Kousali Institute of Management Studies

Karnatak Universwity, Dharwad

Lesson Plan
rd

3 Semester (Marketing)
Subject Title: RETAIL MANAGEMENT
Course Teacher
Contact No.
E-mail
Class days/Timings
Special Classes

: Dr. N. Ramanjaneyalu
: 9845672336
: n.ramulu@gmail.com
: as per time table
: with prior intimation to students

Subject Code: C14

Work load: 2+2 = 4 hours per week

Contact Hours: 30hrs; 30hrs tutorials

Credit Points: 2

Evaluation:

Continuous Internal Assessment 25 marks

Semester End Examination
25 marks
Objective: The primary purpose of this course is to provide a comprehensive understanding of
retailing management. An important goal of this course is to current thinking and developments
on these topics.
Pedagogy : Lectures, Assignments, Projects, Case studies and Seminars.
MODULE 1: Perspectives Retailing;
Introduction to the World of Retailing: Retail management, Introduction, meaning,
characteristics, emergence of organizations of retailing (Chapter 1). Types of Retailers (Chapter
2) Multichannel retailing (chapter-3) Customer buying behavior (chapter-4), historical
perspective, role of retailing, trends in retailing-Problems of Indian Retailing - Current Scenario
-Future Course
MODULE 2: Retailing Strategy and Planning:
Retail Market Strategy (chapter-5) -Financial Strategy (chapter-6) -Site & Locations (chapter7&8) Human Resource Management (chapter-9), Information Systems and supply chain
management & Logistics (chapter-10).
MODULE 3: Merchandise Management:
Planning Merchandise Assortments (chapter-12) -Buying systems -Buying merchandise (chapter13) Retail Pricing (chapter-14) -Retail Communication Mix(chapter-15).
MODULE 4: Store Management
Managing the store (chapter-16) -Store Layout, design, and Visual Merchandising (chapter-17),
Customer Service (chapter-18)
MODULE 5: Relationship Marketing in Retailing:
Management of relationship, evaluation of relationship marketing, relationship marketing in
Organized and unorganized retail sector, retail research and retail audits (chapter-11).
TEXT BOOKS: RETAILING MANGEMENT by Michel Levy, Barton Weitz and Ajay Pandit,
Tata McGraw-Hill, 8th Edition.
REFERENCE BOOKS:
Retail Management, Barry Berman- PHI, 9/E, 2005
Retail Marketing Management, David Gilbert- Pearson Education 1/e, 1999
RETAIL BIZ, Magazine.
1

LESSON PLAN (SCHEDULE) for Retail Management

Sessions
Module 1
(10hrs)
Session 1
(2 hours)

Session 2
(2 hours)

Session 3
(2 hours)

Session 4
(2 hours)

Session 5
(2 hours)

Topic: Retailing
Management

Essential Readings

Introduction to the World of

Retailing: Retail management,
Introduction,
meaning,
characteristics, emergence of
organizations of retailing
(Chapter 1).
Types of Retailers (Chapter 2)

RETAILING
MANGEMENT by
Levy, Weitz and
Pandit, TMH, 8th Ed.
Chapter-1

Lectu
re
Notes
Chapt
er
1.ppt
x

RETAILING
Chapt
er
MANGEMENT by
2.ppt
Levy, Weitz and
x
th
Pandit, TMH, 8 Ed.
Chapter-2,
Multichannel
retailing RETAILING
Chapt
er
(chapter-3)
MANGEMENT by
3.ppt
Levy, Weitz and
x
Pandit, TMH, 8th Ed.
Chapter-3
Historical perspective, role of Managing retailing, by Piyush
kumar, sinha and Dwarika
retailing, trends in retailingnd
Problems of Indian Retailing - Prasad Uniyal, 2 ed, Oxford,
chapter-2
Current Scenario -Future
Course.
Customer buying behavior RETAILING
Chapt
(chapter-4),
MANGEMENT by
er
Levy, Weitz and
4.ppt
Pandit, TMH, 8th Ed.
Chapter-4

Case/Assignment/ Projects
Select a well established retailing company and
prepare a report on the retailer in brief. Go
shopping: Visit local store and explain each
elements in retail mix.

Think about different strategies of the retailer you

selected above and compare with other competing
retailer. Strategies like target market, approach to
satisfying the needs, retail mix used by retailers,
private-label merchandise etc.
Analyze multi-channel strategy of the selected
retailer. Compare the merchandises, price etc
among different retail channels and find out the
synergies between multi channels used by the
retailer.
Write assignment on Historical perspective on
retailing.

Write down all the things that the store does to try
to stimulate customers to buy merchandise.
Observe customers selecting products to put in
their shopping carts. Observe people how do they
spend time in shopping, describe their behavior,
categorize them on similarities.

