Retail Visit Report: Big Bazaar Sarang Banubakde Individual Assignment-RMS Page 2 Guided By : Prof. Bibhas Basumatray Submitted by: Sarang Bnaubakde 1361 MBA3

Retail Visit Report: Big Bazaar Sarang Banubakde Individual Assignment-RMS Page 3 Table Of Content Sr.No Topic Page No. 1. Indian Retial Industry: An Overview 4 2. About Brand: Big Bazaar 5 3. Socio Economic Importance of Big bazaar, Mulund, Mumbai 6 4. Retail Type and Product/Service Categories 8 5. Key Strategic Drivers Of Hypermarkets 11 6. Modern Technology Deployed by Big Bazaar 13 7. Marketing Mix Strategy by Big Bazaar 15 8. Refrences 19

Retail Visit Report: Big Bazaar Sarang Banubakde Individual Assignment-RMS Page 4 Indian Retail Industry: An Overview India, one of the most diversified and second largest populated nation in world, have biggest number of consumer in world except China, which tops the list. With 1.25 billion of population, India is hot market for retail industry and great deal to cater for. Today Indias total retail industry stands for $450bn. A large young working population with median age of 24 years, nuclear families in urban areas, along with increasing working women population and emerging opportunities in the services sector are going to be the key factors in the growth of the organized Retail sector in India. The growth pattern in organized retailing and in the consumption made by the Indian population will follow a rising graph helping the newer businessmen to enter the India Retail Industry. Indian retail is expected to grow 25 per cent annually. Modern retail in India could be worth US$ 175-200 billion by 2016. The Food Retail Industry in India dominates the shopping basket. The Mobile phone Retail Industry in India is already a US$ 16.7 billion business, growing at over 20 per cent per year. The future of the India Retail Industry looks promising with the growing of the market, with the government policies becoming more favorable and the emerging technologies facilitating operations. According to the Global Retail Development Index 2012, India ranks fifth among the top 30 emerging markets for retail.

Retail Visit Report: Big Bazaar Sarang Banubakde Individual Assignment-RMS Page 5 About Brand: Big Bazaar Launched in August 2001, Big Bazaar a child of Future group India, has now become the iconic destination of modern retailing for all sections of Indian consumers. Big Bazaar is credited with bringing organized mega retailing to India. Brand Big Bazaar stands for delivering value for money. Customer service and shopping comfort are at the core of Big Bazaars philosophy. Innovation and initiative define its brand character. It strives to reach out to its customers by imbibing the local flavour and melting into the local geography. The first Big Bazaar store, with an area of about 24,000 square feet, opened on VIP Road, Kolkata in August 2001. This was followed by stores in Hyderabad, Bangalore, Mumbai and Gurgaon. Their vision is to deliver everything, everywhere, every time for every Indian consumer in the most profitable manner. Brand Associ- ation for Big Bazaar After 2011 Till 2011

Retail Visit Report: Big Bazaar Sarang Banubakde Individual Assignment-RMS Page 6 Socio-Economic Importance of BigBazaar Mulund, Mumbai Mulund is a suburb in north-east of Mumbai, India about 32 kilometers from it. It is also has a railway station on the Central Railway line of the Mumbai Suburban Railway It is nestled alongside the foothills of the Sanjay Gandhi National Park with easy access to the Eastern Express Highway and Navi Mumbai through the Mulund-Airoli Bridge. Mulund is known as "Prince of Suburbs" due to its trendy lifestyle. Mulund is one of the few suburbs of Mumbai to boast of a vibrant night life. The centre of it all lies within Nirmal Lifestyles mall, near Nahur. This is where Big Bazaar is located. Hence the footfall in Big Bazaar atNirmal lifestyle is much highest among all the retailers in Mulund. It has a population of more than 9 lakh. A cosmopolitan mix of Gujaratis, Maharashtrians , Tamils, Malayalis, Kannadigas, Sindhis and Punjabis live in Mulund. Big bazaar has a great opportunity to serve this cater the demand of this cosmopolitan population. As Mulund is known for its trendy culture, Big bazaar has adopted its store pattern here and hence serves all the category possible. Not only Indian, but its the only place in Mulund where you will get Chinese, Thai, Mexican, Italian and other continental food ingredients. Mulund have large number of low income group, who mostly stays in area like Gawanpada, Kindi Pada etc. Also this it is very proximate to Thane and Bhandup where also large number of low income group lives. Big bazaar Mulund have staff of around 170, which include cashiers, attendees, helpers, box boys, skilled labors for various sections, security guards and back office management. When 50 of those employees were enquired, 32 of them were from Mulund and surrounding area and others were from rest of the Mumbai. Total number of Employees in Big Bazaar Mulund Employees from Mulund and surrounding suburbs (117) Employees from Rest Mumbai(54) Picture below showing the continental food rack in Big Bazzar

