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Retail Management

INTRODUCTION

• Can a product be sold without any marketing gimmicks or film


actor or the hype?

• Can you sell a product honestly?

Peter England did that successfully and captured the Indian middle class
minds honestly.

Launched in the year 1997, this brand has captured the Indian middle
class mind, that too honestly.
Peter England as a brand has a rich heritage. It began in the year
1885 when foundation was struck for 5 storied building in Ireland. In
1888 Peter England factory came in to being. It was during 1889-1902
that the company expanded when it got the order for outfits for
British soldiers for the Boer war. The order was large and it demanded
quality merchandise at Honest –to- goodness price.
The brand came to India in 1997. During that period there was a huge
potential for a mid segment shirts in the 60mn pieces Indian shirt
market. The industry was dominated by in store brands and the
consumers have to painstakingly check for the right shirt. The then
owners of Peter England (Indian Rayon) wanted to tap this segment.
Thus, evolved the idea of a brand that aims to shorten the buying
process of the consumer .
Research also revealed that the consumers perceived premium shirts
as overpriced and there was a need for such a national brand. Also
another insight was that the market had a perception that good
things happen to people who wear good clothes.
Peter England was initially positioned as an “Honest Shirt”. The
strategy clicked and has to click because the product was very good
and the price was excellent. It just fit in to ones budget. The target
market for the brand was the 24-28 ambitious and career oriented
youth.
In order to make sure that the excitement remains, Peter England
came out with various ranges and varieties of shirts. The brand also
extended to trousers with the same positioning. Although some of the
variants like English Cottons compromised on quality , the brand still
enjoys a good equity in the targeted customer’s mind.
In 2002 the brand made a slight makeover. The positioning changed
to “Honestly Impressive”. The aim is to make the brand more than
just value for money proposition but also as a lifestyle brand. It has
maintained its value proposition unchanged.
Peter England is a brand that clearly shows a marketer that it is
possible to sell... Honestly.

RETAIL FORMAT
The Peter England People (PEP) brand is marketed through Peter England
Fashions and Retail, a division of Aditya Birla Nuvo, which is one kind of
specialty store.

The PEP brand, which is distinctly different from its more retail brand, will
be rolled out through 80 stores spread over 34 cities across India in the
next three to five years. After Mumbai, the next stop for launching the
new retail brand will be Bangalore, which will be immediately followed by
Hyderabad and Delhi by early June. And by the end of the fiscal, the
company expects to have 10 such stores across different cities. Each
store will be spread over 10,000 to 15,000 sq ft.

PEP’s hallmark will be the concept of a family store, where Peter England
brands of men’s, women’s and kid’s wear will be on the shelves.

In this report , Peter England specialty store is taken for the analysis.

As shown into the above figure, pink dots are the Peter England specialty
store into Pune. It is clear that Peter England adopts the Blanket
strategy to capture the market means they cover particular area with
their stores. E.g. in the figure they have covered area between shivaji
nagar & aundh.
MERCHANDISE ASSORTMENT PLANNING
Peter England has simplified the buying process as shown into the below
process with the help of their merchandise assortment in the specialty
store.

From To

Search for a good shirt across Ask for Peter England as their first
counters choice

Check for merchandise, color/design , Check color/design , decide on overall


fabric/stitching, overall look , look
brand/label

Ask price Know price band

Select 1 from many Select 1 from Peter England

Buy a shirt with a label Buy Peter England

Start hunt all over Customer is happy, comes back to


Peter England
As shown into the figures - trousers, shirts, t-shirts, denims and ties are
maintained as per colors. From this we can clearly make out that the
stock keeping unit is color.

They are also maintaining the separate section for the New Arrivals
which we can clearly see from the figure. This is good strategy to attract
the costumer attention to the new product, so that company can safely
introduce new product.
First I was confused that why the above lot of trousers are not assorted
as per the colors, but after asking sales personnel I came to know that
those trousers are very rare to be chosen by the customers(out of
fashion). This is also the good strategy to slowly remove your product
from the shelf space by allocating them whole separate section. Store
persons tell these stocks non-moving stocks

Now let us understand their assortment done into the Peter England
Specialty Store with the help of the diagram (diagram is shown on the
next page). As this is the case specialty store, there is no question of
private labeling.
Peter England
specialty store

