A Project report on

THE RETAIL STRATEGY OF RELIANCE TRENDS LTD

DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF REQUIREMENT

FOR THE DEGREE OF

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

PREPARED BY

BAPPADITYA GANGULY

VU Registration No...00395 of the year 2016-2017

Year of registration: 2016

UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF

Dr. Surajit Ghosh Dastidar

FACULTY, EIILM

SUBMITTED TO
 TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN

This is to certify that Bappaditya Ganguly (VU/MBA-IVS-022), a bonafide student of

EIILM Kolkata,affiliated to Vidyasagar University, pursuing 2-years fulltime Regular MBA
programme, has successfully completed his dissertation under my guidance.

The title of the dissertation is “The Retail Strategy of Reliance Trends Ltd.” I wish him all
success in his future endeavour.

Dr. Surajit Ghosh Dastidar

Faculty, EIILM

Date:

Place:Kolkata
 TABLE OF CONTENT

CONTENT PAGE NO.

Introduction 1
Industry Introduction 2
Company profile
Literature Review
Objectives
Significance of the study
Retail strategy
Observation and findings
Recommendation
 Introduction

Retailing involves the process of selling consumers goods or services to the customers
through multiple channels of distribution to earn profits. Retailers satisfy demand
identified through a supply chain. Some of the earlier retailers were itinerant peddlers.
The term ‘retailers’ is typically applied where the services provider fills the small order
of a large numbers of individuals, who are end-user rather than large numbers of small
numbers of wholesale, corporate, or Government clientele. Shopping is refers to the act
of buying of products. Modern retailers typically make a variety of strategic level
decision including the types of stores, the market to be served, the optimal product
assortment, customers service, supporting service and store overall market positioning.
Once the strategic retail plan is in place, retailers devise the retail mix which includes
product, price, promotion, place personnel, presentation. In the digital age an increasing
numbers of retailers are seeking to reach broader market by selling through multiple
channels including the way consumer pay for goods and services. Forms of non-shopping
retailing include online retailing, electronic-commerce used for business to consumer.
 Industry Introduction

Retail comes from the French word ‘retailer’, which refers to “cutting off, clip and
divide” in terms of tailoring (1965). Its literal meaning for retail was to “cut off, shred,
paring”. Retail is the final stage of any economic activity. Retail occupies an important
place in the world economy.Retailing involves the process of selling consumers goods or
services to the customers through multiple channels of distribution to earn profits.
Retailers satisfy demand identified through a supply chain. Some of the earlier retailers
were itinerant peddlers. The term ‘retailers’ is typically applied where the services
provider fills the small order of a large numbers of individuals, who are end-user rather
than large numbers of small numbers of wholesale, corporate, or Government clientele.
Shopping is refers to the act of buying of products. Modern retailers typically make a
variety of strategic level decision including the types of stores, the market to be served,
the optimal product assortment, customers service, supporting service and store overall
market positioning. Once the strategic retail plan is in place, retailers devise the retail mix
which includes product, price, promotion, place personnel, presentation. In the digital age
an increasing numbers of retailers are seeking to reach broader market by selling through
multiple channels including the way consumer pay for goods and services. Forms of non-
shopping retailing include online retailing, electronic-commerce used for business to
consumer. `Organized retail or modern is usually chain store, all owned or franchisees by
a chain entity, or a single store that is large than a same cut-off point. The relative
uninformative and standardization of retailing is the key attribute of modern retail. The
size of the each unit can be small so that a chain of convenience store is modern retail. A
single large modern retail store is also a modern retail store.

Indian Prospect

Retailing in India came with evolutionary patterns from Kirana store to Super Market.
This sector was un-organized in the initial stage and after it carried forward by textile
industries through the dealer model. Now it is growing as super market and hypermarket.
The main drivers of retail evolution in India are buying behavior of the customer choice.
The target segments of retailers are the younger middle class earners which belong to
more than 20% of total population.