Retail Visit Report: Big Bazaar Sarang Banubakde Individual Assignment-RMS Page 7 Thus Big Bazaar provide a good opportunity for habitants of Mulund and surrounding suburbs. It is part of Nirmal Lifestyle mall, which is a social hub for Mulundites. Nirmal also have their residential apartments in same campus of mall. There are total 150 plus flats and all are occupied. Hence it is readily catering 150 households daily. Other than this, as big bazzar is one stop shop for most of the household amenities, many household gives it a first preference, over other hyper markets. According to socio economic indicators of change in India, the per capita consumption of food grains in KG has increased from 182 in 1991-92 to 225 in 2006-07. This figure clearly indicates the increase in spending and consumption of food and related services has grown in India. India has the largest growing middleclass. The per capita income of middleclass in last two decade has increased many folds. Big Bazaar with its offering of cheapest and best in the range, targets directly to this ever increasing middleclass. The following figure shows that among the most rising nation of the world, India has the maximum of more tham 75% of its population as middleclass. Hence with its more than 250 stores all around India, Big Bazaar has emerged as one of the most important and a trend setter player in organized retail sector in India, with high score on socio-econominc quotient pertaining to its employment generation and service offering to all social classes in India.

Retail Visit Report: Big Bazaar Sarang Banubakde Individual Assignment-RMS Page 8 Retail Type and Product/Service Categories Big Bazaar is credited with bringing organized mega retailing to India. The project was conceived as a uniquely Indian hypermarket in a format that combined the look, touch and feel of Indian bazaars with the comfort, convenience and quality that modern retailing brings. Attracting over 100 million customers every year, it has democratized shopping in India and become synonymous with great promotions that offer quality products at affordable prices. On a typical weekend evening, a Big Bazaar store plays host to over 10,000 customers from moms along with their demanding kids to senior citizens with their grand children in tow. Built on an inclusive platform that welcomes consumers from all socio-economic strata, a visit to Big Bazaar is not only about shopping but also about pending quality time with the family. Format Products Category Value Added Services ->Hypermarket. ->30,000 square feet to 160,000 square feet ->Big Bazaar Mulund size 55,000 square feet ->Apparel -> General merchandise -> food & beverages ->cosmetics -> Home needs & dcor (FMCG non food) ->electronics -> Furniture ->communications ->books & entertainment ->consumer credit -> beauty ->salons -> gyms & health services -> travel services

Retail Visit Report: Big Bazaar Sarang Banubakde Individual Assignment-RMS Page 9 Other than those mentnioned above Big Bazaar have several other brands like Pepsico, Philips, Britannia, Tupperware, Wipro, Sula, Puma, Bombay dying, Parle Agro etc. Following table shows the price comparison of private label Kroyo of Big Bazaar v/s other local label of Croma, Zine and National Brands like Samsung, LG, Bajaj and Morphy Richards

