Retail Guru » Customers

‘Small-Town Aspiration’ To Drive Posh’s Store Network

economic times retail news — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 06:49:29 +0000

Fashion aspirations of the growing numbers of customers across the country’s tier-2 and tier-3 cities has prompted affordable fashion brand, Posh to target a store expansion plan that will take the brand to a Rs 1,000-crore company by 2018.

“Across the smaller towns like Satara, Raipur, Meerut, Mangalore, Puri, Aurangabad, Palakkad and Vizianagaram, there is a strong aspiration towards being fashionable. And the aspirations in these small-towns are far superior to those in urban centers”, says Jagannath P, promoter of Bangalore-based Speciality Retail which owns the Posh retail brand.

Jagannath, a former head of Walmart’s India operations, says the Indian organized retail market resembled the European and US markets of the 1960s, promising major opportunities for retail brands in the coming years. “The latent demand for affordable fashion is evident across smaller towns in the country, and our own experience in retailing in a town like Mangalore has been way above our expectations”, says Jagannath.

Jagannath and co-promoter Bobby George Mathai said the Posh brand had five stores now, with plans to add another five by mid-December, and a target to reach 100 stores by 2013 and 500 stores by 2018. They said the firm was in talks for private equity funding for which talks were on.

Posh has five verticals, namely fashion, kids, home décor, lighting, and women’s handbags and fashion accessories. The brand is targeting a Rs 1,000-crore turnover from 500 stores by 2018. Jagannath said the prospects in retail were bright, considering that even now only 9 per cent of the domestic market was in the organized sector, and that the near future would see this segment grow substantially.

Mahindra Retail Launches Its First Unique Green Store In Bangalore

admin — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 16:08:48 +0000

Mahindra Retail took on the green hue with the launch of its unique ‘Green’ Mom & Me store in Bangalore. Located at Indiranagar, the well established retail destination, this is the 25th Mom & Me store in the country and the 5th in Bangalore.

The store and is spread over an area of 3200 sq ft. This Green Mom & Me store uses eco-friendly, recycled and reused construction material. Its environment friendly features the maximum use of natural elements in the store such as low energy consumption lighting, lead free paints & tiles, doors reconditioned from the existing buildings etc. The kids play area too has natural toxic free Marmoleum to ensure a safe environment.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. K. Venkataraman, Managing Director, Mahindra Retail Pvt. Ltd. said, “I am delighted to launch the 25th Mahindra Retail green store in Bangalore, which reinforces our commitment to sustainability and a greener environment.

As an environmentally conscious organization, Mahindra Retail seeks to drive positive change and make a difference in the life of its customers. The 25th Mom & Me store is therefore a landmark for us on two counts – reaching this mark within a short span of time and launching a unique store for our customers to ensure a healthy shopping experience.”

Unique facets of the Green Mahindra Retail store

Lead free tiles have been used for flooring in all areas except the kids play area flooring where natural toxic free marmoleum tiles have been used. Lead free paints have been used in the store and all graphics have been printed with 100 % eco-friendly eco solvent HP links.

Eco Friendly Aerocon instawall has been used for construction of walls, the wall finishing is done using Gyproc eco friendly plaster. The false ceiling uses Gyproc eco friendly boards, wall partitions are done using green ply eco friendly range ply and laminate while focal walls use natural bamboo panels. There is an attempt to use natural light to the extent possible.

The retail area therefore has light slits cut across the store, which brings in natural lighting upto 15% while the back stock room uses transparent roofing to allow 100% light during the day. A combination of eco-friendly LEDs and CDMT lighting has been used throughout the store. 60% of the doors are reconditioned and reused from the existing buildings .

In addition to construction, the green theme has been extended into the interior deisgn with subtle landscaping at lobbies and negative spaces. The cash counter houses an aquarium in the front to engage kids . Store background music is accompanied by the soothing sound of water flowing from a weeping wall made of natural stone with a recycling water system.

