A STUDY ON CUSTOMER SATISFACTION WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO VIJETHA SUPER MARKET (HYDERABAD) (Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Award

of the Degree Of) MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION Submitted By D.ANIRUDH M.B.A H.T NO: 131911672095

Under The Guidance Of Mrs. SANJEEVA RANI M.B.A (ASST.PROF) DEPARTMENT OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES PRIYADARSHINI COLLEGE OF BUSINESS MANAGEMENT (AFFILIATED TO OSMANIA UNIVERSITY) HYDERABAD 2011-2013

DECLARATION I here declare that the project report entitled A STUDY ON CUSTOMER SATISFACTION has been prepared by me in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the degree of MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATIONI also declare that this project work is a result of my effort and it has not been submitted to any other university for the award of any degree or diploma. PLACE: DATE: D.ANIRUDH H.T NO: 131911672095

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
With a profound sense of thankfulness, I acknowledge my indebtedness to my company guide Mr.KARTHIK MARKETING MANAGER) Faculty Guide Mrs. SANJEEVA RANI M.B.A., for their valuable guidance, timely suggestions and constant encouragement. Their insightful criticisms and patience throughout the duration of this project have been instrumental in allowing this project to be completed.
My sincere thanks are to the name of Director, Mr. G. SRIDHER REDDY (M.A) (P.hd)., name of HOD,SALEEMUNNISA (M.com, M.B.A) and all the staff members of Department of management studies, PRIYADARSHINI COLLEGE OF

BUSINESS MANAGEMENTFor their consistent guidance in my project work.

Their continual support and careful attention to the details involved in producing a document of this nature are very much appreciated.

D.ANIRUDH H.T NO: 131911672095

CONTENT PAGE
CH. NO. CHAPTER -1 INTRODUCTION NEED &IMPORTANT OF THE STUDY OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY SCOPE OF THE STUDY RESEARCH METHODOLOGY LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY CHAPTER -2 CHAPTER -3 CHAPTER-4 ANALYSIS & INTERRETATION OF THE STUDY CHAPTER -5 FINDINGS SUGGESTIONS CHAPTER-06 CONCLUSIONS BIBLIOGRAPHY INDUSTRY PROFILE COMPANY PROFILE
THEORETICAL FRAME WORK

PURTICULARS

PAGE NO.

CHAPTER-1 INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION
This project has been made on the research problem Customer Satisfaction At VIJETHA. The objectives of research are to identify level of customer satisfaction over Price, products and customer service at VIJETHA stores and accordingly deliver solution to increase that.

Why and How to Measure Customer Satisfaction?

Most companies say they believe in great customer service, but few set up a system to insure that they provide it. Delivering great customer service takes both understanding what your customers want and a way to see that they receive it.

Measuring Customer Satisfaction:There are several ways to gather input from customers. The simplest way to find out how customers feel and what they want is to ask them. If you have only 20 customers, you can talk to each one personally. The advantage of this approach is that you'll get a personal "feel" for each customer. The disadvantage is that you'll gather different information from each customer depending on how the conversation goes.

Here are a few of the possible dimensions we could measure:

quality of service speed of service pricing complaints or problems trust in your employees the closeness of the relationship with contacts in your firm types of other services needed your positioning in clients' minds

NEED AND IMPORTANT OF THE STUDY

Today's competitive marketplace requires every organization to listen to the voice of its customers. A customer service survey can provide management with valuable input on both short-term and long-term decision-making. It can offer critical operational and strategic advantages over the competition. Here is a customer satisfaction survey on customer satisfaction at VIJETHA stores which includes some information like satisfaction on price, goods and customer service. It measures level of Vijetha atm card among customers and tells us awareness about loyalty card and other services

OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

Company should take customer oriented thinking which requires

giving chance to customer to think and state about his or her need.
Company can respond to customers requests by giving customers

what they want, or what they need.

Company should try to convert somewhat satisfied customer into very

satisfied customers. Company can do this thing if:

Company able to identify the customers need and requirements.

The product or service should match customers expectations.

I recommend that company must make sure that the customers orders

are filled correctly and on time.

SCOPE OF THE STUDY

We know that we cannot satisfy every need or demand but we can

define our target market and try to fill all the requirements of that market.
Company must stay in touch with customers after the sale to ensure

that they are satisfied and remain satisfied.

Company must gather customer ideas for product and service

improvements and convey them to the appropriate company departments.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Problem: - customer satisfaction at VIJETHA

Purpose of Research:To identify level of customer satisfaction over Price, products and customer service etc.

Research Design:-

Descriptive
To find out the level of customer satisfaction I used Survey research and experimental research in which I interviewed persons on one to one basis using a structured questionnaire.

Sampling Design:Population: Sampling Method: Sample Size: Walk-in customer and Loyalty card holders. Probability Area sampling method 100 customers of VIJETHA

Data collection:Instrument: - Questionnaire Method: - Personal interview

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LIMITATIONS
The Site is provided without any warranties or guarantees and in an As Is condition. You must bear the risks associated with the use of the Site. The Site provides content from other Internet sites or resources and while Vijetha.in tries to ensure that material included on the Site is correct, reputable and of high quality, it cannot accept responsibility if this is not the case. Vijetha.in will not be responsible for any errors or omissions or for the results obtained from the use of such information or for any technical problems you may experience with the Site.

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CHAPTER-2

12

THEORETICAL FRAME WORK

This project has been made on the research problem Customer Satisfaction at VIJETHA SUPERMARKET. This is a descriptive research study because there is a need to identify level of customer satisfaction over Price, products and customer service etc. through customer survey. For sampling I use probability sampling technique in which I use Area sampling method which include questionnaire and this questionnaire revels information about customer satisfaction level on price, product and customer service etc. Interrogation through personal interview has been used as a data collection technique and questionnaire is data collection instrument, which is closeended & open ended. After getting these filled from respondents I made some pie charts. Then the pie charts were analyzed to reach the conclusions. After analyzing the satisfaction level of customer on price, products and customer service it has come to know that customers are demanding higher product quality, fast delivery, better service and lower prices. The most important thing which is learned from this project is how to conduct a research on a particular problem by using different research methodology techniques. It helped a lot to apply theoretical knowledge in to the practical life. This project also helped in improving the communication skills through interacting with the people in the market.

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This project has been made on the research problem Customer Satisfaction at VIJETHA SUPERMARKET. This is a descriptive research study because there is a need to identify level of customer satisfaction over Price, products and customer service etc. through customer survey. For sampling I use probability sampling technique in which I use Area sampling method which include questionnaire and this questionnaire revels information about customer satisfaction level on price, product and customer service etc. Interrogation through personal interview has been used as a data collection technique and questionnaire is data collection instrument, which is close-ended & open ended. After getting these filled from respondents I made some pie charts. Then the pie charts were analyzed to reach the conclusions. After analyzing the satisfaction level of customer on price, products and customer service it has come to know that customers are demanding higher product quality, fast delivery, better service and lower prices. The most important thing which is learned from this project is how to conduct a research on a particular problem by using different research methodology techniques. It helped a lot to apply theoretical knowledge in to the practical life. This project also helped in improving the communication skills through interacting with the people in the market.

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Organized retail is definitely a sunrise sector in India but to say that it is a sunrise sector for entrepreneurship would be wrong. Entrepreneurship is required in those fields in which an individual can go in with small capital and his expertise and go on to create a company which usually yields returns of the order of 10x or more. The natural barriers to enter into organized retail are so large that it would not be wise for and an entrepreneur to jump into it and think that he will be able to compete with the likes of Reliance, Bharti, Wal-Mart etc. Also, organized retail is something which tests your operational and logistics skill rather than entrepreneurship abilities. Though organized retail is in practice around the globe for many decades now, its only now that it is making an entry into India in a big way. The reasons for this are many. With a booming economy and burgeoning middle class the shopping habits of Indians are changing fast. Malls and multiplexes and making headway into tier II and tier III cities also after mushrooming in the metros. Also the fact that organized retail accounts for only 3% of retail sales in India theres a huge untapped potential. So much so that every conglomerate wants a piece of the pie. No wonder that every business house from Birlas to Ambanis is busy chalking out their retail plans. Though it will be too early for them to start counting their chickens as the government policy is still hazy and huge amount of expertise is required to run a panIndia retail network. There is scarce managerial talent in retail business and salaries are already skyrocketing. The government is still in process of studying the effect of organized retail on mom-npop stores and the economy as a whole. There is huge pressure on government from foreign multinationals to allow FDI in retail. Of course local giants are keen to put their plans in place before foreign players are allowed to move in. The bleak chances of FDI in retail have forced foreign retail giants to look for local partners. Bharti has joined hands with Wal-Mart after failed talks with UK giant Tesco. Shoppers stop has inked a deal with UKs Home Retail group to develop Argos retail stores. Bombay Dyeing has tied up with Frances Auchen.Local retailers who already have a huge presence in India include Future Group (former Pantaloons), Subhiksha, Shoppers Stop, RPG group. While

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Reliance retail, Tata, Bharti and Aditya Birla group are soon to start rolling out their retail plans. The most bullish of them all is Reliance with plans to invest Rs. 25,000 crore in its retail venture. With Mukesh Ambani in driving seat theres little doubt that reliance will change how Indians shop. His plans include selling everything from vegetables to cars under one roof and even deploying cargo planes to make sure that you get fruits and vegetables farm-fresh. Reliance has already opened 50 Reliance Fresh stores with the very first in Hyderabad. Reliance plans to launch 1000 stores by this year end. Reliance Retail will launch its hypermarket, supermarket and specialty formats in April-June quarter this year. Reliance and Bharti also have plans to set up Micro Finance Institutions along with their retail chains. While Bharti will also offer telecom services in its retail stores.As a result of hyper growth plans and rushed hiring, most retail ventures are struggling to keep pace. A massive churn is already taking place in retail space while real estate prices in prime locations are going over the roof. Most retail ventures are going in for mixed strategy when acquiring retail space. Some are just buying the land and then building their stores while others are buying finished commercial space or just renting it. When there is a huge competition in market its always a win-win for consumers. They can expect better services from mom-n-pop stores and great bargains at their local mall. After all, its all about the customers. To keep the prices low the retailers are doing everything from buying cargo planes to sourcing fruits and vegetables directly from farmers. Also the retail stores promise to give the consumers more choices and a better shopping experience. With the economy growing at 10%, nobody is complaining about the money being put in behind these retail ventures. Though, initially there will be a few surprises and a few new lessons learnt the long term story looks promising. India represents an economic opportunity on a massive scale, both as a global base and as a domestic market. Indian Retail sector consists of small family-owned stores, located in residential areas, with a shop floor of less than 500 square feet. At present the organized sector accounts for only 2 to 4% of the total market although this is expected to rise by 20 to25%onYOYasis.

