SCHEME MANAGEMENT

Sujith called Ramesh in his cabin and informed him that as sales were very low in his department he wants to put up some good schemes for the weekend. He wanted to put up two schemes-
Avail 25% off on all tops in the ladies wear,
Buy 2 trousers and avail 50% off on the third. It had given tremendous response last year.
During the weekend as usual there were lot of customers on the flow and everybody was busy purchasing. Sujith noticed that most of the customers were not aware of the offer being run in his store. Also the billing process was slow at the cash counters as most of the customers were verifying with the cashiers if there was any offer on the specific product purchased by them.
At the customer service desk he noticed that some customers were complaining that they were billed wrong on the products they purchased and they wanted a refund. On attending to one of the customer the staff at the CSD noticed that some schemes that was available on the ladies products were not updated in the system, even though signage were placed on these products informing about the scheme.
Sujith also noticed Ramesh running to and fro from the cash desk to the IT room along with some merchandise. He also noticed that some customers were also shouting at him.

What was the major problem in Sujith’s store and what was the reason for the same. What should have Ramesh done to avoid this?

Scheme Preparation:
In retail stores to satisfy customers as well as to improve sales and liquidate stocks exciting schemes and offers are often put up in the stores. To put up the right scheme on the right product at the right time is in itself a skill which the retailer or the store in-charge needs to have.
The store in-charge needs to have a thorough understanding of the products in terms of sale, age of the stock that is the period between the time it has hit the store till date, stock-in-hand, performance of the stock related to profitability, the best sellers and the slow sellers, customer profile, and market trend.

To make it simpler let us take an example of a departmental store dealing with apparels. In the men’s formal section there exists 5 lines of shirts which have been received in the store at various intervals. Assume that the cost price of the shirts is INR.300/- and selling price of the all the shirts are INR750/-.The category has informed to maintain a 60% margin on all the lines. The sales performance of the shirts also varies. Now two more new lines of shirts have reached the warehouse and need to be accommodated in the formal section. Hence to create space for these two new lines the department manager needs to come up with a good scheme so as clear the existing stocks and create space for the new stocks.

Below chart shows the data of the stock-in-hand of the five lines of shirts


Shirt

1
2
3
4
5
new line 1
new line 2
Stock-in-hand
575
425
567
250
565
750
750
arrival date
Nov-07
Dec-07
Nov-07
Jan-08
Jan-08
in transit
In transit
sales qty.till Mar-08
175
325
183
500
185
NA
NA
MRP
750/-
750/-
750/-
750/-
750/-



From the above data it is clear shirt 1 was a slow seller with lot of dead stock and also shirt 3. Shirt 4 is the best seller. To introduce the two new lines schemes have to be put on shirts 1, 2 and 3 with maximum offers on shirts 1 and 3.

Let us consider shirt 1
Total no. of shirts ordered is 750
Cost price = 300/-
MRP= 750/-
Profit Margin= 150%
Margin to be maintained= 60% i.e. can relax the discount maximum to 480/-
No. of pieces sold= 175

Below listed are some attractive ways the stocks can be cleared and maintain the required margin.
1. 125 more shirts need to be sold for break even if sold at maintained MRP of 750/- and open to maximum schemes on the balance 450 shirts.
· For ex: Avail 50% off or 60% off and so on. Can also use a scheme which will benefit the sale of other lines.
· For ex: To promote the sales of shirt 5 which is a new entrant compared to the rest of the stocks an offer can be put where one can avail shirt 1 for free. This will help clear the dead stock, increase the sale of the new entrant as well as make space for the new lines.

2. Sell the rest of the shirts (575pcs.) at 480/- (35% off) maximum and still make a profit.

3. Shirts 1 and 3 can also be sold as “Buy 2 for 999/-” and clear maximum stocks and also maintain the required margin.

While putting such offers care should be taken to maintain the margins as expected by the category team, to achieve top line and bottom line.

To make it a success the employees within the store need to plan and prepare well in advance so as no goof up takes place during the schemes being operational within stores.

Communicating the team about the scheme
First and foremost the relevant manager needs to communicate to his team regarding the scheme. It is his responsibility to explain each individual staff the application of the scheme in detail so as the staff feels comfortable during its operation and while explaining to the customer about the scheme.

To stock enough merchandise on offer
The staffs from the respective department need to ensure that stocks for the said period the scheme or offer that is going to run is available. The manager need to ensure that every staff takes this as an opportunity to liquidate his or her stocks and hence to stack all fixtures with maximum number of stocks. Availability of stocks during the schemes also entertains more walk-ins to the stores. During any scheme running in the store if stocks or proper merchandise mix is unavailable then it does not satisfy customers, its focus is lost and one ends up losing sales and the scheme turns out to be a flop show.

To keep the department ready
The manager needs to ensure that the department where the scheme is running is kept neat and clean, all the fixtures are aligned properly, merchandise displayed neatly so as it gives customers an impression to shop in the department.

To arrange for all signage
All signage need to be prepared with the updated schemes mentioned on them. These signage need to be then placed on the fixtures accordingly so as it communicates properly to all the customers entering the department.

To inform IT to update the scheme in system
The manager has to ensure that all schemes are updated by the systems personal so as during the billing the customer does not face any problems due to the same if not updated.

To inform Head Cashier about the scheme
Head cashier needs to be informed about the scheme running in the store so as he can communicate the same to his cashiers. The cashiers need to be aware of all schemes running in the store.

To inform CSD about the scheme
The customer service desk team also need to be updated about schemes running in the store so as accordingly announcements can be made to inform customers about the schemes running inside the store. Also it will help the desk staff to answer telephonic queries from customers regarding the schemes in case it has been put up in the media as well.

To inform the marketing team about the scheme
The marketing team need to be informed about the scheme well in advance so as they are prepared with all logistics required accordingly.

Pre-Event Preparations

In retailing major events are planned during festive seasons so as to attract customers. The traffic to the stores during the festive season is phenomenal and to make the full utilisation of the same retailers come up with good offers and schemes. Almost 40 -45% of the sales for the entire year is covered during the festive season. Hence it’s a very critical period for the retailers and to make it a successful event retailers need to plan and prepare well in advance for smooth operations so as the customers are benefited and also the store benefits from the same.
The success of the store and good business depends on how efficiently the event was pre-planned how effectively it was put into action.
The manager is responsible for the effective operation of the store during this period. He needs to check personally the requirements of each and every department. A checklist needs to be in place to take care of the same.

Checklist-Department wise:

Shop-floor:
· Extra sales staffs need to be manning the department.
During major events huge customer walk-ins is expected and hence there is a requirement of extra sales staffs (on temporary roles) for back-up and floor coverage.
· All cashiers need to be present.
Because the walk-ins will be high there will also be a huge conversion rate. Due to this to avoid long queues at the cash desks and to enhance the billing efficiency all cash tills within the store need to be kept operational, for which there will be requirement of full coverage of cashiers.
· Check all merchandise have proper tags, barcodes to ensure fast billing
The loss prevention team need to ensure all merchandise is individually tagged to avoid pilferage which will be very evident due to the crowd expected. Also to avoid problems and delay in billing at the cash counter all merchandise need to be checked thoroughly for availability of barcodes.
· Sufficient availability of hangers
Merchandise is ordered in volumes during major events, and hence it becomes very necessary to also avail extra hangers from the warehouse to display the same in the store.
· All VM signage to be in place
The department managers should keep all the signage mentioning the offers ready well in advance to avoid last minute mess up.
· Extra stocks of essential merchandise (socks, vests, etc.)
Such merchandise should never be out of stock at any given time
· Fill in all shelves to capacity
All the fixtures and shelves should be available with merchandise as per capacity; no fixture should be seen with less stock or sizes not available.
· Arrange back stock areas
Most of the stores have a back stock area to keep excess merchandise as well as back up stocks. This area needs to be well arranged at all time so as it becomes easy for the floor staff to pick stocks from the stock area whenever required without difficulty.
· Size sets to be organised
All merchandise displayed on the fixtures need to be merchandised size-wise so as it becomes convenient for customers to identify and pick the stock they require.

· Colour blocking to be done in advance
Colour blocking means arranging merchandise as per their shades of colours in a specific section to visually appeal the customers and attract them towards the section. Refer chapter on visual merchandising.

· Impulse areas to be fully stocked
Many essential products like handkerchiefs, socks, wallets, cookies, ready to eat items and other accessories are usually and most often placed near cash counters. these products help to top up sales as they act as impulse products to a customer at the shop floor or standing in a queue at the cash counter, who pick these products just for the sake of it or got an interest in the product at the last moment and made a decision to buy. Such a purchase is termed impulse buy and products are termed as impulse products. The areas, mostly at the cash desk, are termed as impulse areas. Mostly stall bins and stack bins are used to display these impulse products.

· All cartons and empty boxes to be removed from the shop floor
The shop floor should not be seen with cartons or boxes of merchandise lying around as these cause hindrance and inconvenience to customers.

· To create proper aisles for customers
All departments and sections need to be clearly demarcated with proper wide walking aisles. The floor should not look very congested with excess fixtures and merchandise displayed. All damaged goods to be cleared from the shop floor


Co-ordination with supply chain for timely delivery of stocks

Warehouse should be kept ready on-call for urgent deliveries. During events the warehouse need to operate on twenty four hour basis. It needs to be well equipped to deliver in times of any emergency, be it supply or delivery of stocks or home deliveries to customers.
· Systems(IT) should be tested for all discounts and overall efficient functioning before hand
· Updating and circulation of schemes sheet to all staff members
· Roster to be prepared well in advance

Cash counter:
· Additional cash tills to be installed.
If possible additional cash tills need to be installed in the shop floor to reduce customer traffic at payment counters, and to avoid inconvenience and problems for customers. Lack of cash tills within the stores lead to customers leaving the merchandise selected for billing to avoid standing in queues for long hours during peak time. Additional tills will help the store in efficient and quick billing, thus increasing business for the store.

