INDIAN RETAIL SECTOR

Evolution of Indian retail Industry: Indian Retail Industry is standing at its point of inflexion, waiting for the boom to take place. The inception of the retail industry dates back to times where retail stores were found in the village fairs , Melas or in the weekly markets. These stores were highly unorganized. The maturity of the retail sector took place with the establishment of retail stores in the locality for convenience. With the government intervention the retail industry in India took a new shape. Outlets for Public Distribution System, Cooperative stores and Khadi stores were set up. These retail Stores demanded low investments for its establishment. The retail industry in India gathered a new dimension with the setting up of the different International Brand Outlets, Hyper or Super markets, shopping malls and departmental stores. Key Players in the Indian Retail Sector: The untapped scope of retailing has attracted superstores like Wal-Mart into India, leaving behind the kiranas that served us for years. Such companies are basically IT based. The other important participants in the Indian Retail sector are Bata, Big Bazaar, Pantaloons,Westside, Archies, Cafe Coffee Day, landmark, Khadims, Crossword, to name a few. Retailing in India: a forecast: Future of organized retail in India looks bright. According to recent researches it is projected to grow at a rate of about 37% in 2007 and at a rate of 42% in 2008. It will capture a share of 10% of the total retailing by the end of 2010. According to the Union Minister of Commerce & Industry, Shri Kamal Nath, the organized retail sector is expected to grow to a value of Rs. 2,00,000 crore (US$45 billion) and may generate 10 to15 million jobs in next 5 years. This can happen in two forms- 2.5 million of these people may be associated directly with retailing and the rest 10 million people may be gainfully employed in related sectors that will be pulled up through the strong forward and backward linkage effects. However to compete in this sector one needs to have up-to-date market information for planing and decision making. The second most important requirement is to manage costs widely in order to earn at least normal profits in face of stiff competition.

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ABOUT WESTSIDE

This story began circa 1998 when the Tatas acquired Littlewoods a London based retail chain. Westside was established in 1998 as a part of TATA group, Trent Ltd operated Westside, one of the Indias largest and fastest growing chains of retail stores. The Westside stores have numerous departments to meet varied shopping need of consumers. These include mens wear, womens wear, kids wear, footwear, cosmetics, perfumes, handbags, household accessories and gifts. The company already established 49 Westside departmental stores in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chandigarh, Chennai, etc. The company hopes to expand rapidly with similar format stores that offer fine balance between style and price retailing. Westside has carved a niche for its brand of merchandise creating a loyal following. With variety of designs and styles , everything at Westside is exclusively designed and the merchandise ranges from stylized clothes, accessories , footwear for men , women and children.

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BLACKBERRY

Vision statement A ceaseless endeavor to delight the fashion forward customer with great style and care teamed with speed and innovation. An overview of our businesses Established in 1991 Blackberrys is one of the leading formal wear brands in India. Identifying a potential in branded structured clothing for the changing needs of the Indian male, over the years, Blackberrys has established itself as the manufacturer of trousers, suites and jackets and gradually completed the wardrobe look with shirts, and accessories. The model is based on a design conscious, product delivery system with a strong back up of global and local sourcing. Catering to the self assured and confident youth, we stand for innovations in product and have created a strong image of Sharp Edged Clothing. The brand has a high recall value and is perceived a premium clothing brand and has been documented in various trade surveys as The Best FIT. Blackberrys is equipped with the latest technology of manufacturing in 3 factories. The 22000 sq. ft plant has been specially designed for the manufacturing of suits and jackets produce 500 units per day and 1200 formal trousers and 1500 casual trousers per day. A true assembly line system of production with latest technology in computerized sleeve setters, automatic pocket welting machines, differential feed machines, and specialized press finishing to facilitate a very high level of consistent quality. Today Blackberrys can be accessed across India through about 900 plus retail outlets, 125 company owned showroom and all large format stores like shoppers stop, lifestyle etc.
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MY FINDINGS IN WESTSIDE FOR BLACKBERRY

I visited WESTSIDE situated in Malad West Link Road in Infinity Mall for my research findings. There at the customer desk counter we first met the Sales Manager Ms.Amreen sheikh who was the heading the Sales of this store. I introduced myself and explained what I exactly wanted from her through this research. She was actually busy that day and so she gave me an appointment for the next day. The next day I went there and she introduced took me to the section of Mens wear and there I met Mr.Vinay Pandey who was responsible for Blackberry Brand. The following questions were asked by me:1. How much retail space have you allotted for this brand? The total space allotted to this brand is 1200 sq.feet of the total mens wear section and overall the menswear section is spread across to approx 6500 sq.feet

