Customer Relationship Management

BIG BAZAAR

Submitted by: GROUP 3, Section - 5

SOURAV ACHARYA (UM17305)

ABHINANDAN ROUT (UM17315)
ALOKNATH PATRA (UM17317)
ANANYA JENA (UM17320)
PRAYAS ABINASH (UM17351)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We owe our gratitude to Mrs. Krishna Dasgupta for her guidance and supervision throughout the course
of the project and providing necessary support and information required for the completion of the project.

We had the opportunity to learn important customer relationship management techniques and methods to
implement the techniques.

We would also extend our gratitude the management team of Big Bazaar, Patia for their insights that was
critical to work on the project.

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CONTENT

INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................................2

CRM VISION AT BIG BAZAAR......................................................................................................................3

CUSTOMER SEGMENTS...............................................................................................................................4

MARKETING/PRICING TECHNIQUES USED BY BIG BAZAAR.......................................................................5

BRAND IMAGE............................................................................................................................................5

MERCHANDISE............................................................................................................................................6

LOYALTY PROGRAMS AT BIG BAZAAR........................................................................................................7

RETAIL MARKETING SCHEMES OFFERED....................................................................................................8

CUSTOMER SERVICES PROVIDED BY BIG BAZAAR......................................................................................8

SWOT ANALYSIS OF BIG BAZAR................................................................................................................10

IT ARCHITECTURE AT BIG BAZAAR............................................................................................................12

INTERNAL CRM..........................................................................................................................................13

MULTI CHANNEL INTEGRATION................................................................................................................14

PRIMARY SURVEY.....................................................................................................................................15

CHALLENGES FACED BY BIG BAZAAR........................................................................................................17

RECOMMENDATIONS TO BIG BAZAAR.....................................................................................................18

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INTRODUCTION
Retail chain was founded by Kishore Biyani under his parent organization Future Group. Big bazaar is
also the parent chain of Food bazaar, Fashion at big bazaar and e-zone where at locations it houses all
under one roof. Big Bazaar has 285 stores in 135 cities and 12.1 sq ft.

Key focus on improving customer service and experience. More than 250 stores now offer home delivery.
Improvement in billing speed quarter on quarter and higher point of sales utilization. Big Bazaar’s
flagship customer program, BB Profit Club witnessed a 19% growth in its customer base, with four stores
in the National Capital Region having more than 10,000 members each. The Company has adopted a
strong Online to Offline (O2O) strategy that helps engage more deeply and directly with customers.

We visited Big Bazaar, Patia to understand their CRM strategies. Average footfalls in Big Bazaar, Patia
is 2200 on normal days and 4000 – 5000 on peak days. Average Billing amount – Rs 1100 to 1500.
Big Bazaar has a store specific CRM strategies which is highly based on the local customers. The
pricing , customer experience is designed based on the customer behaviour in that geographic region. We
met the store manager and discussed the different strategies they follow each day of the financial year.
The Everyday Low Price scheme is the major strategy to attract new customers as well as retain the old
customers. Coupled with it are the schemes, facilities and service offered the retailer giant, which plays a
major role in the customer relationship management.

CRM VISION AT BIG BAZAAR

The customer relationship vision at Big Bazaar is High degree of customer satisfaction and customer
retention. Since the products they offer are fast moving goods and consumer durables, that are present in
unorganized market of small scale retailers, the pricing and delivery is critical to the marketing strategy of
Big Bazaar. The average footfall ranges from 2200 on normal days and 4000 – 5000 on peak days, the
customer retention plays a huge role to keep the profitability.

CRM GOALS

• Customer satisfaction top priority - The customers retention solely lies on the customer
satisfaction, hence it is prioritized on top in the CRM strategy of Big Bazaar. The schemes and
customer service have been designed in a way to fulfill the service level.

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 • Whatever they promise more, they deliver - if the price of a product has been promised less or
quantity to be delivered is more, they ensure the same.

