SUMMER TRAINING PROJECT

Achieving Consumer Delight

Through
Operational Efficiencies

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 PREFACE

I have done my Summer Training Project on Achieving Consumer Delight from Reliance
Fresh Limited. The topic of my project is “Achieving Consumer Delight through Operational
Efficiencies.”

The project was assigned by Mr. Mohd. Anwar Naqvi (District Manager – Delhi North
cluster). The duration of the project was from 16th May 2008 to 16th July 2008 (Eight Weeks).

During the project I worked on what are ways Reliance Fresh could achieve consumer
delight. A survey was also done for understanding consumer buying pattern and preferences.

It was studied on how various operations in the store when function in an integrated manner
can help achieve a state where consumer delight can be achieved positioning Reliance Fresh
as the top store chain in its category.

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I am thankful to Dr. (Mrs.) Ritu Narang, Director MBA (Retail Management) Programme,
Institute of Management Sciences, University of Lucknow who provided me with the
opportunity and guided me in successful completion of my project. I would also like to
acknowledge my sincere thanks to various faculty members especially Miss. Smita Singh.
Under their valuable guidance, constant interest and encouragement, who have devoted their
ever-precious time from their busy schedule and helped me in completing the project.

Special, continual assistance while collecting the data was provided by the respondents. I
wish to acknowledge my special thanks to them for their help and cooperation in order to
complete this project.

I express gratitude to Mr. Mohd. Anwar Naqvi (District Manager – North Cluster) for his
valuable guidance which was a good learning experience in order to make my efforts
successful. His co-operation was not only useful for this project but will be a constant source
of inspiration for me in the future.

I am also thankful to those who have helped me intellectually in preparation of this project
directly or indirectly. I am deeply indebted to the various sources of information from
relevant sites from internet and books.

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 INDEX

S.NO. CONTENTS PAGE NO.

1. Preface 2

2. Acknowledgement 3

3. Introduction 5

4. Research Objective 12

5. Research Methodology 14

6. Store Operations Efficiencies intended 18

to Achieve Consumer Delight

7. Data Analysis & Interpretation 36

8. Recommendation & Conclusion 44

9. Limitations 46

10. Bibliography
48

11. Annexure – Questionnaire

49

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INTRODUCTION

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 INTRODUCTION

Retailing is the interface between the producer and the individual consumer buying for
personal consumption. This excludes direct interface between the manufacturer and
institutional buyers such as the government and other bulk customers. A retailer is one who
stocks the producer’s goods and is involved in the act of selling it to the individual consumer,
at a margin of profit. As such, retailing is the last link that connects the individual consumer
with the manufacturing and distribution chain.

The retail industry in India is considered as one of the sunrise sectors in the economy. AT
Kearney, the well-known international management consultancy, recently identified India as
the ‘second most attractive retail destination’ globally from among thirty emergent markets.
It has made India the cause of a good deal of excitement of many foreign eyes. With a
contribution of 14% to the national GDP and employing 7% of the total workforce (only
agriculture employs more) in the country, the retail industry is definitely one of the pillars of
the Indian economy.

The Indian Scenario

Trade or retailing is the single largest component of the services sector in terms of
contribution to GDP. Its massive share of 14% is double the figure of the next largest broad
economic activity in the sector. The retail industry is divided into organised and unorganised

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sectors. Organised retailing refers to trading activities undertaken by licensed retailers, that is,
those who are registered for sales tax, income tax, etc. These include the corporate-backed
hypermarkets and retail chains, and also the privately owned large retail businesses.
Unorganised retailing, on the other hand, refers to the traditional formats of low-cost
retailing, for example, the local kirana shops, owner manned general stores, paan / beedi
shops, convenience stores, hand cart and pavement vendors, etc.
Unorganized retailing is by far the prevalent form of trade in India –constituting 98% of total
trade, while organised trade accounts only for the remaining 2%.

Efficiency enhancements and increase in the food retail sales activity would have a cascading
effect on employment and economic activity in the rural areas for the marginalized workers.
Thus, the corporate owned sector is expanding at a furious rate.

