A number of retailers have made their return policies stricter. “Retailers examine and reevaluate their policies all the time,” says Scott Krugman, a spokesman for the National Retail Federation, a trade group. “They balance the needs of the customers and also consider whether the policy is being abused [by consumers].” Wal-Mart, for example, toughened its policy several years ago and implemented a return-tracking system that signals cashiers when customers have returned more than three items without receipts within 45 days. Managers at the retailing behemoth’s stores must approve returns signaled by the system.

After analyzing the policies of its competitors, Sears changed its return policy in late 2005 by tacking on a 15 percent restocking fee for some appliances, tools, and lawn and garden products that don’t contain all the original packaging and can’t be resold as new.

Costco, the warehouse-club giant, takes a more liberal approach to returns. The retailer claims that, with few exceptions, shoppers can return items at any time. The company even refunds shipping fees for items purchased online. Still other retailers, including Home Depot, Lowe’s, and Target, either do not require receipts or they use systems that trace purchases made with checks or credit and debit cards.

HOW TO AVOID RETURN HASSLES

Check the return policy. You’ll typically find the return policy for each retailer on signs near the checkout registers, on receipts, and on its Web site. Note the number of days you have to return items, policy exceptions, and whether restocking fees apply. If you buy and return items online, be aware that many merchants do not refund the cost of shipping, and you’ll probably have to pay the return postage. To avoid the inconvenience and cost of returning by mail, see if you can return your online purchases to a walk-in store. The chart below details this type of information.

Save the receipt. Not all retailers allow you to make returns without receipts. In some cases you’ll receive store credit, which could be based on a selling price lower than what you paid. To facilitate returns, hang onto receipts until warranties expire or for seven years if you need receipts to support tax returns.

Open with care. You might not be able to return some items, such as electronics, if you’ve opened the box and the products are not defective or if they’re not in their original packaging with all of the paperwork.

Is this a Jean Valjean effect? In other words, is the tough economy driving shoplifting and organized retail theft? Or is this the result of increased accessibility of online resale markets and consumers willingness to buy from non-traditional third party merchants?

According to the NRF, nearly two-thirds (63%) of retailers experienced an increase in online resale of stolen items or “e-fencing” during the past 12 months. Maybe this illegal online market is booming because consumers are now comfortable with buying from eBay or unknown merchants if the price is right.

Whatever the reason, the result is a pricey problem for stores. Retailers spend approximately $230,000 per year on labor costs to fight organized retail crime each year. Some large retailers who have been directly affected by retail theft can spend upwards of $1 million a year to counter those kleptos. That’s a significant sum particularly in a tight spending market.

Consumer spending outside of cars and gasoline fell for a second straight month in May, according to SpendingPulse, the retail data service of MasterCard Advisors, an arm of MasterCard Worldwide (NYSE:MA – News).

Retail sales less autos rose 0.6 percent last month on a seasonally adjusted basis, compared with a 0.1 percent uptick in April. “Gasoline continued to bolster retail sales growth … but it’s taking away spending on other discretionary items,” said Kamalesh Rao, director of economic research at MasterCard Advisors. U.S. retail gasoline prices topped $4 a gallon on average for the first time last week, up from $3.67 a month ago and $3.10 a year ago, according to the American Automobile Association. Retail sales excluding cars and gasoline fell 0.5 percent in May, following a 0.7 percent drop in April. Moreover, “core” consumer spending — which excludes autos, gasoline and building materials — posted its biggest drop since February, SpendingPulse said. Core sales tend to be less volatile on a monthly basis, more indicative of overall spending trends.

Core consumer spending fell for a fourth straight month, despite expectations of a flurry of purchases from government tax rebate checks. SpendingPulse’s seasonally adjusted core retail gauge was down 0.5 percent in May, steeper than the 0.2 percent decline in April. It was down 1.0 percent in February. Meanwhile, the U.S. government will release its own retail sales survey at 8:30 a.m. EDT on Thursday.

