Retail Management in Gul

Ahmed
Final Project
Prepared By:
Tanzeel-e-Rahman Khan
Zaeem Munawar

13125
13118
13127

Arslan Khalil
Adullah Muzaffar

13165
13169

Fatima Rauf

13125

Asif Sultan

Submitted to: Mr. Asim Jameel

Acknowledgment
We would like to express our special appreciation and thanks to our
advisor Mr. Asim Jameel, you have been a tremendous mentor for us. We
would like to thank you for encouraging our project and for allowing us to
grow as better citizens. Your advice on both project as well as on our career
have been priceless. We would also like to thank Gul Ahmed and their Staff
for their courteous cooperation and, they have also been helpful for our project
and they have been modes of guidance and motivation. I also want to thank
my mentor Mr. Asim Jameel for letting my project be an enjoyable
experience, and for your brilliant comments and suggestions, thanks to you. I
would also like to thank my group members for their hard work and support.
Your contribution will be building blocks of our foundation. All of you have
been there to support us in the execution of our project.
Regards:
M.Tanzeel-e-Rahman Khan
(Group Leader)

Table of Contents
Introduction __________________________________________________________________ 4

2 Question (A) Identify the type of retail outlet, and type of ownership. (Department, drug,
confectionery, restaurant, service, single store, retail chain). _______________________________ 5
3 Question (B) Defined the retail strategy, described the target market, and identify the
competitors, of the store? __________________________________________________________ 5
3.1

Target market: ____________________________________________________________ 5

3.2

Retail strategy: ___________________________________________________________ 6

3.3

Competitor analysis _______________________________________________________ 6

4 Question (C) Is the store management making efforts building sustainable competitive
advantage? If so how? Narrate in briefly. _______________________________________________ 7
4.1

Sustainable competitive advantage ___________________________________________ 7

4.2

Store location ____________________________________________________________ 7

4.3

Store interior and exterior __________________________________________________ 8

4.4

Employees _______________________________________________________________ 8

4.5

Products Assortment ______________________________________________________ 8

4.6

Ownership combination ____________________________________________________ 9

4.7

Company owned distribution network ________________________________________ 10

5 Questioned (D) What kind of vendor relations do they have? Are the deriving any kind of
benefit out of that relationship? Pen down to the details. ________________________________ 10
6

Question (E) How does the retailer motivate its employees does it help in retaining them? __ 11

7 Question (F) How do they keep the operation no cost? And build multiple sources of
advantage? _____________________________________________________________________ 12
7.1

Having their own distribution network ________________________________________ 12

7.2

Warehouse management systems and inventory databases _______________________ 12

7.3

Minimising wastages ______________________________________________________ 12

8 Question (G) What kind of growth strategies do they follow, Like market penetration, market
expansion, retail format development, and or diversification? _____________________________ 13
9 Question (H) How do they define their mission statement? And write down the mission
statement. ______________________________________________________________________ 13
9.1

Mission statement _______________________________________________________ 13

9.2

How they define it? _______________________________________________________ 13

10
10.1

Question (I) Carry out swot analysis of the store. _________________________________ 14

Question (J) Whether the basis of selecting the retail site? Please give details. ________ 15

11

Question (K) What kind of retail organisation structure do they have? Please narrate briefly15

12

Question (L) What kind of incentives do they offer to their employees? _______________ 16

13

Question (M) How do they build employs commitment? ___________________________ 16

14

Question (N) How do they evaluate store employees and provide feedback? ___________ 17

15

Question (O) What steps do they take to detect/prevent shoplifting? _________________ 17

15.1

RFID tags _______________________________________________________________ 18

15.2

Theft detection system and chips ____________________________________________ 18

15.3

Inventory database _______________________________________________________ 18

15.4

Periodic surprise inspections _______________________________________________ 18

16
Question (P) What is your overall evaluation of the store? And what are your suggestions to
further improve the stores business? Also evaluate the location of the store including the strengths
and weaknesses of the location._____________________________________________________ 19

