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Interesting Facts – You Never Knew about Stress Management & Indian Ethos.

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The Lessons of stress management from Indian scriptures and ethos during Covid19 lockdown.

Stress Management has become critical in the current crisis wherein the Covid19 virus has locked the entire world indoors, with major cities under lockdown for weeks, financial markets seeing their lowest in the last decade, wealth is getting eroded due to volatile market situations.

Welcome to the new world of VUCA!!!

VUCA means Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous.

That’s the new world order, I suppose.

Thousands of jobs are being lost due to downsizing, Businesses are finding difficult to sustain themselves.

Fear of coronavirus and its associated implications on health are all adding up to STRESS.

Add to it, the media influence that we have in our lives today… with all the negative news, it’s all adding to STRESS.

Read the impact of covid19 on the economy, click here.

In my article, I am going to highlight a few learnings from Indian ethos and Bhagavad Gita that we can imbibe during this lockdown.

Let me clarify one thing, I am not professing any particular faith or religion but I am highlighting the Art of Living that we can learn from our Holy Scriptures and ethos.

What is Ethos?

Ethos is a set of beliefs, ideas, etc., about social behavior and the relationship of a person or group.

Indian Ethos is all about what can be termed as “national ethos”.

Indian ethos refers to the principles of self-management and governance of society, entity or a system by wisdom as revealed and brought-forth by great scriptures like Veda, Upanishads, Gita, Mahabharata, Bible and Quran.

What we can learn from our Ethos about stress management?

  1. Balance or Equilibrium: Balance or equilibrium is a stable state of Indian thought, i.e. balance between desire and desirelessness, spiritual and secular values, subjective and materialistic world.
  2. Balance of Personal and Work-Life: Indian ethos focuses on the concept that if you are good then the world is also good for you. So, the second Indian Ethos in Management, every individual should have an effective management and balance of personal and work life in the organization.
  3. Importance to Character: The Indian ethos gives much importance to character, not to the knowledge.
  4. It is the character, which is the real power and wealth. Tough times like, current covid19 scenario is a test of our character and how we tackle the crisis will determine our results.
  5. Thrive for Excellence, is the fourth aspect of Indian ethos. In modern management jargon, we interpret it as “Find your Passion” or “do what you love”….

 

The principle remains the same as defined in our scriptures. When you are passionate about something and are self-driven then you don’t feel the stress since you are doing what are you love.

 

What is the definition of Stress?

Conflict with others is a major source of stress in our daily life.

Every conflict between two people has to do with one side wanting to possess what the other side has, or to control it.

This results in one side wanting to impose its will, view, opinion or belief on the other.

We see this in every conflict in the world: between husband and wife; amongst parents and children; between in-laws; amongst friends; between boss and employee; & most of all between communities, and even amongst nations.

Excess of everything leads to Stress

As Beautifully summed up in our holy scripture Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna says..

“While contemplating the objects of senses (People, money, power, etc.) a person develops (excessive) attachment for them, and from such attachment selfish desire develops, and from it arises anger (perhaps out of frustration).

From anger arises delusion (grandiosity, paranoia), and from delusion bewilderment of memory (cognitive functions deteriorate).

When memory is bewildered, intelligence (wisdom) is lost (we begin to make stupid mistakes).

When this happens, one falls into degradation (one becomes totally stressed-out).”

 

Read an article- growth in Men’s grooming market, click here.

 

Learn to serve selflessly – Stress Management tip.

It is a shift from ‘me and mine’, the hallmark of compulsive action, to conscious action based on a more holistic perspective.

Trying to change the outer situation without first mastering the inner, is futile.

Rather than hankering after egoistic desires in the hope of happiness, first, strive to find contentment and equanimity inside yourself, professes our holy scripture Bhagavad Gita.

Take a few minutes to look around, you will find sounds of birds chirping, cool breeze and the fresh air without pollution, clear blue skies, and nature is healing itself amid covid19.

We all had desired some time off from our busy schedule to spend with family, me-time, time to introspect, time to pick up an abandoned hobby or finish an uncompleted book or journal, etc, and now covid19 emergence has granted all our wishes in a disguised format.

Learn to adapt is the new mantra of the VUCA world.

 

How can you remain Productive at home or being under lockdown- Stress management tips?

Social distancing because of Coronavirus (COVID-19) is the best thing we can do right now to decrease the risk of spreading the virus in our communities.

  1. Conduct virtual Zoom meetings and reconnect with your colleagues, forgotten friends, a network for building new businesses on various meetups. Entrepreneurs can stay in touch with their existing clients and try to generate referrals through existing networks.

 

  1. Acquire new skill sets: If you are retail store salesman, acquire soft skills like persuasive selling techniques; if you are into marketing, acquire SEO skills; all these skills will prove to beneficial in your career and would help you even surf the rough tides & will help you overcome the fear of being made redundant.

 

  1. Learn to adapt and become more patient: When schedules and routines are turned upside down, everyone is off their game. You and your kids may feel cranky or frustrated, and there might be more crying than usual. Don’t dwell on the things you could have gotten done or should have done differently. Instead, try to focus on the more positive moments throughout your day.

 

  1. Limit your time on social media and watching news: This can be tough for some people because scrolling through social media is often seen as a way of relaxing. But the constant exposure to the worries over COVID-19 can be harmful.

 

  1. Engage in family indoor sports – Play ‘monopoly’ with kids or practice cricket catches indoors etc.

 

If we want to come out of stress in life then, first of all, we need to change our lifestyle.

The first & foremost thing is that we need to be peaceful at mind in all circumstances. For that, we should be satisfied with what we have at present.

Let’s try to be happy & try to enjoy what we are having at present.

Practice Gratitude.

 

I would like to give credit to one of my retail mentor Mr. Ishwar Chugani, for giving me this topic and inspiring me to write something which would help overall retail fraternity.

I do understand that I have tried to share my learnings from the Holy Scripture, as being a student of Indian ethos and disciple of Jagadguru Sri Shankaracharya math (Sringeri, Karnataka, India); this topic was always close to my heart and I am glad that I am now able to narrate my perspectives on Stress management.

