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.