Comprehensive Guide to Effective Store Operations in Retail

hello friends and welcome to another video on tutorials point with me teacher today in this particular segment under

retail we will talk about store operations well store operation is a very white

space in retail and it is one of the most important things in order for retail to be a success let's look at

what is there for us on the agenda today well we will talk about what store operations is all about we will also

talk about the strategy in terms of the formulation of a distorting aspects of store operations so what exactly goes

into making off a good store operation the day to day checklist which is important to take in mind and

responsibilities of a store manager as well as research on different customer segments men women as well as children

so let's get started on store operations well if I have to ask you what exactly do we mean by the term store operation

let's look at what the dictionary defines it as store operation is the general term which is used for the teams

that are responsible for the smooth running of a retail store so right from the general manager our sales assistants

the majority of the retail jobs fall under this particular department so everybody and anybody who is responsible

for the success of retail store falls under store operations well let's look at what is the strategy in terms of

formulation of the store operation defining a primary task so what is the most important task understanding what

is a core competency for that particular task so if it is for example a store manager or a visual merchandiser or even

the HR manager we have to understand what is the core competency required for that particular profile or job assessing

the core competencies for that you need to understand what does the firm do better than anyone else so defining that

particular aspect is very important positioning of the firm so the retail outlet needs to understand what exactly

are the position guys are they positioned as a high end or a low or a medium enterprise how will the firm

compete in terms of the cost the quality as well as the speed of that particular product or service so whenever we talk

about store operations we need to understand what is the strategy we need to formulate in order to have a

successful store operation well let's talk about the operations role in corporate strategy so the operations

provide support in differentiated strategy as well as operation serves as the forms distinctive competence in

executing similar strategy better than the competition so as a store operations head you need to understand how are you

placed in respect to your competition and whether you're pricing your products are similar or different than your

competitors now let's understand also certain visual terms that is important in terms of a store operation so in

order for store to function in an efficient manner in order for the store to be productive you need to understand

what is the vision and the goals of that particular team or organization or the retail outlet you need to have a vision

and mission in place you also need to understand what is a target that you are really catering to what segment of the

customer or consumers is your target base also understand what is the format type is it an organized sector or

unorganized retail or understanding what exactly is going to be your format for that particular store or retail outlet

understanding what kind of marketing you have to do understanding the kind of categories that you're going to have and

also understanding what kind of customer service level are you going to provide to your particular consumers or

prospective customers so my friends in order to have a store in order to have it run efficiently you need to align

yourself with all of these things and then only can your store run in an efficient manner

operational wise let's look at certain important aspects of store operation now for a store to function efficiently and

operationally well you need to understand that your customer service needs to be

of a one quality nobody wants to come into a store and have a experience of a bad customer service also making sure

that your availability of product should be there on the shelf it's a very disastrous thing if a customer comes

inside the store and does not find the product on the Shelf that he is looking for so availability of on shelf for

products is very very imperative in store processes you need to understand that your process of store the back

inside needs to function efficiently in terms of IT technology you know organizational link etc staff planning

and motivation you need to have staff in the store which is very very trained well and also they should be engaged and

motivated to serve your customers or prospective customers so hence it's important that these aspects are very

essential for our store operation now let's understand that there is a certain checklist which needs to be formulated

as well as followed by each and every member of the store operation team let's quickly take a look at that so you need

to have your cash and credit card operation in place and that is the duty and responsibility of a cashier as well

as the head cashier gift vouchers as well as credit notes need to be there in sufficient quantity as well as good

quality scrutiny of the reports of the whole revenue discounts the refund system it needs to be in place because

what you're giving to one customer needs to be given to the other customer as well if you are refunding one customer

and not refunding the other there might be a big mismatch and clutter so you need to ensure that scrutiny of all of

these is very important exchange of garments as well as alteration of certain you know products is something

that you need to follow the SOP which is the standard operating procedure adherence to SOP is very important so

you need to have all of this in place in terms of how does the exchange and alteration work and what is the process

for the same stop transfer between the store as well as the warehouse need to be kept in mind diary

store deliveries also needs to be checked into and the price of revision what is the price revision going to be

