RETAIL CHRONICLES

CHRONICLES Fortnightly Newsletter

| Volume-2 Issue-3 |

1-15 SEPTEMBER 2017

GURU SPEAK

THE ONLY WAY TO DO GREAT WORK IS TO LOVE WHAT YOU DO - STEVE Job

NEW IN THE CITY

By Vikas Khetan

Reliance retail is launching a premium and unique store in Mumbai with the name Project Eve. Project eve is solely based on Indian women demand and is to redefine the shopping experience of Indian women shoppers. The store span 10,000 sq.ft. In Inorbit mall, Malad. The store focus on independent and sophisticated women in the age group of 25-40 yrs. Project Eve is like the go get it for women. It has everything women need to look and feel good.

With wide range of option- from salon to personal stylist to elegant interior and ambience, project eve has it all what women need under one roof.

International brands like Saint Tropez and Juna, apparel collection in Indian and Western wear includes handpicked brands, own label and an exclusive designer collection by Rahul Mishra. Key brands in Indian and western wear include AND, Kraus, Levis, Vero Moda and many more.

Jewellery form Gitanjali Jewels, beauty products from the likes of Chambor, Loreal Paris, Isadora etc and fragrances from Issey Miyake, Hugo Boss, Gucci, Elizabeth Arden, Project Eve has it all. It also boasts of the lingerie and beauty store-instore format of Marks and Spencers. This is the first time globally that M&S has launched an SIS, away from its exclusive store format.

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Project B want to expand the chain to top 20 cities across the nation and also want to add more of women centric product. It is a women centric and women specific chain which is highly needed to carter the ever increasing demand of proud Indian women. The larger mission of project B expands beyond its exclusive and aesthetic offering. The band runs a campaign with the name my #MyEvespiration- to make women inspire each other. Project B is seriously a revolutionary and bold step of reliance towards women empowered shopping experience.

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Festive Season: Keeping The E-Retail Charged Up

Next 3 months, e-commerce (especially e-retail) companies are going to stop at nothing to increase their revenue. Studies say that top Indian e-commerce companies will be emptying their vaults to over 250 Crore on marketing to boost . their total sales to around 41000 Crore. However, this number is the gross product value and does not consider the price negotiated with sellers, the returns and the discounts. The actual sales figures of the top players like Amazon India, Flipkart, Snapdeal, Myntra and Shopclues is expected to touch around Rs 19000 crore, which shows that their absolute commission figure will be Rs 4300 crore. With this trend it is imperative that Flipkart and Myntra combined would have gathered 40 percent of this business followed by Amazon India, Snapdeal and others.

The studies also indicates that the total annual sales for the top five e-commerce companies take place within these 3 months of festive season(September-November).

Does this mean that Indian e-commerce companies have upper hand in the game? Not yet!

The expenditure on staff, rentals, logistics and customer service still make their business vulnerable to losses. Transporting low cost items can never recover the costs involved.

A large chunk of their business still comes from preferred distribution companies. These new distribution companies were formed after FDI rules were amended that there cannot be more than 25 percent products bought from one vendor alone (remember Cloudtail of Amazon and Flipkart’s W S Retail?). Although now most of the e-commerce companies claim to have achieved over 100,000 SMBs, the consistency of these SMB retailers selling on these portals is anybody’s guess. Studies shows that only 10,000 vendors are regular sellers on an average.

Apart from all this the major boost to the e-commerce sector i.e. funding has also slowed down. At least players like Flipkart and Amazon are trying to show muscle. Flipkart is trying to prove that it still has its mojo left to be the leader of the industry by trying to buy snapdeal. On the other hand Amazon has shown a large war chest and is already going all guns blazing to acquire customers from Tier-II and Tier-III cities. Both these players have common sellers, so the ultimate battle comes down to discounts.

Festival season is just not about sales and revenue.

Today, for the any e-commerce portal, a sale is the perfect mode of marketing and promotions.

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The bigger players have started to take a bigger picture out of it. Now these festival seasons are looked as the platforms to increase the consumer base. Flipkart’s “Big Billion Day” or Amazon’s “the great Indian shopping festival” sale increase the number of visitors as well as buyers. The traffic increases by more than 40 percent on an average.

Advertising industry believes that showing the efforts of changing the overall experience on the websites or apps on these particular festivals, creates an image of the companies as brands in the customers’ mindset. It is the cheapest way of promotion. Consumers also wait for such sales eagerly. The advanced registrations for the sale, the waitlists of the products shows that it caters to the need of customers. The companies have started to rely on such occasions. Offline retail also gets surplus of everything in these seasons, so not much opposition from them also creates positive competitive environment. It all leads to one conclusions that for Indian consumers this the best time to shop.

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To capture the market, to increase the consumers, companies don’t mind giving heavy discounts. Along with trust building with consumers it also serves the purpose of . inventory management. Most of these companies have started to stock products. These biggest sales of the year lets the companies to sell of their non-performing products at a cheaper cost.

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BIOPIC

Name : Kumar Mangalam Birla Age: 50 Education: Bachelor of Commerce degree from H.R. College of Commerce and Economics, MBA degree from London Business School, where he is Hon. Fellow and CA (Chartered Accountant) from ICAI (India).

An educationist, Birla is the Chancellor of Birla Institute of Technology & Science (BITS).