Economists forecast the government’s overall May retail figure would show a 0.5 percent rise, rebounding from a 0.2 percent fall in April. They predicted its ex-auto reading would show a 0.7 percent increase compared with a 0.5 percent rise in April.

The SpendingPulse data are derived from the aggregate sales in the MasterCard U.S. payment network, coupled with estimates on all other payment methods including cash and check.

In April a Mumbai branch of Sahakari Bhandar, a dowdy Indian state-owned department store, closed mysteriously for renovation. It reopened a month later equipped with air conditioning and staff in bright uniforms. Goods on sale included everything from CDs to frozen peas. The new-look store had no name but details soon started to emerge about what had happened.

The store is just one in a chain, which includes at least 20 sites in Mumbai, being used as a dry run for a vast new retail concept by Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), the sprawling conglomerate and India’s largest private company. Reliance Retail, a newly launched RIL sub-sidiary, used the stores as a secret testbed for product lines and a new system of supply chain management. The experiment worked: sales at Sahakari Bhandar trebled.

The stores have given Indian shoppers the first glimpse of an operation of such scale and ambition that it is making global rivals such as Wal-Mart, Carrefour and Tesco shudder.

Mukesh Ambani, RIL’s chairman, plans to open 100m sq ft of retail space in India by 2010. Local press reports talk of between 5,000 and 10,000 stores spread across 1,500 towns and cities. Ambani has described the concept as “a pan-India footprint of multi-format retail outlets”.

Reliance will operate hypermarkets, convenience and speciality stores, as well as business-to-business operations, selling food, clothing, electrical goods, consumer durables, luxury goods and financial and travel services. The project will employ 1m people within five years.

In developing the chain, Ambani is doing far more than simply opening a network of shops. He is revolutionising the Indian food chain, setting up a nationwide distribution infrastructure from scratch, and transforming the way that India’s 1bn-plus inhabitants consume.

Centuries of tradition and established patterns of living are woven into this process. In essence, Reliance is aiming to turn a fragmented, localised, largely rural economy into an organised, process-driven, modern retail environment.

“Without a doubt, this is the biggest retail launch in India’s history,” says P Phani Sekhar, an analyst at Angel Broking, based in Mumbai.

Reliance refused to talk to The Sunday Telegraph about its plans and two of our photographers were removed by security staff. The first proper new store was due to open in Hyderabad this month However, Indian retail sources say the opening has been delayed because of the scale of the project. The chains’ names are a closely guarded secret, although Fresh Plus is mooted for the food outlets.

Reliance Retail’s launch is based on an audacious business bet. Wal-Mart and Tesco are beating at India’s door but have not been granted entry because of restrictions on foreign ownership in the retail sector. The industry is likely to be liberalised soon and the potential is vast. A business delegation from the Bush Administration is visiting in the autumn. An announcement could be made then. So-called “organised retail” (sales from chain stores rather than kirana, or market stalls) accounts for just 3.3 per cent of the £130bn retail market, but it is growing at 30 per cent a year. With incomes soaring and a ferocious appetite for consumerism, this growth shows no sign of abating.

If Ambani’s concept works, it will be a masterstroke in pre-empting the international competition’s entry and beating them at their own game. On top of this, Reliance has been signing deals with farmers across India, hoovering up the country’s supply of fresh food.

It is a clever move: rival retailers will be forced to go to Reliance to procure their stock. The company is essentially cornering India’s retail and wholesale markets.

“All the outlets will be connected seamlessly through a state-of-the-art supply chain infrastructure. This initiative has been assiduously planned to connect the Indian farmer and producer with the consumer directly,” Ambani told shareholders in a letter.

Even rivals are impressed. “I don’t think there are many people who have gone into business with the commitment, style and grandeur in which it is planned,” says Phiroz Vandrevala, the executive vice-president of Tata Consultancy Services, a subsidiary of Tata Group.