· Float-coins and sufficient change need to be kept ready for the cashiers
The head cashier need to arrange for good amount of change from the bank well in advance to avoid falling short of change at the cash counters. Being proactive and giving a better service to the customers by arranging for such activities well in advance will certainly build the companies loyalty towards the customer and avoid the worry of losing customers in the long run due to lack of service.
Apart from this the head cashier also needs to take care of supply of consumables-shopping bags, staplers, staple pins, and other stationary requirements, Q-managers to control the queue, check the functioning of EDC machines and adequate supply of EDC rolls. He should arrange for extra sets of manual cash memos in case of emergencies, and make arrangements with associated banks for extra lines and support and Cash pick up arrangement. Hot listed card list also need to be provided to the cashiers.



Facility:
· Extra housekeeping staff
Because there will be a lot of customer walk-ins during any major events requirement of extra housekeeping will be necessary to cope up with the extra amount of workload that will exist.
· Additional security guards
Looking at the present scenario of major risks involved at public areas it becomes essential for retailers to arrange for extra security for safety purpose. Also stores become sensitive and get exposed to untoward incidents, theft, etc. during events. The deployment of extra security guards tends to minimize such incidents.
· AC maintenance, filters cleaned before hand
The maintenance department need to check maintenance of all A/C. Check has to happen to see whether the centralised A/C is functioning to its full capacity. All light bulbs and electrical points should be properly checked to avoid short circuits, etc. Generators servicing and stock of diesel need to be looked into.
· Opening and closing hours of the store need to be extended
· Valet parking needs to be under control
· Disaster management and evacuation plan should be in place
· Extra waste bins to be in place
· Extra chairs for senior citizens
· Delivery counter should be put up by the operations team
· PRO to keep all government officials informed accordingly well in advance
· A special team to be arranged to handle emergencies
· Extra plastic glass and drinking water facility to be arranged for customers walking inside the store.

CSD:
· Dedicated person for announcement
· Updated list of schemes running in the store
· Gift wrappers in place
· Scotch tape, rubber stamps, etc. in place
· First aid box to be re-filled
· Music and in-store entertainment to be organised
· Extra Tokens to be in place for baggage counter

HRD:
· Staff motivational incentives and rewards to be announced before hand
· Arrangement of refreshments for staffs
· All staff members to be advised to wear comfortable shoes
· Supply of Glucose for staffs need to be organised

THE BIG DAY 2004-05 SUCCESS STORY

My main goal for this store was to do a sale of ten lakhs (1 lakh = 100 thousand) in a single day (average sales per week was 11-12 lakhs.) apart from achieving the ABP for the year. I had targeted one of the Sundays, the 7th of November 2004, which falls just before Diwali- the festival of lights. This day is the most crucial day in a retailer’s life here in India as maximum business is done on this specific day throughout the year. It is also termed ‘The Big Day’. During the staff meeting when I informed the staffs about this target of achieving ten lakhs figure, I noticed that the staffs felt that such a feat was impossible. Vinod got up and said, “We need to be a bit more practical in setting targets, sir. How is it possible to achieve this? Our previous best during the EOSS- End of Season Sale was seven lakhs, and it was achieved because the entire store was on sale.” To this I told him we will have to plan in detail our store inventory, selling skills, store layout and merchandising plan. Vishal immediately said, “We will have to come up with some good schemes as well.” Vishal was very good at ground work activities related to marketing. When I told the team that I have a plan the team agreed to the target that we had set for ourselves.
Beginning from that day we concentrated on only how do we go about in achieving our goal? Vinod and Vishal were given the job of planning the stocks, as to first identify in their sections where there is a need of stocks, whether all the sizes are available and if they are not running out of the core essential products. A detail scanning of the sections were done by the individual teams. Once this was done the team was briefed on identifying all excess stocks to be sent back to the warehouse so as to make place for options of merchandise in the departments. Vinay was assigned to inward all new stocks coming to the store and to make sure nothing remains pending. He was also responsible to make sure that all the stocks from the warehouse are taken to the shop floor. We had planned two major offers for the event. As there was a huge hype on the release of the famous Hindi movie “Veer Zara” on the same day we decided to give away tickets for two for each and everyone who purchases goods worth INR. 5000/- and above. The other offer was “Shop-n-Dine” lucky draw offer. The winner gets an invitation for two to dine at one of the adjacent five star hotels. To create hype, two weeks before the big day we had created local ads through “pamphlets distribution”, which mentioned “Pantaloons Big Day Coming Soon…..” along with the offers running in the store. We had also arranged to put “string tags” with the words “Pantaloons Big Day Coming Soon” mentioned on them on all the bikes at the parking lot. The staffs also put stickers on their individual bikes to promote the event. For areas at considerable distance from the store we had a special pamphlet made which had a special offer saying “Get This Along To Avail Your Auto Fare Back”. Every individual staff slowly began to realize the importance of the big day and contributed willingly to achieve the goal.

The entire week before Diwali noticed tremendous footfalls inside the store. The entire team were all set to achieve the set target. Just a day before the D-day I received a call in the evening around 4pm. from Sadashiv.
“Hi, Chinmaya, I hope your team is all set for tomorrow.”
“Yes Sir.”
“Ved wants to speak to you”
“Ok”
“Hi, Chinmaya, hope you all are geared up for the Big Day. What is the plan?”
“Sir, we will be opening the shop at 9am. All the staffs will be present for the full shift. We have also set some special offers for the day. No problem with stocks.”
“OK, wonderful, all the best”
I could here some sounds from behind as the line got disconnected.
That was Ved. He made sure to call up each and every store managers all over the country to wish them good luck. It was really very motivating. Of course, it paid off really well.

On the D- day since early morning itself there was good number of walk-ins. Due to the campaign that we did since past two weeks to the Big Day we received tremendous response. We had planned to keep one staff at the main entrance as the “Greeter”. He was only concentrating in welcoming customers and also speaking to the one that left the store without buying anything and thereby converting the non-buyers into buyers. It was very difficult for the staffs to attend to customers because of the rush inside the store. I made sure that all the staffs were continuously arranging the merchandise and also replenishing the stocks from the warehouse. I had also put in extra force of housekeeping staffs to help the staffs in every section to manage the merchandise on the fixtures. Every hour was very crucial for all of us. I was keeping track of the score and updating my DM’s. Reshma, the HR for the store had arranged for snacks, and food for all the employees. Glucose was also arranged for the staffs. The cashiers were busy since morning. They had done a tremendous job on that day. Around afternoon time the walk-ins got reduced. I got worried as I did not want the billing process to get slow, as it is the only sign which tells one how the business is performing. A continuous billing process ensures good sales. But gradually in the evening the crowd again started pouring in. By this time the store was a complete mess. Most of the merchandise were on the floor. The fixtures on the walls were almost empty. But still the customers were busy seen searching for their sizes from the piles of stocks lying on the shop floor. It was actually very interesting and exciting to watch this. This itself showed the immense pleasure the customers were experiencing while shopping on the shop floor. We had touched almost two lakhs in the first half, and expected to do another two lakhs in the afternoon session. But by five in the evening we had touched around three lakhs only. I knew we were lagging way behind, because of the drop in walk-ins in the afternoon. In the second half we had to target for another seven lakhs, which I was confident about as the walk-ins used to double after around 5pm in the evening. After around three hours we could add up only another one lakh or so. I wondered why, as there were still many customers on the floor. The billing process had reduced. On the floor I noticed that the cash counters were a bit empty. But the customers were all carrying baskets full of merchandise on the shop floor. My estimation told me that we can get another three to four lakhs by the time we close for the day.

We closed the store for trading at around 12: 30 after midnight. We had done a sale of 6.20 lakhs on that day. The next day we opened the store one hour late, so as we could set up the entire store. Everyone of us were very tired. Suddenly I received a call from Sadashiv.
“Good job and a nice show.”
“I am not happy sir; we did not achieve the target”.
“Don’t say that, it was a wonderful team work. We at the HO had set a target of 8 lakhs for your store, which itself was on a higher end. Achieving this figure and that too on a full margin, a day when the store is not on sale period is an achievement by itself. The entire HO team is happy with the performance.”
“But still I would want to set this target and achieve it very soon.”
“It’s ok, in Mumbai the other Pantaloon outlets also did not achieve the set target, but everyone performed well as per expectations. Overall we have still achieved the target for the Zone. Fine then, I shall get back to you later.
“Thank you Sir, and congrats to you also.”
I immediately called up a meeting of the staffs and congratulated them on their wonderful performance. While everyone of them were a bit upset on not achieving the target I informed them that the team at the HO are very proud of them, and conveyed Sadashiv’s message to them. I then informed the team not to lose hope, as now I am more confident of achieving the set target at a later date as we have learnt a lot from this Big Day. I asked them as to whether they are ready to take up the challenge and keep the target open. They all said a big “yes”, more confidently and added that they will ensure they achieve it. By now I noticed that compared to the day I discussed about my goal of achieving the target and today I noticed confidence and a ray of hope in every individual staff. Everyone was very eager to put in their best to achieve this goal.