Formal Casual Accessori


Other
Classificati Wears Wears es
on

Shirt T- Denim Wallet Sock Undergarment


Trousers Suits Belts Ties
s shirts s s s s

Half Catego
Half
Sleeve ry
sleeve
s
s
Sub-
Category-I
Full
Full
sleeve
sleeve
s
s

Color- Color-
A A
Sub-
Category-II
Color- Color-
B B

Small Small

Medium Medium
Stock Keeping
Units

Large Large

Extra- Extra-
large large
The retailer must make decisions regarding the merchandise offered
depending on the sales targets and financial objectives of the store.
Retailer should be very careful while deciding on the amount of stock to
be maintained in each category; if large stocks are maintained in a
particular category, there may not be sufficient resources left for
providing a deeper assortment of goods. By taking into consideration this
phenomenon all Peter England specialty stores are maintained on the
basis of the per square foot SKUs. It means that as shown into the
figures of assortment, every SKU are replenished in the fix quantity.
Because of this there is no question stock out situation. Their Shirts

Another criterion, to maintain the merchandise assortment standard


across all Peter England stores Planet Fashion stores, is that
recruitment of store manager and store personnel is done
centrally.

STORE LAYOUT
There are some key factors that a retailer should take into account, while
developing a layout prototype. The following are the optimizing factors:

• Increasing sales

• Maximizing returns per square foot

• Coordinating the merchandise with the store format

• Allowing flexibility in store design

• Recognizing the needs and safety of the customers

The store lay out should enable and incite the customers to move around
the store to purchase more products than they have actually planned for.
The store layout should tempt customer to walk along the inexpensive
merchandise display section for impulse buying and then move on to
expensive merchandise.
There are three types of store layout

1. Grid layout

2. Race track layout

3. Free-form layout
From the above figures it is clear that to meet the optimizing factors of
the store lay out Peter England specialty store has made the
arrangement such that customer have ample space to move around ,and
pick and choose from the merchandise at ease. This layout is expensive
because of high cost of display aids.

Above discussed characteristics of Peter England store layout perfectly


matches with the free-form layout.

STORE EXTERIORS
Generally, the first impression of a customer about a store is formed by
its exteriors. The exterior of a store plays a vital role in attracting new
customers and retaining existing customers. Retailer while planning their
store exterior may consider any of the following option. From the below
Peter England is using proto type structure.

1. Modular structure

2. Prefabricated structure

3. Prototype structure
4. Recessed structure

5. Distinct structure

Marquee: typically carries store name along with the trade marks. Here
you can see Peter England marquee is not much blowy and outside
signboard is put which matching with its positioning tag line “Honestly
Impressive

Entrance and display window: From the photograph we can clearly


make out that there is only one entrance in the store which shows the
display of merchandise which store offers, so that it can attract the
pedestrians easily.
Door type and walk away: the door is of push-pull type which eases
traffic congestion at the entrance and allows the customer to see
interiors. There is ample of space available for the customer to freely
move inside the store but because of the smaller parking space
available, which is outside the store, it becomes very congested
sometimes. (This can be seen from the second photograph)

STORE INTERIORS
The principal objective of any retailer is to maximize its sales and
customer satisfaction, and to minimize the operational costs. Therefore,
the interior of the store should be designed in such a way that it serves
this purpose. The store interiors should be attractive. Peter England
specialty store have considered two parameters

• The value of space

• Space utilization and allocation

New arrivals

Suits
Trousers
Trousers
Shirts

T-shirts

Shirts

Seating
Non-moving stocks

arrangeme
nt
Casual shirts

Trial rooms

Statues for promotion

Ganesh
a Formal
T-shits shirts
s
Accessorie

Counter
shirts

lug Statues for promotion


gag Entranc
Overall designing of the store interior was good, but there is only one
seating arrangement provided. They can increase the no. of seating
arrangement to increase convenience level for the customers.

ATMOSPHERICS
Visual communication
From the above photographs it is clear that specialty store of Peter
England has a good visual communication which involves communicating
with the customers through graphics,signs and certain theatrical effects
inside the store.

Lighting and Fragrance


Instrument for
fragrance

In the store lighting is used intelligently to highlight the merchandise and


attract customers to specific departments in the store as shown into
photo.

Some of the main objectives they have achieved with lighting are
following:

• Highlighting the displayed product.

• Capturing customer’s mood.

