities.

·         TCS has developed a software which will help airlines know frequent fliers preferences and will help them in customization.

·         Infosys has developed ShoppingTrip360, a new offering intended to help retailers and consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies achieve visibility into in-store activity. It is a wireless-equipped shopping cart that charts the most efficient path through a store based on a consumer’s shopping list.

·         Wipro is designing water flow systems for Airbus’s new A380.

These initiatives in part of Indian IT Giants are showcasing that how they are moving from problem solving to business advisory mode.

-      Rajeev Damani

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