! 1!

Table&of&Contents&
1.1 Introduction to Cottonworld!............................................................................................................!2!
1.2 History of Cottonworld!......................................................................................................................!2!
1.3 Cottonworld Now!................................................................................................................................!3!
2.!In!Store!Operations!..................................................................................................................!4!
2.1!Type!of!store!.......................................................................................................................................!4!
2.2 Organization Structure!......................................................................................................................!5!
2.3 Departments!.........................................................................................................................................!6!
2.4 Size of the store!....................................................................................................................................!7!
3. Location!.........................................................................................................................................!8!
3.1 Location of the store!...........................................................................................................................!8!
3.2 Size of Population!................................................................................................................................!9!
3.3 Civic amenities!..................................................................................................................................!10!
3.4 Characteristics of population!........................................................................................................!10!
3.4.1 Socio Economic Conditions!....................................................................................................................!10!
3.4.2 Age group and Occupation Mix!.............................................................................................................!10!
3.4.2 Religious Mix!...............................................................................................................................................!11!
3.4.3 Ethnicity!.........................................................................................................................................................!11!
3.5 Specific Location Factors!.............................................................................................................................!11!
3.6 Local Competition!..........................................................................................................................................!12!
4.Economic Conditions In The Area!........................................................................................!13!
4.1 Local Employment Trends!.............................................................................................................!13!
4.2 Local Authority Attitude!................................................................................................................!13!
4.3 Major retail property developers!.................................................................................................!13!
4.4 Local traffic conditions!...................................................................................................................!13!
4.5 Local Rent and Rates!......................................................................................................................!13!
5.Store Layout!...............................................................................................................................!16!
5.1Exterior and window display of the store!....................................................................................!16!
5.2 Interior Display!.................................................................................................................................!16!
5.3Store Space!..........................................................................................................................................!18!
5.4Types of Merchandise!......................................................................................................................!18!
5.5 Customer Space!................................................................................................................................!18!
5.6 Store Atmosphere!.............................................................................................................................!19!
5.7 Customer Service!.............................................................................................................................!19!
5.8 Conclusion!..........................................................................................................................................!19!
6.Refrences!.....................................................................................................................................!19!
!
! 2!

Store Operations

Chapter 1

1. Cottonworld
1.1 Introduction to Cottonworld
!
Cotton World is Indias first natural clothing store. Making nature and making clothing
natural fabrics inspire them. They believe in enriching our natural environment and not
exploiting it. Mother natures care is of paramount importance to them.

1.2 History of Cottonworld

!
The idea of Cottonworld was conceived in 1987, when the Lekhraj family with a garment
export-manufacturing unit had an idea- to use the excess fabric to make quality cotton shirts.
The shirts were put on sale and did well. This was during the time cotton was not considered
fashionable. Their success prompted them to open their first store with just a few garments
on display. This is how Cottonworld was born.

Figure1.1 Cottonworld Campaign

! 3!

Figure 1.2 Cottonworld Philosophy

1.3 Cottonworld Now

!
Cottonworld is the first store in India dedicated to natural clothing. First set up in a leafy lane
in Colaba, Mumbai the brand is doing very well now. The brand has now grown and spread
its branches throughout the country over 25 stores in Mumbai, Ahemdabad, Bangalore, Goa
,Kolkata,Hyderabad,Punjab and Gurgoan. Thus shifting from core manufacturing to retail.!
! 4!

Chapter 2

2.&In&Store&Operations&
2.1&Type&of&store&

Cotton World is a specialty store. Specialty stores are retail businesses that focus on specific
product categories, such as office supplies, men's or women's clothing, or carpet. It isn't the
product they sell that determines if a company is a specialty store, but rather the breadth of
their product offering.
Cottonworld offers both menswear and womenswear. It specializes in western wear for both
men and women. It offers semi formal to formal wear for men and western casual wear for
women. It also offers accessories, however limited to two categories; socks and caps.

Figure 2.1 Cottonworld Merchandise

Merchandise offered by Cottonworld:

Accessories

Socks

Caps
! 5!

Womenswear Menswear

Tops T-shirt

Pants Shirt

Dresses Pants

Tunics Boxers

Shorts Socks

Figure 2.2 Merchandise offered by Cw

Size: The merchandise offered is available in size variants of XS to XL. The XS size
offered is standard UK size 6. There XS isnt very small and that sometimes becomes
a problem.

Price Range: Rs 490 to Rs 2500. Cheapest being cotton and linen being the most
expensive.

Fabrics Used: Cottonworld only uses natural and regenerated fabrics, like cotton,
linen, viscose, ramie, modal, hemp, etc.