He is Chairman of IIT Delhi, IIM Ahmedabad and Chairman of Rhodes India Scholarship Committee for Oxford University. He serves on London Business School’s Asia Pacific Advisory Board and is an Honorary Fellow of the London Business School

Economic Times “Business Leader Award” in 2003 and 2013; Forbes India Leadership Award – Flagship Award “Entrepreneur of the Year 2012; NDTV Profit Business Leadership Awards 2012, “Most Inspiring Leader”; CNBCTV18 IBLA “Business Leader for Taking India Abroad 2012”; CNN- IBN “Indian of the Year Award 2010”; JRD Tata “Leadership Award 2008”; NDTV’s “Global .

Indian Leader of the Year 2007”.

Career Of Kumar Mangalam Birla: Known for: Aditya Birla Group Birla took over as chairman of the Aditya Birla Group in 1995, at the age of 28, following the death of his father Aditya Vikram Birla. During his tenure as chairman, the group's annual turnover has expanded from US$3.33 Billion in 1995 to US$41 billion in 2015

In news for: Kumar Mangalam Birla calls for transparency in IUC regime Kumar Mangalam Birla,chairman of the Aditya Birla Group, has written to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) chairman R.S. Sharma, urging him to establish “a full cost-based and Birla has received several accolades, including transparent IUC (interconnect usage charge) the International Advertising Association’s regime”, which will “go a long way in encouraging "CEO of the Year Award" in 2016; competition, restoring the health of the industry the US India Business Council's and ensuring a viable and balanced industry "Global Leadership Award" in 2014; structure”.

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In his letter, Birla has also challenged the “perception being created” that a drop in IUC would result in lower tariffs. “IUC is a settlement between operators and has no impact on consumer tariffs,” he wrote. He further argued that “The Authority (Trai) would acknowledge that any determination of termination charge below full cost of the terminating operator will benefit the new operator (Jio) who is offering free voice calls”.

About ABRL Group: Aditya Birla Retail Limited (ABRL) is the retail arm of Aditya Birla Group, a $41 billion corporation. The company ventured into food and grocery retail sectors in 2007 with the acquisition of Trinethra Super Retail and subsequently expanded its presence across the country under the brand ‘more’ with two formats ― Supermarkets and Hypermarkets.

In keeping with its motto Quality 1st, ABRL takes pride in being the first ever Indian food and grocery retailer to receive the Food Safety Management System (FSMS) certification.

The company bagged the award for ensuring that manufacturing, storage, distribution and sales of food adhere to the highest quality standards. The Aditya Birla Science and Technology Centre in Taloja drives the quest for world-class quality through extensive research and development across food and non-food categories.

Through Clubmore and its comprehensive range of brands, including power brands — VOW, Feasters and Kitchen’s Promise — that offer unbeatable value for homemakers, the company aims to create customers who keep on returning for more.

ABRL follows the best industry practices in order to unlock the full potential of its staff through its world-class learning institutes — the Aditya Birla Centre for Retail Excellence and Gyanodaya. Coupled with learning initiatives such as SPARK, Aarohan and Aarambh, these initiatives are critical in helping their people imbibe the key characteristics of the Quality 1st philosophy.

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GURUSPEAK Speaker : Mr Shakti Singh Chauhan

Report by Aditi Barde

Retail lab had organised an informative and interactive session with Mr Shakti Singh Chauhan, Country Head, Reliance Retails Ltd on 19th August, 2017.Â

Mr. Shakti Singh Chauhan spoke about Green Marketing and also threw light upon its importance and why is it the next game changer.

Green or Environmental Marketing consists of all activities designed to generate and facilitate any exchanges, intended to satisfy human needs or wants, such that the satisfaction of these needs and wants occurs with minimal detrimental impact on the natural environment.

Topics covered were the need for Organisations to use Green Marketing, opportunities for the same, the golden rules for it, etc.

Comparison between Traditional and Green Marketing was excellently explained along with classic real life examples. The perspectives of the Green Tech leaders, followers as well as the criticisers of Green Marketing were briefed upon. Also the current trends and what lies in store for the future in terms of Green Marketing was discussed upon.

The Guru Speak was very enlightening and educative and we are deeply thankful for the knowledge shared.

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Urban Ladder gets government nod for single retail brand in India Coca-cola India set to launch whipped frozen food snacks, desserts by end of year McDonald's terminates franchise deal with Connaught Plaza Resturants Pvt. Ltd (CPRL), which runs franchise in north and east India Flipkart to let sellers sell products globally through eBay Patanjali set to launch Divya Jal packaged drinking water this Diwali Government to raise GST cess on mediumto-large cars and Sports Utility vehicle (SUV) to 25% from 15% Ikea to open India distribution centre in Pune by December Government has set up committee to decide request for waiver of 30% local sourcing norm by foreign single brand retail companies planning to setup branded stores in India KFC launches one-click button to offer new food ordering experience Britannia to Invest rupees 100 crores to boost premium biscuit market share CureFit, health and fitness platform by Myntra co-founder, raises $25mn funding

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Our Team Content Heads Neeti Gupta

Retail Chronicles is a bi-monthly newsletter of Retail Lab, the Retail committee of KJ Somaiya Institute of Management Studies & Research, Mumbai. Images used in Retail Chronicles are subject to copyright.

Junior Team Aditi Barde Vikas Khetan Raveena Gupta Kapil Gupta Tejas Rane

Design Team Devesh Shukla Debashish Sarmah Sujay Ambure Nivya Shah Ankur Shah /retaillabsimsr

K J Somaiya Institute Of Management Studies & Research, Mumbai

@Retail_LAB

retaillab.simsr@somaiya.edu

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