Analysis of Store Operations & Customer

Experience Strategy for

Mady By:
Arushi Chauhan
Manvi Taneja
Soumya Raj
Simran Sihag
Divya Hebrombe
 Understanding Retail Concept

What is Retailing?

Retailing includes all the activities involved in selling products

and/or services to the final consumer. It covers diverse products
such as apparels, footwear, financial services and leisure.
 Retail Strategy
Retail strategy is a holistic marketing plan for a product or a service to reach and influence the
consumers. This strategy covers everything from what retail channels a product or service will be
available in to what should be the price or sales incentive to be given and how to display the product in
the shelf.

Retail strategy is developed for product to be distributed through retail outlets. When a product is sold
through a retail outlet, a number of factors affect the sale of the product. Some of the factors as already
mentioned above are:
❖ Pricing/discounting of the product
❖ Incentive structure followed
❖ Promotions planned
❖ Placing of the product
❖ Display attractiveness
❖ Incentive structure for the retailers
 What is Customer Experience (CX)?
Definition 1
“Experiences involve the entire living being. They
often result from direct observation and/or
participating in the event - whether they are real,
dreamlike or virtual”.
-By Schmitt (1999)
Definition 3
The brands that stand out are those that have the
courage to pursue purpose beyond profit, to engage,
entertain and educate their audiences; and who see
their customers and employees as members of a
like-minded community. These brands succeed
because they provide an experience that is not just
different, but dramatically different.
- By Smith and co, 2013
Definition 2
“The customer experience originates from a set of
interactions between a customer and a product, a
company, or part of its organization, which
provoke a reaction. This experience is strictly
individual and implies the customer’s involvement
at different levels (rational, emotional, sensorial,
physical and spiritual).” (series, 2016).
-By Gentile, Spiller, and Noci (2007, p. 397)
Definition 4
The customer can actively participate in a product
trial or passively watch a product demonstration
performed by a staff member. Absorption is
“occupying customers’ attention by bringing the
experience into the mind” and immersion is
“becoming physically or virtually a part of the
experience itself”.
-By Pine & Gilmore, 1999, p. 31.
 Importance of Customer Experience (CX)?
● Increased customer loyalty: Acquiring a new customer costs 7 times more than maintaining an existing one. Wong
and Sohal, (2003)in their research on a large chain department store concluded that service quality is positively
associated with customer loyalty. Customers become loyal because of the experiences they have, as a result of
quality control processes and relationship management initiatives (Garret, 2006). CEM strategy helps to deliver
increased loyalty, increased growth, and financially optimal performance. (Kong, 2011)
● Improve customer satisfaction: A totally satisfied customer contributes 2.6 times as much revenue as a somewhat
satisfied customer and 14 times as much revenue as a somewhat dissatisfied customer.
● Customer trust : Trust has generally been defined in terms of beliefs and behavioral intentions. For example ,
Schurr and Ozanne defined trust as “ the belief that a party’s word or a promise is reliable and that a party will
fulfill its obligations in an exchange relationship”. Integrating the main ideas from various definitions ,Mayer et al
defined trust as “the willingness of a party to be vulnerable to the actions of another party, based on the
expectation that other will perform a particular action. It is important for the trust or, irrespective of the ability to
monitor or control that other party.”
 Importance of Customer Experience (CX)?
● Brand loyalty: Customer experience management helps to improve brand loyalty with the help of better and
positive customer interactions, customer satisfaction and customer goodwill. In the long run, these are assets for
any company to grow and build future upon.
● Values: Inculcate the internal staff with better values and importance of Good customer experience thereby
improving the process of customer experience management.
● Better customer advocacy : Propagate the word-of-mouth about the customer experience thereby pulling in new
customers (better word-of-mouth marketing, positive reviews, and recommendations).
● Differentiate from competitors: As Jerry Gregoire, CIO at Dell, says, “The customer experience is the next
competitive battleground.”

Thus, the importance of CEM allows to strengthen the brand through a variety of differentiated experiences for the
customer. It can also increase profits through positive word of mouth reviews.
 Customer Experience Model by Fatma
Fatma proposed a consumer experience model based in an extended literature review in 2014. The model
represents a strategic approach to creation and management of consumer experiences. It incorporates both
service and product elements, and treats an experience as a process.
BRAND OVERVIEW