1 INTRODUCTION
The Gul Ahmed group in the Pakistani company
that includes Gul Ahmed Textile Mills, Gul
Ahmed Energy and Habib Metropolitan Bank.
More recently, a chain of retail outlets has been
founded under the name ideas by Gul Ahmed.
The groups concerns go by the name of Swisstex
chemicals (private) Ltd, which is a large
chemical distribution company that has the sole rights for supplying Ciba speciality chemicals
in Pakistan. The Gul Ahmed group began trading textiles in the early 20th century. In 1953 the
group decided to enter the field of manufacturing under the name of Gul Ahmed textile Mills
Ltd, and was incorporated as a private limited company. In 1972, it was listed on the Karachi
stock exchange. Since then, the company has made rapid progress and is currently one of the
leading composite textile houses in the world.
Gul Ahmeds fine textile products represent a unique fusion of the century old traditions of the
East and the latest textile technology of the West. The purest of cotton fibres, produced from
the fertile lands of Indus Valley, are spun, woven and processed into the finest quality cotton
and blended products through a combination of latest technology, skills and craftsmanship of
this traditional industry. Overall Gul Ahmed is one of the largest textile industry of Pakistan
which is providing its services locally and globally.
The purpose of this project is to analyse the retail strategies being practised in Ideas, the retail
store chain of Gul Ahmed. We have selected model town Link Road branch of Ideas and we
collected all the information written below from the branch manager. We will be discussing
details according to the given questions format by Mr. Asim Jameel. We will try our level best
to be precise and as brief as we can be, so that the given information is not misunderstood or
misinterpreted by the readers. Although the information provided below is collected by
interviewing the store staff mainly the branch manager, and is written as is. The authenticity of
the given information is not guaranteed due to different opinions and point of views of the
branch staff while the official and verified information can only be collected by making
requests to the corporate offices of the firm. We are only able to collect the relevant information
by requesting the outlet staff, and we consider this information to be close to real life situations

because the employee statements are based on the daily experiences. The specified questions
are written below with the brief answers.

2 QUESTION (A) IDENTIFY THE TYPE OF RETAIL OUTLET, AND TYPE OF

OWNERSHIP. (DEPARTMENT, DRUG, CONFECTIONERY, RESTAURANT,
SERVICE, SINGLE STORE, RETAIL CHAIN).
Ideas is a very famous fashion retail chain in
Pakistan owned by one of the biggest textile houses
in the country. They offer fabric, apparel, home
textile, accessories, shoes and bags in both ladies and
gents varieties. Ideas offer exclusive distribution of
products available only in ideas outlets, and nowhere
else. Ideas have more than 65 outlets all over
Pakistan and most of these outlets company-owned and some of these outlets are franchised to
other partners.
Most of the outlets located in the metropolitan cities like Lahore, Islamabad, Karachi etc. are
company-owned and are very few outlets are franchised located in less crowded areas. In
Lahore only one or two outlets are franchised and all other outlets are company-owned. But in
other smaller cities most of the outlets are franchised to business partners.

3 QUESTION (B) DEFINED THE RETAIL STRATEGY, DESCRIBED THE TARGET

MARKET, AND IDENTIFY THE COMPETITORS, OF THE STORE?
3.1 TARGET MARKET:
The main target market for ideas is adult males and
females belonging to middle and upper class and
from all adult ages. A very small section targets kids
with a very limited assortment for them in that area.
Currently they are focusing mainly on the ladies
products and they are offering a very wide variety of
both Eastern and Western ladies ready to wear

products, unstitched fabrics, apparel, bags, shoes and accessories. For men they are offering
apparel, good variety of high quality unstitched fabric, and some assortment of accessories like
cufflinks, ties, belts, socks and wallets.
The fabric ranges from lawn, cotton, viscose, silk, Khaddar, chiffon, corduroy, velvet silk etc.
Some of the famous collections are G-Pret, G-Women, G-Silk, G-Mom etc.
They are also offering home fabric products like bedroom textile, bed linen, kitchen textile,
bath accessories and other Textile accessories like quilts, blankets, cushion covers, tablecloths,
pillow covers, towels and bathrobes etc. Their most selling products are from ladies section
and it represents large portion of their sales.

3.2 RETAIL STRATEGY:

they have a very strong network of more than 65 outlets all over Pakistan, many of them are
company-owned, which gives them independence and allows them to implement their set
standards and organisational values and they have been very successfully able to create a very
strong brand image in the market. They are following rapid expansion strategies and are
moving in areas where they are not yet present.

