Retail Management

INTRODUCTION

 Can a product be sold without any marketing gimmicks or film actor or the hype?

 Can you sell a product honestly?

Peter England did that successfully and captured the Indian middle class minds honestly.

Launched in the year 1997, this brand has captured the Indian middle class mind, that too
honestly.
Peter England as a brand has a rich heritage. It began in the year 1885 when foundation was
struck for 5 storied building in Ireland. In 1888 Peter England factory came in to being. It
was during 1889-1902 that the company expanded when it got the order for outfits for
British soldiers for the Boer war. The order was large and it demanded quality merchandise
at Honest –to- goodness price.
 The brand came to India in 1997. During that period there was a huge potential for a mid
segment shirts in the 60mn pieces Indian shirt market. The industry was dominated by in
store brands and the consumers have to painstakingly check for the right shirt. The then
owners of Peter England (Indian Rayon) wanted to tap this segment. Thus, evolved the idea
of a brand that aims to shorten the buying process of the consumer .
Research also revealed that the consumers perceived premium shirts as overpriced and
there was a need for such a national brand. Also another insight was that the market had a
perception that good things happen to people who wear good clothes.
Peter England was initially positioned as an “Honest Shirt”. The strategy clicked and has to
click because the product was very good and the price was excellent. It just fit in to ones
budget. The target market for the brand was the 24-28 ambitious and career oriented
youth.
In order to make sure that the excitement remains, Peter England came out with various
ranges and varieties of shirts. The brand also extended to trousers with the same
positioning. Although some of the variants like English Cottons compromised on quality , the
brand still enjoys a good equity in the targeted customer’s mind.
In 2002 the brand made a slight makeover. The positioning changed to “Honestly
Impressive”. The aim is to make the brand more than just value for money proposition but
also as a lifestyle brand. It has maintained its value proposition unchanged.
Peter England is a brand that clearly shows a marketer that it is possible to sell... Honestly.

RETAIL FORMAT

The Peter England People (PEP) brand is marketed through Peter England Fashions and Retail, a
division of Aditya Birla Nuvo, which is one kind of specialty store.

The PEP brand, which is distinctly different from its more retail brand, will be rolled out through
80 stores spread over 34 cities across India in the next three to five years. After Mumbai, the
next stop for launching the new retail brand will be Bangalore, which will be immediately
followed by Hyderabad and Delhi by early June. And by the end of the fiscal, the company
expects to have 10 such stores across different cities. Each store will be spread over 10,000 to
15,000 sq ft.

PEP’s hallmark will be the concept of a family store, where Peter England brands of men’s,
women’s and kid’s wear will be on the shelves.

In this report , Peter England specialty store is taken for the analysis.
As shown into the above figure, pink dots are the Peter England specialty store into Pune. It is
clear that Peter England adopts the Blanket strategy to capture the market means they cover
particular area with their stores. E.g. in the figure they have covered area between shivaji nagar
& aundh.

MERCHANDISE ASSORTMENT PLANNING

Peter England has simplified the buying process as shown into the below process with the help of their
merchandise assortment in the specialty store.

From To

Search for a good shirt across counters Ask for Peter England as their first choice

Check for merchandise, color/design , Check color/design , decide on overall look

fabric/stitching, overall look , brand/label

Ask price Know price band

Select 1 from many Select 1 from Peter England

Buy a shirt with a label Buy Peter England

Start hunt all over Customer is happy, comes back to Peter
England

As shown into the figures - trousers, shirts, t-shirts, denims and ties are maintained as per
colors. From this we can clearly make out that the stock keeping unit is color.

They are also maintaining the separate section for the New Arrivals which we can clearly see
from the figure. This is good strategy to attract the costumer attention to the new product, so
that company can safely introduce new product.
First I was confused that why the above lot of trousers are not assorted as per the colors, but
after asking sales personnel I came to know that those trousers are very rare to be chosen by
the customers(out of fashion). This is also the good strategy to slowly remove your product
from the shelf space by allocating them whole separate section. Store persons tell these stocks
non-moving stocks

Now let us understand their assortment done into the Peter England Specialty Store with the
help of the diagram (diagram is shown on the next page). As this is the case specialty store,
there is no question of private labeling.
 Peter England
specialty store

