Retail Selling Skills

Report on

Submitted
Roll No. 13
PGDM Retail (2014-2016)

ABOUT THE STORE

Lifestyle is

an Indian fashion

retailer

chain

promoted

by

the Landmark Group. It started in the year 1999 with its first store in
located in Chennai. It has rapidly grown to a major retail store in
India. Lifestyle Stores is headquartered at Bangalore, Karnataka. It
now operates in 26 major cities of India with more than 43 stores.

Lifestyle entered in India and in a little over a decade has come to

be recognized as one of the leading retail companies in the country.
Positioned as a trendy, colourful and vibrant store, Lifestyle offers
consumers ease of shopping and an enjoyable shopping experience.

In the year 2005, Lifestyle launched its first specialized, stand-alone

home improvement store Home Centre. Home Centre is a one stop
destination for furniture, home-ware and soft furnishing that truly
represents

style,

comfort

Features of the store:

and

individuality.

1. Lifestyle, Phoenix Mall, Lower Parel has completed 11 yrs.

2. The area of the store is 40,000 sq ft.
3. 65% of the business comes from the loyal customers of the store.
4. The mens apparel section alone generates 40% revenue and the
ladies apparel generates 25% revenue.
5. The store has approx. 150 brands with a host of private labels like
Ginger, Paprika, Code, Juniors etc.
6. All the cosmetic brands follow shop-in-shop concept.

Ladies fashion

Mens fashion

Footwear

Kids fashion

Lifestyle

7. This lifestyle store does not have a Home Centre, it was

discountinued in 2007 because of declininng sales.
8. The store has 2 floors.

ABOUT THE STORE LOCATION/MALL

ADDRESS:
Phoenix Mall
462, SenapatiBapat Marg, Lower Parel (West), Mumbai, Maharashtra
400013
Phone:022 4333 9994
Timing: Mon-Sun 11:00AM-9:30PM hrs.

Phoenix Mills was originally started in 1905 to manufacture cotton

textiles in Bombay. The company, which has been listed on the
Bombay Stock Exchange since 1959, is owned by the Ruia family
High Street Phoenix, formerly known as Phoenix Mills, is one of
the largest shopping malls in India, situated in Lower Parel,
Mumbai. Its gross

floor

area is

3,300,000

square

feet

(310,000 m2). In addition to the mall, the compound hosts a five-star

hotel, a multiplex, commercial space and a residential tower.
High Street Phoenix (HSP) has more than 500 stores, premium
(including Ermenegildo

Zegna, Canali, Bally

Shoe, Bottega

Veneta,Burberry, Chanel, Dolce Vita, Emporio Armani, Jimmy Choo)

as well as budget friendly options (FabIndia, AND, Benetton, Zara,

Lifestyle). It is owned by The Phoenix Mills Co. Ltd., led by Managing

Director, Atul Ruia. HSP houses a variety of F&B, entertainment,
commercial and residential complexes. The mall consists of the
Palladium, SkyZone and Grand Galleria. South Asias largest 20 lane
bowling concourse was first started here in 1996. Indias first Hyper
market concept Big Bazaar was introduced in 2001 at High Street
Phoenix.

CONCEPTS IN THE STORE

Ladies Fashion

In-house brands sell more than the other brands available in the

store eg. Ginger for casuals and Code for formals.

When it comes to other brands formal wear Allen Solly does the best

sale in comparison to other formal brands.

The staffs is required to do stock tracking on a daily basis which
mainly includes the number of items sold, basket size for the day,

footfalls, conversion rate and also the total sales in amount.

The main issue that is faced by the staff in Ladies section is the
alteration issue as only the length is altered by the store and no

other fitting services is provided by the store.

Visual merchandising for all the brands is done by the staff itself. For
the in-house brand a planogram is provided by the head office i.e.
Bangalore office while for the other brands the staff places the

merchandise with a proper colour story and colour blocking.

Staff of the brands is trained by their corporate office for the
understanding of fabric and also on selling skills i.e. the way the

customers are to be greeted and also how fabing is done.

Incentives are also provide according to the policy of the brand.
For the in-house brand staff once-a-month training is given on fabing

and their weak areas.

In the casual wear Vero Moda and 109 degree F sells the most.
At the start of the shift the staffs spends time in cleaning the
counter and also segregating the new stock arrived and replenishing
the previous days sold stock.

Mens Fashion

As it is an A+ store the stock on floor is high with greater options in

style.
Core collection for all the brands has greater depth i.e. 18-20 pieces

on floor available in all sizes.

The Inner Circle loyalty card is promoted by both the staff on floor as

well as the cashier.

The visual merchandise for mens section is also done according to

the planogram provided by Lifestyle.

At the start of the shift the staffs spends time in cleaning the
counter and also segregating the new stock arrived and replenishing

the previous days sold stock.