2.2 Organization Structure

!
Cottonworld in HSR Layout is a specialty store with 5 employees working in its store. Each
employee is trained to perform every task. Their tasks include:

1. Arrangement: When the clothes are stacked at different railings their arrangement
takes time. The staff at Cottonworld is trained to do this. The 5-member team does
this job with ease.
! 6!

2. Display: The 5 employees too handle the display of the store on the guidelines sent
by the visual merchandiser from their Bombay headoffice.

3. Cash counter handling: The cash counter is handled by all the 5 employees of
Cottonworld.

4. Dusting/cleaning of the merchandise: Except the store manager the other 4

employees are assigned the dusting, steam ironing and cleaning of the stacked
merchandise.

Store!Manager!
Mr.!ShivPrasad!

Salesman! Salesgirl! Salesgirl! Salesman!

Mr.!Rinthingyo! Ms.!Rameshwari! Ms.!Diana! Mr.Gopi!

Figure 2.3 Organization Structure

2.3 Departments

Finance!&!
Accounts! Sales! Logistics!

Merchandising! Store!Operations!

Figure 2.4 Departments

1. Finance & Accounts: The finance and account department of the store is taken care
by the store manager, Mr.ShivPrasad. All the operations and activities are controlled
by the Bombay Head office and are supervised by the regional office at Barton
Centre, MG Road.He sends the digital copies of the opening and closing stock of the
! 7!

store to Barton Centre regional office they forward these copies to the Bombay head
office. Cottonworld Mumbai keeps a close tab on all its store across India, any
discrepancy in the financial statements of each store calls for an inquiry.

2. Sales: The sales planning and sales is looked after by all 5 employees at the HSR
store with the manager being the top authority in the decision making and planning.

3. Logistics: Logistics from the HSR store is minimal, they get more stock than they
send. They get fresh replenished stock every Monday from Bombay. They mostly
only receive orders and send close to none. However when other Cottonworld stores
in Bangalore immediately need merchandise, the HSR store complies and sends the
required stock of merchandise to the stores. The logistics mainly is solely taken care
by the store manager at HSR Layout.

4. Merchandising: Most of the merchandise planning is done at the Bombay head office,
where they make merchandise plans for the whole company and a few specifically
seeing the sales of its stores at different locations. The merchandisers at the head
office evaluate the sales and make a sales plan for their stores. The merchandise
calendar too is made there. The store at HSR just follows the guidelines and
instructions given by the merchandisers from the head office. The store manager at
the HSR Layout store passes the instructions to the sales staff.

5. Store Operations: The in store work is distributed among the 5 employees of the
store. Each employee is well versed with different job tasks.

2.4 Size of the store

!
The store spreads across two floors, with a total area of 3200 sq feet. The first floor is
dedicated for womenswear and accessories and the first floor is dedicated to selling
merchandise for men.
! 8!

Chapter 3

3. Location
HSR is an abbreviation for Hosur Sarjapur Road Layout. A relatively new suburb located in
the south-east of Bangalore, the layout, which is built on land reclaimed from the Agara lake,
is located between Hosur Road and Sarjapur Road.
It has become a gateway to Electronic City, a major IT hub of the city. HSR Layout has
emerged as a posh locality of Bengaluru with wide streets, parks and all modern civic
amenities.It lies in the Bommanahalli constituency of State assembly.The layout, which is
built on land reclaimed from the Agara lake, is located between Hosur Road and Sarjapur
Road.This locality was developed by Bangalore Development Authority in 1985 .

Figure 3.1 Map of HSR Layout.

3.1 Location of the store

!
Cottonworld is located on the 27th main road in sector 1, HSR Layout.
Its postal address is 418, 27th Main Rd, Sector 2, PWD Quarters, 1st Sector, HSR Layout,
Bengaluru, Karnataka 560102.
! 9!

Figure 3.2 Location map of Cottonworld.

3.2 Size of Population

!
According to the 2011 census the population of HSR Layout is 63033. The number of
households in the area 16847 and HSR layout stretches over 7.1 sq km.

Figure 3.3 Population of HSR Layout

! 10!

3.3 Civic amenities

!
The infrastructure in the vicinity includes:
Road length: 2367 km
Lakes: Venkoji Rao,Ibbabluru, total area:43.8 sq km.
Parks: 39, total area: 25.1 sq km
Playground: 6, total area: 3 sq km.

3.4 Characteristics of population

3.4.1 Socio Economic Conditions
HSR layout is one of the affluent areas in Bangalore and it is to no surprise that the residents
of this area are well off working/business people who love their calm and peace. Despite
being adjacent to Koramangla,HSR layout has been able to maintain its peaceful
environment unlike koramangla.
HSR houses people from high income groups. It has mostly independent bunglows with big
gardens. Over the years working/upper middle class people have also found a way in
here,thus we see a few housing societies in HSR.
People in HSR have a good disposable income and a broad mentality.

