Research/ Review Paper | Textile Articles

Retail Management in Textiles

Published: May 27, 2019

Author: TEXTILE VALUE CHAIN

RETAIL MANAGEMENT IN TEXTILES

By: Mr. Tanveer Malik, Ms. Saloni Sharma

Email ID- [email protected]

Department of Textile Technology

Shri Vaishnav Institute of Technology and Science , Indore(M.P)

ABSTRACT

Retail management is most important in the business. Dynamic young people as well as blue-chip companies are suddenly taking pride in calling themselves shopkeepers. This profession is able to attract the cream of talent from management institutes. The amazing irony about the retail industry is that it exists, in fact, flourishes, in spite of an industrial slump. As far as the western world is concerned the retailing market operates virtually at saturation point.

In retail management, it is extremely important to keep a track of consumer demands, desires & all the factors that influence their buying behavior. Success in retailing comes from how the value chain is linked to each retail function aiming at the watchword while attempting to orchestrate the value driving forces to accomplish success in retailing. Innovations & constant value additions to the key enables in entire value chain will give a clear competitive advantage &help the retail store emerge as a winner.

In this paper we are going to discuss, retail management in the business that has the most rapid, most visible & deepest impact on economic development & growth. Developments & changes in retail management are bound to get noticed because they intimately & directly touch each one of us, regardless of our age, class or profession.

INTRODUCTION

The sale of textile goods or merchandise usually for personal or household usage either from a fixed location or from associating subordinated services is known as textile retailing. Textile retailers usually refer to those groups of who purchases huge quantities of textile products from manufacturers or importers either directly or through a wholesaler and ultimately sells individual product item or small quantities to the general customers in shops or stores.

Figure No.01

Textile whole sale and retail are terms closely associated with the commercial aspect of textile industry. The practice of selling of textile goods or merchandise to retailers, commercial, institutional, or other professional business users or to other textile wholesalers is known as textile wholesaling. Wholesaler often physically assemble, sort and grade products in huge quantities, then break the bulk and repack and redistribute them in smaller quantities.

Without a doubt, the most important factor which makes a retailer successful is the appeal & quality of the range of products that it stocks. Certainly there are other factors that contribute to the success; the design of the store, the attentiveness & knowledge ability of the staff, the inventiveness of the marketing &promotions &appeal of the visual merchandising. These are the things which although enhance the shopping experience for the customers & perhaps ensure that they visit your store more than others, they do not directly lead to a sale. The only thing that will make a customer part with his cash is, in the end, the product.

The process which supports the planning & buying of a range is therefore central to any retailers operations. This process involves not just the choice of the product itself, but also the identification of the criteria that will influence & constrain this choice & the factors to consider ensuring that we do get it right.

ADDING VALUE IN-STORE

The moment one things of value in retailing, what comes to mind are some dominant success indicators like the location of the store, the look of store & customer traffic that throngs the store!

LOCATION

Successful retailing depends on the three most important factors: Location, location & location. And hence perhaps many retail organizations think that having got the right location, they would start churning out sales. It is right that location is important but if one does not look at the robustness of the other value drivers too besides location factors or any dominant factors that the organizations may think is right for achieving the desired results, sales would not happen.

We see large crowds of people visiting retail stores & shopping malls. We even know that an up-market shopping mall had huge crowds visiting them &for reasons of effective crowd management, they introduced especially on weekends certain entry enablers for customers like the mobile phones, credit cards, identity cards, an entry fee, etc! So, these are all factors that evince the successful establishment of a store or mall.

On the other hand, there are other retailers, primarily in the life style retail sector, whose merchandise is targeted towards psyche of rich mega cities. Driving on this perception of a higher willingness to spend on life style & luxury products, this segment is expected to maintain focus on the large base of the richest consuming class in the larger cities.

PLANNING AND BUYING A SUCCESSFUL RANGE

Success in retailing is when any one who walks into your store finds a product that he or she wants to buy in the desired size. Success is when nearly everything you buy sells at full price. Success is when the customer keeps coming back to your store because you always meet his or her needs. Success finally is profitability.

INFLUENCES AND CONSTRAINTS

The content & size of a range are influenced by four things:

Who is your customer & what does he or she want?

What space do you have available?

What level of trading profit do you need?

What is happening in the market?

THE CUSTOMER

The potential consumer is anyone who walks into your store but You can influence who walks into your store through advertising, through store environment & through garment product that you sell & the price you sell it at. Most customers are fickle; even if they walk into your store with a particular purchase in mind, they will often walk out with something else.

