PSG College of Technology
Coimbatore
ABSTRACT
Retailingis the latest buzzword among the business. This newest fad is getting highvisibility media coverage. Dynamic young people as well as blue-chip companiesare suddenly taking pride in calling themselves shopkeepers. This professionis able to attract the cream of talent from management institutes. The amazingirony about the retail industry is that it exists, in fact, flourishes, inspite of an industrial slump. As far as the western world is concerned theretailing market operates virtually at saturation point.
Inretailing, it is extremely important to keep a track of consumer demands,desires & all the factors that influence their buying behavior. Success inretailing comes from how the value chain is linked to each retail functionaiming at the watchword while attempting to orchestrate the value drivingforces to accomplish success in retailing. Innovations & constant valueadditions to the key enables in entire value chain will give a clearcompetitive advantage &help the retail store emerge as a winner.
Inthis paper we are going to discuss, retailing is the business that has the mostrapid, most visible & deepest impact on economic development & growth.Developments & changes in retailing are bound to get noticed because theyintimately & directly touch each one of us, regardless of our age, class orprofession. Thus retail is the buzzword. Retail is the management mantra.Retail is where to be.
INTRODUCTION
Thesale of textile goods or merchandise usually for personal or household usageeither from a fixed location or from associating subordinated services is knownas textile retailing. Textile retailers usually refer to those groups of whopurchases huge quantities of textile products from manufacturers or importerseither directly or through a wholesaler and ultimately sells individual productitem or small quantities to the general customers in shops or stores.
Textile whole sale and retail are terms closely associated with the commercial aspect of textile industry. The practice of selling of textile goods or merchandise to retailers, commercial, institutional, or other professional business users or to other textile wholesalers is known as textile wholesaling. Wholesaler often physically assemble, sort and grade products in huge quantities, then break the bulk and repack and redistribute them in smaller quantities.
Without a doubt, the most important factor which makes a retailer successful is the appeal & quality of the range of products that it stocks. Certainly there are other factors that contribute to the success; the design of the store, the attentiveness & knowledge ability of the staff, the inventiveness of the marketing &promotions &appeal of the visual merchandising. These are the things which although enhance the shopping experience for the customers & perhaps ensure that they visit your store more than others, they do not directly lead to a sale. The only thing that will make a customer part with his cash is, in the end, the product.
The process which supports the planning & buying of a range is therefore central to any retailers operations. This process involves not just the choice of the product itself, but also the identification of the criteria that will influence & constrain this choice & the factors to consider to ensure that we do get it right.
ADDING VALUE IN-STORE
The moment one things of value in retailing, what comes to mind are some dominant success indicators like the location of the store, the look of store & customer traffic that throngs the store!
LOCATION
Successful retailing depends on the three most important factors: Location, location & location. And hence perhaps many retail organizations think that having got the right location, they would start churning out sales. It is right that location is important but if one does not look at the robustness of the other value drivers too besides location factors or any dominant factors that the organizations may think is right for achieving the desired results, sales would not happen.
We see large crowds of people visiting retail stores & shopping malls. We even know that an up-market shopping mall had huge crowds visiting them &for reasons of effective crowd management, they introduced especially on weekends certain entry enablers for customers like the mobile phones, credit cards, identity cards, an entry fee, etc! So, these are all factors that evince the successful establishment of a store or mall.
On the other hand, there are other retailers, primarily in the life style retail sector, whose merchandise is targeted towards psyche of rich mega cities. Driving on this perception of a higher willingness to spend on life style & luxury products, this segment is expected to maintain focus on the large base of the richest consuming class in the larger cities.
PLANNING AND BUYING A SUCCESSFUL RANGE
Success in retailing is when any one who walks into your store finds a product that he or she wants to buy in the desired size.
Success is when nearly everything you buy sells at full price.
Success is when the customer keeps coming back to your store because you always meet his or her needs.
Success finally is profitability.
INFLUENCES AND CONSTRAINTS
The content & size of a range are influenced by four things:
Who is your customer & what does he or she want?
What space do you have available?
What level of trading profit do you need?
What is happening in the market?
THE CUSTOMER
The potential consumer is anyone who walks into your store but You can influence who walks into your store through advertising, through store environment & through garment product that you sell & the price you sell it at. Most customers are fickle; even if they walk into your store with a particular purchase in mind, they will often walk out with something else.
At the same time, research for apparels can only be accurate. Asking Will you wear this garment doesnt always reveal what will really happen when the customer is actually presented with that garment.
Even customer feedback can be misleading. If one very loud customer asks regularly for a product it doesnt mean that every customer wants or needs it. That one customer will be remembered & can lead to false demand.