❖ Fabindia has secured India’s largest private platform for products that are made from traditional
techniques, skills and hand-based processes.
❖ Innovative, multi-dimensional retail concept offering something for everyone under one roof, designed to
consistently give customers more reasons to return.
❖ Fabindia currently operates 291 stores across 105 cities in India. It also has 15 experience centers.
❖ Fabindia has gradually evolved over the years :
❖ Started from establishing Fabindia School, Non-textile rage, Organic foods, Personal care products,
Handcrafted jewellery, Fables, Fabindia Experience Centre.
❖ A new retail format of Fabindia Experience Centre located in Mumbai offers unique shopping experience
to its customers. The Experience Centre focuses on the transition from transactional retail to experiential
retail, in a format that aims at creating a destination hub that delights customers by creating experiences
for everyone in the family. Involves Fabcafe, an Interior Design Studio(IDS), Organic Wellness Centre,
Kids zone and an Alteration studio.
 VISION:
At Fabindia the vision is to
celebrate India, and
endeavour to bring all that
love about India to
customers around the world.
MISSION:
❖ Fabindia will harness the
transformative power of a well-run
business committed to profitable
growth in support of Fabindia’s
Vision.
❖ Fabindia will strengthen and support
the community of customers,
designers, artisans, farmers, makers
and entrepreneurs inspired by India.
❖ Fabindia will give their customers
products that delight them by
interpreting our rich heritage and
traditional knowledge, while
protecting the natural environment.
 Evaluating Fabindia’s STP:

Segmentation Targeting Positioning

❖ Psychographic.
❖ Occasional behavior.
❖ Urban and middle
class families.
❖ It should remain as ❖ Should show itself as
niche. a brand of India
Festivals. "India mein
har din tyohar,
celebrate India!"
 Fabindia’s Customer Experience Model
The model proposed by Fatma in her literature review in 2014, dives into approaching customer experience strategically. It
incorporates both service and product elements and treats the experience as a process. The model is devised of three stages
of the customer experience that fits well with Fabindia’s existing customer experience model. FabIndia is investing in
‘experience’ and the goal is targeted towards interacting with customers at a whole new level of engagement.

The Pre-Experience Stage

In this stage, the customer goes into a mode of awareness by researching. This research will lead to activities like
imagining the experience, searching for relevant information, planning, and budgeting . This stage might not seem to be
directly controlled by a company, but it does play an important role.
 Fabindia’s Customer Experience Model
Brand performance: During this stage is where the customer might look for the relevant brand performance that might
affect their perception of the brand. Fabindia has both positive and negative reviews that come into the picture, that
might lead to being an imperative pre-purchase factor for many customers. The brand performance really decides the
image of the brand that decides the type of customers that want to associate with the brand.

Multichannel interaction: Fabindia operates primarily through offline brick and mortar retail and devotes a segment to
online retail as well. So, the customers can have both a wholesome online and offline experience.

Service interface: It offers deliverance of services to the customers. A bad service interface can tick the brand off in a
negative light. Fabindia is well-renowned for its service quality, offline more than online.

Physical environment: It is important in setting the right mood of the customer. The employees at Fabindia stores tend to
be really helpful to the customers in issues resolution, providing the right product knowledge, guiding the customer
through the store leading to good customer experience, as the staff is majorly important in shaping the customer
experience.
 Fabindia’s Customer Experience Model
Social environment: Moving forward to the social environment, the interaction of customers with other customers.
Fabindia enforces this by pioneering the concept of community-owned business. They keep the user engaged in various
activities, workshops and contests, through social media and their Fabfamily program which is an exclusive membership
program.

Pricing: Fabindia has adopted a value-added pricing policy for its products and as its customers are aware of the true
value its policy has been a success. They have a product-line pricing policy and has established a price-level for each of
its products. These range from high-low-medium.

Promotions: Promotions and marketing strategy at Fabindia revolves around the fact that they tell stories behind the
brand and the products through honesty, evocatively and in a compelling manner. Fabindia finds various platforms to tell
such stories. Newsprint has been one of those platforms. Digital and social media are the other platforms. They use a lot
of in-store posters to create consumer awareness about the products and where they come from.
 Fabindia’s Customer Experience Model
Customer Experience Stage

The customer experience is personal, subjective and multidimensional in nature and it is a source of value for the
customer (Schmitt, 1999; Pine & Gilmore, 1999; Pine & Gilmore, 2011; Gentile, et al., 2007). It is a complex
amalgamation of aspects directly and indirectly under the control of a company. Fabindia strives to achieve this by
providing a wholesome customer experience that leads to their customers feeling satisfied after a store visit or even
browsing through their website through Fabindia’s keen attention to every individual customer’s needs.

● Fabindia wants to delight their customers with their products and services, and always make them feel that they are
getting great value for their money.

● They want their customers to exude a feeling of ethnicity and celebrating India once they interact with the brand in
any way, as it bridges the gap between the rural artisans and modern urban markets.

