Organization of retail clothing store in Almaty

Literature Review
The current state of the Kazakhstan commodity market is characterized by increased
competition between manufacturers, wholesale suppliers, retail chains, and individual stores.
The problem is particularly acute in retail trade, in particular, represented by numerous
clothing stores. In order to attract and retain the buyer, to turn him into an adherent of a
particular brand, brand, or specific store, sellers use the entire arsenal of marketing tools
offered by international practice. However, buyers, especially the female part of them, are
becoming more demanding about the consumer properties of goods, their quality, and are less
exposed to advertising and certain price manipulations carried out by retailers. In this regard,
finding and using modern methods of influencing the buyer, based on the results of a
comprehensive market research, is the key to success in the competition for customers of
clothing stores. The purpose of this work is to collect data on the organization of retail trade
of clothing stores around the world, to compare the collected data with the situation in
Kazakhstan and in particular in Almaty city.
The retail fashion market is a distinct “brand” segment of the clothing market.
Currently, in western countries, the marketing communications of fashion stores – both large
chains and boutiques, in most cases, are based on a popular theory called Differential
Congruence. Garton [1] explains in his article that this takes into account the peculiarities of
consumer behavior of people who seek to buy fashionable things. The essence of the theory
in the following: marketing policy directed on formation of image of the store as the most
adequate way of potential buyers, which eventually leads to building customer loyalty this
store: as affective (high score store, emotional commitment, word-of-mouth and immunity to
competitors offers), and behavioral (repeat purchase, increase the cost of a one-time
purchase). The formation of loyalty doesn’t necessarily mean the introduction of incentives –
discounts, gifts, coupons, etc. If the brand is associated in the buyer’s mind with his/her own
lifestyle (for example, “elegant business lady”), then he/she will buy clothes of this brand.
But the main thing: adherence to one brand leads to the fact that the client not only buys
clothes himself, but also informs his/her reference group about the brand. If a store or chain
meets certain conditions, then the Differential Congruence theory can be applied. In
particular, the store or network must be clearly positioned: who we are, what we offer, for
whom we offer, and what is our peculiarity or difference from competitors.
In addition, as noted by Sirgy and Danes [2], it’s necessary to have a detailed portrait
of the target consumer in terms of socio-demographic (gender, age, income, employment,
etc.), behavioral (where to buy clothes, at what price, how often, who is consulted, the size of
a single purchase, the number of visits to stores before buying, media preferences, etc.) and,
most importantly, psychographic parameters (how to spend free time, interests, hobbies,
psychology, motivation). This condition is feasible when a retail chain conducts a
comprehensive market research. An important point to note here is that the buyer will know
either their current self-image (I am now) or the desired one (I want to be this one). This
difference is familiar to psychologists and depends on the self-esteem level of the person and
the desire for social mobility, the desire to join the reference social group. For a company that
sells fashion clothing, this isn’t so important – both groups are targeted for this market. Such
stores are beginning to appear in our country, and not only in the capital, but also in the
regions because the fashion retail market is a market for targeted brands.
 Today, it is much easier for young people and girls to make a career in retail in
Kazakhstan than for their peers in Europe. This is primarily because the retail market in
Europe has long been saturated, the number of supermarkets and meters of retail space is
much higher than in Kazakhstan. That is why for many European retail chains, the
development of East Asia and Kazakhstan markets is a priority and a strategic goal. For retail
chains, in turn, it’s vital to attract young qualified personnel. As Misra and Walters [3] write,
in order to attract young people to the retail trade, it’s necessary to train specialists from the
school bench, attract students to work in the sales hall, and present this work as part of the
retailer’s educational program, which students have the opportunity to complete without
interruption from their studies at university and at school. As a result, the company-retailer
will receive specialists who take into account the specifics of the business and who don’t just
imagine the scheme of functioning of the supermarket, but personally worked on most
positions in the trading floor. On the other hand, the students will gain experience in the field
of business organization in the field, which will give them a correct idea of the functioning of
key departments, which means that even much later, working in the office, they will be able
to make correct management decisions. At the same time, the students will be able not only to
work in the retail network they likes and earn money, but also to purposefully build a career,
starting from school, and quickly pass non-prestigious professions.
For example, in Russia, in order to improve interaction and improve the quality of
trained specialists, teachers and students of the State University of Management developed
the Retail Students Program in 2011 [4]. The goal of the program is to create a personnel
reserve for retail chains, train new types of specialists with practical skills and theoretical
knowledge. The program allows university students to work in a retail network in various
positions in their free time and move up the corporate ladder, earning money and
accumulating qualification points. The number and quality of qualifying points gives the
graduate priority when applying for a retail network. The Retail Students Program won the
all-Russian competition for innovative projects for retail New Wave-2011, which was held as
part of the largest industry event Retail Business Summit-2011.
Currently, it’s advisable to use innovative technologies to improve the efficiency of
the trading process. The main task of innovation in trade is to ensure high quality of the
processes of purchase and sale and product movement, trade services and trade activities in
general. This is especially true for innovations designed to solve the problem of the
company’s interaction with customers. Practice shows that consumer behavior changes
depending on innovative technologies used by retailers: for example, the use of artificial
intelligence tools and robotics in self-service. Product delivery formats are changing for
online food retail (on-demand delivery). In addition, there is a change in the formats of
expectations: the degree of customer satisfaction is determined by the ability of retailers to
meet the mentality of the modern customer. Among the trends in the clothing retail market,
Abecassis‐Moedas [5] identified two main trends: the consolidation of retail formats and the
arrival of network operators. However, the trends formulated in this way are secondary and
represent the reaction of the retail trade to the buyer’s needs. The initial prerequisites for the
formation and development of market trends are in the area of the needs of the buyer, who
sets certain requirements for the purchase process and its result, or responds to the proposed
new approaches in this direction. The buyer’s decision-making process consists of the
following stages: awareness of the need, search for information, evaluation of available
options, purchase, consumption, and subsequent evaluation. The results of research
conducted in the field of consumer behavior showed that when buying most products, the
differences between alternative places of purchase are more significant than between brands
of the same product group. In particular, in the clothing market, the motivation for choosing a
place of service is 2.5 times higher than the motivation for choosing a specific product. Thus,
it is necessary first of all to formulate the buyer’s requests that he/she makes to the place of
purchase (at the level of awareness of the need).