The growth in retail sector also comes through innovative ideas. As retailers are
providing innovative buying options at different store like cash & carry, Lowest price day
(Sabse Sasta Din), Big day etc which help to increase the customer base. Initially
organize retail was involved in apparels and footwear. Now retail has included the food
chains, book & CD stores (landmark) and electronics. These all changes occurred at a
passage of time. So it is an evolution rather than revolution.

Retail in India: Revolution and Evolution:

The journey of retail started long back through the kirana store in India. This is first effort
by local shopkeeper. The shopping centre concept comes into existence in year 1869 with
Mumbai Crawford market and Kolkata’s New Market in year 1874. The underground
shopping complex Palika Bazaar in New Delhi was established in the late 1970s and mini
malls on the Bangalore’s Brigade Road come into existence in 1980s.

Government of India entered into the rural India by franchisees called Khadi Bhandat.
These stores serve as outlets for products made by village industry i.e. Khadi,
matchsticks. Incense sticks, decorative items made from wood and earth, ahinsak (non-
violent), ahinsak leather items etc.

The industries came in the retailing in 1980s through dealer network. In 1980s, the big
group of textile industry i.e. Raymond, S.Kumar, Bombay dyeing and Grasim came with
this concept of retailing. In the manufacturing sector, the pioneers were DCM group and
Bata. Titan came with an organized retail concept and establishes number of showroom
for premium watches.

All the above effort for retailing came by the manufacturer. But the pure retailer approach
came I the existence in 1999s with the establishment of Ansal’s Plaza in Delhi and
Crossroads in Mumbai. After the 2003, many other organizations either planning to come
into the retail store or initiated the establishment work. Currently some popular groups
which are operating the organized retail in different formats are following.
Aditya Birla Group (Fashion and retail, Big Bazaar), (Food, fruits and vegetable, More),
Future Group (Central, Food Bazaar, Fashion at Big Bazaar and it is a sister chain of
retail outlets like Brand Factory, Home Town, Central, eZone, etc), K Raheja Corp Group
(Shoppers stop), TATA Group (Westside), Land Mark Group (Max, Lifestyle), Reliance
Group (Reliance Trends).

From The above long journey shows that organized retailing in India came through a long
path and many changes. It means it is an evolution rather than sudden, revolutionary
change.
 COMPANY PROFILE

RELIANCE INDUSTRIES LIMITED (RIL)

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) is India's largest private sector company on all
major financial parameters with a turnover of INR 2,96,091 crore (US$44.7 billion),
net profit of INR 27,630 crore (US$ 4.2 billion) as of March 31,2016.

The Group's activities span exploration and production of oil and gas, petroleum refining
and marketing, petrochemicals (polyester, fibre intermediates, plastics and chemicals),
textiles, retail, infotel and special economic zones. RIL contributes to over 13% of India’s
exports and over 4.5% of the total market capitalization in India.

RELIANCE RETAIL
Reliance Retail is the retail initiative of the group and an epicenter of our consumer
facing businesses. It has, in a short time, forged strong and enduring bonds with millions
of consumers by providing them unlimited choice, outstanding value proposition,
superior quality and unmatched experience across all its retail stores.
Since its inception in 2006, Reliance Retail has grown to become India’s largest retailer
delivering superior value to its customers, suppliers and shareholders. Our nationwide
network of retail outlets delivers a world-class shopping environment and unmatched
customer experience powered by our state-of-the-art technology and seamless supply-
chain infrastructure. Reliance Retail has adopted a multi-prong strategy and operates
chain of convenience stores, supermarkets, hypermarkets, wholesale cash & carry stores,
specialty stores and online stores and has democratized access to all types of products and
services across all segments for all Indian consumers.
Deep insight into India’s economic, cultural and consumption diversity drives Reliance
Retail’s vision in the retail universe. The operating model is based on customer centricity,
while leveraging common centres of excellence in technology, business processes and
supply chain. More importantly, it has built a strong and unwavering foundation through
its extraordinary people.
TRENDS

Reliance Trends Ltd. is an apparel & accessory specialty format that was conceived with
a vision to deliver fashion, selection and quality of products and experience at great
prices to its consumers. Reliance Trends launched its first store in the country in October
2007. Since then the company has opened more than 300 stores across the length and
breadth of the country. With presence in more than 160 cities, Reliance Trends, today, is
India’s largest fashion destination, selling 2 lakh garments a day!
 Literature Review

There are many authors and researchers who have worked in this area but the
contribution of some of them have been included in this study to make it more
comprehensive and valuable.