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Books, Music
1%
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 RELIANCE RETAIL LTD.-Revolutionising Indian Retail

Reliance is gearing up to revolutionize the retailing industry in India. Towards this end, it is
aggressively working on introducing a pan-India network of retail outlets in multiple formats.

A world class shopping environment, state of art technology, a seamless supply chain
infrastructure, a host of unique value-added services and above all, unmatched customer
experience, is all it talks about.

The retail initiative of Reliance is expected to be without a parallel in size and spread. It is
involved in deriving such a retail model to ensure better returns to Indian farmers and
manufacturers and greater value for the Indian consumer, both in quality and quantity. By
creating value at all levels, it promises to actively endeavour to contribute to India's growth.

The project will boast of a seamless supply chain infrastructure, unprecedented even by world
standards. Through multiple formats and a wide range of categories, Reliance is aiming to
touch almost every Indian customer and supplier.

Vision
To be the most admired and successful organised Retail Company in India that materially
enhances the quality of life of every Indian by:

Providing unprecedented affordability, quality and choice.

Being the partner of choice in creating prosperity for Indian farmers and other vendor
partners.

Unleashing the power of the Indian workforce through the generation of new and attractive
employment opportunities.

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 ABOUT – Reliance Retail Ltd

Reliance Retail Ltd. was founded in January 23, 2006 with its head office at Mumbai.

It is headed by Mr. Mukesh Ambani who is the Chairman and Managing Director.

It has come up with its slogan “from farm to fork”.

Several formats is being run by the company, which include –

Reliance Fresh

Reliance Time Out

Reliance Jewels

Reliance Wellness

Reliance Trends

Reliance Digital

Reliance Home

Reliance Super

Reliance AutoZone

Reliance Footwear

Reliance Mart

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 RELIANCE FRESH LTD.

Reliance Fresh Ltd. is one of the subsidiary companies of Reliance Retail Ltd. under which it
runs a chain of convenience stores selling fresh fruits and vegetables, staples, grocery and
house hold products.

It is one of the most watched retail formats of Reliance Retail Ltd. which has immense
growth possibilities promising to change the way Indian consumers buy products for their
daily needs. It has already set a trend where other corporate are closely watching its footsteps
and are try to come up with retail models which is going to eventually benefit Indian
consumers of each and every class.

Reliance Fresh promises to create lasting bond with millions of farmers. It is changing the
way consumers deal with retailers. It promises to offer affordability, quality, convenience,
service and choice to its customers.

Reliance Fresh as the brand name suggests its focus on wide range of fruits and vegetables at
best prices in the area of its operation with a major emphasis on freshness of vegetables.

The merchandise collection has been maintained such that it can also fulfill daily needs of its
customers pertaining to staples, grocery and household products apart from fresh fruits and
vegetables at best price.

Reliance Fresh has provided major emphasis on consistently providing products of high
quality with great service to its customers. By this it is expected to not only gain customer
loyalty but reach customer delight with synchronized use of its operational efficiencies to not
only generate profits but pass on certain cost benefits to its customers.

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RESEARCH OBJECTIVE

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RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

• To study consumer buying behaviour at Reliance Fresh Ltd. with respect

to Grocery, Fruits and Vegetables.

• To understand how operational efficiencies can lead to consumer delight.

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 RESEARCH
METHODOLOGY

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research methodology deals with the various methods of research. The purpose of the
research methodology is to describe the research procedure used in the research.

Research methodology overall includes the research design, data collection method and
analysis procedure which are used to explore the insight information from the research
problem.

Research methodology helps in carrying out the project report in by analysing the various
research findings collected through the data collection methods.

RESEARCH DESIGN

Research design is an important and the vital part of the research. Research design is a
comprehensive master plan specifying the procedure for collecting and analyzing the needed
information. Research design provides an excellent framework for the research plan of action.
The function of the research design is to ensure that the required data is in accordance;
research design is a blue print for the research study, which guides research in collecting and
analyzing the data.

Here in the project I have used two type of research design.