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Retail growth in the coming five years is expected to be stronger than GDP growth, driven by changing lifestyles and by strong income growth, which in turn will be supported by favorable demographic patterns and the extent to which organized retailers succeed in reaching lower down the income scale to reach potential consumers towards the bottom of the consumer pyramid. Growing consumer credit will also help in boosting consumerdemand.The structure of retailing will also develop rapidly. Shopping malls are becoming increasingly common in large cities, and announced development plans project at least 150 new shopping malls by 2008. The number of department stores is growing much faster than overall retail, at an annual 24%. Supermarkets have been taking an increasing share of general food and grocery trade over the last 2 decades. However, Distribution continues to improve, but it still remains a major inefficiencyPoor quality of infrastructure, coupled with poor quality of the distribution sector, results in logistics costs that are very high as a proportion of GDP, and inventories, which have to be maintained at an unusually high level. Distribution and marketing is a huge cost in Indian consumer market government has relaxed regulatory controls on foreign direct investment (FDI) considerably in recent years, while retailing currently remains closed to FDI. However, the Indian government has indicated in 2005 that liberalization of direct investment in retailing is under active consideration. It has allowed 51% FDI in single brandretail. The next cycle of change in Indian consumer markets will be the arrival of foreign players in consumer retailing. Although FDI remains highly restricted in retailing, most companies believe that will not be for long. Indian companies know Indian markets better, but foreign players will come in and challenge the locals by sheer cash power, the power to drive down prices. That will be the coming struggle. This report discusses the scenario of organized retail industry in Ludhiana city of Punjab and the opportunities available for companies based on key statistics. I have answered Key questions like:

What is the market size and scope of the Organized retail industry in Ludhiana? What is the size of organized market segment wise & its growth prospects?

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Who are the major players of Retail Industry in Ludhiana, their impact on the unorganized retail outlets? FMCG RETAIL IN INDIA India is one of the largest emerging markets, with a population of over one billion. India is one of the largest economies in the world in terms of purchasing power and has a strong middle class base of 300 million. Around 70 per cent of the total households in India reside in the rural areas, where mostly traditional retail outlets, commonly called kirana stores exist. These are unorganized, operated by single person and runs on the basis of consumer familiarity with the owner. However, recently organized retailing has become more popular in big cities in India and most of the metropolitan cities and other big cities are flooded by modern organized retail stores. Many semi-urban areas also witnesses entry of such organized retail outlets. Till now, entry of foreign retailers was restricted in Indian retail market because of the ban on Foreign Direct Investment in Indian Retail Sector. But recently, as government has changed its policy and the cabinet has allowed 51 per cent FDI in single-brand retail, the prospects of foreign players entering India became high. India is called a nation of shop keepers and organized retail which has just made an entry has a very small share estimated between 2-4% of total retail in the country. The entry of major retailers in the country has raised passions among the politicians, policy makers and smaller retailers that the presence of bigger organized retailers would lead to the elimination of the smaller shop keepers leading to a large scale problem of unemployment and maybe even social problems.

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CHAPTER-3

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INDUSTRY PROFILE
A supermarket, a form of grocery store, is a self-service store offering a wide variety of food and household merchandise, organized into departments. It is larger in size and has a wider selection than a traditional grocery store, also selling items typically found in convenience, but is smaller and more limited in the range of merchandise than a hypermarket or big-box store. The supermarket typically comprises meat, fresh produce, dairy, and baked goods departments, along with shelf space reserved for canned and packaged goods as well as for various non-food items such as household cleaners, pharmacy products and pet supplies. Most supermarkets also sell a variety of other household products that are consumed regularly, such as alcohol (where permitted),medicine, and clothes, and some stores sell a much wider range of non-food products. The traditional suburban supermarket occupies a large amount of floor space, usually on a single level. It is usually situated near a residential area in order to be convenient to consumers. Its basic appeal is the availability of a broad selection of goods under a single roof, at relatively low prices. Other advantages include ease of parking and frequently the convenience of shopping hours that extend far into the evening or even 24 hours a day. Supermarkets usually allocate large budgets to advertising, typically through newspapers. They also present elaborate in-store displays of products. The stores are usually part of corporate chains that own or control (sometimes byfranchise) other supermarkets located nearbyeven transnationallythus increasing opportunities for economies of scale. Supermarkets typically are supplied by the distribution centres of their parent companies, usually in the largest city in the province. Supermarkets usually offer products at low prices by reducing their economic margins. Certain products (typically staple foods such asbread, milk and sugar) are occasionally sold as loss leaders, that is, with negative profit margins. To maintain a profit, supermarkets attempt to make up for the lower margins by a higher overall volume of sales, and with the sale of higher-margin items. Customers usually shop by placing their selected merchandise into shopping carts (trolleys) or baskets (self-

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service) and pay for the merchandise at thecheck-out. At present, many supermarket chains are attempting to further reduce labor costs by shifting to self-service checkoutmachines, where a single employee can oversee a group of four or five machines at once, assisting multiple customers at a time. A larger full-service supermarket combined with a department store is sometimes known as a hypermarket. Other services offered at some supermarkets may include those of banks, cafs, childcare centres/creches, photo processing, video rentals, pharmacies and/or petrol.
In the early days of retailing, all products generally were fetched by an assistant from shelves behind the merchant's counter while customers waited in front of the counter and indicated the items they wanted. Also, most foods and merchandise did not come in individually wrapped consumer-sized packages, so an assistant had to measure out and wrap the precise amount desired by the consumer. This also offered opportunities for social interaction: many regarded this style of shopping as "a social occasion" and would often "pause for conversations with the staff or other customers."[1] These practices were by nature very labor-intensive and therefore also quite expensive. The shopping process was slow, as the number of customers who could be attended to at one time was limited by the number of staff employed in the store.

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The concept of a self-service grocery store was developed by American entrepreneur Clarence Saunders and his Piggly Wiggly stores. His first store opened in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1916. Saunders was awarded a number of patents for the ideas he incorporated into his stores. The stores were a financial success and Saunders began to offer franchises. The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company (A&P) was another successful early grocery store chain in Canada and the United States, and became common in North American cities in the 1920s. The general trend in retail since then has been to stock shelves at night so that customers, the following day, can obtain their own goods and bring them to the front of the store to pay for them. Although there is a higher risk of shoplifting, the costs of appropriate security measures ideally will be outweighed by reduced labor costs.[citation needed] Early self-service grocery stores did not sell fresh meats or produce. Combination stores that sold perishable items were developed in the 1920s.[6] Historically, there was debate about the origin of the supermarket, with King Kullen and Ralph's of California having strong claims.[7] Other contenders included Weingarten's Big Food Markets and Henke & Pillot.[8] To end the debate, the Food Marketing Institute in conjunction with the Smithsonian Institution and with funding from H.J. Heinz, researched the issue. It defined the attributes of a supermarket as "self-service, separate product departments, discount pricing, marketing and volume selling." It has been determined that the first true supermarket in the United States was opened by a former Kroger employee, Michael J. Cullen, on August 4, 1930, inside a 6,000-squarefoot (560 m2) former garage in Jamaica, Queens in New York City.[9] The store, King Kullen, (inspired by the fictional character King Kong), operated under the slogan "Pile it high. Sell it low." At the time of Cullen's death in 1936, there were seventeen King Kullen stores in operation. Although Saunders had brought the world self-service, uniform stores and nationwide marketing, Cullen built on this idea by adding separate food departments, selling large volumes of food at discount prices and adding a parking lot.

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A Safeway advertisement from the 1950s. Other established American grocery chains in the 1930s, such as Kroger and Safeway at first resisted Cullen's idea, but eventually were forced to build their own supermarkets as the economy sank into the Great Depression, while consumers were becoming pricesensitive at a level never experienced before.[10] Kroger took the idea one step further and pioneered the first supermarket surrounded on all four sides by a parking lot. Supermarkets proliferated across Canada and the United States with the growth of automobile ownership and suburban development after World War II. Most North American supermarkets are located in suburban strip shopping centers as an anchor store along with other smaller retailers. They are generally regional rather than national in their company branding. Kroger is perhaps the most nationally oriented supermarket chain in the United States but it has preserved most of its regional brands, including Ralphs, City Market and King Soopers. In Canada, the largest such chain is Loblaw, which operates stores under a variety of regional names, including Fortinos, Zehrs and the largest, Loblaws, (named after the company itself). Sobeys is Canada's second largest supermarket with locations across the country, operating under many banners (Sobeys IGA in Quebec).[citation needed] Qubec's first supermarket opened in 1934 in Montral, under the banner Steinberg's. In the United Kingdom, self-service shopping took longer to become established. Even in 1947, there were just ten self-service shops in the country.[1] In 1951, ex-US Navy sailor Patrick Galvani, son-in-law of Express Dairies chairman, made a pitch to the board to open a chain of supermarkets across the country. The UK's first supermarket under the new Premier Supermarkets brand opened in Streatham, South London,taking ten times as much per week as the average British general store of the time. Other chains caught on, and after Galvani lost out to Tesco's Jack Cohen in 1960 to buy the 212 Irwin's chain, the sector underwent a large amount of consolidation, resulting in 'the big four' dominant UK retailers of today: Tesco, Asda (owned by Wal-Mart), Sainsbury's and Morrisons.

