Story of an Assignment on Retail Management

I had marketing as my major field of study in my post-graduation time. Retail management was the part of the course and I got an assignment to show how we can create an environment for impulse buying. Well, the assignment has three parts, in the first one I have to do research on the store I am about to change, in terms of operations, finance, marketing etc. then in second part I have to visit the chosen store and keeping all the other factors constant have to change the display strategy of the store which can bring more impulse purchase for the store. I can make use of varied retail supplies offered by the store manager or can buy more as well. The assignment will go for one week. The third part of the assignment requires documentation of all the research I did in part I and part II of the assignment, along with documentation I have to attach comparison charts of last week and a week before that when I was not there.

The whole assignment was lengthy but gave me a deep insight of the retail industry and altogether different perspective about working and managing. The assignment was on an individual basis. Me being on the creative side instead of fashion, I choose the store which offers gifts and its accessories. Before starting my assignment I gave two of my day for the research of the store, its products and other retail supplies they use. On the basis of my research firstly I prepared financial charts, inventory charts, operations diagrams and retail strategy they are currently using which can help me to decide my plan of action and will also help me to compare my work with theirs for the third part of the assignment.

My plan action was simple and smooth I didn’t ask for any extra Retail Supply to carry out my plan which was definitely a plus. The first thing I did was decorating the store in a catchy way, it is a family as well as a youngster store, I hope you are getting what I am trying to say. Because of this, the store needed to be decorated in such a way that both the categories of people want to enter the store, then near the cash counters, I added few items like chewing gums, chocolates, key rings and other small things which are not costly plus catches everyone’s eyes. Then inside the store t every nook and corner I tried to put baskets with casual yet appealing items, such as small soft toys at one place, wall hangings at the other, etc. The interior was changed daily as per my request so when the first week was over and we tried to compare the results. The owner, as well as my professor, were astonished to see the remarkable change in the sales along with profits too.