1. Exploratory Research Design

2. Conclusive Research Design

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EXPLORATORY RESEARCH DESIGN

Exploratory research design helps the researcher in getting the insight information from the
research problem. Generally all the marketing research is done with help of this design as it
provides sharp focus of the problem under research. Exploratory research lays emphasis on
the discovering of ideas and possible insight to get the information needed to carry out the
research. This has been used in the research design for project under study.

CONCLUSIVE RESEARCH DESIGN

Conclusive research design is the design, which helps the researcher in studying the research
problem in the conclusive form; this helps the researcher in choosing the possible cause of
action from various alternatives to make a rational design. Hence this type of research has
being used in this research project.

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 DATA COLLECTION METHOD

The success of any project or market survey depends heavily on the data collection and
analysis. It is necessary that the data collected is a reliable data in order to achieve the
research objective. All data sources can be classified into two:

1. Primary Data

2. Secondary Data

1. PRIMARY DATA:

Primary data is the data, which are fresh and collected for the first time, and are
original in character. There are various Primary Data Collection techniques, which
have helped in data gathering.

2. SECONDARY DATA:

Secondary data are those data, which have been already collected or published for the
purpose other than specific research need at hand. This data is simply used up by the
researcher for his purpose of collected data and it’s used for the same purpose. The
secondary data sources here in this project are:

a. Websites

b. Books

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 STORE OPERATION
EFFICIENCIES
INTENDED TO
ACHIEVE CONSUMER DELIGHT

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 RELIANCE FRESH

STORE OPERATIONS

The retail store is the place where customers take a decision on the purchase of the products
offered by the retailer. The store also influences the perception that customers form in their
minds about the store, the products services and staff. Therefore from management’s point of
view, operations of the store are a major element of costs. Therefore store becomes a critical
asset of the retail business and it is imperative that the operations are managed well to
achieve and sustain customer satisfaction and be cost effective.

Managing store operations for a retail business is a challenging task. It requires integration
among various functions within the store. When all the functions are performed in an
integrated manner then only the store can run smoothly achieving full customer satisfaction.

The retail store becomes of prime importance to the retail organisation, for basically two
reasons.

1. Retail store is the primary source for revenue for the retailer.

2. It is the point where the customer actually interacts with the retail store and its
offering.

The primary responsibility within the environment of a retail store lies with the Store
Manager.

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 COMPONENTS OF RETAIL OPERATIONS

Each and every process taking place in the store is defined in the Store Operations Manual.
This document lists the tasks which need to be carried out at the store level; it states the
responsibility and the time period in which these tasks need to be carried out. This document
serves as a guide to efficient store operations.

The task in the store can be broadly classified into following:

1. Store Administration and Management of the Premises;

2. Managing Inventory and display;

3. Managing Receipts;

4. Customer Service; and

5. Managing Promotion, Events, Alliances and Partnerships.

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 Figure: Tasks to be performed at the Store Level
As seen in the figure we can easily observe that each and every task is revolving around
Customer Service as it is always at centre stage. Every task is aimed at providing customer an
experience which leads to customer delight which is the only way Reliance Fresh can stay
ahead of its competitors and still run profitably.

After receiving a service the customer evaluates post purchase and three possible outcomes
are:

1. Actual performance matches expectation, leads to satisfaction.

2. Performance exceeds expectation and the consumer is Delighted and here customer is
excited and does repeat purchases and involves himself into mouth to mouth publicity
for the Store. Hence such customers are valuable assets to the company. And the store
should always try to gain delighted customers by their unmatchable service. This can
help store achieve all its objectives.

3. Performance below expectations is the situation where customer gets unsatisfied and
resorts to negative publicity of the store. This situation has to be avoided at all cost.
This can do a very damaging impact on the store image and it becomes a very tough
job to get back such a customer.

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 1. Store Administration and Management of the Premises

Management of Premises

Managing the operations of a retail store starts by determining how the tasks pertaining to the
premises are to be performed.

Now here we can understand how even minute things matter even managing our own
premises can contribute heavily towards customer satisfaction.

