CHAPTER-I

INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION, ABOUT THE TOPIC

Organized retail is gaining tremendous importance in recent times. On the

other hand, the retail industry is also facing severe competition and those who
are able to retain their customers are the ones that are able to succeed in the
marketplace.

The retail firms are spending a lot of their marketing resources to keep
existing customers rather than to attract new ones. Customer satisfaction
plays a key role in customer retention and also is a major differentiating factor
among retail stores. Delivering satisfaction to the consumers has become one
of the major drivers of profitability.

In this scenario, the firms have to work on what attracts consumers and what
will make them not to shift their choice towards competitors. Working out
strategies in this direction requires a thorough understanding of the
preferences of the consumers on the attributes that are considered of much
significance.
CHAPTER-II

METHODOLOGY

17

RESEARCH DESIGN

A research design is the arrangement of conditions for collection and analysis

of the data in a manner that aims to combine relevance to the research
purpose with the economy in procedure.

In fact the research design is the conceptual structure within which research is
conducted, it constitutes the blueprint for the collection, measurement and.
analysis of data.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM:

The study is being conducted for the Reliance Smart Point store, to find out
the customer preferences in choosing Reliance Smart Point. It is required to
find out the preferences based on certain aspects (price. Income, levels
selection of products, satisfaction level of customers).

OBJECTIVES

To study the customer preferences in choosing Reliance Smart Point.

To study the factors that are affecting the choice of customers in choosing a
retail store.

To study the factors that retain the customers who visit Reliance Smart Point

NEED OF THE PROJECT

Nowadays retail stores are facing more competition in the retailing business.
Good store design increases the visiting of more customers into the store and
increases the store goodwill, and price also plays a major factor in the
customer giving preference and selection of the store. And as industry
research has shown, there is much need to know the customer expectations,
customer preferences and their store choice's(features) and we will find
solutions for designing effective stores which will get more customers and get
more profits.

SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The research is applicable in the area of customer decision making process for
purchasing of products at Reliance Smart Point. The scope of research also
helps in understanding the preferences of the customers. It would help
Reliance Smart Point in designing their marketing promoting sales.

TYPE OF STUDY: Descriptive method

This research is completely based on the description of the factors that lead to
the customer decision making process. It is basically valued on the various
parameters which include personal details of customers, their income -level,
satisfaction level

Here the need is to find which factor describes the consumer decision making.
process most effectively.

SOURCES OF DATA COLLECTION:

The sources of data include both Primary and Secondary data.

Primary data is collected with specific objectives, especially to address the

research problem. The data is gathered by distributing a questionnaire to the
customers who Reliance Smart Point and through personal interviews.

Secondary data includes books. joumals, magazines, newsletters of the

Reliance Smart Point, and internet.
SAMPLING SIZE:

The sample size taken for the study at Reliance Smart Point is 80.

SAMPLING PROCEDURE:

To obtain the representative sample, a non-probability sample can be drawn.

In this study the method of selecting samples is random.

TOOLS:

The tools used for analyzing data are rating methods; graphs, pie charts ete.
Questionnaires are distributed to the individual respondents and special care
has been taken to make him/her feel comfortable so that he/she can answer
all the questions. This method is followed to get unbiased answers.

TECHNIQUES OF ANALYSIS:

The data collected from the customer are transcribed to the worksheet in the
form of tally bars and analyzed by statistical tools by drawing tables and
graphs, inferences were drawn on a marketing concept and conversation.
Based on the marketing concepts, findings of the research were driven and
recommendations are made.

LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY:

It is not possible for any market study to make it accurate due to many
hurdles in the collection
and computation of data. Some limitations of the study are listed below

The sampling frame to conduct the study has been restricted to Reliance
Smart Point.

Respondents show reluctance towards giving correct information.

Findings of the study are based on the assumption that respondents have
disclosed in the questionnaire.

Time was a major constraint.

The sample was limited to only customers who have made a purchase at
Reliance Smart Point.
CHAPTER-III

9/84

COMPANY PROFILE

Introduction

Retailing consists of those business activities involved in the sale of goods and
services to consumers for their personal, family, or household use. Retailing
comprises four elements: customer orientation, coordinated effort, value-
driven, and goal orientation. The word "Retail" originates from a French-Italian
word. Retailer-someone who cuts off or sheds a small piece from something.
Retailing is the set of activities that markets products or services to final
consumers for their own personal or household use. It does this by organizing
their availability on a relatively large scale and supplying them to customers
on a relatively small scale. Retailer is a Person or Agent or Agency or
Company or Organization who is instrumental in reaching the Goods or
Merchandise or Services to the End User or Ultimate Consumer.