The store’s exterior is landscaped with natural grass and plants and reused granite slabs from the building’s existing pavement. To complement the interior theme store fixtures are clad with natural veneer, the shopping baskets made of natural cane and paper shopping bags for customers to carry back their purchases in . Unique and refereshing fragrance in the store is rendered with natural flower pot pourri dispensers to complete the unique shopping experience in the store

About Mom & Me Stores

Mom & Me stores from Mahindra Retail have been built around the unique needs of mothers to be, young mothers, infants and children up to the age of nine. Mom & Me has scoured the world’s best brands in these categories and more and has selected a range of the best products to stock in their stores giving Indian mothers choice that they have not enjoyed hitherto.

Where international brands have found to be lacking, Mom & Me has developed private labels in order to bring products like ethnic fashion for women, infant apparel, and traditional Indian toys to their stores for the benefit of the Indian consumer. Mom & Me stores are organised keeping in mind the customers’ convenience in selecting women’s western maternity fashion, women’s ethnic fashion, mother wellness, baby wellness, toys, kids fashion, kids footwear, travel products, home safety products and furnishing products

Mom & Me stores have in-house activities for parents & children in the form of Parenting Forums & Kids Activity sessions. Parenting Forums are interactive sessions with experts in various fields providing answers to various parenting and pregnancy queries. The kids’ sessions are already extremely popular amongst the customers that involve engaging the children in activities such as Pottery, Arts & Crafts, Storytelling and Dance.

Supermoms at Mom & Me Stores

The store staff has been trained to deliver a comfortable, informed and enjoyable shopping experience to the customers. The stores are staffed with “supermoms” – mothers who can advise the customers about the right products to select as well as guide them with usage instructions.

This provides a personal advisory service that customers cannot find elsewhere. The stores are well equipped with facilities such as a separate play area for kids, a private feeding room, nappy change facility, extra-wide aisles, seating area for customers to relax and reading space stocked with pregnancy & parenting related books.

Mom & Me Store locations

Mom & Me now has stores in Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Ghaziabad, Ludhiana, Bangalore, Vadodara, Vizag, Mangalore, Chandigarh, Chennai, Indore Hyderabad, Aurangabad and Noida.

Kishore Biyani Eyes 40% In Amar Chitra Katha

economic times retail news — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 20:37:38 +0000

Kishore Biyani, the CEO of Future Group, has often said retail is like religion. His group, like any other retail group, is known to factor in religious and cultural issues when preparing sales campaigns, and Mr Biyani himself is known to believe that Indian mythology holds a number of management lessons for India Inc.

So, it is not much of a surprise that the entrepreneur-retailer is in talks with the promoters of ACK Media, which owns iconic Indian comic content such as Amar Chitra Katha, Tinkle and Karadi Tales, to buy an over 40% stake.

“Mythology and storytelling has always been part of the Future Group DNA. We are looking at newer ways to impart values to the new generation and a modern way of storytelling through digital, entertainment, animation or theme parks,” Mr Biyani told ET.

“ Amar Chitra Katha was the biggest storyteller of our times and this is an opportunity for us to be the Disneyland of this country,” Mr Biyani said. Amar Chitra Katha, the immensely popular comic book series, deals with stories relating to Hindu mythology and Indian history.

It was created and launched by Anant Pai in 1967 and quickly became a blockbuster, selling 90 million copies in about 20 languages. The colourful comics have reached out to multiple generations of Indians offering lessons in morality and human wisdom.

In 2007, it was taken over by Samir Patil, a former McKinsey associate partner, who, inspired by Walt Disney , returned to India to launch a media group to focus exclusively on children. Mr Patil bought Amar Chitra Katha with the aim of broadcasting the cartoon characters on cable television, Internet, mobile phones and cinemas.

“The focus is to take it beyond print into the area of animation and theme parks. Amar Chitra Katha characters have a huge brand equity both among the older generation and the younger generation. The mythological characters in ACK would have a huge pull across generations,” a top official involved in the talks said on condition of anonymity.

