Assignment Code: BRL-007/TMA/2022-23

Course Code: BRL-007

Assignment Name:Store Operations- I

Year: 2022-2023

Verification Status: Verified by Professor

Attempt all the questions.

(A) Short Type Questions 10x7

Q1) (a) How do the changes in food retailing affect food prices?

Ans) Food costs and the range of goods and services that consumers can choose from are impacted by changes in the food retailing industry.

1. Analyse the financial effects of shop development projects such new building, renovations, and equipment purchases.

2. Apply development initiatives automatically based on a region's, a store's, or a set of stores' characteristics.

3. Projects should receive funding for costs and capital purchases.

4. Determine the payback period and net present value of efforts by modelling and analysing their financial impact, as well as by investigating various scenarios.

5. Observe and evaluate the state of development using visual scorecards.

6. Using scorecards and reports, evaluate the effects of initiatives on revenue and costs by store region and initiative type.

7. Report and analyse sales figures like return on investment and sales growth from improved stores.

8. By integrating with the IBM Cognos Store Operations Planning Performance Blueprint, notify store operations staff of any changes in requirements.

Q1) (b) How is performance appraisal conducted in retail? What are its salient features?

Ans) An employee's job performance is assessed through a process known as performance appraisal, often referred to as employee appraisal. Performance evaluations are typically done in terms of the quantity, quality, cost, and time it took to complete the work. The career development programme in an organisation includes performance evaluation. Performance reviews are recurring evaluations of employee performance inside the company.

The measuring and comparison of the employee's actual performance with the established standards is a crucial component of the goals. Employees are more likely to fulfil their obligations when they are actively involved in setting goals and selecting the course of action they will take.

Goal-setting essentials include the following:

1. Motivation: Employee work satisfaction and commitment are increased when employees are included in the entire goal-setting process and given more power.

2. Better communication and Coordination: The firm benefits from regular reviews and discussions between supervisors and subordinates, which also serve to resolve many of the issues that have arisen recently.

3. Clarity of Goals: SMART goals that can be easily comprehended

Q2) (a) What is the significance of depreciation on assets?

Ans) Since depreciation is a legally mandated part of the income tax regulation, accountants all over the world have accepted it as a standard procedure for keeping accurate account books that reflect asset depreciation under the accounting system. Depreciation is calculated to account for the assets' gradual degradation over time as a result of normal commercial use wear and tear. Thus, by allowing a specific portion of the assets to depreciate over time, the accounting system is giving the organisation a cash reserve for asset replacement or asset upgrade through remodelling and repair projects.

Q2) (b) What is the relationship between marketing and design?

Ans) This is a dynamic environment that we understand, and successful retail creates with categorising the correct position and establishing the right tenant mix to work well with a careful target market. The goal of the retailer is to add relevance at each level of the process, whether it is at concept stage or a fully operational shopping centre.

Once a retailer chooses what to get from vendors and how much of it to allot to particular stores, someone must choose where the items will be placed in the stores. Since store layouts are so critical to the shopping experience, this is a crucial step in the retail industry. Products must have the proper facings, be easy to find, and be close to similar products.

The retailer's goal is to store, advertise, and sell goods and services while generating a profit. Design and marketing are two disciplines that are vital to creating a retail experience. We draw on closely linked disciplines from the marketing industry, including consumer behaviour, communications, the marketing mix, and strategy. The design industry is concerned with transforming the marketing strategy into a three-dimensional shape that takes into account all other elements, including function, products, operations, services, and image, and is essentially a medium for communication between buyers and sellers.

Q3) (a) What is the strategy behind the stores? Explain with the help of a suitable example

Ans) All the customers at the store share a few common physical and anatomical characteristics and restrictions. While there are many differences amongst customers in terms of likes, preferences, gender, age, wealth, etc., there are also many similarities that the store's design should take into account.

There are a few elements in the retail outlet design that must be memorised while considering some basic information. The majority of clients will have two hands, which are typically 36 inches off the ground when they are standing. This implies that if you stock items below that height, your consumers will have to stoop. The store design's strategy, which is more of a pedagogy, touches on some of these concerns. Having the sales team carry a few baskets and distribute one to each consumer holding two goods in their hands is an excellent way to boost sales.

This immediately frees up one hand so they may put additional items in the basket. This type of strategy adds monetary value to every transaction without incurring any expense. The more purchases a customer makes the longer you can keep them there. Your clients will buy less the faster they move. Customers will be able to properly view the goods and signs if the business promotes a relaxed pace. A considerable amount of time is needed if the customer is perusing the entire store and contemplating a large range of products. In certain stores, shoppers were timed and found to spend four or five times as long as non-shoppers.

Q3) (b) Promotion is a form of corporate communication that uses various methods to reach a targeted audience with a certain message in order to achieve specific organizational objectives”. Explain.