Indian Retail Industry:

The Indian retail industry is the largest industry in India, with an employment
of around 8% and contributing to over 10% of the country's GDP. Retail
industry in India is expected to rise 25% yearly being driven by strong income
growth, changing lifestyles, and favorable Demographic patterns.

It is expected that by 2016 modern retail industry in India will be worth US$
175- 200 billion. India retail industry is one of the fastest growing industries
with revenue expected in 2007 to amount USS 320 billion and is increasing at
a rate of 5% yearly. A further increase of 7-8% is expected in the industry of
retail in India by growth in Consumerism in urban areas, rising

incomes, and a steep rise in rural consumption. It has further been predicted
that the retailing industry in India will amount to USS 21.5 billion by 2010 from
the current size of USS 7.5 billion.

Shopping in India has witnessed a revolution with the change in the consumer
buying behavior and the whole format of shopping also altering. Industry of
retail in India which has become modern can be seen from the fact that there
are multi- stored malls, huge shopping centers, and sprawling complexes
which offer food, shopping, and entertainment all under the same roof. The
Indian retail industry is expanding itself most aggressively; as a result a great
demand for real estate is being created. Indian retailers preferred means of
expansion is to expand to other regions and to increase the number of their
outlets in a city. It is expected that by 2010, India may have 600 new
shopping centers.

In the Indian retailing industry, food is the most dominating sector and is
growing at a rate of 9% annually. The branded food industry is trying to enter
the India retail Industry and convert Indian consumers to branded food. Since
at present 60% of the Indian grocery basket consists of non- branded items.

The Indian retail industry is progressing well and for this to continue retailers
as well as the Indian government will have to make a combined effort. The
Indian retailing industry has seen phenomenal growth in the last five years.
Organized retailing has finally emerged from the shadows of unorganized
retailing and is contributing significantly to the growth of the Indian retail
sector. The "India Retail Sector Analysis report helps clients to analyze the
opportunities and factors critical to the success of the retail industry in India.

The Indian retail industry is going through a transition phase. Most of the
retailing in our country is still in the unorganized sector. The spread of the
retails in the US and India shows a wide gap between the two countries.
Though retailing in India is undergoing an exponential growth, the road ahead
is full of challenges

KEY CHALLENGES:

LOCATION:

"Right Place, Right choice" Location is the most important ingredient for any
business that relies on customers, and is typically the prime consideration in a
customers store choice. Location decisions are harder to change because
retailers have to either make sustainable investments to buy and develop real
estate or commit to long term lease with developers. When formulating
decision about where to locate, the retailer must refer to the strategic plan:

0 Investigate alternative trading areas.

0 Determine the type of desirable store location

Evaluate alternative specific store sites.

MERCHANDISE:

The primary goal of most retailers is to sell the right kind of merchandise and
nothing is more central to the strategic thrust of the retailing firm.
Merchandising consists of activities involved in acquiring particular goods and
services and making them available at a place, time and quantity that enable
the retailer to reach its goals. Merchandising is perhaps the most important
function for any retail organization, as it decides what finally goes on the shelf
of the store.

PRICING:

Pricing is a crucial strategic variable due to its direct relationship with a firm's
goal and its interaction with other retailing elements. The importance of
pricing decisions is growing because today's customers are looking for good
value when they buy merchandise and services. Price is the easiest and
quickest variable to change

TARGET AUDIENCE:

"Consumer the prime mover" "Consumer Pull", however, seems to be the

most important driving factor behind the sustenance of the industry. The
purchasing power of the customers has increased to a great extent, with the
influencing the retail industry to a great extent, a variety of other factors also
seem to fuel the retailing boo

SCALE OF OPERATIONS:

Scale of operations includes all the supply chain activities, which are carried
out in the business. It is one of the challenges that the Indian retailers are
facing. The cost of business operations is very high in India.

KEY PLAYERS IN THE INDIAN RETAIL SECTOR:

The untapped scope of retailing has attracted superstars 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, RELIANCE RETAIL. CAFÉ COFFEE DAY, KHADIM'S.

CROSSWORD, MORE, STAR BAZAAR, RELIANCE FRESH, SPENCER, GOPALAN

MALL to name a few,

RETAILING IN INDIA: A FORECAST

Future of organized retail in India looks bright. According to recent research, it

is projected to grow at a rate of about 37% in 2007 and at a rate of 42% in
2010. It will capture a share of 10% of the total retailing by the end of 2010.

However to compete in this sector one needs to have up-to-date market

information for planning and decision making. The second most important
requirement is to manage costs widely in order to minimize normal profits in
face of stiff competition.

RETAIL INDUSTRY AND ECONOMY

Retail business is the largest private industry.