At the same time, research for apparels can only be accurate. Asking Will you wear this garment doesnt always reveal what will really happen when the customer is actually presented with that garment. Even customer feedback can be misleading. If one very loud customer asks regularly for a product it doesnt mean that every customer wants or needs it. That one customer will be remembered & can lead to false demand.

SPACE

Walls are not elastic. You will need to decide how to allocate the space you have available to the garment products the customer expects you to stock, in a way that delivers the best returns. This macro level planning of the product mix is critical to achieving profitability. Hanging/ stacked/counters- all have different capacities & different advantages & disadvantages. You will need to decide what stock density you want to achieve. The more options/units you can hold for a given amount of space, the higher the potential returns. However, the customer may not approve. He/she may wish to shop in a store that is less cluttered. The range size for any product area is not constant. It is no use giving space to a product if there are not enough options to display.

PROFITABILITY

Buy low, sell high. Buy on credit, sell on cash. Retail profitability of seems like a no-brainer. Margin on sales, i.e. the difference between the sales at actual selling price & the cost of textile product sold, is the number one deliverable for buying & merchandising team. This will impact on the cost price you need to negotiate, the price that you will sell at & the mark-down you can afford. We should remember that, stock is money-every product you have on your floor is not a sale until the customer buys it, but is a cost as soon as you pay for it.

Major Apparel Markets of the World in 2015

COUNTRY	MARKET SIZE 2005 ( US $ billion)	EST SIZE IN 2015 ( US $ Billion)	CHANGE ( US $ Billion)
USA	225	275	50
UK	80	95	15
FRANCE	40	50	10
ITALY	55	50	-5
GERMANY	90	100	10
JAPAN	75	55	-20
CHINA	45	>100	>+55
INDIA	25	>55	>+30

Figure No.-03

Keeping up with fashion- Styles change every week. So catching fashion while it is hot is a clear recipe for better margins with more sales happening at full prices & fewer discounts.

Three winning formulae to get fresh fashions-

Short lead time =More fashionable clothes
Lower quantities=Scarce supply
More styles=More choice & more chances of hitting it right

We should also consider market factors such as-

New product developments
New lifestyles
Fashion trends
Economic factors
Competition
Supply base

RIGHT PRODUCT

Make sure the customer is given the best possible choice of product at all times with respect to the following:

PRICE

Define your price architecture with respect to your lead in, Mid & Premium price points. Be customer-led, not cost-driven.Set the price according to what the customer wants to pay, & so that you can maintain clear price message & be flexible with your margin rate. Dont set the selling price according to the cost price for the garment with a fixed margin rate. Customers dont understand why two similar products from the same brand are different prices, nor why they have to pay more for a bigger size or different colors of the same item. At the time, clear pricing delivers a stronger message. Colour, style, fabric & innovation of a garment are the most important binding elements in a range. Dont let one colour dominate but, at the same time dont become a rainbow. Also, aim to keep the range fresh at all times.

TEXTILE COMPANIES TO INTEGRATE AND COLLABORATE TO COMPETE IN A GLOBAL INDUSTRY

Textile companies face increasing globalization in many areas of the textile industries- competition, markets & sources of material & production. That increasing globalization demands new approaches. To succeed today, you need access to work forces, raw materials & other resources from around the globe. You need to deliver products to customers worldwide & to purchase preliminary & intermediate textile products on a global basis. You need to manage complex products with various product, dimension, and quality process attributes; deal with asset- and energy- intensive production; and cope with complex, ever- changing environmental regulations. And you need to build stronger relationships with customers to keep competitors from luring them away.

All of those requirements make the textile industry a place where simply having the best product is no longer enough. You also have to excel at logistics & provide quality service. To respond to customer needs & to successfully compete you have to constantly increase efficiency, collaborate with a global network of partners & reach beyond your corporate boundaries.

RETAILERS RUSH TO TEMPERATE ZONE

If temping pass, weekend temping is a new passport for retailers to tide over footfall pressure during weekends. As families make a beeline for high streets &malls during the weekends the normal looks helpless. So retailers are increasingly training their eyes on droves of under grades who are willing to work for money, recognition or just the fun of hanging out. Heavy weight retailers see spike in footfalls over the weekends, are roping in agencies for out sourcing man power for that one to two day duration.

The retailers face real manpower issues during the weekends & this is bound to go up. For people shopping is more of an entertainment than just a plain utilitarian activity & that explains the chaos in malls during weekends. So retailers need staff reinforcement for basic functions such as attending to customers, restocking, etc.