3.4.2 Age group and Occupation Mix

HSR has families, young working people, students and old retired jolly people. So the age
group that resides here is very mixed. But most of the people that live here fall in the age
group of 20-35 years of age.

Age Group and Occupation Mix

10%
Working
35%
25% Student
Families
Retired People
30%

Figure 3.4 Age Group and Occupation Mix

! 11!

The working people fall in the age group of 22-35

Students in the age group of 17-22

3.4.2 Religious Mix

HSR layout has a multilingual and a religious tolerant population. HSR has a cosmopolitan
crowd. People from all religions reside and work here. There are close to ten temples in and
around HSR. The following being a few of them:
1. Ganesha Temple
2. Ragiguda temple
3. Sai baba temple
4. Shiv temple
5. Aiyappa temple
6. Shani temple

Mosques:
1. Madiwala Mosque

Gurudwara:
1. Sri Guru Singh Sabha Gurudwara

Chruch:
1. All Saints Church
2. St. John's Church

The presence of so many religious places of worship in and around HSR shows that HSR has
a very varied population that have different beliefs.

3.4.3 Ethnicity
!
HSR again has a very mixed and varied crowd. One will see hindi speaking North Indians
here to Manipuri speaking North east Indians. The majority of the crux however is kannadika
and belong to Karnataka. But because of the booming IT sector and electronic city being
next to HSR layout one also sees a lot of north Indians in HSR.

3.5 Specific Location Factors

!
HSR layout is a mix of both central and neighborhood shopping areas. The prime shopping
areas are the 27th main road, 14th main road,etc.
Cottonworld which is located on the 27th main road, Max that is located on the 14th main
road are both prime shopping areas.
! 12!

3.6 Local Competition

!
The employees at Cottonworld say that the brand does not face any sort of competition from
the other brands in the vicinity however we feel that Cottonworld faces competition from
Global desi and people that are located right next to it. Cottonworlds philosophy is love
nature and give back to it, global desi shares the same beliefs. So customers who are pro
environment and nature could be a little confused as to which store to chose. But the kind of
merchandise offered at both stores is very different from one another.

Figure 3.5 Local Competition

Chapter 4
! 13!

4.Economic Conditions In The Area

4.1 Local Employment Trends
!
HSR layout is primarily a residential area and complex, this area is however developing day
by day and giving space to commercial activities as well.
No major IT parks or major multinational company offices located in the area. There are
small to medium retail spaces and stores in HSR like Cottonworld, Global desi, Biba, Max
and Fab India among a few. These commercial business activities bring in a lot of job
opportunities for people living in and around HSR. The offices are limited to startups. The
few established offices in HSR are of Uber,Airtel,Vodafone,etc.
Residents of HSR Layout work in nearby areas such as Koramangala, electronic city,etc.

4.2 Local Authority Attitude

The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), is the administrative body responsible
for the civic and infrastructural assets of the Greater Bangalore metropolitan area. The
BBMP represents the third level of government, (the Central government and State
Government being the first two levels)
The BBMP in HSR has a very laid back attitude and does not do much to look after its
residents.
Bangalore Development Authority too is in charge of the welfare of HSR layout.

4.3 Major retail property developers

!
Some of the major retail property developers in the area are
Prestige Group
Adarsh Developers
Brigade Group

4.4 Local traffic conditions

!
Traffic inside HSR layout is very manageable however it is extremely bad at the agara bus
stop, silk board junction,sarjapur road,electronic city flyover. The peak hours for traffic on
these roads/areas is:
Morning 8am-11pm
Evening 5:30pm-9: 30pm

!
!
!
!
! 14!

4.5 Local Rent and Rates

!

Figure 4.1 Residential Property Value

The average capital value for apartments in this micro-market is about Rs 5,500 per sqft,
depending on location, project and specifications. The average price range of Grade-A
developments in the micro-market is about Rs 6,700-6,800 per sqft. Grade-B have an
average price band of Rs 4,700-4,800 per sqft and Grade-C projects Rs 4,000-4,200 per sqft.

Figure 4.2 Property Rates

HSR layout with its sprawling residential belts is a major catchment for the commercial
hubs.
The connectivity through the outer ring road has pushed demand for residential options from
the large workforce.
! 15!

Figure 4.3 Commercial Rate in HSR Layout

! 16!

Chapter 5

5.Store Layout

5.1Exterior and window display of the store

Figure 5.1Exterior of the store

The store is located above two other stores and is accessible by stairs. There is a large banner
above the store with a picture of two models to catch the eye of the customer. The window
display consists in two mannequins : 2 for male on the left and 2 for women on the right. In
the middle, plants remind us of the eco-friendly orientation of the brand. A standee shows us
an environmental engagement taken by the brand. There is also a banner stand which
indicates further reductions. The decor is simple and colors are sober : mostly gray, blue,
black and white.