Some of the tasks which include in management of premises are:

1. Business hour duration: This is a very crucial decision to be taken by the

management which is decided on the basis of target customers. Here the convenience
for customer is given due importance. In case of Reliance Fresh being a convenience

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 store located at residential areas where customers start visiting the store as early as
7.00 am. The office going people can come and shop at that time for their daily needs
after their morning walk. The same can be the case in the evening when customer
wants to shop after their office hours.

Providing flexibility to the opening and closing timings leads to customer

convenience and which can help contribute towards reaching customer satisfaction
and delight.

2. Judicial use of Air Conditioners: Air Conditioner provides a congenial environment

where we want our customers to stay and spend more time in the store.

This is done basically for two reasons:

a. Providing customers an experience and comfort while shopping which will

definitely help achieve satisfaction.

b. As the customer spends more time in the store it will definitely have a positive
impact on ticket size which means more revenue and profit.

But while using A.C. judicial use is talked as we know that we have to function under certain
constraints where we have to minimize the costs also. During lean hours (1.00 P.M to 4.00
P.M) there is no need to run A.C on full capacity and during rush hour (after 6.00 P.M) A.C
can be run on full capacity.

Therefore by following the above the store maintains a delicate balance while trying to
achieve Customer Delight and escalating costs and hence satisfying both conditions.

3. Store Layout: The store layout should be planned in such a manner that customer
finds enough space for movement. The layout should be in such a systematic manner
that customer can easily locate products he/she wants to purchase. At Reliance Fresh a
very impressive layout has been put in place where customer easily finds what he
wants.

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 TILL DAIRY NON-FOOD (Personal Care)

PERSONAL CARE PLASTIC WARES

HOME FURNISHING

MOBILES
FOOD & BEVERAGES PROCESSED FOODS

TILL

FOOD & BEVERAGES PROCESSED FOOD

PROCESSED FOOD

STAPLES
VEGETABLES STAPLES
FOOD

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ustomer
PROCESSED

ervice BEVERAGES/DAIRY FRUITS & VEGETABLES

 EXIT

Store Layout: Reliance Fresh Model Town - II

Store Administration

Store Administration deals with various aspects like the cleanliness of the store premises,
maintenance of the store façade and display, etc. Apart from these it is also responsible for
utilizing the store personnel effectively.

Tasks involved in Store Administration which can contribute towards achieving customer
delight:

1. Floor Maintenance: The premises of the store need to be maintained as per standards
decided upon by the management.

Floor cleanliness and merchandise arrangement play a very crucial role in creating an
image of store in the minds of the target customers. This is crucial when customer
tries to evaluate several stores and matches the pricing of products offered with the
services provided by the store.

Therefore when a customer tries to compare Reliance Fresh with Fair Price store, Fair
Price fails terribly as Reliance Fresh has specially emphasized on its services apart
from pricing strategy.

At Fair Price the products are scattered on the floor and customers are also not
attended to the level Reliance Fresh does. Hence providing products at cheaper price
is not the only factor which customer considers from where to buy.

But Reliance Fresh is using a combination which definitely making it lead is that it is
providing all services a convenience store can provide but at better price which is
leading to Customer Satisfaction and Delight.

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 At Reliance Fresh very impressive initiative was taken to maintain its overall store
floor maintenance in the name of “Operation Shine” where days were systematically
assigned for a particular task and at end of it store performance was evaluated for
each store which lead to store maintained and cleaned which gave a very good signal
to its customers for its uncompromising take on floor maintenance.

2. Manpower Planning: The next most important thing that a customer looks after
entering the store is how Customer Care Associates (CCA) attend to them, how well a
CCA and other staff members at the front end are dressed, educated and competent
enough to respond to their queries.

Manpower Planning may include certain functions like:

a. Shift Planning: A roster is maintained at a Reliance Fresh Store in which the

store manager plans and assigns optimum staff to each shift also considering
weekdays and weekends.

This is done basically on the basis of footfalls of customer at a particular time.

Hence providing for more staff during evening hours when footfalls are high.

