The operations within the store can run safely and smoothly if a proper process of managing space, understanding fixture capacities and placement of merchandise is followed.

Racking and stacking capacity
This is a very basic and most essential process which every store needs to follow during merchandising and displaying the products on the shop-floor. The objective behind it is to avoid inconvenience and congestion on the shop floor, and minimize damages of merchandise on the shop floor. It provides convenience to the customers while shopping and improves the ambience of the shop floor. This process also is very beneficial for better inventory management.


Let us understand this concept along with the various fixtures used inside a store to display merchandise. Please note that this is a standard benchmark to be followed while displaying the merchandise on the fixtures. It also depends on the dimension of the merchandise and hence may vary accordingly.

Fixtures used to hang merchandise on the wall panels :( Mostly used for apparels)
Sloping arms: these arms are used on gondolas or slat-walls to display men’s, ladies and kids tops
Racking Capacity:
Max. 7 pieces per unit

Pegs: these are used to mostly to display accessories. Various types of pegs are used depending on the structure of the back wall panel. They can also be placed on gondolas.
Racking Capacity:
Maximum 15 pieces per unit

Step arm: placed in gondolas and slat-walls and used for displaying men’s, ladies and kids tops
Racking Capacity:
Maximum 15 pieces per unit

D-bar: This fixture is used on gondolas and on slat-walls and specially used to rack stocks more in quantity.
Racking capacity:
For blazers- maximum 12 pieces per unit
For men’s and ladies tops- maximum 35 pieces per unit
For kids tops- maximum 50 pieces per unit

Fixtures used on the floor to rack merchandise

These fixtures make it very easy for customers to browse through the merchandise.

4-way browser with straight arms: used to display men’s, ladies, and kids tops and bottoms Racking capacity:
Maximum 60 pieces per unit

4-way browser with step-arms:
Racking capacity:
Maximum 40 pieces per unit

The 4-way browser can be customised as a browser with two straight arms and two step/sloping arms on opposite side. Racking capacity will accordingly change.

8-way browser with u-arms: this fixture is used to display only kids’ tops and bottoms
Racking Capacity:
Maximum 64 pieces per unit

16-way browser with u-arms: this fixture is also used only to display kids’ merchandise, especially to promote co-ordinates or sets of tops and bottoms.
Racking Capacity:
Maximum 128 pieces per unit

Fixtures used on the floor to stack merchandise: used for apparels and mostly for FMCG and General Merchandise.

3-feet shelf: These shelves are used on wall panels, or on a 4-way gondola. They are either made of wood, metal or glass, depending on the format and concept of the store. Merchandise from every category can be displayed on this fixture and this is the most common and effective fixture used in all store formats.The capacity of stocks to be placed on these shelves completely depends on the type of merchandise being displayed. It will again vary depending on the format of the store.

A- Gap Table: This fixture is mostly placed in the centre of the department and all new arrival merchandises of any style in different colours are displayed in this fixture to highlight the collection. Advantage of this fixture is that it can hold more stocks comfortably.
Racking Capacity:
Maximum 160 pieces per unit

N-Table: also termed as Nesting or Nordstam table. It is mostly placed at two corners of the entrance to the store or the department. Sometimes in the absence of the gap table it might be positioned at the centre of the department as well.
Racking Capacity:
Maximum 110 pieces per unit

Fixtures used in supermarkets and hypermarkets

N-Table (Square): This fixture is mostly used to display general merchandise and consumer durables. Its capacity to hold stock again depends on the type of merchandise being displayed on it. Here in the picture you can see loose utensils displayed on it with a maximum capacity of 400 pieces.


Bins: Bins are used to display free size loose merchandise which are mostly on offers. This bin is also used to promote merchandise in various departments.
They are of three types:

Stack bin: as the name suggests one can stack loose merchandise in it. It can be assembled as a two layered or three layered bin and placed to the two ends of a gondola. One can stack around 150 pieces of loose merchandise in this bin.
Maximum capacity:
to stack around 150 pieces.

Stall Bin: This particular bin can be stalled in any prominent area within the store to promote loose merchandises and general merchandise. Mostly stocks which are on offer are placed in these bins. Also this bin is mostly placed near cash counters to encourage impulse buying.
Maximum capacity:
to fill around 200 pieces.

Hyper bin: These bins are the bigger version of the stall bin and are basically used to stack bigger merchandise like pillows, cushions, beach towel, etc.
Maximum capacity:
to fill around 250 pieces.


Pallet: heavy products from FMCG like loose staples in huge cylindrical vessels, molded luggage from general category of merchandise, and consumer durables and electronic items like refrigerator, television, etc. are not placed directly on the floor as it does not give a good image of the product. Hence they are placed on pallets. Advantage of using pallets is that it does not damage the flooring.