RETAIL SPACE

Blackberry 16%

Menswear 84%

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2. What is the total stock kept for this brand? The stock kept for this brand is explained in the chart below:-

STOCK
80 60 40 20 0 Trouzers Shirts Blazers No.of Units

3. How many suppliers do you have for this brand? We have only two suppliers for this brand and they only supply Blackberry brand. So because they are specialized and also trusted ones, we have kept only those two suppliers. He did not disclose the name of the Supplier as it was confidential. 4. What is your monthly estimated sales for this brand? He said that they do not estimate the total sales monthly but he said that according to the policy of the stores minimum atleast 15 units of any type should be sold from each brand in a month. 5. Does your estimated sales meet your actual sales? He said that there are ups and downs in case of sales of all the brands not only Blackberry. According to him, during the peak season or festivals the estimated goes much higher whereas there are some slack periods and that time we are unable to meet even the minimum. So there is fluctuation in sales. 6. How frequently do you re-place the stock? Usually the stock is kept for a period of 3 months and then whatever is unsold is taken back by the company and new fresh stock comes up in the store. However, in westside what we do is we keep a check for 15 to 20 days on the new stock. If the sales are going low for these 15 to 20 days then we again change the stock.

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7. How much time does it take for the re-ordered stock to get updated on the shelf? It takes three days from the day of re-order because if we order today we get the stock the next day and that day we see the order check it whether there is any defect or any other problem and then stock it on shelf. So atleast 3 days are required. Therefore we re-order 5 days before so in total we have more 2 days left with us. 8. How many employees in this store work for this brand? He said that total of 10 employees are working only for this brand and 2 employees that is the store manager and sales manager also keep themselves updated. 9. Does Blackberry have any seasonal implications? He said that Blackberry specially targets Business class people and Party wear. So in case of Party wear the brand has a little seasonal impact but the sales for employees and office going people does not have much seasonal effect. 10. How do you calculate your profit for the brand? Is it Unit based or Wholesale stock based? He refused to answer this question 11. What kind of visual merchandising are you doing for the Product? The visual merchandising was done very formally that very well suited the brand. The store in overall has yellow lighting while blackberry was seen in white colour lighting and had a separate section all together in wooden flooring and it was also eye catching because it was exactly at the starting of mens wear section. 12. What is the total cost incurred by the store on visual merchandising? He refused to answer this question 13. Do you have any sales promotion strategy for this brand? Who decides the promotion strategy? He said that we had buy 2 get 1 free offer in blackberry and we also offered additional 5% discount to those who are members and hold the membership card of westside. Currently we have 25% off in the manner that purchase one and get second at 25% off. So we keep different promotion strategies as per the season. The promotion strategy is decided by the marketing department and this promotion campaign is then same for all the stores.
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14. What is the Unique Selling Proposition of this brand according to you? He said that the most important thing that this brand owns is that the quality of the cloth is 100% cotton and so it is priced high as compared to others. Another important thing that this brand has that is the fitting of the clothes in this brand is far different and the best and so customers who purchase this product once will become loyal to it. So thats the most unique selling proposition acoording to him. 15. Do you provide any after sales service for the customer? Yes , we do have after sales facility for customers in case of defects, provided customers gets the product within 15 days of purchasing, and in return we provide credit facility which is valid for 6 months of time in which customer can buy any product of their choice.

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iD Shoes

iD Smart Casuals, the most striking range of footwear to hit the market happens to be an offering from M&B Footwear Pvt. Ltd., the robust footwear major operating in the Indian and the overseas sector. iD footwear and sparparts, epitomizes the aspiration and attitude of the contemporary youth and their mind set, which now more than often looks at avenues that are a bit over the edge and go beyond the other available mundane options. iD was conceived to float and promote a cutting edge, fashion brand that operates consistently on differentials. iDs ongoing brand building exercise too has been stimulating as it continues to adopt a visible leadership stance in the category cautiously explored by its promoters and marketing team. On 22nd November 2006, iD launched its first ever exclusive store in the city of Mumbai at The Atria Mall in Worli. The inauguration of the store was done by Zayed Khan, popular cinestar and unveiled iDs Fall Winter 2006 collection.