According to Koshy (1997), fashion garments are differentiated by innovative fabrics

and/or substantial use of trims, embellishments and/or presence of high degree of
craftsmanship in the form of bead, sequin work and /or sophisticated design, colour and
styling inputs.

Chandra(1998) in his article wrote on challenges ahead of Indian textile and clothing
industry in post quota regime. It put special emphasis on production capabilities nd
efficiencies as most essential elements to fight global competition. It suggests various
strategic decisions Indian textile manufacturers have to make to survive the
competitiveness in post quota regime.

Bhamra, Heely and Tylor (1998) describe ‘conventional approaches t product

development in textile and clothing industry have been characterized by functional
independence. Each participant contribute to the process sequentially.’

Verma (2001)17 in his article emphasized on the impact on the Indian textile and clothing
industry after quota elimination. It says that Indian textile and clothing exporters have to
bring in their methods of production, management style, capacities, marketing skills and
productivity level in order to remain competitive in international market. Also it put
special emphasis on the size of Indian textile units when compared to its counterpart in
China.

Simpson and Shetty (2001) did a vast study on India’s textile industry. The purposeof
study is to analyze India’s textile , its structural problems, market access barriers, and
measurements taken by government of India to enhance the industry’s competitiveness in
the post – Multi Fibre Agreement (MFA) era. The study also assesses India’s textile and
trade and investment opprtuinities for U.S. firms as India steps into a morec free and
transparent trade regime.
In the Indian context, a study was done by Sinha et al. (2002)on store choice behavior
that indicated Indian shoppers on an overall bais give importance to proximity of the
store , merchandise and service provided by the stores dealing in apparel are also chosen
based on ambience.