Conclusion
Retail trade today is one of the most developed areas of the real sector, which has
significantly increased the impact on the country's economy and manufacturers. In recent
years, the growth rate of retail trade in the Republic of Kazakhstan has significantly exceeded
the growth of the country’s GDP and the largest sectors of the economy-industry and
agriculture. It should be noted that with the arrival of food retail in Kazakhstan, much has
changed for the better for consumers. A wide range of products, large sales areas, quality and
level of service, various promotions that allow you to purchase certain products at relatively
low prices. In addition, you cannot discount the competition: each subject of the trading
network seeks to create the best conditions for the buyer.
Recently, there has been a transition from status consumption to individual
consumption. In other words, residents of Almaty don’t always rely on the brand’s prestige
when choosing a product. Increasingly, young people choose clothes based solely on their
individual style. The need for individualization of style allows many new brands and product
brands to exist on the world market. Brand loyalty is formed based on an individual’s
belonging to a particular community.
After conducting research, we can say that the Kazakh clothing market consists of
20% of non-branded products, 15% of the market is branded clothing of foreign companies,
and the remaining 65% is occupied by cheap imports from Asian countries [6]. As a rule, the
retail clothing market belongs either to the children’s clothing segment (adolescence), or to
the adult clothing market. This is related to problems in calculating market indicators such as
volume and capacity. Research of the Kazakhstan market of women’s (youth) clothing
showed that the volume of the women’s clothing market in 2019 reached $50 billion. Of
these, about 30 % is in the lower and more than 55% is in the middle price segment [7].
Currently, the largest manufacturers of youth clothing supply products to the Kazakh market:
Sela Corporation, Benetton Group, NafNaf, New Yorker, Zara, etc.
At first, local domestic players gained a foothold in the retail clothing market, which
created a saturated competitive environment. Most of them worked on a multi-brand and
import scheme – a variety of western brands were purchased, which made up the main range
of stores. Most of the stamps were repeated. As a result, the target audience was accustomed
to relatively well-known foreign fashion labels. With the arrival of western players such as
Pimkie, New Yorker, Jennyfer, Zara, and others, the rules of the game for Kazakh companies
began to change. Difficulties began to manifest themselves at the first stage of western
expansion. Now numerous monobrand western retail stores that have taken geographically
close positions pull the line buyer of domestic firms, which at one time was the main bet. So
far, they have managed to keep prices low at the beginning of the season. However, in the
discount season, when large companies can afford to reduce prices by up to 70%, these stores
are undoubtedly losing out [6].
 The key factor that currently determines the retail development is the change in the
culture of consumption. The future lies in getting as close as possible to the customer’s needs
and improving the convenience of the purchase procedure. Representatives of the grocery
retail segment note that in general, the retail clothing market in Kazakhstan is full of
potential, but at the same time, it constantly poses new problems. These problems are mainly
related to the country’s characteristics: low population density, huge distances between cities,
still developing logistics infrastructure in terms of roads, rail shuttles, and affordable air
transportation. The market is still fragmented by a large number of traditional trading formats
such as bazaars. The internationalization of the retail trade business is based on strategies:
organic growth or mergers and acquisitions. The world’s largest retailers are increasing their
expansion to foreign markets, including the market of Kazakhstan, while spreading their best
practices. Despite the significant level of penetration of modern formats of trade
organizations in the Republic of Kazakhstan, there is still sufficient potential for further
growth of clothes retail.

References

1. Garton, P. (1995). Store loyal? A view of “differential congruence”. International Journal

of Retail & Distribution Management, Vol. 23 No. 12, pp. 29-35.
2. Sirgy, M.J., Danes, J.E. (1982). Self-image/Product-image congruence models: testing
selected models. Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 9, pp. 556-561.
3. Misra, J., Walters, K. (2016). All Fun and Cool Clothes? Youth Workers’ Consumer
Identity in Clothing Retail. University of Massachusetts-Amherst, MA, USA, Vol. 43(3),
pp. 294-325.
4. Location Group Research, Retail Market Study Worldwide 2014, pp. 354-374. [URL]
https://www.slideshare.net/MarcChristianRiebe/retail-market-study-2014-worldwidethe-
location-group
5. Abecassis‐Moedas, C. (2006). Integrating design and retail in the clothing value chain:
An empirical study of the organisation of design. International Journal of Operations &
Production Management, Vol. 26 No. 4, pp. 412-428.
6. The retail sector of Kazakhstan. Development prospects in 2019. JSC “Rating Agency
RFCA” (RA RFCA). [URL] http://rfcaratings.kz/6109
7. Retail in Kazakhstan: there is room to grow. [URL] http://docplayer.ru/28178312-Riteyl-
v-kazahstane-est-kuda-rasti.html