Ambani’s target of 100m sq ft of space would catapult Reliance Retail into the global league of retailers from a standing start. It would be smaller than Wal-Mart, which has more than 450m sq ft in the US alone, and Carrefour, which has 285m sq ft globally, but it would dwarf Tesco’s 58m sq ft worldwide.

The project will cost up to £4bn, a figure Ambani appears happy to lay down. RIL has already invested £400m in the “pilot” stages of the project. Press reports in India suggest that this stage alone could comprise a breathtaking 1,575 stores within six months of launch.

A recent report by CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets, the brokerage, predicted that Reliance Retail could achieve sales of $20bn (£10.5bn) – or 5 per cent of India’s overall retail market – and profits of $1bn within six or seven years. This revenue target would give the company an implied market capitalisation of $17.5bn, which would make it one of India’s 30 largest companies. A stock market flotation is likely soon.

So how is Reliance achieving this?

The company has been busy signing deals with state governments to set up large rural hubs to buy vegetables, fruits, pulses and dairy products from farmers. In turn, these hubs will be supplied by hundreds of smaller satellite bases in India’s thousands of villages.

Traditionally, India’s farmers work in small co-operatives and sell at a local level. Not any more. Reliance is calling the process “food-to-fork” – showing its intention to create a total supply chain.

Last week Reliance signed a memorandum of understanding with the Punjab state government to acquire 1,100 acres of land and set up outlets. It will do similar deals in West Bengal, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Uttaranchal.

The Punjab deal attracted criticism from opposition parties that the land was being sold too willingly and at rock bottom prices. They also complained that government-backed farming co-operatives were effectively being transferred to a private company.

Others, however, are saying that Reliance is single-handedly causing “a second Green Revolution” (after the boom in Third World food production in the 1960s). For instance, it aims to procure 10m litres of milk a day.

Last month the Times of India reported that Reliance is buying a 40-strong fleet of 35-tonne cargo planes to transport the goods. It is thought to have recruited a director from Air India to oversee the massive logistics operation. The company is also expecting to open sourcing warehouses in China and Thailand and to forge deals with mall developers in India.

The project is not without substantial challenges. The first is changing India’s mindset about how it shops. The second is finding sufficient manpower at both store and management level.

“We have concerns over the availability of people. Retail being new in India, we don’t have the manpower. Reliance is looking to employ a serious number of people and for that it needs very good management,” says Sekhar of Angel Broking.

He believes that Reliance is scouring Europe, the US and Asia for retail talent. Others believe that Reliance is close to having a top-tier management team in place from the likes of Tesco, Marks & Spencer and Target, the US giant.

“Without expertise you cannot build infrastructure. You cannot build a dream on a cloud, you need a solid foundation,” says Susil Dungarwal, a director at Prestige Group, a Bangalore-based mall developer, and someone who was involved in the project in its early stages.

For its store staff, Reliance is shunning India’s millions-strong graduate class and is scouting villages within 100km of big cities to pick employees from rural markets. Villagers are seen as stable, relatively cheap and prepared to work long hours. They also have some retail experience.

Western retailers looking to India cannot afford to ignore Reliance’s foray. “A lot of companies like Tesco have already started negotiating about India but they have not taken a decision,” says S Jagadeesan, the economics minister at the Indian High Commission in London.

“In getting in early, Ambani is getting a huge advantage. UK retailers looking to go into India should take serious note of it.”

Kapil Dev Singh, Country Manager, IDC India said, “This growth comes on the back of a burgeoning mobile services market and lower entry barriers across various customer categories, as average selling values (ASVs) of handsets continue to fall in the wake of a highly competitive landscape populated by close to 25 vendors.”

FY 2007-08 also witnessed shares of higher-level air interfaces rising. EDGE and WCDMA-enabled mobile phones contributed 15.4% and 3.1% of the total mobile phone shipments in 2007-08 compared to 7.4% and 1.2%, respectively, in 2006-07.

Naveen Mishra, Manager, Communications Research at IDC India, said, “As the need of Indian mobile phone consumers is evolving, they are demanding feature-rich devices, which can cater to their business communication requirements as well as their personal needs.”