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In the 1950s, supermarkets frequently issued trading stamps as incentives to customers. Today, most chains issue store-specific "membership cards," "club cards," or "loyalty cards". These typically enable the card holder to receive special members-only discounts on certain items when the credit card-like device is scanned at check-out. Traditional supermarkets in many countries face intense competition from discount retailers such as Wal-Mart, Tesco in the UK, and Zellers in Canada, which typically are non-union and operate with better buying power. Other competition exists from warehouse clubs such as Costco that offer savings to customers buying in bulk quantities. Superstores, such as those operated by Wal-Mart and Asda, often offer a wide range of goods and services in addition to foods. The proliferation of such warehouse and superstores has contributed to the continuing disappearance of smaller, local grocery stores; increased dependence on the automobile; suburban sprawl because of the necessity for large floorspace and increased vehicular traffic. Some critics consider the chains' common practice of selling loss leaders to be anti-competitive. They are also wary of the negotiating power that large, often multinational retailers have with suppliers around the world.[citation needed]

GROWTH IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

There has been a rapid transformation of the food retail sector in developing countries, beginning in the 1990s. This applies particularly to Latin America, South-East Asia, China and South Africa. However, growth is being witnessed in nearly all countries. With growth, has come considerable competition and some amount of consolidation.[13] The growth has been driven by increasing affluence and the rise of a middle class; the entry of women into the workforce; with a consequent incentive to seek out easy-to-prepare foods; the growth in the use of refrigerators, making it possible to shop weekly instead of daily; and the growth in car ownership, facilitating journeys to distant stores and purchases of large quantities of goods. The opportunities presented by this potential have encouraged several European companies to invest in these markets (mainly in Asia) and American companies to invest in Latin America and China. Local companies also entered the market. Initial development of supermarkets has now been followed by hypermarket

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growth. In addition there were investments by companies such as Makro and Metro in large-scale Cash-and-Carry operations. While the growth in sales of processed foods in these countries has been much more rapid than the growth in fresh food sales, the imperative nature of supermarkets to achieve economies of scale in purchasing, means that the expansion of supermarkets in these countries has important repercussions for small farmers, particularly those growing perishable crops. New supply chains have developed involving cluster formation; development of specialized wholesalers; leading farmers organizing supply; and farmer associations or cooperatives.[15] In some cases supermarkets have organized their own procurement from small farmers; in others wholesale markets have adapted to meet supermarket needs.[16] RETAILING:Distribution of consumer products begins with the producers and ends at the ultimate consumer. Between the producer and the consumer there is middleman-the retailer, who links the producer and the ultimate consumers. Retailing is defined as a conclusive set of activities of steps used to sell a product or a service to consumers for their personal of family use. The word retail is derived from the French word retailer meaning to cut a price off or to break bulk. A Retailer is a person, agent, agency, company or organization, which is instrumental in reaching the goods, merchandise, or services to the ultimate consumers. CHARACTERISTICS OF RETAILING: There is direct end -user interaction. It is only point in the value chain to provide a platform for promotions. Sales at the retail level are generally in the smaller unit sizes.

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 Location is a critical factor. Services are as important as core products. FUNCTIONS OF RETAILING: Sorting. Breaking bulk Holding stock Additional services Channel of communication. Transport & Advertising functions. CLASSIFICATION OF RETAIL UNITS ON THE FOLLOWING BASIS: Nature of ownership. Operational structures. Length and Depth of Merchandise. Nature of service. Type of pricing policy. Type of Retail location. Method of consumer interaction. Size

Typical store architecture

While branding and store advertising will differ from company to company, the layout of a supermarket remains virtually unchanged. Although big companies spend time giving consumers a pleasant shopping experience, the design of a supermarket is directly connected to the in-store marketing that supermarkets must conduct in order to get shoppers to spend more money while there. Every facet of the store is mapped out and attention is paid to colour, wording and even surface texture. The overall layout of a supermarket is a visual merchandising project that

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plays a major role in retailing. Stores can creatively use a layout to alter customers perceptions of the atmosphere. Alternatively, they can enhance the stores atmospherics through visual communications (signs and graphics), lighting, colours, and even scents. For example, to give a sense of the supermarket being healthy, fresh produce is deliberately located at the front of the store. In terms of bakery items, supermarkets usually dedicate 30 to 40 feet of store space to the bread aisle. As explained by Dr Paul Harrison, cited in Browne (2010), supermarkets are designed to give each product section a sense of individual difference and this is evident in the design of what are called the anchor departments; fresh produce, dairy, delicatessen, meat and the bakery Each of these sections has different floor coverings, style, lighting and sometimes even individual services counters to allow shoppers to feel as if there are a number of markets within this one supermarket. TYPES OF RETAILING:The first is the market, a physical location where buyers and sellers converge. Usually this is done in town squares, sidewalks or designated streets and may involve the construction of temporary structures (market stalls). The second form is shop or Store Trading. Some shops use counter-service, where goods are out of reach of buyers, and must be obtained from the seller. This type of retail is common for small expensive items (e.g. Jewellery) and controlled items like medicine and liquor. Self-service, where goods may be handled and examined prior to purchase, has become more common since the 20th century. A third form of retail is Virtual retail, where products are ordered via mail, telephone or online without having been examined physically but instead in a catalog, on television or on a website. Sometimes this kind of retailing replicates existing retail types such as online shops or virtual marketplaces such as Amazon. RETAILING FORMATS: Malls:

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The largest form of organized retailing today Located mainly in metro cities, in proximity to urban outskirts. Ranges from 60,000 sq ft to 7,00,000 sq. ft. and above. They lend an ideal shopping experience with an amalgamation of product, service and entertainment, all under a common roof. Examples include Shoppers Stop, India bulls mega Mart, Pantaloon, Wall mart etc. Specialty Stores: Chains such as the Bangalore based Kids Kemp, the Mumbai books retailer Crossword, RPG's Music World and the Times Group's music chain Planet M, are focusing on specific market segments and have established themselves strongly in their sectors. Discount Stores: As the name suggests, discount stores or factory outlets, offer discounts on the MRP through selling in bulk reaching economies of scale or excess stock left over at the season. The product category can range from a variety of perishable/ non perishable goods. Department Stores: Large stores ranging from 20000-50000 sq. ft, catering to a variety of consumer needs. Further classified into localized departments such as clothing, toys, home, groceries etc. Departmental Stores are expected to take over the apparel business from exclusive brand showrooms. Among these, the biggest success is K Raheja's Shoppers Stop, which started in Mumbai and now has more than seven large stores (over 30,000 sq. ft) across India and even has its own in store brand for clothes called Stop!. Hyper marts/Supermarkets: Large self service outlets, catering to varied shopper needs are termed as Supermarkets. These are located in or near residential high streets. These stores today contribute to 30% of all food & grocery organized retail sales. Super Markets can further be classified in to mini supermarkets typically 1,000 sq ft to 2,000 sq ft and large supermarkets ranging from of 3,500 sq ft to 5,000 sq ft. having a strong focus on food & grocery and personal sales.

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 Convenience Stores: These are relatively small stores 400-2,000 sq. feet located near residential areas. They stock a limited range of high-turnover convenience products and are usually open for extended periods during the day, seven days a week. Prices are slightly higher due to the convenience premium. MBOs : Multi Brand outlets, also known as Category Killers, offer several brands across a single product category. These usually do well in busy market places and Metros.

Present Scenario of Indian Retail Industry:The revolution in retailing industry has brought many changes and also opened door for many Indian as well as foreign players. In a market like India there is a constant clash between challenges and opportunities but chances favour those companies that are trying to establish themselves. So to sustain in a market like India companies have to bring innovative solutions. Indian market has potential to accommodate many retail players, because still a small proportion of the pie is organized. Retailing is still in its infancy in India. In the name of retailing, the unorganised retailing has dominated the Indian landscape so far. According to an estimate the unorganized retail sector has 97% presence whereas the organized accounts for merely 3%. Industry has already predicted a trillion dollar market in retail sector in India by 2010. However, the retail industry in India is undergoing a major shake-up as the country is witnessing a retail revolution. The old traditional formats are slowly changing into more complex and bigger formats. Malls and mega malls are

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coming up in almost all the places be it metros or the smaller cities, across the length and breadth of the country. Both MNCs and Indian firms want to get their share of this burgeoning pie. Notable in Indian firms are Pantaloons Retail & Big Bazaar, Trent's Westside, Shopper's stop, Reliance and VIJETHA, Wills Lifestyle stores, Caf Coffee Day, which is present in India in different retail formats. Wal-Mart stores have just started operations in India. Some leading retail coffee chains of the world like Starbucks, Barnies are planning to expand in a major way in India. KEY CHALLENGES OF RETAIL INDUSTRY:LOCATION: "Right Place, Right choice". Location is the most important ingredient for any business that relies on customers, and is typically the prime consideration in a customers store choice. Locations decisions are harder to change because retailers have to either make sustainable investments to buy and develop real estate or commit to long term lease with developers. When formulating decision about where to locate, the retailer must refer to the strategic plan: - Investigate alternative trading areas. -Determine the type of desirable store location - Evaluate alternative specific store sites MERCHANDISE: The primary goal of the most retailers is to sell the right kind of merchandise and nothing is more central to the strategic thrust of the retailing firm. Merchandising consists of activities involved in acquiring particular goods and services and making them available at a place, time and quantity that enable the retailer to reach its goals. Merchandising is perhaps, the most important function for any retail organization, as it decides what finally goes on shelf of the store. PRICING: Pricing is a crucial strategic variable due to its direct relationship with a firm's goal and its interaction with other retailing elements. The importance of pricing decisions is growing because today's customers are looking for good value when they buy

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merchandise and services. Price is the easiest and quickest variable to change. TARGET AUDIENCE: "Consumer the prime mover" "Consumer Pull", however, seems to be the most important driving factor behind the sustenance of the industry. The purchasing power of the customers has increased to a great extent, with the influencing the retail industry to a great extent, a variety of other factors also seem to fuel the retailing boom. SCALE OF OPERATIONS: Scale of operations includes all the supply chain activities, which are carried out in the business. It is one of the challenges that the Indian retailers are facing. The cost of business operations is very high in India. Criticisms This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2010) Supermarket, in general, tend to narrow the choices of fruits and vegetables by stocking only varieties with long storage lives. Supermarkets often generate a lot of food waste. Some supermarkets, such as the one of Thomas Poucher convert the excess food that can no longer be sold at a timely manner, or at all (when the best before, sell-by or use-by date has expired) into biofuel to gain some extra revenue. He also gives some of his food to charity (homeless, and economically disadvantaged people). Supermarkets can generally retail at lower prices than traditional corner shops and markets due to higher volume throughput. This has led to small businesses losing customers and closing in many areas, which can be seen as an adverse effect on the local infrastructure. In the United States, major-brand supermarkets often demand slotting fees from suppliers in exchange for premium shelf space and/or better positioning (such as at eye-level, on the checkout aisle or at a shelf's "end cap"). This extra supplier cost (up to $30,000 per brand for a chain for each individual SKU) may be reflected in the cost of the products offered. Some critics have questioned the ethical and legal propriety of slotting fee payments and their effect on smaller suppliers