Staff grooming

Frontline sales team oOn the shop floor:-

Once the staffs enter their department they need to be dressed in full uniform as per company norms, and also get properly groomed as per the service standards.

Appearance
The frontline team is the brand ambassador of the store. The customers visiting the stores are greeted by this team and are assisted by them. Hence they are expected to present a neat & clean appearance. They are expected to be in uniforms (including shirt, trousers, shoes & socks) which must be worn clean & ironed. Care should be taken so as no stains, broken buttons, or loose thread is present on the uniform. Shoes should be clean & polished all the time. No sandals/slippers/sports shoes and white socks to be worn while on duty. Nails must be clean & cut as most of the time one will be handling merchandise. When in store premises, even during off-duty hours, a well dressed appearance needs to be maintained. Hair should be combed before commencing duty, never in front of customers.

Specifically for Men
· Uniform prescribed should be clean and pressed.
· Shoes should be clean and polished.
· Hair must be short, clean & tidy.
· One is expected to have a clean shaven look.
· In case of beards/moustaches, must be trimmed, neat & tidy.
· Nails should be cut or trimmed neatly at regular intervals.
· Any type of earrings studs & bracelets are not to be worn on the floor during official hours.

Specifically for Women
· Lady staffs having long hair should tie their hair not keep it loose, not much oil applied to it.
· No (gajras) string of small white jasmine or mogra flowers hooked on the head.
· They should avoid bright coloured nail polish and long nails as they will be a cause to distract customers or damage the merchandise on display.
· Minimum, non-flashy jewellery should be worn.
· Dangling earrings, noisy anklets & bangles must not be worn on the floor
· Only very light make-up to be applied (lipstick of very light shades only)


Personal Hygiene/Body posture
· Staffs need to keep their Hands clean at all times as they mostly will be handling merchandise or in contact with customers.
· Floor staffs should avoid biting nails on the floor.
· Floor staffs should also manage body odour & bad breath to be under control as they are offensive to the customer.
· Presenting Self by maintaining straight & upright posture on the shop floor, should be the floor staffs motive.
· Slouching on the floor should be avoided and hands in pockets & hands on the hips are not courteous to the customer & hence should also be avoided.

Dress Code
· All frontline staffs in the store should wear a prescribed uniform everyday.
· The back-end staffs mostly are expected to be in formal dress code.
· The direct & indirect staffs need to display ID cards when on duty so as it helps the customers to identify the staffs.
· Service staffs handling edible foodstuff should wear clean gloves while all staffs working inside the kitchen & live bakery sections at FMCG stores need to wear caps when on duty.
· The shop-in-shop staffs & brand promoters have their approved uniforms.
· Mostly black socks & black belts are preferred as a part of staff uniforms.

Housekeeping, security & other contractual staff also have their own prescribed uniforms with shoes.

STP IN RETAIL

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.

Store layout:
Store layout should entertain customers to move around the store to purchase more merchandise than they may have originally planned. Before a store is set up the layout of the store is prepared. It involves the elevation plan for placing of fixtures on the walls and the floor; it shows how the walkway in a store should be and how much spacing needs to be given between departments and sections. Store layout is nothing but a Plano-gram of the store. It is similar like a map. It has information related to the sections, the fixtures used, area each section has occupied, which product is displayed where, and so on.

Grid layout: (Courtesy: Retailing Management-Levy and Weitz.)
It is mostly used in small grocery and FMCG store operations. It contains long gondolas of merchandise and aisles in a repetitive pattern. It isn’t the most aesthetically pleasing arrangement. Customers are not naturally drawn into the store.

o Racetrack track layout:
The race track layout facilitates the goal of getting customers to visit multiple departments. It is a type of store layout that provides a major aisle to facilitate customer traffic that has access to the store’s multiple entrances. This aisle “loops” through the store, providing access to smaller self contained departments.
The race track layout encourages impulse purchasing.

o Free-Form:
A free form layout arranges fixtures or aisles asymmetrically.Its successively used primarily in small specialty stores or within the departments of large stores. In this relaxed environment, customers feel like they are at someone’s home. Fixtures are likely to be expensive, hence customers are not naturally drawn towards the store. Hence personal selling becomes more important. Theft is higher in such layouts.