• Always give customers more than they expect – Over deliver quality and service - Quality
products is the main differentiator for Big Bazaar from other competitors, hence they stand to
deliver more than they promise

• Let customers know how much they value them - Improving customer experience is a major
CRM goal as the repeat customer visit of Big Bazaar is high, hence it is very important to make
the customer feel valued over and again

VALUE PROPOSITION BY BIG BAZAAR CRM

• Distinguished purchase assistance level

• Flexible payment option

• CRM engagement strategy to retain and engage customers round the year

• Dedicated sales force team for enhance customer experience

CUSTOMER SEGMENTS
• Age group : 40 – 60 years of age

• Income group – Middle income

• Geography – Urban and semi urban areas

• Psychographics – Customers looking wide range of household and regular use products within
affordable range

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MARKETING/PRICING TECHNIQUES USED BY BIG BAZAAR
 Value Pricing (Every Day Low Pricing): Big Bazaar promises consumers the lowest available price
without coupon clipping, waiting for discount promotions, or comparison shopping.

 Promotional Pricing: Big Bazaar offers financing at low interest rate. The concept of psychological
discounting (Rs. 99, Rs. 49, etc.) is used as promotional tool. Big Bazaar also offers Special Event Pricing
(Close to Diwali, Durga Pooja, Independence Day, Republic day etc.)

 Differentiated Pricing: Time pricing, i.e., difference in rate based on peak and non-peak hours or days
of shopping is also a pricing technique used in Indian retail, which is aggressively used by Big Bazaar.

 Bundling: Selling combo-packs and offering discount to customers. The combo-packs add value to
customer. Big Bazaar is quite adept at selling combo-packs.

Using the above techniques Big Bazaar devised many new and innovative cross-sell and up-sell strategies
that increased its appeal among Indian consumers.

BRAND IMAGE
“Is se sasta aur accha kahin nahi” Nothing captures the spirit of Big Bazaar better than this one line. It is a
simple statement but it is positioned at the top of Indian customers mind. It shows that Big Bazaar was
built on the foundations of entrepreneurship and simplicity. Big Bazaar believes in service and value for
the customers. They believe in keeping customers at the heart of their business and therefore they go that
extra mile to satisfy their customers. They buy directly from source in bulk so that they can get best rates
by keeping the margin low.

After completing ten years of existence, Big Bazaar is going for an image makeover with a new logo and
a tagline that targets modern Indian consumers. The new tagline reads, 'Naye India Ka Bazaar', replacing
the earlier 'Isse Sasta Aur Accha Kahin Nahin'. The new logo and tagline are contemporary and reflect
changing India and changing ethos of shoppers in Big Bazaar. “Emotional positioning” is the type of
positioning strategy that is frequently used by Big Bazaar now-a-days.

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MERCHANDISE
The main objective of the store layout is to maximize the interface between customers and merchandise
which in turn provides easy accessibility to the customers to view the offerings of the store. Layout of the
store has been strategically designed in order to make effective use of merchandise and passage to draw
customers’ attention on store’s offerings. Big Bazaar uses the concept of “Roti, Kapda and Makaan”
(Food, Clothing and Home Accessories) while placing their products/designing the store layout. The
Ground Floor generally contains products related to Food and Grocery. Typically, the First Floor of a Big
Bazaar will have items related to Kids Fashion followed by Men’s’ and Ladies Fashion. Personal Care
products, Stationery items and Home Accessories will generally be placed on the top floor.

Big Bazaar has a wide range of merchandise comprising of both branded and unbranded products like:

 Home lien items: Bed sheets, pillow covers, carpets to kitchen utility items like steel utensils and
crockery and other minor utility items required in a house.

 Electronic items: Refrigerator, T.V, vacuum cleaner, music system, AC, washing machine etc.

 Mobile Zone: A wide range of mobile phones and accessories is available at lowest possible price.

 Furniture: One may choose from a wide variety of different types of furniture available at Big Bazaar
at very compelling prices.