Ans) When non-marketers hear someone talk about “promotion” they frequently believe the person is talking about advertising. While advertising is the most visible and best understood method of promotion, it is only one of several approaches a marketer can choose to promote their products and services. Many view promotional activities as the most glamorous part of marketing. This may have to do with the fact that promotion is often associated with creative activity undertaken to help distinguish a company’s products from competitors’ offerings. While creativity is an important element in promotion decisions, marketers must also have a deep understanding of how the marketing communication process works and how promotion helps the organization achieve its objectives.

Promotion is a form of corporate communication that uses various methods to reach a targeted audience with a certain message in order to achieve specific organizational objectives. Nearly all organizations, whether for-profit or not-for-profit, in all types of industries, must engage in some form of promotion. Such efforts may range from multinational firms spending large sums on securing high-profile celebrities to serve as corporate spokespersons to the owner of a one-person enterprise passing out business cards at a local businessperson’s meeting.

An effective promotional strategy requires the marketer understand how promotion fits with other pieces of the marketing puzzle (e.g., product, distribution, pricing, target markets). Consequently, promotion decisions should be made with an appreciation for how it affects other areas of the company. For instance, running a major advertising campaign for a new product without first assuring there will be enough inventory to meet potential demand generated by the advertising would certainly not go over well with the company’s production department (not to mention other key company executives). Thus, marketers should not work in a vacuum when making promotion decisions. Rather, the overall success of a promotional strategy requires input from others in impacted functional areas.

Q4) (a) How do customers evaluate customer service quality?

Ans) Customers compare their opinions of the service they received with their expectations when rating the quality of retail service. When the perceived service satisfies or even surpasses the customer's expectations, the customer is satisfied. When people believe the service falls short of their expectations, they get unhappy.

Customer Expectations: The information and experiences of a customer form the basis of their expectations. The sort of store will determine different expectations. Customers expect a supermarket to have easy parking, to be open from early in the morning until late at night, to have a large selection of fresh and packaged foods that can be easily discovered, and to have a quick cashier line.

Perceived Service: Customers use their perceptions as the basis for evaluating store service. Although the actual service rendered affects these perceptions, service is frequently challenging to evaluate due to its intangibility. Customers assess the quality of a service based on five factors: responsiveness, reliability, assurance, tangibility, and empathy.

Q4) (b) What are the advantages and disadvantages of having a centralized warehouse?

Ans) The warehouse should be the proper size, sound physically, well-maintained, and clean for its intended usage. The following criteria are used to describe this: availability of the right equipment, effective product flow, security, and centralised or decentralised facilities:

Warehousing had a following Advantages

1. At individual plants, it makes room available.

2. Less inventory is held centrally than the total.

3. Distributed storage facilities.

4. Increased purchasing power.

5. Larger orders are processed more quickly.

6. Better utilisation of labour.

Warehousing had a following Disadvantages

1. Lack of direct control within the plant.

2. The need for uniformly accepted grading guidelines.

3. Taping techniques.

4. Standard hanging and folding.

5. Decreased local adaptability

6. "one basket contains all the eggs."

Q5) (a) Explain the challenges of space management and how you will maximize the profitability of your space.

Ans) Retailers tailor their product lines, store designs, merchandising and non-merchandising space, and special promotions to cater to the needs of the local consumer. They must do this while utilising every square inch of each store's area in order to maximise profit and ROI. This necessitates careful planning of the space distribution, starting with the floor space allotted for each category and ending with the shelf space needed for individual objects. However, because of the lack of knowledge about each store's actual fixtures and space limitations, prototype store layouts and generalised planograms are created.

It might be challenging to make sure that localization efforts are in line with the general category goals and company objectives set by headquarters when each individual store works to accomplish localization. Furthermore, future space planning becomes difficult because headquarters space planners infrequently have visibility into, and a precise grasp of the alterations made at each particular shop.

Maximize the Profitability of Your Space

These frequent but challenging problems can be resolved with an ERP-like system, which also helps merchants to maximise profitability on every square foot of their businesses. It establishes a connection between inventory management, retail design, construction, and merchandising. A full floor plan layout, including fixture capacity, location, and merchandisable and non-merchandisable area, can also be created and automated using an IT system.

Q5) (b) Explain the steps involved in Manpower Planning.

Ans) The first step in workforce management is manpower planning. It describes the process of utilising available resources to carry out business plans. Additionally, it entails the practise of leading, directing, and supervising different organisational tasks. Analysing the organization's future demands is essential for efficient workforce planning. It entails the creation of plans that balance personnel demand and job availability at both a regional and a national level. The people in charge of planning the workforce must be aware of the business strategies. For the purpose of achieving business growth, they must plan their operations. They must estimate the organization's business requirements and make plans for the resources required to achieve the organization's objectives.