End-of-Season sale for the winter session was nearing and I reminded all the staffs about our target. We decided to go for it on the last day of the sale which falls on a Sunday. As the EOSS was for an entire month we had three Sundays to rehearse for the Big Day. We worked on all the plans and made sure to rectify on all the hurdles that we had faced during our previous big day. Everything was planned the same way as it was on the previous big day. The only advantage we had this time on our side were the sales offers. On the first Sunday we got a tremendous response. We broke an all time record with a sale of eight lakhs plus. This achievement of ours really boosted our energy level and confidence. I immediately called up Ved and Sadashiv. Both of them complimented me and my team for this feat. The second Sunday the sales were a bit low but it was more than seven lakhs. On the third Sunday we crossed our previous best record. We were sure we would be able to achieve our goal this time at any cost. The store used to be open till midnight on week-ends. We made sure all the stocks were available, offers properly updated in the system, and the sections properly managed by staffs. On the fourth Sunday, that is the last day of sale we had a huge number of walk-ins to the store. It was so crowded that we literally had to take the mall securities help to manage the crowd. The mall had never experienced such a crowd earlier. The General Manager and the Marketing Head of the mall personally came to the store to meet me and congratulate me on the success of getting such huge walk-ins to the store. I was very thrilled by this over whelming response. All the staffs were completely energized and excited. We all knew it is today or never, to achieve our set goal. Every individual staff made sure that all customers carry a basket for shopping, and do not leave the store empty handed. Like before I was regularly updating my DM’s on the score. This time we had already crossed five lakhs in the first half. Around 9pm in the evening we had done nine lakhs. By this time the crowd had reduced. I was worried as we had another one lakh to go. We were all much tensed and at the same time confident of achieving it. I could see some of the lady staffs, with folded hands, praying in their section. Such was the devotion and passion among the staffs. It was like as if this moment belonged to them. I could easily notice the ownership that they carried along with them during this period. By ten o’clock we had reached 9.5 lakhs. There were hardly twenty to thirty customers. Around this time we noticed a family of around six to seven members enter the store. They were all buying stuffs from each and every section. We came to know that they were not from Pune, and had come from the state of Gujarat. Vishal assisted them in their purchase. They ended up buying for around 15 to 20 thousand rupees. We all were so thrilled because we knew we had made it. By around 12: 30 we had clocked the figure of ten lakhs. We all jumped around like kids, shouting and cheering each other, and congratulating one another. To make sure we crossed the magic figure I went and checked the score once again. The sales were over 10 lakhs for the day, and I told myself, “We have done it”
Next day early in the morning I got a call from Sadashiv.
“What magic did you do? Great job!!!! Excellent!!!! At last you have achieved”
“Yes sir, we made it”
I called up Ved and gave him the good news. A string of calls followed that day from the HO congratulating the team on the wonderful achievement.
We had gone ahead to achieve the weekly and monthly targets with a huge percentage and ended up getting good incentives.

TEN LAKHS on a single day. History was made. Till date the record is not been broken.

I remember Sadashiv telling me ones that the small stores need to make the most noise, like the crows in the terrace, to make your existence noticed. He had mentioned this when my store was facing a problem of not receiving proper stocks from the category even after informing them about the stock status in the store.
Now we all were very sure that we had made the maximum noise by achieving such a great target. This noise had really reached the HO because since then we witnessed a lot of changes. The senior category members, the marketing team and other members from the HO started giving attention to the store, and also making visits to the store. Because the store was doing so well even the Head of the Departments started giving their visit to the store.
For the next season I completely changed the entire look of the store. The layout of the store was also changed completely. More importance was given to the visuals and merchandise mix inside the store. The entire store was given a young look.

Here in this store I experienced the launch of “Kya Kool Hain Hum” (a Hindi movie which was a big hit in India and abroad) movie merchandise which was sponsored by Pantaloons. The entire cast of the movie, Riteish Deshmukh, Tushaar Kapoor and Neha Dhupia had come for the launch. I had again got the privilege to host the guests, be with them while they were entertaining my customers, and signing autographs.

CONT'D...

I called for a meeting of all the managers one day early in the morning at 9 am at the store. We held the meeting at the back office of our store itself. It was very small office, which had only four work stations. All the department managers and the senior staff members were called for the meeting. Everybody settled themselves, some adjusting the chairs, some trying to get hold of a pen and note pad, and few trying to make space for them.
“Good morning everybody”
“Good morning sir” replied the group.
“The agenda for today’s meeting is to discuss the store timing, lay-out plan for the store and other common issues.”
“To begin with I want to ask the group if we can change the store timing in the morning from 11am to 9am and in the evening from 9pm to 10pm.”
Nobody responded. When I looked at Vinod and Vishal they just smiled back. The others started looking at each other, hoping someone among them will respond.
“Yes Vinod, since you are the senior most among the group….”
“Sir, in Pune, actually speaking, customers do not come for shopping so early in the morning.” He then looked at the group and laughed. Everyone then started laughing.
“We had tried this out earlier” said Vishal.
“Don’t you agree that there are many jobs to be done in the morning apart from assisting customers? How can these jobs be done efficiently when customers are already on the floor. I think we should give at least half an hour to set the store before the first customer walks inside our store. That is the reason I want the store to open a bit early, in the sense the first shift commences early, even if the doors to customers be opened a bit late, but not 11am. Barista and Mc Donald open at 9am. That means customers are coming. And the first film show also starts at 9:30am.”
“But we close the store late in the evening sir” said Vinod.
“Shouldn’t we look at customer’s convenience and serve them rather than looking at our own convenience. Since last week I have observed that customers are entering the mall even at 10:30 in the evening. Not only that, the last show commences at 11:15pm. Just imagine, by keeping the store open for another one hour we can get so many customers and increase our sales.”
“I feel we should open the store at 9am in the morning and keep it open till 10pm in the evening”
There was silence in the room.
“Let us try it out. What’s the harm in trying? And I myself want to check it out. We will keep it for one week and see how it works. If it does not work we will change it back to normal. Fair enough?”
Everybody agreed.
“So, Vinod and Vishal, it’s your responsibility to plan the shifts accordingly, prepare a proper schedule accordingly stating the two shifts, first shift from morning 9am to 6pm in the evening and the second shift from 1pm to 10pm in the evening.”
“Ok, sir” came the reply.
“Great”
“Vinod, how often do you change the layout of your department, or, I should say move the fixtures, so as to make things look different for the customers who come in your department.”
Vinod looked puzzled.
“We usually change the display of the merchandise, move them around, but not the fixtures, sir.” replied Vishal.
“Yes, sir, we do not shift the fixtures.” expressed Vinod in a way as if it would be a crime if done so.
“Why?”
“Sir, strict instructions from the category team” Vinod replied looking at Vishal this time. Vishal nodded.
“Have you tried?” I looked at Vinod.
“They do not want the store team to do it”
“Why is it so?”
“We may spoil the layout and damage the fixtures”
“And who from the category gave this instructions and to whom”
No one had a clue to this. I knew it was just a paradigm created. I immediately announced that we will change the layout of the store and would like the entire team to come with ideas.
Everybody in the room got a jolt.
“We will show the category team that we are responsible enough, give them good results and would not let them down, do not worry, I shall take responsibility in case the category team complaints or take any action.
The entire team took up the challenge and were ready to do the changes required inside the store. The result was as I expected, and the team also became more active and motivated.

The next important thing which I observed was the floor staffs were not aware of the day to day sales proceeds, their daily targets, and also were not assigned their daily tasks for the day apart from selling. I immediately decided to take weekly meetings of the staff wherein they used to be updated on all the activities related to the store and of course the organisation as well. Apart from this there also used to be an entertainment session where one or two among the staffs had to perform some activity. Gradually the staffs started enjoying the weekly meets. It also became the responsibility of the Department Managers to keep a track of the staffs day to day activities and the targets for all individual staffs.
As the Department Managers were initially not aware of the Annual Business Plan it was updated to them and gradually they independently started tracking their individual departments Annual Business Plan with the actual sales. What interested me more here in this store was the eagerness of the staffs to learn something new everyday. And what enjoyed me more was that there were so many things for me to teach them on retailing.

CONT'D...

Inox mall was situated very near to Pune railway station. It was a small, but a well known mall, and was a prime hangout joint for most of the student population and young crowd. The mall was situated around 50 meters away from the main road. A small connecting road from the main road was linked towards the mall entrance. It was just opposite a vacant huge piece of land which was closely guarded by a fence and a locked gate. There were huge trees covering partially the face of the mall. To the right of the mall was a well known five star hotel. The glass façade of the mall was huge, and the exterior of the mall was also very elegant to see, especially at night when it used to be illuminated with halogen lamps and blue spot lights. It was a very well maintained mall, with marble polished floor tiles and escalators on both sides to move up if one wanted to go up to watch a movie, as this mall consisted of three screen multiplex. The crowd puller was the multiplex which used to screen all the latest hit Hindi and English movies. As you enter the mall a small atrium is located, again with white smooth shining floor tiles, wherein one could look at his image clearly. To the right side was Mc’ Donald’s and to the left side was Barista, the coffee shop. Pantaloons store was situated just in the middle. It was a one storied complete shop consisting of Men’s-wear, Ladies-wear and Kids apparels. It was a very attractive shop with elegant interiors. As compared to Big Bazaar where the flooring was made of normal basic grey tiles, here the flooring was made of marble tiles which gave a very elegant look to the overall store. The fixtures used here were also very elegant especially, the shelves which were made mostly of glass, as compared to the wooden shelves used in Big Bazaar. The gondolas and browsers were also made of stainless steel material. The spot lights used here gave the store a very bright look. Overall the store was looking fabulous and stood out separately from the rest of the two neighbouring stores inside the mall. The front portion of the store was entirely made of glass wall panel, with beautiful display of the latest collections dressed on the mannequins placed on the window panels just besides the entrance to the store. The store had three entrances with huge glass doors with heavy silver metal borders. The main door at the centre was kept open for customers to walk in while the other two doors were kept closed. As you enter the store from this door just to the right side the two main cash counters were situated. Attached to itself was the customer service desk. To the left side the cosmetics and perfume counters were situated. Behind this counter was the kids section. As you turn towards the kids section to its right side was the ladies casuals section. Between the kids section and the ladies casuals section there was a door which was the entrance to the back office and the stock room. The men’s casual section occupied around forty percent of the entire store area. It was situated just in front of the store as you enter and extended to the right side completely. The area behind the cash counter was utilised by the men’s formal wear section. To the left side of the men’s casual section as one enters the store the ladies formal wear section was situated which extended further down to link with the ladies casual section.

