1) A good location late a retailer succeed even if its strategy mix is not a perfect one is

it always true? Comment on this statement with example.

Obtaining competitive location for small retailers in shopping center is one of the key factor
for any organization because that impact directly on customer mind without using any
strategy mix.
The most important strategic decision for success of any organization:
Location
Location
Location
Where you choose to locate your retail business will have a major impact on everything
your shop does. The difference between selecting the wrong location and the right site
could be the difference between business failure and success.
Example:
Convenience goods require easy access, allowing the customer to quickly make a purchase.
A mall would not be a good location for convenience goods. This product type is lower
priced and purchased by a wide range of customers.
Specialty goods are more unique than most products and customers generally won't mind
traveling out of the way to purchase this type of product. This type of store may also do
well near other shopping stores.
A shopping store usually sells items at a higher price which are bought infrequently by the
customer. Furniture, cars and upscale clothing are examples of goods found at a shopping
store. Because the prices of these items are higher, this type of customer will want to
compare prices before making a purchase. Therefore, retailers will do well to locate their
store near like stores.

2) Explain Reilly Law also advantages and disadvantages
In 1931, William J. Reilly was inspired by the law of gravity to create an application of the
gravity model to measure retail trade between two cities. His work and theory, The Law of
Retail Gravitation, allows us to draw trade area boundaries around cities using the distance
between the cities and the population of each city.
Reilly realized that the larger a city the larger a trade area it would have and thus it would
draw from a larger hinterland around the city. Two cities of equal size have a trade area
boundary midway between the two cities. When cities are of unequal size, the boundary
lies closer to the smaller city, giving the larger city a larger trade area.
Reilly called the boundary between two trade areas the breaking point (BP). On that line,
exactly half the population shops at either of the two cities.
The formula is used between two cities to find the BP between the two. The distance
between the two cities is divided by one plus the result of dividing the population of city b
by the population of city a. The resulting BP is the distance from city a to the 50% boundary
of the trade area.
One can determine the complete trade area of a city by determining the BP between
multiple cities or centers.
Of course, Reilly's law presumes that the cities are on a flat plain without any rivers,
freeways, political boundaries, consumer preferences, or mountains to modify an
individual's progress toward a city.
Limitation :
Distance is only measured by major thoroughfares; some people will travel shorter
distances along cross streets
Travel time does not reflect distance traveled. Many people are more concerned with time
traveled than with distance
Actual distance may not correspond with perceptions of distance
3) what are the major advantages and disadvantages of census of population data in
trading area analysis
Once the size and shape of each possible trading area have been determined, these key
factors should be studied in depth. The best secondary sources for population data are the
Census of Population and the Survey of Buying Power, which have complementary
strengths and weaknesses for retailers. Census data are the most detailed and specific for
retailers; they become dated. A buying power index is available through the Survey of
Buying Power; but it reports on broader geographic areas.
A trading area is the geographical area from which a retailer draws its customers. When
two or more shopping locales are near to one another, they may have trading-area overlap.
Today, many retailers are utilizing geographic information systems (GIS) software to
delineate and analyze their trading areas. This software combines digitized mapping with
key locational data to graphically depict trading-area characteristics, thereby allowing
retailers to research alternative locations and display the findings on computer-screen
maps. Several vendors market GIS software (via Web sites and CD-ROM disks), based on
enhancements to the TIGER topological program of the U.S. government.
Every trading area has primary, secondary, and fringe components; the farther consumers
live from a shopping area, the less apt they are to travel there. The size and shape of a
trading area depend on store type, store size, competitor locations, housing patterns, travel
time and traffic barriers, and media availability. Due to their distinctiveness, destination
stores have much larger trading areas than parasite stores.
A trading area's economic base reflects a community's commercial and industrial
infrastructure, as well as its residents' income sources. A retailer should look at such
economic base factors as the percentage of the labor force in each industry grouping, the
transportation network, banking facilities, the potential impact of economic fluctuations on
the area, and the future of individual industries. Editor & Publisher Market Guide is a good
source of data on economic base characteristics.
A trading area cannot be properly analyzed without studying the nature of competition and
the level of saturation. An area may be understored (too few retailers), overstored (too
many retailers), or saturated (the proper number of retailers). Store saturation may be
measured in several ways, such as the number of persons per retail establishment, the
average sales per retail store, the average store sales per capita or household, average sales
per square foot of selling space, and average sales per employee.