 

References:

www.cdc.gov; book- Indian ethos in management by Tushar Agarwal & Nidhi chandorkar; book – Life’s Amazing Secrets: How to Find Balance and Purpose in Your Life by Gaur Gopal Das.

 

About the author:

Ritesh Mohan is a passionate retail professional with over 22 years in the Retail sector and is an independent commentator on the retail sector. A prolific writer  & curator of retailritesh.com wherein he expresses his views with his audience and educates them on the strategic insights that the industry needs to follow.

luxury brand

How to build a Luxury brand with “no advertising”? Uncover the secrets for scaling a brand.

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“Can you build a luxury brand without advertising?”

“Interesting Question”… I replied to one of my connections who had raised this question to me in one of the networking forums.

“To understand the very nature of luxury goods and behavioral study of luxury goods buyers, you need to understand the pillars of a Luxury brand”, I replied.

learn about 4 must do’s for luxury, click here.

What is common between these brands Maserati, Hermes, and Rolex?

  • Maserati: Is 105 years old, Established – December 1, 1914.
  • Hermes: The 175-Year Old French Fashion Empire
  • Rolex founded in 1905, 114 years old

Longevity is the common factor amongst all these 3 brands, Longevity comes from their Heritage of these business houses, their core values which is passed on from generations together.

Longevity provides trust and confidence to buyers.

If you wear a Rolex, chances are that your succeeding generations will also want to wear Rolex because they have confidence and trust in your choice of brands.

These brands are considered as Investments.

Hermes have bags that increase in value over the years. Limited Rolex editions are priceless in the eyes of their consumers.

Hence the main pillars of luxury brands are Longevity, Trust, Luxury, and Promise.

I shall now list out the ways as to how you can build your retail brand without advertising support.

Create a luxury brand Experience and Deliver Quality.

Recently, I went to a restaurant with a couple of friends. This restaurant had beautiful interiors, music, and dim lighting, the arrangement of furniture and ambiance was giving a feel of luxury dining. The staff was polite, professional and friendly.

We ordered food, the food was not just good, it was awesome!

I expected to receive an extravagant bill, but to my surprise, the bill was hardly close to what I expected, there were no overpriced dishes. Before even seeing the price I was sold to pay more for their offering. That restaurant had persuaded me with their tasty food and surprised me (in a good way) with their economical pricing.

I associated dim light, soft music, polite people, wood finish to an expensive place.

PR builds trust and creates relationships.

Less successful companies think they need advertising to get customers, but the best brands use their products, reputations, and stories to attract customers and that is the main premise of PR.

ROI on TV advertising makes it unviable.

People who can afford luxury goods are not spending their time watching TV nor logging onto the digital channels to see who is advertising. They are engrossed working towards enhancing their wealth, their business by constantly monitoring business & market journals and making their investment plans.

Ads are not social.

There is a limitation for a commercial or advertisement to go viral on social media hence brands are coming out with their branded content which is engaging, relevant to their audience and have the tendency to go viral.

More and more brands today are encouraging their customers to post their own generated content featuring brands, their rationale for brand selections and interesting stories of their experiences with the brand.

Recently Mercedes in India had generated a TV series with Car’s India, wherein the host drove to interior parts of the country highlighting different cultures, places to visit coupled with the adventures of a road trip.

YouTube video

 

Studies show that people are far more likely to believe a news story than an advertisement.

 

Luxury Brands that don’t believe in advertising – Case studies

Kiehl’s

kiehls luxury brand of skincare

Kiehl’s created an unforgettable customer experience by offering extensive samples to customers, which gives way to lower-pressure sales. The skin- and hair-care company built a luxury brand name for itself by offering a 100% money-back guarantee, staffing more than twice the industry average, and offering free consultations.

This 150 years old successful brand to date maintains its “no-advertising” style even after it was acquired by L’Oreal. A move that garnered them more — you guessed it — free advertising.

Spanx

sara blakely's luxury brand

Like most of the business owners who often find themselves with no budgets for advertising or marketing. Sara Blakely, founder of Spanx also found herself in a similar situation when she started out. She didn’t run marketing spots because she couldn’t afford to. She also grew her billion-dollar brand without any help from outside investments or debt.

In one of her interviews, Sara Blakely told Forbes, “The power of women discovering the brand from other women was actually a better strategy. The aunt telling her niece; one woman to a college friend. There’s something about saying, ‘look, feel my back, no lines,’ that’s powerful.”

Learnings:

Look out for opportunities in all the problems, Word of Mouth strategy created Spanx has multi-million dollar business.

Zara

zara fashions

Zara’s first retail fashion store opened in 1975 and, today they are over 10,000 stores.

The brand works on the principle of Exclusivity, Urgency, and scarcity

They produce limited quantities per style hence it creates urgency and scarcity which pushes the consumers to purchase.

Users generated content in addition to influencers

Zara also uses social influencers as well as encourages millennials to tryout their outfits and post on their social media pages using hashtags and tagging the brand’s social pages.

They spend their cash in getting premium, high traffic locations close to luxury fashion brand stores which drives visibility and uplifts the brand image as aspirational.

They’ve built an empire based on their reputation as a company whose technology and automation allows them to analyze trends and consumer feedback to get fashion from the runway to the racks in a matter of days.

Learn how Zara is embracing digitalization, click here.

Conclusion:

These brands have shown that you don’t need ad budgets to build massive brands. However, your product and brand promise should be very strong and compelling.

Learn how e-commerce is boosting Men’s grooming products, click here.