● Once a customer has bought from them, they want them to feel a sense of belonging towards rich Indian heritage
culture.
 Fabindia’s Customer Experience Model
The Post-Experience Stage

A post-experience phase comprises emotions felt e.g. joy, remembering and reliving the experience (Schindler & Holbrook,
2003), imagining alternative scenarios, and may be connected with learning and development of new skills. On interaction
with some Fabindia customers and going through several customer reviews, it was taken into account that the Fabindia
experience is what has made the brand so successful. The customers are left with a sense of satisfaction and joy leading to
an increased rate of purchase intention. Customer satisfaction is one of the major determinants for brand loyalty and
Fabindia seems to capture just that by creating a luxurious, comfortable and friendly in-store experience and engaging
customers with amenities like fabcafe. Fabindia as an omnichannel has created a seamless experience for its customers with
expert consumer services and help.
 Gaps identified in Fabindia’s Customer
Experience Model
The customer experience gap is essentially the gap between what customers want and what organizations actually give
them. The gas were identified through:
Primary Data: Data observed or collected directly from first-hand experience by talking to people including friends and
relatives who buy from Fabindia.
Secondary Data: Customer reviews collected from Fabindia’s facebook page, google reviews, mouthshut.com and
tripadvisor.in

The Gaps

In-explicit No Poor customer Poor online

return policy Cross-functional support shopping

stores experience

Late delivery of Long coupon Staff lacks Sales and

products redemption process product discounts are rare
knowledge
Proposed Customer Experience Model for
Fabindia
 Proposed Customer Experience Model for
Fabindia
The model is classified into four parts namely, purchase intention, pre-consumption, customer experience and
post experience which ultimately result in consequences like customer loyalty, satisfaction, re-purchase
intention and customer equity.

● Purchase Intention: Here, we can have two types of customers, i.e. those who will be interacting with the
brand for the first time and those who have already interacted with the brand. Searching, awareness and
budgeting are the key aspects a customer keeps in mind before going forward with an experience.
● Pre-consumption: A well-connected omnichannel interface was recognised as the key determinant to a
holistic customer experience. The important facets of retail space are physical environment, social
environment, brand image, cross-functional stores, inventory, skilled personnel and data insights.
Whereas those for online space are well functioning delivery channel, ease-of-use, security, social
environment and data insights. Some common aspects that exist in both offline and online retail
environment have been carefully linked to the ‘Past Experience’ facet in Purchase Intention stage.
 Proposed Customer Experience Model for
Fabindia
● Customer Experience: The stage where customer derives satisfaction out of indulging into an
experience with a brand is the customer experience stage. The model emphasises on emotional,
pragmatic, relational, cognitive, sensory and lifestyle experiences.

● Post Experience: The sense of enjoyment, nostalgia, skills acquisition associated with a customer
experience are defined in this stage. This leads to the customer fantasizing and gushing about the
experience so much that they end up becoming loyal customers, plan their next experience with the
brand and providing value in terms of customer equity to the company.
 What are Store Operations?
A store influences the perception that
customers form in their minds about the
store, the products, services and staff.

From the management’s point of view,

operations of the store and a major element of
the cost.

As a consequence, the store itself becomes a

critical asset of the retail business and it is
imperative that the operations are managed
well to achieve and sustain customer
satisfaction and be cost effective.

It requires integration among various

functions within the store. When all the
functions are performed in an integration
manner, the store operations run smoothly.
 Need of Store Operations
❖They streamline repetitive tasks and create consistency, reliability, and predictability in
operations.

❖Following standard operating procedures increases sales, boosts worker productivity and
enhances a store's image

❖Employees work much more efficiently when they have very specific instructions to work
with.

❖It helps in expanding the store to new locations by using the existing SOPs to replicate the
work and products.

❖When experienced employees leave, loses valuable skills and knowledge. Documenting
important job processes, however, keeps that knowledge with the business and the store
moving forward (even after workers leave).
 Various Store Operations

CUSTOMER CASH, FRAUDS &

DESIGN INTERNAL
SERVICE
CONTROLS

PRODUCT STORE
INVENTORY ADMINISTRATION MANAGEMENT
 CASH, FRAUDS &
INTERNAL
CONTROLS
Store Operations in
Fabindia store,
Gandhinagar
STORE
MANAGEMENT
 Design (i)
❖ Store Location: Infocity, Gandhinagar

❖ Store Design & Layout: The store’s exterior and interior design sets the tone for the shopping
experience.

❖ Creating departments within a store: Fabindia has successfully categorised its product line into
Womenswear, Menswear, Accessories, Beauty & Food.
 Design (ii)
❖ Visual Merchandising: Fabindia displays its products in a
systematic manner by displaying all the current collection in
display windows. The products are placed at right elevation for
the customers to reach them. They employ a retail planogram.
❖ Store Atmosphere: The lighting in the store was warm light.
There was no music was being played. The store was not
cluttered and odourless with a pleasantly maintained temperature.
❖ Signage: The merchandise in shelves were not signed so
customers could not differentiate between the different product
variety offered without staff help.
❖ Store Space Management: The stuff was organised in a
uncluttered manner.
 Customer Service Functions
❖ How are customers greeted when they enter the store?
The staff at Fabindia greets the customers when they enter.
❖ Is there a familiarity with repeat customers?
No, there is is no familiarity with repeat customers.
❖ Is personal service offered? At what point?
Yes, personal service is offered. The service is offered after calling the sales staff.
❖ If the store doesn’t have what the customer wants, how does the store handle that? Is it
willing to say who else might have the item?
The store does not have an idea for the availability of a particular garment at another store
or online store.
❖ Is loyalty rewarded, such as through loyalty programs?
Fabindia offers a program called FabFamily, where they offer 1 point on every purchase of
Rs. 100. 1 point = Re. 1
 Cash, Frauds & Internal Controls