4) how does the parking needs for the barber shop, a shoe retail shop and apparel
store differ?
Once we decided the store one of the major problem or we can say factor affecting store is
parking facility. Parking facility is differ from the different store
Barbar shop have less parking compare to apparel store and shoe retail shop have more
parking facility compare to other store
Depending on the type of business your operate and whether you have employees,
adequate parking can be a major concern. Just think about how many times you have given
up when there was no parking to be found near the business you wanted to visit As a
business owner, you face diminishing profits with each minute a potential customer can't
find somewhere to park.
We can present their own set of parking issues. Therefore, if you are considering a facility
located in store, you should check out whether the facility's parking lot is used by local
residents without permission. Why should you care? If it is, you may find yourself in the
position of generating ill-will with apparel store, some of whom may be your customers, if
you move to reassert control over your lot.
If you run barber shop, a shoe retail shop and apparel store business, is parking an issue for
you? wholesale businesses don't usually need to accommodate customer parking, but often
have their own parking lots for use by employees. So even if you don't need customer
parking, parking is a concern if you have employees.
One out-of-the box way to solve this problem is when businesses strike deals with other
businesses, or with local governmental bodies, to meet their parking needs at a reasonable
cost.

5) develop a brief plan to revitalize a neiberhood business district near to place
Community feature to consider when choosing a facility is the appearance of surrounding
businesses and neighbors. What effect can these have on how your business is perceived?
Any business that sells its products or services to customers at the business facility has a
strong interest not only in the general character of the neighborhood, but in the kind and
appearance of nearby businesses and neighbors. This consideration is less important to
businesses that don't have as many on-the-premises contacts. However, just as a business
should never completely disregard the appearance of its facility, no matter what type of
business it is, it should not completely overlook the effect that the appearance of
surrounding businesses and neighbors may have on how it is perceived.
If your business has on-the-premises customers, strictly from an appearance standpoint,
what would you like your customers to see as they approach your facility? Usually, you'll
want your facility and surrounding buildings to roughly fit in with each other visually.
Within some settings, however, a bit of tasteful architectural difference from other
buildings may make your building more visible.
Your proximity to magnet stores (large stores that attract a large number of customers) can
also be important for attracting customers. By deciding where to locate your business, you
in effect get to pick the appearance of nearby businesses and other neighborhood buildings,
and may be able to "piggy-back" on a neighbor's ability to draw customers to the area. If
you operate a retail or service business that depends on customers coming to your
premises, you may want to position your facility on an access route to the magnet store. By
doing so, you can greatly increase the number of potential customers who walk or drive by
your facility.

6) evaluate neiberhood shopping center need your plan?
When choosing a facility for your business, just as important as the facility itself are the
logistics of its location. Basically, the majority of businesses rely on some combination of
three groups--customers, suppliers, and employees--for their success. Locating your
business where these groups can get to you easily is vital. The proximity of competitors
may also impact certain types of businesses. And while perhaps not as obvious, facilities
with environmental or community character issues can be poor choices for the location of
your business because of the negative impact on your bottom line.
Ease of Access to Customers
When you're ready to select the community in which to locate your business, you need to
make sure that the chosen community provides ready access to enough potential
customers to support your business. What constitutes "ready access" varies tremendously
based on the type of business.
Reliance on Suppliers
Unless your business provides purely services to customers, you depend on suppliers
(distributors, wholesalers, manufacturers, etc.) to provide you with the items you need to
create and market your product. Thus, all things being equal, it's usually better from the
point of view of delivery and price to be close to your important suppliers.
If the source of the materials that you need to make your products is distant and you aren't
well served by transportation facilities, the shipping costs that you will incur, and have to
pass along to your customers in some form, may make it too expensive for you to compete
with businesses that can get their supplies more cheaply. Also, more distant suppliers can
mean more delays in delivery of supplies.
Your facility's street location and access to highways and other modes of transportation
can also affect how quickly you can receive shipments from suppliers.
Availability of Employees
For many small businesses, the ability to attract and retain qualified employees can be
critical to success. Because of this, you should carefully consider the availability of qualified
employment prospects within a half-hour drive of your location.
If employee costs figure to be a major portion of your total business costs (and especially if
you are considering different states to locate your facility), you will do well to investigate
state and local work rules, required employee benefits, and workers' compensation rules.