ABC of STORE OPERATIONS

Hi,
At last i have self published my book ABC of STORE OPERATIONS .
Retailing in India has seen a lot of activity and growth in the recent past. Organised retail has seen tremendous growth and this has created a huge demand for skilled work-force. The available talent-pool is limited and with the entry of more big retailers there is a huge demand for trained and skilled professionals in this sector. One of the basic requirements for the retailers is the basic understanding of the operational processes in the retailing industry among all the people they employ. A good training program where these basic concepts are imparted becomes a crying need in this sector. Most of the retailing curriculum in colleges, specialised institutes and business schools focus on broader areas like marketing management, SCM, franchising and other such broader concepts. There is a clear gap when it comes to retail store operations and processes in the retail industry. There is a need for operational skills training at the entry level and mid-management level of any retail company. It was this need that inspired the author Chinmayaprasad to publish the book 'ABC of Store Operations'. The book is aimed at trainers, students, retail professionals and industry practitioners. The book will be of great value to all those who are keen and interested in joining the store operations at entry level within the retail industry. The book is designed like an activity book with the whole book organised into ten sessions. Each session explains a specific concept and has various activities including quizzes, puzzles and other similar activities to explain the concept much better. The book is divided into two parts – the Instructor Copy and the Student Copy. Every topic within the book is explained in a very simple language and is packed with activities and illustrations to make it interesting and meaningful for the readers. The Instructor Copy will help the training instructors understand all the processes and activities that take place within a retail store with tips on how to handles each session and the activities for each session. It is the perfect facilitator for all teachers and instructors of various colleges and institutes conducting retail management programs. It would also be a very useful tool for trainers in corporates during the induction of their employees into retail store operations. The Student Copy will help the students understand the concepts in retailing and store operations much better and make learning more interesting and effective. It is a good tool for all students pursuing a course in Retail management and also for all the frontline staff within a retail store.

Retail Musings
In my previous post I had asked a query as to what are the activities that occur during store opening processes.
lets understand the same in detail in this post.
Store opening process:
Every retailer ensures that his store is properly secured and proper safety and security has been taken care of. It is a very critical responsibility of store operations managers to take care of the store so as to ensure that all the merchandise and valuables inside the store is properly arranged and safe at all times.
Every day hundreds of customers enter the store for shopping hence it becomes very important to open and close the store at a fix time so as it does not cause any inconvenience to a customer. To ensure this is in place a proper process needs to be followed during the store opening and closing time.

It is very important that the store is ready and spick and span before opening for trading for the day. A customer judges the service provided by the store by the ambience it provides to one. Hence to take care of all these the store should be opened one hour prior to trading.
Responsibility: Only the management team is responsible and authorized to handle the store opening and closing process. It is the store manager’s responsibility to ensure that a register is maintained to track the store opening and closing process.
The store manager needs to prepare a schedule as to who will do the store opening and closing. He should only designate an employee at the managerial level within the store for this activity. The designated manager for the store opening and closing process needs to ensure that the register for the same is updated, checked and signed on a daily basis. He is also responsible for the store keys and needs to log the same in the key register on a daily basis. Managing keys at the store is a critical and sensitive operational function, which needs to be handled in a secure manner. Being inattentive to these critical areas will expose the entire store resources to serious risk.
The store is responsible for minimizing the risks involved in movement of keys and providing complete security for all the resources at the store.
The store opening and closing register lists the details of timings, signatory of authorized person, key details, etc. Any deviation in the process is noted in a separate log book. A check list also is in place which the manager needs to adhere to accordingly. The check list acts as a guide and ensures nothing is missed out during the opening and closing process.
Process: The opening and closing of the store is done by two different managers according to the schedule provided by the store manager. Every organization has a fixed process which is followed and adhered to.