Retail is ahead of finance and engineering and contributes over 8% of GDP in

the western countries.

Over 50 of the Fortune 500 and about 25 of the Asian top 200 complaints are
retailers.

Today in some developed countries, retail business has shares as large as 40%
of the market.

HISTORY OF RETAILING

Retail concept is old in India. World's first departmental store started in Rome.
Today's kiranas stores are based on Manuscript&Kautilya's arthashastra.
Haats, Melas, Mandis&door to door salesmen are traditional Indian retail.

Retailing and wholesaling consist of many organizations designed to bring

goods and services from the point of production to the point of use. Retailing
includes all the activities involved in selling goods or services directly to final
consumers for their personal, non business use. Retailers can be classified in
terms of store retailers, non-store retailing, and retail organizations. Store
retailers include many types, such as specialty stores,
Department stores, supermarkets, convenience stores, superstores,
combination stores, hypermarkets, discount stores, warehouse stores, and
catalog showrooms. These store forms have had different longevity and are at
different stages of the retail life cycle. Depending on the wheel-of-retailing,
some will go out of existence because they cannot compete on a quality,
service, or price basis.

Non-store retailing is growing more rapidly than store retailing. It includes

direct selling (Door-to-door, party selling), direct marketing, automatic
vending, and buying services. Much of retailing is in the hands of large retail
organizations such as corporate chains, voluntary chain and retailer
cooperatives, consumer cooperatives, franchise organizations, and
merchandising conglomerates. More retail chains are now sponsoring
diversified retailing lines and forms instead of sticking to one form such as the
department store.

Retailers, like manufacturers, must prepare marketing plans that include

decisions on target markets, product assortment and services, store
atmosphere, pricing, promotion, And place. Retailers are showing strong signs
of improving their professional management and their productivity, in the face
of such trends as shortening retail life cycles, new retail forms, increasing
intertype competition, and polarity of retailing, new retail technologies, and
many others.

Wholesaling includes all the activities involved in selling goods or services to

those who are buying for the purpose of resale or for business use.
Wholesalers help manufacturers deliver their products efficiently to the many
retailers and industrial users across the nation. Wholesalers perform many
functions, including selling and promoting, buying and assortment-building,
bulk-breaking, warehousing, transporting, financing. risk bearing, supplying
market information, and providing management services and counseling.
Wholesalers fall into four groups. Merchant wholesalers take possession of the
goods and include full-service wholesalers (wholesale merchants. industrial
distributors and limited-service wholesalers (cash-and- carry wholesalers,
truck wholesalers, drop shippers, rack jobbers, producers' cooperatives, and
mail-order wholesalers). Agents and brokers do not take possession of the
goods but are paid a commission for facilitating buying and selling.
Manufacturers' and retailers' branches and offices are wholesaling operations
conducted by non-wholesalers to bypass the wholesalers. Miscellaneous
wholesalers include agricultural assemblers, petroleum bulk plants and
terminals, and auction companies.

Wholesalers, too, must make decisions on their target market.. product

assortment and services, pricing, promotion, and place. Wholesalers who fail
to carry adequate assortments and inventory and provide satisfactory service
are likely to be bypassed by manufacturers.

Progressive wholesalers, on the other hand are adapting marketing concepts

and streamlining their costs of doing business

COMPANY PROFILE

Smart Point is a neighborhood small format store of Reliance Retail with an

objective of "Bade Dukan ki Badi Bachat ab pados mein" (Big Saving of Big
Supermarkets, now near you) for customers.

Our Smart Point stores serve as the last mile delivery hub for all the digital
orders, while also providing easy accessibility for the customers as they walk-
in to the store and shop for their daily needs&services.

Each Smart Point has an integral delivery point feature that delivers
eCommerce orders to the homes in the neighborhood, as well as New
Commerce orders placed by the Kirana stores in the catchment.

At Smart Point, customers get assistance to shop online from a wide range of
products offered on JioMart, our e-commerce platform. Customers can shop
with ease, while also enjoying the experience of interacting with our app/web.

Key services and product offerings of Smart Point includes:

Grocery, FMCG, F&V and Dairy ete with "Badi Bachat"

Netmeds Pharmacy, Medicines below MRP, all year round

Jio Payment Bank, Banking with extended hours

Health Care/Pathology Services

Fashion/Electronics (through Kiosk)

Battery Swap Station for Electric Vehicles

FUTURE GROUP:

Reliance isn't buying the Future group companies (many of whom are listed).
There's a good reason for that buying a company means making an open offer
to all shareholders which can significantly increase the price.