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In Britain supermarkets have been accused of squeezing prices to farmers, forcing small shops out of business, and often favouring imports over British produce. In New Zealand, supermarkets have been accused of buying fr Retail concentration refers to the market-share generally belonging to the top 4 or 5 mass distribution firms present in a regional market, as a percentage on the total. Retail concentration is not simply a concentration ratio as is emerging in the food sector. This is due to two factors: the particular relevance retail is gaining on a global scale, and the particular shape of the food chain. In recent years, Retail Concentration moved ahead with fusions and acquisitions along the entire food chain([2]. We can assume with Grievink (2003) that in a few years there will be only 5 dominant actors in the globalised food chain. The same researcher states that in the 90's the top-5 food manufacturers could count on twice the cash flow of the top-5 retailers. Nowadays the relation is inverted: the top 5 retailers can count on twice that of the top-5 manufacturers. Thus, the food chain has become increasingly vertically integrated, with global corporations able to coordinate inputs from the seed to the field, from the stable to the table. Retail concentration by one hand is the answer that retail is giving to compete with the giants of agrofood industry. By the other hand, is the agrofood industry in itself searching to arrive directly to the consumers, through a refined relations system. In this process, private labels are increasingly attracting consumers, and are expected to grow more and more on their fidelisation strategy, beating on quality, safety and also ethical values Recently Commission proposed solutions to face with overall price increase about foodstuff. Among the measures proposed, several relate to the retail power recently acquired. In particular, the payments delay to the producers; the additional fees asked to the producers to place on the shelves branded products; price transparency; better regulation on promotional activities and openings/closing time are all issues on the agenda. For supporters, retail concentration means more chances for consumers, lower prices, better quality. For opponents, by the contrary, the disappearing of traditional shops, of food culture, of neighborhood life in general[1]. Furthermore, too much concentration

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means squeezing the price of industry and of agriculture, which can lead to outsourcing food from anywhere it can cost less, without a truly long term impact assessment. Fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) or consumer packaged goods (CPG) are products that are sold quickly and at relatively low cost. Examples include non-durable goods such as soft drinks, toiletries, and grocery items. Though the absolute profit made on FMCG products is relatively small, they generally sell in large quantities, so the cumulative profit on such products can be substantial. Scope The term FMCG refers to those retail goods that are generally replaced or fully used up over a short period of days, weeks, or months, and within one year. This contrasts with durable goods or major appliances such as kitchen appliances, which are generally replaced over a period of several years. FMCG have a short shelf life, either as a result of high consumer demand or because the product deteriorates rapidly. Some FMCGs such as meat, fruits and vegetables, dairy products and baked goods are highly perishable. Other goods such as alcohol, toiletries, pre-packaged foods, soft drinks and cleaning products have high turnover rates. The following are the main characteristics of FMCGs: FROM THE CONSUMERS' PERSPECTIVE: Frequent purchaseLow involvement (little or no effort to choose the item products with strong brand loyalty are exceptions to this rule) Low priceFrom the marketers' angle: Tim Lang (Food Wars, Earthscan London 2004) described the retail concentration phenomenon such as a "food war", in which winners and losers take place. Tim Lang talks about "food clusters" ([p. 84]) to better handle the idea of concentration along the

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entire food chain. There are a lot of legal instruments which allow to get more and more concentrated. Acquisition being the first one, follow mergers, joint ventures, partnerships and more not formalized contracts/ agreements. Note that the "hypermarketization" is not limited to the Western World, but supermarkets rise fast also in the less developed countries and in the East and in the South of the World. ([6]. Regarding that, there are a lot of concerns, pretending that the overwhelming power of retailing is making poorer and poorer farmers, in particular in the LDC (Less Developed Countries)([7]). The "crowding out" effect on local agricultures it is basically due to the global sourcing of the produces, wherever they cost less and offer more. To say it with the words of the Italian food-thinker Corrado Finardi to fairly function, the agricultural system has a different, slower timeline than the market (in agriculture counts the long term investment, while on the global market it is more important the precise moment in which supply and demand match). Market concentration (considering the upper and lower tails) A more refined form, which calculates the percentage of last 4/ competitors on the first 4/5. Eve in its static version, it measures the level of competition in the sector. A diachronic comparison allows for even more insights. Herfindahl Hirschman Index This index is used in Europe and in the USA for antitrust regulatory purposes, in order to assess the feasibility of mergers and acquisitions. The HHI is calculated as the relative frequencies squared and summed, comprehensive of all actors in the playfield. So far, it gives more importance to biggest player in proportion. Even if interesting, a HHI, often wrongly assess the real behaviours on the field. Consider, for the comparison sake, the retail concentration in Europe. Top 5 retail

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distributors account for the 70% of the market share. Even if apparently it gives the idea of a highly concentrated market, the HHI does not allow for that conclusion in most of the cases. Following 3 different scenarios, we explored the relative market shares of the single actors. 1 scenario: 1= 19%, 2=15%, 3=14%, 4= 12%, 5=10% (total=70% for the top 5), remaining= 2%, 3%, 4%, 5%, 7%, 9%. In this first case, where there is a linear distribution of market share among players, the HHI scores at 0,121 (considered a moderate concentration indicator) 2 scenario: 14% *5 (top 5 players =70%, having equal market share), the remaining, each equalling 3% (3%*10). In this second case, the HHI scores an 0,098, which stands for an unconcentrated market at all. We can deliberately make some reflections on that, since the HHI seems not taking into account opportunistic behaviours in the direction of oligopoly. It is assumed that, because of the equal market power of the top 5 actors, they are going to compete (even if history shows that more probably they find some form of implicit agreement). Standardised from 0 to 1, the value is 0,033571429 (very low). 3 scenario. First player= 20%, followers 12%, then 10%, 9%, 8%, 7%, 4% and the last 10 each 3%. In this case the HHI is 0,0944 (not concentrated market, even if not highly competitive environment). Standardised from 0 to 1, the value is 0,0378 (very low). Even in a case where there is one leading competitor which makes the market as in the 3rd scenario, the HHI stays relatively low!In India, retail industry is the fastest growing industry now with a reported growth rate of 46.46 per cent. In spite of the growing presence of the shopping malls and the shopping malls in the cities and the metros, the fact remains that 97 % of the retail is still run by the unorganized sector in India, which is highly fragmented too. Recently efforts are being made to bring in more of organized and

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high end retailers to the market of retail which has higher prospects of growth in employment opportunities and better penetration to the villages, thus helping the farmers get ensured of their produce. The organized and unorganized retail in India The retail industry in India has both organized and unorganized retailers. The organized ones are the licensed retailers who are expected to pay sales and income taxes, which include the hypermarkets backed by the corporate houses and also the retail chains like Reliance Fresh. These are known under the names of departmental stores, super markets, specialty stores, hyper markets, shopping malls etc. The unorganized ones include the pavement stores, the convenience stores, general stores etc which involve the low cost retailing.

Increasing high end retail in India

Some of the factors which are influencing the high end retail investment in India are the changing consumer profile and demographics, the increasing presence of international brands in the domestic markets and rising demand for the same, increasing urbanization, infrastructure improvement, increasing investments in real estate and shopping centres and buildings and structures for that. The increasing investment of the big players like the Ambanis Reliance, Bharti Airtel, ITC etc have been seen as a beneficial trend to the nation because it causes the modernization of the same and to the consumers again, this has become more preferable because they get to shop many of their necessary articles in the same destination and also they get discount on their sales. Organised Retail in IndiaTop The Indian markets are becoming more open towards the organized retails through hypermarkets and shopping malls. The nature of the consumer market is changing quite fast. Consumers are seen to be turning more friendly towards international

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products and the modern retail formats. Domestic consumption market in India is estimated to grow approximately 7 to 8% with retail accounting for 60% of the overall segment. Of this 60%, organized retail is just 5% which is comparatively lesser than other countries with emerging economies. A lot majority of India's young population favors

branded garments. With the influence of visual media, urban consumer trends are spreading across the rural areas also. The shopping trends of the young Indians for clothing, favorable income demographics, increasing population of young people joining the workforce with considerably higher disposable income, has new possibilities for retail growth even in the rural areas. Thus, 85% of the retail boom which was focused only in the metros has started to penetrate the smaller cities and towns. Tier-II cities have already started coming up with high end shopping solutions and vast exposure to the shopping trends which invite even villages to join in the coming years. The Knight Frank Study on retail in IndiaTop Knight Frank is one of the independent global property consultants in India, who came up with an in-depth research study on the Indian retail market entitled India Organized Retail Market 2010. Organised retail space in Mumbai is expected to grow by around 130 per cent, from 8.72 million sq ft at present to 20 million sq ft by 2012, according to Knight Frank India report. The report, India Organised Retail Market 2010, forecasts that during 2010-12, around 55 million sq ft of retail space will be ready in Mumbai, NCR, Bangalore, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad and Pune. Besides, between 2010 and 2012, the organized retail real estate stock will grow from the existing 41 million sq ft to 95 million sq ft. The report reveals an in-depth analysis of the dynamics of Organized Retail Market and the Real Estate Retail Potential (RERP) to identify the oversupply or undersupply situation in the retail space. Knight Frank further estimates

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that by 2012, higher pace of real estate developments in comparison to the pace of organized retail market growth will create an oversupply situation of 21 million sq ft in 7 cities. Bunzl Distribution is the leading supplier of disposable paper and plastic packaging supplies to the retail grocery industry, including self-distributing chains and wholesalers. We offer more than 60,000 items, including basic tissue paper, plastic grocery bags, bakery boxes and deli trays. We also deliver the largest selection of hot, cold and dual-ovenable Home Meal Replacement (HMR) containers.Our commitment to our supermarket customers is strong. We strive for excellence everyday to ensure our customers receive the most appropriate products or supplies to fit their specific needs. By utilizing our value-added distribution and outsourcing services, our customers are able to:Focus on their core businessesAchieve substantial purchasing efficiencies and savingsWe partner with the nation's leading manufacturers to bring our customers the very best.Food Processor OverviewBunzl Distribution is a leader in the food processing and food packaging industries offering value-added products, programs and services that help our customers achieve their business goals. Our coast-to-coast distribution network is uniquely positioned to be a single-source provider of personal protection equipment, employee apparel, material handling, janitorial/sanitation, cutlery, scales, thermometers, safety products, MRO parts and a wide assortment of food packaging products.In the mid-1990s, we initiated our strategic focus on food packaging products used in food processing and manufacturing plants. We leveraged our knowledge of products in the supermarket industry and progressed upstream in the food industrys value chain, as many food products transitioned to case-ready applications supplied to the grocers by food companies.