Formal Casual
Accessories Other
Classification Wears Wears

T-
Shirts Trousers Suits Denims Wallets Belts Ties Socks Undergarments
shirts

Half Category
Half
Sleeves
sleeves
Sub-Category-I

Full
Full
sleeves
sleeves

Color-A Color-A

Sub-Category-II

Color-B Color-B

Small Small

Medium Medium
Stock Keeping Units

Large Large

Extra-large Extra-large
The retailer must make decisions regarding the merchandise offered depending on the sales targets
and financial objectives of the store. Retailer should be very careful while deciding on t
he amount of stock to be maintained in each category; if large stocks are maintained in a particu
ar category, there may not be sufficient resources left for providing a deeper assortment of g
oods. By taking into consideration this phenomenon all Peter England specialty stores are mainta
ined on the basis of the per square foot SKUs. It means t hat as shown into the figures of assort
ment, every SKU are replenished in the fix quantity. Because of this there is no question stoc

Another criterion, to maintain the merchandise assortment standard across all Peter England
stores Planet Fashion stores, is that recruitment of store manager and store personnel is done
centrally.

STORE LAYOUT
There are some key factors that a retailer should take into account, while developing a layout
prototype. The following are the optimizing factors:

 Increasing sales

 Maximizing returns per square foot

 Coordinating the merchandise with the store format

 Allowing flexibility in store design

 Recognizing the needs and safety of the customers

The store lay out should enable and incite the customers to move around the store to purchase
more products than they have actually planned for. The store layout should tempt customer to
walk along the inexpensive merchandise display section for impulse buying and then move on
to expensive merchandise.
There are three types of store layout

1. Grid layout

2. Race track layout

3. Free-form layout
From the above figures it is clear that to meet the optimizing factors of the store lay out Peter
England specialty store has made the arrangement such that customer have ample space to
move around ,and pick and choose from the merchandise at ease. This layout is expensive
because of high cost of display aids.

Above discussed characteristics of Peter England store layout perfectly matches with the free-
form layout.

STORE EXTERIORS
Generally, the first impression of a customer about a store is formed by its exteriors. The
exterior of a store plays a vital role in attracting new customers and retaining existing
customers. Retailer while planning their store exterior may consider any of the following option.
From the below Peter England is using proto type structure.

1. Modular structure

2. Prefabricated structure

3. Prototype structure

4. Recessed structure

5. Distinct structure
Marquee: typically carries store name along with the trade marks. Here you can see Peter
England marquee is not much blowy and outside signboard is put which matching with its
positioning tag line “Honestly Impressive

Entrance and display window: From the photograph we can clearly make out that there is only
one entrance in the store which shows the display of merchandise which store offers, so that it
can attract the pedestrians easily.

Door type and walk away: the door is of push-pull type which eases traffic congestion at the
entrance and allows the customer to see interiors. There is ample of space available for the
customer to freely move inside the store but because of the smaller parking space available,
which is outside the store, it becomes very congested sometimes. (This can be seen from the
second photograph)
 STORE INTERIORS
The principal objective of any retailer is to maximize its sales and customer satisfaction, and to
minimize the operational costs. Therefore, the interior of the store should be designed in such a
way that it serves this purpose. The store interiors should be attractive. Peter England specialty
store have considered two parameters

 The value of space

 Space utilization and allocation

New arrivals

Suits
Trousers
Shirts

Trousers
T-shirts

Shirts
Seating
arrangement
Non-moving stocks

Trial rooms

Statues for promotion

Ganesha
Casual shirts
Accessories

T-shits
Counter

Formal
shirts

shirts

lugg Statues for promotion

age
Entrance
Overall designing of the store interior was good, but there is only one seating arrangement
provided. They can increase the no. of seating arrangement to increase convenience level for
the customers.

ATMOSPHERICS
Visual communication
From the above photographs it is clear that specialty store of Peter England has a good visual
communication which involves communicating with the customers through graphics,signs and
certain theatrical effects inside the store.

Lighting and Fragrance

Instrument for fragrance

In the store lighting is used intelligently to highlight the merchandise and attract customers to
specific departments in the store as shown into photo.

Some of the main objectives they have achieved with lighting are following:

 Highlighting the displayed product.

 Capturing customer’s mood.