The merchandise is arranged in light to dark fashion during

summers and dark to light during winters.

For a few brand knitted garments dont move well because of the fit

or rib given at bottom.

12 pieces per style are always present at the shelf.
Regular customers come often for formal purchase.
Staffs are well aware of the kind of fabric used in shirts and trousers

and coveys the same to the staff well.

In the Code section that is the in-house brand the demarcation is
done very neatly about the fit the style.

For blazers customers mainly prefer Blackberry because the wide

range of collection that it has, variety in fitting and also the price
point in comparison to other brands.

Footwear (Shoe mart)

Again the in-house brand takes over the other brands available in
the store. Ginger being the best performing among in-house
followed by Peparika and Catwalk and Tresmode being on top in the
brands available.
Main challenge that the staff faces is the stitching and pasting in the
footwear but is handled well by the staff there and is returned back
within a time period of 15 days.
In-house display is according the plannogram and for the brands it is
according to them.
Bellies, wedges, slippons move the most in all brands and also the
basket size is almost 2 for all brands.
Casual footwear move more than the formal ones.
Total sales consist of 25% women 23% men 9% kids 4% hosiery 23%
handbags and 16% luggage.
37, 38 & 39 are the most fast moving sizes in footwear.
Auto replenishment is done by most of the brands.
Formal shoes sell more than sandals and slippers in men section.
For kids wear juniors sell the most and that too for girls.
In a period of 6 months twice best-buy is available

Kids Fashion

In kids section the in-house brands beat the other brands, the major

players being Juniors, Bossini and Milange.

Whereas for ethnic wear Biba and Milange do the best of sales.
In the kids section girls apparel sells more than boys.
Tops sell more than trousers.

Lifestyle

This concept mainly has shop-in-shops for cosmetics, watches,

eyewear etc
They directly have vendors supplying products to the store and the

upkeep of the stock is also kept by the brand staff.

On purchase of higher value products GVs of that brand or some

tester or a small bag is given to the customer.

Company train their staff and product knowledge is provided on

timely basis and also when a new product is launched in the market.
For cosmetics lip category sell the most across all brands.
Ad-on plays a major role in increasing the sale and basket size for

any particular brand.

Also the brands get their replenishment in duration of 3-4 days.

DUTIES, REGIMES AND CHALLENGES FACED BY

SALES PERSONNEL

The Lifestyle in high street phoenix has around 200 employees, with
an average of 2 employees per brand in some concepts. As
mentioned before, the five concepts has well trained employees.
The store has brand staff for every brand other than the private
labels. The private labels are given the most space in the store and
has maximum number of employees. All the employees undergo a
training session and all of them are well versed with their brand.
The timing for each employee is given as 9 am even though the
store opens at 11am. Before the shutters are opened for the general
public, the employees have a routine they have to follow.

The employees have a back entrance from which they enter the
store.

They

have

to

do

register

entry

and

keep

their

bags/belongings in the store room, where they are also checked.

The beck entrance opens up to the second floor of the mall which is
the ethnic wear/shoemart/ kids zone. There is a office for the
employees on the second floor also, where inventory management,
stock keeping, etc are done. Within that office is a small cubicle for
the HR.
There are two shifts for all employees, the first shift is from 9-4 and
the second is from 10-8. The employees have to follow a SOP for
every

day

of

sale.

Almost

all

employees

have

the

same

duties/regimes.

Major responsibilities of the CCAs are:

1. Maintaining product knowledge and communicating the same to the
customers.
2. Manage daily sales, meet sales targets and maintain efficient
customer care services.
3. Building rapport with customers in order to retain them.
4. Inform customers about on-going sales, promotions and loyalty
programs.
5. Analyze processes, inform supervisor on issues that aggravate
6.
7.
8.
9.

customer complaint.
Monitor and resolve all customer issues efficiently.
Assist customers to various departments according to inquiries.
Keep a check on customers to prevent shoplifting.
Display the merchandise on shelves, gondolas, etc.

Duties/regimes on a normal day of sale:

1. The employees mark their attendance in the employee register
while entering.
2. They then report to their designated stations. Generally two
employees per brand report at the same time.

3. The employees then clean their stations, do dusting of the same,

and place the stock again on their places. All this has to be done
before the customers enter, i.e. before 11am.
4. After the store opens for everyone, the sales personnel are required
to be at their stations and assist the customers.
5.
a.
b.
c.