About the author:

Ritesh Mohan is a passionate retail professional with over 20 years in the Retail sector, handling some of the biggest brands in beauty, fashion and fragrances retail & FMCG sector. He has been instrumental in the growth of some of the regional brands as well in the Middle East region. Ritesh specializes in Retail management, Product development, and Brand Management, Retail Operations, Sales Management, and Franchising & Business Management. He strongly believes in empowering business owners with his wisdom & experience of around two decades in the industry.

inventory problems

Inventory aging or dead stock – The new-age retail problem!!. Six mantras for effective stock management

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The first valuable lesson that I learned in retail was “Inventory is an asset”. But off lately, thanks to the current retail scenario, it has become the new-age retail problem.

inventory problems

 

Inventory problems represent waste.

They tie up company money, need material handling and consume valuable space. It reflects on the balance sheet & highlights bad inventory management to any business investor.

How to Overcome Inventory problems or Deadstock?

Define the problem:

Analyze the reason for the slow sales movement in the product. Analyze the problem, is it obsolete inventory or close to expiry products;

Old fashion garments, condition of inventory i.e. saleable or not; or is it defective.

 

Take a deep dive into the analysis:

Breakdown the overstock or aged inventory by the number of weeks or months of supply on hand, and determine the value of these categories.


Unforgettable Lessons learned by me in inventory management:

1)Focus on Historical sales and trend to forecast your merchandise

A great way to learn and grow is to review past performances, especially in the last quarter of the year.

Is your sell-through slower than your previous year (same period)? Did you stock up too much? Which consumers keep coming back – which ones do not?

 

2) Never shy away from making bold decisions.

If your business is amidst the inventory aging or dead stock issue. Fire your Planning team because it is a good sign that your planners are trying to run your retail business through spreadsheets rather than spending time on the shop floor by studying the consumer’s behavioral trends and preferences.

The second lesson that Retail taught me is, “Businesses don’t run by spreadsheets”.

businesses are not run by spreadsheets

 

One needs to be on the floor all the time with the team, trying to shuffle merchandise, reallocating the floor display plans, re-arranging the looks of mannequins, trying to experiment with your merchandise is the only way to manage your retail inventory problems.

If your Buying team or Planning team is spending more time on their laptops and systems, it is a “warning signal”.

 

3) Reverse logistics is your Net Margin eater.

Aging inventory is not like “old wine which gets better with time”.

Already damaged products or packaging are likely to get further damaged, the longer they remain in the warehouse.

Products with any kind of technology component to them lose their market value with every passing month, as tech is changing with the speed of light.

Quicker an item gets liquidated or sold and moved out of the system, the more value it is likely to recapture.

 

Ways to deal with Inventory aging or dead stocks.


1) Updating your floor sets.

Move the non-moving merchandise into the key aisles, mix and match with hot selling items, create new visual merchandising & displays.

Re-marketing the slow-moving inventory and re-purposing it with some thematic promo displays.

2) Selling the merchandise to stock-lot wholesalers at throwaway prices.

Even though selling to wholesalers may result in lower margins, you would at least convert stocks to cash.


3) Garage clearance SALE

Organize warehouse and Garage sales to clear the aging inventories.

 

4) Use it as Gift with Purchase

This tactic works best for low-cost items.

If a product is tough to sell, use it as a giveaway or incentive instead.

You can, for example, offer it as a “gift” to get people to like your Facebook or Instagram pages.

5) Bundling

Bundling, the second most popular method used by retailers across all sectors (next to discounting).

Learn more about Bundling, read here.

 

6) Organize Flash sales event in your stores

Events are the crowd puller if coupled with exciting offers and circus-like carnival theme.

It instills an image, ‘if I don’t get it now, it won’t be there later’ mentality and sales will soar. The sale becomes more about the event than it does discounts.”

This is my personal favorite as well, I used to do flash events during my tenure with a departmental store brand “Woolworths”.

It helped us not only clearing aged inventory, but it also helped us generating feet-ins which ended up purchasing full-priced merchandise in return.

 

YouTube video

 

If you are a retail business owner and are facing Inventory issues, then feel free to email me on riteshmohan@yahoo.com for finding innovative ways to turn your dead inventory to cash flow.

 

About the author:

Ritesh Mohan is a passionate retail professional with over 21 years in the Retail sector, handling some of the biggest brands in beauty, fashion and fragrances retail & FMCG sector. He has been instrumental in the growth of some of the regional brands as well in the Middle East region. Ritesh specializes in Retail management, Product development, and Brand Management, Retail Operations, Sales Management, and Franchising & Business Management. He believes in empowering business owners with his wisdom & experience of over two decades in the industry.

value innovators

Are you a value innovator in your industry? Learn how to scale your business 10X using the Value Innovation concept.

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Are you a Value Innovator?

Many companies take their industry’s conditions or economic scenario as given; value innovators don’t.

Many companies let their competitors set the parameters of their strategic thinking; value innovators do not use their competitors as benchmarks.

Let me clarify and explain this in more detail.

Businesses usually compete in a market full of “me-too” products or offerings.

Hence businesses tend to look for opportunities within the parameters of the given constraint i.e. their capabilities (strengths) and assets (plant, machinery, people, etc).

And that’s where they make a mistake.

Value innovator concept

 

 

Value innovators look for what customers’ value in common. They always ask a question, “What if we start anew or fresh?”

 

 

What makes Value innovators stand apart?

  1. Industry assumptions

Conventional logic considers industry assumptions as static and given. Value innovation logic believes in shaping the Industry’s conditions.

  1. Strategic Focus.

In conventional thinking, we push for building a competitive advantage in our industry. The aim is to beat the competition.

In Value innovator logic, Competition is not the benchmark. A company should pursue a quantum leap in value to dominate the market.

  1. Customer focus:

In conventional business, the aim is to keep and grow an existing customer base through product segmentation, launches, and customization. Whereas value innovators focus on the mass of buyers and consciously let some existing customers go. It focuses on the key commonalities in what customers’ value.

 

  1. Assets & Capabilities:

In conventional logic, a company should leverage its existing assets and capabilities. Whereas in Value innovation, a company must not get constrained by what it already has. It must ask, “What would we do if we were starting fresh & new”?

Few examples of Value innovators

The French Hotelier Accor, which discarded the notion of what a hotel has to look like to offer what most customers want: a good night’s sleep at a low price.

