Lifestyle is now on the agenda

Initiatives

Business development policy is now being focused towards franchised outlets, being promoted on pure margins.  Complete securitisation of stocks with the franchisees has been undertaken with further focus on SIS (Shop in Shop) strategy.

Supply chain, warehousing, IT and various incentives schemes are in operation for the front end teams.  Such continuous upgradation has led to better results and optimum returns.

 

Marketing initiatives

Plan to revamp the whole brand to give it a fresh outlook and also give fresh look to the stores is in process. The company has availed the services of ‘JWT’ for entire planning of store visuals, in-store communications, in-store/outdoor branding right up to the labels, tags and even shopping bags. 

 

Brand proposition 

Every added service has become a standard and added on to the brand proposition.  Its current plan is to position the brand as a lifestyle format store at affordable prices.

 The brand is adding various accessories (shoes, bags, perfumes, watches, etc) as part of their shop-in-shop concept thus moving from a family shopping positioning to a standalone large format store proposition.

 

The Challenges overcome

Getting in the right integration between the front end and back end operations has been a complex challenge for the organisation on the whole. An integrated system was implemented in such a manner so that the supply of each and every product was ensured at the right store, at the right MRP and with the right designs. An unswerving top to bottom (communication) ratio was thus put in place to ensure maximum footfall conversion.

 

Expansion plan

Presently, there are 260 retail points and H&A intends to touch 400 plus stores mark by 31 March 2011.

 

His understanding of the retail business and his learning in this process

“Retailing today is an art of detailing. Traditionally, retail was known to be only a subset of the distribution process concerned with tertiary sales. However, today it shapes as own set of chain stores thus carving out different detailing avenues. Retail business is about understanding the pulse of the customers; the buying trends and also to build as a dynamic organisation which changes as per the local needs.”

 

 

 

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