Sessions
Module
2
(10hrs)
Session 6
(2 hours)

Session 7
(2 hours)

Session 8
(2 hours)

Session 9
(2 hours)

Topic:
Essential
Retailing
Readings
Strategy &
Planning:
Retail market RETAILING
Strategy
MANGEMENT
(chapter-5)
by Levy, Weitz
and Pandit,
TMH, 8th Ed.
Chapter-5
Financial
RETAILING
Strategy
MANGEMENT
(chapter-6)
by Levy, Weitz
and Pandit,
TMH, 8th Ed.
Chapter-6
Site
& RETAILING
Locations
MANGEMENT
(chapterby Levy, Weitz
7&8)
and Pandit,
TMH, 8th Ed.
Chapter-7,8
Human
RETAILING
Resource
MANGEMENT
Management by Levy, Weitz
(chapter-9),
and Pandit,
TMH, 8th Ed.
Chapter-9

Lecture
Notes

Case/Assignment/ Projects

Chapter 5.ppt Identify the direct competitors of your selected company/retailers,

its target and positioning, its strategy with respect its competitors,
its retail format/mix. Identify its competitive advantage, do SWOT
analysis. Visit direct competitors store find out how are their retail
formats/mix similar? Or Dissimilar? On what bases do they have a
sustainable competitive advantage? Explain which you believe has
a stronger position?
Chap006.ppt Evaluate the financial strategy of the retailer you have chosen and
compare with other competitors performance.
Analyze profit margin, turnover, ROI, Inventory turnover, explain
from marketing perspective,
Go shopping, interview the manager how they determine its
performance objectives.
Chap007.ppt
Chap008.ppt

Interview the retailer/manager, which shopping centre/retailer is

the best tenant and what are the criteria?
Analyze the tenant mix. Do the tenants appear to complement one
another? What changes would you make in the tenant mix to
increase the overall health of the centre? How is this mix of stores
beneficial to both shoppers and retailers?

Chapter 9.ppt Evaluate the location of store/s of the retailer. Evaluate size and
shape of trade area. Describe the negative and positive aspects of
its location. Compare with its competitors store location/s. go to
shopping centre/stores analyze whether stores are clustered in some
logical manner. Compare the different locations of stores of
retailer.

Session
10
(2 hours)

Information
Systems and
supply chain
management
& Logistics
(chapter-10).

Sessions
(Module 3)
8hrs
Session 11
(2 hours)

RETAILING
MANGEMENT
by Levy, Weitz
and Pandit,
TMH, 8th Ed.
Chapter-10

Chapter
10.ppt

Describe and evaluate the retailers Information and supply chain

systems. Report on the location of the distribution centre? Does the
retailer use direct store delivery from vendors? How frequently
deliveries are made to the store? Does the merchandise come in
ready for sale? What is the stores percentage of stock outs? Does
the retailer use pull or push system? Does the store get involved in
determining what merchandise is in the store and in what
quantities? Does the retailer use VMI, EDI, CPFR, or RFID?

Topic:
Merchandise
Management

Essential
Readings

Lecture
Notes

Case/Assignment/ Projects

Planning
Merchandise
Assortments
(chapter-12)

RETAILING
MANGEMENT
by Levy, Weitz
and Pandit,
TMH, 8th Ed.
Chapter-12
RETAILING
MANGEMENT
by Levy, Weitz
and Pandit,
TMH, 8th Ed.
Chapter-13

ch12.ppt

RETAILING
MANGEMENT
by Levy, Weitz
and Pandit,
TMH, 8th Ed.
Chapter-14

Chap01
4.ppt

Visit the store, and audit the variety and assortment for a specific
merchandise category. Record the breadth and depth of the
assortment and the level of support; compare the variety,
assortment, and support for the same category in a competing retail
store. What are the advantages and disadvantages of breadth versus
depth for each retailer and for customers?
Visit the retailer and perform an audit of its manufacturers and
private brands. Whether percentage of private brands has increased
or decreased? What is the stores philosophy toward
manufacturers versus private brands. Based on your observation
assess branding strategy. How much consumers can save by
purchasing private label brands or by purchasing from unorganized
retail shops.
Does the retailer use high/low pricing or EDLP strategy? How
markdown decisions are made? How store decides how much
markdown should be? What rule-based approaches are used to
make markdowns? Does the retailer use techniques for stimulating
sales such as price lining, leader pricing, bundling, or multiunit and
odd pricing? Evaluate you findings. Do you believe the retailer is

Session 12
(2 hours)

Buying
systems
-Buying
merchandise
(chapter-13)

Session 13
(2 hours)

Retail Pricing
(chapter-14)

Ch13.pp
t

using the best pricing strategies and tactics for its type of store?
What, if anything, could it do to improve? What is total cost of
market basket at each store?
RETAILING
MANGEMENT
by Levy, Weitz
and Pandit,
TMH, 8th Ed.
Chapter-15

Session Manag RETAILING

ing the MANGEME
15
(2 hrs) store
NT by
(chapt
Levy, Weitz
er-16)
and Pandit,
TMH, 8th Ed.
Chapter-16

Chapter
15.ppt

Evaluate the communication activities undertaken by retailer; describe

retailers brand image.Explain how retailer uses each of the following
elements of its communication: direct marketing, online marketing,
personal selling, sales promotions, direct mail and e-mail, mobile
marketing, advertising, social media, public relations, web-site, and
events. Do all of these elements send a consistent brand-image to
customers? Why or why not?

