Retail Management

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Contents

Introduction        1

History of the Store        1

Positioning of the Store        2

Location/Trade Area Analysis        3

Merchandising        3

Assortment Strategy        3

Inventory        4

Vendors        4

Private Labels        4

Food and Grocery segment        4

Category role        4

Assortment:        5

Sales velocity:        5

Seasonality        6

Store Layout and Visual Merchandising        6

Introduction

The chosen retail grocery store Banmanli Sahu is located at a prime location in Sakchi market, Jamshedpur. The store has been part of a family business that owns several retail outlets in Jamshedpur region. The store has been serving the customers in Jamshedpur area for about a century by focusing on enhancing the shopping experience of the customers and maintaining relationships with its loyal base.

The store may have its roots in traditional kirana store format, but the focus on enhancing the experience has caused the store to evolve over the time. As a result, the contemporary store design gives the impression of it being a modern retail store. In India, more than 90 percentage of market share in retail sector is still attributable to traditional retail store. But the rapid growth in modern retail is likely to influence the way traditional retail stores operate in India in near future.

With the rise of modern retail in India, the traditional retail is likely feel the pressure to rethink the design philosophy of every aspect of the business from physical layout to assortment selection. The growing intensity of competition is likely to drive the traditional retail players to optimize their Retail Value Proposition to be relevant to their target group.  

With almost 600 daily footfall, the store has about 20 people present on average at any given moment as per the information provided by the store manager. The smaller total area of the store as compared to the modern retail stores may not allow a store design with wide aisles and a lot of empty spaces. But as per the store manager, the entire design of the store has been done with the focus on enhancing customer experience. The manager emphasized this point with example of location of heavy items that were kept near the checkout counter to minimize the physical efforts of the customers. The store has two floors and the second floor primarily houses cosmetic products.

The store is able to serve a large geographic area with its capability in providing home deliveries. The store has a website that allows its customers to place the order online. Banmali Sahu also has a second store that is opening in near future that will allow the store to better serve its customers and further expand its trading area.

History of the Store 

The store was first established in 1918. With experience of almost 100 years, the management of this family owned establishment has accumulated the learning to give due consideration to the customer experience in every aspect of the business. The proprietorship of the store has remained in the family and the management responsibilities have been handed down the generations.

The store has undergone renovation twice since its establishment. Each effort at the renovation was to ensure that the store is relevant for all the prospective customers. The store manager described the evolution of the business in terms of improvements in sales supports, customer service and overall customer experience. Such continuous effort has enabled the store to build relationships with the customers it serves that is a source of competitive advantage.

Positioning of the Store

Banmali Sahu store operates in department store format and sells large assortment of grocery and cosmetics products in its two floor shop. The store manager was reluctant to mention any target segment for the store. But the observations inside the store reveal that most of the visiting customers are part of the middle class families. Most of the visiting customers were married women and their shopping list included items that can be consumed by the members of the family belonging to different age groups.

As per the information given by the store manager, the average basket value is around two thousand rupees. This indicates that the customers are likely to visit the store to do the monthly or weekly shopping. A considerable portion of the customers also place orders remotely by telephone or by using online order facility on the store’s website. As the designated minimum order quantity for home delivery is fifteen hundred rupees, the customers ordering online are also likely to be shopping for a month’s or week’s supply of grocery items.

The merchandise selection seemed to have largely driven by the needs and demands of the customers with most of the leading brands offered by the store. Small discounts were offered on almost all the products throughout the year. As the pricing is driven by moderate discounts and the store carries a variety of categories and has a broad assortment of goods at moderate prices the format of the store was identified as department store.

The major competitors of the store are other department stores in the vicinity, especially those stores that provide home delivery service. But no other store offers a similar retail mix and overall experience as Banmali Sahu. The other direct competitors for the store can be the modern retail stores that offer similar or superior customer experience with larger product assortment. The indirect competitors for the store are the smaller grocery stores in the vicinity and convenience stores scattered throughout the trading area of the store in Jamshedpur.

Location/Trade Area Analysis[pic 4]

The store is located at Chowk Bazar, Sakchi which is a major shopping center for residents in and around Sakchi, i.e. Baradwari, Kasidih, Mango, Burmamines etc. It is around 700 meters from the busy Sakchi Golchakkar making it easily accessible for most age groups on foot or a small vehicle. According to the Manager of the store, consumers come there from all across Jamshedpur mainly due to the location being in the vicinity of the Sakchi Market as well as the trustworthy brand name that is quite popular among the residents of the Steel City. Adding to that the fact that the store also has provisions for home delivery of goods above Rs. 1500/- to all parts of Jamshedpur, the net trading area of the Sakchi store can be considered to be around 10-12 kilometers.