Almost all the brand staff maintains a register that has the following:
Stock units sold
MRP of the stock unit
Stock sold and MRP of the competitor brand

6. The brand staff is responsible for placing their products on the

browsers/gondolas/racks, the following are guidelines given to them:
a. Brands staff for lifestyles private labels are provided with a
planogram which they are expected to follow every day. The
planogram suggests what items have to go where, how to fold the
products (for apparel), how to color code, etc.
b. Other brands do not have such a strict planogram given, but certain
guidelines are provided on how to place the product. For example, in
fragrances, the newest collection has to be kept at the eye level.
Other perfumes are kept lower or higher depending on how they
sell. In GLOBAL DESI (womens ethnic), color coding is done for all
products kept on browser.
7. The staff is supposed to assist the customers while they shop on the
floor. Minimum 2 staff of every brand (mostly) have to be on the
floor.
8. In case of apparels, the staff is also supposed to go to the dressing
room and collect the clothes tried by the customers.
9. After the store gets shut for customers, the staff has to do register
enter for check out.

Duties and regimes when stock comes in

1. When inventory comes in, that happens mostly on Friday and
Sunday, the staff has o report as early as 7-30 in the morning. In
some categories, like womens ethnic wear they get the stock on the

shop floor, whereas some categories like cosmetics, etc have to go

to the store room to collect their inventory.
2. The remaining duties are the same as on a normal day of sale.

Challenges faced by the store personnel

1. The major challenge faced by lifestyle is the occurrence of THEFT.
Theft happens both ways, employee theft and customer theft. To
ensure employee theft does not happen, they use a technique
wherein they deliberately hide some item when the inventory comes
in, and if the employee is unable to report that, the managers come
to know of his wrong intentions. To ensure customer theft does not
happen, they have cameras installed all around the store. Also they
ensure that only apparels are allowed in the dressing room, the
count of which they maintain.
2. It often happens that customers donot get the size that they desire
and they dont want to come some other time again. So the staff
recommends the customer to try another lifestyle and if required
confirms if the size is available there.
3. Alterations of apparelsis another major issue. Lifestyle only does
alterations of length, and staff sometimes have problems convincing
the customers for the same.

Visual Merchandising
Visual Merchandising is the art of displaying merchandise in a
manner that is appealing to the eyes of the customer.
In lifestyle, the in-house brands are given a planogram from the
corporate office for all the concepts that describe what, when and
how the merchandise has to be displayed.
Other brands do not have a planogram they have to stick to, rather
they have guidelines for the same, but they can change how the
merchandise is displayed. For example, a new collection t-shirt of
Forca did not move as it was folded and kept on the shelves. The

salesperson of the brand then displayed the t-shirt on mannequin

and thus the t-shirt started moving.
Different brands and concepts follow different visual merchandising
technique.

In fragrances, the new merchandise is to be placed at eye level. The

premium brands like Burberry, Dolce &Gabbana,Versace etc. were
displayed on the wall mounted shelves. Whereas the budget brands

like Nike, UDV, Adidas were placed on the gondolas.

In women's ethnic wear, they have to follow color coding like color
blocking for products. Also in brands like W, the stock that was not
moving were places on the mannequins.

In men's wear, the formal wear brands like Louis Philip, Arrow, Van
Heusen follow color coding from lighter to darker horizontally. In the
casual wear, the brands make use of the mannequins to increase

the visibility of the merchandise.

For cosmetics, visual merchandising is also done by the staff, which
they do by putting makeup of their own brand. The staff is provided
with a manual explains what make up to put on for what month and

how to do the same.

In the shoe's section, the most selling brands i.e Paprika and Ginger
which is lifestyle's in-house brand were highlighted the most. After
that Clarks and Hush Puppies were displayed at the premium
location.

In bags, the high end brands i.eHidesign, Guess etc are placed next
to In house brands to increase visibility.

CONSUMER INTERACTION AND OBSERVATION

Some observations in the Non-apparelsection:

1 Lifestyle Radio is used and customers are directed to the brand and
the offers related to any concepts
2 There are at least 2 staff in any of the non-apparel section
3 Cosmetics and fragrance usually have a promoter at the entrance to
bring customers to the section.
4 CCA in the fragrance section are more knowledgeable and ensure
that the customer is notified about the product in detail with the
story behind every product ( For example 212 perfume)
In the Apparel section,
1 Staff initially shows interest in understanding what customer need,
once the staff is sure of the customer needs he then proceeds with
selling the best in the available range.
2 Particularly in this concept, the Concept manager had trained his
employees on the buying behaviorof customers and it was observed
what being followed.
3 Customer basically comes with the mind of what he/she exactly

wants keeping few questions in mind for example

What kind of material it is?

The specific type of design they have?( For example most questions
faced by the staff about the specific design is the HARUM PANTS

for the kids)

Will the color fade after the wash?

4 One of the observation was the concept manager himself stays on

the floor and try to motivates their staff if any of them fumbles
during the interaction with the customer
5 If any of the customer have any issues within the concept the
concept manager himself takes the initiative and attends the
customer individually.
6 Each CCA has a good knowledge about the product they are selling
which makes customer impress and which most of the time leads to
conversion and that is done by most of the CCAS