3.3 COMPETITOR ANALYSIS

The main competitors are Khaddi, Chen One, Bareeze, Chinyere etc. lets discuss each of them
one by one:
3.3.1

Khaddi

Khaadi is a Pakistani multinational luxury fashion house founded in 1998 by Shamoon Sultan.
It specialises in handwoven technique, products include unstitched lawn, menswear, luxury
Pret, childrens clothing, shoes, bags and jewelry. Khaadi have more than 35 stores in Pakistan
as a lay stores in UAE, Malaysia and the United Kingdom.
It one as a best high-street brand at 13th Lux style awards in 2014. It is currently developing a
Western fashion brand Khaadi West. And a 22,000 ft. Khaadi store under construction at
Karachis dolmen mall Clifton.
3.3.2

Chen One

Chen one is a chain of fashion stores owned by Chenab group (based in Faisalabad, Pakistan).
The 1st ChenOne store was opened in 1997 at Islamabad. ChenOne has stores located in
Pakistan and Middle East. Fashion products by Chen one are featured in the fashion magazines
of Pakistan. The ChenOne kiosks are attraction in the Dubai shopping Festival. They have more

than 30 outlets all over Pakistan and Middle East. Their major products are clothing, footwear,
bed linen, kitchen accessories and furniture.
3.3.3

Bareeze

Sefam (Bareeze) is a Pakistani high end fashion retailer and one of the countrys leading
businesses. Bareeze is in the list of Haute Couture which is a list of high end brands. It has
managed to get itself into that list by making extremely good quality clothing particularly in
Shalwar Kamese. Their main attraction is embroidered designer fabrics.
3.3.4

Chinyere

Chinyere is a 2nd brand under Sefam group, and they focuses on sophistication and style. It
was established in 1999 that has now evolved into countrys most popular and accessible
fashion brand. Catering to women as well as men, Chinyere has outlets all across Pakistan as
well as in Dubai, India, UK, Canada and Norway. Their main categories are Casual wear,
Formal wear, Couture, Menswear, Sleepwear, Abayas, Accessories and Jewellery.

4 QUESTION (C) IS THE STORE MANAGEMENT MAKING EFFORTS BUILDING

SUSTAINABLE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE? IF SO HOW? NARRATE IN
BRIEFLY.
4.1 SUSTAINABLE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
4.2 STORE LOCATION
All outlets of ideas are located in densely crowded market
locations of the city. These locations are convenient and
very accessible for the consumer as well as the
surrounding give these outlets much better visibility and
finally the competitive edge over other brands. Brands like Khaadi and chenOne etc. have not
emphasised that much on site location as they have done. One of the main reason for attraction
of consumer is that the outlets have large signage visible from far away on the roads makes the
outlet highlighted.

4.3 STORE INTERIOR AND EXTERIOR

Ideas have very brilliantly designed store interior
and exterior with very carefully designed layouts to
give consumers best shopping experience in the
outlet. These outlets leave a very long lasting
impression on the minds of the customers, and
makes the shopping experience very highly
energetic by the use of bright colours and fresh
themes. The exterior of the outlets is also designed very brilliantly and is capable of attracting
customers from far away from the outlets just by site impulse attraction. Thats why even
outlets play important role in impulse buying of the customer even if he had not even entered
the store yet.
The store interior is beautifully decorated and efficiently designed by the sales point of view.
The stores gives impression of liveliness and freshness for the outside customers. They have
placed different glass panel sections to display advertisement on the walls, they have nice
dressed up mannequins in the apparel section and the main entrance ground level of the store.
There are large illuminated signs alongside the entrance displaying advertisement of various
promotions and new arrival offers.

4.4 EMPLOYEES
every outlet of ideas have around 25 to 30 employees on average and most of the sales staff is
consisted of females because of their hot category is ladies products. Thats why the highest
number of employees are allocated to the women apparel section. Employees are well trained
and adequately educated and well-groomed and well dressed in special uniforms. Their
responsibility is to cater the needs of the customer warmly and courteously so that they can
take home not only the products but also the warmth of the brand with them.

