Retail Organization The term retail organization refers to the basic format or structure of a retail business designed to cater to the needs of the end customer. Recently, some scholars have started referring to India as a nation of shopkeepers. This epithet has its roots in the huge number of retail enterprises in India, which were over 12 million in 2003. About 78% of these are small family businesses utilizing only household labor. Retail firms may be independently owned, parts of a retail chain, operated as a franchisee, leased departments, owned by manufacturers or wholesalers, consumers owned or co-operative society. A retail unit could be owned by: Manufacturer (e.g., company owned retail outlets) Wholesaler (e.g., Vastra outlet in Rajouri in New Delhi) Independent retailer (Chanakya Sweet Shop near Hazratganj in Lucknow) Consumer (consumer owned grocery stores in man y residential societies) Co-operative society (e.g., Mother Dairy milk booths in Delhi) Continue reading
Retail Management Basics
Unit Planning and Merchandise Lists
Unit planning is an operational management tool to plan the merchandise assortment and support. It is directed at determining the amount of inventory the retailer should carry by items and by units and answers the inventory questions of how many product items or assortment and how many units of each items or support to stock. The process of unit planning involves the use of several merchandise lists which constitute a set of operational plans for managing the total selection of merchandise. Based on the type of merchandise, the retailer carries, one or more of the following three merchandise lists namely, Basic Stock list, Model stock list and Never-out list. These merchandise lists represent essentially the ‘ideal’ stock for meeting the consumer’s merchandise needs in terms of assortment and support. 1. Basic Stock List The “basic stock list” is a planning instrument retailers use to determine the assortment and support Continue reading
Elements of Retail Store Interior Design
The retail store’s exterior is responsible for attracting the passers by both actual and potential customers to induce them to enter the store. The store’s interior is much more important than the exterior as it welcomes the actual consumer. The layout and design of a retail store communicate a significant amount of information about the retailer to the consumer. The retail store’s interior must contribute to the retailer’s fundamental objectives of minimizing operational expenses and maximize sales and consumer satisfaction, therefore, profits. To attain these goals, the store’s interior not only must be inviting, comfortable and convenient for the consumer. It must also permit the retailer to use the interior space efficiency and effectively. Let us try to touch up on the basic elements of the retail store interior design. 1. Fixtures A major consideration in developing an appropriate store design involves the use of fixtures. They are used to Continue reading
Customer Spotting Techniques in Retail
Customer spotting techniques include several methods by which the retailer attempts to “spot” customer origins on a map. By carefully observing me magnitude and arrangement of these origins the retailer can identify the dimensions of the trading area. Retailers normally define customer origins by home addresses, although customers place of employment are also important. Some of the more common customer spotting techniques include surveys of customers’ license plates, customer surveys, analysis of customer records and studies of customer activities. License Plate Surveys. By recording the license plate numbers of automobiles in the store’s parking area, retailers can obtain customer home addresses. Sampling normally includes the checking of licence plates at different times of the day, different days of the week and different weeks of the month to ensure a representative sample. The major advantage of this technique is it is relatively in expensive method. However, the advantages are; (1) It Continue reading
Unorganized Retail in India
Retailing in India is predominantly unorganized. According to a survey by AT Kearney, an overwhelming proportion of the Rs. 400,000 crore retail market is UNORGANISED. In fact, only a Rs. 20,000 crore segment of the market is organized. We are known as a nation of shopkeepers with over 12 million, the highest outlet density in the world in the world with an estimated turnover of $ 200 billion. However a disturbing point here is that as much as 96 per cent of them are smaller than 500 square feet in area. This means that India per capita retailing space is about 2 square feet (compared to 16 square feet in the United States). India’s per capita retailing space is thus the lowest in the world. Another point to note is that only 8 % of our population is engaged in Retail whereas the global average is around 10-12%. Traditional retailing Continue reading
Out-shopper Analysis in Retail Management
It is very clear that not all the consumers who are within the trading area shop exclusively from that area. A group of consumers known as “out-shoppers” frequently and regularly shop outside their local trading area. These consumers spend a considerable amount of time, money and effort making inter-trading area shopping trips. Some out-shoppers look for economic gains arising from lover prices in larger trading centers where assortments are better and the level of competition is more intense. Some shoppers simply seek the diversity of unfamiliar or more stimulating surroundings. Demographically out-shoppers are younger and are relatively well educated and their relative income is high; psychologically, out-shoppers are active and are on the “go”, urban-oriented who are neither time conscious nor store loyal shoppers. They tend to manifest a distaste for local shopping and, hence, a strong preference for out of town shopping areas. To obtain an accurate estimate of Continue reading