Customers In Our Store

As usual we see customers come, customers go, customer shop. Some come to buy, while some come to spend their time here.The variety of customers is the spice of our store. We come across different types of customers. Now what is this 'types of customers'?. Doesn't it sound strange to your ears? You can really identify them if you observe them closely. This is how I see them as-

"THE CONFUSED ONES"
They usually do not know why they have entered the store.Its like something has forced them to do so. Finally they end up buying something later, realizing its of no use to them.

"THE PIGEONS"
They are very common in all the stores. They are usually in their mid 30's. They come to the store generally in groups, search for the charmed beautiful ladies through the merchandise and enjoy the beauty of them and not the store in whole. They act to buy something especially in front of the sales staffs who are always on their toes to help.

"THE GARDEN LOVERS"
They usually prefer to come in the evening.For them the store is like a garden.They stroll around casually, discussing, talking and enjoying the beauty of the store. (as if they are watching the flowers bloom in the garden) But there is no shopping in their mind.

"THE PLANNED ONES"
They come dashing inside the store, just buy what they want, not interested at all to look around as to what is new in the store for them, pay and go happily, satisfied in their own way.

"THE FUNNY ONES"
You usually come across one or two such characters in a day. They just come to entertain the staffs who assist them, as if its their duty, but they do end up shopping something and they feel its really necessary for them at one thought.

They all are our customers, but what's common in all of them is that they all are GOOD CUSTOMERS, LOYAL CUSTOMERS, THE VALUED ONES. Ths sale of our store depends on them and we enjoy assisting them and making them comfotable inside the store.

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.