The store had twenty one employees with two Department managers and three Assistant department managers initially. Vishal, one of the DM’s was in charge of the ladies and kids department. Vishal had a good physique, well built shoulders and broad eyes. He was a very active staff and was ever ready to take up any job assigned. He personally took care of the visual merchandising and marketing of the store. Vinod, was in charge of the men’s department. Being a veteran in the store he knew in and out about the store. He also was very efficient and smart when it came to all security matters and loss prevention activities within the store. Both were equally responsible for the cash counters, and other store operational activities. Vinay, a short man with curly rough hair was in-charge of the warehouse. He was very efficient in his role. He was very particular about all the activities related to the warehouse and assured that any material movements from the warehouse to the shop floor or to the central warehouse takes place under his nose. He used to not allow anyone to take a call related to warehouse as he felt only he could handle it very systematically, and was worried that others would disturb all the good process he had created within the warehouse.

Within few days I got to know all the staffs and also the store thoroughly. As Sadashiv had updated me about this store my main priority was to list out the various reasons for the store’s current performance. I was not happy with the layout of the store and the way it was merchandised. The staffs were also not very motivated, and did not seem to involve in their jobs. The department managers were not seen leading the team and were used to following instructions given to them from the category team at head office. They used to not take any initiatives related to improving the lay-out of the store and merchandising the store. The various day to day operational processes also had to be changed.

The store used to open daily at eleven in the morning and close for trading at nine in the evening. This it self was a concern for me because the mall used to open for business early in the morning at nine for the first show. Even Barista and McDonald used to open for trading by ten in the morning. There were a good number of customer walk-ins to the mall in the morning. Even in the evenings after nine there still used to be lot of customers inside the mall as the last show used to be at eleven in the evening.

PANTALOONS- PUNE

It was 7:15 a.m. I was standing under the fly-over at Vashi, near the Mumbai-Pune Highway, in Navi Mumbai. Few state transport buses and some privately managed Volvo buses were seen halted at the junction. All buses coming from Mumbai halts here on their way to Pune. I could hear the bus attendant calling for passengers, some from the windows, and some standing near the door of the bus. Representatives from various travel agents could be seen selling the tickets to the travellers waiting nearby. On the footpath there were few vendors selling newspapers and magazines, few selling hot ginger tea, and cigarettes. It seemed they were doing good business looking at the number of people surrounding them.Some people could be seen standing on the foot-path in small groups and talking and chortling. The recently built expressway was a huge excitement for all travellers and I too was eager to travel on the expressway. It was a very cold day; the road around fifty meters ahead could be hazily noticed because of the fog. I could feel the cold breeze around my ear. My nose and ear lobe had gone very cold. I had applied lip-balm on my lips and worn warm clothes to comfort myself from the cold and was waiting for Sadashiv to pick me from here..
Around fifteen minutes later I noticed a cream colour huge vehicle approaching. I saw Sadashiv sitting behind and waved at him. The vehicle stopped right beside me. I opened the door and made myself comfortable.
“Hi Chinmaya, Good Morning, hope I did not make you wait for long.”
“No, Sir.”
We were on our way to Pune to visit the Pantaloon’s store. I still remember it was a very cold day in the month of September, 2004.

It was a wonderful experience to drive on the expressway. The highway reminded me of the ones in Jeddah and Dubai. It had three lanes and the divider was huge with colourful plants planted on them. It was a pleasant climate, and the scenery around was beautiful. I could clearly make out the transition from the colourful buildings situated besides the highway to the colourful, fresh greenery of landscape, and mountains that took over as we drove along. It was a beautiful sight. We were driving at around 120km/hr. A few minutes later we reached the Toll Plaza where we had to pay toll to drive on the expressway. A few minutes later we reached the Food Court situated on the highway.
“Let’s halt here and have some bite.” said Sadashiv.
“Fine with me, sir”
It was a nice open food-court. People could be seen sitting and eating on the chairs and tables placed on the open lawn in front of the food court. I noticed many vehicles parked outside. At one corner there was a small garden, with some swans moving around. People could be seen crowded near it and looking at the swans, some trying to divert their attention, and some trying to feed them. Some kids were also trying to catch them. To the right side there were many small stalls selling many types of cookies, jelly sweets, and chikkies (an Indian sweet made from a combination of grounded nuts, dry fruits and jaggery.)
As the driver of our vehicle parked the car we got down and went towards one of the counters.
“What would you like to order?” asked Sadashiv.
“I”ll go for one plate idli-wada (a South Indian dish) and a cup of tea.”
“Give me one plate idli-wada, and…..”
Before Sadashiv could complete the man at the counter said, “ get the coupons from there” pointing towards his left side.
As I went ahead to the lawn to make place for us to sit at one of the tables Sadashiv approached the other counter.
He came back with the order placed and took one of the seats. Sadashiv had ordered one vegetable sandwich for himself, the idli-vada for me and two cups of tea for both of us. I noticed the steam coming out from the hot plates and tea served to us. We both enjoyed the hot snacks and the cup of tea in midst the cold weather.
We immediately left from there to commence with the remaining journey ahead. In an hour or so we reached the Khandala ghats. It was an awesome sight. The road was carved across the ghat, with steep bends and curves along the way. We could observe from our rear window the region fully covered with green hills, deep valleys on either side of the highway. I could feel the clean crisp air greet us, as we drove our way up the steep ghats leaving the humidity, heat and dust behind.

“Chinmaya, I think we will be reaching Pune in another one hour.”
“Yes Sir.”
“I want you to know some few things about this store that we are visiting. It’s a small store, but the only store doing profits in the Zone. The team is good, but do not have a leader at the moment to guide them.” He then looked at me. I could sense the big hopes that he had from me.
“You will have to understand the team, get them motivated and keep the clock ticking. I do not want this store to go down in numbers.”
“Do not worry sir.” I told him.

We reached Pune around 11:15 am.
For two years I was associated with Big Bazaar –LP . I had the experience of handling store operations in both lifestyle and value formats. Knowing this around the month of August 2004 Sadashiv had offered me a wonderful opportunity to handle the operations of Pantaloons lifestyle store here in Pune. Pune is the second largest city in the state of Maharashtra in western India. It is known for its educational facilities, having more than a hundred educational institutes and nine universities. It is also known as The Oxford of the East, due to the various educational institutions, and also sometimes referred to as The Detroit of India owing to the many manufacturing companies, particularly automobile giants, having their base within the city's metropolitan area.
This store was situated at a prime location near Bund Garden Road in Pune city. It was located inside one of the malls named Inox Multiplex. This store for some reasons was not performing as expected. As Sadashiv had big hopes from me and felt that I could do something about it recommended my name to Ved. I took up this challenge and agreed to shift base to Pune.

MY FIRST MEETING WITH KISHORE BIYANI-THE RETAIL GURU

Because the store was just few months old and also because this concept itself was new to the organization it took some time for things to get settled. Everyone from the top level to the floor level was in a learning stage. The entire team was greatly inspired by the one person, Kishore Biyani, the man behind Future Group. I remember the days when he used to personally drop in to our stores early in the mornings and move around on the floor. He wouldn’t even dither picking up litter lying on the floor, helping cashiers to bill, and of course also get rankled at us if things were not proper in the store. He used to insist that each and every employee should take ownership of the job entitled to one and never come out with excuses for job not being done. I’ve learnt a lot from him. He was a man with an average height, dark complexion, huge face, a simple hair cut, and dark circles around his eyes, which was a clear sign of his passion towards setting up his retail empire. By the look on his face he might come across as a tyrant,but in reality he was benign, very simple, down to earth and optimist in nature. He used to be dressed in simple attire, use a normal wrist watch and used to commute in a very simple car.
My first encounter with him was at the entrance of our store, during one of his visit. It was late in the evening and the store was very crowded as usual. He told me to meet him in his office the next day. I was very excited about this, but at the same time was confused as to why he wanted to meet me in his office. It was like breaking news inside the store and word spread like fire. Everyone wanted to know from me as to why he had called. Even Sandeep and Sarika were surprised to know that KB, as he was known within the group, had called me in his office.

I wanted to go fully prepared to meet KB. I had no clue as to what his agenda was behind inviting me for the meet, so I prepared a presentation on the basis of ; how many staffs were there in the apparel section?, who managed which department?, what are his job roles and his target for the coming week? , and how many staffs were assigned under one department manager?
The next day I reached his office early at 10 am. I introduced myself to his secretary who was sitting behind a desk just outside his cabin.
“Good morning madam, I have come to meet Sir.”
“Do you have an appointment with him?” was her immediate question while she was looking at me curiously.
“Yes madam” I replied immediately.
“Please have a seat”
Before I went to take a seat she immediately asked me “What’s your name?
“Chinmaya, from Big Bazaar Lower Parel”.
From my seat I saw her pick the receiver and speak on the intercom.
In a few minutes the secretary told me to go inside the cabin.
It was a huge cabin, and KB was sitting at his desk, behind the desktop, brooding and typing. He looked at me and asked me to sit.
I was very nervous, but at the same time very tantalized.
‘Yes tell me”
“Sir, yesterday you had asked me to meet you in your office” I reminded him.
He looked a bit lost, but then he nodded his head slowly, trying to recollect, maybe. He then asked me about my background and work profile. I immediately told him about my work experience and then asked his permission to show the presentation which I had made.
He liked the presentation, and after seeing it he said, “We need to develop ownership within the team. Make smaller sections within the store, similar to small shops, and make a staff the owner of that small shop. This way he will feel he is the real owner of the shop and build ownership.”
I agreed to what he said.
“One minute” he said and picked up the intercom.
“Send Rajan to my cabin” Rajan was the Head of the entire apparels category team those days. As I was managing the apparel section in the store he wanted Rajan to join the meeting.
A very tall, handsome, smart looking gentleman entered the cabin. He was Rajan who exuded a zealous approach. KB, Rajan and I had a meeting together for another 20 minutes or so discussing on stocks, new arrivals, placements and plan for the week end.
KB wanted me to sell 500 pieces of shirts for the coming weekend.
He looked at Rajan and said, “Create a shirt mela”. Rajan just nodded his head.
He then asked me, “How many shirts we would sell during weekends?”
I replied “around three hundred sir” and then looked at Rajan.
Rajan knew that I was hoping for some schemes from his side.
He promised me the famous “Buy 3 shirts and get two shirts free” offer.

