Managin Retailing

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Title Page

* Introduction to Retailing........................................................................... 3

* Retail Store Formats................................................................................ 3

* Store Location Planning, Design and Layout................................................. 9

* SCM in retail......................................................................................... 12

* Retail Marketing and advertising.............................................................. 15

* Retail Operations........................................................................... 16

* Managing retail personnel..................................................................... 19

* Customer service management in retail................................................... 21

* Visual merchandising and displays......................................................... 24

* Role of personal selling in retail ................................................ 28

* Online retailing or e-tailing........................................................................ 30

* Retail in India and the current issues............................................................32

* References & Links.................................................................................. 37

Retailing

Retailing refers to the activity in which an agency buys goods in large quantity from the manufacturer or wholesaler and then subsequently sells it in smaller magnitude to consumers for personal use. Retailers are the point of contact of the manufactures or producers with the consumers. They form the last link in the distribution chain.

Retailing is of extreme importance as importance as it ensures that the basket of goods and services is made available to the consumers in the most convenient manner. Thus this is the channel for the fourth 'P' of marketing, i.e. the place.

As with products, the retail format also goes through different stages such as growth, maturity and decline. This is known as the retail lifecycle. The Wheel of Retailing hypothesis tries to explain this phenomenon. It seeks to reason out the factor that leads to the emergence of a particular store and decline of some other.

Retail Format:

Retail format refer to the techniques used by the retailers to sell their products, be it goods or services. On a general note, retail practices can be categorized as store format and non store format. The store format is the traditional form of retailing and is the most widespread one. The non store format includes direct selling, mail orders and the technology based retailing formats, namely, internet retailing, TV Shopping and vending. The non stores format brings the seller to the customer and thus making it more convenient for the customer.

Store Format

Today there are different forms of stores addressing varying needs of the customers. These stores range from stores like Central, where one gets everything from dinnerware to digital camera; to Pills & Powder which is restricted to drugs. These stores also differ depending on the prices. The different types of stores are described below.

Specialist Stores

This category includes stores which are offer a narrow product range. Stores like Pills & Powder (which specializes in medicines), Health & Glow (specializes in cosmetics, beauty products and accessories) and Music World come under this category. These stores also include service providers such as beauty clinics, banks, cafes. Some examples are Lakme Beauty Salon and Barista.

Department Stores

Department stores are the oldest form of large stores. Department stores are large stores offering a wide variety of products under one roof. The store is segregated into different sections, with each section housing a different product category. These stores are often seen as providing more than a place to shop. They are at times tourist attractions.

Some examples of this category are Landmark, Nilgiris and Westside.

Variety Stores

Variety stores are essentially a variant of department stores. The main difference between the two is that the variety stores have less product depth. Though, they have the same variety of product categories, they offer less choice and stock a lot of in-house brands. However, this distinction is not clearly demarcated. Stores like Lifestyle and Shoppers Stop come under this category.

Discount Stores

A discount store can be defines as a retailer that uses an everyday low pricing policy, where pricing remains constantly low, rather than a high low pricing policy where prices drop only at promotional times (Principles of retail management, Rosemary Varley and Mohammed Rafiq). These stores include Big Bazaar and Subhiksha.

Subhiksha is a Chennai based supermarket chain which practices discount retailing. Here the products are sold at a price lower than the MRP. This is made possible by eliminating the middle men in the traditional supply chain. Before starting out, it was realized that the customers gave more importance to the prices and convenience (accessibility) than to the ambience. Hence it adopted a discount store format to compete with the local kirana stores.

Big Bazaar, a part of the Pantaloon Group, is also based on the philosophy of discount pricing. It advertises itself as having the lowest prices and allows customers to return the goods purchased if they are sold at a cheaper price in any other store.

Factory Outlets

Factory outlets are the outlets where products which have a minor defect (second's quality) are sold to the customers at lower prices. These are generally located in the outskirts of the city so as not to hamper the sales of proper or fresh merchandise of the company. These stores are a win-win