Big Bazaar is a large chain of hypermarkets in India owned by Future Retail that offers a wide range of products across various categories. It has over 200 stores across India and employs a strategy of providing low prices on a large selection of goods through an everyday low pricing model. Big Bazaar utilizes various promotional schemes, loyalty programs, and a supply chain management system to efficiently source and provide products to customers. While it performs well in many areas, the summary identifies opportunities for Big Bazaar to improve customer experience during busy periods, increase awareness of its loyalty programs, and better link inventory to promotional activities.
2. Outline
Introduction
Retail Landscape in India
Challenges faced by Modern Retail
Big Bazaar
Retailing Strategy of Big Bazaar
Service
SKU’S, Types of Products Maintained and Visual Merchandising
Design, Layout, Size & Location of Stores
Pricing
Promotional Schemes/Offers
Relationship Management Programs
Supply Chain Management
Improvement Areas & Recommendations
3. Introduction
Retail Landscape in India
• Highest number of retail outlets, 13
million, in the world, still dominated
by the unorganized segment, with
only 8% of the market being
organized
• India’s retail industry is forecasted to
touch $738 billion mark by 2016-17,
while growing at a CAGR of around
15%
• Organized retail growing at a
tremendous pace, major reason
being the shift in customer
preferences
• Huge potential for modern trade
players
Challenges Faced by Modern Retail
• Lack of Retail Space
• Price of Real Estate is high, affecting
profitability of the retail outlets
• Shortage of Trained Manpower
• Leads to high cost in training the staff
• High Turnover further aggravates the
issue
• Lack of Cold Storage and Supply
Chain Issues
• 40% of the fruits & vegetables get ruined
while in transit
• Regulatory Environment of India
• Stringent and strict government policies
to be followed and a lot of licenses
required to do the business
4. Big Bazaar
Chain of hypermarket in India which offers
a wide range of merchandize
Includes fashion and apparels, food
products, general merchandise, electronics
and books etc.
Vision: To deliver Everything, Everywhere,
Every time to Every Indian Consumer in the
most profitable manner
Mission:
Efficient, cost - conscious and committed to
quality in whatever we do
Ensure that our positive attitude, sincerity,
humility and united determination shall be
the driving force to make us successful
We remain trendsetters in evolving delivery
formats, creating retail realty, making
consumption affordable for all customer
segments – for classes and for masses
Current format of Store includes Big Bazaar,
Food Bazaar, Furniture & Electronic Bazaar
Store Area Around 40000+ sq. feet
SKUs 80000+
Location Standalone / Part of a Mall
Employees per store 150-300
Pricing Strategy High Low Pricing
Loyalty Schemes Profit Club
6. Service
Big Bazaar’s service quality can be measured through the following five dimensions:
Tangibles: What can be experienced from personnel, physical facilities and environment of the
retail stores
Big Bazaar scores perfectly on this with properly dressed, easily approachable staff & a reasonably large
store area equipped with modern equipments & properly displayed products
Reliability: Staff delivering the expected or promised service dependably and accurately
Here also it performs well by performing operations at designated time, changing & keeping correct
records of customers & not stacking any expired products
Responsiveness: Willingness of the company to help its customers in providing them with a
good quality and fast service
Big Bazaar offers time to time schemes depending on the customer requirements, to generate enough
demand for its products
Competence: Assurance of employees’ ability to convey trust and confidence through company
and product knowledge
All the staff selected is given proper 13 day induction and training program & also given information
about company’s business & other relevant information
Empathy: Demonstrated by providing a caring, individualized service performance for customers
Over 200 trained staff in Sahara Mall store willing to help customers whenever they need
7. SKU’S, Types of Products Maintained & Visual
Merchandising
Big Bazaar (Sahara Mall) offers 100,000 SKUs of
merchandize in a wide range of categories led
by fashion and food product
Apart from selling National Brands, Big Bazaar
also sells around 50 private labels, which
generate an additional 10% margin
Some of the private labels are
Fashion & Apparel: John Miller, Bare Denims
FMCG: Tasty Treat, Fresh & pure etc.