The Store Manager also has to intelligently assign work to his staff members
according to footfalls as he can assign routine work to supervisor and CCAs at
lean hour of the day for work like stock take (Physical Inventory, Stock Indenting
etc). He has to push his staff towards attending customers at rush hours ask them
to drive sales through their efforts. This helps Reliance Fresh to not only increase
sales but gain Customer Satisfaction and Delight.

b. In charge: For every task in the store a staff member is made incharge of that task
so that no confusion is there on the floor and in the store as a whole.

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 Various tasks like opening of store, indenting of F & V and milk, GRN, stock
correction etc. is assigned among supervisors shift wise.

CCAs are assigned bays and responsibility given to them regarding their bay
regarding maintenance of Planogram, FIFO, FEFO, proper stacking etc. By doing
the above the store can manage display efficiently and ensure the service of the
store to an optimal level.

MSRs are assigned to regularly make announcements of schemes offered by the

store as it is very crucial as communication helps consumer make decision and
push sales. This apart from the task of acting as a member of customer service
desk and solving any customer complaints.

2. Managing Inventory and Display

The task of allocating the merchandise to the various stores rests with the category manager.
At the store the staff manages this inventory. Each and every process is documented at the
store level.

Responsibilities with respect to merchandise at the store level involves receiving and
inwarding the goods. Once the merchandise is received at the store, the quantity and other
details are tallied with the documents accompanying the goods, to detect any discrepancies.

Hand Held Terminal is used at Reliance Fresh stores to directly scan and do the GRN for the
products received.

After receiving the goods the real play starts where an MBQ (Maximum Bin Quantity /
Maximum display Quantity) is maintained which signifies the maximum quantity the store
has to maintain of a particular product. It is done so that optimum level of inventory is

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maintained so as to optimize cost of holding a product. There is a limitation of the store that
excess stock can be put as the space in the store is quiet costly and maximum space has to be
utilized for purpose of displaying product to sell.

Excess stock means blocking of valuable resources like money, leads to wastage due to
breakage, shrinkage etc leading to direct losses to the company.

A Target Stock quantity is set for each SKU and as it is a reorder level in the MBQ when the
Auto Replenishment System automatically indents for the particular product and the product
hence is sent by the distribution centre (DC).

This is most critical process as it helps prevent shortages in the store which can lead to
customer dissatisfaction and even unwanted excess stock is avoided which spoils the display
of store with products lying on the floor.

Hence it is clear that even proper inventory management leads to proper customer
satisfaction.

Some important processes followed by Reliance Fresh in inventory management helping

them reach optimality in inventory levels and customer satisfaction is:

1. Physical Verification of Stock: Under this process stocks are physically verified and
entered into the SAP. This activity is known as Stock Take.

Any variation with the book stock is recorded. This helps the store to control its
shrinkage if the SKUs are physically lesser than the book stock. Similarly excess
stock if any is also recorded.

The implication of these variations on planogram display is such that in case of

Negative variation i.e. Physical Stock < Book Stock then it leads to shortages of that
SKU as Auto Replenishment fails to function as inspite of stock in realty should have
triggered the Target Stock but will not as the system shows that there is more stock
(Book Stock). This causes great inconvenience to the customers like if a customer
comes to purchase a product of daily requirement like Spices and he is not getting it
regularly due to such a discrepancy he will definitely get unsatisfied and the store
loses sale of that SKU due shortage inspite of demand.

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 And in case of Positive variation i.e. Physical Stock > Book Stock it creates a
different kind of problem where excess stock is sent by the DC and it becomes
difficult to manage it as it have to remain scattered all over the floor waiting for the
stocks on the bay to get cleared. This also gives negative impression about the store as
an ill managed store where products are scattered and there is problem in free
movement. This should also be avoided.

2. Proper recording of Dump and Shrinkage: To maintain proper MBQ it is very

important to regularly update dump and shrinkage. This has to be done apart from
Stock take which is done once a month or as and when asked by the management.

3. Push Indenting of Promo article for a particular scheme: During an offer on a

product a sudden spurt in demand can be seen which is quite temporary in nature.
There it is not advisable to change MBQ as it is more permanent in nature. In case of
upward revision of MBQ the product will be delivered in increased quantity even
after removal of promo offer. There a temporary increase in indenting is done called
Push Indenting. Hence after withdrawal of the scheme the product is delivered on the
normal basis.