 Star Sitara: In this section all kinds of cosmetic items are made available.

 Opticians: In this section all brands and types fashion glasses are available.

 Men, Ladies and Kids wear: This section includes fashion and casual wear for men, ladies and kids
both branded and unbranded.

 Foot wear: This section contains footwear for men, women and kids.

 Music: A wide collection of CDs, DVDs is made available.

 Toys: This section contains all kinds of toys for children.

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LOYALTY PROGRAMS AT BIG BAZAAR
Competitive pricing, consistent quality and reliable and quick hassle-free services are the only way to
retain customers in retail. The repeat customers spend more than the average customers and need to be
encouraged to come back. That’s why the stores have started offering special discounts to customers who
join their loyalty card program and Big Bazaar is no different from other retail stores. The loyalty
programs offered at Big Bazaar are as follows:

 Profit Club: It is a membership card that helps customers manage their household budget.
Customers have to pay INR 10,000 and shop for INR 1,000 every month, for the next 12 months
and they will be entitled to shop worth INR 12,000, thus getting additional benefits worth INR
2,000. Membership into Big Bazaar PROFIT CLUB Card is voluntary, open to all individuals of
& above 18 years of age with a valid mailing address in India. The Big Bazaar PROFIT CLUB
Program is applicable only to customers shopping at FVRL Stores of BIG BAZAAR, FOOD
BAZAAR or FBB - FASHION at Big Bazaar.

 PAYBACK Points: With Big Bazaar- PAYBACK loyalty program, shopping for daily
essentials can bring in rewards points. Customers can get benefits of not only the best prices
and Big Bazaar offers, but also earn 2 PAYBACK Points for every Rs 200 spent.

 Future Pay: India’s smartest shopping wallet: It is India's most convenient digital wallet
to shop across Future Group outlets such as Big Bazaar, Brand Factory, Central, FBB, Food
Bazaar & Ezone. It also allows customers to manage all your loyalty accounts at their fingertips.
Some of its features are as follows:

 Easy to use and absolute secure

 Customers can link multiple loyalty cards in one single app
 Customers can track transactions and balances virtually
 First of its kind! Customers can compare their shopping with local or online competitors
 Can be used on-the-go with mobile phone and customers can avail exclusive offers at
Future Group Stores
 Customers can fund their wallet using net banking, credit/debit cards or even by cash at
Future Group Stores
 Customers can become part of cashless and digital revolution

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RETAIL MARKETING SCHEMES OFFERED
 Exchange offer: This offer allows customers to exchange their old goods for coupons which they can
reimburse with goods.

 Sabse Sasta Din: On the ‘Republic Day’ and ‘Independent Day’ they organize Big Bazaar’s mega sales
festival, ‘Sabsa Sasta Din’ by offering exclusive discounts for customers. No event before had influenced
a day’s routine of thousands of people in different parts of the country like this sales festival.

 Wednesday Bazaar: Big Bazaar has introduced a ‘Wednesday Bazaar’ concept called “Hafte Ka Sabse
Sasta Din”. The aim, according to the chain, is to give homemakers the power to save the most. The
Wednesday Bazaar also offers clothes, accessories and fashion jewelry and personal care products.

 Monthly Bachat Bazaar: Big bazaar has scheme of ‘Monthly Bachat Bazaar’ at the starting of every
month, because it is the time when most of the working people get their salaries. Big Bazaar has taken
good advantage of grabbing these salaries by giving this scheme to the customers. This offer is on food
and beverages. Most of working people buy food and beverages for the whole month during these days.

 Special offer before college or school start: Big Bazaar provides special offer by giving discounts on
stationery items targeted towards school going children. As far as college going students are concerned
Big Bazaar provides special offers on apparels like jeans, t-shirt etc., on foot ware, bags, etc.

 Sampling of new product: Big Bazaar arranges a sampling stall for a new product coming to the
market. Customers can test those new items without any cost and if they like the product they can
purchase the same. 

