What Does Retail Sales Mean?

An aggregated measure of the sales of retail goods over a

stated time period, typically based on a data sampling that
is extrapolated to model an entire country. In the U.S., the
retail sales report is a monthly economic indicator compiled
and released by the Census Bureau and the Department of
Commerce.

Meaning of retail
Retail consists of the sale of goods or merchandise from a
fixed location, such as a department store, boutique or
kiosk, or by mail, in small or individual lots for direct
consumption by the purchaser.[1] Retailing may include
subordinated services, such as delivery. Purchasers may be
individuals or businesses. In commerce, a "retailer" buys
goods or products in large quantities from manufacturers
or importers, either directly or through a wholesaler, and
then sells smaller quantities to the end-user

Definition: Retail is the sale of goods to end users, not for

resale, but for use and consumption by the purchaser. The retail
transaction is at the end of the supply chain. Manufacturers sell
large quantities of products to retailers, and retailers sell small
quantities of those products to consumers

Retailing is the sale of goods or commodities in small quantities

directly to consumers. Also known as to sell at retail
Retail companies in India Top Company in retail sector,
branded retail companies, top player in retail sector.

 Shoppers' Stop
 Westside (Trent)
 Pantaloon (Big Bazaar)
 Lifestyle
 RPG Retail (Foodworld, Musicworld)
 Crossword
 Wills Lifestyle
 Globus
 Piramals ( Pyramid & Crosswords)
 Ebony Retail Holdings Ltd.

Major Retailers in India

Pantaloon:

Pantaloon is one of the biggest retailers in India with more than 450 stores
across the country. Headquartered in Mumbai, it has more than 5 million sq. ft
retail space located across the country. It's growing at an enviable pace and is
expected to reach 30 million sq. ft by the year 2010. In 2001, Pantaloon
launched country's first hypermarket ‘Big Bazaar’. It has the following retail
segments:

 Food & Grocery: Big Bazaar, Food Bazaar

 Home Solutions: Hometown, Furniture Bazaar, Collection-i
 Consumer Electronics: e-zone
 Shoes: Shoe Factory
 Books, Music & Gifts: Depot
 Health & Beauty Care: Star, Sitara
 E-tailing: Futurebazaar.com
 Entertainment: Bowling Co.

Tata Group

Tata group is another major player in Indian retail industry with its subsidiary
Trent, which operates Westside and Star India Bazaar. Established in 1998, it
also acquired the largest book and music retailer in India ‘Landmark’ in 2005.
Trent owns over 4 lakh sq. ft retail space across the country.

RPG Group

RPG Group is one of the earlier entrants in the Indian retail market, when it
came into food & grocery retailing in 1996 with its retail Foodworld stores.
Later it also opened the pharmacy and beauty care outlets ‘Health & Glow’.

Reliance

Reliance is one of the biggest players in Indian retail industry. More than 300
Reliance Fresh stores and Reliance Mart are quite popular in the Indian retail
market. It's expecting its sales to reach Rs. 90,000 crores by 2010.

AV Birla Group

AV Birla Group has a strong presence in Indian apparel retailing. The brands
like Louis Phillipe, Allen Solly, Van Heusen, Peter England are quite popular.
It's also investing in other segments of retail. It will invest Rs. 8000-9000
crores by 2010.

What is marketing?
Marketing is the process of performing market research, selling products
and/or services to customers and promoting them via advertising to further
enhance sales. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques,
business communication, and business developments. It is an integrated
process through which companies build strong customer relationships and
create value for their customers and for themselves. Marketing practice tended
to be seen as a creative industry in the past, which included advertising,
distribution and selling. Having discussed the characteristics of a service, let
us now look at the marketing mix of a service.

The service marketing mix comprises off the 7’p’s. These include:
• Product
• Price
• Place
• Promotion
• People
• Process
• Physical evidence.

What is management?
Management in all business and organizational activities is the act of getting
people together to accomplish desired goals and objectives using available
resources efficiently and effectively. Management comprises planning,
organizing, staffing, leading or directing, and controlling an organization (a
group of one or more people or entities) or effort for the purpose of
accomplishing a goal

management can also be defined as human action, including design, to

facilitate the production of useful outcomes from a system. This view opens the
opportunity to 'manage' oneself, a pre-requisite to attempting to manage
others.

Basic functions/Roles

Management operates through various functions, often classified as planning,

organizing, staffing, leading/directing, and controlling/monitoring.i.e

Planning: Deciding what needs to happen in the future (today, next week,
next month, next year, over the next 5 years, etc.) and generating plans for
action.

Organizing: (Implementation) making optimum use of the resources

required to enable the successful carrying out of plans.

Staffing: Job Analyzing, recruitment, and hiring individuals for appropriate

jobs.

Leading/Directing: Determining what needs to be done in a situation and

getting people to do it.

Controlling/Monitoring: Checking progress against plans.

Motivation : Motivation is also a kind of basic function of management,

because without motivation, employees cannot work effectively. If motivation
doesn't take place in an organization, then employees may not contribute to
the other functions (which are usually set by top level management).