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Our position in the food processor and packer industry was greatly enhanced with the acquisitions of Koch Supplies (2000), Packers Engineering & Equipment (2001) and Enterprise (2003). These acquisitions allowed us to combine and expand our product offerings and become a leader in the plant supplies and MRO market. In 2010, we extended into the field by becoming the exclusive distributor of the TRUETRAC produce case labeling system, a simple-to-use food safety solution that provides visibility and traceability throughout the supply chain. Later in the year, we acquired Cool Pak LLC, a distributor of stock and custom-designed pulp and plastic containers. Located in California, Cool Pak brings a wealth of experience in serving the agriculture and retail industries. These additions have greatly expanded the products and solutions we can offer fruit and vegetable growers, shippers, repackers and other food suppliers.As the industry continues to experience consolidation and competitive pressures, we have brought a wealth of management, warehousing and market distribution expertise to the food processor industry. No one can match our breadth of product line, national service capabilityand consistency. Extending further into the agriculture industry, we acquired Network Paper and Packaging Ltd. (Netpak) and Marpak Packaging Systems (Marpak). Based in the Vancouver, British Columbia area, these related companies specialize in packaging solutions for berry and agricultural growers in Canada and the United States. Main Products & Supplies Bunzl is your dedicated partner for packaging and plant operating supplies. Were here to help you find the right products so you can spend less time hunting for food packaging and plant supplies and more time focusing on your business. We stock more than 25,000

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food processing and plant operating items that we can ship the same day you order.Our main products and supplies include:Employee supplies (boots, gloves, knives, aprons,etc.)Safety supplies (cut-resistant products, arm guards, hard hats, ear protection, etc.)Material handling and MRO itemsFood/produce packaging productsProduce case labeling and traceability system (TRUETRAC)Visit our Bunzl Processor Divisions ecommerce Web site if you are interested in MRO or employee/safety supplies.Or contact your local Bunzl representative with questions or to place an order. And if we don't have the product you need, let us know Retailer Overview Bunzl Distribution provides outsourcing services and distribution to some of North Americas leading retailers. These customers include department stores, big box chains, home improvement chains, office supply companies, electronic stores, and specialty and boutique retail chains. While we focus on expense items, our horizons expand as required to each customers needs. Some of our services and capabilities include: Retail operational products and supplies Customized distribution system design New store consolidation and scheduling Nationally deployed warehousing Domestic and foreign purchasing management Production scheduling Packaging design Freight management

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In today's dynamic and highly competitive retail environment, success depends in part on the retailer's ability to enhance operational efficiencies and control expenses. We understand that and work diligently to help our customers propel their businesses. Our methodologies consistently provide superior operating efficiencies and significant expense reductions that are unparalleled in the industry.We have the skilled personnel, expertise and systems to deliver operating supplies to individual store locations in a consolidated, controlled manner

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ORGANIZED RETAIL:
Emerging Retail Markets: India, Russia, China and Vietnam top the list of the most attractive emerging markets for retailers' investment in 2007, While India and Russia have held the top two spots since 2004, China's booming consumer spending, together with retailers moving into secondtier cities, helped it rise to No. 3 from its No. 5 spot last year, according to the 2007 Global Retail Development Index from management consultant firm A.T. Kearney. The study based its results on four variables: 'country risk', measuring political risk, debt and credit ratings; 'market attractiveness', encompassing retail sales per capita, population, infrastructure and regulations; 'market saturation'; and 'time pressure'. The higher the ranking, the more urgency for retailers to enter the market, according to the study, which ranks the top 30 emerging countries for retail development and focuses on mass-merchant and food retailers. "If you want to be an international player in retail, these are the markets that demonstrate the characteristics (where) you can be successful," said Laura Gurski, a co-author of the study and partner in A.T. Kearney's consumer and retail practice.India has already attracted the attention of global retailers like Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which is working with India's Bharti Enterprises to set up a joint venture for a cash-and-carry business. In India, foreign multiple-brand retailers, which sell diverse brands under one roof, are limited to cash-and-carry and franchise or license operations. "India's window of opportunity continues to be wide for retail investment and development," the report said. "Once India's window closes for grocery retailers, there will be little opportunity for market domination in the main cities." The country's growing population of young urban professionals with disposable incomes and the nouveau riche has also made India attractive for luxury retailers. India has attracted "the low end and the high end because of the breadth of the consumer segments that are available," said Gurski.

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When variables stay constant, Gurski said, do-it-yourself, apparel and electronics retailers usually enter emerging markets some two years after international grocers establish themselves. Middle Eastern countries are also represented on the list, with Saudi Arabia ranking No. 10
India

has emerged as the world's most attractive destination for mass merchant and food

retailing, maintaining its 2005 position in an annual study of retail investment attractiveness among 30 emerging markets. India was given the top ranking in management consulting company AT Kearney's 2006 Global Retail Development Index (GRDI). "The Indian retail market is gradually but surely opening up, while China's market becomes increasingly saturated," said Fadi Farra, a principal in AT Kearney's Consumer Industries and Retail Practice and leader of the GRDI study. Much to the surprise of market observers, China was ranked fifth in this year's tally, declining one more place since 2005. While China remains very attractive, the market is becoming increasingly saturate as and United Arab Emirates No. 18. Gap Inc announced last week it had struck a deal with two franchisees to open Gap stores in Saudi Arabia starting at the end of this year. Dubai has capitalized on consumer desire for a more Western lifestyle and has established itself as a retail mecca, Gurski said. Despite its focus on luxury, Dubai is "just beginning to be populated by the bread-and-butter retailers of the United States and the Western world," she said. Retailers that have already established a presence in major Chinese cities like Shanghai and Beijing, or those that have been slow to gain a foothold there, are now looking at less developed markets in second-tier cities, the study found. "If the markets are saturated, they're looking to make profits in the second-tier cities," Gurski said. But she cautioned that a separate strategy is needed for the smaller markets since consumer tastes, ability to spend and willingness to embrace new formats may be different than in larger urban areas.

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International retailers rush to establish a presence and build market share, the study reveals. According to the study, Asia with a large 40 per cent of the top 20 markets has surpassed Eastern Europe as the 'dominant region for global retail expansion.' "The learning is that timing is the most important source of competitive advantage for global and regional retailers in the globalization race. Knowing when to enter emerging retail markets is the key to success," said Farra. Powering Asia's charge are Vietnam, which has risen five places to third place, and countries like Thailand, South Korea and Malaysia, all of which are in the top 15, After topping the ranking for two consecutive years in 2003 and 2004, Russia slipped to second place behind India last year and remained there in 2006 too.

Origin of Retail Sector:

Early Trade:

When man started to cultivate and harvest the land, he would occasionally find himself with a surplus of goods. Once the needs of his family and local community were met, he would attempt to trade his goods for different goods produced elsewhere. Thus markets were formed. These early efforts to swap goods developed into more formal gatherings. When a producer who had a surplus could not find another producer with suitable products to swap, he may have allowed others to owe him goods. Thus early credit terms would have been developed. This would have led to symbolic representations of such debts in the form of valuable items (such as gemstones or beads), and eventually money.
HOW RETAIL DEVELOPED:
Peddlers and Producers:

The Retail Trade is rooted in two groups, the peddlers and producers. Peddlers tended to be opportunistic in their choice of stock and customer. They would purchase any goods that they thought they could sell for a profit. Producers were interested in selling goods that they had produced.

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GENERAL STORE:
This division continues to this day with some shops specializing in specific areas, reflecting their origins as outlets for producers (such as Pacific Concord of Hong Kong), and others providing a broad mix, known as General Store (such as Casey's in tMidwest of the U.S.A.).Although specialist shops are still with us, over time, the general store has increasingly taken on specialist products. Customers have found this to be more convenient than having to visit many shops - thus the term "Convenience Store" has also been applied to these shops. As the popularity of general stores has grown, so has their size. This combined with the advent of Self-Service has lead to the Supermarket, or Superstore.
EARLY MARKETS:

Over time, producers would have seen value in deliberately over-producing in order to profit from selling these goods. Merchants would also have begun to appear. They would travel from village to village, purchasing these goods and selling them for a profit. Over time, both producers and merchants, would regularly take their goods to one selling place in the centre of the community. Thus, regular markets appeared.The First Shop : Eventually, markets would become permanent fixtures i.e. shops. These shops along with the logistics required to get the goods to them were, the start of the Retail Trade.
The Birth of Distance Retailing: Defined as sales of goods between two distant parties where the deliverer has no direct interest in the transaction, the earliest instances of distance retailing probably coincided with the first regular delivery or postal services. Such services would have started in earnest once man had learned how to ride a camel, horse etc. When individuals or groups left their community and settled elsewhere, some missed foodstuffs and other goods that were only available in their birthplace. They arranged for some of these goods to be sent to them. Others in their newly adopted community

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enjoyed these goods and demand grew. Similarly, new settlers discovered goods in their new surroundings that they dispatched back to their birthplace, and once again, demand grew. This soon turned into a regular trade. Although such trading routes expanded mainly through the growth of traveling salesmen and then wholesalers, there were still instances where individuals purchased goods at long distance for their own use. A second reason that distance selling increased was through war. As armies marched through territories, they laid down communication lines stretching from their home base to the front. As well as garnering goods from whichever locality they found themselves in, they would have also taken advantage of the lines of communication to order goods from home.

ORIGINS OF RETAIL
It is likely that, as markets became more permanent fixtures they evolved into shops. Although advantageous in many respects, this removed the mobility that a peddler or traveling merchant may still have enjoyed. For some shopkeepers, it made sense to obtain extra stock and open up another shop, most probably operated by another family member. This would recover business from peddlers and create new business and the greater volume would allow the shopkeeper to strike a better deal with suppliers. Thus the retail chain would have started. Its thought that this process would have started in china over 2200 years ago with a chain of shops owned by a trader called Lo Kass.

