Retail Store Operations and Store Management Course Objectives

Retail Store Operations and Store Management

Course Objectives Explain the Various Elements of Retail Store Operations Explain What is Store Design and Layout Explain the Types of Floor Plans Explain What are Planograms Explain the Types of Visual Product Placement Explain the Role of Signage in Retail Stores Explain the Role of Coupons in Retail Marketing Explain What is Guerrilla Marketing Explain What is Impulse Buying Describe the Responsibilities of a Store Manager Explain the Purpose of Mannequins In Retail Stores Explain What is Up Selling Explain What is Inventory Management Describe Factors Affecting Buying Decision of Customers List Tips for Efficient Store Operations and Management

Introduction Rachel Smith is a housewife who shops for her groceries every month. ‘You & Us’ is a supermarket that is located at about 45 minutes drive from Rachel’s home. There is also another supermarket, ‘Groceries & Daily Needs’ which is located on the same street as that of Rachel’s home. Rachel could in fact walk to ‘Groceries & Daily Needs’ for her grocery needs. Groceries & Daily Needs You & Us Rachel’s home es t u n i 45 m e driv

Introduction However, Rachel drives to ‘You & Us’ every month and shops for her monthly groceries. Rachel’s home Rachel’s husband, Keith is really perplexed about this. He knows that both the supermarkets, ‘You & Us’ and ‘Groceries & Daily Needs’ stock almost the same brands and have a wide variety of brands and products. You & Us es t u n i 45 m e driv

Introduction Keith asks Rachel as to why she prefers driving for 45 minutes and goes to ‘You & Us’ rather than walking or driving to the closer supermarket, ‘Groceries & Daily Needs’. Rachel tells Keith that she prefers shopping for her groceries at ‘You & Us’ and not at ‘Groceries & Daily Needs’ due to the following reasons.

Introduction ‘You & Us’ has a better store atmosphere than ‘Groceries & Daily Needs’ as it has good air-conditioning and better arrangement of shelves for easy access. The aisle space between the shelves is also larger in ‘You & Us’ which allows easier movement with the trolley. There are many billing counters for making the payments so that Rachel does not have to wait in long queues for making the payment.

Introduction The staff at ‘You and Us’ are very friendly and informative. They help Rachel in giving information about the products and help her in making an informed choice. The arrangement of the stock of goods at ‘You & Us’ allows for making a choice and finding a desired product very easily. ‘You & Us’ offers various large amount discount coupons that Rachel can use in her next month’s purchase.

Introduction The ‘Refund and Returns’ policy at ‘You & Us’ is more flexible than at ‘Groceries & Daily Needs’. ‘You & Us’ allows to exchange the returned product against any product in the store of the same value. However, ‘Groceries & Daily Needs’ allows to exchange the returned product only by a product of the same category such as beverages against beverages, food grains against food grains, clothes against clothes etc.

Introduction Therefore, you can see that in spite of stocking almost the same brands and products, Rachel prefers ‘You & Us’ over ‘Groceries & Daily Needs’ due to the store conditions and management. Effective and efficient store operations and store management play a crucial role in the success of any retail business.

Introduction The various store management and store operations factors that may affect the customer’s buying decision such as follows: • Store Display and Presentation of Products • Ambience of the Store • Customer Treatment • Store Design and Layout • Other Factors such as discounts, coupons, exchange offers etc. t u o ab and n r a ons e l s rati ent in u Let ope gem re ana il. o t s m eta e r d sto

Store Atmosphere: • The store must offer a positive ambience to the customers for them to enjoy their shopping and leave with a smile. • Let us take a look at a few key points that needs to be considered for offering a pleasing and ambient store atmosphere to your customers.

Safety and Security: • • • It is important that the store has adequate safety and security arrangements to prevent shoplifting. The merchandise should not be displayed at the entry or exit of the store. Do not allow customers to carry more than three dresses at one time to the trial room. Install CCTVs and cameras to keep a close watch on the customers. Each merchandise should have a security tag.

Refunds and Returns: • The following are a few key points to be considered for having an effective refund and returns systems in your store: o Formulate a concrete refund policy for your store. o The store should have fixed timings for exchange of merchandise. o Never exchange products in lieu of cash.