Lecture Notes

-Retail
Communicati
on Mix
(chapter-15).

Essential Readings

ManagementTopic: Store

4)Sessions (Module

Session 14
(2 hours)

Case/Assignment/ Projects

Chapter
16.ppt

Visit the store, find out who is responsible for employee scheduling? How far in advance is
the schedule made? How are breaks and lunch periods planned? How are overtime
determined? On what is the total number of budgeted employee hours for each department
based? How is the flexibility introduced into the schedule? How are special requests for
days off handled? How are peak periods (hours, days or seasons) planned for? What
happens when employee calls in sick at the last minute? What are the strengths and
weaknesses of the staff scheduling system from the managers and employees
perspectives? How sales associates are compensated and evaluated for the job performance?
How sales associates are trained? What are the criteria for evaluation? How often are they
evaluated? Do sales people have targets? If they do, how are they set? What are the rewards
of exceeding targets? What are the consequences of not meeting these objectives? Can sales
associates make a commission? If yes how does the commission system work? What are the
advantages of a commission system? What are the disadvantages? If there is no commission
system, are any incentive program offered? Give an example of specific program or project
used by the store to boost employee morale and productivity. Evaluate all the answers to
these questions, make recommendations for improvement where appropriate. Go to store,
observe the security measures in the store, and talk with a manager about the stores loss
prevention program. Are there surveillance cameras? Where are they located? Are the
5

Session -Store
Layou
16
(2 hrs) t,
design
, and
Visual
Merch
andisi
ng(cha
pter17),

RETAILING
MANGEME
NT by
Levy, Weitz
and Pandit,
TMH, 8th Ed.
Chapter-17

Chapter
17.pptx

Session Custo
mer
17
(2 hrs) Servic
e
(chapt
er-18).

RETAILING
MANGEME
NT by
Levy, Weitz
and Pandit,
TMH, 8th Ed.
Chapter-18

Chapter
18.ppt

cameras monitored, or they just there to thwart shoplifting? What is the store policy against
shoplifters? What are the procedures for approaching a suspected shoplifter? What roles do
sales associates and executives play in the security programs? Is employee theft a problem?
Elaborate. How is employee theft prevented in the store? How is customer service related to
loss prevention in the store? What is the retailer doing well in terms of security and loss
prevention, and in which areas should it improve its policies and procedures?
Evaluate store layout, design and visual merchandising techniques of the retailer you have
chosen. In general, are the store layout, design, and visual merchandising technics
consistent with the exterior of the store and its location? Is the stores ambience consistent
with the merchandise presented and the customers experiences? How do the store layout,
design, and visual merchandising support the following objectives: 1) implements the
retailers strategy, 2) builds loyalty, 3) increases sales, 4) controls costs, and 5) meets legal
requirements? To what extent are the stores layout, design and merchandising techniques
flexible? How does the store utilise atmospheric elements such as colour, lighting, music,
and scent? Are these uses appropriate given stores merchandize and target market? Is the
store design environmentally friendly? If yes, please describe. If no, how could it become
more green? Are the fixtures consistent with the merchandise and the overall ambience of
the store? Are they flexible? Evaluate the stores signage. Does it do an effective job of
selling merchandise? Has the retailer used any technical effects to help sell merchandise?
Does the store layout help draw people through the store? Has the retailer taken advantage
of the opportunity to sell merchandise in feature areas? Does the store make creative use of
the wall space? What type of layout does the store use? Is it appropriate for the type of
store? Would another type of layout be better? How the profitability of the space is
evaluated? Is there a better approach? How space is assigned to merchandise? Whether
planograms are used? Is so, try to determine what factors are considered when putting
together a planogram? Are departments in the most locations? Would you move any
departments? What methods/s has the retailer used to organise merchandise? Is this the best
way? Suggest any appropriate changes?
Go to the store outlet of the retailer describe and evaluate the service it offers. What service
is offered? Is the service personalised or standardized? Talk to the customers and employees
about the service quality and their problems or complaints, experiences and write report on
that. Suggest for the improving the store customer service. Ask the employees what the
retailer does to assist and motivate them to provide good service.

Sessions
(Module 4)
4hrs
Session 18
(4 hours)

Topic:
Relationship
Marketing in Retailing

Essential
Readings

Lecture
Notes

Case/Assignment/ Projects

Management
of
relationship, evaluation of
relationship marketing,
relationship marketing in
organized
and
unorganized retail sector,
retail research and retail
audits (chapter-11).

RETAILING
MANGEMEN
T by Levy,
Weitz and
Pandit, TMH,
8th Ed.
Chapter-11

Chapter
11.ppt

Study on the stores offers a frequent shopper/loyalty

program and how effective it is in increasing sales and
profits. Find out store managers view on these loyalty
programs what could be done to increase the effectiveness
of the program. Find out how many customers are
members of the loyalty program. How membership in the
program affects their shopping behavior and relationship
with the retailer.