4.5 PRODUCTS ASSORTMENT

They have nice and large assortment of SKU in the categories of Ladies products and Home
Textile, ladies can do one stop shopping of their favourite merchandise from one store relating
to their clothing, fashion and domestic needs. They have one of the best colour ranges in the
market, they very unique and attractive colour collection, which is not fully available on any
other brands. The designer series of Gul Ahmed brands also gives them unique selling points
and attracts a large footfall of the customers. In the men section they are offering the highest

quality fabric collection in the market, they offer best quality cotton and mixture material for
unstitched fabric section. Their chairman Latha and Khadar are particularly very famous.
Finally they have obtained full potential of convenience goods and impulse goods and they
have ingeniously designed the product displays to ensure maximum mental impact and highest
level of sales. The assortment of these items along with the main product lines ensures
maximum impulse buying in most of the outlets located in central urban areas and posh
societies.

4.6 OWNERSHIP COMBINATION

In past few years Gul Ahmed has grown at a very fast pace without losing consistency in their
services, one of the key reasons behind this is their expansion style and business partnership
strategies. Many of the outlets are company-owned that means the company has more
flexibility and authority over these outlets and the company can enjoy much better profit levels
as compared to the franchise format. The company can easily implement their set organisation
standards to their company-owned outlets and can interfere in all type of store operations.
While another hand if we discuss their franchise format, they have very strong strategies of
doing business with partners and creating win-win situations. They have successfully
implemented all their standards in the franchises and they are able to create the same image
from them as well.

4.7 COMPANY OWNED DISTRIBUTION NETWORK

They have a very effective cost efficient transportation system and distribution network which
allows them to keep minimum levels of inventory and minimise the costs associated with it
they have applied just in time and on demand distribution strategies. The distribution network
delivers the goods with minimum time possible and the distribution centres are also located in
the same city catering the needs of multiple outlets on the basis of hub and spoke distribution
network system. The transportation network is also used for other purposes like delivering back
the faulty items and returned goods and as well as the internal branch transportation of goods.
If the item is not available in one branch they can make a request to fetch it from other branches
to fulfil the need of a regular customer.

Landi kotal
Karachi

Lahore
Warehouse

Distribution

Outlets

5 QUESTIONED (D) WHAT KIND OF VENDOR RELATIONS DO THEY HAVE?

ARE THE DERIVING ANY KIND OF BENEFIT OUT OF THAT RELATIONSHIP?
PEN DOWN TO THE DETAILS.
Most of the mainstream products of ideas are
sourced from Gul Ahmed textile mill and other
internal sources. A few of these products and
some impulse goods are usually outsourced
from different vendors, like handbags, clutches,
wallets, leather products, some shoes variety
etc. these items are bought on quarterly basis in
alignment of the seasonal sales. The top management of the firm chooses vendors on basis of
quality and their consistency and reliability only if it aligns with Gul Ahmed image. A contract
is signed with these vendors on sound terms. Ideas have its own distribution network and their
responsibility is to deliver all types of merchandise to the outlets without delays and shortages.
They also have alliances with other transportation companies on contract basis for the

distribution purposes in many cities. The vendors enjoy and level of benefits from the
organisation, but the organisation also have up to hand to dictate them their own terms and
conditions when necessary by having multiple vendors on their panel and minimising channel
monopolies.

6 QUESTION (E) HOW DOES THE RETAILER MOTIVATE ITS EMPLOYEES DOES
IT HELP IN RETAINING THEM?
Ideas have a very good HR system and hiring
department and it is commonly observed that
employees are satisfied and highly motivated to serve
the needs of the customers in all ways possible. Ideas
involve them in multiple activities of store
management during job rotation. They are groomed
by involving them in multiple training sessions and
counselling activities on regular basis. Extensive training workshops and courses are also
organised in order to keep the staff with suitable and significant knowledge of their jobs. This
gives them job satisfaction and keeps them motivated on their jobs. The purpose of the uniform
for the staff is to make them feel as part of an organisation as a single body, this also unites
them and creates different interpersonal corporations among the staff members. The staff is
respected at highest moral standards and they make them feel that they are important to ideas.
They are encouraged to share their opinions and thoughts to improve the operations and they
are also rewarded for their contributions that so they feel motivated and obliged to contribute
in the organisation and for its success.
They are also given daily targets to achieve on daily basis different incentives attached with
these targets which also gives them monetary motivation to perform better and create more
sales for the store.