Handling Cash and Credit: Shoplifting and Fraud Prevention:

They use software to handle cash and credit Security tags are carefully placed on all
in their bookkeeping software. merchandise.

Internal Controls: Safety and Security:

Standard operating procedures like staff CCTV cameras are placed both inside and
register and authorised functions performed outside the store. The CCTV is monitored by
by one staff person at one point of time. the staff. Around 4-5 CCTV cameras.
 Product Inventory

❖ Receiving stock: The store receives new stock from their head office in Navi mumbai in every 1-2
weeks.

❖ Using an inventory system: They use an offline inventory system with physical inventory accounting.

❖ Pricing: Products are priced via computer product’s barcode. The store rarely offers price reductions on
products.

❖ Merchandise handling: Merchandise handling which includes stocking shelves and displays, moving
items is done by the sales staff. Window display is changed every week according to a central visual
merchandising theme received on mail by the head office in every 2-3 months.
 Administration

Managing the premise: Training to employees:

The premise is well-maintained and not Training is provided to employees at the time
littered. of joining.

Managing of promotions and events: Data management and use of technology:

Fabindia mostly relies on Word-of-mouth Fabindia streamlines store operations with

marketing and has several other events at POS systems, barcoding, and use of a
their company stores. customer relationship management (CRM)
platform.
 Store Management

❖ Sales staff is trained during opening for 15-20 days.

❖ Forecasting sales and budgeting is done by area manager with the
help of store staff.
❖ Oversight of inventory and loss prevention.
❖ Oversight of all internal controls, such as cash handling.
❖ All aspects of customer service.
❖ Opening is done at 10:30 am while the closing of store is done at
8:30-9:30 pm by the sales staff.
❖ Regular cleaning and maintenance of store.
 New suggested SOPs

❖ Signages to differentiate different product categories like menswear

and womenswear.
❖ More staff members.
❖ Proper parking space.
❖ Spacious and more number of trial rooms.
❖ Staff should reach out to customers for help.
❖ Pleasant music can be played to provide a better overall customer
experience.
❖ A fragrance to stimulate the sensory experience.
 New suggested SOPs

❖ Staff should be able to provide information regarding a product or size

which is not available in the store.
❖ Staff should be able to provide information regarding the availability of
a particular product in another store or on website.
❖ Products should be folded and placed properly and neatly.
❖ Staff should be able to recognise recurring customers.
❖ Security staff and a security desk should be there outside the store.
❖ A baggage counter for the convenience of the customers.
 New suggested SOPs

❖ Dustbins should be placed inside the store for hygiene purpose.

❖ Proper safety measures such as fire extinguishers should be
incorporated.
❖ Point of sale (POS) system that can handle not only daily sales, but also
customer management and inventory.
 References
● Bordeaux. (2019). https://blog.hubspot.com/service/what-is-customer-experience. Retrieved December 2, 2019 from
https://blog.hubspot.com/.

● Dziewanowska. (2015). Dimensions of Real and Virtual Consumer Experiences. Retrieved December 2, 2019

● Fab India Marketing Mix (4Ps) Strategy. (2019). Retrieved December 7, 2019 from https://www.mbaskool.com/:
https://www.mbaskool.com/marketing-mix/services/17313-fab-india.html

● Fabindia. (2018). Retrieved December 8, 2019 from https://www.fabindia.com/:

https://www.fabindia.com/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIj5C93aKp5gIVyxErCh1hLwupEAAYASAAEgIRFfD_BwE

● Fabindia customer reviews. (2019, December 8). From https://www.facebook.com/:

https://www.facebook.com/pg/FabIndiaofficial/reviews/

● Fabindia customer reviews. (2019). Retrieved December 8, 2019 from https://www.mouthshut.com/:

https://www.mouthshut.com/product-reviews/Fabindia-reviews-925738400-page-2

● Fatma. (2014). Antecedents and consequences of customer experience management. Retrieved December 2, 2019

● Pine, & Gilmore. (1998). Welcome to the Experience Economy. Retrieved December 2, 2019

● Teixeira, Patrı´cio, Fisk, & Constantine. (2012). Customer experience modeling: from customer experience to service design.
Retrieved December 1, 2019
THANK YOU