7) Define the concept of atmosphere how does it differ from user merchandising

Who you are.

executing all aspects of the merchandising initiatives on the sales floor. In short,
your ability to visually display Atmosphere products will enhance the Atmosphere
shopping experience and contribute positively to sales.

What you will do.

Ensure all visual elements are displayed with current merchandise and reflect
current market trends
Support the set-up of all promotional events and seasonal change-overs.
Continuously plan and organize the merchandising of wall and floor fixtures
Maintain all point of purchase, sign-holders and fixtures
Assist with pricing, unpacking, and placement of stock
Interact with customers in a friendly and professional manner

What you will get.

Competitive salary
Discounts on all the latest gear
A fun, fast paced team environment
Comprehensive training in a variety of formats

What you bring.

Prior visual merchandising experience or a degree/diploma in a visual
merchandising program
Hands on experience setting up window and floor displays in a retail environment
A passion for your activities and a drive to inspire others
Excellent interpersonal skills
Ability to work independently and with a team
Excellent time management skills
Ability to lift/move boxes

8) What are mint by selling merchandising personal customer space ?
The term 'selling space' describes an area that is being used to display merchandise in a
shop. The area also includes the space in which there happens the interaction between the
customers and the people that are responsible to sell things and also the
demonstrationofthe products.
The importance of this kind of space can not be ignored and particularly in the world that is
full of similar kind of products and only a little differentiation is there between two
products. Unless people have a look at the products, they can not decide on what to buy and
also they will not come to know about the subtle differences between two products.
Store layout and visual merchandising are factors that contribute to the uniqueness of a
store. The exterior and interior of a store convey several messages about the store to the
consumers. The building that houses retail store, (whether new or old) and the exterior
design of the store are important aspects of the design of the store. Marquees, walkways,
entrances, doors, display windows, the height and size of the building, colors and materials
used, and theft prevention are some of the key factors to be kept in mind while developing
a store's exterior.
Managing space is the first and foremost concern of almost every retailer, when it comes to
designing the store's interior. Space is always an expensive and scarce resource. Retailers
always try to maximize the return on sales per square foot. Planning a layout for the store's
interior is the first step in designing the store's interior.
Allocating space to various merchandise categories in a store is very important. Allocation
of space can be based on many factors, like historical sales, gross margins, industry
averages and strategic objectives. Apart from allocating space to various merchandise
categories, space has to be allocated for carrying out some essential functions. Such space
includes the back room for receiving the inventories and sorting them out, office and other
functional spaces, aisles and customer service desks, floor space and wall space. The
interior of a store influences the purchasing behavior of the customers to a great extent.
Designing the interior of a store in such a way as to influence customer behavior is referred
to as visual merchandising. It includes optimum and appropriate use of fixtures, displays,
color, lighting, music, scent, ceilings and floor, and designing all of these properly.
Merchandise presentation is the most significant aspect of store design, because it helps
attract customers' attention. A retailer can resort to many forms of presentation such as
idea-oriented presentation, item-oriented presentation, price lining, color presentation,
vertical merchandising, tonnage merchandising and frontal presentation.

Prevention of losses due to merchandise pilferage is a major cause of concern for all
retailers. This issue should be addressed at the initial stage of store design. The retailer can
use many electronic security systems like CCTV and EAS for the prevention of such losses.
Thus, by appropriately integrating the various elements of store design (both exterior and
interior), a retailer can create an excellent image of itself in the target customer's mind.



