The Day-to-Day Activities of a Retails Business - Assignment Example

NEW VENTURE CREATION s Submitted by s: The retail industry The retail industry is the main source of livelihood for very many people in the world and retail businesses are all over the place. Many people solely depend on this kind of business as a means of earning a living. The main thing that retailers do is to provide the services and products that are needed by the ordinary person and bringing this goods and services closer to them. These goods and services may include clothes, electronics, farm produce, laundry services and so on. Retailing is on a fast growth all over the world and is among the biggest sources of employment in the economic world. It avails a business opportunity that is brilliant and exceptional and this can be seen when the statistics are looked at which state that at least a third of all new businesses that are opened are retail establishments. The people that open these establishments have to put in their capital and time so that they can get returns after they have brought the products close to the consumers that need them. The day to day activities of a retails business will consist of the retailer acquiring the products or the service from the manufacturer or the person that creates it and selling it to the consumers for their own use. The retailer is usually the second last entity in the chain of distribution since after he sell to the consumer there will be no other party to buy from the consumer. When the retailer is charging for the goods that he has given to the consumer, he will include the charges for his expenses and a little more so that he can be able to make a profit. The business that most appeals when it comes to operating a retail establishment is store retailing, where a fixed point of sale is operated in the places that have a potentially high number of customers that will stride in to the shop to get what they want. These shops will have a variety of products that the customer will chose from which they will use for their own personal needs or as household goods. The store retails may also stock goods that may be used in institutions and offices such as stationery and even printers and computers. This is thus a feasibility study for opening a retail establishment that will be selling general household products and goods to the people in the local are. The product to be offered The retail store will be stocking common house hold commodities such as detergent, soap, milk, bread and even kitchen utensils among others. Fresh farm produce will also be in the stock and also freshly baked bread and cakes for the customers that will need them. Simple farm appliances like spades and rakes and basic tools like screw drivers and mallets will also be found on the stores shelves. The store will also stock daily edition of the local newspapers and weekly and monthly of the magazines that the customers will demand for. Basic electronics like small radios and television sets will also be there depending on the makes and the models that the customers will prefer. Services that will include delivering the bought commodities will be availed to the customers that will want them delivered to areas that will be within five kilometers of the retail store. The Unique Selling Proportion Even before the retail store starts doing business, it will be imperative to develop a strategy that will have an edge over all the other business that will be around the retail store. This will come in handy since many retails stores are all the same and there are very few that are unique or offer their services in a unique way. Not many of them will strive to do things in a different way and this is where this particular store will take advantage and use it as a launch pad. The retail store will have to identify a feature that will make it stand out among other business that are of the same nature so that when it targets particular customers to sell its products, it will be successful. This process of identifying the unique selling proportion will need careful consideration and thought and it will also be helpful to refer to the way other business in the area will be implementing their unique selling proportion so that they do not end up being the same. It will have to include looking at how those other establishments make and do their advertisements, how they treat their customers and even the way that they will have arranged their goods in their shops. This will help to give an insight on how to be different while getting a few unique ideas at the same time. The retail store will develop a product that the customers can identify with. It will develop and adapt the slogan “you need it, we have it” that will be aimed at convincing the customers that they can get any of their grocery shopping under one roof. At the same time the store will have to live to the words of the slogan by making sure that it always have ready supplies that are fresh so that the consumers do not get disappointed and also to give the slogan a real meaning. The store will bind its market strategy on this slogan an whenever it will need to develop any promotion strategy, that strategy will be in line with this slogan. This will be the slogan that will be used to distinguish the store from the other competing ones that are in the locality while giving it an advantageous edge at the same time. The store will always aim to keep its business and ideas original while always remembering that it is there to serve the customer. The needs of the customer will be addressed with a lot of seriousness and it will strive to make the customers as comfortable and satisfied as possible whenever they come into the store. The products that will be stocked will be of the highest quality and at a competitive price that will be attractive to the customers but at the same time allows the store to make a profit from the sales. Although pricing by itself cannot give a total edge over other retail businesses that are larger and sell the same products, when combined with other strategies it works relatively well. The products will always be stocked so that the customers can identify the store with reliability and availability of products. It will also be kept clean so that it can promote hygiene and even encourage more customers to come in. since the store will be in the residential areas and it will be expected that many of the customers will come in walking, it will develop a unique way of packing the goods that will have been bought so that they are convenient enough to carry home. There will also be a home delivery service for the goods that are bought in the store if any of the customers will need it at a small fee but this will be limited to the surrounding areas only. To continually develop be a step above the rest of the business, the store will be amending and making changes based on the reviews and the feedback the customers will be giving. The store will invite opinions on the arrangement of the goods inside the store and whether it is convenient to all the customers whether young or old among other things. Some of these ideas will be implemented once the business is already up and running, in the meantime the other retailer’s premises will be used to determine things such as customer preferences and how they can be satisfied so that they can be applied later. All this ideas are aimed at making the store stand out and the store once up and running will try to reflect the opinions of the customers in its daily activities. How the products will reach the customer The most difficult part of getting this store up and running will be getting the stock on the shelves as the process of choosing what will be stocked in the store will need to be done carefully. What will be stocked in the shop will directly affect how the sore will be successful in its business since stocking things that may not appeal to the customers or may not have a ready market will make the business remain stagnant. If goods that are perishable are stocked and yet they don’t