Sales & MarketZing !

Cash and carry heads north - Economic Times Indian textile cos spread wings, boost retail to grow - Reuters India Dell to ramp up retail presence - Business Standard Cut` retail forays into smaller cities - Business Standard Spices Board sees future in retail - Economic Times Essential Report on the Opportunities of the Indian Retail Industry - Business Wire (press release) India: Retail giants to gulp small retail traders - FreshPlaza Subhiksha picks up majority stake in Blue Green - Hindu McDonald's opens first "Drive Thru'' outlet in Hyderabad - Hindu Business Line Indian talent in demand; seen as competitive threat - Hindu Business Line Nilkamal to pump Rs 150 cr in retail venture - Hindu Business Line RETAIL NEWS YOU CAN USE !

In continuation with the earlier posts , wherein ,had bought out the importance of people management, customer service ,visual merchandising and the criticality of tight control.Plus also made it clear that the success of any retailer has a great degree of reliance on the retail operations piece ,here we go again , with certain more critical elements on what makes retail operations tick. Range vs Depth :: In retail operations its a Must to know what are customers buying and not buying and why ? its important that either thru data or thru floor presence the floor /section head is able to understand what is going into the shopping bags and not going into the same , most of the times MIS DATA alone cant help , as many a instance the merchandise that gets classified as not selling , might have no fault of its own , could have been placed in some corner of the floor and not catching the customer eye ! A good seasoned floor manager ,also has an eye on the regular customer base , its importa

Here is a case Study on Issues faced under Modern trade ! what this blog describes as the Cadbury effect in Modern Trade ! India's largest listed retailer Big Bazaar has pulled Cadbury's chocolate from its shelves following a row over allegedly discriminatory pricing policies. Big Bazaar, which runs large superstores in big cities across India, claims that other retailers operating cash-and-carry outlets in the country, such as Germany's Metro and Shoprite from the US, are being given better deals by the British confectioner. While demanding a discount on the wholesale prices it pays for chocolate bars it has claimed that Cadbury, which has made the subcontinent a key target market, has failed to treat India's retailers with adequate respect. He added: "Multinational companies have to respect the contribution of Indian modern retailers to their growth and treat us as equal partners in business." The move will come as a blow to Cadbury Schweppes, which is India

What's on your consumers mind is it on your shelf ? is a good question to always ask both at a marketing front and on the operations front in retail , or any other consumer product business . Brands spend crores in driving awareness and desire , when the consumers come seeking in for the product , its a sheer waste when they dont find what they have come looking for .This is what the blog would term as "mind1 shelf0 "(tm) phenomenon ( where on the mind gets 1 , not on your shelf gets 0 ) So why does this happen always , yes its a historical issue but never is addressed ...here is this blogs take on the why piece i) Too many variants ::most of the problems occur due to the brand's great desire to satisfy everyone , thus the great urge for more skus 'which could take the shape of too many colors ,sizes , contents etc , so more the variants more the chance of "mind 1 shelf 0 " phenomenon ,take a max of two winning variants , with proper demand forecasting

Here is the Latest Update on Indian Retail ....... Parliamentary panel also studying retail biz - Livemint Organised retail can be an ally in promoting food security for the - Hindu Business Line Subhiksha is India's most Trusted Retail Brand for 2008 - Moneycontrol.com (press release) Videocon plans major global retail foray under `VC` brand - Business Standard Reliance Retail close to break-even !- Livemint Indian retail market to be 6th largest by 2012 - Merinews Tata, HUL battle for branded tea mkt leadership - Financial Express Lee Cooper mulls 24 new stores - Financial Express Westside hums franchisee tune for stores expansion - Financial Express Reading the fine print of retail boom in India - Financial Express VF Corp not to buy out Arvind's stake in joint venture - Hindu Business Line Rel Retail in talks with food MNCs - Economic Times Enjoy !

.....how many times have you been attracted to your neighbourhood retail store and ended up buying extra or MORE than what you had planned for , you walk in for a cold drink , you get a couple of chips packets ,get a shaving razor , get attracted to the latest deo , so a 50 Rs bill would have touched 200+ ,or maybe more if the shaving razor is Gillete Mach 3 ! What was a very organised phenomenon , wherein our mothers would plan and do the monthly buy , the only other major shopping occasions were festival led ,has all changed to random and on demand shopping , thanks to our friendly neighbourhood retail outlet, our purses are surely getting lighter each time we make a visit .Organised retail in one way is surely increasing consumption Don't think Brands are cribbing , for if someone has walked in for cold drinks and bought a shaving razor or vice versa ,as long things sell it should be ok ! so how does this work , here is my take on why are we going thru this , ie on WHY DO

Of late , we have seen a flurry of launches in the e retail space , so why are businesses gungho about web space ? Context ! Post the dotcom bust , yes u are left wondering how did people dream of dotcom 6 years back with such poor Internet backbone available in the country . The estimated broadband figures in the country is just at 3+ million ,ie reported , this number would be slightly higher if you were to add the cable Internet , and operators that take bandwidth from others and bill subs etc , the numbers reported of broadband subsrcibers addition last month was at close 3.5 lakhs , which is insignificant when compared to Mobile subs additions , however it will not be long with the advent of Wimax in certain markets the numbers would swell ,soon ,well almost everything cud get done thru the net ! isn't that good news for lazy bums ,like me ! So you see with the future looking exciting , and with PC prices crashing , there is a flurry among business houses that have got into e