E-SHOPES

E-commerce shopping is one important factor in retailing and gaining immense popularity in metros. Changing & shopping habits turning for convenience & large number of people &merchants becoming internet savvy are primary reasons for pushing up e-commerce transactions. This business module is cost effective, easily accessible & profitable in many functional areas. Consumers & retailers both desire simple & comprehensive online shopping that will truly realize the range of power of internet.

The online system is advantageous to vendors because rapid solicitations can be viewed 24 hours/day using a one-stop shopping format that eliminates the need to visit procurement offices. Many local entities also use the system to describe their minority contracting procedure & walk applicants through the certification process. Home delivery saves the time & 24*7 hours shopping with ease & availability factors for product comparisons. E-shopping taking place in electronic gadgets, apparel & design purchases, railways, air tickets, accessories & jewellery, online book sale.

FASHION INDUSTRY

Boutique & its importance:- The role of a designer in a boutique is crucial to its success. The task is one of the interpreting society’s current & anticipated mood into desirable, wearable garments for every type & level of market. To do this effectively, designers must be in tuned with wider social, cultural, economic & political environment within which people conduct their daily lives. Only their ideas truly reflect current prevailing conditions & the impact they are likely to have on future consumer needs. It is better for a designer who works for a boutique to understand a sequence of events in the fashion world. There are four stages of influence in a new product development & fashion diffusion & adoption process.

These are chronologically as:

The color meeting.
The biannual yarn & fabric fairs.
The biannual international fashion fairs in Paris.
Reportage in the trade & commercial press.

THE PRESENT STRUCTURE OF FASHION INDUSTRY

The manufacture & sale of cloths today is one of the worlds most important industries. The fashion industry has changed as it has expanded & diversified. Little has changed, though, with regards to the creative aspects of fashion design. The head of a collection is surrounded by the team of designers & dress makers .He is responsible for choosing the seasons line & fabrics & selecting which models will be made on the premises in his workroom. Finally he chooses the establishments model, on whom the collection will be presented to the public.

WHO DARES, WINS!

It is clear that the Indian market is going through a phase that is unprecedented in its recent history, and the opportunity exists for existing producers of garments (including exporters), Indian companies from other sectors, international brands, as well as individual entrepreneurs, to create a brand presence from scratch or grow their existing business. The qualifying factors for entry into the contest are the desire to create new brands, and deep pockets to sustain investment in branding and market-building. However, the success factors to win in the contest are higher drive and enthusiasm to take the hits that will invariably come, an ability to tap the consumer’s sense of adventure and differentiation, the talent to develop a product-service offer that is distinctive, and a pool of common sense to minimize the losses during the initial period of investment, which may be months or years. With all the challenges that retail offers, to those who have the courage to venture in, let’s say, “Happy Retailing!”

FUTURE SENTIMENTS

Figure No.04

Over all retailing will see a combination of large format retail outlets, representing a combination of malls and high street retailing. This trend will spread beyond the metropolitan cities to the large towns. A super retailer can actually, drive expectations by developing need based retail formats. Many new formats will emerge, as there will be rapid roll-outs. In the coming years Store size and scale will increase and niche players will co-exist. There will be integration of retailing and wholesaling.

The only way in which the big retail formats can hope to compete with low cost operations is by creating an efficient supply chain. The hyper marts will play a large part in this :Any organized retail chain requires a critical mass before it can integrate & automate the supply chain. However, the success of hyper marts once a month & stock up on groceries & the like.

The main retail formats

Small stores, with complex but efficient supply chains.
Small supermarkets running on brand variety & tight inventory control.
Mix of food & general merchandise stores.
Out of-town/on the outskirts of the city shopper tainment complexes.
Mid sized retail propositions within town limits.
Small corner outlets with integrated home delivery for telephonic orders.
Awareness of factors such as trade mix & positioning for successful retailing has increased.

CONCLUSION

Organized retail provides an attractive opportunity to manufacturers to expose their products to a large volume of customers in an environment conducive to buying. Thus retailers feel that the focus of manufacturers should be on producing good products, & forging relationships with organized retail. Retailing is a volume driven, low margin business. Occupancy cost is one of the largest cost components, followed by working capital costs, employee cost, marketing cost & energy cost. The business is considered to be of managing cash flows & building assets. Other prominent challenges to the Indian industry would include capital availability, legal frame work, human resources, supply chain development, management and logistics. The predominant concern continues to be the lack of suitable front-end options for the brand, inappropriate locations at the right price and with the appropriate infrastructure .in addition to being the largest cost component , real estate is also strategically important for adequate penetration and brand positioning .

REFERENCES