SPACE
Walls are not elastic. You will need to decide how to allocate the space you have available to the garment products the customer expects you to stock, in a way that delivers the best returns. This macro level planning of the product mix is critical to achieving profitability.
Hanging/ stacked/counters- all have different capacities & different advantages & disadvantages. You will need to decide what stock density you want to achieve.
The more options/units you can hold for a given amount of space, the higher the potential returns. However, the customer may not approve. He/she may wish to shop in a store that is less cluttered. The range size for any product area is not constant. It is no use giving space to a product if there are not enough options to display.
PROFITABILITY
Buy low, sell high. Buy on credit, sell on cash. Retail profitability of seems like a no-brainer.
Margin on sales, i.e. the difference between the sales at actual selling price & the cost of textile product sold, is the number one deliverable for buying & merchandising team. This will impact on the cost price you need to negotiate, the price that you will sell at & the mark-down you can afford. We should remember that, stock is money-every product you have on your floor is not a sale until the customer buys it, but is a cost as soon as you pay for it.
Keeping up with fashion- Styles change every week. So catching fashion while it is hot is a clear recipe for better margins with more sales happening at full prices & fewer discounts.
Three winning formulae to get fresh fashions-
Short lead time =More fashionable clothes
Lower quantities=Scarce supply
More styles=More choice & more chances of hitting it right
We should also consider market factors such as-
New product developments
New lifestyles
Fashion trends
Economic factors
Competition
Supply base
RIGHT PRODUCT
Make sure the customer is given the best possible choice of product at all times with respect to the following:
PRICE
Define your price architecture with respect to your lead in, Mid & Premium price points.
Be customer-led, not cost-driven.
Set the price according to what the customer wants to pay, & so that you can maintain clear price message & be flexible with your margin rate. Dont set the selling price according to the cost price for the garment with a fixed margin rate. Customers dont understand why two similar products from the same brand are different prices, nor why they have to pay more for a bigger size or different colors of the same item. At the time, clear pricing delivers a stronger message.
Colour, style, fabric & innovation of a garment are the most important binding elements in a range. Dont let one colour dominate but, at the same time dont become a rainbow. Also, aim to keep the range fresh at all times.
TEXTILES
INTEGRATE AND COLLABORATE TO COMPETE IN A GLOBAL INDUSTRY
Textile companies face increasing globalization in many areas of the textile industries- competition, markets & sources of material & production. That increasing globalization demands new approaches.
To succeed today, you need access to work forces, raw materials & other resources from around the globe. You need to deliver products to customers worldwide & to purchase preliminary & intermediate textile products on a global basis. You need to manage complex products with various product, dimension, and quality process attributes; deal with asset- and energy- intensive production; and cope with complex, ever- changing environmental regulations. And you need to build stronger relationships with customers to keep competitors from luring them away.
All of those requirements make the textile industry a place where simply having the best product is no longer enough. You also have to excel at logistics & provide quality service. To respond to customer needs & to successfully compete you have to constantly increase efficiency, collaborate with a global network of partners & reach beyond your corporate boundaries.
RETAILERS RUSH TO TEMPERATE ZONE
If temping pass, weekend temping is a new passport for retailers to tide over footfall pressure during weekends. As families make a beeline for high streets &malls during the weekends the normal looks helpless. So retailers are increasingly training their eyes on droves of under grades who are willing to work for money, recognition or just the fun of hanging out. Heavy weight retailers see spike in footfalls over the weekends, are roping in agencies for out sourcing man power for that one to two day duration.
The retailers face real manpower issues during the weekends & this is bound to go up. For people shopping is more of an entertainment than just a plain utilitarian activity & that explains the chaos in malls during weekends. So retailers need staff reinforcement for basic functions such as attending to customers, restocking, etc.
E-SHOPES
E-commerce shopping is one important factor in retailing and gaining immense popularity in metros. Changing & shopping habits turning for convenience & large number of people &merchants becoming internet savvy are primary reasons for pushing up e-commerce transactions. This business module is cost effective, easily accessible & profitable in many functional areas. Consumers & retailers both desire simple & comprehensive online shopping that will truly realize the range of power of internet.
The online system is advantageous to vendors because rapid solicitations can be viewed 24 hours/day using a one-stop shopping format that eliminates the need to visit procurement offices. Many local entities also use the system to describe their minority contracting procedure & walk applicants through the certification process. Home delivery saves the time & 24*7 hours shopping with ease & availability factors for product comparisons.