 Masking the unattractive features or places of the store.

There is also a mild fragrance available into the store to influence the purchasing decisions of
the target market.

Colors and Music:

As shown into the photos they have used mild colors (like cream color) for ceiling and walls, so
that customer can recognize different colors of various apparels very easily. There is no any kind
of music which perfectly matches with the “Honestly Impressive “tagline of Peter England.

IT SYSTEM IN STORE

As shown into photo, they are using Bar-code reader to directly feed the information into their
system, so that they can manage the inventory properly. They were using the software
“Shopper -A Retail Solution”. This software is directly connected to their warehouse and it
automatically generates order quantity by forecasting the demand.

Because of the above Bar-code reading technique, they are able to get the real time information
of various SKUs and also about the consumer preferences which help them to schedule the
production.
 SWOT ANALYSIS
1. Strengths

 Extensive range of office and casual wear

 Good quality label and branding

 Contemporary designs, colors and price

 Wide distribution , easy availability

 Well-orchestrated merchandising

 High market viability

 Use of latest information technology for collaborative planning , forecasting and

replenishment

2. Weakness

 Product knowledge of the store persons is lower.

 Very few customer prefers to go for specialty store (may be brand loyal
customers only). So specialty store format sometimes leads to lower sales.

 Pre- and Post- purchase uncertainty and anxiety over fit, quality, shrinkage,
durability etc. because of readymade garments.

3. Opportunity

 Large educated and working class available in pune is one of the opportunities
because their target market itself is youth.

 They can also go for brand extension and store extension.

 Increased disposable income of the working class.

4. Threats

 Belief of Indian consumers-“ Premium shirt brands were overpriced”, “good

quality product at a great price”

 Threat from the local vendors and other big players.

zone competitor
 primary Specialty store of Lee, Wrangler and other
local vendors

secondary Pune Central, Kakade mall etc

Fringe Big mall like SGS and specially local vendors

SITE LOCATION AND SITE EVALUATION

The target market of the Peter England shirt is Young executives segment between age group
25-28 years. They have located their specialty store where large no. of executives are residing
(like Aundh).Thus they have done the site location very cleverly by examining demographic
,economic, cultural and demand factors and by more concentrating on the economic &
demographic factors like,

 Per capita income is high in the selected site

 Employment rate is high.

 Density of education institutes is high

 Education rate is high

 No. of DINK (Double Income No Kids) if relatively high than other areas.

Generally a retail site is evaluated on the basis of the sales potential and the cost of doing
business at that site. The following factors have been considered for selecting the site of Peter
England specialty store.

 Sales potential of the site is high because of average age of population is around 25-30
which is near to the target market of the Peter England.

 Access to site is easy because of the proper transportation facility available.

 Access for pedestrians is easy because it is located on the road side.

 Peter England store synergies from nearby stores

 Leasing and occupancy term are liberal because Pune is education and business hub of
India.

 Traffic flow during the day time at the selected site is high. It indicates the opportunistic
nature of the selected site.

RECOMMENDATIONS
 Company should decentralize their system and link it with extranet & intranet.

 They should give training to the sales personnel and store manager regarding product
knowledge.

 They can also provide customization of design of various shirts and trousers online and
can take online orders.

 They can also do direct marketing to boost their sales

 Expand the definition of the target market to women and kids

 Provide proper parking space.

 Provide value adding activities like Wi-Fi facility or food facility inside the store.

 Provide refreshments on regular duration like half hour, so that customer takes more
interest into shopping and purchases more than planned.

 They can also go for department store format ( like taking a place on lease in KAKADE
mall)

 Blanket strategy should be converted to large area coverage strategy to increase the
sales or else they can use mixture of both the strategies like Wall Mart.

 Display video advertisements outside the store with more creativity and distribute the
pamphlets into the nearby area of the store.

 Apply system approach means integrated supply chain.

 They can also change the traditional positioning –“Honestly Impressive “to increase
borders of the target market.

References
 Retail Management-ICMR publication

 www.peterengland.com

 Business Today(Magazine)

 http://www.scribd.com/doc/2302942/Case-Peter-England-The-Honest-Shirt-

 The Textile and Apparel Industry in India by Pankaj Chandra(Indian Institute of

Management,Vastrapur, Ahmedabad -380015)