CUSTOMER SERVICES PROVIDED BY BIG BAZAAR

Big Bazaar provides a wide range of services to its customers like Trial rooms, Elevators, Car parking,
Security, Baggage counter, Trolleys, Gift wrapping, free call services in case of an emergency, home
delivery services, Wheel chair services, fast billing facilities, alteration facilities, elders’ special whereby
the staff of Big Bazaar assist senior citizens and shopping assistant services to facilitate wholesome
customer experience during shopping. They also provide customers with after sale services in case of
electronic items. They provide one stop solution as one could get a whole range of items under one shop
and at the most reasonable price. They have their outlets at easy to commute locations.

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Big Bazaar provides a customer help desk at entrance of every shop, where customer can get all the
necessary information regarding any scheme or offer going on at that particular time. Customer desk is
used for helping and guiding the customers. Customer desk also has a complaint and suggestion box
where customers can write their suggestion or complaint regarding any particular service or product. Big
Bazaar also provides toll free number for customer care through which customers can register their
complaints and suggestions. A complaint of any customer has to be solved within 24 hours by the person
who handles complaints. If that particular person is not able to solve the problem of the customer, within
24 hours, then it escalates and goes to zonal office.

8 GOLDEN RULES TO DEAL WITH CUSTOMER SERVICES

1. Answer the phone.

2. Don’t make promise unless you will keep them.

3. Listen to your customer.

4. Deal with complaints.

5. Be helpful.

6. Train your staff to be always helpful, courteous and knowledgeable.

7. Take the extra step.

8. Throw in something extra.

CORE VALUES OF BIG BAZAAR

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The core values of Big Bazaar are as follows:

1. Indianness – Confidence in ourselves

2. Leadership – To be leader, both in thought and in business

3. Respect and Humility – To respect every individual and be humble in our conduct

4. Introspection – Leading to purposeful thinking

5. Openness – To be open and receptive to new ideas, knowledge and information

6. Valuing and Nurturing relationships – To build long term relationship

7. Simplicity & positivity-Simplicity and positivity in our thought, business and action

8. Adaptability – To be flexible and adaptable to meet challenges

9. Flow – To respect and understand the universal laws of nature.

SWOT ANALYSIS OF BIG BAZAR

STRENGTHS

 Maximum number of varieties: People prefer those places where they can get the maximum
products they need and Big Bazaar provides vast range of products under one roof helping in attracting
customer and their family to shop together and enjoy the experience.

 High brand equity: Big Bazaar has created high brand equity through its promotions and marketing.
It has created a different image for its products as the cheapest and the best value for money.

 Largest chain of retail marketing in India: Big Bazaar is the first retail chain to be started in
India.

 High capacity investment: Big Bazaar offers 1,70,000 products and owns more than 200 retail
stores all over India and has the strong financial backing being a subsidiary of Futures Group.
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 Everyday new promotions and schemes of low prices and discounts: Big Bazaar always offer
new schemes of low prices and gives discounts in products. It also offers facilities like online booking,
delivery of goods, shopping assistance, quick complaint redressal mechanism and fast billing services to
enhance customer experience.

WEAKNESSES

 Overcrowded: During offers, promotions and even on weekends the place is overcrowded with
people.

 Perception of low price=low quality: Generally, people think that if any product has low price then
the quality of the product will be low as they think quality comes with price.

 Targets at the middle class and upper middle class only: It targets at the middle and upper
middle class due to which it ignores the upper and elite class people who are ready to pay any price for
quality.

OPPORTUNITIES

Big Bazaar can enter into production of various products due to its in depth understanding of customers’
tastes and preferences. Nowadays people prefer going to one big store and buy everything instead of
visiting different places for different item. Furthermore, Big Bazaar can expand its business in smaller
cities as there is a lot of opportunity. Also, rural markets provide opportunities for growth.