As per Moye and Kincade (2003), the occasion for which an apparel item is bought does
influence the consumer’s importance rating of the store environment and there were
higher expectations for the environment of a store offering formal merchandize than a
store offering casual merchandize.
OBJECTIVE
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
 RETAIL STRATEGY
Target Market:
Reliance Trends is apparel specialty store, so offer narrow and deep product assortment.
It offers product to all category i.e. baby, teenage, men’s and women’s. Among all these
customer 60 percent belongs to age group of 19 to29 years. Thus we can say that its
target
customer group is young. It target segment of reliance trend comprises of male and
females in equal majors with no particular segment getting a special preference. The price
range of product varies from ₹ 299 to ₹ 3000 so it mainly target middle class and upper
middle class.
7
TRADE AREA:
This outlet is located in Buddha Colony so majority of its customer are from nearby area.
Its primary trade area is Boring road, Polytechnic, Rajapur, Raja bazaar, Buddha colony,
Exhibition road, Frazer road and all other nearby area where as its secondary trade area
include Digha, Kankarbagh, Aashiyana and tertiary trade area include Patna city,
Phulwari sharif, and rest of Patna.
Merchandise Assortment:
Major brand at Reliance Trends:
Table 1
SL.NO MEN WOMEN KIDSWERE
FORMAL CASUAL
1 John Miller Sin Jealous 21 Rio Girl
2 John Player Killer Fig Ginni&Jonny
3 Crimsoune club Moustache W Frendz
4 Indigo Nation Lee Cooper Rio Nawatinati
Qxemberg Flying machine Kraus
Peter England
Table 2
SL.NO Footwear Accessories
JEWELERS BAGS
1 Lee cooper Stoln Baggit
2 Adidas Jewel
3 Reebok
4 Puma
5 Fila
8
There are total 18 private label brands in Reliance Trends. Some of them are:-
DNMX
Netplay
Pureza
Teamsprit
Awesha
Hi-attitude
Reliance Trends a “APPAREL SPECIALTY STORE” fits on fashion merchandise
under
the category life cycle. A fashion is currently accepted or popular style in given life
cycle.
Fashion passes through four stages: distinctiveness, emulation, mass fashion, and decline.
Under all these stage Reliance Trends focuses on mass fashion because it help in
maximizing the economics of scale.
Figure 2
9
The company has chosen this strategy as it is more profitable. Also at Reliance Trends
cycle changes every 30-45 days to keep the fashion fresh and trendy. It will reduce the
risk of over stocking as compared to fad strategy. By using this kind of strategy the
inventory turnover will be low in respect of style strategy as the company doesn’t prefer
repeating its product. Also with this strategy the company can deal mass customer with
fresh stock that will attract customer.
Human Resources:
STORE HIERARCHY:
Store manager is the head of the particular store. They are hired at central level through
various processes like reference check, campus placement, Job Portals and internal
promotion/transfer.
Figure 3: Store Hierarchy
STORE MANAGER
DEPARTMENTAL MANAGER
TEAM LEADER
SALES ASSOCIATE/ CUSTOMER
SERVICE ASSOCIATE
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ROLE OF STORE MANAGER:
To make profit from the store.
To know the customer requirement.
To observer the current Trends
Increase the conversion rate of the store: Ideal conversion rate is 30% for Reliance
Trends
but the store studied for the project has a conversion rate of 35%.
Hire all the employees in the particular store below the store manager
position
ROLE OF DEPARTMENT MANAGER:
Control and manage allotted department like Kids Section, Men Section, Women
Section etc.
Maintain the SKU’s of the allotted department.
ROLE OF TEAM LEADER:
They are allotted any segment under the Department store. E.g.: In Men’s section
they are allotted either formal/casual section.
ROLE OF SALES ASSOCIATE/CUSTOMER SERVICE ASSOCIATE:
Interact with the customer
Assist the customer whenever they need assistance.
The employees at Reliance Trends are trained on the bases of their current position and
previous experience (if any). For the profile of sales associates, the employees are given
15
11
days class training were they are given back office training, information about company
policy like SOP (Standing Operating Procedure).
Reliance Trends follows the cost to company (CTC) structure for remunerating its
employee that reflects the total cost of an employee to an organization. It is designed in
such a way that it provides flexibility to an employee to structure their benefit package.
Most of the employees at Reliance Trends are paid a basic fixed salary along with
incentives based on their performance in achieving target allotted to them. The store
manager basic salary is Rs. 30,000 (approx) + incentives while the sales associates are
paid
basic of Rs. 10,000 (approx) + incentives.
At Reliance Trends the sales people are allowed to cross sell. For e.g. Sales person from
John Miller can suggest their customer product from Van Heusen if customer are not
satisfied with the available product in John Miller. Some of the activities that are
outsourced at this store are security and some transportation activity.
Store Location:
Reliance Trends is located in Main Street that refers to traditional shopping area in
secondary business district. Main streets share most of the characteristics of a Central
Business District (CBD). They chose this location because the occupation cost of the
store
is slightly lower than CBD. It is located in East Boring Canal Road, Buddha Colony,
Patna.
Boring canal road is adjacent to Boring Road and both are considered posh area. Majority