Virgin Atlantic challenged the industry conventions by eliminating the first-class service and channeling the savings into innovations for the business class passengers.

Virgin introduced large, reclining sleeper seats in business class, well above industry standards. Additionally, virgin offered free transportation to their business class passengers.

With those innovations, Virgin attracted not only a large share of the industry’s business class customers but also some of the full economy fare and first-class passengers of other airlines.

Virgin’s value innovation gave the company a competitive advantage for several years.

These companies did not set out to beat their competition, but they ended up achieving the greatest competitive advantages.

Are Retailers in the middle east, creating a Virtual Value chain? Click here to find out more

Case study: Kinepolis (Belgian multiplex operator)

Founder Bert Claeys, faced a scenario wherein the movie theaters revenues were declining due to the onslaught by video cassettes and Video players and Video CDs. And add to the onslaught was the cable television invasion into homes which forced many cinema operations and exhibitors out of their businesses.

Cinema operators were fighting for their share of pie within the shrinking market size. It was the “Red sea” in strategy terminology.

Cinema operators in order to compete were downsizing their theatres into mini theatres having 100 odd seats with a screen size of 7meters by 5 meters with 35mm projection equipment.

Given the current scenario, Bert Claeys decided to break the market norms and launched Kinepolis, the world’s first megaplex with 25 screens, 7600 seats, offering cinema-goers superior experience.

In a year, Kinepolis had 50% of the market share in Brussels.

They threw all small cinema operators out of their businesses.

They chose to take a quantum leap by opening megaplex on the outskirts of the city (lesser rent advantage, easy parking, and easy accessibility to cinema-goers).

25 screens and 7600 seats gave them better negotiating power with movie distributors, resulting in better margins.

They leverage common lobby for central ticketing for all 25 screens resulting in manpower and cost optimization. Furthermore, Kinepolis spends very little on advertising because its value innovation generates a lot of word of mouth publicity.

So, do you see yourself as a Value innovator?

In case you want to understand this concept in your business perspective, feel free to reach out to me on riteshmohan@yahoo.com

 

Reference book: Harvard business review on Strategies for growth.

About the author:

Ritesh Mohan is a passionate retail professional with over 21 years in the Retail sector, handling some of the biggest brands in beauty, fashion, and fragrances retail & FMCG sector. He specializes in Retail management, Product development, and Brand Management, Retail Operations, Sales Management, and Franchising & Business Management.

 

challenging rules of finance and accounting principles.

Disrupting accounting practices- luxury brands.

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Disrupting accounting principles

“Could Finance & Accounting ever get disrupted in a business environment wherein no two days are similar?”.

What are the future trends in accounting that would challenge its current practices?

We all are living in a world where the laws of doing business keep evolving and also are being challenged & regularly debated.

We all know that Finance & Accounts are like a backbone for any business and is a discipline that can make or break your business model.

Ever wondered, how the pop-up shops of big luxury brands in the main atriums of the malls manage even to recover their build-up costs, not to mention the mall’s high rentals for short durations.

Most of my retail fraternity members would answer that luxury brands use their marketing budget for promoting their products and image.

This answer is partly correct but let me highlight a different aspect which is quite revolutionary in its thought process and creating a disruption in the finance & accounting arena.

experiential beauty retail

Disrupting Accounting -Store rentals are no longer expense

Let’s take a case of store rentals, it falls under the rent expense header in P&L.

There are few successful companies that don’t consider their store rents as an expense but as a customer acquisition cost.

They take into account the impact of their store’s physical presence and its contribution to their overall brand image and on its distribution channels.

A Gucci store in a mall also helps its distribution or export sales team in opening new doors for the brand in hi-end & upmarket channel partnered stores.

P&L statement reflects store rentals as “customer acquisition cost” which is a long term perspective.

Most of you would argue, that by changing the nomenclature of the expense header, the actual expense won’t change.

Yes, you are right that expense would remain an expense but your perspective to look at an expense would change.

Change in your perspective would free your mind to look at expenses in a more holistic manner.

The probable result, You may then be able to tackle it in some innovative ways.

Most of the Finance & accounting departments feel that Innovation is the responsibility of R&D (research and development) teams and they remain isolated and get labeled as a support function in the corporate world.

However, Reality is completely different.

To validate my above reasoning let me share a couple of case studies from Luxury brands who are disrupting accounting practices.

Want to learn, “how to thrive in an era of disruptions wherein every concept or product can be copied?”.. read it here

Case study: the Luxury trend is NOT TO SELL

 

Dolce & Gabbana opened a “cultural hub” in Soho, New York.

One can shop there during the day, but the space is also the first luxurious Instagrammable clubhouse for the youths.

It also hosts monthly events, like a concert featuring up-and-coming bands, or a “drink and draws” night.

Hermès, the most exclusive brand opened “Carré Club” (carré means “scarf”) pop-ups in the fashion capitals of the world.

Guests are given free admission & they could get photos taken, sing karaoke (sorry, Carré-Ok), enjoy complimentary refreshments from a café, and watch artists and designers work in an on-set atelier.

Moreover, Scarves are also available to purchase, but they are in no way the main focus of the event.

Disrupting accounting here- change in the thought process and the way of doing retail business in the future?

 

These brands are investing in physical spaces and events without any expectations.

There are no expectations in terms of sales returns, so there is a disruption in the thought process to look at P&L from a different perspective.

Driving Brand Image.

 

These events help create the perception of a product or retailer as a purveyor of valuable goods.
Hermès Carré Club, clearly educated visitors about the brand’s heritage in an accessible, entertaining way.

Driving social media engagement.

 

Most importantly, the goal of these experiences is to generate social media content. The content gets millions of impressions at a fraction of the cost.

I am hoping that this article of mine would act as an eye-opener to business owners and retail leaders.

A question to self-introspect,

“Is your brand using disruptive accounting techniques to spearhead innovation?”

Please reply by commenting below in the comment section.