Once I came out of the cabin I was thrilled. I felt very proud about myself that day. I immediately went to the store and shared my experience about KB with the team. I felt like I was the “MAN OF THE STORE” for that entire week. The moment that I had spent with KB was a treasure, which I would always cherish and would be hard to forget.

After that day, there were many such magical moments where I got a chance to interact with KB. One such day was the day he took a meeting of all the management team within the store. It was one early week day morning routine time inside the shop floor, he called all the managers at the back office.
“I do not know most of you so can you please introduce yourself and the section you work for.”
Once everyone introduced themselves and explained their job profile to him clearly there was silence in the room for a few moments.
He then asked what problems they come across in the store. The common problems were about inefficient processes, lack of stocks, late decisions from the head office and so on. They also discussed about how the store should actually run, and the various solutions for the problems. What came out from the meeting was a clear gap between the head office team and the store team.
“You should handle your department all by yourself. It’s your own shop, and you need to manage it. Do not create dependency. You should take ownership of this shop that you are handling, only then you will enjoy”.
“Start taking decisions from now on and if you have any problems contact me directly.
“I think this is a wonderful team. We need to have such meetings very often. Lets consider this as a core team.” Saying this he stood up. Everyone stood up. He then thanked everyone and left the office.
Each one of us felt immensely motivated and animated. Such was an impact of his presence.
From that day onwards everyone started contributing their best efforts to make the store a better place for the customers as well as the employees. Every one witnessed a sudden change in the store from that very day. Thanks to Kishoreji, as he is known, people from the head office started visiting frequently to the store, the lay outs started changing, the category team started building up the product mix in every department, the choice of merchandise changed, and suddenly we saw a revolution within the store. In few months time the store started looking beautiful, well organized, the staffs were all motivated, and full of energy.

A good feeling and experience is what one should tend to provide to all the customers entering your store. What I have noticed is, here in India fixtures are placed so near to each other inside the shop floor that it makes the entire space very congested. It gives a very claustrophobic effect to an individual. The main reason is because of the hike in real estate value they tend to make use of as much space available as possible. Retailers also feel that, the more stocks displayed in maximum fixtures will increase the sale of the store. But it isn’t the case. It in fact reduces the sales as customers feel uncomfortable to shop in such a scenario. The space between two fixtures is so limited that it becomes difficult for two individuals standing between the two fixtures to browse for the stocks displayed on them. At times it is difficult for customers to move across aisles, especially on week ends, and due to these reasons the customers tend to avoid such aisles, and in turn sale is lost from that particular area. During my tenure at Pantaloons Retail we had experienced this at all our Big Bazaar outlets and hence had decided to decongest the fixtures and merchandise from all the stores so as to give more space for customers to move around. Fixtures and bins used to be placed at the ramps, making it more difficult for customers to move their trolleys as a crowd used to gather near the fixture blocking the ramp. Extra bins were placed near the lifts, and also at places near every walkway. All such fixtures were removed, the volume of merchandise displayed was reduced and excess merchandise was taken off the shelves. After doing this we noticed a tremendous increase in footfalls and sales. Hence the notion of getting more sales from displaying more stocks in more fixtures was washed out by the operations team. A proper layout and placement of fixtures is hence an integral part of merchandising and needs to be looked at seriously by the visual merchandisers.

As the Big Bazaar store at Lower Parel was a flagship store, it was also the pet store of Kishoreji. Many events and fun filled activities used to occur in this store. The ‘Great Exchange Mela’, (where one can exchange all scrap goods for new ones) was one such big hit event which pioneered from this store. I also got a chance to meet many famous personalities in this store. During one of the promotions I got a chance to meet the then Miss World Yukta Mookhey and the privilege to show her around the entire store.
But the best part was when I got a chance to be filmed along with KB on one of the famous news channels for the famous show “India Business Report- Back to the Floor”- a documentary which portrays the passion of CEO’s and MD’s of various organizations working along with the sales team on the field without any inhibition.
It was a short film on KB showing him working as a sales executive on the shop floor. That day I as the manager of the store had to assign him a role in one of the sections and set a target for him. This was all pre-decided by the channel. It was a great day for me and all my staffs to see and experience our MD working side by side with us.
After a year or so the lay-out of the entire store was completely changed. Rajan planned the entire new lay-out for the store. He was like a commander in charge of the fleet. He was a real expert in his job, carried an aura that made everyone feel that he runs the show, and was also the decision maker, after Kishoreji. He is now the Chief Executive Officer of Big Bazaar. The new layout was much better, more spacious and convenient for customers as well as employees. All the fixtures were newly designed, and were in a better position to merchandise stocks. I felt very excited by the new look given to the store. The structure and design, the planning and execution of the lay-out with the new fixtures were such a success that it was implemented in all the future stores, of course with some added features and benefits to the ambience of the new stores.

STP IN RETAILING

It was 10:30 am in the morning. I met Sarika who had already reached office. She then introduced me to Sandeep, the manager of the store. He was a tall, thin and a fair looking man, with curly hairs and tired eyes. Looking at him one would feel like he has not slept for many days. Sandeep was a very gentle person and good by heart. He was also very helpful in nature and fond by all the staffs. Gradually as time passed we both became good friends.

As decided I had called a meeting of all the department managers from my team.
“Good morning friends, so what is your plan of action for the day?”
“I have to check with the warehouse team if all the stocks which had arrived yesterday have been in-warded or not”, said Shanti, her ear rings shimmering due to the lights falling on them from the spot lights above. She was the department manager for the ladies section. She was a cute, fair little short lady, nattily dressed, and an epicurean.She used to only concentrate on her department issues and not beleaguer in any other activities not concerned to her department. She was also very particular about time.
“I have called all my staffs in the first shift as we need to re-arrange the complete section of men’s accessories and men’s casual-wear, said Rajesh, another department manager from the men’s department. Rajesh was a fair guy, with a sturdy built, broad shouldered and having curly rough hair. He was a very aggressive and short tempered person and used to often end up in arguments.
“I will be taking a meeting with my team as to how to achieve this week’s target”, said Nilesh.
Rajesh sarcastically looked at him at laughed loudly.
“What is there to laugh in that?” confronted Nilesh.
“Now please don’t start it again”, Ashfaque intruded, sitting in one corner of the room.
Rajesh had this habit to rile Nilesh and tease him, especially because of the way he dressed and for taking long meetings to achieve targets, which used to not be achieved.
“ I will have to check how many jhablas (infant tops) have we received yesterday, as we are out of stock on the same”, said Aparna, a tall authoritative lady, with a slightly fair complexion skin, wearing a beautiful pink, fully embroidered luknowi pyjama kurta.(ladies ethnic top-wear and bottom-wear) She used to carry an all time smiling face. She was also in charge of the kids department along with Ashfaque.

After listening to all of them I said, “During my observation on the shop floor I have realised that a standard store check-list is not being followed. There was no specific work flow that the department managers and the team were following. No one also knew their job role in detail. I shall prepare one and give it to you all. I shall also give all of you your key responsibilities so as you are aware of your job role. This will help you do your job more systematically and efficiently.” Everybody gave a very quizzical expression.
“Ok, now tell me how many of you all aware of the S-T-P of Marketing. Most of you are from the B-schools and so should be aware of it.”
“Segmentation…..hmmm….P is for Positioning and T stands for… hmm..” replied Aparna with a low tone, with her finger on her lips, her eye balls looking up and forehead slightly lifted upwards, an expression showing her trying to recollect the words. “Targeting” replied Nilesh promptly.
“Great” I replied. “Are you all sure that all the products displayed in your section is placed in the right section. Can we use the concept of S-T-P to display our merchandise inside the store?”
There was not a single sound in the room. All started looking at each other, waiting for someone to reply. I explained to them assortment plan in merchandising, its importance within the store and how it can be related to S-T-P.
As I stood up I told them, “Today, first thing in the morning we will only concentrate on setting up the departments as per S-T-P. Any question?”
All of them stood up and got ready start up with the work assigned. As they moved out of the room I could hear them mutter to each other, the voices gradually fading away.

A typical retail store is segmented either as a lifestyle or a value format and the store is positioned accordingly after targeting the right audience. Every retail store may further be segmented within into various verticals, and these verticals are further segmented into departments and sections. Now onceOnce the concept of store format is clear one needs to clearly understand the departments, products and their assortment hierarchy within a store. Understanding product assortmenthierarchy (product mix) is very essential as it helps one to display the products in the right manner and easier to assist a customer buy a product. It also helps one to plan the layout of the store very systematically.
Many retail organisationstores have large number of brands and products within the verticals, like Apparels, FMCG and General Merchandise and are termed as product lines. Apparels which is referred to as Product Line. They offerconsist of shirts, trousers, t-shirts and other products. Therefore, it can be concluded that these stores have a wide product line with different products (shirts, trousers, t-shirts). These various options that are provided are termed as product width. The shirts within the apparel section are further in differentiated by styles, sizes and colours which are termed as the product depth. Therefore, it can be concluded that they have a wide product line with different product lines (shirts, trousers, t-shirts). Product line depth indicates how many product variants are there under each brand/ product line.