Retail Visit Report: Big Bazaar Sarang Banubakde Individual Assignment-RMS Page 10 With a better understanding of consumer behaviour across various cultures and classes, Big Bazaar has put together a stunning range of over 160,000 SKUs. Private labels of Big Bazaar are among the largest apparel and fashion brands in the country. These include, DJ&C mens casual wear range and Knighthood mens formal wear range; Pink & Blue are exclusive garments designed for modern kids; Srishti, a label of ethnic wear for women; Haute N Spicy, fashionable western wear for teenage girls; Dreamline, a label that caters to an entire range of home linen, utensils and crockery and Dtachi, a luggage label that offers outstanding value for money. Big Bazaar has also tied up with a host of well-know brands which offer exclusive lines created especially for the store. These include Levis, Lee Cooper, Wrangler and Disney. As a hypermarket, Big bazaar have everything to offer. It has adopted well according to indian customer past behaviour pattern, which would help them to increse the footfall and repeate purchase. Thus big bazaar has left an impression in Indian customers.

Retail Visit Report: Big Bazaar Sarang Banubakde Individual Assignment-RMS Page 11 Key Strategic Drivers Of Hypermarkets There has been much consolidation in the hypermarket industry in recent years. The surviving players have realized that they cannot be all things to all people. Instead, they are attempting to do the things they do best better than their competition. Nearly every survey consistently indicates what today's customers are looking for in their shopping experience: Sell what they need and have it in stock when they want it. Make it easy for them to shop and find what they are looking for. Provide all the information they need in order to quickly decide what to buy. Have friendly helpful people available to make the shopping experience a pleasant one. Controlling operational costs is certainly one of the biggest challenges that any retailer faces. Since hypermarkets typically run on extremely low profit margins, the need for a lean and efficient operation is critical. Labor costs are the single greatest controllable expense. Some hypermarket operators have a tendency to cut labor during tough times. If labor cost reduction is not managed properly, customer service and store conditions may suffer. This, of course, results in lost customers and sales. Retailers that do not properly budget for necessary training programs will most likely see both increased employee turnover, which becomes very costly over time, as well as reduced customer service, due to a lack of training. Some key drivers in hypermarket industry that Big Bazaar could implement are: 1. Delivering maximum value: Successful retailers are developing strategies that offer customers greater value over competitors and are sustaining them over time. To do so, they are focusing their energies on creating centers of excellence, such as connecting with their customers, being a leader in terms of the merchandise and assortment that they provide, and having excellent operations in place. Although retailers that provide value dont always do so at a low price, extreme value retailers are expected to continue to take share of wallet from the retailers that have traditionally appealed to lower income, treasure hunting, and otherwise value conscious consumers. 2. Being Innovative: Retailers are more and more experimenting with their store formats. Additionally, they are effectively designing and managing the various strategic levels to enhance the overall customer shopping experience. The problem with being known as an innovative retailer is that it can only remain innovative as long as its customers believe the innovations are fresh and exciting. Department stores were once thought of as being an innovative retail format. Thus, innovative retailers must continuously implement new ideas or else their customers will begin to view them as being old hat.

Retail Visit Report: Big Bazaar Sarang Banubakde Individual Assignment-RMS Page 12 3. Cost Control : Successful retailers, particularly those competing in the low price segment and many in The Big Middle, are efficient and effective in integrating their suppliers, manufacturers, warehouses, stores, and transportation intermediaries into a seamless value chain, in order to minimize system-wide costs, while satisfying the service levels required by its customers. They are seeking out and using innovative technology throughout their supply chains, to reduce costs and provide value for their customers. 4. Credit Facility : The Indian consumers are gradually accepting plastic money. Indians spend just 1% of their total purchases through credit cards, while the Koreans make one fifth of their total purchases through credit cards. The world average hovers around 9%. From a mere 3.2 mn in 2000, the number of credit cards has grown to 22.6 mn in 2012. This increase boosts retail spend, as it enables impulse buying and big ticket purchases. In a decade there has been almost 100 % gowth in number of credit card users. Big bazaar has its tie up with SBI, ICICI, IndusInd bank where it offers 5% cash back if purchased from these credit cards. 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 2003-04 2004-05 2007-08 2012 No. of credit Card holders in India (in millions) No. of credit Card holders in India (in millions)