9) Develop a purchase motivational product grouping for an online consumer apparel
store.
online consumers also tend to use a range of information and communication technology as
a platform to express themselves online and engage the digital marketspace. Research
sponsored by the Pew Internet & American Life Project has categorized information and
communication technology users into nine groups based on their use of devices to connect
to the Internet, the activities they engage in, and their attitudes toward the marketspace.
Marketers emphasize the customer value-creation possibilities, the importance of
interactivity, individuality and relationship building, and producing customer experience in
the new marketspace. However, consumers typically refer to six reasons they shop and buy
online: convenience, choice, customization, communication, cost, and control
Convenience
Online shopping and buying is convenient. Consumers can visit Walmart
at www.walmart.com to scan and order from among thousands of displayed products
without fighting traffic, finding a parking space, walking through long aisles, and standing
in store checkout lines. Alternatively, online consumers can usebots, electronic shopping
agents or robots that comb websites to compare prices and product or service features. In
either instance, an online consumer has never ventured into a store. However, for
convenience to remain a source of customer value creation, websites must be easy to locate
and navigate, and image downloads must be fast.
A commonly held view among online marketers is the eight-second rule: Customers
will abandon their efforts to enter and navigate a website if download time exceeds eight
seconds. Furthermore, the more clicks and pauses between clicks required to access
information or make a purchase, the more likely it is a customer will exit a website.
Choice
Choice, the second reason consumers shop and buy online, has two dimensions. First,
choice exists in the product or service selection offered to consumers. Buyers desiring
selection can avail themselves of numerous websites for almost anything they want.
Choice assistance is the second dimension. Here, the interactive capabilities of
Internet-enabled technologies invite customers to engage in an electronic dialogue with
marketers for the purpose of making informed choices. Choice assistance is one of the
reasons for the continued success of Zappos.com. The company offers an online chat room
that enables prospective buyers to ask questions and receive answers in real time. In
addition, carefully designed search capabilities permit consumers to review products by
brand and particular items.
Customization
Even with a broad selection and choice assistance, some customers prefer one-of-a-kind
items that fit their specific needs. Customization arises from Internet-enabled capabilities
that make possible a highly interactive and individualized information and exchange
environment for shoppers and buyers. Remember the earlier Reebok, Schwab, Dell, and
Seven Cycles examples? To varying degrees, online consumers also benefit
from customerizationthe growing practice of not only customizing a product or service
but also personalizing the marketing and overall shopping and buying interaction for each
customer.Customerization seeks to do more than offer consumers the right product, at the
right time, and at the right price. It combines choice board and personalization systems to
expand the exchange environment beyond a transaction and makes shopping and buying
an enjoyable, personal experience.
Communication
Online consumers particularly welcome the communication capabilities of Internet-enabled
technologies. This communication can take three forms: (1) marketer-to-consumer e-mail
notification, (2) consumer-to-marketer buying and service requests, and (3) consumer-to-
consumer chat rooms and instant messaging, plus social networking websites such as
Twitter and Facebook.


10) Pleasant of planorgram for a nearby convenient store
The planogram is no more than a graphic map showing what products to place where on
the shelves.
Maximize profit per centimetre of shelf space by analysing inventory data whilst
retaining tight control over which products go where and in what quantity.
Appeal to customers by displaying products attractively, and by giving prominence
to brands that the customer knows and also by giving prominence to hot spot
displays featuring advertised products.
Reduce operational costs and improve compliance by producing simple
merchandising instructions including layout, pricing and promotion that can be
quickly and effectively communicated and actioned in store.
In short, planograms can deliver a visual statement of expertise to your customer
and optimize the use of space to maximize profitability.
Using proven Category Management expertise we have designed Planograms for
most of the Top categories that will give you the information you need to make the
most of your store space.

11) Differentiates among central business district, secondary business district,
neighborhood business and string.

