Retail Insight as on 15th February 2010

February 15, 2010News for the Retail industry










Previous Issues

News: Apparel, Specialty, CDIT ...





TTSL, Future Group tie-up to offer GSM-based mobile services under 'T24' brand

TelecomTiger

Tata Teleservices (TTSL) and retail major, the Future Group, unveiled a new business alliance branded T24, which will offer mobile services under the GSM platform. Customers of Future Group stand to gain shopping benefits for talking and talk-time benefits for each time they shop. The services will be marketed across Future Group's retail network.





Luxury home chain catering to Hrithik, SRK sets shop in Delhi

Central Chronicle

Delhiites can now have access to the latest in home decor brought by the retail luxury home chain, International Furniture Brands, which caters to the likes of Bollywood superstar Shahrukh Khan, hunk Hrithik Roshan and the charming Abhishek Bachchan. Formerly known as Hurtado, the chain's plush showrooms house a select and premium range of furniture, furnishings, lighting and accessories from high-end luxury brands.





Changes in HomeTown format

mydigitalfc.com

Future Group, India's largest retailer, is all set to overhaul its home solutions retail concept 'HomeTown' to ensure the brand turns profitable. The process will include inviting partners and concessionaires to each store, changing the product mix, reorienting store organisation and bringing in the right mix of people. The move follows a double-digit decline in store sales growth in 2009 for Home Solutions Retail (India), which runs HomeTown stores, as consumers postponed purchases of new homes.





The Bombay Store to set up 16 outlets

Business Standard

Bombay Swadeshi Stores, the gift and home retail chain, which sells under the brand of 'The Bombay Store', is planning to set up 16 stores by FY 2012. It is looking at upcoming new airports in the country for locating some of the new stores.





Arvind to scale up organic denim biz

Economic Times

The call of the global consumer to let fashion go organic has driven the denim heavyweight Arvind Ltd to manufacture organic denims. For the first time since the textile tycoon introduced denim in India in 1984, its Naroda plant has taken to manufacturing organic denims.







Woodland outlets to turn green

Fibre2fashion.com

Woodland, India based producer of apparels and footwear is contemplating converting its stores across India in to eco-friendly outlets with the help of a German design firm at a cost of Rs one billion.





News: Food & Grocery, QSR ...



New Future for fruit & vegetables

Economic Times

Kishore Biyani's Future Group is making a vigorous push to increase its share in the fruit and vegetables business, a category that has traditionally been an Achilles heel for the country's largest retailer. The group behind supermarket chains such as Food Bazaar and Big Bazaar is forming a specialised entity that will set up and manage an efficient supply chain for fruits and vegetables (F&V), marking a shift away from the outsourced model it has followed so far.





Nafed starts sale of food items at lower rates

Times of India

Agri-cooperative Nafed announced the launch of retail sale of nearly 17 day-to-day items like rice, dal, sugar and cooking oils at cheaper rates through its outlets, as part of the efforts to bring down the prices of essential commodities. "We will soon launch such retail stores in all major state capitals," Nafed Chairman, Bijender Singh said.





Retail Trends





Business students boost end-of-season sales

indiaretailing.com

Annual sales seasons offer windfall gains in many ways, and not just for consumers. Leading department store chains Pantaloons and Shoppers Stop are, for instance, utlising new resources to push off-price sales on the shop floor. In partnership with Retail Training Solutions (RTS), based in Noida, the retailers are optimising the burgeoning skills of management students for end-of-season sales.





Whipping up appetite to shop

Financial Express

This one is particularly tricky. More so, because there is hardly any statistical evidence for or against the hypothesis. Do food joints in malls help drive retail sales? Maybe yes, maybe no! While in the wake of recession, buying another bag became a 'luxury', eating out was a 'comfort' worth indulging in. The recent Technopak study also points out that 23% of people engaged in shopping while eating out. So, food joints are definitely intrinsic to drive in footfalls.





Retail Insight



Task Management - Optimizing Customer In-Store Experience

Wipro

Task Management focuses on effective planning and eventual execution of tasks at the store. The planning of tasks could occur centrally at the corporate and at the store level. Tasks could span a whole spectrum of activities ranging from implementation of new processes, management of ad-hoc and repeated jobs and adoption of chain wide best practices for performing tasks.