And then, the Future Group companies are very complex. They have gone
through multiple demergers and mergers, and there are cross liabilities
between the group, promoter owned entities and third parties. To unravel this
can take a long time. Plus, any negative surprises ("Oh, you also owe X to
company Y?") will scuttle the deal. So instead of buying the companies, buy
the assets themselves and leave the liabilities with these companies.

Also, the public companies are not the full picture. The listed Future Retail
does a lot of transactions with entities controlled by promoters or
management. Example: Rivaaz Trade Ventures Private Limited, which owns
the real estate which is rented out to the malls run by Future Retail. (See
credit rating report) Some of these companies have a massive amount of
debt, acquired to buy those properties. This debt is in trouble for example,
Rivaaz has already defaulted on the debt.

Buying the listed companies (like Future Retail) is not the whole thing what a
buyer would want to do is to also buy the private companies that own the real
estate ete. What Reliance said was: We want all of this, but we don't want any
liabilities. So the deal is for Reliance to take over the assets, some of the debt
but leave the rest with the Future group under FEL..

What's At Stake For Reliance Retail?

Not much.

To be frank, obviously, the deal would have bolstered RIL's footprint. But for
the same to happen, 'timely execution was the key. When the deal was
announced, the acquisition of Future Groups' retail and wholesale business
would have boosted RIL's revenue, store count, and retail footprint by 29%,
15%, and 80%, respectively.

Future Groups' Addition To Reliance Retail

Future Retail operates store formats such as RELIANCE RETAIL (hypermarket),
FBB (value fashion), Easyday (local grocery store), and Foodhall (premium
food and grocery). Future Lifestyle is an apparel retailer and operates the
Central (premium apparel large-format store) and Brand Factory (apparel
discount retailer) formats. Besides, Future Lifestyle also has partnerships with
foreign brands and operates certain standalone stores for some of these
brands.

Future Retail's formats would have boosted Reliance's presence in food and
grocery business, Future Lifestyle's formats in fashion business while Future
Supply Chain's supply chain network could have provided ready infrastructure
for Reliance Retail's existing business as well as its future online grocery
business.

The deal when announced would have taken 6-9 months to complete. If the
deal is supposed to go smoothly, companies usually start the integration
process. However, in the case of the RIL-Future deal, as Amazon had opposed
the deal, the integration process never started. Future Group, which was
already going through a cash crunch, continued to face severe operational
and financial difficulties.

The Groups stores started to close due to non-payment of rent and it also
faced a severe supply chain crisis due to huge outstanding vendor payables.
As a result, it had restricted inventory to private label brands. Store closures
in the case of Future Lifestyle were limited.

On the other hand, RIL's retail unit gushed with cash from new investors, and
continued to expand its footprint even during covid. Because of these
divergent trends, the gap between RIL and Future Retail's grocery and apparel
revenue widened further.

According to Capitalmind estimates, Reliance's grocery business is now almost

6x larger than Future Retail as compared to 1.7x when the deal was
announced. While Reliance's apparel business is 5x larger than Future
Lifestyle Fashion as compared to 2.2x when the deal was announced.

In the last five quarters, RIL added close to 1,600 stores, i.c., close to 7 million
square feet. With Future Group seeing several store closures, especially in
Future Retail, now the incremental acceleration to Reliance's store addition
provided by Future outlets, if the deal was successful, would be relatively
small, especially as Future has scaled back its business significantly in the
small-format stores.
This reiterates our belief that the strategic appeal of Future Group's assets to
Reliance Retail has potentially diminished. RIL would now be better off without
the Future Group deal.

CORPORATE STATEMENT

FUTURE GROUP MANIFESTO

"Future" the word which signifies optimism, growth, achievement. strength,

beauty, rewards and perfection. Future encourages us to explore areas yet
unexplored, write rules yet unwritten; create new opportunities and new
successes. To strive for a glorious future brings to us our strength, our ability
to learn, unlearn and relearn our ability to evolve.

We, in Future Group, will not wait for the Future to unfold itself but create
future scenarios in the consumer space and facilitate consumption because
consumption is development. Thereby, we will effect socio-economic
development for our customers, employees, shareholders, associates and
partners.

Our customers will not just get what they need, but also get them where, how
and when they need.

We will not just post satisfactory results, we will write success stories.

it. We will not just operate efficiently in the Indian economy, we will evolve

We will not just spot trends; we will set trends by marrying our understanding
of the Indian consumer to their needs of tomorrow. It is this understanding
that has helped us succeed. And it is this that will help us succeed. in the
Future. We shall keep relearning. And in this process, do just one thing.

"Rewrite Rules. Retain Values"

VISION, MISSION AND QUALITY POLICY

Group Vision

Reliance's vision is:

To be our clients first call and preferred collaboration partner within our
advisory expertise arca. To consistently exceed our clients' expectations for
professional and value-adding advice.