4. Revision of MBQ: There is also a process of revising MBQ in case there is a regular
increase in demand and the store is maintaining lower MBQ meaning regular
shortages. There an upward revision is done.

In case of slow moving goods which the store manger feels is a drag on store
performance and is just blocking space he can request for revising the MBQ to lower
levels or removing it from the shelf altogether. The product has to be sent back to DC.

5. DSD Indenting: Direct Store Delivery (DSD) Indenting is done for very fast moving
goods like beverages, highly perishable goods like ice-creams and also glass items
which highly fragile in nature.

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 On the part of consumer it helps him to receive products fresh in case of perishables
leading to maintainability of high quality standards.

On part of management it reduces cost of holding such perishable and fragile products
as the store will receive from the vendor only products which are saleable and meet
standards.

6. Markdown Process: It is process where store manager is authorized to reduce price

of saleable quantity F&V, Bakery products or products which are nearing expiry and
are expected to become dump if proper step of reducing price is not done.

The objective of this process is to reduce dump at store level and also sell non moving
stock of such products.

DISPLAY

A very integral part of managing inventory at store level is display it correctly. The best
merchandise may remain unsold if it not displayed in a manner that is appealing and
convenient for the customer. A very simple example can be illustrated like if rice packets are
put on high bays it will become very inconvenient for which mostly female customer do the
buying, hence would negatively impact sales.

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Display can be considered as a silent salesperson helping to self sell the products. Display is
such a critical part in serving customers as it helps avoid confusion and guides customer to
make prompt decision.

Various methods are employed to impressively display products are:

1. Planogram (POG): A planogram is a diagram created from photographs, computer

output that illustrates how exactly where every SKU should be placed. It is a visually
appealing; represent the manner in which consumer shops (or the manner in which the
retailer wants his customer to shop).

Planogram Display- Model Town II

2. End Caps: They are used to display promotional items which helps customer to
easily identify schemes and offers on products.

3. Shelf Edge Labels (SEL): SELs are used to display the prices of the products. At
Reliance Fresh, Hand Held Terminal (HHT) is used to give commands for the purpose
of printing updated SELs. This makes it quite convenient for the CCAs to promptly
change the SELs. A portal is there in place through which the print command is
accepted and prints given.

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 4. Shelf Talkers: These are used to display promotional schemes on a visually attractive
format.

All of the above are used to impressively inform the customer about running
promotions and availability of products.

3. Managing Receipts

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Managing receipts involves defining the manner in which the retailer is going to receive
payments for the sales.

At Reliance Fresh the payment is received in the following forms:

1. Cash

2. Credit / Debit Card

3. Sodexho

4. Accor

All the responsibilities pertaining to Cash management is on Commercial & Accounts

(C&A).

The prime responsibility of C&A is Till Management.

He has to ensure proper and smooth running of Tills.

He maintains changes and float cash (Rs.1500) in the till.

He has to ensure that there is no long queues while bill, if at all there is he has to open
another till. Almost every CCA is trained to run the billing which is done on Retailix
software.

It is a known fact customers are reluctant to shop on places with long queues. There Queue
Management is a very important as proper customer service is concerned and helps toward
customer satisfaction

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 4. Customer Service

The customer service policy adopted by Reliance Fresh is quite impressive and definitely
helping it to achieve customer satisfaction and delight.

The customer service policy is put into practice by the store staff primarily by the MSR and
then Supervisor on the floor.

This policy doesn’t begin and end at the customer service counter in the retail store. Every
staff member is advised to ensure that the customer, who comes in contact with him/her, is
comfortable and has a pleasant shopping experience.

An important aspect which affects a customer’s perception of the retail store is the experience
that he has while billing the products purchased by him. While a customer may spend hours
choosing the product that he like waiting for a long time of payment. Long queues result in
disgruntled customers. Reliance Fresh Store operations is geared to handle such a situation. It
has provided proper training to each staff to handle cash counters.