Steps in Manpower Planning

Q6) (a) “The longer you can keep your customer in the store, the more they will buy”. Explain in the light of the customer’s perspective.

Ans) A excellent way to boost sales is to have the sales personnel carry around some baskets and distribute one to each customer holding two things. This immediately frees up one hand so they may put additional items in the basket. This type of strategy adds monetary value to every transaction without incurring any expense. The more purchases a customer makes the longer you can keep them there. Your clients will buy less the faster they move. Customers will be able to properly view the goods and signs if the business promotes a relaxed pace. Additionally, this will encourage the purchase of more.

A considerable amount of time is needed if the customer is perusing the entire store and contemplating a large range of products. In certain stores, shoppers were timed and found to spend four or five times as long as non-shoppers. However, in order to develop ways to enhance it, you must be aware of how long clients spend in your store. If you can persuade them to spend more time shopping, then your average business will also rise.

Q6) (b) Distinguish between Strategic and Resultant Drivers.

Ans)

Strategic Drivers

These are crucial factors that affect a specific retail store or showroom. Considering that they must be clearly stated from the outset of the firm. The more clearly defined and narrowly targeted the theme, the more successful they are in attracting the desired customer base to the store. They are not defined here because each of these drivers is thoroughly described in other parts of the course.

Resultant Driver

We saw that walk-ins are the outcome of strategic drivers such as brand positioning, store positioning, and target consumers. These drivers help to generate traffic to the store because the target customers find the brand meeting / accepting their requirement and fulfilling their needs both from a consumption point of view as well as a point of aesthetics, thus Walk-in is the Resultant Driver.

Q7) (a) What do you mean by Systems Frauds? explain.

Ans) Apart from people there are other systems and process specific to stores where fraud can take place. Some of these are explained be low:

1. Pricing: Inventory "shrinkage" is frequently caused by loosely managed pricing practises. In small stores, price tickets are frequently written in pencil. Additionally, some tickets lack markings.

2. Refunds: Since refunds typically happen at the exchange counter, they give dishonest personnel a simple way to steal. Due to damage, many returned items might be discounted significantly. It is simple for clerks to obtain permission to purchase broken goods.

3. Popular Salespeople: If a salesman is well-liked for the correct reasons, they may be a terrific addition to a retailer. But a lot of salesmen become "fans" as a result of the deals they close and the favours they bestow.

4. Handling Cash: The cashier's position is especially susceptible to theft. The store can be robbed in a variety of ways by a skilled cash handler with theft in mind. Watch out for signs, nods, winks, and other communication between cashiers and customers. When cashiers are surrounded by groups of people, pay close attention to them.

5. Large-scale theft is more frequently committed through the back door than the front door. The backdoor used to receive inventory is extremely sensitive and needs to be handled with extreme caution. When goods are received at the business, the inventory personnel must be very capable, and security must always be present to prevent retail theft.

6. Shoplifting: The self-service store is where the majority of theft occurs. However, no retailer, regardless of location, can afford to go unprotected against shoplifters.

Q7) (b) Explain the purpose and benefits of Standard Operating Procedures.

Ans) There may be several SOP for the different processes that take place at the store. The majority of retail establishments adhere to the following important standard operating procedures: Since different stores have different retail processes, various merchants may have various SOPs. There should be a method in place within the company for figuring out which processes or procedures need to be recorded. Then, those SOPs should be created by experts who are familiar with the activity and the internal workings of the business. These people are essentially subject-matter specialists who carry out the task or use the technique. 

1. Achieve Consistency: Even straightforward procedures are open to different interpretations. Finding out how many various approaches there are to projects is one of the interesting things about working with different personalities.

2. Improve Quality Assurance and Safety: Of course, quality assurance is frequently the outcome of consistent task performance. Workers can easily comprehend the intended outcomes for each stage of any given task thanks to well-written SOPs.

3. Save Time and Money: Profitability is another benefit of following standard operating procedures. Cutting the fat from routine operations can significantly increase productivity and reduce costs.

4. Simplify Employee Management: A framework for evaluating employee performance can be found in SOPs. It is much simpler to evaluate performance and offer comments for improvement when staff are clear on what is expected of them.

5. Avoid Knowledge Loss: The Society for Human Resource Management estimates that the average organisation suffers an annual turnover rate of 18 percent. If key staff depart without passing on their knowledge to new ones, managers run the danger of undermining crucial production processes.

(B) Essay Type Questions

Q8) Which are the major sources of goods shrinkage in a store? Explain them briefly.

Ans) In the retail world, shrinkage, or shrink, is the term used to describe a reduction in inventory due to shoplifting; employee theft; administrative errors such as record keeping, pricing, and cash counting; and supplier fraud. There's also a fifth category of shrinkage, which represents all of the unidentifiable reasons for loss in your store. A common misperception is that retailers absorb shrinkage as part of the cost of doing business. While retailers have to factor loss into their bottom line, it's a costly problem for all.

