The Process of Organizing a Retail Firm

Organisational structure helps in maximizing efficiency and profitability of a firm Major or minor business requires this structure By doing so

Line of authority is delineated

Duties and responsibilities are identified, thus Helps in understanding what the job is Who should report to whom To identify and seek help from advisory personnel in decision making

Organisation chart

A graphic presentation that all employees can understand it

Helps in lot of daily jobs of employees

Each retail classification has certain traditional organizational structures

Each company tailors a chart that best suits its specific needs structural changes are made to suit their needs

Organization Chart Components

an organization chart depicts the various company divisions or functions

the relationships of these positions to each

other, the decision-making, lines of authority, and overall size of the company

1. Line Positions

Those who hold decision making positions are company producers

Whether they are the merchandisers who have the responsibility for the buying function,
the sales associates who sell the products, or those involved in advertising and promotion, they are involved in producing revenue for the company.

Collectively, they are the holders of line

positions.

Line relationship

In smaller companies there may not be other persons and the decision makers operate the business

2. Staff Positions

Large-scale operations need for advisory or support positions, technically classified as staff positions

Staff members play an important role in retail operations.

Their salaries are often higher than those of many in line positions

They are not lower-level employees even though they do not make the actual decisions.

GMM heads the merchandising division and has the ultimate power to determine guidelines and philosophies concerning product assortments for the entire company

Advises and makes suggestions to the GMM on areas such as fashion trends, silhouettes, fabric preferences, and color forecasts but does not have any decisionmaking powers.

Large retailers that use a combination of line positions with staff positions are called line and staff organizations

Fashion Retailing Organization Charts

Fashion retailers are divided into three main types

on-site classifications off-site operations multichannel operations

on-site classifications, smallest operation, the single-unit small specialty store the specialty store operation with several units the small department store large department stores department store groups large chain operations

off-site operations,
Catalog Web site only retailers

multichannel operations
brick-and-mortar retailers with catalog Internet divisions

On-Site Classifications
a. SINGLE-UNIT SPECIALTY STORES

owner is in charge of the overall functioning of the operation, with the manager performing some specific tasks

Each of the people in the company is either a decision maker or revenue producer

Small Multiunit Specialty Chains

Many small operations achieve success with their first

stores and expand their operations with other unit Organisation tables should show these increased number of employees
CEOoperates from this location and leaves the stores to attend to the selling of the merchandise.

Small Department Stores

Consists of two divisions

CEO is the Chief Financial Officer (CFO)

accounting and credit

Chief Operating Officer (COO)

store protection, traffic and facilities management

Small departmental store organisation

This organizational structure allows for a certain degree of specialization in the company but guarantees coordinated store effort.

Large departmental stores

Leading stores still use some of the Mazur Plan functions Controller, merchandise, publicity and store manger division Some titles have changed- publicity is now called as promotion and some are added

1. Merchandising- lifeblood of retail operation with upper and middle management 2. Promotion 3. Control 4. Store management carrying out the practices that
were established by the companys upper-level executives

5. Store operation
6. Human resources

Large departmental stores

Department Store Groups

many department stores that were once independently

operated are now divisions of major retailing giants.

As these organizations grow, there is a constant need to

redefine their operations and adjust their structures to reflect the changes
some of these major department store groups sell off divisions

to more profitably operate

Large Chain Organizations

have anywhere from 100 to more than 1000 units.
Gap, which operates many different retail concepts such

as Gap Kids, Baby Gap, Banana Republic, and Old Navy

discount or off-price operations such as Wal-Mart There is often some form of decentralization such as

regional warehousing for shipments in limited time

Merchandising decisions are decentralized and left in the

hands of the store managers and their in-store team- JC Penny

if a limited number of units in the chain have markets that

are atypical from the rest of the companys stores, their unique merchandise requirements can be decentralized

Off site classification

Catalogs
catalog retailer organization charts feature only those divisions and functions such as merchandising, product development, advertising, warehousing, transportation, and customer service

Internet Web Site Organizations

Web sites with fashion orientations limit

themselves to the Internet to reach potential customers.

Their organization charts, like their cataloger

counterparts, deal primarily with product acquisition, visual presentation, warehousing, transportation, and customer services. e

Home Shopping Organizations

The main distribution channel for the home shopping shows is on cable television

Multichannel Operations

Retailers, large and small, have become proponents of multichannel retailing. Brick-and mortar companies, concluded that limiting themselves to in store operations will prevent them from reaching wider trading areas. Most have redirected their tables of organizationto reflect all of the selling channels available to them.

In-store operations, catalogs, and on-line outlets are presented in three separate divisions. This is a dept. store, can be adopted to any chain store

Trends In Organizational Structures

The latest trends of retailing has forced the merchants to reorganize their tables to serve the needs of customers and thereby profit themselves

Restructuring to Accommodate Multichannel Expansion

Consolidation of Divisions
acquisition of department stores by major retail groups and so

consolidation of staff

Decentralization
Merchandise distribution, has now been decentralized to

include regional operations