My retail fraternity members can reach out to me on riteshmohan@yahoo.com if required.

 

About the author:

Ritesh Mohan is a passionate retail professional with over 20 years in the Retail sector, handling some of the biggest brands in the beauty, fashion, and fragrances retail & FMCG sector.

He has been instrumental in the growth of some of the regional brands as well in the Middle East region.

Ritesh specializes in Retail management, Product development, and Brand Management, Retail Operations, Sales Management, and Franchising & Business Management.

He strongly believes in empowering business owners with his wisdom & experience of around two decades in the industry.

business case for sustainability

Sustainability- The 21st century’s Business Differentiator

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“Sustainability” is becoming a business differentiator in the 21st century.

People, today are more aware of the environment and ecological conservations & the term “sustainability” is being heard quite often.

Let me give you an interesting statistics here; of the 7.5 billion virgin forests that once covered the Earth, nearly half have been cut down for human consumption, with devastating effects, such as global warming, and threatening indigenous people and native species.

In my previous article, I talked about sustainability in the fashion sector and now I would highlight a few sustainable brands in other sectors like furniture, farming sectors.

Sustainable fashion making commercial sense, read here

A brand must stand for some niche

The foremost requirement for a successful brand is their stand or promise which they make to their customers. Marketers call it “Positioning”… I call it Brand Promise, your Brand identity.

There are new brands that have positioned themselves towards sustainability ie by causing no harm to nature.

 

Brand: Greenington Fine Bamboo Furniture

 Greenington uses Moso bamboo for their furniture. This is one of the fastest-growing plants and extremely sustainable furniture material.

Bamboo is 20% more sustainable and 100% harder than Red Oak. The natural beauty of Moso bamboo creates unique variations in all of their furniture.

Greenington also has a “no waste” mentality. They even use their bamboo sawdust to generate steam for press machines.

Myself, coming from India, we have seen the usage of Bamboo in furniture’s, let me tell you the advantages of bamboo as well.

Bamboo is actually a grass, and grows very quickly, 24 – 48 inches a day.

Bamboo shoots die and decay after 5 to 8 years but their roots will remain healthy and continue producing new shoots, even after the mature shoots have died or been used.

With its wide root system, bamboo crops prevent soil erosion and the plants contribute more oxygen and utilize more carbon dioxide than trees, which makes bamboo demand even more environmentally sound.

Brand: Ikea

The brand has taken sustainable initiatives and has started using sustainable wood materials like saw-dust to make pressed boards as well using Bamboo wood to produce DIY (do it yourself) furniture.

Today Bamboo furniture category contributes 1% of Ikea’s global sales.

Ikea stands for doing things differently. Ikea team is now investigating paper furniture in their efforts towards using more sustainable materials.

Sustainability made its entry into the fashion

Bamboo is a highly sustainable plant and is becoming an increasingly popular alternative to cotton, not only because of its amazing properties which are kind to you but also it makes less dependence on cotton which is a highly water-consuming crop.

The fabric absorbs moisture away from your skin, keeping you drier & more comfortable.

Bamboo: The 21st century Steel.

Watching this video will explain the usage of sustainable materials in the construction sector as well.

YouTube video

 

Sustainability in farming

Imagine growing tomatoes in deserts… yes, it is possible using sustainable farming techniques. Watch the video below wherein they are growing tomatoes in the Australian desert using sea water.

Sundrop farms in Australia are innovative disruptors in this sector.

 

YouTube video

 

Since Sustainability is a vast topic to be covered in a short article hence my aim for writing this article was to make people aware of techniques that are being used and its commercial feasibilities making it a possible and a viable business proposition.

My readers can now reach me through my blog contact form, in case they need any clarifications.

Good News, you can now subscribe to the blog simply by entering your email address and get notified as soon as an article is published.

 

About the author:

Ritesh Mohan is a passionate retail professional with over 20 years in the Retail sector, handling some of the biggest brands in beauty, fashion and fragrances retail & FMCG sector. He has been instrumental in the growth of some of the regional brands as well in the Middle East region.

Ritesh specializes in Retail management, Product development, and Brand Management, Retail Operations, Sales Management, and Franchising & Business Management.

He strongly believes in empowering business owners with his wisdom & experience of around two decades in the industry.

 

retail store operations sop

Effective Retail Store Operations – A winning strategy.

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Developing an effective store operations strategy & imparting the best customer service are the foremost priority of a retail manager or even the CEO of a retail organization.

The store remains the temple of your brand, and we all know that the customer is the king.

So how retailers are coping up with the “Listening to their customers needs” requirements?

Recently, I got an opportunity to talk to my retail fraternity member, my retail mentor and a good friend from India, Mr. Pradeep Chechani as we both had earlier worked together in the Middle East with one of the leading retailers.

Since we both shared our similar passion i.e. Retail management, it was important for me to bring Pradeep’s insights and share his wisdom with readers of my blog as it would be very beneficial to those who are entering into retail or want to make retail as their career.

Ladies & Gentlemen, Let me introduce you to Mr. Pradeep Chechani, a Retail professional with 20 + years of work experience. Well exposed to Fashion & Grocery retail verticals including fruits & veggies. Expert in functions like B&M, Planning, Supply Chain, Operations. Developed expertise in Omni-channel retail, Ecommerce & Digital Marketing, Process automation, Customer Experience Management.

Below are the excerpts of my interview with Mr. Pradeep Chechani.

Q1: what are the pain points of a store manager and how can we reduce those pain points in order to increase customer service efficiencies?

 

A1: Key Responsibilities of a Retail Store operations Manager is to

  • Manage employees
  • Control costs
  • Manage merchandise
  • Provide Customer Service

 

The top 3 responsibilities mentioned above can be managed with internal processes.

The business looks at continuously increasing the productivity of two of the most important assets: the firm’s investments in its employees and its real estate.

Traditionally, issues pertaining to merchandise management were considered the most important retail implementation decisions and buying was considered as the best career path.

Today, developing a strategic advantage through merchandise management is becoming more and more difficult.