Types of Floor Plans Angular Flo or Plan Straight Fl oor Plan Diagonal Floor Plan Let us look at each in detail. Mixed Floor Plan Geometric Floor Plan

Diagonal Floor Plan the , n : a n l a or p r Pl ch o o l a f o l e l F a o l n t a n iago diagonal r to d e e g Diago h a t ng to s are kep e ma nal i r d o r t s o go he Acc ack t a r i r r D o o. r e rs es shelv or the own e custome where ick p h f s t d r e n sto oth in a ch o n t k i l a l w e w a w keep an works e liberty to. h pl floor ers have t their own n m custo chandise o er up m Diagonal Floor Plan

What are Planograms? • You know that buildings are constructed with the help of architectural drawings. • An architectural drawing creates a rough print of the building on paper which gives an idea about the floor plans, location of rooms, lobby and so on.

Visual Product Placement ‘Visual Product Placement’ refers to a technique where the products are placed in a way to immediately catch the attention of the customers walking into the store.

The following are the various types of Product Placement’: Commercial Prod‘Visual uct Placement: • Commercial pro duct placement ta kes into account the b rand value of the merchandise. Every customer has a perceived image o f the merchandise ct which decides its placement in u the d ntstore. A o p ro r d u ct which has severa P me l k takers would defin e c c o itely get the best Bl Pla position as compa red to something whiccht does not co ntribute much to u d o r P al the erenvt enue of the store. c i t r em Ve Plac Co mm erc ial Pla Prod ce uc me t nt Share Prod u ct Plac e ment M ark et Margin Produ ct P laceme nt Commercial Product Placement Horizontal Product Placement Let’s look at each in detail.

What is a Signage? A ‘Signage’ is any visual representation which gives information to the customers about a store, any office, building, street, park and so on. Signage helps the customers to easily reach their desired destination or locate a building by simply following the instructions displayed on the signage.

Role of Coupons in Retail Marketing Coupons play an important role in attracting the customers into the store, in promoting the retail stores and making the retail brand popular amongst the masses. Coupons help in furthering the brand image of the retail store without huge investments. It makes the brand popular among the end-users. Individuals talk more about the brand, thus making it a hit amongst the masses.

What are Mannequins? • Visual Merchandising plays an important role in increasing the sales of any retail store. The presentation and display of the merchandise play an important role in attracting the customers into the store and prompting them to buy the products. • ‘Mannequins’ in simpler words also known as ‘dummies’ and play an important role in visual merchandising.

Real Life Example • Hazel has to go to her office party on Thursday evening. • Hazel decides to buy a nice party dress on Wednesday evening. • She visits Helios Apparels, a leading fashion retail store to buy the party dress.

SKU (Stock Keeping Unit): • Every product available at the store has a unique code. This code helps in the identification and tracking of the products at the retail store is known as Stock Keeping Unit or SKU. • The retailer feeds each and every SKU in the master computer and can easily track the product in the stock just by entering the SKU Number. Assigning a unique code to the products avoids unnecessary searching. New Old Stock Out

Out of Home Advertising 1 Out of Home Advertising: Nothing works better than promoting a brand through signboards, billboards, Outand hoardings banners intelligently placed of ho me adve rtising is a wa y to influence the individuals when they are ou t of at strategic locations like stations, their hom es. railway The hoar ding must be installed at a height visibl e to all even crowded areas, heavy traffic fromand a dis tance. Makecrossings, sure it catches the attention of the pa ssing indivinear bus stands, halls, residential dualscinema and influe nces them to visit the store. areas and so on. Such advertising is also Keep it simple and make sure it doesn’ t confuse the customers; instead it known as ‘out of home advertising’. should convey the information in its de sired form.

Ambience of the Store Display and Presentation of Products Ambience of the Store Customer Treatment Store Design and Layout Other Factors The store ambience plays an important role in attracting new customers and retaining existing ones.

Tips for Efficient Retail Store Operations and Management The products stocked in the store and their display an important role in attracting the customers into the store. Create the company’s website and get your visiting cards printed. Promote your store well. It is essential to create awareness of your brand amongst the customers for them to know about the brand’s existence. Devise strategies to make your brand popular amongst the masses.

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