Our objective is long-standing and trustful client relationships created via

excellent advice and service

Group Mission

Reliance's mission is:

To provide the best and most value-adding advice within our advisory
expertise arcas

To be an independent sparring-partner and to provide excellent advice for our

clients within our advisory expertise areas

Reliance's activities shall be of benefit for both our clients first and foremost
and for our collaboration partners and employees.

Core Values

We are governed by our fundamental values:

Quality: We do not compromise we have a passion for the best quality

Innovation: We are innovative and wish to enthuse our clients

Ambition: We set high objectives and push to achieve the best results

Honesty: We are honest towards our clients, also when it may be unpleasant
to hear our true advice

Integrity: We keep our word, guard confidentiality, and maintain a high level of
integrity.

AREA OF OPERATION

Reliance Retail plans to open around 5,000 outlets that will be convenience
store, pharmacy, diagnostic center, telecom services and financial services
products outlet all rolled into one across the country, two people privy to the
development said.

The new-format stores called Reliance Smart Point will come up over the next.
one year or so, one of them said. The stores will also sell fashion and
electronics, and wherever feasible they will have charging points for electric
vehicles, the person said Reliance Retail did not respond to an email seeking
comment as of press time Monday. Each outlet will be spread over 2,000-
5,000 square feet, the sources said.

"They are very aggressive with the format," the second person told ET. "These
stores will also act as a support system for JioMart. They are also like mini-
distribution centers for neighborhoods."

Reliance Retail had piloted such outlets last year mainly in the range of 500-
1,500 sq ft, but the plans for the format have evolved over the years to
include pharmacies, diagnostic and other facilities, the person said.

ET had reported in January last year that Reliance is looking to expand Smart
Point that would also act as last-mile delivery points for its JioMart e-
commerce venture.

LJ

Last year, holding company Reliance Retail Ventures had acquired Chennai-
based online pharmacy startup Netmeds. So far, Reliance Retail has rolled out
more than 100 Netmeds pharmacies in various Smart Point outlets. The stores
will also sell financial products of the Jio Payment Bank.

Various real estate consultants and agencies ET spoke with said Reliance
Retail is aggressively looking to open stores of every format from electronic
outlets to supermarkets, and the country's largest retailer by revenue and by
number of stores is unperturbed by the pandemic that has otherwise put
expansion plans of most of the retailers in the backburners.

Cities where stores are located:

Chittoor
Ahmadabad

Pune

Ranchi

Jamnagar

Palwal

PRODUCT PROFILE

Level 1

Food Bazaar

Fruits & Vegetables

Bakery Items

Stainless Steel Utensils

Plastics

Crockery

Mobiles

Cosmetics

Herbal

Confectionery

Non-Food Dept

Level 2

A. Department

General Books

Children Stationery
Office Stationery

Games CD's & DVD's

B. NBD(New Business Development)

Gift items

Car & MotorCycle Covers

Helmets

Scents & Perfumes

Home Decor

Auto accessories

C. Toys and sports Dept

Soft Toys

Hard Toys

D. Home Line

Bed Sheets, Pillows. Bed Spreads

Towels. Yellow dust

Carpets, Cushion Covers

Chair Bags

E. Clothes Dept

Ladies saris

Girls Dress Materials

Kids Wear
Level 3

Furniture Dept

Men's Formals & Casuals Wears

Men's Accessories

Luggage

Electronic Products

Home Appliances

Board of Directors:

Shri P. M. S. Prasad Executive Director

19

Prof. Dipak C. Jain Independent Director

Shri Nikhil R. Meswani Executive Director

Dr. Dharam Vir Kapur Independent Director

Smart Point:-

At Smart Point Super center customers can definitely get the best product at a
better price. It sells a variety of merchandise at affordable rates; the prices
which it claims are lowest... Usually, the items are clubbed together for offers
to customers and it also offers weekend as well as monthly discounts.

At Smart Point Super center one can find a variety of Departments as shown
below.

FOOD

GENERAL MERCHANDISE

APPARELS OR FASHION

NEW BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

DEPOT

HOME

NAVARAS

ELECTRONICS

These departments are managed by two departments. They are

OPERATIONAL DEPARTMENT

SUPPORTING DEPARTMENTS

Smart Point, a part of the Future Group, is a hypermarket offering a huge

array of Goods of good quality for all at affordable prices. Smart Point with
over 140 outlets in a different part of India is present in both the metro cities
as well as in the small towns. Smart Point has no doubt made a big name in
the retail industry of India, morcover Shopping here is further made a
memorable experience with the varied rates of discounts on products as well
as discount vouchers available in a variety of amounts, like INR 2000, INR
3000, INR 4000, INR 5000 and INR 10000 on all Smart Point products and
Accessories.