Retail Visit Report: Big Bazaar Sarang Banubakde Individual Assignment-RMS Page 13 Modern Technology Deployed by Big Bazaar Modern technology has enabled hypermarkets to serve better with accuracy, unambiguity and in smart way. Smarter software is the muscle behind IT solutions for Big Bazaar. Together with comprehensive technology and cost-effective methodologies, help Big Bazaar thrive in the fast- paced global economy and help them to: Deliver a smarter shopping experience Build smarter operations Create smarter merchandising and supply networks Various technologies implemented at Big Bazaar : Information technology Infrastructure Library describes procedures, tasks and checklists that are not organization-specific, used by an organization for establishing a minimum level of competency. It allows the Big Bazaar to establish a baseline from which it can plan, implement, and measure. It is used to demonstrate compliance and to measure improvement in IT Services. SOA is system oriented architecture which help to encourages maximum reuse of business logic and services across retail processes.supports closer integration with retail trading partners and fosters more responsive, optimized operations Send exactly the right merchandise to the right store. Track the status of all merchandise through shipping, receiving, and distribution.Allocate items directly to your stores using a fully integrated Allocation and Replenishment module to balance both merchandise plans and store-level sales activity.

Retail Visit Report: Big Bazaar Sarang Banubakde Individual Assignment-RMS Page 14 With implementation of all these modern technologies it led to workload management and prioritization hence optimized performance across all business processes. With grid computing and SAS applications, Business Analytics are done faster, better and cheaper. It distributes computing- intensive SAS application across hardware resources across Big Bazaar. Grid computing provides parallelization of Business Analytics job for improved performance. They were able to reduce a record 150% on the cash out time in about 40 stores with help of technology in cash counter management and has been successively rolled out the similar systems in the all the 132 Big Bazaars in the country. To manage the high volume of footfalls, in big format outlets, 26 cash counters with touch screens and multiple scanners had been installed. Apart from this, Big Bazaar has also implemented RFID. All pallets and boxes are having RFID. It helps checking material has gone missing during the transport. Auto checking of correct boxes into correct vehicles with the help of RFID is done. It alarm users if wrong loading is done. It helps identification of product movement. Identifies which products moves faster on Friday or Wednesday Helps in calculating stocks . There has been 16% reduction in product stock outs since adoption of RFID. It has been found that RFID equipped shops are 63% more efficient in replenishing out-of-stock items. At Big Bazaar Out-of-stock items are replenished 3 times faster with RFID and cost of excess inventory was reduced by more than 10%. Picture: The cash out time was reduced by record 150% in about 40 stores with help of technology and IT implementation in cash counter management.

Retail Visit Report: Big Bazaar Sarang Banubakde Individual Assignment-RMS Page 15 Marketing Mix Strategy by Big Bazaar Big Bazaar competes in highly competitive retail industry, where there is large market share of mom & pop stores. The neighborhood grocery stores are still a first preference by an average Indian middle class customer. Although per capita income of middle class in India is increasing and middle class contributes most to the national income, but their spending habits are still weak and mostly have traditional approach while shopping. In Mulund, Big Bazaar have a tough competition with D-mart which is also in vicinity of Big Bazaar and hence there is always a race to grab a customer. In such situations marketing efforts would help to increase awareness and create interest in customers with help of promotions which would compel them to step into store. Big bazaar right from its establishment has adopted various marketing tactics. They have launched various schemes to lure customers. By using IMC tools, they reached every household posibble where they have presence. From purchasing the whole fromt page of time of india to distributing flyers inside newspaper. From TVCs to radio commercials. With advent of social media Big Bazaar is using this tool effectively. Following table shows various IMC tools used by Big Bazaar. TVCs, cards, Newspapers, Social media Outdoor Media Flyers & Radio