· In a retail store the various departments and sections are the segmentation of the entire store done as per customer type
· and the placement of merchandise on the various fixtures based on the layout inside the store are positioning of the merchandise
· and the product width and depth available is again for targeting the various types of customers inside the store.

Nilesh and Rajesh divided the team into two in the men’s department. Nilesh took care of the men’s formal wear while Rajesh took care of the men’s casual wear and essentials. They both had a tough time arranging the products as per hierarchy within the sections. Ashfaque took care of the boys wear while Aparna took care of the girls wear and infants section in the kids department. They too were having a tough time in displaying the products. Shanti and her team did not have much problem as her department was almost as per the product assortment plan. It took them almost a week to set up their sections. It was a hectic activity as they had to identify the stocks as per the product hierarchy, properly merchandise the stocks, identify the soiled and damaged goods, remove excess stocks from the fixtures, re-pack opened products, and so on. From that day onwards they decided to take care of their sections assigned to them and to maintain it religiously.

CONT'D...

The next day I reached the store at 10am. I made sure I come early.
The way to the staff entrance was from behind the store. I literally had to jump over trashes thrown here and there. There was an entrance to the store from behind, where I noticed a security guard. When I enquired him where the staff entrance is he pointed me towards a spiral staircase made of iron taking to one level above the ground floor.
“So every day I shall have to climb these steps to get inside the store”.
I climbed the stairs with great difficulty and entered in. I noticed another security guard sitting here. There were many registers piled up on the table, with lots and lots of dog’s ears on them. He told me to enter my name, date and sign in one of the columns. I did as told and went inside. As I entered to my right side there was a small opening aisle and few small cabins were situated. Just adjacent to this aisle was a door which takes you to the shop floor. It was around 10 am and I could see that only few staffs had arrived. As Sarika had also not arrived I thought of taking a round of the entire store
The back- office was a partition made at one end of the store on the first floor. As I came out of the office I noticed huge fixtures made of slotted angles aligned in single long rows. The men’s section was located here. I could notice all the merchandise either stacked or racked randomly. All the employees had a uniform, a bright yellow shirt with the Big Bazaar logo on the right side pocket and dark navy trousers. An identity card placed on a lanyard worn around the neck could be seen tucked inside the pocket. “Why were they hiding their ID”? I noticed one of the employees in a civil dress. He was formally dressed up with a tie. He had a very strange dressing sense. Imagine wearing a blue shirt and brown trousers. I realised he was an employee as he too had an ID.
“Sir, are you in charge over here”?
“Well, yes I am the department manager, how can I help you?”
“Well, my name is Chinmayaprasad and I have joined today itself, so can you help me with the layout of the store and introduce me to all the staffs around”.
Those days there was no formal induction or orientation programs conducted for newly joined employees.
“Oh, I see, we had heard about you joining over here. Hi, my name is Nilesh; can we start with the men’s department sir?”
“Yup, it’s ok with me.”
We entered the men’s casual section. All the casual shirts were displayed in one end of the section and all the casual trousers were displayed in the other end. I noticed three staffs trying to arrange the merchandise that were left randomly by the customers who had just left the place. I approached one of the lady staffs. She had a wheatish complexion, thin in stature, and had a nose ring pierced. Her hair was loosely tied with a black ribbon, resembling a pony tail. Her eyes were lovely, with plain black pupils through whom I could notice my face and the back drop of the floor. She had applied ‘kajal’ (a type of eye-liner) in her eye-lids, and she had a well formed eye brows.
“Hi, are you assigned to this section?” I asked her.
She just nodded her head.
“Do you take care of the entire section?”
“Oh! No. She is from the men’s formal section” immediately replied Nilesh, the department manager.
“Then why is she in this section?” was my immediate next question.
“She is covering this section also, as in the morning shift all the staffs do not come, and of course she is well versed with this section also.” replied Nilesh proudly.
As I was asking these questions I noticed that the other staffs were feeling very uncomfortable.
In one corner of the section one staff was seen busy removing the plastic package from the merchandise lying in the carton besides him. He noticed me and stood up.
“Good morning Sir”.
“Very good morning to you”
“What are you doing?”
“New stocks have arrived, and so I have to display them quickly. We are told to remove the plastics before displaying the new stocks.”
When I looked around at all the plastics lying around on the floor he quickly replied, “the housekeeping staffs will clear them.” He then looked towards the entrance to the wash room and yelled, “Hey, housekeeping”.
At once I could feel the goose bumps all over my body. I had never experienced such a thing before in my entire career. I somehow felt that something was wrong somewhere.
We then entered the kids department at the other end of the men’s department. This department was in a complete mess. The stocks were displayed in such a manner that it would obviously be difficult for customers to pick the required merchandise from the racks. All the merchandise was over stacked. The look of the department itself showed that the merchandise were just displayed without proper themes in place and most of the stocks were either damaged or soiled due to this. I could notice signage not in place, some dropped from where it was placed, and some were just lying on the floor. There were also many empty hangers lying either on the racks or on the floor. The space between fixtures was also not as per the retail standards, due to space constraint or due to excess stocks which have made way to more fixtures within the department. Overall the department was also looking very congested.
“Sir, I am short of staffs in my department, hence finding it difficult to manage the department. In the morning shift I only have two staffs” said Ashfaque pointing out to two of his lady staffs.
Ashfaque was a tall, thin guy in his early twenties and was the assistant department manager in the kids department. During the next few weeks I noticed that he was very good in analysing the sales reports, and had a good rapport with the buyers in the head office. His people management skill was also good among his team.
The ladies department was to the other side of the floor. I thanked Nilesh for taking me around on the floor.

The store was divided at two levels. The FMCG section at Food Bazaar and general merchandise section of Big Bazaar were at the ground floor while the apparels section was at the first floor. To the right side of the main entrance of the store the customer service desk was situated. The house hold and home appliances department was situated just opposite the stretch of cash counters lined up in front of the store entrance. I had a strong doubt whether the air conditioning system was working or not. It was very stuffy and humid inside the store. Some of the spot lights were also not working.

“Am I gonna work at this place? It is such an unorganized store. Why is it so dirty?” The entire store for me just resembled a huge warehouse. The fixtures were very old, not aligned and placed properly, the merchandise were looking very old or soiled and all just dumped as and wherever place was available. I just could not understand anything, even if I tried to work out, as far as the lay out of the store is concerned. Those days Big Bazaar used to have lots of external suppliers’ surplus assorted stocks and hence due to this the merchandising of stocks within the store was a mess. Gradually the merchandise mix, the quality of stocks and buying of stocks by the buyers in the category team improved and also gave way to introduction of private labels. As I was responsible for the apparels section in this store I knew I will have to put in lot of effort. I had decided I shall take each assignment one by one, starting from setting up the departments and sections.

What I noticed is that most of the staffs were fresher or were not at all trained in basics in retailing. I immediately decided that I need to meet up with all the management team of the store and discuss with them my experience inside the store.

Big Bazaar was a value format store where the focus was on volume sales. “Is Se Sasta Aur Acha Kahin Nahin” was the tag line of the store, in Hindi, the national language of India, which meant you won’t find anything cheaper and better elsewhere.

CONT'D...

What is the day to day activity that generates inside a retail store apart from selling? Many assume inside a retail store you only need to sell merchandise to a customer who enters your store. Is there anything more into it? If yes what is it? Sometimes I feel it’s suspense to a layman and I need to open this Pandora’s Box to them. There are many things that a person needs to know and understand about retail store operations. If you’ll open the box you will find inside it various activities like selling, customer service, warehousing, systems, sop’s, security, merchandising, layouts, stock take, cashiering, stock planning, placing fixtures, human resources functioning, report generation, schemes, events, housekeeping, target planning, end of season sale, buying, negotiating, servicing, managing people, the list is endless. Imagine so many activities under one roof. This it-self makes operation more interesting. Let’s take every aspect one by one to understand each activity more clearly.

One needs to first and foremost understand the format of the store, whether it’s a lifestyle format or a value format. In a lifestyle format to ensure quality service the ambience within the store is very pleasant, all the merchandise is well placed, and quality of merchandise is maintained, availability is not in abundance, the visuals are very specific to the concept of merchandise, the sales associates are provided with the skills required to assist customers, infrastructure within the store is beautiful. To maintain these service standards the price of merchandise available here is high. Discounts are not available at such stores often, except during an end of season sale or clearance sale. All departmental stores are lifestyle formats. Compared to this a value format store is similar to a supermarket where the ambience is similar to a market. Here the availability of merchandise is in abundant and at all times they are either put on discounts or some offer or scheme is available. Hence service provided is compromised. The infrastructure is very simple and not similar to the one within a lifestyle format. Personal customer assistance is not ensured, merchandise displayed will not be very expensive and of high range quality. Basically value formats target volume business and for the mass.