7 QUESTION (F) HOW DO THEY KEEP THE OPERATION NO COST? AND

BUILD MULTIPLE SOURCES OF ADVANTAGE?
They keep their operations low cost by following ways:

7.1 HAVING THEIR OWN DISTRIBUTION NETWORK

They

have

very

effective

cost

efficient

transportation system and distribution network which

allows them to keep minimum levels of inventory and
minimise the costs associated with it they have
applied just in time and on demand distribution
strategies. The distribution network delivers the goods with minimum time possible and the
distribution centres are also located in the same city catering the needs of multiple outlets on
the basis of hub and spoke distribution network system. The transportation network is also used
for other purposes like delivering back the faulty items and returned goods and as well as the
internal branch transportation of goods. If the item is not available in one branch they can make
a request to fetch it from other branches to fulfil the need of a regular customer.

7.2 WAREHOUSE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS AND INVENTORY DATABASES

Outlets have small stores to keep inventory and most of the space is given to the sales floor to
display more items in the outlet. Distribution centres are responsible to keep all that excessive
inventory and provide it to the outlets on regularly basis. They have a very nice ERP system
installed manage the inventory both in the outlets and the warehouses, by using this information
management system they are able to synchronise the inventory flow levels both in the
warehouses and the outlets. They have complete information of every single unit and its
location whether it is in warehouse or it is displayed in the outlet, this helps them to manage
the surplus and shortages of inventory.

7.3 MINIMISING WASTAGES

on regular daily basis store managers and their assistants are responsible to reduce wastage is
on daily basis for example saving electricity by shutting down extra air conditioners during low
footfall of customers and increasing the air conditioning capability accordingly when the
customer footfall rises. They dont have to use 20 conditioners installed in a single outlet where
there are only 10 customers at a time so they can reduce it to 2 or 3 air conditioners or as per
the requirement according to the climate of the outlet. Similarly they have installed systems to

minimise shoplifting by customers and they have installed high-tech systems to detect and
prevent shoplifting.

8 QUESTION (G) WHAT KIND OF GROWTH STRATEGIES DO THEY FOLLOW,

LIKE MARKET PENETRATION, MARKET EXPANSION, RETAIL FORMAT
DEVELOPMENT, AND OR DIVERSIFICATION?
Ideas is following market expansion and market penetration
strategies currently to grow their business and for this purpose
they are offering franchises to investors in cities other than the
Metropolitan cities, like in Multan, Bahawalpur etc. they
provide full support to the franchise owners and all the
advertising and training are done by the corporate staff of the
firm. Franchise format is very fast requires least investment and
gives you nominal amounts of profits against your brand name. Currently they have 15 to 20
franchises all of Pakistan. As the company is a public limited, these franchised outlets are later
on purchased by the company. For market penetration they are working on introducing new
brands and products to cater the needs of wider target section. Like they are planning to launch
a complete kids category to target this segment as well while very few of the competitors are
catering this segment, it will give them strong competitive edge over other brands.

9 QUESTION (H) HOW DO THEY DEFINE THEIR MISSION STATEMENT? AND

WRITE DOWN THE MISSION STATEMENT.
9.1 MISSION STATEMENT
To deliver value to our stakeholders through innovative technology, teamwork and by fulfilling
our social and environmental responsibilities.

9.2 HOW THEY DEFINE IT?

Still after 50 years since the inception Gul Ahmed is still consistent with its quality, innovation
and reliability. They want to give their stakeholders value by giving achieving local and
international competitive advantage through superior textile products and services at best
prices. They try to meet and exceed customer expectations through superior retail strategy and

better quality of the products. They want to achieve results by promoting professionalism,
productivity and efficiency all of this at competitive prices and premium products to the clients.

10 QUESTION (I) CARRY OUT SWOT ANALYSIS OF THE STORE.

Strengths

Unique Colors, Designs & Competitive

Weaknesses

Limited variety in Mens segment and

product prices.

almost no assortment for kids

Large Infrastructure and strong

segment

organizational background

Great human resource

Company owned outlets and distributions

network

Opportunities

Market saturation

Diversification and more penetration in

home dcor and furniture segment.

Rise in Pakistan Retail Industry

Development of new Retail formats like

departmental stores.