Several important steps have been taken by Reliance Fresh to serve its customers better:

• Customer Greeting: Every staff member has been asked to make eye to eye contact
with customers and greet them on first contact in the store.

• PR & Rapport: Staff members are advised to make good personal relations with its
customers and make a good rapport.

• Proper Attention & Assistance: In case a customer has any query the staff member
in contact is supposed to give proper attention and assist him/her with proper solution.

• Enrolling in Loyalty program: MSR is expected to make new member in its loyalty
program. It helps company to study the customers changing taste and preferences. It
also helps Reliance Fresh to regularly communicate to its customers on latest
promotions.

o On the part of customer feels alighted for being a part of such a program
where he is given due attention and also offered loyalty bonus points which
can be encashed on a regular basis.

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 • Telecalling: Telecalling is also done from the store by the MSRs to the regular
members for informing them about latest promotional offers and schemes.

• Home Delivery: This facility has also been introduced to give customers a more
customised service.

• Scheme Announcements: Regular announcement is done within the store to

communicate to its customers about schemes and offers.

• Addition of items at store level: Items can be added at the store level if there is a
persistent demand of that product. This has to be conveyed to the category team
which further does the needful.

• Newspaper Insertions: Insertions on weekends about the offers are done to

communicate to its customer.

• Putting up banners in catchments: Also done to communicate to its customers.

• Upselling by Staff members: The staff members’ upsell their products like if a
customer has purchased for Rs.700 the staff member communicates about scheme on
high value purchase like plate set free on purchase of Rs.999/- which benefits the
customer as he/she gets a good offer and as a retailer Reliance Fresh gets an
opportunity to increase ticket size as well as win customer loyalty.

• Maintenance of Complaint Book: A complaint book has to be maintained at the

customer service desk where incase of customer wanting to lodge complaint can do it.
This has to be resolved in a specified time.

All of the above plays a major role in creating an atmosphere which leads to a Customer
Delight.

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 5. Managing Promotions

Events and promotions are very much a part of the retail marketing scene. In order to enable
the success of such an event or a promotion, the store is geared up with prior preparation of
such an event.

At Reliance Fresh a KIDS CARNIVAL was organised where blank sheets was given to kids
who had to draw painting and submit in a day.

Gifts were distributed to them. This type of events create a bond with its participants and
when they are children it becomes more important as we know there importance in decision
taken even by their parent.

Thus from all of the above we come to understand how most of the process in Store
Operations if direct intelligently can reduce costs apart from an important aspect of
achieving Customer Satisfaction and Delight which will contribute towards long term
success.

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DATA ANALYSIS
AND
INTERPRETATION

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 Spending pattern of regular customers of
Reliance Fresh

INTERPRETATION
Major Spend Reliance Subhiksha Neighbourhood Others
done by the Fresh (A) Kirana Store
customers (B) (C) (D)
interviewed
Percentage 51.72% 3.44% 13.79% 31.03%

Regular Customers were interviewed at Reliance Fresh as they were one who have observed
and experienced the services at Reliance Fresh and were in better position to suggest
improvement in its Store Operations.

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While interviewing it was found that many regular customers were spending more than 50%
of their consumption in stores other than Reliance.

Monthly Expenditure (Rs.) on

Food and Grocery

INTERPRETATION
Monthly < 2500 2500 - 5000 5000 - 10000 10000 & Above
Expenditure
on Food and
Grocery

Percentage 10% 40% 48% 2%

This signifies the customer profiling on the basis of monthly expenditure.

It shows that most of the customers frequenting the Reliance Fresh Store spend in the range
of 5000 – 10000 which may not necessarily be spent at the Reliance store.

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 Preferred Schedule of Purchase

INTERPRETATION
Preferred Monthly Weekly Daily
Schedule of
purchase

Percentage 24.07% 51.85% 24.07%

The above pie chart signifies the preferred schedule of purchase which can help operations
plan accordingly.

Most customers prefer weekly purchasing which gives insight to customer behaviour where
he/she might prefer offers on weekly basis purchasing.