THREATS

 High business risk involved: Big Bazaar investment is very large so it is obvious that there is high
business risk involved.

 Lot of competitors: Intensity of rivalry is very high and the market is flooded with competitors.

 Unorganized retailing: Unorganized retail stores are a threat to the business of Big Bazaar as there
are people who still prefer going to the local stores which are convenient enough for them.

IT ARCHITECTURE AT BIG BAZAAR

Big Bazaar has SAP ERP R/3 across its centers. The company maintains a three-tier architecture:

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1. Client: The client represents the face of IS, through which data relating to various retail operations
could be keyed in and data stored in database can be extracted. It constituted the Terminals at the
counters.

2. Application Server: The middle tier will comprise of clustered servers also called transaction servers,
as they facilitate transactions taking place in the big bazaar. This is essential for the system to handle high
workloads, especially during peak hours. The middle tier serves as an interface between the clients and
the database

3. Database Server: The database server will receive and process queries received from the middle tier
transaction servers. All the data are stored in this database server.

Inventory Management: For this Bar-coding is used, cyclic inventories are maintained mostly. Inventory
management is a very critical function for a store like Big Bazaar that deals with a variety of products
involving wide categories like FMCG, Staple items, fruits, vegetables, footwear, etc. All these different
products required different levels of inventory. A dating structure is set up based on the past data for each
data which allows the company to be informed of when their inventory should be updated. This is
important, because it allows the company to keep close track of their stock and helps maintain
communication simple between different units of the supply chain management

Personnel management: For this attendance swapping machines are in place to keep track of in and out
time of employees. Also an IT system, called the PECK system, is used for automatic ordering of items
whose stock goes below a minimum prescribed level.

Billing system: The Company has successfully implemented an ERP system with a comprehensive set of
accounting applications. This helps in integrating the cost, profit, and revenue information of sales that
are made, and presents in a granular way.

Order Tracking: On the business side ERP is useful in order tracking. When the company receives orders
for a product, being able to properly track the orders allows the company to get detailed information on
their customers and marketing strategies. If different software packages are being used, this data may not
be consistent

Vendor Selection/Management: Big Bazaar tries to integrate its inventory and order tracking system with
direct interaction with vendors and integrating with the supplier databases

SAP ERP in Big Bazaar consists of several modules including: utilities for marketing and sales, field
service, product design and development, production and inventory control, human resources, finance and
accounting. SAP ERP collects and combines data from the separate modules to provide the Big Bazaar
with enterprise resource planning.

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HO Site: it is central point in the database unit, which controls all the departments. It controls various
operations like maintaining inventory, organizing suppliers, and giving salaries to employees and billing
to the customers.

HO Employee: It defines the employees who will operate the HO site. They can make changes in the
database of the product, and can even define new levels of cut off points for both inventory and shelf.

Employee: It defines all the employees working in various departments. This entity will be accountable
for their salaries, their performance, their timings and their attendance. All the incentives will be decided
after seeing the performance graph of the employee, which will be generated through the DBMS.

INTERNAL CRM
Big Bazaar has a zonal level system for training and hiring employees. All the human Resource and
coordinate discussions are held in zonal offices and directed to the city wise stores. Big Bazaar also
believes in hiring interns and grooming them for future. They also have a proper grievance redressal
system in place and empower their store managers to listen to complaints and address back to zonal
offices in case of major decision is involved or in order to track the frequency of certain category of
complaints so that they can be corrected. Currently the major complaints are regarding the quality of
items bought.

MULTI CHANNEL
INTEGRATION
1. Focus on Brick-and-Mortar Stores
Big Bazaar gives priority to in store (offline) purchases. They believe footfall in stores will increase the
buying behaviour of people from big bazaar where they can themselves see, feel and touch the product to

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buy. It also reiterates the price conscious customers in the locality who wants to get a good product in
affordable price. As the target customer segment is the age group 40 to 60,the in sore purchase seems to
be the top priority.