I had received an interview call from Pantaloons. Their corporate office is situated in Jogeshwari, near Majas bus depot. It was situated in an area surrounded with lots of huge trees. Those days it was termed The Knowledge House. It is a huge building with glass façade facing the entrance. As you enter the office the reception counter is situated just in front. To its right at one corner is a very beautiful idol of Lord Ganesh, neatly seated and well decorated. Near to it was the seating lounge. All around on the walls were various inspirational quotes, the vision and mission of the company neatly and colourfully displayed. The receptionist directed me to the first floor where I was to meet Rakesh Biyani and Nikhil. RB was one of the directors of Pantaloons and also was a cousin of Kishore Biyani. Compared to KB he was very fair in complexion and soft spoken. Nikhil was a short man with an average height, a bit stout and carrying a French beard. My interview went fine. They gave me an option to either join Pantaloons in Ahmedabad or Big Bazaar at Lower Parel situated in south Mumbai. I preferred to be in Mumbai as I was not keen to go to Ahmedabad.
My joining date was 15th August, the day India got its independence, the day observed as a national holiday, and celebrated in full swing, each citizen bringing out his patriotism to his country in full swing. I had to report at Big Bazaar-Lower Parel at 10 am in the morning.. Being a public holiday the store was completely jam packed with customers. I had no clue as to what was happening inside the store. It was a huge mall constructed on a plot where a mill used to operate earlier. Since the inception of this mall the area around thrived. More small shops and stores came into being, and gradually the entire complex was named High Street Phoenix, named after the mill. It is one of the well known malls in Mumbai. The store is approximately sixty thousand square feet in area and boasts of offering everything that a consumer needs under one roof. There was a huge rush inside the store. I had never in my life seen such a crowded store. I could literally see customers pushing each other to get in one of the sections. All the shopping trolleys were full with merchandise and were being pushed by the customers towards the cash counters. There were long queue in front of every cash counter. I could hear the loud announcements of offers and staff announcements coming out of every speaker at regular intervals. At every corner on the floor, and below every fixture that my eyes could take I could see merchandises dropped, getting either damaged or soiled. Even if I wished to, I could not do anything to save these merchandise. There was utter chaos inside this store. Being the first day in this store I somehow felt lost. Why the hell did they want me to join today? Who am I supposed to contact? Where is the back office situated? These were the many questions lingering in my mind. I somehow managed to reach the first floor. The store had one mezzanine floor apart from the first floor. To one end of the floor I noticed a small board with a message “STAFF ONLY” I assumed it was the door to the back office. I literally had to make my way to reach the other end of the floor. I noticed one security guard stationed near the door. He was a thin guy, in his twenties, wearing a greyish blue uniform, a scarf on the neck, wearing a cap which was tilted to one side, and an old worn out shoe which were not polished. When I requested him to let me in so as I can meet the HR manager he gave me a disoriented look. At first he did not understand as to who I was looking for. He then asked for my visiting card, which is a usual practise which these security guards have whenever any visitor approaches them. I feel this is a part of their mechanical training programme which is imparted to them. As I did not have one he told me to wait outside, opened the door halfway peeped inside and then looked at me once again. He then told me to go in. I was a bit surprised at his behaviour. Once inside I met Sarika, the HR executive of the store. Sarika and I eventually turned out to become good friends. She explained to me the reason for the chaos inside the store. The store had just newly opened some two months back, and everybody was still settling down. Here I had joined as an assistant store manager. As it was a busy day I did not do much on my day one in the store.

BIG BAZAAR-LOWER PAREL

The best way to understand the way a retail store functions is to begin with the shop floor or the warehouse. Only at the shop floor will you be able to learn your products, understand the store and your customers better. The operations team to my knowledge and experience is the best place to be in a retail industry as you get exposed to all the verticals like operations, marketing, HR functions, project handling, visual merchandising, logistics, etc. To work in a retail store you need to have the passion and eagerness to work. You need to have the potential in you to deliver, spend more time on the shop floor, sacrifice the daily entertainment activities, public holidays, the Sundays, etc. You need to mentally mould yourself to submit yourself to the lifestyle of retailing. Here when the world enjoys you are required to assist them to enjoy more at your cost of enjoyment. That it-self is a task and if you can achieve this it in itself is a great feeling of achievement and satisfaction. Here you get to meet many different types of customers, from different cast, creed, different places, and having different lifestyle. Here customersunlike marketing people come to visit you and that itself is a great fun as you get to understand different types of people of different nature from whom you get to learn a lot every day. Store operations involve a continuous learning process. ItStore operations teaches you to become stronger, become more aggressive, more confident, and get exposed to extreme situations and to tackle all sorts of activities or situations as and when it comes. The best thing of store operations is you do not have to wait for the work to come; you get it or create one at all the time. You will be learning new things every day, every moment. It makes you act effectively and think at all stages. There are many fields within the store operations where you can put your thoughts into action. The best part in a retail store operations is you get to incubate your thoughts into action, can become very initiative and also get to learn from the errors you create. Sometimes the errors caused by it-self may become an entry level for fresh thoughts to come in and create something new at the shop floor. It also makes you more systematic, disciplined as it teaches you to schedule your work process and get tuned to it. The best part in a store operation is its activities differs on week days and on weekends and public or bank holidays, reason being the activities within a store depends onis in to the customer walk-ins. The more the walk-ins more is the activity.

Back in India I was impressed by the way organised retail had come up. I felt very happy as this industry was coming up in a big way, and especially because I started my career in this industry. Many malls and individual super stores and shops were coming up or were planning to be set up in most of the western and central suburbs of Mumbai. I was very eager to visit one such mall in south Mumbai. I was extremely fascinated by the way the mall had come up. It was very much similar to the malls that I had visited abroad. I spent almost an entire day visiting all the shops within the mall. I did some bit of shopping, moved around within various outlets to understand the way they operated, made some observations, and also got into a casual conversation with many of the sales employees. Every day I used to visit one of the malls in the suburbs, and get into either window shopping or just interacting with some of the floor staffs. During these visits I used to observe the day to day operational activities within the stores, how it was different from the other stores, which activity was unique to that store, or what was not right in the store, and so on. What I observed was that some retailers were efficient in setting up the standard store ambience, some were experts in service standards, some were efficient in stacking stocks, or some were experts in service as well procuring stocks and so on. Overall what I observed was that every one of the retailer was a master in one of these parameters or all of them. But still what I could experience was there was still lot of commotion within the store when it comes to billing a product, no proper trial rooms, crowd around the one existing, or handling the customer flow on week ends, or managing the operations within the store. I am sure you must have surely experienced this sometimes, somewhere in one of the outlets in a mall you had visited.
The main reason for this is the absence of proper systems and processes or if present then not adhering to the same. To ensure all activities within the store is run smoothly proper processes need to be in place. Most of the activities within the store operations is mainly process driven. Hence it is very essential to enforce Standard Operating Procedures - (SOP). It is a pre-designed document officially approved by the management, hence an official method of getting all work done. One should ensure that when these processes are designed and implemented it should benefit both, the customer as well as the employee. if it does not benefit any one then its existence is not justified.
The most common activities within a store are:
Merchandising
Visual merchandising
Receiving and out-warding stocks
Schemes and offers
Week end activities and Events
Customer service

Scope...

Scope
· Retail is clearly the sector that is poised to show the highest growth in the next five years.
· The present size of the organized retailing sector is approximately 3% and is expected to grow to 25-30% by the year 2012.
· There are about 300 new malls, 1500 supermarkets and 325 departmental stores currently under construction.
· Entry of global retail giants such as Wal-Mart, Tesco, Germany's Metro AG in Indian retail markets.

Leading Indian Retailers
Future Group: Big Bazaar, Pantaloon, Central, Food Bazaar, Home Town
Raheja’s Group: Shopper’s Stop, Hypercity, Globus,
Reliance Group: Reliance Fresh, Reliance Trendz, Reliance Mart, Reliance Digital
Tata Group: Westside, Star Bazaar, Croma

A glimpse of the International Retail
One of the world's largest industries
47 global fortune companies & 25 of Asia's top 200 companies are retailers
Dominated by developed countries
US, EU & Japan constitute 80% of world retail sales.
Biggest player in India is Kishore Biyani’s Future Group.

Key Trends
The existing players like Big Bazaar, Shoppers' Stop, Piramyd are expanding to smaller towns and cities. Many other business houses are planning to enter the retail sector either on their own or through partnerships. New entrants like Reliance Retail Ltd and Wal-Mart are also expanding their business. Even rural areas will provide a huge opportunity to be explored.
Easy entry
· Education and Training: 12th pass with basic knowledge in retail preferred
· Salary Median—INR 4000 to 5000 per month

Newspaper want ads and career sites on the Internet often list openings for retail sales executives. Employers prefer 12th pass students for entry level positions. For jobs in specialty stores employers may prefer to hire executives with some experience or trained students. Given the high turnover rate in the retail industry, sales employees can sometimes be promoted to supervisor within a year.

Employment Outlook
· Retail store entry-level sales executives serve customers, sell products, are into cashiering, stock movements, and other entry-level store activities in retail establishments.
· Sales executives are employed by general and discount department stores and by specialty stores such as furniture, book, and music stores.
· In smaller establishments sales executives may cover the entire sales floor during their shift.
· In large department stores the sales executives generally cover a single department such as men’s department or ladies department.
· Sales executives typically report to store supervisors. They also handle customer queries. Sometimes they are entrusted with stock keeping responsibilities.
· In big department stores they may be responsible for organizing the merchandise on store shelves, and to make sure everything is in stock, and achieves the sales goals for their departments.
· Sales executives in specialty stores may need specialized knowledge. For instance, an executive employed in an electronics supply store should know a good deal about electronic goods.

Advancement Possibilities
· Some retail store executives become store supervisors.
· Those who work for chain stores may be promoted to administrative jobs in the company's headquarters.
· As retail operations expand, companies will hire more employees at entry level.
· Most openings will occur as experienced workers transfer to other occupations or leave their jobs.