how soon will you revise the prices when will the sales happen when will the discount season start all of this is

something that you need to have a day-to-day checklist upon let's look at certain more details in terms of the day

to day checklist you need to have a returnable gate pass if there is a member who's coming in for you know

exchanging a particular product or refund of a particular product they need to have a gate pass in place you also

need to understand that if there is a damaged product or damaged or you know garment or soiled garment do you

exchange or return or refund the customer perpetual inventories should be there back store maintenance in terms of

computers laptops inventories etc security the safety as well as the statutory records need to be in place

manual invoices in case there's a power failure or in case there's a technological glitch you need to ensure

that your manual invoicing is done in the correct order and the various HR activities or human resource activities

inside the store is very essential to keep the employees motivated and engaged friends let's look at one of the

responsibilities of a store manager now the store manager is the head of a particular retail outlet or retail store

and there is a lot of responsibility for that particular position so he has to be in charge of Human Resources he's also

in charge of the store business operations making sure the store opens on time as well as closes on time

product management so all the category heads and product heads really report in to the store manager team development

whatever is the team development in terms of the employee engagement is something that is the lookout of a store

manager problem solving whenever there's a problem he needs to have a solution sales generation is something that is a

look out of a store manager safety and security of the store as well of the staff is very important that they

need to be secured division of responsibilities it's important that all the staff members get equal

responsibility there should not be one staff who has too much of work to do and the other one who is not having too much

work hiring training and development of the staff recruitment of the right kind of

people training them for the right kind of attitude that you want as well as developing them you are on your or

month-on-month is the responsibility and duty of a good store manager let's friends look at what are the different

customer segments now if you walk in a retail outlet or retail store you will have different kinds of customer and

different segments of customer let's look at what you need to expect out of this different segments of people who

come into your store so the first one we will talk about is the men's segment when you have a lot of men coming into

your retail outlet you will understand that they function in a different way than that of women well I am sure you

have heard of the saying men are from Mars and women are from Venus haven't you so they also behave in a different

manner when they come inside a retail store with regards to male members or men you will see that they move very

fast they are not Slope movers so they exactly know what they want and they will move fast towards that section they

don't look too much on the price tags well if you have observed this men don't have a tendency to look at price tags

too much they can be upgraded easily and that is an advantage that the staff has with men because they can always upgrade

them and sell them a higher price product in the same category they hate asking for directions I think

they take it in the ego and the pride so you will hardly ask you see men looking for directions or asking for directions

out of her staff men also get up thrilled from experience of paying so when they are at the cash counter they

would love to pay and they get a kick or thrill out of paying at the cash counter well that was on men now let's look at

women and how do the women when they come for shopping in a retail store so as a woman you will see that

you they spend more money when they come with other woman so if a woman is coming in a bunch of with other women they are

likely to spend more money than them just to kind of show off they are also more demanding

so women customers are difficult to handle because they are full of demands and complains all the time they take

much more time in decision making and they are probably because of which slower at taking decisions they take a

lot of time they will think probe and they are not really easy to handle that's the women segment coming to the

elders or the older shoppers inside the store now elders have a technical way of functioning and that is they need

brightly lit stores if a store is dimly lit or elder shopper would not really want to enter that store

they must have easy-to-read signs and signatures and labels everywhere they see the elder people they see more of

black white and red products and garments and that is something that probably excites them more already pulls

them towards the direction they are very less likely to look at other colors and they are a little slow in the

decision-making because probably their brain functions a little slower than the younger generation so that was about the

old shoppers at a retail store next looking at the segment of children now when children come to the store you will

observe that they cannot sit still in a place they will want to run all over the store they want to pick up different

pieces and different products and services and they will be little difficult to handle and you will

definitely see children when they come with their parents to shop parents lose a lot of patience with the children

because they are all over the place so children are probably are somebody who need more of free space to move about

they also need nice bright colors which gets them extracted or either very very you know excited to buy something and

they also love to see something that they can just hold and start using so that was

about the children segment in retail so friends that brings us to the end of this particular module on store

operations well I do hope you have understood and enjoyed listening to this particular segment of store operations

under retail keep watching more videos coming your way till then thank you