Consumer Durables & Electronics: Sensei, Koryo
Visual Merchandising decisions are taken by
internal staff
Decisions are based on the share of cell of a
particular brand in that particular category
Brand with highest selling product in a category
is displayed at extreme left and moving right with
decreasing sales
In case of a new product launch, special
promotional displays like standees are used to
highlight the product
40%
30%
30%
Food &
Groceries
Fashion &
Apparels
Electronics &
Other Items
SKU break up (revenue contribution)
8. Design, Layout, Size & Location of Stores
Planogram type design, providing ample
space for customers to walk and see the
products on display
Stores are normally ‘U shaped’ and well
planned & designed.
Stores designed like a convenience store
giving street shopping experience
Different departments in store which display
similar kind of products
In store boards/written displays highlighting
the price of products & helping in
determining product’s location
Store size is around 45,000 sq ft. (Sahara
Mall) square feet providing ample space to
stock large number of SKU’s
Also allows customers to walk across the
store for search of products
Located in high traffic area
9. Pricing
Big Bazaar is known as the “Indian Wal-Mart”, because they also use Every Day Low Pricing
(EDLP) strategy, with a promise to save on a basket of goods.
Their pricing strategy is as follows:
Pricing decisions for all the products are taken at the Corporate Office. For only some
special products like groceries, store manager’s decision is also taken into account
• Provides Lowest available price without coupon clipping,
waiting for discount promotions or comparison shoppingValue Pricing
• Charges different rates for a given good or service
depending on the day, month, and so on.
• E.g. Wednesday Bazaar, Sabse Sasta din etc.
Time Pricing
• Difference in rate based on peak and non-peak hours
of a particular day of shopping
Differential Time
Pricing
• Selling combo-packs at discounts
• E.g. 3 Good Day family packs at Rs 60 (Price/pack =
Rs 22)
Bundling
10. Promotional Schemes
Below mentioned are promotional schemes employed by Big Bazaar:
Wednesday Bazaar
Sabse Sasta Din
Great Exchange Offer
Maha Bachat
11. Relationship Management Programs
Big Bazaar uses loyalty schemes for customer retention:
Profit Club
Pay Rs. 10,000 upfront & shop for Rs. 1000 every month for an year
Profit Club Rs. 5000 card was also launched with Rs. 5000 paid upfront & shopping for
Rs. 400 per month for 15 months
PAYBACK
Big Bazaar has also tied up with PAYBACK, largest successful multi-partner loyalty
program
With PAYBACK, customers can shop, save and get rewarded
T24 Program
Provides customers with dual advantage all 24 hours of the day—”Shop More, Talk
More”
Big Bazaar has tied up with Tata Teleservices Ltd. and rolled out its T24 program
through which customers will be rewarded with free talk-time for every purchase at
Big Bazaar stores
12. Supply Chain Management
Big Bazaar uses following processes to make its supply chain effective:
Safety Stock
Minimum inventory of 9 days so that there does not arise the stock out situation
MEQ Purchase System
Purchase order directly placed with the supplier when quantity of a product falls
below a minimum level
Automated Replenishment Systems (ARS)
Automatic Replenishment System generates purchase order automatically when
quantity falls below minimum level
Bi-Weekly Replenishment
Local vendors replenish inventory twice a week after receiving purchase order
Dedicated Distributors
Big Bazaar gets its orders fulfilled from 15-20 local distributors (for Sahara Mall)
which cater specifically to the modern trade channel members, offering them deep
discounts
13. Improvement Areas & Recommendations
Increase Awareness of Loyalty Programs
•Big bazaar makes use of a 3rd party loyalty program i.e. Payback in addition to its own. The Payback
system has high awareness but this is not true for the internal loyalty program
•Even the employee’s push customers towards opting for the Payback rather than big bazaar’s own
loyalty program
•Need to balance internal & external loyalty programs
Crowd Management
•Poor Crowd Management during high discounts period
•Long queues at billing counter
•Need to introduce multiple billing options for store billing during high discount periods
Improve Customer Experience
•Credit Card Agents running after customers inside the store, which disturbs customers
•Have dedicated kiosks for these
Prevent Stock outs after promotional schemes
•Stock outs observed immediately after promotional schemes
•Need to link inventory replenishment model with promotional schemes rather than just historical
sales data