An isolated store is freestanding, not adjacent to other stores. This type of location has
several advantages, including no competition, low rent, flexibility, road visibility, easy
parking, and lower property costs. There are also distinct disadvantages: difficulty in
attracting traffic, no variety for shoppers, no shared costs, and zoning restrictions.
An unplanned business district is a shopping area where two or more stores are located
together or nearby. Store composition is not based on long-range planning. Unplanned
business districts can be broken down into four categories: central business district (CBD),
secondary business district(SBD), neighborhood business district (NBD), and string.
An unplanned business district generally has such points as these in its favor: variety of
goods, services, and prices; access to public transit; nearness to commercial and social
facilities; and pedestrian traffic. Yet, this type of location's shortcomings have led to the
growth of the planned shopping center: inadequate parking, older facilities, high rents and
taxes in popular CBDs, discontinuity of offerings, traffic and delivery congestion, high theft
rates, and some declining central cities.
A planned shopping center is centrally owned or managed and well-balanced. It usually has
one or more large (anchor) stores and many smaller stores. During the past several
decades, the growth of the planned shopping center has been great. This is due to extensive
goods and service offerings, expanding suburbs, shared strategy planning and costs,
attractive locations, parking facilities, lower rent and taxes (except for most regional
shopping centers), lower theft rates, popularity of malls (although some people are now
bored with shopping centers), and lesser appeal of inner-city shopping. The negative
aspects of the planned center include operations inflexibility, restrictions on merchandise
lines carried, and anchor store domination. There are three shopping center forms:
regional, community, and neighborhood.

12) Do you agree with upscale retailer decision not to provide in store shopping carts.
What realistic alternative would you suggest?
Retailers can sell their products in different marketing channels such as online
marketplaces such as Amazon and eBay. Retailers having their web store based on 24Seven
Cart can integrate online marketplaces where they can publish their web store items.
Integrating 24Sevencart based web store with online marketplaces, retailers can upload
their products on marketplaces. The real time integration between physical store,
24Sevencart based web store and online marketplaces helps in sync products, orders and
inventories on these platforms simultaneously.
Features:
Updates product catalog automatically.
Auto updates pricing and inventory data.
Download online sales orders into RetailPro.
Update inventory on online marketplaces such as Amazon and eBay.
Connects multiple retail outlets.
A new customer comes to your website, finds a product they want at a price they
like and adds it to their cart.
They get to the checkout page and then it happens. They get hit with the shipping
and handling rates and all of a sudden they start second guessing their decision to
buy.
Suddenly a product they thought had a fair price is starting to seem a little
expensive. One of two things happens next. Either they decide to press on despite
the increased costs, or they abandon their cart and leave your website
disappointed.

Alternative suggestion:
Overview of Retail Pro V8 integration with 24Seven shopping cart
We offer Retail Pro V8 integration with Ecommerce. It is an all-inclusive tool to manage
web store and point-of-sales application. This integration automates and migrates
information across both the technology platforms that consist of multiple settings in
RetailPro.
The processes at a web store are almost same as that of Retail Pro Version 8 POS that
includes order management, inventory control and catalogue management. This Retail Pro
V8 eCommerce integration helps retailers to track inventory levels, product attributes,
multiple price levels and records customer transactions.

Additionally, its not just the integration of Retail Pro v8 with Web Store that matters, it is
the time and cost that are saved from repeated data entry in both the platforms. This
24Sevencart and RetailPro V8 integration shares and updates information in real time
basis so that you get the latest information.

Retail Pro Version 8 Integration with eCommerce store based on 24Seven Cart requires a
middleware to transfer and migrate information on both the platforms. This middleware,
24Seven Link, helps retailers to upload the inventory information, pricing data and product
attributes.
There are various functions that retailers can manage through the interface of
24Sevencart such as product information, updating multiple price levels, reviews,
banner images, etc.
Web store based on 24Seven Cart issues a confirmation mail once orders are
fulfilled.
Retailers can integrate their 24Sevencart based web store with various sales
channels such as online marketplaces and shopping engines.