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 Percentage of Total Monthly Expenditure
on Food and Grocery spend in
Reliance Fresh

INTERPRETATION
Total spend in 0% 1% - 25% 25% - 50% > 50%
Reliance Store

Percentage 9.61 30.76 21.15 38.46

This is a very important illustration where it shows that only 38.46% of the respondents who
are regular visitors of Reliance Fresh Store spend more than 50% in the store.

This shows the scope that Reliance Fresh can how improve on its sales by just giving these
customers something better. The revenue can increase manifold by just concentrating on this
segment.

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 Percentage of Total Monthly Expenditure
on Fruits & Vegetables spend in
Reliance Fresh

INTERPRETATION
Total spend in 0% - 25% 25% - 50% 50% - 75% > 75%
Reliance Store
on F & V

Percentage 28 32 30 10

This signifies that of the total monthly spend on Fruits and Vegetables only 10 % of the
people were found to be spending more than 75%.

This area can also be improved significantly.

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 USP of Reliance Fresh Store as viewed by
the Customers

INTERPRETATION
USP of Reliance Better Freshness & Merchandise All of the
Store as viewed Price Quality of above
by the customers Products

Percentage 12.76% 31.91% 42.55% 12.76%

This illustrates that most of the respondents view Merchandise as the USP of Reliance Fresh
Store followed by Freshness and Quality of Products.

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 Prime factor on which the respondents
decided from which store to purchase

INTERPRETATION
Prime Factor on Better Freshness & Merchandise Service
which the Price Quality of
Respondents Products
decided from
where to
purchase
Percentage 30.66% 54.66% 8% 6.66%

Here we come to know that most of the visitors of the store concentrated more on Freshness
& Quality of products for purchasing while Better Price followed it.

Reliance Fresh should concentrate on the freshness of fruits and vegetables which is
considered as of prime importance by the visiting respondents.

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RECOMMENDATIONS
AND
CONCLUSION

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 Recommendations & Conclusions

1. Reliance Fresh has a tremendous potential where it can improve its revenue
drastically by concentrating on its existing customer base.

2. As in the research findings it is very clear that even regular customers are still not
spending major part of their monthly expense in the Reliance Fresh Store.

Hence this shows that they are expecting more from Reliance Fresh store and here lies
a task where Reliance Fresh can improvise on its services to cater to the requirements
of its customers.

3. Reliance Fresh should improve its operations in its Fruits and Vegetable section as it
has been seen that people coming just to buy F&V go ahead and buy other products in
the store. F&V is the major footfall driver in the Reliance Fresh Store.

Hence high Standards of Freshness and Quality in the F & V section has to be
maintained by the Reliance Fresh Store to keep driving customers.

4. Reliance Fresh has to improve its Store Operations significantly to match customer
expectations as the study indicates that most of the customers viewed Freshness and
Quality of products as more important than holding large number of merchandise.

This is the area where Reliance Fresh is struggling to make a mark as customer didn’t
find Freshness and Quality as a USP of the store as it is projected by the company.

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5. During the course of study it was found that Queuing problem exists at the billing
counters which need immediate attention. This problem can be sorted by improving
operational efficiency by way of better managing the staff available at the stores.

LIMITATIONS

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 LIMITATIONS

1. The data obtained was mostly restricted to respondents who were regular visitors of
Reliance Fresh, Model Town II.

2. Due to shortage of time the study was restricted.

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Leon G. Schiffman & Leslie Lazar Kanuk, “Consumer Decision Making &
Beyond”, Consumer Behaviour, 8th ed. (Prentice Hall of India, 2004); 570 – 571.

2. Kotler, Keller, Koshy & Jha, “Analysing Consumer Markets”, Marketing

Management (Pearson Education, 2007); 166 – 167.

3. Swapna Pradhan, “Retail Store Operations”, Retailing Management 2nd ed. (Tata
McGraw-Hill, 2008); 272 – 280.

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4. Michael Levy & Barton A Weitz, “Store Management”, Retailing Management 5 th
Edition (Tata McGraw-Hill, 2007); 550 – 626.

5. www.cpasind.com

6. www.ril.com

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