The variety of product range in Smart Point Super center:

This large format store comprises almost everything required by people from
Different income groups. It varies from clothing and accessories for all
genders like men, Women and children, playthings, stationary and toys,
footwear, plastics, home utility Products, cosmetics, crockery, home textiles,
luggage gift items, other novelties, and also Food products and grocery. The
added advantage for the customers shopping in Smart Point is that there are
all time discounts and promotional offers going on in the Smart Point on its
salvable products.

Reliance Smart Point in the city Chennai by the address 139, Perumbakkam
Main Road, Pallavan Nagar. Puthu Nagar. Green Court, Medavakkam, Chennai,
Tamil Nadu 600100, India All organizations All cities.

Home furnishings, utensils, crockery, cutlery, sports goods and much more at
prices that will surprise you. And this is just the beginning. RELIANCE RETAIL
plans to add much more to complete your shopping experience.

Smart Point is a chain of hypermarkets in India, currently with more than 100
stores. It is owned by Future retail India ltd, Future Group. It follows. the
business model as Wal-Mart and has considerable success in many Indian
citics and small towns. The idea was pioneered by entrepreneur Inshore
Binyamin. the CEO of Future Group.

Currently Smart Point stores are located only in India. Moreover the customer
friendly ambiance and the organized retailing of products also make Smart
point one of the successful retail companies in India....

1. Store manager

This is the highest position in the store. He is the father and head of the
family. He is the decision maker for the store. The store manager is
responsible for both the top line responsibility is sales and the bottom line
responsibility is profit.

Role of Store Manager involves

Ensuring smooth operations of the store.

Making plans to ensure highest profit for the store.

Proper execution of plans..

Deciding on offer/deals for clearance of products.

Conducting meetings for proper communication flow.

2. Assistant store manager

There are three ASM's in the store. Each ASM looks after 1 to 2 departments of
the store. The main function of the ASM is to assist the SM in his targets and
help achieve him the same.

3. Department manager

This designation is present for both functional departments as well as the

store department. A definite sales target is set for cach department and it is
the responsibility of each DM to achieve the same. The DM's of the functional
department are responsible for the smooth operation of their respective
departments. There are 5 DM's in the store.

4. Assistant department manager

As the name suggests, the main role of the ADM's is to assist the DM's in their
work. There are 8 ADM's in the store.

5. Team Leader

Sometimes the department is divided into sections and there are different
teams appointed to look after these sections. Team leaders are the heads of
such teams. There are a total of 105 TM's and TL's in the store.

6. Team Members

These comprise almost 80% of total staff. They are the actual customer facing
members and their key role is to provide best service to the customer.
Pleasing personality, good communication skills and overall product
knowledge are the main requirements for this post.

COMPETITORS INFORMATION

Shoppers Stop

Westside
Lifestyle

RPG Retail

Crossword

Primal

Copeland Mal

Tate Star Bazaar

More

Spencer's.

Reliance Smart Points Plans

Reliance SMART is one of the largest & fastest growing Grocery retail chains in
India.

Synonymous to its name, SMART is a new age supermarket serving the needs.
of today's smart and value seeking customers. Reliance SMART offers a one-
stop shopping experience by offering fresh produce, bakery, dairy products.
home and personal care products, general merchandise, smart apparels and
appliances, making it a complete shopping destination. In many cases SMART
stores are co-located with our fashion & electronics store Reliance Trends and
Reliance Digital, giving customers a wide choice for all their shopping needs.

Reliance SMART's incredible value proposition rewards shoppers more for

bigger purchases, every single time they shop, with 100% assortment being
offered below MRP all year round. All this while delivering superior quality
products, best of the brands, latest launches and a world-class shopping
experience.

Further strengthening the value proposition SMART stores offer Reliance Retail
Private Brands. Our Private Brands offer product choices across 110
categories spread over staples to processed foods and beverages, personal
care, cosmetics and fragrances to health and hygiene, fabric and home care
to home décor range. GoodLife, Snactac, Yeah!, Desi Kitchen, Purik. Enzo, Get
Real, My Home, Samvaad, Glimmer, Petals & Happy Living are some of the
privatebrands which are diligently crafted and quality tested products offering
outstanding value proposition.

ORGANIZATIONAL DEPARTMENT

1. Store Manager

This is the highest position in the store. He is the father & head of the family.
He is the decision maker for the store. The store Manager is responsible for
both the top line responsibility is sales & the bottom line responsibility is
profit.

Role of SM involves:

Ensuring smooth operations of the store.