Shipments in Q1 2008 stood at more than 22 million handsets, which amounts to around 10,000 mobile phones being shipped every hour during the quarter. In the same quarter a year ago (Q1 ’07), just under 18 million mobile phones were shipped.

Overall, Nokia retained the top spot with a market share of 52.8%, followed by LG at 10.2%, and Samsung at 8.3% in terms of units shipped during the quarter ended March 31, 2008.

Posted to the site on 19th June 2008

Since Kerala is the strongest market for Pantaloon in the South, four branches would be opened in that state in the near future, he said. On the new scheme, Dharmendra said the company has come out with an exclusive ‘Wednesday Bazaar’ for women, by which a new weekend is being created for them. Free facials, free mehendi and free tattoos would be organised for all lady customers during Wednesdays, he said, adding that Wednesday Bazaar would also offer discounts on all products, ranging from 5 to 50 per cent.

Overall, Vester is to open three new hypermarkets in Ukraine by the end of 2008, Interfax reported. Vester Hyper outlets will appear in Khmelnitsky, Kharkov and Severodonetsk. The store in Khmelnitsky will be opened in Q3 2008 on an area of over 4,500 m2. The investments in this outlet will exceed $3.2m.

In addition, this year Vester is to start projects on the opening of hypermarkets in Borispol and Sevastopol, Interfax reported. Overall, the company aims to invest some $41m in the launch of 13 outlets, jointly covering over 45,000 m2 in Kharkov, Mariupol, Sevastopol, Khmelnitsky as well as in Lvov and Dnipropetrovsk Provinces. By 2011 Vester is to open 50 hypermarkets and 24 supermarkets, taking up 307,000 m2 in 35 Ukrainian cities. Currently, Vester operates a chain of 52 outlets in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus.

Category management, which is based on sound business principles, has heightened awareness of the importance of category level planning, and it has changed, for the better, behavior throughout the industry. It is producing favorable results with a vast majority of those retailers who are implementing the concept. There are countless examples of how category management has contributed to sales and share growth, reduced costs, improved profits as well as how it has influenced customer count, transaction size and market basket composition.

Despite the many successes, the concept is receiving mixed reviews from both retailers and suppliers. Retailers are concerned about the exhaustive resources required to implement the textbook version of the concept, and the apparent inability of suppliers to remove brand biases and truly focus on total category performance. Suppliers are questioning the return-on-investment for resources deployed to support category management initiatives. Whatever the case, there is a growing consensus that while the concept is producing favorable results, it is falling far short of achieving its fullest potential.

When category management is not measuring up to expectations, the causes can usually be found in one or more areas related to the implementation practices being pursued: the retailer has not been able to translate the “Best Practices” textbook to practical application; there is no formal retailer/supplier collaborative relationship strategy, plan or commitment across the organization; the focus is more on internal measures than on the consumer, and category plans are poorly executed at store level.

Our perspective regarding each of these areas follows:

· The publication of industry “Best Practices” four years ago established a common understanding of category management as well as standardized practices. A good “starter kit” that is must reading for all beginners. But over time this textbook has proven to be too theoretical, too comprehensive and template driven. It does not provide adequate guidance on how to translate theory from the classroom to practical application in the marketplace. Consequently, those retailers who are trying to follow the “Best Practices” guidelines are having difficulty doing so within existing resources and capabilities. Several leading retailers have flatly rejected the guidelines. This has led to broad ranging applications and considerable compromise of the concept. We have learned, beyond a doubt, that one size does not fit all. In fact, a recent industry survey indicated that less than ten percent of retailers are following the guidelines.

It appears that category management may be moving forward like a rudderless ship in the sea… with a dire need for course correction. The direction must shift toward practical application with specific guidelines to tailor the concept to fit individual retailer situations.

· Establishing collaborative relationships between trading partners is an essential component of category management. Collaboration aligns strategies, systems, processes and people for the sole purpose of reducing the cost of conducting business while better serving the consumer. There has been good progress in this area driven primarily by technology and logistics initiatives. Overall, relationships between trading partners have definitely improved. But not to the extent required to support the evolution of category management.