• Masking the unattractive features or places of the store.

There is also a mild fragrance available into the store to influence the
purchasing decisions of the target market.

Colors and Music:

As shown into the photos they have used mild colors (like cream color)
for ceiling and walls, so that customer can recognize different colors of
various apparels very easily. There is no any kind of music which
perfectly matches with the “Honestly Impressive “tagline of Peter
England.

IT SYSTEM IN STORE

As shown into photo, they are using Bar-code reader to directly feed the
information into their system, so that they can manage the inventory
properly. They were using the software “Shopper -A Retail Solution”. This
software is directly connected to their warehouse and it automatically
generates order quantity by forecasting the demand.

Because of the above Bar-code reading technique, they are able to get
the real time information of various SKUs and also about the consumer
preferences which help them to schedule the production.
SWOT ANALYSIS
1. Strengths

• Extensive range of office and casual wear

• Good quality label and branding

• Contemporary designs, colors and price

• Wide distribution , easy availability

• Well-orchestrated merchandising

• High market viability

• Use of latest information technology for collaborative


planning , forecasting and replenishment

2. Weakness

• Product knowledge of the store persons is lower.

• Very few customer prefers to go for specialty store (may be


brand loyal customers only). So specialty store format
sometimes leads to lower sales.

• Pre- and Post- purchase uncertainty and anxiety over fit,


quality, shrinkage, durability etc. because of readymade
garments.

3. Opportunity

• Large educated and working class available in pune is one of


the opportunities because their target market itself is youth.

• They can also go for brand extension and store extension.

• Increased disposable income of the working class.

4. Threats

• Belief of Indian consumers-“ Premium shirt brands were


overpriced”, “good quality product at a great price”

• Threat from the local vendors and other big players.


zone competitor

primary Specialty store of Lee, Wrangler


and other local vendors

secondary Pune Central, Kakade mall etc

Fringe Big mall like SGS and specially


local vendors

SITE LOCATION AND SITE EVALUATION


The target market of the Peter England shirt is Young executives
segment between age group 25-28 years. They have located their
specialty store where large no. of executives are residing (like
Aundh).Thus they have done the site location very cleverly by examining
demographic ,economic, cultural and demand factors and by more
concentrating on the economic & demographic factors like,

• Per capita income is high in the selected site

• Employment rate is high.

• Density of education institutes is high

• Education rate is high

• No. of DINK (Double Income No Kids) if relatively high than other


areas.

Generally a retail site is evaluated on the basis of the sales potential and
the cost of doing business at that site. The following factors have been
considered for selecting the site of Peter England specialty store.

• Sales potential of the site is high because of average age of


population is around 25-30 which is near to the target market of
the Peter England.

• Access to site is easy because of the proper transportation facility


available.
• Access for pedestrians is easy because it is located on the road
side.

• Peter England store synergies from nearby stores

• Leasing and occupancy term are liberal because Pune is education


and business hub of India.

• Traffic flow during the day time at the selected site is high. It
indicates the opportunistic nature of the selected site.

RECOMMENDATIONS

• Company should decentralize their system and link it with extranet


& intranet.

• They should give training to the sales personnel and store


manager regarding product knowledge.

• They can also provide customization of design of various shirts and


trousers online and can take online orders.

• They can also do direct marketing to boost their sales

• Expand the definition of the target market to women and kids

• Provide proper parking space.

• Provide value adding activities like Wi-Fi facility or food facility


inside the store.

• Provide refreshments on regular duration like half hour, so that


customer takes more interest into shopping and purchases more
than planned.

• They can also go for department store format ( like taking a place
on lease in KAKADE mall)
• Blanket strategy should be converted to large area coverage
strategy to increase the sales or else they can use mixture of both
the strategies like Wall Mart.

• Display video advertisements outside the store with more


creativity and distribute the pamphlets into the nearby area of the
store.

• Apply system approach means integrated supply chain.

• They can also change the traditional positioning –“Honestly


Impressive “to increase borders of the target market.

References

• Retail Management-ICMR publication

• www.peterengland.com

• Business Today(Magazine)

• http://www.scribd.com/doc/2302942/Case-Peter-England-The-Honest-
Shirt-

• The Textile and Apparel Industry in India by Pankaj Chandra(Indian


Institute of Management,Vastrapur, Ahmedabad -380015)

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