Mr Patil, currently in the US, declined comment on the specific deal. “We have made public our plans to raise funds for future plans,” he said. Mr Biyani has tried to combine new-age entrepreneurialism with ancient traditions and ideas related to Hindu mythology.

He has appointed a chief belief officer, Devdutt Pattanaik, whose job will be to express modern management thoughts through the symbolism and vocabulary of ancient mythology and religion. He has also introduced a ritual ceremony which accompanies the induction of senior and junior managers in the organisation, and his stores frequently host cultural and religious programmes to bond better with customers.

“Retail is our religion, the stores are our temples, the customers are our gods. In every temple, there are rituals, there are customs. We have to enshrine customers as gods in our minds,” Mr Biyani told a magazine in an interview last year.

Superior Customer Service is the Key to Gain Retail Customer & Buying Consumer

admin — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 16:38:46 +0000

Historically speaking, retailing is the means of getting the product from the manufacturer to the consumer. The only place for consumers to buy products they needed was in a retail store. The harsh reality is that if you view your store from this historical perspective you are probably doomed to fail.

Modern consumers have many other options for buying products that they need. You can probably imagine many ways that your customers could get the products you carry through a different channel and at a price lower than what you can charge. To keep business, you need to compete on more than just price.

Small retailers have the ability to provide better service than these competitors. There is a well-known department store that has build their brand on what might be considered an unreasonable level of service: customers can return anything for any reason.

This store has been known to give refunds for items they don’t even stock which customers have purchased at other stores! They have even been known to purchase items they don’t stock from a competitor’s store and deliver it to customers.

Specialty retailers are often successful when they offer products that require complementary services, for example: a men’s store can offer alterations, a ski shop can adjust and edge skis, or art studios can sell framing. Adding a service element to your retail store is a lethal weapon you can use to beat mass merchant stores.

Perfect Phrases for Customer Service: Hundreds of Tools, Techniques, and Scripts for Handling Any Situation (Perfect Phrases Series)

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If there is one simple tip to improve service, increase stock turnover, and decrease employee expense it’s as simple as this: eliminate your back stock and don’t have a stock room. You should have a designated receiving room and merchandise should go straight from there to the sales floor.

Stock rooms do not showcase merchandise, and they force employees to handle products twice. If you need an example of why this method works so well, look at Wal-Mart, where this technique has allowed them to out-pace all of their competitors. Although this may not be applicable to every business, the exceptions are few and far between.

The way your sales staff interfaces with customers is an incredibly important issue when you offer services in addition to just the products you sell. Untold numbers of customers are lost by businesses whose sales staff is rude, inattentive or uninformed.

Starbucks didn’t happen to hire the nicest people in your neighborhood by accident, they make it a priority to train and retain a good staff at every store they operate.

Consumers typically purchase products from retail locations not because they feel like they can get better prices or quality from retail stores, but because they enjoy the act of “going shopping.”

Malls provide people with a sense of excitement, socialization and action. If you provide your customers with a comfortable environment, and a more enjoyable experience than they would get with a chain-store competitor or by using the internet to shop from home, you will be rewarded with increased business.

G.A. Wright specializes in high-impact store closing sales that produce big increases in sales volume and attract big audiences. Check out our website for more information: http://www.gawrightsales.com

Tackling Abusive Customers: Customer Service Training : Personal Attacks In Retail Sales

admin — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 17:18:17 +0000

Personal attacks which include profanity, abusive language and any other verbal or physical attack on you personally as a retail store staff should not be acceptable.

View the short video below and learn how to deal with it. Personal verbal attacks in store or on telephone happen quite often in retail with an irate customer not happy with the customer service resorting to verbal abuse or profanities.

Such behavior should not be accepted and the customer told politely that it is not acceptable.

Learn how to deal with personal attacks in customer service with expert retail sales management advice in this free online customer service video clip. Expert: Pamela Unruh