A very small percentage of retailers are doing it right. A large number of retailers do not believe collaboration is an important part of the category management process; some believe in collaboration only when it is self-serving; few have formalized collaborative relationship strategies and plans; and investment in upgrading collaborative skills is limited to a handful of retailers. This situation is compounded further by behaviors such as charging slotting allowances, charging for category captaincies and diversion of product.

In many instances, supplier behavior is also undermining the concept. This includes marketing programs and policy decisions that erode retailer profits, inconsistent business practices across markets, channels and retailers, as well as quarter-end-load programs designed to shift inventories instead of building consumption. The inability to put brand biases aside and focus with the retailer on total category performance is also an issue. Over 80% of retailers surveyed say suppliers are too brand biased when participating in joint category planning.

Most relationships between trading partners have only moved to a more sophisticated level of the traditional buyer/seller relationship. A few have reached the level of true collaboration. There is still a long way to go to achieve the levels of collaboration necessary for both parties to achieve the full benefits of category management.

· During the past nine years we have stated time and time again that unless the focus is on consumer satisfaction, category management will not deliver the desired return-on-investment for retailers or suppliers. Unfortunately, our warnings went unheeded. The emphasis has been on cost management, not on the consumer. The majority of retailers practicing category management have been focusing on internal measures instead of using balanced scorecards that include consumer based measures. The pressure on category managers to manage margin percentages and achieve buying income goals has resulted in short term decisions based solely on cost… at the expense of good consumer based decisions that deliver quality sales and profits.

This internal focus has also been a key barrier in moving collaboration forward to a higher level.

As we look to the future, we are very encouraged by an apparent shift in focus toward the consumer. A growing number of retailers are investing more on consumer research, upgrading marketing competencies, taking advantage of supplier consumer knowledge and encouraging suppliers to invest in retailer specific consumer research at the category level. A few progressive retailers are routinely analyzing the composition of the market basket and incorporating consumer loyalty program data into the category planning process.

Several retailers are moving away from their traditional category management structures to more advanced concepts that better position them to “touch the consumer.”

These are encouraging developments that we hope will continue.

· The ability to execute category plans at store level is a real dilemma and the potential Achilles heel of category management. Most retailers are spending an exorbitant amount of time preparing category plans, but not enough time on store execution. Consequently, new item speed to market plans, planograms, promotions and other initiatives are executed poorly, and sometimes not at all. As we tell many clients, “Don’t allocate resources to developing category plans unless you can execute at store level. It will be a waste of time and money.” We are now at a stage in the industry when there are many questions regarding whether the retailer, supplier, broker or other third party is responsible for store level execution… and who pays?

We find that many store execution issues are directly related to business process and activity ownership. The category management concept has never been presented to most store managers, so they do not know its value relative to their specific stores or the company, and they are not aware of the plans for signature and priority categories. Thus they seldom accept ownership of the execution of category plans. In addition, there is often a misalignment of key performance measures and business processes between category management and store operations. Merchandising standards are often poorly defined and compliance disciplines are not in place.

Only a few retailers are positioned to execute category plans effectively. For most, this is a major problem that must be addressed.

Having said all of this, we believe the road ahead is very encouraging, and the direction is quite clear. Category management will continue to evolve as a way of conducting business, but more as a part of a total business process. The charted course will not be any easier than the journey to its current state… there will be speed bumps and land mines along the way. Here’s how we see the future:

· Category management will evolve to where it will simply be referred to as category planning, an essential component of total business planning, by retailers in its advanced stages of implementation. The emphasis will be on a fully integrated business planning process. Beginners will continue to call it category management.

· Category management will evolve from the “Best Practices” guidelines to a value-based opportunity focus that puts much greater emphasis on the business question to be addressed, the need to know information, better allocation of resources and simplification of the planning process. It will deliver a much higher return on resources deployed by both retailers and suppliers.