Global expansion

Benefit from removal of trade barriers by

European Union and other trade bodies.

Lack of competitive aggressiveness

to sustain and defend market share

Lack of customer loyalty programs

Lack of CRM initiatives

Threats

Regulations, restriction and taxes.

Retention of key talented staff and
management.
Seasonal life cycles of the products
Strong environmental and economic
changes
Other competitors catching up by
following the footsteps.

10.1 QUESTION (J) WHETHER THE BASIS OF SELECTING THE RETAIL SITE? PLEASE GIVE DETAILS.
Most of the ideas outlets are located in central highly crowded markets like Liberty, DHA Yblock, Model down link road, Gulberg etc. to attract maximum number of customers and to
achieve targeted sales objectives the following are main bases of selecting the retail site:

Convenience

Visibility

Traffic

Signal crossings

Area footage

Parking facility

High footfall probability

11 QUESTION (K) WHAT KIND OF RETAIL ORGANISATION STRUCTURE DO

THEY HAVE? PLEASE NARRATE BRIEFLY

CEO

General Manager

HRM Manager

Assistant HRM
Manager

Marketing and
Creative
Manager

Marketing Team

Creatvie Team

Regional
managers

Accounts
Manager

Branch Manager

Assistant
Accounts
Manager

Asst. Manager

Cash Counter
staff

Floor manager

Store/Sales Staff

Accounts Dept.

12 QUESTION (L) WHAT KIND OF INCENTIVES DO THEY OFFER TO THEIR

EMPLOYEES?
Gul Ahmed has human resource and remuneration committee
which is responsible to ensure that the company adopts,
monitors and applies appropriate remuneration policies and
procedures. They provide adequate level of benefits in
combination with the pay scale of the staff. They try to
maintain a friendly environment and provides safe working
conditions to provide them job satisfaction. Of the job
satisfaction is also necessary for an employee's performance so
they have other policies as well like medical allowances and loan facilities etc.
They have very good reward system as well which allows them to achieve sales targets as well
as motivating the employees. They give sales targets on daily basis, quarterly basis and 6
monthly basis. These targets are designed in slabs format and each slab has higher target with
higher rewards as well. If youll achieve 1st slab you are eligible to claim lowest level of the
reward and as you go higher and achieve next target slabs you can claim higher rewards. This
reward system gives employees an opportunity to create extra income over their fixed salaries
by performing better.
They also have a very nice retirement benefit policies giving the employees independent lives
after the retirement. They have both the gratuity and provident funds. Last year the company
had contributed Rs. 82 million for these retirement benefits. The total retirement funds are
valued at Rs. 534 million, out of which Rs. 42 million has already been paid to retiring
employees.

13 QUESTION (M) HOW DO THEY BUILD EMPLOYS COMMITMENT?

As discussed above their employs are given different targets on daily bases which allows them
to earn extra over their salaries, this provides the organisation to achieve employee
commitment even on daily basis and they are able to achieve record sales levels in past years.
To understand how this mechanism works lets discuss the sales targets and reward system.
The branch /floor managers are responsible to calculate the branchs daily target, on the basis
of previous days sales. They use this previous data and calculate new sales targets by putting

them in companys standard forecasting formulas. Then the calculated target is then divided
over 3 stages called slabs in normal days achieving the 1st slab of target will give 25% of his
salary to the employee, if he achieved the next slab he will be eligible to claim 50% amount of
his salary as reward, 3rd slab will give him 75% and so on. In promotional days these
percentages can very like 25% on 1st slab, 37% on 2nd slab and 50% on 3rd slab and so on.
Secondly there are other reward policies as well which also creates employees commitment
towards the store. They have very nice appraisal policies, according to which they provide
promotions, salary increments, job rotations and many other benefits to the employees.
Employers enjoy these benefits and appraisals on bases of their evaluation of performance.

14 QUESTION (N) HOW do THEY EVALUATE STORE EMPLOYEES AND

PROVIDE FEEDBACK?
Employees performance is recorded on regularly basis, especially the sales staffs
performance is recorded on daily basis in different journals available under the authority of the
manager. In branch level floor managers and assistant managers are responsible to monitor and
evaluate the performance of sales staff and cash counter staff as well as store management staff.
They have attendance checks on monthly basis, whether the employees are coming on time or
not, how many absentees they have and how disciplined they are during the work hours. This
complete information is then reviewed by the manager and then sent to the HR department for
further evaluation and feedback. HR department provides feedback to the managers and it is
their responsibility convey it to the staff and take relevant actions if necessary. Promotions and
salary increments are directly controlled by the HR and remuneration Department.