The four main causes of inventory shrinkage in retail are listed below:

Employee Theft: Internal or employee theft accounts for half of all retail shrinkage. Incidents occur when company workers steal or misappropriate funds or goods. Types of employee theft include fraudulent use of discounts, refunds, and credit cards. Implementing security measures such as installing cameras throughout the store, as well as procedures for employees to follow when purchasing products and entering and exiting the store can help mitigate theft. Another place to check is the cash drawer. If the drawer keeps on coming up short, it's helpful for security to review the day's footage to determine if money is being stolen or simply incorrectly counted.

Shoplifting: According to the National Retail Security Survey, a leading cause of shrinkage for a retail business is shoplifting. Customer theft occurs through concealment, altering or swapping price tags, or transfer from one container to another. Customers may also attempt to return stolen goods or imitation designer products to receive cash. Stealing by shoppers continues to cost retailers billions of dollars every year. According to the NRF survey, the average dollar loss per shoplifting incident has remained unchanged from the previous year as security measures such as cameras and digitized tags that set off alarms continue to combat theft.

Administrative Error: Administrative errors can also cause shrinkage. Simple pricing mistakes due to markups or markdowns can cost retailers quite a bit, so it's crucial to have good protections in place, and use simple, easy-to-understand accounting systems and programs. Poor record keeping and inventory management cause shrinkage. A solid practice of cycle counting your inventory can greatly reduce shrinkage. Many errors in the point-of-sale (POS) system can be uncovered with this practice before the inventory is sold and becomes shrinkage.

Vendor Fraud: A small percentage of shrink is due to vendor fraud. Retailers report that most vendor fraud occurs when outside vendors come into a store to stock inventory. For example, convenience store inventories are checked and monitored by the vendor. Whether it's failing to provide as many units as invoiced, or stealing of other products, vendor fraud can cut into a retailer's bottom line.

Unknown Causes: The smallest and perhaps most frustrating segment of retail shrinkage is due to unknown causes, according to the National Retail Security Survey. Roughly 6% of all losses are not able to be accounted for under any of the other categories.

Q9) In how many groups the assets can be categorized based on usage. Also, explain each of the usage categories from a retail perspective.

Ans) A retail store has a lot of assets that need to be managed. The store's assets can generally be divided into three groups: moveable assets, semi-fixed assets, and fixed assets. In this industry, Capital Retail is recognised for its innovations. In addition to being renowned as the top advisors for shopping centres, Capital Retail oversees roll out disposal strategies for a variety of merchants and has over 7.5 million square feet of space. feet of currently available rentable space. a relationship dedicated to adding value across the client portfolios by approaching retail real estate in a proactive, lateral manner.

Fixed Assets

It can be characterised as those asset categories that are fixed in nature and cannot be withdrawn or moved from one place to another as easily as other asset categories. Capital assets, such as buildings, fixed structures, large installations like power generators, air conditioning units, tiles or wooden flooring, chillers for fresh and perishable goods, safe deposit vaults, kitchen equipment, etc., fall under this category.

Semi-fixed Assets

These are resources that can be transferred with some effort but are not entirely fixed. Examples of many types of display fixtures include waterfalls, large browsers, four-way browsers, etc.; Different types of storage fixtures, split or window air conditioners, display tables and racks, cashiering/billing tables, and electronic wall units with TV screens, security cameras, fire alarm systems, lighting controls, and electrical fittings and wiring are just a few examples.

Movable Assets

These assets, as implied by their name, are those that can be transported with ease and minimal effort. Computer Desk Top System, Weighing Scales, Trolleys, Baskets, Small Display Units and Fixtures, Chairs, Sofas, Decorative Items, Photo-Frames, Poster Frames/Display Arrangement on Walls used for Visual Merchandising and Branding, Flower Plants, Movable Fans, Bar-code Machine, Tagging/Labelling Gun, Bar-code reading hand-held machine, Security Tags/Labels/Locks, Various

IT Assets

Directly or indirectly, asset classification falls under the purview of IT management, which takes hardware and software into account. However, when considering the retail industry from a technological standpoint, IT has a significant impact on this industry. In today's complicated and constantly changing IT architecture, it has become challenging to know which IT assets you have and how they are used. A typical IT infrastructure consists of a wide variety of diverse assets, and new assets are constantly being deployed to meet the changing needs of the business.

Many IT administrators now struggle with keeping track of their hardware and software inventories. However, doing an IT inventory is insufficient. Once you have control over your IT inventory, the next step is to link it to any financial assets that are related to it, such as contracts, software licences, or service agreements, so you can understand how they affect the business and take any necessary action. IT asset management will make it simple to track assets and understand how they interact with the company.