· Retailers will focus their category planning processes more on the consumer, with a significant increase in the utilization of consumer information for strategic value and tactical application.

· Retailers in advanced stages of implementation will internalize the annual category planning process. Suppliers will be used as a resource to provide consumer data and gather market level information to support the planning process. Suppliers will be involved in joint category planning only when the retailer needs to address major opportunities. Suppliers will continue to be actively involved in joint planning with retailers at the beginning and mid stages of implementation, and with retailers who do not have sufficient resources to “go it alone.”

· Retailers in advanced stages will integrate the chainwide advantages of category management with a market focused process designed to align category planning with store cluster and store specific planning. In other words, planning will move closer to the consumer. This will require the evolution of organizational structures, roles and responsibilities beyond the current textbook guidelines.

The alignment of category planning with local market and store specific planning will heighten the importance of timely and efficient execution at store level.

· The rules of collaboration will be redefined and will more clearly align expectations between trading partners. The level and type of collaboration will depend, for the most part, on who most directly influences consumer behavior… the retailer or the supplier. In addition, activity based costing will become a more important component of the collaborative equation.

· The evolution of category management will place new demands on suppliers and brokers. The changing roles and responsibilities of multifunctional teams will lead to organizational restructuring. The store execution dilemma may necessitate a major reallocation of retail resources. And, the role of brokers has yet to be defined. There will be much greater emphasis on maximizing efficiencies, allocation of resources, and return on investment.

If retailers and suppliers pay attention to our learnings to-date, with an eye on the road ahead, category management can measure up to initial expectations. This means moving beyond current implementation practices and making those changes required as the concept evolves to where it is an essential component of a retailers total business planning process.

ABOUT WINSTON WEBER & ASSOCIATES, INC.

Winston Weber & Associates, Inc. (WWA) is recognized worldwide as a leading architect of category management and the one consulting firm that knows how to translate the concept from theory to practical application. The two retailers in the U.S. that industry surveys identify as the best practitioners of the concept are WWA clients. Clients also include a select list of retailers across trade channels, manufacturers, brokers and industry associations. WWA is a global management consulting firm with current clients in the U.S., Canada, Latin America, Asia, and Australia. For further insight into Win Weber’s leading edge thinking, please contact us in one of the following ways:

Phone (901) 763-0263
Fax (901) 767-4157
Emai: winweber@winstonweber.com
Website: www.winstonweber.com

Store design and layout: A good store design; interior and exterior, is optimized on types of merchandise, store format, available area, location, demographics, estimated traffic (footfalls), scalability factor, customer circulation plan, browser to buyer ratio and other broad based factors like retail brand and vision,. There are quite a few standard store layouts available labeled according to its customer circulation in aisles in a store.

Popular once are radiator, race-track, grid, herringbone, spine and free flow. Wal-Mart layout is a rough herring bone, while Target USA uses race track. For grocery supermarkets, radiator type is very popular. Department store usually uses grid type. High-end luxury retail usually have free-flow layout. All of these layouts have advantages and disadvantages which need to be analyzed while selecting an appropriate one. Unlike western countries, India has very complicated neighborhood customer profile. Along with that, demographic and population shifts are high. So stores have to be designed to facilitate frequent planogram refreshments and high scalability. So I believe combination of layouts with a good use of displays, end caps, frames and other portable modes of presenting a product will be effective. For presenting a product, there are number of ways; shelving, hanging, stacking, pegging and dumping. An exterior store design need to work very closely with facility planning for parking space, smooth logistics to receive goods and entrance walkway.

Space planning and optimization: A first step towards space planning is analyzing non-selling and selling space. Non-selling space includes aisles, backroom (storage) and functional spaces like customer service office/desk. I have seen aisles in many of the retail stores are not appropriately designed to move customers with baskets and shopping carts/trolleys. Backroom/storage room has to be designed to store maximum and needs an adaptable planogram to facilitate quick restocking. Other important factors in designing non-selling space are product movements, perishable & delicate goods.  For optimal use of selling space proper store layout, storeware (fixtures, displays and merchandise presentation mode) and a planogram is must. Profit per square footage is one of the main KPI of space allocation. Space planning needs to work toward eliminating cold areas of low sells. Space planning should also be modular, so that any subsequent store layout and planogram changes would be easily supported.