5.2 Interior Display

!
1st floor : women
Two big fixtures at the entrance, right next to the stairs.
Sober colors, as in the window display, grey walls and ceiling.
! 17!

Metal hanging rails on the sides of the room, metal cases, and stone wall behind the counter
Tables in the center with basic clothes.

Figure 5.2 Fixture next to the stairs

Figure 5.3 Metal hanging rails

! 18!

2nd floor : men

Sober colors, as in the window display, grey walls and ceiling
Metal hanging rails on the sides of the room and two tables with basic clothes in the centre
when we arrive.

5.3Store Space
!
The total store space is 3200 square feet out of which only 2650 sq feet is the selling area.
The other remaining space is for the trail rooms and staircase.

5.4Types of Merchandise
!
Cottonworld carries a variety of merchandise including staple, fashion and seasonal
merchandise.
Staple merchandise like white shirts, black pants, socks, slips, tights make up the
most of its assortment.
Fashion merchandise like cold shoulder tops,crop tops make up a much less than half
of its assortment.
Seasonal merchandise like winter wear make the remaining of its assortment.

Type of Merchandise

25%! 25%! Fashion Merchandise

Staple Merchandise

Seasonal
Merchandise
50%!

Figure 5.4 Composition of Merchandise

5.5 Customer Space

!
There are four well spaced trail rooms in the store along with plenty of walking and resting
space for customers. There is a huge mirror in the middle of the trail rooms. Also there is one
full sized mirror in each of the 4 trial rooms. There is place to sit,keep your belongings in the
! 19!

trail room as well. It makes trying on clothes easy for the customer. The store has a lot of
merchandise that is well spread and arranged in the entire store so there is a lot of free
walking space.

5.6 Store Atmosphere

!
The metal hanging rails, the stone wall and the grey color give to the store an industrial style
and a contemporary atmosphere. It is quite sober and they usually put international pop
music. We don't feel oppressed since it's well-ordered and there is no flashiness decoration.
The store is odourless and no distinctive smell can be identified.
The store is well lit and has blue tube lights and yellow spotlights.
The floor of the store is tiled with grey-beige stone tiles that match well with the other
aspects of the store interior.

5.7 Customer Service

!
The employees at Cottonworld HSR are extremely helpful and polite. Employees are here to
help you find what you're looking for. As soon as you enter the shop, they ask you what you
want.

5.8 Conclusion
!
Managing a store and its operations is a very hard working and tedious job. At whatever
level people are in the store they have to work very hard to keep up the the fast changes of
the store, its merchandise, accounting,etc. It is where sales are made and lost and those
working in these departments create the experience that shoppers remember both good and
bad.
The responsibility of the store environment, its aesthetics the whole aura of the store lie in
the hands of its in store staff. At Cottonworld the 5-employee team handle everything from
selling the merchandise, to billing it, placing new orders for it and accounting the purchases
in the business book. An efficient sales staff and store staff crowd really can help a store do
better in every aspect and reflects on the brand.
! 20!

6.Refrences

1. Bangalore (Bengaluru) District Population Census 2011, Karnataka Literacy Sex

Ratio And Density". Census2011.co.in. N.p., 2017. Web. 23 Feb. 2017.

2. Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palika". Vigeyegpms.in. N.p., 2017. Web. 23 Feb.

2017.

3. Cottonworld". Cottonworld. N.p., 2017. Web. 23 Feb. 2017.

4. Ward Information Page: Ward 174 - HSR Layout: Poll Desk - Citizen Matters,
Bangalore News". Bangalore.citizenmatters.in. N.p., 2017. Web. 23 Feb. 2017.

5. Hegde, Gouri. "HSR Layout RWA Federation". Hsrfederation.org. N.p., 2017. Web.
23 Feb. 2017.

6. International Business Times, India Edition. "Cottonworld & Kalki Koechlin Unveil
The New Winter Collection & Urge You To Adopt-A-Tree - Photos". International
Business Times, India Edition. N.p., 2017. Web. 23 Feb. 2017.

7. List Of Religious Place In HSR Layout, Hang Out In HSR Layout |HSR Layout
|Bangalore |Karnataka |India -Indiaonapage". Indiaonapage.com. N.p., 2017. Web. 23
Feb. 2017.

8. Mudde, Raggi. "Population | Population Karnataka| Literacy Rate Karnataka".

Karnataka.com. N.p., 2017. Web. 23 Feb. 2017.

9. Prestige Group - Real Estate Property Developers In South India".

Prestigeconstructions.com. N.p., 2017. Web. 23 Feb. 2017.

10. The Times Group". Epaperbeta.timesofindia.com. N.p., 2017. Web. 23 Feb. 2017.

11. Retail Store Operations". The Balance. N.p., 2017. Web. 23 Feb. 2017.