Making plans to ensure highest profit for the store.

Proper execution of plans.

Deciding on offers or deals for clearance of products.

2. Assistant Store Manager

There is only one ASM in the store. ASM looks after 1 to 2 departments of the
store. The main function of the ASM is to assist the SM in his targets & help
achieve him the same.

3. Department Manager

This designation is present for both the functional departments as well as the
store department. A definite sales target is set for each department & it is the
responsibility of each DM to achieve the same. The DMs of the functional
department are responsible for the smooth operation of their respective
departments. There are five DMs in the store.

4. Assistant Department Manager

As the name suggests the main role of ADMs is to assist the DMs in their work.

There are 8 ADMs in the store

5. Team Leader
Sometimes a department is divided into sections & there are different teams
appointed to look after these sections. TLs are the heads of such teams. There
are a total of 25 team leaders in the store.

6. Team Members

These comprise almost 80% of total staff. They are the actual customer facing
members & their key role is to provide best service to the customer. Pleasing
personality, good communication skills & overall product knowledge are the
main requirements for this post..

FUNCTIONAL DEPARTMENT

The store operations are divided into various operations which are carried out
by the respective functional departments.

1. HUMAN RESOURCE DEPARTMENT

Human resource development deals with the following:

A. Manpower recruitment:

Recruitment for the position of team members, TLs & sometimes even ADMS
is done at the store by the HR head, SM & ASMs. However, for the recruitment
for the higher posts like DMs, ASMS & SM, the selection is done at the zonal
office.

All candidates have to undergo a selection process. This process comprises

the return test followed by group discussion, role play & the final interview.

B. Manpower Training & Development:

The main idea behind this program is to develop the knowledge, skill &
attitude required by an individual to adequately perform a given task. This
training program has been successfully improving the performance of the
employee & which in turn has enhanced the organizational performance.
Various training programs along with the written test at cach of the training.
levels have been designed. They are cashier training, group philosophy,
training on retail business, values, sales training, policics, product knowledge
ete

C. Maintaining Employee Records:

The personal information of each employee is maintained in the SAP.
Information related to leaves, provident fund, gratuity, ESI, bonus, salary.
personal loans, ete is maintained by HR dept.

D. Deciding salary and wages:

The salary is finalized considering following factors

1. Current salary level

2. Qualification and experience

3. Level at which the job is offered

4. Existing salary levels in the organization.

5. Market trends

Various levels are available to the employees like casual leaves, sick leaves,
earned leaves, maternity leaves, all purpose leaves, paid holiday.
compensatory off and weak off.

E. Employee Welfare:

Every organization conducts welfare activities for its employees. The welfare
activities in RELIANCE RETAILS are unique by themselves.

Following are the welfare activities in the RELIANCE RETAIL

1. Award to staff that help in the pointing pilferage

2. Cultural activities to provide scope for their hidden talents

3. Birthday celebrations

4. Long-term service awards

2. LOGISTIC DEPARTMENT

The inventory levels of the store have to be maintained to avoid any stock
outs. LD is mainly concerned with the stock management in the store. They
maintain supply flow of required stock. The focus of LD is on removing
inefficient fulfillment of customer demand in the real time.
The role of the LD:

A. Safe & reliable transport in as much low price as possible

B. maintains contact with distribution teams (Trucks. Trains...) and tracks

where the material is.

C. partnership with transportation firm so that cost and transport can be

shared does not occupy the whole truck space

D. Merchandise received from the central warchouse or vendors are taken to

the stores after undergoing the inward process. The excess merchandise
displayed on the floor gets sold out. It refers to an effective and cautious way
of moving the merchandise from the store warehouse to the respective
section inside the store where they have to be displayed and sold to the
customers.

3. VISUAL MERCHANDISING

The Visual merchandising Department helps in educating the customer about

the product/Service in an effective and creative way while enabling a
successful selling process. Effective visual merchandising helps in the drawing
attention of the customers and helps them to match their needs.

Duties and responsibilities:

1. Communicate with the manager of the dept stores to workout floor layout
and display points as well as how and what items are to be displayed.

2. Design window or internal displays based on a theme style or trend of

advertising.

3. Dress mannequins & use appropriate lightning to display merchandise for

the best presentation possible.

4. Arrange signage and take down the display after promotion.

This department not only deals with the promotional displays inside the adore
but also outside the store. Putting hoardings, which are very large boards of
advertisements usually found by roadside or putting window displays, which
are setting the scenes of what the customer will find inside the store is also
under the scope of usual merchandising dept.

4. COMMERCE DEPARTMENT
The role of the commerce dept refers to cashiering. Their functions include
cash management & cash troubleshooting.