Retail Visit Report: Big Bazaar Sarang Banubakde Individual Assignment-RMS Page 16 According to customer behavior and past purchases analysis, it is observed that when customer turns right, he tends to spend more. Big bazaar Mulund, have a compulsory right turn. Soon after entrance there is fresh vegetables and fruits shelves. As we move future right there are some nested stores. A chemist, Pharma Cross, Hair Expresso a unisex hair saloon, mini Vodafone store and a Kodak outlet. There is also a special counter for loose Girnar tea, where one can have tea of his own combination (leafy, granules, dust). Just infront of all these nested stores there is home dcor section and beside it apparels, luggage and footwear. There were in house promoters for Prestige Induction cooker, Horlicks oats and Colgate. Big Bazaar, Mulund charges these promoter on per day basis. At the extreme left there were electronic goods like microwave ovens, grillers, food processors. The local brands like Koryo were kept at left where national brand like LG was at right. Behind this there was kitchen ware and cutlery section. Adjacent to it was live bakery and meat counter. To the right of kitchen section there was frozen food section and then from right to extreme right there was full range of FMCG food & non food & beverages. At the end of FMCG section, there begins apparel section. Lighting in this section was completely different from rest store. All lights were of yellow shades. The whole store has a grid format. This whole arrangement was done keeping in mind customer behavior. There were several indoor promotion by Big Bazaar. Following were some of the indoor promotions. Indoor promotions at Big Bazaar

Retail Visit Report: Big Bazaar Sarang Banubakde Individual Assignment-RMS Page 17 The end caps were mostly occupied by local labels like Kamani oils, Saini fresh, Balaji Wafers, etc. At the cash counter there were many small racks which provokes customer to have impulse buying. Most of these products were those which genrally consumed due to indulgence, like chocolates, magazines, DVDs etc. Following picture shows cash counter and end cap of Nilons pickle. Big Bazaar has been credited with some of the biggest consumer campaigns in the history of Indian retail. In celebration of Republic Day, Big Bazaar created a three-day shopping bonanza called Sabse Saste Teen Din. This has now become a national event that attracts millions of customers eager to benefit from the once-in-a year smart deals. In January 2008, the three-day event generated sales worth over Rs. 240 crore (US$ 60 million) in 80 Big Bazaar stores. Wednesday Bazaar is the Hafte ka Sabse Sasta Din. It was initially created with the intent of decongesting weekends and driving footfalls on weekdays. As it transpired, most Big Bazaar stores now attract as many customers on Wednesdays as they do on weekends. In-store communications in Big Bazaar are unique and rather novel. To ensure that no one misses out on an opportunity to gain from special offers, service boys ferry around a trolley with the product inside, announcing the scheme. Not only is this entertaining it also helps customers pick up the product from the trolley instead of walking up to the rack where it is on display. To make sure that non-English speaking customers dont feel alienated the communication is also conducted in the local language. The communication is always unambiguous and direct. Big Bazaar being first one in its category to come in market, it enjoys the status of being synonymous with most of the other hypermarket.

Retail Visit Report: Big Bazaar Sarang Banubakde Individual Assignment-RMS Page 18 References http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/6407/7/07_chapter%202.pdf http://www.slideshare.net/DINESHTAPARIA/big-bazaar-sip-report Big Bazaar- An overview.pdf Retail Success and Key Drivers(PDF) PROFILES OF BIG BAZAAR AND TOTAL(PDF) Mulund - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://www.slideshare.net/shaunaksontakke/it-infrastructure-at-big-bazaar http://businesstoday.intoday.in/story/brand-equity/1/8534.html http://issuu.com/babasabpatil/docs/a_project_report_on_brand_positioni http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2005-12-24/news/27503511_1_mulund-east- zaver-road-religious-structures http://www.indiainfoline.com/Markets/News/Big-Bazaars-Sabse-Saste-5-Din-back-with- Mega-deals-and-bigger-bargains/5338770514 http://www.quora.com/Startups-in-India/How-many-Credit-Card-Debit-Card-Net-banking- account-holders-are-there-in-India