appeal to the customer, they may all go bad and this will automatically translate to a loss for the store. The store will get examples from the bigger store of things that move from the shelves faster and also by asking the customers there about what they want to buy more. This is where the suppliers and the manufacturers will come in as the store will need these goods to be available in the shop so that they can be sold to the customers who are the consumers. The store will also need suppliers of some things that will be used while serving the customer such as stationery. These suppliers will be identified after a review of what will be sold in the store has been done. The store will work with the wholesale suppliers so that it can be given better prices for the goods that it will retail and also get market information on the trending merchandise. Fresh commodities such as bread will be delivered to the store on a daily basis so that the store always sells fresh bread. This commodity will be stocked sparingly in the first few days after the store has been opened so that it can be made sure that all of them will have been sold by the end of the day. Eventually the stock will be increased depending on the demand that will be there for the goods. Other commodities that are factory manufactured and need to be in the store will be directly sourced from the factories in the cases that those factories are in the locality. In situations that the factories are not around the locality, the goods will be bought directly from the wholesalers who deal with them or the dealers that are mandated to carry out business on behalf of the companies that produce them. The store will not particular hunt for the suppliers that will be having the lowest prices since as much as this is important, low prices might also mean that the quality of the products is also low though this is not always the case. The quality that the store will procure from the suppliers and the distributers will have to be the quality that the customers want or even a higher and better quality that they will appreciate to get.. Since the store will take pride in being reliable to the customers, the reliability of the suppliers and the manufacturers should also be guaranteed when dealing with sore. The suppliers, wholesalers and the distributers that the store will work with will need to be prompt in the delivery of the commodities that have been procured from them and the commodities should also be in good condition. These suppliers should be in a position to correct any problems that may come up during the delivery of their commodity and they should be able to give attention to the quality of the goods that the store will have ordered. The constancy and steadiness of the suppliers is also important so that the customers can always get what they want in the store. The sore will avoid suppliers that are not stable in their business and those whose deliveries are not as prescribed by the stores order for more goods. Goods will need to be delivered at the time, in the quantity and in the form that the sore ordered them. The customer and the market available The retail store has set its sights on a target market that is ripe and has the potential to make the business grow. The retail store will be tasked with providing commodities that are of the best quality at prices that are pocket friendly to the middle class families that live in the area around where the store is located. The store also targets the students that are in the nearby university so that it can provide goods to them at a fair price since they may not be well off to buy more expensive goods. In short the store will target the consumers that are in search of commodities that have a fair price without compromising on the quality of the goods that they are buying. To appeal to the customers to buy more from the store, the Plunkett’s Four Keys to Successful Consumer Products idea will be employed (Plunkett, 2010, p. 47). The store will try to develop a high perceived value for the products that it will be stocking. The products that will be in the store will be of quality that can satisfy the customer so that they can get the feeling that what they are getting is a good value for their money. Quality and utility as well as fashion will not be compromised in the store though the store will insist on the quality more so that the products that will be stocked will have a merge of good quality and the best value in terms of what people are buying at that particular time. Through the stores slogan of “you need it, we have it”, the store will strive to achieve the third key in Plunkett’s for keys which is the high brand reputation above style. This slogan will help to tell the customers and assure them that if the visit the shop they will get the commodities that they will be looking for and they will leave satisfied and wanting to come back. This will also persuade them to give referrals to other customers that will not have visited the store yet. When they are satisfied and they talk about the quality of goods that the store will offer and the standard of service that they got, other customers will be interested to get the same. The store will also implement the last key of Plunkett’s for keys which states that cheap chic still has a place by stocking the goods that will be in season while giving the customers a very good and realistic value for these goods. The goods will be given at bargain prices that will attract the customers more but these prices will remain sufficient so that the store always records a profit from them. Competitive landscape and Market Share The stores main competition will be the large chains that are bigger, well established and are able to stock a variety of goods that will cater for all the classes of customers that will walk into their doors. These bigger stores have always been the nightmare for small store owners and have even pushed a lot of retail store owners out of business. The competition is real and several survey suggest that many people would rather shop in the larger retail chains as compared to the few whose preference lay in the smaller local retail stores. This though is not a very bad situation since the market is ripe and thriving and its competitive nature makes it even more favorable to do business in. The store will do its best to diversify the products that it will be stocking and also offer services that will be different from what the competition will be offering. Financial implications –startup costs The cost of getting this business up and running will include the rent that will be paid for the retail store’s premises since that premises will be rented. The rent is projected to be favorable since the stores location is in the residential areas and outside the town. Another cost that will have to factor in is the cost for putting up the shelves and preparing the shop for business. This cost will cater for things like the refrigerators that will be used to store the commodities that are perishables among others. Furniture that will be used in the shop and the stationery too will be included in this initial cost. There will be a fee paid for the license to operate this store and also for utilities that will include electricity and water that will need to be settled. The most important part will be the money that will be used to purchase the goods that will be stocked in the shop for the consumers from the suppliers. This is the step that will need the most capital in starting this venture. There will also be money that will go to advertising so that the potential customers can be informed and get an idea that a new retails store has been opened. In the first days of the business before it starts making money, wages will need to be paid to the people that will be working in the store and this will need to come from the startup capital. References Plunkett, J. W. (2010). The Next Boom: What You Absolutely, Positively Have to Know About the World between Now and 2025. Houston, Tex: BizExecs Press, Print. Read More