The main entrance to the store is never opened first. The back door namely staff entrance is the first door to be opened. The store should be opened for the day for trading by a management staff along with the security guard. The person assigned for opening the store checks the lock if it is sealed properly, and not tampered with. He then opens the door, gets in along with the security guard and puts in the entry time and signs in the store opening/closing register. He then immediately needs to check the checklist and see for any remarks entered in it the previous closing time so as can act accordingly He switches on the minimum lights as required. He has to then check all the sensitive rooms such as the cash room, the server room, the panel room, etc. whether they have been tampered with or not and accordingly note in the register. All the doors to these rooms will be sealed the previous day. He will then allow the security guards to enter the store. All the security guards will get stationed at their respective posts as decided by the security supervisor. The guards get posted at the main entrance, at the customer service desk, at all the trial rooms, the entrance to the back office, the main entrance to the store, the ware house exit/entry door, and at all the other necessary place as required by the manager. The housekeeping supervisor will then allow his men to enter the store to begin with the house keeping activities. The team gets divided floor wise, department wise, and section wise. As per retail standards the floors are first swept, and then wet mopped and then followed by dry mop. If the floor is having carpet it is vacuum cleaned thoroughly twice in a day. All the washrooms are then cleaned, water tanks are filled. The cooler for drinking water is kept ready, back office computers, desks and cabins are cleaned. The food and grocery section is thoroughly cleaned, and the chillers are also wiped. All the fixtures, browsers, wall panels are also wipe cleaned. All the trolleys are also cleaned and then counted and taken out of the store and parked near the entrance to the store. The shopping baskets are also cleaned and placed at the entrance to all the departments. Trolleys and baskets are cleaned on weekly basis or as per requirement. This entire process should take one hour before trading begins. One has to ensure that proper cleaning materials are used to clean the fixtures and other materials in the store. Care should be taken when cleaning all wooden fixtures. Proper polish especially meant for polishing wood should be used for the same. Separate solution is used for metal and glass fixtures. Room fresheners also need to be used whenever necessary. Half an hour before trading the staffs is allowed to enter from the staff entrance. The security guard present does the frisking of the staff as mobile phones and other valuables are not allowed to be carried inside the store. Lady employees are frisked by the lady searcher. The valuables are all placed inside the locker of the individual staff. The staff then signs in the in/out register and settles in his respective department. The head cashier opens the cash room, (role of head cashier to be inserted) the systems personnel opens the server room and the maintenance in charge opens the panel room. The maintenance person switches on all the lights and air conditioner. The systems person switches the server and computers on and the head cashier takes out the float money and stationary required at the cash desk and hands over to all the individual cashiers. (what is a float- explain the same in cash management process later to be inserted)

The customer service desk in charge opens his cabin and logs on his computer. Once all the cashiers have logged on their point of sale machine and ready the main entrance to the store is opened for customers. Any deviation from the above process is immediately recorded in the log book. Also if any untoward incident occurs and is observed by the opening manager he immediately informs the store manager and necessary action is taken accordingly

Once one has got a clear understanding of the product mix it becomes very easy to plan the lay-out of the store and merchandise the goods. Various retailers use different types of layouts to merchandise their products depending on the size of the store, the type of products and location of the store.

Store layout:
Store layout should entertain customers to move around the store to purchase more merchandise than they may have originally planned. Before a store is set up the layout of the store is prepared. It involves the elevation plan for placing of fixtures on the walls and the floor; it shows how the walkway in a store should be and how much spacing needs to be given between departments and sections. Store layout is nothing but a Plano-gram of the store. It is similar like a map. It has information related to the sections, the fixtures used, area each section has occupied, which product is displayed where, and so on.

Grid layout: (Courtesy: Retailing Management-Levy and Weitz.)
It is mostly used in small grocery and FMCG store operations. It contains long gondolas of merchandise and aisles in a repetitive pattern. It isn’t the most aesthetically pleasing arrangement. Customers are not naturally drawn into the store.




Grid layout
ref: google site

o Racetrack track layout:
The race track layout facilitates the goal of getting customers to visit multiple departments.It is a type of store layout that provides a major aisle to facilitate customer traffic that has access to the store’s multiple entrances. This aisle “loops” through the store, providing access to smaller self contained departments.
The race track layout encourages impulse purchasing.

o Free-Form:
A free form layout arranges fixtures or aisles asymmetrically.Its successively used primarily in small speciality stores or within the departments of large stores.In this relaxed environment,customers feel like they are at someone’s home.Fixtures are likely to be expensive,hence customers are not naturally drawn towards the store.Hence personal selling becomes more important.Theft is higher in such layouts.



free flow layout
ref: google site
It is at Big Bazaar that I was exposed to most of the standard operating procedures, thanks to Ved Prakash Arya, the then CEO and his team. A proper SOP manual was in place in all the stores of Future Group to guide the store manager and his team to understand and follow the processes properly.

To understand the operations of a store one needs to be aware of all the day to day activities happening within a store. He needs to be a keen observer and should have a hunger for learning. One needs to ask questions to himself when inside a shop floor as to why the store lay out is in the way it is, why such a merchandise mix, understand and ask why fixtures are placed in a particular manner, and how it solves the problem, and which fixture is used when and where and why, and try to analyse each and every activity happening in the shop floor. The more you observe and the more you ask questions the more you come closer in understanding operations. You also need to understand the SOP for each and every process inside the store. Let’s understand this step by step. What is the first activity that happens when the store is ready to open?

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 lame man 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.Once the concept of store format is clear one needs to clearly understand the departments, products and their hierarchy within a store. Understanding product hierarchy (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 organisations have large number of brands and products which is referred to as Product Line. They offer shirts, trousers, t-shirts and other products in different styles, sizes and colours. 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.
Next week we will understand the store layouts.