Competing stores often have similar assortments of merchandise. Therefore servicing the customer through store management or convenience, have become a critical basis for developing a strategic advantage.

Learning tip:

You need to find a differentiator in your retail business model, your retail store or brand need to stand for something (for example Walmart positioning stands for everyday low prices).

Learn about the “ Power of Bundle” in merchandising planning, Read here.

Create mediums/channels to listen to your customer’s needs or grievances:

Often a retailer tends to lose ground because there is a delay in reacting to customer feedback and therefore they start losing customers and start to react only when it is too late.

One model that is fast becoming successful in quickly reacting to the ‘Voice of Customer’ is the ‘Service Gaps model’.

Retailers have started to adopt this model. Blended with technology, it becomes very effective. The basics of the model are like this:

There are essentially 4 types of gaps.

  1. The Knowledge Gap

    It is the difference between the Customer’s expectation for service quality and the retailer’s perception of customer expectation. Knowing what the customer wants requires a comprehensive study on the customer’s expectation and continuous interaction with her.

  2. The Standards Gap

    It is the difference between the retailer’s perception of customer expectation and the standards defined to fulfill this expectation.

  3. The Delivery Gap

    It highlights the difference between the defined standards and the actual service delivered.

  4. The Communication Gap

    It addresses the difference between the actual service delivered and the customer’s perception of that service quality. It also highlights the difference in the retailer’s communication of that service and the customer’s perception.

 

 

Q2: How can a store manager reduce the stock loss or stock variances which is the biggest margin eater for any retailer?

 

A2: Inventory is another big investment for a retailer. It has to be tracked with precision.

Few pointers for optimizing retail store operations:

a) Calculate shrinkage as an ‘absolute variance’ and not as a ‘net variance’. Both over & under inventory leads to sale loss and other inefficiencies within a store and across the supply chain.

b) Break down the entire inventory movement process in small logical processes and then start monitoring every subprocess. You are bound to identify the problem area.

c) Detecting and Preventing Shoplifting can be minimized by:

  • Implementing the correct Store Design. Avoid too many pillars, keep the line of sight clear supported with CCTV system
  • Employee Training
  • Don’t assume that all shoplifters are poorly dressed

Read the article on Retail shrinkage and its control measures, click here 

Q3. How can a store operations manager work closely with merchandise planning and Visual teams in order to increase the stock turnover or stock rotation?

 

A3: The support that the retail store operations usually provides is

a) Display merchandise, maintain visuals standards & follow planograms as directed for the store

b) Work closely with buyers in suggesting new merchandise based on customer feedback, buy merchandise wherever applicable, Plan & manage special promotions, Markdown merchandise, etc.

The advent of technology is making this process very accurate and speedy. We are seeing tech solutions taking customer feedback and publishing it internally and accurately via machine learning. So the manual element and errors are getting minimized.

Right merchandise in the right quantities with a visual appeal is bound to help the inventory throughput

Q4. What kind of customer service differentiation do you see both in India, in the middle east and the European markets? How can we improve our customer service aspect in case we lack the same when compared to western counterparts?

 

A4: India is all about volumes.

There are Indian hypermarket stores regularly getting almost 7 to 8k number of bills (NOBs) per day during the weekends. In festive season this goes up by two folds. The Middle East & Europe comparatively does not see this congestion.

The Indian labor is cheap and availability is good. Hence customer service is more via manpower than anything else.

One common trend which I see catching up in all these regions is giving convenience to the customer. Hence,various door to door delivery models is coming up which are supported very well by the last mile logistics. I see a lot of customer acquisition through this medium.

Learn about the business model of last-mile logistics, click here.

Q5. How can technology help to reduce the delivery and communication gap which you have mentioned in your answer?

 

A5: Tech solutions that cover the entire journey of the customer in a store and capture customer feedback in a convenient way help to reduce this gap.

The structured and unstructured feedback is processed via machine learning and categorized.

A retailer can then decipher & plug the communication and delivery gap.

 

I hope readers of my blog would have really liked the insights shared by Mr. Pradeep from his extensive experience in handling hypermarkets chain in India to some big e-commerce projects. His replies provide the elements of the retail store operations standard operating procedures.

As a retail professional, it is my duty to support upcoming retail professionals by providing them the right wisdom from industry professionals through the Q&A session on my blog. This is a first Q&A session and I promise to bring you more from industry experts.

In case any of my readers or retail fraternity member need any kind of advice or help then you may reach out to me at riteshmohan@yahoo.com.

Most importantly now, you can subscribe to retail insights on my blog by entering your valid email id.

You will get weekly updates on any new article that I would be publishing. This is one way of staying connected to retail insights and marketing strategies.

 

About the author:

Ritesh Mohan is a passionate retail professional with over 20 years in the Retail sector, handling some of the biggest brands in beauty, fashion and fragrances retail & FMCG sector. He has been instrumental in the growth of some of the regional brands as well in the Middle East region. Ritesh specializes in Retail management, Product development, and Brand Management, Retail Operations, Sales Management, and Franchising management. He strongly believes in empowering business owners with his wisdom & experience of around two decades in the industry.

 

making business sense out of sustainable fashion.

Making Business sense with “Sustainable Fashion”

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As the world is becoming more socially aware about sustainability & carbon footprints and hence one term that we keep hearing in media is “sustainable fashion” or “sustainable brands”.

As per Wikipedia, sustainable fashion is defined as a movement and process of fostering change to fashion products and the fashion system towards greater ecological integrity and social justice.

Why the need for sustainability in fashion?

The latest fashion trends are not about a seasonal color or a must-have styles; trend is about sustainable fashion and ethical clothing.

Fashion industry being the second highest polluter in the world behind agriculture, it’s high time for brands to understand their responsibility towards reducing carbon footprints.

 

Why has sustainable fashion become a Buzzword?

 

  1. Water is a scarce resource:

Washing garments demands for fresh water for washing. Using of excessive water is depleting the drinkable water tables in some industrial zones.