The First Self-Service Store: This all changed in 1915 when Albert Gerrard opened the Groceteria in Los Angeles, the first documented self-service store. This was soon followed a year later by the Piggly Wiggly self-service store, founded by Clarence Saunders in Tennessee in the U.S.

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Growth:

This new type of shopping was more efficient and many customers preferred it. Although personal service stores remain to this day, this new concept started a rapid growth of selfservice stores in the United States. Other countries were slow to take up the idea, but there has been a steady rise in the global amount of self-service stores ever since.
Efficiency

These entrepreneurs noticed that their staff had to spend a great deal of time taking grocery orders from customers. The groceries were stacked on shelves allowing customers to walk around and browse, collecting their shopping in a basket that was supplied. The shopkeeper would only need to tot up the final bill at the end of the process and transfer the goods from the basket to the customer and receive payment. From Family Business to Formal Structure: Although retail chains would have been mostly run by families, as some chains grew, they would have needed to employ people from outside of their family. This was a limiting factor as there would have been a limit to the amount of trusted non family members available to help run the chain. Another, even more definite limiting factor was the distance the furthest shop would have been from the original shop. The greater the distance, the more time and effort would have been needed to effectively manage outpost shops and to service them with goods. There was, therefore, a natural barrier to expansion. That was the case until transport and communications became faster and more reliable. When this happened towards the end of the 19th century, chains became much bigger and more widespread. Many of these businesses became more structured and formalized, leading to the retail chain that we see today.

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Indian Retail Industry:

UNORGANISED RETAIL SECTOR:

Today, retailing doesnt involve just dealing or marketing from shops, it includes analyzing the market in an effort to provide reasonable prices together with an array of options and experience to customers. The sole purpose of all this is retaining the brand loyalty of customers. Indian retail is currently a US$ 245 billion market and is anticipated to extend to almost US$ 385 billion mark by the next five years. The Indian retail sector is currently sporting a brand new look and together with a 46.64 per cent three-year Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR), Conventional marketplaces are paving way for new shopping malls, the likes of superstores, shopping plazas, supermarkets and brand label stores. International style shopping centers have started dotting the skyline of cities and smaller towns, acquainting the Indian customer to a unique shopping experience. The retail industry in India is split up into the unorganized and organized retail segments. The unorganized retail sector includes the big, average and modest grocery stores and the chemist shops. A changeover is taking place from the conventional retail sector to organized retailing. But the unorganized segment still dominates and leads the industry. By 2010, the Indian retailing sector is anticipated to become an Rs12.5 trillion market. The share of organized retailing is supposed to jump to about 10 per cent from the existing three per cent. The anticipated staggering growth in organized retailing provides an opportunity to expand the market for both established and new players. According to the latest report India Retail Sector Analysis (200607)I by RNCOS, the total retail market is primarily focused in rural regions, which makes up 55 per cent or US$ 165 billion of the overall retail market as opposed to urban segment, which represents 45 per cent or US$ 135 billion of the gross retail market. The rural market is spread over 627,000 villages, even though its centre of attention is focused around a core group of 100,000 villages that makes up 50 per cent of the rural population.

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India represents the most compelling international investment opportunity for mass merchant and food retailers looking to expand overseas, according to management consulting firm AT Kearney's 2005 Global Retail Development Index (GRDI), an annual study of retail investment attractiveness among 30 emerging markets. India is rated as the fifth largest emerging retail market and is seen as a potential goldmine. Driving global brands into India is the greatly improved investment climate due to the recent relaxation of direct ownership restrictions on foreign retailers. The country's retail market totals $330 billion, is vastly underserved and has grown by 10 per cent on an average over the past five years. The message for retailers on India is clear move now or forego prime locations and market positions that will soon become saturated. Global retailers that missed opportunities to capture first-mover advantage in China will make up for it in India.Though India has more than five million retail outlets, they are greatly unorganized. There is no supply chain management perspective. In fact, out of the entire retail sector in India, the organized sector is only 25 per cent and the rest is unorganized. 96 per cent of the retail outlets are smaller in area than the standard norms. The retail industry is divided into organized and unorganized sectors. Organized retailing refers to trading activities undertaken by licensed retailers who are registered for sales tax and income tax. These include corporate backed hypermarket and retail chains and so on. Unorganized retailing is the traditional low-cost shops, handcarts and pavements and is by far the prevalent form of trade in India. The efficiency of organized sector in retailing is manifested in some of the newer supermarkets in urban/metropolitan India the produce is cleaner, fresher, well packed and often cheaper than the local shopkeeper. This is possible because of the far more efficient distribution system, which organized retail chains are employing, by cutting the layers of middlemen involved. There are other benefits too, of transforming the unorganized retail sector into an organized sector. Firstly, a number of new jobs will be created, far better paid than the underage labor working in the local shops. Secondly, the benefits to the producer and consumer through better prices and lesser wastage; throwing up exportable surpluses, which will also benefit the economy as a whole. Thus one can see that allowing FDI in retailing is beneficial to all the stakeholders involved

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COMPANY PROFILE INTRODUCTION Welcome to the Vijetha.in service provided by Vijetha Supermarkets Pvt. Ltd. In using the Vijetha.in service, of Vijetha Supermarkets Pvt. Ltd you are deemed to have accepted the terms and conditions listed below. All products/services and information displayed on Vijetha.in (Site or Vijetha.in) constitute an "invitation to offer". Your order for purchase constitutes your "offer" which shall be subject to the terms and conditions as listed below. Vijetha.in reserves the right to accept or reject your offer. If you have supplied us with your email address, we will notify you by email as soon as possible to confirm receipt of your order and email you again to confirm details and therefore process the order. Our acceptance of your order will take place upon dispatch of the product(s) ordered. No act or omission of Vijetha.in prior to the actual dispatch of the product (s) ordered will constitute acceptance of your offer. Membership Eligibility: Use of the Site is available only to persons who can form legally binding contracts under applicable law. Persons who are "incompetent to contract" within the meaning of the Indian Contract Act, 1872 including un-discharged insolvents etc. are not eligible to use the Site. If you are a minor i.e. under the age of 18 years but at least 13 years of age you may use this Site only under the supervision of a parent or legal guardian who agrees to be bound by these Terms of Use. If your age is below that of 18 years your parents or legal guardians can transact on behalf of you if they are registered users. You are prohibited from purchasing any material which is for adult consumption, the sale or purchase of which to/by minors is strictly prohibited. Vijetha.in reserves the right to terminate your membership and refuse to provide you with access to the site if Vijetha.in. The site is not available to persons whose membership has been suspended or terminated by Vijetha.in for any reason whatsoever. If you are registering as a business entity, you represent that you have the authority to bind the entity to this User Agreement. Unless

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otherwise specified, the materials on this website are directed solely at those who access this website from Hyderabad from the localities specified below that are serviced by Vijetha.in. Those who choose to access this Site from outside are responsible for compliance with local laws if and to the extent local laws are applicable. Vijetha.in will deliver the products only in Hyderabad, in the localities listed below and will not be liable for any claims relating to any products ordered from other localities. 1.Chandanagar. 2.BHEL 3. Kukatpally 4. Patancheru 5. Gachi Bowli 6. Madhapur 7. Kondapur

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Except where additional terms and conditions are provided which are product specific, these terms and conditions supersede all previous representations, understandings, or agreements and shall prevail notwithstanding any variance with any other terms of any order submitted. By using the services of Vijetha.in you agree to be bound by the Terms and Conditions. Account and Registration Obligations "Your Information" is defined as any information you provide to us in the registration, buying or listing process, in the feedback area or through any e-mail feature. We will protect your information in accordance with our Privacy Policy. If you use the Site, you are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account and password and for restricting access to your computer, and you agree to accept responsibility for all activities that occur under your account or password. Vijetha.in shall not be liable to any person for any loss or damage which may arise as a result of any failure by you to protect your password or account. If you know or suspect that someone else knows your password you should notify us by contacting us immediately through the address provided below. If Vijetha.in has reason to believe that there is likely to be a breach of security or misuse of the Vijetha.in Site, we may require you to change your password or we may suspend your account without any liability to Vijetha.in. You also agree to: 1.Provide true, accurate, current and complete information about yourself as prompted by Vijetha SuperMarket Pvt. Ltd's registration form (such information being the "Registration Data") 2. Maintain and promptly update the Registration Data to keep it true, accurate, current and complete. If you provide an information that is untrue, inaccurate, incomplete, or not current or if Vijetha.in has reasonable grounds to suspect that Such information is untrue, inaccurate, not current or not in accordance with the User Agreement, Vijetha.in has the right

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to indefinitely suspend or terminate your membership and refuse to provide you with access to the Site. Pricing Information While Vijetha.in strives to provide accurate product and pricing information, pricing or typographical errors may occur. Vijetha.in cannot confirm the price of a product until after you order. In the event that a product is listed at an incorrect price or with incorrect information due to an error in pricing or product information, Vijetha.in shall have the right, at our sole discretion, to refuse or cancel any orders placed for that product, unless the product has already been dispatched. In the event that an item is mis-priced, Vijetha.in may, at its discretion, either contact you for instructions or cancel your order and notify you of such cancellation. Unless the product ordered by you has been dispatched, your offer will not be deemed accepted and Vijetha.in will have the right to modify the price of the product and contact you for further instructions using the e-mail, phone or address provided by you during the time of registration, or cancel the order and notify you of such cancellation. In the event that Vijetha.in accepts your order the same shall be debited to your credit card account and duly notified to you by email that the payment has been processed. The payment may be processed prior to Vijetha.in dispatch of the product that you have ordered. If we have to cancel the order after we have processed the payment, the said amount will be reversed back to your credit card account. We strive to provide you with the lowest prices possible on Vijetha.in as well as in all our group stores under the corporate entity -Vijetha Supermarkets Pvt. Ltd. However, sometimes a price online does not match the price in a store. In our effort to be the lowest price provider in your particular geographic region, store pricing will sometimes differ from online prices. Prices and availability are subject to change without notice. TopCancellation by Vijetha.in Please note that there may be certain orders that we are unable to accept and must cancel. We reserve the right, at our sole discretion, to refuse or cancel any order for any reason. Some situations that may result in your order being canceled include limitations on quantities available for purchase, inaccuracies or errors in product or pricing information, or problems identified by our credit and fraud avoidance department. We may also require additional verifications or information before accepting any order. We will contact you if all or any portion of your order is canceled or if

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additional information is required to accept your order. If your order is cancelled after your credit card has been charged, the said amount will be reversed back in your Card Account.