E-shopping taking place in electronic gadgets, apparel & design purchases, railways, air tickets, accessories & jewellery, online book sale.
FASHION INDUSTRY
Boutique & its importance:-
The role of a designer in a boutique is crucial to its success. The task is one of the interpreting societys current & anticipated mood into desirable, wearable garments for every type & level of market. To do this effectively, designers must be in tuned with wider social, cultural, economic & political environment within which people conduct their daily lives. Only their ideas truly reflect current prevailing conditions & the impact they are likely to have on future consumer needs. It is better for a designer who works for a boutique to understand a sequence of events in the fashion world. There are four stages of influence in a new product development & fashion diffusion & adoption process.
These are chronologically as:
The color meeting.
The biannual yarn & fabric fairs.
The biannual international fashion fairs in Paris.
Reportage in the trade & commercial press.
THE PRESENT STRUCTURE OF FASHION INDUSTRY
The manufacture & sale of cloths today is one of the worlds most important industries. The fashion industry has changed as it has expanded & diversified.
Little has changed, though, with regards to the creative aspects of fashion design. The head of a collection is surrounded by the team of designers & dress makers .He is responsible for choosing the seasons line & fabrics & selecting which models will be made on the premises in his workroom. Finally he chooses the establishments model, on whom the collection will be presented to the public.
WHO DARES, WINS!
It is clear that the Indian market is going through a phase that is unprecedented in its recent history, and the opportunity exists for existing producers of garments (including exporters), Indian companies from other sectors, international brands, as well as individual entrepreneurs, to create a brand presence from scratch or grow their existing business.
The qualifying factors for entry into the contest are the desire to create new brands, and deep pockets to sustain investment in branding and market-building.
However, the success factors to win in the contest are higher drive and enthusiasm to take the hits that will invariably come, an ability to tap the consumer's sense of adventure and differentiation, the talent to develop a product-service offer that is distinctive, and a pool of common sense to minimize the losses during the initial period of investment, which may be months or years. With all the challenges that retail offers, to those who have the courage to venture in, let's say, "Happy Retailing!"
FUTURE SENTIMENTS
Over all retailing will see a combination of large format retail outlets, representing a combination of malls and high street retailing. This trend will spread beyond the metropolitan cities to the large towns.
A super retailer can actually, drive expectations by developing need based retail formats. Many new formats will emerge, as there will be rapid roll-outs. In the coming years Store size and scale will increase and niche players will co-exist. There will be integration of retailing and wholesaling.
The only way in which the big retail formats can hope to compete with low cost operations is by creating an efficient supply chain. The hyper marts will play a large part in this :Any organized retail chain requires a critical mass before it can integrate & automate the supply chain. However, the success of hyper marts once a month & stock up on groceries & the like.
The main retail formats
Small stores, with complex but efficient supply chains.
Small supermarkets running on brand variety & tight inventory control.
Mix of food & general merchandise stores.
Out of-town/on the outskirts of the city shopper tainment complexes.
Mid sized retail propositions within town limits.
Small corner outlets with integrated home delivery for telephonic orders.
Awareness of factors such as trade mix & positioning for successful retailing has increased.
CONCLUSION
Organized retail provides an attractive opportunity to manufacturers to expose their products to a large volume of customers in an environment conducive to buying. Thus retailers feel that the focus of manufacturers should be on producing good products, & forging relationships with organized retail. Retailing is a volume driven, low margin business. Occupancy cost is one of the largest cost components, followed by working capital costs, employee cost, marketing cost & energy cost. The business is considered to be of managing cash flows & building assets.
Other prominent challenges to the Indian industry would include capital availability, legal frame work, human resources, supply chain development, management and logistics.
The predominant concern continues to be the lack of suitable front-end options for the brand, inappropriate locations at the right price and with the appropriate infrastructure .in addition to being the largest cost component , real estate is also strategically important for adequate penetration and brand positioning .
Reference
Adding value in store from Images: Business of fashion, year Jan 2001.
E-shops from Apparel- the clothiers Digest , year -2005
Fashion industry Stitch times- year-2007
Available from http://www.fashionera.com
Available from http://www.vogue.com
Available from http://www.elle.com
Retailers rush to temperate zone from Retail Economics.
To read more articles on Textile, Industry, Technical Textile, Dyes & Chemicals, Machinery, Fashion, Apparel, Technology, Retail, Leather, Footwear & Jewellery, Software and General please visit https://articles.fibre2fashion.com
To promote your company, product and services via promotional article, follow
this link: https://www.fibre2fashion.com/services/article-writing-service/content-promotion-services.asp
Comments