Retail project (Observations at D-Mart mall)

D-MART

Location
D-Mart is situated at a strategic location at Vasai and Virar. There has been a
drastic change in the Vasai-virar belt since last two years. Most of the
industries along this side are converted into residential areas while the
remaining are closed down. This area has got lot of potential in terms of
customers. This is the reason malls have cropped up in this area. The middle
income group resides in this and nearby areas. There is lot of traffic (both
vehicular and pedestial) along this belt Visibility is poor from outside. One can
hardly see the board of D-Mart.

Advertising
When D-mart had opened up, on the way towards Nahur station, there was a
hoarding nearly for 3 months to advertise that the mall has opened up at
Mulund.

Prices
The prices offered are economical over here. D-Mart offers minimum 5%
discount on MRP on all items except medicines, grocery and vegetables and
fruit items.

Merchandise
The product mix was fairly good. Lot of variety was available for all types of
products. The assortments done for apparels was as per the price in
descending order and as per the size i.e. extra-large, large, medium and small.
Also, in nearby racks the assortment was as per size nos. i.e. 28, 30, 32, etc for
trousers and 38, 39, 40, 42, 44, etc. for shirts. The D-Mart offer price and the
Max. Retail Price both were visible on the price card. During the festival
season, the festival items were kept in the main area. This was done because
they knew maximum customers will be looking for these festival items. The
whole area was divided as per the products that they offered like apparels,
stationeries, crockeries, sanitary items, books, gift articles, steel items,
furnitures, detergents, vegetables, fruits, etc. Each section had two to three
attendants on average. Floor managers were monitoring the area. Also, the
marketing employees of the respective companies were seen promoting their
product. The floor cleaning activity was outsourced.
In the passage lot of material was stored thus blocking the movement of the
customers. One way movement was possible. And if a customers has parked
his trolley to select a particular product then the other customer had
inconvenience to move ahead. At the apparels section, the new entries were
displayed by hanging it on the wall.

Promotion
Promotion and sales offers were present for most of the items.There were a
discount of 10 % on all Navneet products and Cadbury celebrations.There was
one separate whole shelf for garbage dust bin bags selling at Rs.29 wherin the
actual MRP was Rs.45.In case of apparels there is a variety available ranging
from menswear,womenswear and kidswear.

External Design:
The exterior design of D-MART is very ordinary and functional at best. It
consists of a small complex with trees lining its front entrance. The building is
painted white with D-MART logo clearly visible from the road. The exterior also
houses certain food and refreshment stalls for the shoppers to enjoy.



Layout:
Layout is fairly simple and it is kept simple with a view to keep everything that
customer in his eye sight and reach. The whole store has been divided into
various sections according to the categories that are stacked there. Is was
found the most used products i.e. FMCG were very easy to spot and purchase.

Image Set up:
The image that D-Mart wants to set up is that of a discount store that offers
most of the products with all the major brands. D-Mart is a store offers value
for money. The store puts various offers on products some throughout the
year and some periodically. When a customer enters the gate first thing he
notices are the boards that say Minimum 5% discount on all products. This
itself makes customer think of a good value for money.


Target customer
D-mart projecting itself as a discount store targets the middle income group.
The area in which it is located is predominantly middle class residential area.
So the location is such that it is very convenient for its target customers. Also it
is a very fast growing and value conscious segment. In order to attract their
attention, D-mart keeps giving several offers that directly projects greater
value to the customer.

Suggestions
1) Ladies purses should not be sealed in the bags which becomes inconvenient
at the time of payment.
2) Adequate trial rooms should be provided to avoid rush during holidays
3) Damaged products and sealed boxes should be kept in warehouses instead
of shelves
4) Adequate shelves should be made instead of using the bunch of boxes as a
shelf.