of the affluent population live here. Hence, they can be potential customers. Gradually,
12
more apartments, shopping complexes, specialty stores like Godrej Interio and banks
have come up in this area. This location is also hub of coaching centers of IIT, Medical,
MBA, Bank P.O, etc. Therefore, a lot of traffic is at this place which can be potential
customers. Moreover, Pantaloons is also located approximately at a distance of 200m, so
people looking for comparable shopping would get attracted to this place. This site is
accessible to the customers because there are two routes to reach this place, one from
Boring Road side and the other from Gandhi Maidan side. People can travel by own
vehicle or public transport like autos and rickshaws. Reliance Trends also provides
parking space (but it’s not of ample size).
Pricing:
Reliance Trends follows high/low pricing policy. It gives discounts up to 50% (varying
on
different brands) at the end of seasons like in July and in January. And special discounts
are given on festivals like Dusshera , Diwali, Holi, etc. To compete with other retailers,
the store does price bundling (buy 1 get 1 free or buy 3 in Rs.600), provides reward
points
on loyalty cards. Apart from this, for example if a person buys products worth Rs.5000,
then 10%- 20% off on the next purchase. Reliance Trends uses cost-oriented method of
pricing. Retail price is set by adding some mark up value on the cost of the merchandise.
They also provide frequent shopper program by offering loyalty cards and attractive
offers
like Shop for Rs.2999 and Get Clothes worth Rs.1500 Free at Reliance Trends. By
providing this, they try to achieve customer loyalty.
13
Communication Mix:
Reliance Trends uses both above the line and below the line in advertisement.
For above the line advertisements they use are:
Print media – Majorly uses newspaper, pamphlets for promotions.
Radio
Hoarding
For below the line in advertisements they uses are:
Direct mail
Online catalogue (www.tiendeo.in)
Sales promotions
In- shop activities
Directly visiting customer’s home (in case of sale going down adversely but it
never happened yet )
For publicity:
Reliance Trends is dependent on word of mouth communication. Sometimes Reliance
Trends uses cooperative advertising with brand like John Player, Peter England, and
Indian terrain so on.
For sales promotion the retailer mainly uses are:
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Loyalty Cards –In every purchase some point is issues on the card and this point
can be redeeming on the next purchase.
Gift voucher discount- A discount is offered which has certain minimum purchase
in case of Reliance Trends it is five thousand.
Store Layout:
Reliance Trends store has been designed and furnished in such a way that it can offer a
high quality and lavish shopping experience to the Indian Consumer. The store layout
compliments the evolving tastes and preference of fashion savvy consumers, giving them
an opportunity to view /shop with ease as it follows a free form design layout. Though
other stores in India are big but the store in Patna is not so large. It uses three floors. The
ground floor has women apparel, accessories, and footwear, first floor has men formal
and kids clothing, while the third floor has men casual and footwear. The store is not very
spacious. They use straight rack, four wall fixtures, and gondolas for apparel, footwear
and accessories. They mostly use vertical merchandising and idea- oriented presentation.
They also perform in store advertisement through posters and mannequin. The lighting
is not very attractive particularly in Patna store as compared to other Reliance Trends
store in India. The store is using used yellow-whitish ceiling light. Soothing Bollywood
music constantly plays in the store like “Aaj unse milna hai humein ..Chal unke liye
kuchh lete chalein” from “Prem Ratan Dhan Payo”. Jasmine and rose room fresheners are
used in the store for attractive ambiance.
15
Customer Service:
Customer service is set of activities and programs undertake by retailer to make the
shopping experience more rewarding for their customers. These activities increase the
value that the customers receive from the merchandise and the service they purchase.
Reliance Trends offers following services:-
Gift Wrapping
Alteration of merchandise
Acceptance of credit cards
Trail room
Parking
Personal assistance in selecting merchandise
Signage to locate and identify merchandise
It was found that customer’s perception for this store was satisfactory, as were happy
with
the service offered by Reliance Trends. The salesperson are always there to help them
and
the whole store is organized in a proper way like there is different section for men,
women, kids and in men there is separate section for formal and casuals wear, also there
is separate section for footwear and accessories. So they can easily identify the product
according to their needs.
The store has a separate desk for customer complain i.e. customer relationship desk
where a salesperson is there to solve customer problem. The complaint is mainly about
16
color fading, bubbling and they find it genuine then they take return back the products.
For having the surprise check on the level of services provided the company sometime
even sends “mystery shoppers” to the store. The sales associate in the store are not
“empowered” to make decisions as it up to management or the store manager.
Observation and Finding
RECOMMENDATION
BIBLIOGRAPHY
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT