Opening Clothing Retail Store Outline - Business Plan Example

Retail Store Marketing Plan Table of Contents SECTION I 3 Apparel Retailing Industry: A Brief Overview 3 of the Business 3 SECTION II 4 Store Name and Store Image 4 Target Markets for the New Store 4 Competitive Advantage Offered by the New Store 5 SECTION III 5 The Store Layout 5 Store Atmosphere 6 Visual Merchandising and Sales Promotion 6 In-Store Customer Service 7 SECTION IV 8 Location Strategy 8 REFERENCES 9 SECTION I This report provides detailed information about the global retail industry and its growth rates in the recent past. The report will however specifically focus on the apparel retailing sector. The purpose of this report is to make a promotional plan of an apparel retailing company in UK. The report will shed light on the desired image and store name, the target customers for the new store, and the competitive advantage to be offered by the company. Apart from that, the report will provide several recommendations regarding the layout of the store, its atmosphere, customer service offerings and the promotional techniques to be adopted for the retail outlet. Lastly, the report will also suggest about the most appropriate location strategy. Therefore before getting further deep, the study will provide a brief overview of the global apparel retailing industry. Apparel Retailing Industry: A Brief Overview The apparel retailing industry is one of the fastest growing industries of the world. It consists of ‘childrenswear’, ‘menswear’ and ‘womenswear’. According to the reports, the total revenue of the global apparel retail industry was $1,031.5 billion in the year 2009, which represented a compounded annual growth rate of 3.1%. This report has also emphasized on the fact that majority of the revenue generated was from the sales of womenswear. It nearly constituted $534.4 billion, reflecting a total share of 51.8% of the overall sales. The industry is forecasted to reach a total value of $1,162.8 billion by the end of 2014, reflecting an increase of 12.7% from the year 2009. The major markets of apparel retailing stores are Europe, Asia-pacific and America. Both America and Europe hold 37.3 % of the overall revenue share, while the Asia pacific region embraces 25.5 % revenue share (Datamonitor, 2010). Despite the ongoing financial downturn, the global apparel industry is maintaining a strong growth. The industry is characterized by vast product differentiation, shorter product life cycle, and low switching cost. The bargaining power of consumers of this industry is assessed to be low, while intensity of rivalry among the existing players is moderate. The industry is therefore regarded as fairly attractive (AM Mindpower Solutions, 2010). Moreover, in spite of the consolidation process, the industry is still fragmented and thus provides enough opportunity for the small and new players. The findings also reveal that the retail clothing industry is highly attractive and can provide great opportunities for success to new players. However, for a company to get success, it is also important to design the operation and marketing strategies appropriately. Therefore, prior to getting further deep, the study will describe the business briefly. The study will also shed light on the strategies to be adopted by the company. Description of the Business The company will be involved in the business of manufacturing and marketing of the apparels products. The company will operate through retail outlet, which will be located at the city centre. The products of the company will be childrenswear, menswear and womenswear. There will be large number of variants in each of the categories. For example, there will be availability of formal clothes, informal clothes, as well as sport clothes. The basic intention of the company is to ensure all the sections of the society are served effectively and it offers wide range of products and service. Another aim of the company is to make sure the prices of the products remain affordable. SECTION II Store Name and Store Image The store name and the image portrayed the store plays a crucial role in attracting the audience. The chosen business is an apparel retail outlet and therefore in order to ensure that customer’s can easily recall its name, a short and catchy name will be useful (Pegler, 2007; Andersen, 1997). Several scholars have also pointed out to the fact that a great business plan may fail, due to a wrong business name. Moreover, the store name is the only factor by which the outlet can differentiate itself from the others. The best way to generate a store name is brainstorming session. However, in this context, the name of the outlet can be CnBUY. Apart from the store name, it is equally important to portray the right image of the company. The decision making process of a consumer also gets highly influenced by the image of a company (Schiffman and Kanuk, 2009). Hence, a company needs to position itself as per its offerings to the customers. The image of a company is created on the basis of beliefs, opinion, vision, and perception that people have about the company. The elements that creates image of a company are its store location, publicity stunts, product positioning, advertising, and price (Scott and Walker, 2010). Hence, all the aforementioned factors need to be simple. It is also important to differentiate the image of the company from that of the competitors. However, for this business, it is recommended that the company should create an image for itself which reflects, the company offers high quality products at low prices, thereby offering value for money. In addition, another element on which the company can focus upon is the availability of wide range of apparels. The company logo presented is also designed keeping in mind the image it wants to portray to the customers. Target Markets for the New Store The success of a business depends largely upon the target market and how effectively the company is catering to that market or segment. Similarly, for CnBUY the target customers need to be defined properly. Moreover, the strategy of a company largely depends upon the intended customer segments. There are several ways or bases of segmenting a market such as demographic factors, geography, psychographic and behavioural. In this context, the company is a clothing retail company and hence, the most appropriate method of segmentation will be the demographic factors. The market can be segmented by using age and sex. The company is recommended with the following segmentation. SEX/AGE Segment 1 Segment 2 Segment 3 Segment 4 Male 0-5 Years 5-15 Years 15-35 Years Above 35 Years Segment 5 Segment 6 Segment 7 Segment 8 Female 0-5 Years 5-12 Years 12-40 Years Above 40 Years Competitive Advantage Offered by the New Store The commencement of the operation with the help of a retail store will be greatly beneficial for the company. Moreover, it will also act as a competitive advantage to the firm. On the other hand, if the company considered operating with distribution channels, the visibility of the company could have been less. In addition, the company may not be able to create its desired image in the minds of the consumer. The operation through a retail outlet gives the following competitive advantage to the company. The retail outlet will allow the company to make a physical presence in the locality, thereby increasing visibility and awareness of its products and services. Furthermore, the customer identification process will also become easy. The physical outlet will help the company in building customer loyalty and gain customer confidence. The retail store will facilitate the company to carry out transactions in cash. This will allow the company to reduce the risk bad debt to a large extent. The business process will be simple as there is no involvement of middle man. This will allow the company to earn more profit. SECTION III The Store Layout The store layout is one of the most crucial strategies for a company’s success. Hence, it needs to be designed properly. The store layout also helps in influencing consumer behaviour, and make assessments about the merchandising mix of the company. The store of the company will be designed in such a manner that it maintains a smooth customer flow, makes the store more organized. For this reason, shop needs to have large space. The shop will be appropriately organised, which will prevent the shoplifters from stealing goods. The shop is proposed to be of 2 floors and it will offer escalators as well as stairs. The store should also take safety and security measures for the employees as well as for the customers. Hence it is recommended that the outlet should have 2 emergency doors and fire-extinguishing equipments. Store Atmosphere Store atmosphere is one of the driving factors of attracting customers inside the store. The store atmosphere is the physical surrounding and characteristics of a retail store. It directly influences the buying behaviour of the consumers. Therefore, it is highly recommended that the company should create a pleasant atmosphere in order to make the customers feel comfortable. Hence, the company should ensure the store remains non-crowded. In addition, the outlet should also make use of attractive and light colours such as green, blue and bright colour such as yellow. This will create a relaxing in-store environment. However, it is strictly recommended to the company that they should not use bright colours such as red or black and should not play loud music. This will create dissatisfaction among the customer or can even create displeasure in the minds of the consumers. It is also recommended that they store should play soft music for offering an enjoyable experience to the customers (Buckley, 1987). Apart from that the atmosphere of a store also depends upon the factors such as the flooring of the store, its ceiling, the lighting, trail or fitting rooms, pillars and walls. All such factors play crucial roles in influencing the consumer behaviour. In this context, it is recommended that the store should use wooden flooring in order to avoid the slippery floors. The store should use false ceiling fitted with florescent light in order to create an astounding ambience inside the store. The pillars and walls can be used for advertisement purposes. This will help in creating awareness of the available products and services of the store. Additionally, the product visibility will increase greatly. Therefore a combination of all the aforementioned factors will make a great store atmosphere. Visual Merchandising and Sales Promotion Visual merchandising is one of the key factors towards increasing the visibility of the products. Along with that, visual merchandising also increases awareness of the products (Ebster and Garaus, 2011; Floor, 2006). It can be defined as the activity by which the floor plans and three dimensional displays are carried out to increase the sales. With the help of visual merchandising, the store can display the features and benefits of their products. Moreover, since it is apparel retailing store, the importance of visual merchandising is more. The principal purpose of carrying out such visual merchandising is to draw customers towards the store, engaging them and motivating them to buy the products. The cost to be incurred for visual merchandise is relatively higher than the other forms of in-store promotion. It provides good results as it tremendously helps in promoting sales. In an apparel retail store, the importance of displaying available products is extremely high, as it notifies customers about the availability of the goods and services. Apart from that, visual merchandising also helps companies to display their offerings in the best possible manner. On the other hand, sales promotion is also a crucial factor in driving customers towards the store and increase sales. Sales promotion is one of the vital elements of the promotional mix. The store can get an edge over the competitors with the help of different sales promotional techniques. In general, there is different type of sales promotion technique used by the companies. However, in this context, it is recommended to the company that they should use the sales promotion techniques such as storewide markdowns, loyalty programs, coupons, offering flat discounts. The storewide markdowns program will enable the company to attract customers from all the sections of the society. In this approach, the company will be reducing price of certain items, and notifying the same with the help of advertisement campaigns. This also increases the probability of bulk volume of sales. It is highly recommended that the company should initiate loyalty programs. The existing customers should be provided with rebates or membership cards. With every purchase they will earn point and each of the point will carry certain value. After reaching certain points, the customers will be allowed to redeem the value of points. This will also motivate customers to make repeat purchases in the retail stores of the company. Finally, it is also recommended that the company, at times must offer coupons and flat discounts to the customers. This will help the company to clear their old stocks and earn more revenue. Therefore a combination of all the aforementioned factors may provide good results to the company. In-Store Customer Service The success of a company is largely dependent upon the quality of service it is providing to the customers. Similarly, for an apparel retailing company, quality of customer service is of utmost importance. Customer service is also important to identify and satisfy the needs of customers. In the context of a retail outlet, the significance of in-house customer service is equal to that of its product or service offerings. In addition, good quality customer service also helps in influencing customers to consider repeat purchase. The company is recommended to provide the following service to the customers: - The company should ensure that enough in house staff members are available to assist the customers in purchasing their desired goods. The attendants must pay equal attention to each of the customers. In order to provide the customers an opportunity to try the products before they purchase it, the company should offer trial or fitting rooms. The store should also offer drinking water facilities. Apart from the in house customer services, the company should also provide some additional services. Some of the useful ones can be as follows: - The company should provide free home delivery services to the customers who purchases above a certain amount of money. This will influence customers to buy more products. One of the important ways to showcase the hospitality, the company can take the feedbacks of the customers regarding their shopping experience and whether they are satisfied with the store ambience, product quality and availability or not. Along with this, the company can also ask for the suggestions of the customers, regarding how they can improve their offerings. SECTION IV Location Strategy One of the most vital factors towards a company’s success is its location strategy. The chances of success further increases, if the company is situated at a prime location and is accessible easily. The importance of location strategy is more for a company involved in a retailing business (Jones and Simmons, 1990). Moreover, the location of the outlet has a direct impact in driving customers towards it, and also affects the volume of business. Therefore in this context, the company should carefully select the location of the outlet. However, it is highly recommended to the company that they should open the store at the prime location of a city centre. The flow of customers will remain high. Another important factor is that, they should consider a site which offers car parking facility. Therefore, it is believed that a combination of all the aforementioned strategies will provide great opportunities of success to the company. REFERENCES AM Mindpower Solutions, 2010. Global Apparel and Textile Industry: Womenswear Leading the Global Demand. [pdf] Available at: < http://hrm.iimb.ernet.in/lib-services/ISI%20Reports/Global%20Apparel%20and%20Textile%20Market%20Report%20Final.pdf> [Accessed 05 March 2013]. Andersen, A., 1997. Small Store Survival: Success Strategies for Retailers. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. Buckley, P. G., 1987. The Internal Atmosphere of a Retail Store. [online] Available at: < http://www.acrwebsite.org/search/view-conference-proceedings.aspx?Id=6774> [Accessed 05 March 2013]. Datamonitor, 2010. Global Apparel Retail. [pdf] Available at: [Accessed 05 March 2013]. Ebster, C., and Garaus, M., 2011. Store Design and Visual Merchandising: Creating Store Space That Encourages Buying. New York: Business Expert Press. Floor, K., 2006. Branding a Store: How to Build Successful Retail Brands in a Changing Marketplace. London: Kogan Page Publishers. Jones, K. G., and Simmons, J. W., 1990. The Retail Environment. Abingdon: Taylor & Francis. Kazmi, S. H. H., and Batra, S. K., 2009. Advertising & Sales Promotion. 3rd ed. New Delhi: Excel Books India. Pegler, M. M., 2007. Store Presentation & Design No. 2: Branding the Store. New York: Visual Reference Publications. Schiffman, L. G., and Kanuk, L. L., 2009. Consumer Behavior. 9th ed. New Jersey: Pearson Education Inc. Scott, P., and Walker, J. V., 2010. Advertising, Promotion, and the Competitive Advantage of Interwar British Department Stores. [pdf] Available at: [Accessed 05 March 2013]. Read More