CANCELLATIONS BY THE CUSTOMER

In case we receive a cancellation notice and the order has not been processed/approved by us, we shall cancel the order and refund the entire amount. On cancellation of an order after it has been processed/approved by Vijetha.in, the cancellation charges will become applicable @ flat rate of 10% of the order value. Vijetha.in has the full right to decide whether an order has been processed or not. The customer agrees not to dispute the decision made by Vijetha.in and accept Vijetha.in decision regarding the cancellation. Products once dispatched cannot be returned. Nothing herein will prevent you from returning the product pursuant to rights available to you under applicable law. Credit Card Details You agree, understand and confirm that the credit card details provided by you for availing of services on Vijetha.in will be correct and accurate and you shall not use the credit card which is not lawfully owned by you. i.e. in a credit card transaction, you must use your own credit card. You further agree and undertake to provide the correct and valid credit card details to Vijetha.in. Further the said information will not be stored by Vijetha.in and will not be shared with any of the third parties (other than the payment gateway provider HDFC Bank) unless required by law, regulation or court order. Vijetha.in will not be liable for any credit card fraud. The liability for use of a card fraudulently will be on you and the onus to 'prove otherwise' shall be exclusively on you. Fraudulent /Declined Transactions Vijetha.in reserves the right to recover the cost of goods, collection charges and lawyers fees from persons using the site fraudulently. Vijetha.in reserves the right to initiate legal proceedings against such persons for fraudulent use of the site and any other unlawful acts or acts or omissions in breach of these terms and conditions. Electronic Communications When you visit the site or send emails to us, you are communicating with us electronically. You consent to receive communications from us electronically. We will communicate with you by email or by posting notices on the site. You agree that all

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agreements, notices, disclosures and other communications that we provide to you electronically satisfy any legal requirement that such communications be in writing. You Agree and Confirm That in the event that a non-delivery occurs on account of a mistake by you (i.e. wrong name or address or any other wrong information) any extra cost incurred by Vijetha.in for redelivery shall be claimed from you.That you will use the services provided by Vijetha.in, its affiliates, consultants and contracted companies, for lawful purposes only and comply with all applicable laws and regulations while using the site and transacting on the site.You will provide authentic and true information in all instances where such information is requested of you. Vijetha.in reserves the right to confirm and validate the information and other details provided by you at any point of time. If upon confirmation your details are found not to be true (wholly or partly), Vijetha.in has the right in its sole discretion to reject the registration and debar you from using the Services of Vijetha.in and / or other affiliated websites without prior intimation whatsoever. That you are accessing the services available on this site and transacting at your sole risk and are using your best and prudent judgment before entering into any transaction through this site That the address at which delivery of the product ordered by you is to be made will be correct and proper in all respects. That before placing an order you will check the product description carefully. By placing an order for a product you agree to be bound by the conditions of sale included in the item's description. You may not use the Site for any of the following purposes: 1. Disseminating any unlawful, harassing, libelous, abusive, threatening, harmful, vulgar, obscene, or otherwise objectionablematerial. 2. Transmitting material that encourages conduct that constitutes a criminal offence, results in civil liability or otherwise breaches any relevant laws, regulations or code of practice. 3. Gaining unauthorized access to other computer systems. 4. Interfering with any other person's use or enjoyment of the site. 5. Breaching any applicable laws;

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6. Interfering or disrupting networks or web sites connected to the site. 7. Making, transmitting or storing electronic copies of materials protected by copyright without the permission of the owner. Colors We have made every effort to display the colors of our products that appear on the site as accurately as possible. However, as the actual colors you see will depend on your monitor, we cannot guarantee that your monitor's display of any color will be accurate. Images We have made every effort to display the images of our products that appear on the site as accurately as possible. However, the images are indicative of the product and the product you receive may not be exactly similar to the one on the site. This may be due to many reasons including new packaging material being used by the manufacturer. Modification of Terms and conditions of Service Vijetha.in may at any time modify the User Agreement without any prior notification to you. Subsequent to any modification of the User Agreement, we will inform you of the modifications in the User Agreement via e-mail at the address provided by you while registering on Vijetha.in. You can access the latest version of the User Agreement at any given time on Vijetha.in. You should regularly review the User Agreement on Vijetha.in. In the event the modified User Agreement is not acceptable to you, you should discontinue using the service. However, if you continue to use the service you shall be deemed to have agreed to accept and abide by the modified User Agreement. Reviews, Feedback, Submissions All reviews, comments, feedback, postcards, suggestions, ideas, and other submissions disclosed, submitted or offered to Vijetha.in on or by this site or otherwise disclosed, submitted or offered in connection with your use of this site (collectively, the "Comments") shall be and remain Vijetha.in property. Such disclosure, submission or offer of any Comments shall constitute an assignment to Vijetha.in of all worldwide rights, titles and interests in all copyrights and other intellectual properties in the Comments. Thus, Vijetha.in owns exclusively all such rights, titles and interests and shall not be limited in any way in its use, commercial or otherwise, of any Comments. Vijetha.in will be entitled to use, reproduce, disclose, modify, adapt, create derivative

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works from, publish, display and distribute any Comments you submit for any purpose whatsoever, without restriction and without compensating you in any way. Vijetha.in is and shall be under no obligation (1) to maintain any Comments in confidence; (2) to pay you any compensation for any Comments; or (3) to respond to any Comments. You agree that any Comments submitted by you to the Site will not violate this policy or any right of any third party, including copyright, trademark, privacy or other personal or proprietary right(s), and will not cause injury to any person or entity. You further agree that no Comments submitted by you to the Site will be or contain libelous or otherwise unlawful, threatening, abusive or obscene material, or contain software viruses, political campaigning, commercial solicitation, chain letters, mass mailings or any form of "spam".Vijetha.in does not regularly review posted Comments, but does reserve the right (but not the obligation) to monitor and edit or remove any Comments submitted to the Site. You grant Vijetha.in the right to use the name that you submit in connection with any Comments. You agree not to use a false email address, impersonate any person or entity, or otherwise mislead as to the origin of any Comments you submit. You are and shall remain solely responsible for the content of any Comments you make and you agree to indemnify Vijetha.in and its affiliates for all claims resulting from any Comments you submit. Vijetha.in and its affiliates take no responsibility and assume no liability for any Comments submitted by you or any third party.Copyright & TrademarkVijetha.in and its suppliers and licensors expressly reserve all intellectual property rights in all text, programs, products, processes, technology, content and other materials, which appear on this Site. Access to this Site does not confer and shall not be considered as conferring upon anyone any license under any of Vijetha.in or any third party's intellectual property rights. All rights, including copyright, in this website are owned by or licensed to Vijetha.in. Any use of this website or its contents, including copying or storing it or them in whole or part, other than for your own personal, non-commercial use is prohibited without the permission of Vijetha.in. You may not modify, distribute or re-post anything on this website for any purpose. The Vijetha.in names and logos and all related product and service names, design marks and slogans are the trademarks or service marks of Vijetha Supermarkets Pvt. Ltd. All other marks are the property of their respective companies. No trademark or service mark

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license is granted in connection with the materials contained on this Site. Access to this Site does not authorize anyone to use any name, logo or mark in any manner. References on this Site to any names, marks, products or services of third parties or hypertext links to third party sites or information are provided solely as a convenience to you and do not in any way constitute or imply Vijetha.in endorsement, sponsorship or recommendation of the third party, information, product or service. Vijetha.in is not responsible for the content of any third party sites and does not make any representations regarding the content or accuracy of material on such sites. If you decide to link to any such third party websites, you do so entirely at your own risk. All materials, including images, text, illustrations, designs, icons, photographs, programs, music clips or downloads, video clips and written and other materials that are part of this Site (collectively, the "Contents") are intended solely for personal, non-commercial use. You may download or copy the Contents and other downloadable materials displayed on the Site for your personal use only. No right, title or interest in any downloaded materials or software is transferred to you as a result of any such downloading or copying. You may not reproduce (except as noted above), publish, transmit, distribute, display, modify, create derivative works from, sell or participate in any sale of or exploit in any way, in whole or in part, any of the Contents, the Site or any related software. All software used on this Site is the property of Vijetha.in or its suppliers and protected by Indian and international copyright laws. The Contents and software on this Site may be used only as a shopping resource. Any other use, including the reproduction, modification, distribution, transmission, republication, display, or performance, of the Contents on this Site is strictly prohibited. Unless otherwise noted, all Contents are copyrights, trademarks, trade dress and/or other intellectual property owned, controlled or licensed by Vijetha.in, one of its affiliates who have licensed their materials to Vijetha.in and are protected by Indian and international copyright laws. The compilation (meaning the collection, arrangement, and assembly) of all Contents on this Site is the exclusive property of Vijetha.in and is also protected by Indian and international copyright laws. Objectionable Material You understand that by using this Site or any services provided on the Site, you may encounter Content that may be deemed by some to be offensive, indecent, or

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objectionable, which Content may or may not be identified as such. You agree to use the Site and any service at your sole risk and that to the fullest extent permitted under applicable law, Vijetha.in and its affiliates shall have no liability to you for Content that may be deemed offensive, indecent, or objectionable to you. Termination This User Agreement is effective unless and until terminated by either you or Vijetha.in. You may terminate this User Agreement at any time, provided that you discontinue any further use of this Site. Vijetha.in may terminate this User Agreement at any time and may do so immediately without notice, and accordingly deny you access to the Site, Such termination will be without any liability to Vijetha.in. Upon any termination of the User Agreement by either you or Vijetha.in, you must promptly destroy all materials downloaded or otherwise obtained from this Site, as well as all copies of such materials, whether made under the User Agreement or otherwise. Vijetha.ins right to any Comments shall survive any termination of this User Agreement. Any such termination of the User Agreement shall not cancel your obligation to pay for the product already ordered from the Site or affect any liability that may have arisen under the User Agreement. This disclaimer does not apply to any product warranty offered by the manufacturer of the product as specified in the product specifications. This disclaimer constitutes an essential part of this User Agreement. To the fullest extent permitted under applicable law, Vijetha.in or its suppliers shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential or exemplary damages, including but not limited to, damages for loss of profits, goodwill, use, data or other intangible losses arising out of or in connection with the site, its services or this User Agreement. Without prejudice to the generality of the section above, the total liability of Vijetha.in to you for all liabilities arising out of this User Agreement be it in tort or contract is limited to the value of the product ordered by you. Vijetha.in, its associates and technology partners make no representations or warranties about the accuracy, reliability, completeness, currentness and/or timeliness of any content, information, software, text, graphics, links or communications provided on or