Earnings and Benefits
· Earnings for retail store sales executives are reasonable to begin with and vary widely with location, individual experience, and the responsibilities of the job.
· They are also provided with various incentive schemes, and perks on achieving monthly as well as yearly target.
The most important of all this is the store operations which is the heart and soul of this industry. In store operations they say “Retail is detail”. Retail operations offer exciting and challenging career opportunities. It offers profit and loss handling activities and the experience of managing people early in your career. Entry-level retail jobs for college graduates offer both of these opportunities. Most college graduates can begin their career in retailing as department managers if they have undergone proper retail management training. As a Department Manager one will be responsible for the profitability of a category of merchandise or a department of the store and will be managing people who will work for you. You will get opportunity to provide lot of innovative thoughts which will be initiated immediately to increase sales and will be rewarded in a huge way through incentives and perks.
Career opportunities:
Tremendous opportunity exists in this industry and one can achieve a good career launch through this sector. Retail as most assume is not just about shops and salesmen. Apart from sales one can consider various functions from the choices listed below.

Segments within the industry:
Apparels
General Merchandise
Fast Moving Consumer Goods
Consumer Durables

Various inter department roles and functions:
Organization structure and Human Resource Management
Information Systems and Supply Chain Management
Merchandise Management
Communication Mix
Store Operations
Store Layout, Design and Visual Merchandising
Financial Strategy
Customer Service
Loss Prevention Cell

Various other roles one can fit into are:
Marketing
Logistics
Facility Management
Real estate/Properties
Category Management
Design/Creativity
Project Management

There is tremendous growth for an employee in store operations from any section, whether frontline or back end team, be it vertical growth or horizontal growth which again is an advantage. Reason is because the growth of an employee here is directly related to the number of store openings which opens the gate to various different openings in various levels. One also has an advantage of getting exposed to other departments and develops their knowledge.

Because this industry is witnessing a huge growth, one can also look for tremendous growth options within the industry. One can easily climb the ladder from a supervisor level to a store manager level in a span of four to five years time. Apart from this one also has a tremendous opportunity to grow horizontally in this industry as scope for learning is wide

Let us limit to operations and understand Store Operations in depth.
An operation is a transformation process of inputs into outputs. Store operations are linked to all processes related to a store. A store operation is a task by itself and requires trained people to manage this process efficiently for more productivity and profitability.

A store operation is the heart and soul of this industry. In store operations they say “Retail is detail” as it deals with every activity in the minute detail. Retail operations offer exciting and challenging career opportunities. It offers profit and loss handling activities and the experience of managing people early in your career. Entry-level retail jobs for college graduates offer both of these opportunities. Most college graduates can begin their career in retailing as a sales executive or sales advisor, but can also join in as a management trainee, and after completion of the training period get designated as a floor or department manager at floor level if they have undergone proper retail management training. As a department manager one will be responsible for the profitability of a category of merchandise or a department of the store and will be managing people who will work for you. You will get opportunity to provide lot of innovative thoughts which may be initiated to increase sales and will be rewarded in a huge way through incentives and perks.

The Operations: Front end career path for front end store operations begins with:

Team Member


Team Leader


Asst. Department Manager


Department Manager


Floor Manager


Asst. Store Manager


Store Manager

As depicted above the front line career on the shop floor normally begins with a candidate being appointed as a Team Member. Across corporate in this industry the designation varies as follows:(Team member/ Customer sales associate/ Sales Executive/ Sales Advisor). As a fresher you land up getting salaries in the range of Rs. 3500 – 4500, however if you have an experience of 1-2 years in the industry, then the candidate will be absorbed as a senior team member with a salary of around Rs.5000+ . The team member looks after the front line sales within a store. The team leader is in charge of the members. The hierarchy follows as explained above. A Team leader draws around Rs. 6000 – 7500, who reports to an Assistant Department Manager- ADM. In some cases the team leader may also report to a Department Manager-DM depending on the size and business generated from the department. The ADM in turn reports to the DM who takes care of a specific department e.g. Men’s wear which would in turn comprise casuals, formals, accessories etc. In certain cases an ADM may directly report to the store manager if the department is smaller in business and size.
Depending on the size of the store the hierarchy may further grow up to the floor manager, an assistant store manager and finally the Store manager who is responsible fFor the entire operations and the business of the store. E.g. Big Bazaar, Food Bazaar, Pantaloons, More, Shoppers Stop, Lifestyle etc. An ADM /DM normally gets a package in the range of 1.5 – 3.5 lakhs per annum. Further up the remuneration normally depends on industry experience and expertise.

The growth path…..

Area Manager


Operations Manager


Business Manager

SCOPE OF RETAIL IN INDIA

I returned to India from UAE after three years and joined my parents in Mumbai. Mumbai is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the financial capital of India. When I came to know Marks and Spencer is starting its operations out here through one of its franchisees from Jakarta I joined the group for store operations in Mumbai. PT Mitra group was a well known group in Jakarta and was the main partner for the Indian operations of Marks & Spencer in India, through their organisation named Planet Sports, in the late nineties. Allan Thomson, the business development manager, South Asia Pacific region, from Marks & Spencer was heading this project. With the help of his team from Jakarta we successfully opened the first store of Marks & Spencer in India at the scintillating ‘Crossroads’, a happening mall those days in south of Mumbai. It was a small ten thousand odd square feet store and consisted of men, ladies, toiletries and lingerie departments. All the staffs working here were fresher and had no previous experience of retailing. We all underwent exclusive one week training on customer service skills and communication skills conducted by the employees of Marks & Spencer- UK. It was a good learning for all the employees. The team was very eager and excited to work for such a well known and established international brand. As we had to start our operations from scratch we had to identify a warehouse to station all the container of stocks coming from abroad. From our team as only I had the experience of handling warehouse activities and setting up the warehouse, I took up this challenge. We identified one warehouse at MIDC area in Navi Mumbai, an extension of Mumbai. All the goods were shipped and were docked at Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust. To release the goods from here was a major task, and this is where I learnt the street smart skills one needs to have to face odd challenges. Most of the days I could not go home as we had to release goods at odd times as the containers used to arrive at odd times. It was also risky to leave the goods at the dock for a longer duration to avoid pilfering activities. I also had to monitor the store warehouse opening and closing activities at the same time. As I was not well versed with the statutory norms required for handling any business I was finding it a bit tough those days, and to add to it the absence of any processes.

Finally we opened the store for trading successfully with a soft launch. Its only after working here that I realised how different and difficult it is to operate a store in India, mainly for two reasons, one because of the ignorance of this concept of retailing and the other because of the lack of systems and processes involved in it. It was here that I realised that just having an exposure of international experience in retailing won’t help me to operate a store smoothly, and hence I had to unlearn my self, and learn retailing the Indian way. Pantaloons store was situated just opposite to our store. It was a complete Indian departmental store. This is where I decided if I need to succeed in India in this industry I need to join one such store.
In the year 2002 I joined Pantaloons Retail (I) Ltd., now Future Group. It was here that I learnt retailing the Indian way. My role model was Kishore Biyani, who was a true inspiration for me. During my five years with Pantaloons I got to learn the core aspects in retailing. Through this book I wish to share all that I have learnt and experienced in store operations. Most of my time I have spent in Big Bazaar situated in Lower Parel in Mumbai and was mostly exposed to apparels. Hence you will come across incidents and cases related to such a scenario. Through this book I just want to spread as to how retail store operations work but this is in no way to communicate that this is the only best way to run store operations.

According to me store operations is the happening place in a retail industry and this is the only place which will make a person an all rounder in the industry. It is here where I learnt, that to become a perfect store manager, you need to have hand-on experience in all the departments, starting from the warehouse. Hence whenever any new recruit used to join us, be it a management trainee, or a sales advisor we used to start their training at the warehouse. But it is not the same here in India, which I feel is a disadvantage. Most of the new recruits, who pass out from the B- schools and join the organisation as management trainees in store operations feel working in a warehouse, is not their cup of tea as they carry the tag of MBA along with them. This it-self is the first sign of failure. Hence mainly because of this reason most of them are not a successful store manager. Most of the stores which are doing great numbers are not because of the existing managers’ contribution, but because of the high rise in consuming power of the existing population. If you have shopped in such stores you will notice that there is still chaos within such stores and still most customers are not satisfied with the working of the store. The store manager will mostly be seen in a reactive mode and doing mostly fire fighting activities, rather than being in a proactive mode. There are two major reasons for the same, one being dearth of trained store managers and inhibition to learn from their mistakes and the second not understanding the importance of processes and application of the same within the stores. It is very crucial to set processes in place to operate a store very efficiently. Lot of scope is available to improve the operations of the store. I strongly believe that all management trainees who have joined the operations team dreaming to become store managers need to compulsorily start to get trained from scratch in store operations and understand each and every process, only then will he be able to run a store successfully.

I still remember how people used to look at me in the early nineties when I used to tell them that I am working in a retail store. They used to compare me with one of those salesmen working at a small shop situated at every lane in the town. Most of them are not clear as to what exactly this industry is all about. There is a wrong notion, especially in the rural areas about retail shops. One here feels people working in this industry are no one but the common kiranawala working at the neighbourhood kirana store. But it is gradually getting its importance and people have started accepting it as another career prospect. Retail is the code word on every individual tongue. Every second individual is talking about the retail industry. It has started growing rapidly since past five years. It generates more than ten percent (10%) of India’s GDP, and around eight percent (8%) of the employment. Organised retailing is gradually developing and due to this there is a great demand of skilled people in this industry. But as this industry was not so much in demand five to seven years back there is a tremendous shortage of skilled people to run the business, especially store operations. Due to this many institutes have started launching courses in retail management so as to develop skilled manpower and provide to the industry people with skill to run the business. But even now most of the institutes are finding it difficult to provide the full knowledge required to run the business, especially in store operations, reason being lack of exposure to this industry. Need is now to provide specific detail knowledge on every aspect in retailing such as, store operations, visual merchandising, merchandise buying, function of human resource in retail, logistics, retail marketing, retail finance and so onetc.