15 QUESTION (O) WHAT STEPS DO THEY TAKE TO DETECT/PREVENT

SHOPLIFTING?
Ideas have installed many high-tech Information Systems and other technologies to prevent
shoplifting as well as they also have different other strategies to prevent or detect shoplifting
activities either on customers end or employees end. The following are the strategies they have
implemented successfully in all outlets.

15.1 RFID TAGS

They have installed RFID tags on all of their products small or large, which gives them freedom
to track any products location within the bounds of the outlet premises and a few metres
outside. When a custom purchases an item and item is scanned at the cash counter the RFID
tag is also scanned and the computer knows the customer has now paid the amount and now he
can take the product with him outside the building. If the item is not scanned and someone tries
to take it out of the building the computer will alert the management that the item is not scanned
and someone is taking it out of the building.

15.2 THEFT DETECTION SYSTEM AND CHIPS

But the RFID technology has a drawback that these tags can be removed easily from the
products, so in order to improve security they have also added special antitheft chips which can
only be removed by the management and is installed on all of the items which can be concealed
and taken out of the store. On the cash counter a special device is provided which is used to
remove these chips from the products after the payment and the sensors placed in front of the
doors will not sound any alarm but if any chip passes through that sensor gate it will trigger the
alarm and the guards outside can easily stop the culprit.

15.3 INVENTORY DATABASE

they have complete inventory database records of all outlets directly connected to the head
office, and if any item is misplaced and is still in the record the store management will have to
find it and then notify them management and the head office.

15.4 PERIODIC SURPRISE INSPECTIONS

Ideas have hired inventory inspectors whose responsibility is to randomly make surprise visits
to different outlets every day and perform a quick audit of the inventory available in the outlet.

16 QUESTION (P) WHAT IS YOUR OVERALL EVALUATION OF THE STORE?

AND WHAT ARE YOUR SUGGESTIONS TO FURTHER IMPROVE THE STORES
BUSINESS? ALSO EVALUATE THE LOCATION OF THE STORE INCLUDING
THE STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES OF THE LOCATION.
In our evaluation ideas is currently in a nice position in the market but there is much room for
improvement clearly. While other brands are striving to achieve maximum customer loyalty
by introducing different CRM programs, ideas is still not able to introduce any CRM initiative,
which can prove to be a very harmful mistake for them. Ideas has strong organisational policies
and innovative strategies, and courteous staff who are committed to them and are highly
motivated. Ideas enjoy many competitive advantages but still they are not the market leader
due to some lacking like short assortment of mens products and almost no assortment for kids,
these 2 segments are also equally profitable as ladies segment, so they need to focus on these
segments as soon as possible. Ideas provide unique, convenient and beautiful shopping
environment with beautifully designed interior and exterior as well which makes the
customers experience much more fresh and energetic as portrayed in their brand image. Ideas
is able to create a strong brand image by consistently providing high quality fabric material
comparable to any other brand in the market at a very sensible price range. They also have
plans to add a new and innovative products every year to capture more and more market
segments. They are also striving to gain international presence as the word becomes more and
more like a global village, and they also have a strong reputation locally and internationally
regarding their quality, reliability and innovativeness.
As far as the location of the store is concerned they have very nicely chosen all the major outlet
locations and have invested large amounts for these locations, because they are extremely
expensive prime locations for any retail store. In my opinion these locations are excellent
because they are adjacent to densely populated middle and upper class societies who are their
direct target market and this gives them a competitive edge. The outlet are located on the main
roads or inside malls which are located in high foot for probability areas, they also have
adequate parking space available to these outlets and are highly convenient to the customers.
In my opinion ideas should start focusing on men and kids segment as well and they should
also go for international trends like other brands are approaching Western trends. Moreover
they should also speed up the franchising process so that they can gain more and more presence

in smaller cities as well in this way they can become a true national brand and may be achieve
market leader position with better prospects of further growth in international markets.