2. Online Channel
Big Bazaar also has the future pay mobile app as its online presence. Often it launches campaigns like
Maha Bachat offer to shop online. But all the items are not available for online purchase , Rather it acts as
information source to redirect customers to its stores.

Big bazaar had its e-commerce platform but now they are not investing much in e-commerce business
which they think is not a profitable channel for them.

PRIMARY SURVEY
1. Do you feel prices are less compared to other Malls?
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2. The reason to buy at Big Bazaar?

3. Do you feel our associates have given good service to you?

4. How do you feel about the time taken by customer service department?

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5. The feeling of comfort while shopping at Big Bazaar?

6. The overall Experience at the Mall?

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CHALLENGES FACED BY BIG BAZAAR
There are a variety of challenges faced currently by Big Bazaar. The biggest challenge in the outlet we
visited is in relation to the pricing of products, especially food. There is an extensive decision making
chain with regard to the pricing. The Zonal Office in Kolkata decides the price of each individual product,
including any offers or discounts to be provided. Discounts are a daily occurrence in Big Bazaar because
its revenue model is based on selling at the most competitive prices. So, prices get updated on almost a
daily basis, and sometimes multiple times on the same day depending on demand and supply of a product.
When the Zonal Office decides the price, it informs the same to the Store Head, who passes this message
to two people. One of them is to get the latest handwritten price updated on boards near the products, and
the other is to the technical department who will change the billing information so that the updated price
gets reflected at the billing stations too. Since there are 3-4 steps in this, mismatches are common.
Sometimes, an offer advertised on media has not been updated in the outlet. Sometimes, the customer
buys a product at a particular price mentioned near the product, but gets charged a different amount at the
billing station.

Expired products like food products not getting removed from their counters is another source of
frustration. Sometimes, the customers only discover that the product is expired after reaching their homes,
resulting in another round of travel and demands for cash backs and refunds.

The dependence of Big Bazaar on one revenue model i.e. selling at the lowest prices is also a liability for
the organization. It should diversify into possibly more revenue models in case any external factor (like
government regulation) makes the low price model an unsustainable one.

But Big Bazaar has become aware of all these challenges. It has realized the need to change its outlook,
and is actively trying to do so. From “Is se sasta aur achha kahin nahin”, the slogan has changed to “Naye
India ka Naya Bazaar”. Even as such, the rate of progress has become very slow. There is low presence in
the e-commerce space. Offers shown in the app can’t be availed the app, but from the store only. And the
app is only available for Android and not for iOS. So, Big Bazaar needs to become digitized very fast.

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RECOMMENDATIONS TO BIG BAZAAR
To address the major challenge of irregularity in prices, we recommend the overhaul of the existing
pricing methodology and the implementation of a comprehensive mechanism. There are too many steps
and middlemen in the existing process. We feel the transmission of information from Zonal Office to
Store Head to subsequent departments can be simplified. To that regard, we recommend a Cloud-
Computing based system where the Zonal Office directly controls the prices displayed near the products.
The handwritten hoardings near the products should be replaced by digital displays which are controlled
by the Zonal Office via the Cloud. The Cloud is also connected to the digital scanners at the billing
outlets. So, whenever the Zonal Office wants to update the price of a product, it will simply change the
value via the Cloud - and the change will be reflected both at the product displays as well as the billing
counters.

The online shopping experience should be improved, especially in this age of an increasingly digitized
India. Not only should the offers be advertised via the app, customers should also be able to buy online.
And there should be integration of various channels for the ease of the customers. A customer should be
able to switch between channels with least bother. He should be able to initiate a purchase online, browse
the product and the finish the transaction via the app. A comprehensive online and multi-channel
experience to customers, combined with the home delivery service (which already exists at Big Bazaar)
will take Big Bazaar far ahead of its competition. It should enable customers to be able to place orders
right from the comfort of their sofas, which will bring in lots of new customers and keep existing
customers.

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