Planogramming: A planogram/plan-o-gram/POG/schematics is a pictorial representation of merchandise in as is fashion of retail store. It is a one of the most critical assignment as available selling space is limited and available potential products are always increasing. Just to make planogram decision more interesting, there are following factors, historical sells, demand trends and seasonality, anticipated schedule receipts, category, sub-category, top brands, high margin brands and private labels, product margins, relations with suppliers, financial budget, number of facings and depth, timeline. Attempts have been made to obtain optimized planogram using optimization techniques of operations research. But defining these parameters and assumptions, constraints are almost difficult and henceforth formulation of a planogram problem. There are no standard types of planogram but few retailers do use a loose standard within category to create a planogram. There are various types of planogramming softwares available which are very productive and make the process faster. Along with planogram, communication on how to do set up is very important, as “lost in translation” has been frequent occurrence. A detailed instruction guide; fast and accurate form of communication medium is very important. It is always good to have trained VM representative carry out initial planogram reset and also train couple of store floor staff on how to restock. The communication gap between corporate VM team and store personnel is easy to iron out but have always seen challenging process even in countries like US and UK where organized retail has been around for few decades.

Visual merchandising (VM): As I said earlier, VM is an art, science and business of presenting product in retail store. Since it is no exact science also relies on creative and business aspect, there are no strict rules. It is broadly defined by objectives which are usually result of customer feedbacks, business strategy, retail chain vision, demographics, promotions and other increased sells opportunity in the form of events and festivals. VM is just not about displaying products but also about method of displaying like fixtures, displays. VM helps store and chain create its unique image in the minds of customers. It also makes decision on colors, music, lighting, housekeeping as it is geared toward creating conducive environment for impulse buying. It is geared for converting browsing into buying, so the focus has been made to create one on one interaction between a product and a customer. VM also educates and communicates to customer about why customer should purchase a certain product in subtle fashion. With-out bringing out value addition features of a product; customer will not have that fulfilling shopping experience, so VM could effectively be used to connect with customer in that respect to cement long-term relationship. VM should also be done in centralized manner so that there is an overall harmony and customer could easily transition from one state to other state of mind. This is essential especially in big stores. Another aspect of VM is sourcing and making right storewares (Fixtures, displays, hardware used to present the product); there are so many method of presenting a product. It is very important to use the right method depends upon product, type of business, financial budget. VM when managed productively can be used as the most beneficial and cost saving tool to the retail business. Since VM is a cross pollination of art and business with loosely defined objective, success of VM team lies in practical projects with a manageable scope.

Realistic performances of measures (KPIs) are also needed to attest its success to the organization.

Are there other services that might be popular in a fixed-price convenient retail setting?

How about “instant handy-man” services at the hardware store? The handy-man could have a small workshop for repairing or assembling stuff that people bring in. Or the handy-man could follow you home to install a ceiling fan or wire a new outlet “while you wait”. Garden centers could offer the same for tree-planting. Computer repair clinics would be great too, but computers are designed to be disposable these days and a small part is often too expensive to justify repair. Apple could set itself apart by designing its computers for ease of repair and then offer the services while-you-wait in the Apple brand stores.

Similar services have always been a part of other businesses. Jewelry stores offer repairs and ear-piercing. Photo development kiosks were a big deal before the coming of digital cameras (it’s interesting that they were located in drug stores and discount retailers, just like the new clinics). Home centers offer kitchen planning and installation services.

Repair and design services could be added to many retail businesses. You might offer the services already — to make it a bigger part of your business you’ll have to increase awareness. Set aside an area of your store for the service and give it prominent signage. Then include it in your advertising and watch your traffic grow.