Cashier Process: It includes accepting the merchandise from the customer,

scanning it, creating the bill, accepting the payment & finally packing the
merchandise for the customer. The cashier should count the total number of
merchandise & compare it with the bill. Then that number has to be noted on
the bill copy.

The cashier accepts the payment for the bill in the form of cash, cards & gift
vouchers. Through point of sales software, total sales at point can be
determined. At the closing time the cashier hands over the cash, credit notes.
gift vouchers to the head cashier.

He verifies the amount with the sale amount & in case of any difference he
balances the amount to the respective cashier salary. Hence it is a job of great
responsibility for the cashiers. The next morning the cash is deposited in the
bank.

5. ADMINISTRATION DEPARTMENT

This is divided into following sections

Security Services: The security personnel are under contract basis. They are
security staff working for pantaloons retail India ltd (PRIL). The complete store
security & movement tracking are under their control.

House-Keeping: Their man duty is to look after the cleanliness, & overall

Hygiene of the store. The admin manager creates checklists for the cleaning
schedules & the team member's work in accordance to those checklists.

Packers: Proper packing of the sold goods is required before handing it over to
the customer. Helpers to the cashiers are appointed to do this job. Packing the
food items to be handled with care & other items all separately is their job.

Loaders: Few people are appointed to load & unload merchandise from trucks
& cautiously transfer them to desired location in the store. Standard Operation
Procedure: In this section various registers are maintained

Key movement register: the various store keys are mentioned by different
staff members. These people have to make entries in their register regarding
the keys they carry.
Staff Value Declaring Register. Every staff member while entering the store
has to declare the amount of cash with them. This is done to minimize thefts
within the store.

Customer Foot-fall Report: This register is updated every hour. The total
number of customers that entered the store in that hour are counted & noted
down in this register.

Staff Purchase Register: Entries are made in the register regarding the
purchases made by the staff members in the store.

Staff grooming register. Entries regarding the appearance, personal hygiene,

presenting self & dress code of the team members are made.

6. MAINTENANCE & FACILITIES DEPARTMENT

The functions of this debt are:

To check the functioning of various items like escalators, ACS, frozen section,
lightning equipment etc.

In case of their malfunctioning, repairs have to be carried out as soon as

possible to ensure proper store operation.

7. IT DEPARTMENT

The software used in the PRIL showroom is a retail enterprise manager (REM).
In this all the information concerning the product like name, category, bar
code number, MRP, discount rate, net price etc are stored.

RELIANCE RETAIL SWOT ANALYSIS: For Reliance Retail, SWOT analysis

can help the brand focus on building upon its strengths and opportunities
while addressing its weaknesses as well as threats to improve its market
position.

Let us start the Reliance Retail SWOT Analysis:

RELIANCE RETAIL STRENGTHS:

The strengths of Reliance Retail looks at the key aspects of its business which
gives it competitive advantage in the market. Some important factors in a
brand's strengths include its financial position, experienced workforce,
product uniqueness & intangible assets like brand value. Below are the
Strengths in the SWOT Analysis of Reliance Retail:

[Link] is Indian retail chain with 900- stores in 80 cities in India.

2. Hyper market with 95000 markets with tailoring, shoe and watch repair,
laundry

3. It owns various private label brands

[Link] has strong distribution network- 1600 channels in villages

5. Strong backing of the parent company

RELIANCE RETAIL WEAKNESSES:

The weaknesses of a brand are certain aspects of its business which it can
improve to increase its position further. Certain weaknesses can be defined as
attributes which the company is lacking or in which the competitors are
better. Here are the weaknesses in the Reliance Retail SWOT Analysis:

[Link] variety is available but more SKUs are not present due to inefficient
back end infrastructure

2. Poor inventory control at certain locations is a concern

RELIANCE RETAIL OPPORTUNITY:

The opportunities for any brand can include areas of improvement to increase
its business. A brand's opportunities can lie in geographic expansion, product
improvements, better communication etc. Following are the opportunities in
Reliance Retail SWOT Analysis:

1. Sourcing directly from farmers; no middlemen could earn more profit as

number of farmers will increase five times in next 5 years

[Link] on brand name and entering into Reliance saloon

3. Large potential to reduce operation cost in cities using strong supply chain

RELIANCE RETAIL THREATS:

The threats for any business can he factors which can negatively impact its
business. Some factors like increased competitor activity, changing
govemment policies, alternate products or services etc. can be threats. The
threats in the SWOT Analysis of Reliance Retail are as mentioned:

1. Strong competition globally from Carrefour. Metro A.G., Tesco

[Link] cost are too high

3. Walmart is biggest competitor when it comes to sourcing/backward

integration