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Since this store, iD gained a lot of attention of youngsters in Mumbai and since then this brand has been producing the best innovative designs and has given a true competitive edge in the footwear segment in India.

MY FINDINGS IN WESTSIDE FOR iD Shoes

I visited WESTSIDE situated in Malad West Link Road in Infinity Mall for my research findings. There at the customer desk counter we first met the Sales Manager Ms.Amreen sheikh who was the heading the Sales of this store. I introduced myself and explained what I exactly wanted from her through this research. She was actually busy that day and so she gave me an appointment for the next day. The next day I went there and she took me to the section of Footwear and there I met Mr.Viraj Gada who was responsible for Id shoes. The following questions were asked by me:-

1. How much retail space have you allotted for this brand? The total retail space for footwear section is 3500 sq.feet out of which iD has 900 sq.feet

RETAIL SPACE

iD Shoes 20%

Footwear 80%

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2. What is the total stock kept for this brand? There are different names given by the company to different types of design. The total stock for the brand is as follows:-

STOCK
35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 TIGER FLY FIGO ICON CANVAS

Series1

3. How many suppliers do you have for this brand? He said that we have only one supplier for this brand and that too to avoid any duplication we import the shoes. So we have only our one trusted supplier. Name of the su[pplier was not disclosed by him. 4. What is your monthly estimated sales for this brand? He said that they do not estimate the sales because these shoes are fashion shoes and it is liked by only youngsters and so as per the company policy we need to sell atleast 15 units in a month. So we have to sell two pair of shoes a day and that is the mimum requirement. 5. Does your estimated sales meet your actual sales? We generally are able to sell more in the festivals and party seasons. So mostly we are able to meet our minimum requirement in peak seasons. Otherwise sometimes we are able to meet and many a times we do fail.

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6. How frequently do you re-place the stock? Our stock replacing policy is 5 months, as we have shoes that are made keeping in mind innovative designs so we usually keep changing the pattern after 5 or 6 months. So minimum 5 months is what we have to keep on rotation basis. After 2 months we rotate the leftover stock to other location and stock from there comes here. So the customer gets to see new shoes after 2 months. In this manner we have our operations. 7. How much time does it take for the re-ordered stock to get updated on the shelf? The re-ordered stock gets updated on the shelf after 5 days from the point of order. The time is because the ordering is done from outside India so it takes one day for coming through cargo and then gets dispatched to our central purchasing unit in Mumbai and then comes to the store. So we have to keep a margin of one day additional. 8. How many employees in this store work for this brand? We have 4 employees for this brand adding the store manager and sales manager it becomes 6 in total as they also keep an updated information with them. 9. Does iD shoes have any seasonal implications? Yes we do have seasonal implications in case of rainy season as the shoes we have are not suitable in rainy season. So usually in rainy season the buyers are less and hence we recover this slack period in other seasons where the sales are good 10. How do you calculate your profit for the brand? Is it Unit based or Wholesale stock based? He refused to answer this question 11. What kind of visual merchandising are you doing for the Product? The shoes were placed upright on a florescent green colour glass shelf. The section had violet colour focused light and was withstanding others because the colour combination alongwith the different kind of patterns in shoes that it had completely stood out of other brands. Taking photograph was not allowed in the store. So couldnt be shown. 12. What is the total cost incurred by the store on visual merchandising? He said that out of the revenue the company generates, total of 2% goes into visual merchandising and marketing the product.
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13. Do you have any sales promotion strategy for this brand? Who decides the promotion strategy? We do not have any special sales promotion strategy for the brand but its just that our promotion is the unique design that we have and that is the only thing that we promote. We do not have any discount offers at present. We only have discount of 20% in off season sale. However, additional 5% discount is given by the store for card holders. 14. What is the Unique Selling Proposition of this brand according to you? The most important thing about our brand is that it has its unique design and comfort which entails it to have its USP in its design. 15. Do you provide any after sales service for the customer? Yes, we do have after sales service. If any defect is found from 15 days of purchase then a replacement is offered of the same to the doorstep within 10 days. The customer is also given a 1 year warranty in case of any other problems.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

www.mywestside.com/ www.idfootwear.com/ http://www.economywatch.com/business-and-economy/indian-retail-industry.html

Field survey at Westside, Infinity Mall, Malad W.

THANK YOU!!

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