  1. Usage of Hazardous Dyes & chemicals:

Dyes and finishes from the production processes are dangerous for the workers, plus they get into the community water sources.

These chemicals may not affect the consumers directly, but they’re a problem for the people who make clothing as they inhale dangerous fumes and dyes.

  1. Use of pesticides in Agriculture:

 Natural fibers like cotton are often grown using pesticides and treatments that are harmful to the farmers, workers, and wildlife in the area.

There are now more options for organic cotton, linen, and other fibers available, which also use less water than the conventional growing methods.

 

 Does sustainable fashion makes economic sense?

Consumerism or the Instagram culture is fueling the aspirations among millennial’s i.e. to look better than their peers, has given rise to fast fashion industry i.e. producing fashion clothing that is cheaply made and intended for short-term use, whereas “sustainable” or “ethical” fashion is completely opposite.

Sustainable fashion takes into account the full life-cycle of the product — from the design, sourcing, and production processes — and removes the processes that affects the environment, workers & communities.

Want to learn about fast fashion, read my article here.

How can fashion brands become more sustainable?

I am suggesting few ways wherein brands can approach sustainability in their overall fashion business model.

  1. Renting of clothes.

Renting clothes to consumers for their special day or event is a way that brands could explore.

Success of brands like Rent the Runway (RTR) has proven this concept.

 

I had previously written a case study on Rent the runway, read it here.

 

  1. “Slow- Fashion” concept which is completely reverse of “fast fashion”

Environmentally friendly by producing fewer new items. Focus on your basic moving lines more than lines influenced by trends. Quality is key here.

Slow fashion means sticking with what you have for a long time, so this can get difficult to practice when your tastes change.

  1. Recycling of waste products:

Quoting an example of one footwear brand which uses waste plastic bottles to convert them into fashion footwear. Check the video here.

YouTube video

 

Case study: Levis jeans

It takes over 2,000 gallons of water just to make one pair of jeans as per statistics.

Levi’s is now attempting to remove water wherever possible with its Water-Less collection, which it says uses up to 96% less water to make.

And because Levi’s is such a big player in the denim industry, steps like this can actually have an impact.

Watch the video below to learn more

YouTube video

 

Case study: Eileen Fisher

This luxury brand is a leader in sustainable fashion and takes a full life-cycle approach.

It looks at everything from the fibers, to the dyes and finishes, complete process cycle – and the list goes on.

eileen fisher

The garments can get pricey, but under the Renew website, the brand buys back and resells its own label’s gently worn clothing so you can get it for a lower price in excellent condition.

If the clothing isn’t good enough to be resold, it’ll turn the fabric into art using special felting techniques.

sustainable fashion art.

In my next article, I shall write about sustainability in other sectors like Home furnishing etc.

I would be more than happy to assist any of my retail fraternity member who is planning to make his/her business more sustainable & profitable. You may write to me on riteshmohan@yahoo.com

 

About the author:

Ritesh Mohan is a passionate retail professional with over 20 years in the Retail sector, handling some of the biggest brands in beauty, fashion and fragrances retail & FMCG sector. He has been instrumental in the growth of some of the regional brands as well in Middle East region. Ritesh specializes in Retail management, Product development and Brand management, Retail Operations, Sales Management and Franchising & Business Management. He strongly believes in empowering business owners with his wisdom & experience of around two decades in the industry.

proximity marketing

Increase your Retail store sales amidst Retail apocalypse !!

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As we hear more about retail apocalypse or meltdown, we tend to think as to why so many retail stores and chains are closing down.

The answer to above question lies within the retail brand stores; their inability to reinvent, forgetting the basics of retail, high cost of collateral loans or borrowing or project financing & failing to adopt technological advancements.

Many retail companies think and operate like financial markets and not like retailers. Hence the result that most of the big retailers are either queuing up for closures or bankruptcies.

So how do retail stores increase their sales? The answer is by using technological -Proximity Marketing.

What is Proximity Marketing? And how it could help reverse retail apocalypse?

Proximity Marketing is a term used to describe location technologies for attracting customers by direct communication on their smart-phones or Bluetooth or GPS enabled devices.

Retail store owners are using beacon technology to meet consumer demands and create an outstanding buyer in-store experience.

To back this up, a recent survey revealed that retail store proximity marketing practices have a strong influence on shoppers buying decision.

For instance, Swirl Networks Inc. shows that beacon-based marketing tactics can boost retail sales to over 70%, but when combined with loyalty programs, retail owners are able to better understand customer behavior.

how to reverse retail apocalypse

 

 

Want to learn about Retail 3.0, click here

 

How does Proximity marketing works?

By using Bluetooth Beacon technology, a beacon is a small transmitter device that uses Bluetooth low-energy (BLE) wireless technology to identify shoppers location in and around stores and to transmit a notification to their smart mobile devices.

 

On this account, beacon technology will convey messages to your mobile phone and other mobile devices near you that have the application to make a more precise location-based searching.

 

But first, you must have your store mobile app that will connect beacons for it to work for you.

 

Why use Proximity marketing using Beacons in the store?

The proximity marketing–beacon technology is a must-use tool for every retailer because it enables you to attract local shoppers who are around your store, and helps them make more purchases by transmitting relevant content to their mobile devices.

The proximity marketing tool can transmit:

  1. Promotional messages
  2. Explain critical product features
  3. Upsell using styling features
  4. Free offers
  5. Provide useful content in regard to specific search or criteria.

It is called “proximity marketing” because shoppers receive alerts when they are at the proximity of your store.

How does Beacon technology work?

Below infographics explain its functioning.

proximity marketing

Image Credit: Business Insider

Beacon technology allows mobile apps to receive signals from beacons in the physical world. They deliver hyper-contextualized content to users based on their location.

Benefits of Proximity marketing using Beacons

Retail 3.0 is all about the experience, its all about engagement with the customers and Proximity marketings delivers 100 percent on it.