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through the use of the Site or that the operation of the Site will be error free and/or uninterrupted. Consequently, Vijetha.in assumes no liability whatsoever for any monetary or other damage suffered by you on account of the delay, failure, interruption, or corruption of any data or other information transmitted in connection with use of the Site; and/or any interruption or errors in the operation of the Site. Site Security You are prohibited from violating or attempting to violate the security of the Site, including, without limitation, (a) accessing data not intended for you or logging onto a server or an account which you are not authorized to access; (b) attempting to probe, scan or test the vulnerability of a system or network or to breach security or authentication measures without proper authorization; (c) attempting to interfere with service to any other user, host or network, including, without limitation, via means of submitting a virus to the Site, overloading, "flooding," "spamming," "mailbombing" or "crashing;" (d) sending unsolicited email, including promotions and/or advertising of products or services; or (e) forging any TCP/IP packet header or any part of the header information in any email or newsgroup posting. Violations of system or network security may result in civil or criminal liability. Vijetha.in will investigate occurrences that may involve such violations and may involve, and cooperate with, law enforcement authorities in prosecuting users who are involved in such violations. You agree not to use any device, software or routine to interfere or attempt to interfere with the proper working of this Site or any activity being conducted on this Site. You agree, further, not to use or attempt to use any engine, software, tool, agent or other device or mechanism (including without limitation browsers, spiders, robots, avatars or intelligent agents) to navigate or search this Site other than the search engine and search agents available from Vijetha.in on this Site and other than generally available third party web browsers (e.g., Firefox, Microsoft Explorer). Entire Agreement If any part of this agreement is determined to be invalid or unenforceable pursuant to applicable law including, but not limited to, the warranty disclaimers and liability limitations set forth above, then the invalid or unenforceable provision will be deemed to be superseded by a valid, enforceable provision that most closely matches the intent of

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the original provision and the remainder of the agreement shall continue in effect. Unless otherwise specified herein, this agreement constitutes the entire agreement between you and Vijetha.in with respect to the Vijetha.in sites/services and it supersedes all prior or contemporaneous communications and proposals, whether electronic, oral or written, between you and Vijetha.in with respect to the Vijetha.in sites/services. Vijetha.in's failure to act with respect to a breach by you or others does not waive its right to act with respect to subsequent or similar breaches. We do not sell or rent your personal information to third parties for their marketing purposes without your explicit consent and we only use your information as described in the Privacy Policy . We view protection of your privacy as a very important community principle. We understand clearly that you and Your Information is one of our most important assets. We store and process Your Information on computers that are protected by physical as well as technological security devices. If you object to your Information being transferred or used in this way please do not use the Site. Top Contact Details: Vijetha Supermarkets Pvt. Ltd 5-4/6, Balaji Towers, Chandanagar Hyderabad, AP India - 500050 Telephone: +91.40.23031819/20 Customer Care: +91.40.23034165/4185

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CHAPTER-4

DATA ANALYSIS

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DATA ANALYSIS
Customers C1 C2 C3 Satisfaction level Very satisfied Dissatisfied Some what satisfied Percentage% 6 23 71

Satisfaction level on price

6% 23%

71%

23% Customers are very satisfied 71% Customers are somewhat satisfied 6% Customers are dissatisfied

SATISFACTION LEVEL ON PRODUCT QUALITY

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PRODUCT QUALITY

Q1 Q2 Q3

Satisfaction level Very satisfied Somewhat satisfied

Percentage% 30 66 Somewhat Dissatisfied 4

4% 30%

66%

30% are very satisfied with product quality 66% are somewhat satisfied with product quality 4% are somewhat dissatisfied with product quality

CUSTOMOR SERVICE LEVELS

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SERVICE QUALITY

SQ1 SQ2

Satisfaction level Very satisfied Somewhat satisfied

Percentage% 53 47

satisfaction level on customer service

47%

53%

53% are very satisfied with customer service 47% are somewhat satisfied with customer service

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AWARENESS ABOUT LOYALTY CARD (VIJETHAM CARD):-

SERVICE QUALITY

SQ1 SQ2

Satisfaction level Very satisfied Somewhat satisfied

Percentage% 53 47

Customer knows about loyalty card or not?

36%

64%

64% customer knows about loyalty card 36% customers doesn't know about loyalty card

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AWARENESS ABOUT VIJETHAS FREE HOME DELIVERY SERVICE

SERVICE QUALITY

SQ1 SQ2

Satisfaction level Very satisfied Somewhat satisfied

Percentage% 53 47

69

Awareness about free home delivery service

28%

72%

72% customers knows about subhiksha's free home delivery 28% customer doesn't know about subhiksha's free home delivery

DOES VIJETHA FULFILL CUSTOMERS HOUSEHOLD REQUIREMENTS:-

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SERVICE QUALITY

SQ1 SQ2

Satisfaction level Very satisfied Somewhat satisfied

Percentage% 53 47

31%

69%

69% Customer says No

31% Customer says Yes

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DOES CUSTOMER KNOW THAT VIJETHA PROVIDE 10% DISCOUNT ON MEDICINES?

Does customer know about 10% dis. on medicines?

CONVEY LEVEL CL1 CL2

DISCOUT FACTOR KNOWS CUSTOMERS

Percentage% 54 46

DOESNT KNOW

46%

54%

54% customers know about this discount 46% customer doesnt know about this discount

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CHAPTER-5
Findings,suggestions

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We think that we are getting a measure of customer satisfaction by tallying the number and types of customer complaints we receive each period. But in fact, 95% of dissatisfied customers dont complain; many may just stop buying. There is an intimate connection among product and service quality, customer satisfaction, and company profitability. Higher levels of quality result in higher levels of customer satisfaction. Many companies are aiming for high satisfaction because customers who are just satisfied still find it easy to switch when a better offer comes along. Those who are highly satisfied are much less ready to switch. High satisfaction or delight creates an emotional affinity with the brand, not just a rational preference. The result is high customer loyalty. Most companies fail to measure individual customer profitability. The well known 80/20 rule says that the top 20% of the customers may generate as much as 80% of the companys profits.

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suggestions Adopting customer-oriented thinking My first recommendation is to adopt customer-oriented thinking which requires the company to define customer needs from the customers point of view because a customer is a person who brings us his wants. It is our job to handle them profitably to him and to ourselves. Company should try to adopt some strategies like- Focus on target market, customer needs, integrated marketing. Integrated marketing- The Companys success depends not only on how well each department performs its work but also on how well the various departmental activities are coordinated. For instance- HR department should hire good and educated sales persons and training department should train them perfectly time to time.

More Emphasize on Sales assistance:VIJETHA should more emphasize on the training of sales force available at the stores with the information of new products and schemes, so that they are fully equipped with the information and schemes related to the product, hence they can improve in their working skills

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The need for customer retentionLosing profitable customers can dramatically impact a firms profits. The cost of attracting a new customer is estimated to be five times of the cost of keeping a current customer happy.

Adding Financial Benefits Company should offer some financial benefits to the customer. They are: Through frequency marketing programs (FMPs), we can provide rewards to customers who buy frequently and/or in substantial amounts. Company can offer price club cards to its customers that provide member customers with unadvertised discounts on particular items. More Emphasize on customer service:There should be more Emphasize on customer service. Because VIJETHA mainly facing the competition with Mom & Pop stores (kirana stores), and they have personal relationship from long time of period with customers. Thats why company try to make better relationship with their customers.
Include some new product categories: -

Even providing good services to the costumers company can not get desired attention from costumers because of low product category so I recommend that company should Include some new product categories like fresh fruits and vegetables because due to these product categories we can attract more

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customers and can increase their basket size. and similarly their satisfaction level towards companys stores.

CHAPTER-6

Conclusions

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CONCLUSION
After analyzing the satisfaction level of customer on price, products and customer service it has come to know that 23% customers are very satisfied, 71% are somewhat satisfied and 6% are dissatisfied with the price. 30% customers are satisfied, 66% somewhat satisfied and 4% are dissatisfied with products quality.
53% customers are very satisfied and 47% are somewhat satisfied

with customer service of VIJETHA. Awareness about loyalty card- 64% customers aware about loyalty card and 36% customers are unaware about loyalty cards.
72% customers aware about VIJETHAs free home delivery service

and 28% are unaware. 61% customers are in favour of discount on MRP, where 23% are in favour of providing various offers on products and 16% required both things.
69% customers think that VIJETHA does not fulfill their household

requirements.

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Annexure I (Questionnaire)
Customer Satisfaction at VIJETHA

Respondent Name : Address Gender: Occupation: : (a) Male (b) Female (d) student

(a) Business (b) Service (c) House Wife

1. Are you satisfied with the Price of VIJETHA? (a)Very Satisfied (b) Somewhat Satisfied (c) Dissatisfied

2. Are you satisfied with the product quality of VIJETHA? (a)Very Satisfied (b) Somewhat Satisfied (c) Dissatisfied

3. Overall, how satisfied are you with the customer service experience at VIJETHA stores? (a)Very Satisfied (b) Somewhat Satisfied (c) Dissatisfied

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4. Are you aware about VIJETHAm card? (a)Yes (b) No

5. Are you aware that VIJETHA offers free home delivery without any pre-conditions? (a)Yes (b) No

6. Does VIJETHA fulfill your household requirements i.e. food, nonfood and staple items? (a)Yes (b) No

7. Do you know that VIJETHA provides 10% discount on medicines? (a)Yes (b) No

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Bibliography

BOOKS:1. Kotler, Philip, Marketing Management, New Delhi, Prentice Hall Of India, 1998. 2. Kothari, C.R., Research Methodology, New Delhi, New Age International Publishers, Second Revised Edition: 2004

3. Stephens, Nancy J., Customer - focused Selling, U.S.A., Adams Media Corporation, 1997

MAGAZINES AND JOURNALS:Images Retail, July, 2008

WEBSITES:www.wikipedia.com www.google.com www.retailbiz.coms

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