  1. Offers power of personalization in communicating with the customers.
  2. Tracking shoppers buying habits and purchase history.
  3. Targeted delivery of your advertising content at the right time to the right audience.
  4. Creating seamless in-store navigation.
  5. Easy checkouts without standing the queues
  6. The flexibility of tying up with loyalty programs
  7. By providing virtual shopping assistants through push notifications, you can add chatbots as well.

 

Case Study: Macy’s departmental store.

Macy’s rolled out retail’s largest beacon installation in their stores.

As soon as shoppers entered Macy’s, they were notified to open their Macy’s apps in order to receive notifications, promotions, deals, and discounts.

Watch out this video to understand how Proximity marketing could be used using Bluetooth beacons.

YouTube video

 

If you are a retailer stuck with stagnant sales and want to relook at your retail strategy, please feel free to write to me at riteshmohan@yahoo.com.

In fact, I strongly believe in collaborative learning and growth for everyone.

 

About the author:

Ritesh Mohan is a passionate retail professional with over 20 years in the Retail sector, handling some of the biggest brands in beauty, fashion and fragrances retail & FMCG sector. Ritesh has been instrumental in the growth of some of the regional brands as well in the Middle East region. He specializes in Retail management, Product development, and Brand Management, Retail Operations, Sales Management, and Franchising & Business Management. He strongly believes in empowering business owners with his wisdom & experience of around two decades in the industry.

 

 

lush

Is it good for brands to say “No” to social media?

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“Is it good for brands to say No to social media?” asked one of my fellow passenger with whom I exchanged pleasantries and introduced myself and initiated the discussion during a long flight.

My nature of work makes me travel quite often and it is the best time that I could take out for me and my reading or for self-introspection.

My fellow co-passenger quoted his pain points and recent news clipping wherein one of the UK’s foremost cosmetics and handmade soap brand LUSH had officially said No to social media by shutting down its social media channels.

Why use social media for business?

This question really made me think and my instant reply to my co-passenger was “Interesting development”.

I narrated my own story to him wherein one campaign to which I was exposed, generated millions of page views, views, comments, likes but failed to convert into actual sales (moolah).

Influencers on social media these days are having millions of followers and are charging a bomb for posting for brands but if you speak to them as to how they shall justify Return of Investment (ROI) to actual sales, it remains an unsolved mystery.

Social media is changing & that’s the fact!!

In a recent survey, 77% percent of brands admitted to using at least one social platforms for their products. Only 48% of marketers admitted that they see ROI from their social media strategy.

Source: https://www.smartinsights.com/social-media-marketing/social-media-analytics/social-media-marketing-actually-generate-roi/

If you’re one of the brands struggling to see ROI on your social media marketing investment, you won’t be surprised when I say this: “Social media is changing – and it’s not necessarily for the better, at least from a marketing perspective.”

Have you witnessed a drop in your social media engagement recently?

If yes, then the reasons are mentioned below

Earlier this year, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced a huge shift in the way Facebook’s News Feed would work:

“The first changes you’ll see will be in News Feed, where you can expect to see more from your friends, family, and groups.

As we roll this out, you’ll see less public content like posts from businesses, brands, and media”. 

Twitter Is Deleting over a Million Accounts Every Day

With over 70 million suspicious and spammy accounts being deleted by the company over the past two months, don’t be surprised if you see a significant dip in the number of people following your Twitter profile.

So why are social media companies doing this?

The answer is simple.

They want brands and advertisers to spend on their channels to boost their pages or posts.

Don’t be surprised that this move, makes all these social media platforms a multi-billion dollar vehicle.

Google is the best example wherein they want you to spend through AdWords to divert traffic onto your website and webpage.

Amazon’s biggest traffic comes from AdWords, they are indeed big spenders of dollars on Google.

You would be lucky if your post garnered 3% reach or visibility organically on Facebook or Instagram.

Brands are therefore forced to spend their dollars on to digital advertising by sponsored ads or by AdWords.

Read my article on using social media to your advantage, click here

How does this hamper smaller brands & SME’s?

  • Less reach of their posts or services.
  • Less organic traction with their followers.

So, expect your uphill struggle to boost the organic reach of your business’ Facebook posts to continue.

If you’re not allocating your cash to the advertising side of Facebook’s /Instagram platform, you won’t be seen at all.

So it depends on Marketers as to how they would like to spend their budgets on social media advertising.

My frank opinion is “Social media is good for generating awareness but one should simultaneously develop their own customized channel of communications & engagement with their customers. That’s more holistic approach”.

Feel free to get in touch with me on riteshmohan@yahoo.com for cutting edge advice on digital marketing.

Case study: Lush cosmetics.

lush saying no to social media

British cosmetics brand Lush announced this week that it will be quitting several social media platforms in the U.K.

“We are tired of fighting with algorithms, and we do not want to pay to appear in your newsfeed,” it said in posts on its Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook accounts.

The company, best known for its colorful bath bombs and soaps, has amassed more than 570,000 Instagram, 200,000 Twitter, and 400,000 Facebook followers.

Points suggested to brands from Lush cosmetics perspective:

  • Analyze which channel is bringing more traffic to your website.
  • Develop your own channels like chatbots, live chats on your website
  • Develop email marketing more holistically.

social media consumption insights

  • Explore new platforms like:

Houseparty is an app specifically for live video chatting and co-viewing experiences.

Nextdoor is a network centered on your neighborhood, connecting you with people on the same block.

Yonder focuses on outdoor recreation and lifestyle, allowing for information on people and activities.

These newer alternative platforms may not offer the same reach compared to established players but would be a good start.

About the author:

Ritesh Mohan is a passionate retail professional with over 20 years in the Retail sector, handling some of the biggest brands in beauty, fashion and fragrances retail & FMCG sector. Ritesh has been instrumental in the growth of some of the regional brands as well in the Middle East region. He specializes in Retail management, Product development, and Brand Management, Retail Operations, Sales Management, and Franchising & Business Management. He strongly believes in empowering business owners with his wisdom & experience of around two decades in the industry.

 

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