Video - Retail Employee

a. Describe the retail sector as spoken by Lynn Bavage.
The retail sector spoken is a very flexible sector. It allows employees to pick the working hours which they want to work, so that the job can fit into their lifestyles and vice versa.

b. Why did Lynn Bavage say that retail is the best job in the world?
She thinks that it is the best job in the world as the progression opportunities are incredibly fast and has high earning potential. Opportunities are right out there for employees to grab if they have the right attitude and capabilities. It also provides employees with many opportunities to work with a wide variety of products, as well as different individuals.

c. Briefly explain what Tilly’s coffee shop looks for when employing staff.
Ability to communicate with others, reliability, trustworthiness, past experiences, and good time management.

d. Name the other retailer showcased in the video.
The other retailer showcased in the video is TESCO.

e. Briefly describe the important skills that are outlined in the video. What are the benefits for the retail employees in the video?
The several important skills outlined are good communication skills, reliability, trustworthiness, ability to build relationship with customers and enjoy working with the products.

Some benefits for the retail employees are:
Flexible sector for employees to pick the working hours to work so as to fit their lifestyle or to fit the job.
Gain confidence through achievements.
Gain experience
Gain Self-esteem

f. Outline any two retailing careers that are available at the retailers that are mentioned in the video.
The two retailing careers are Team Leader and Shop Floor Manager.

Retail Communication Mix

Advertising

Forever21 has been advertising through magazines such as CLEO and Seventeen. Since the target market of Forever21 are fashion-forward ladies between the age 16 to 35, advertising through such channels would bring the intended message across to them.

Salespeople

As a retailer, one of the most direct communication mix Forever21 has adopted would be its salespeople.  They are the ones who have direct contact with the consumers, hence possessing the ability to influence their buying decision and by providing help, they create a better shopping experience. The salespeople, being at the front line, holds a great deal of responsibility in portraying the brand image and enhancing the shopping experience for its customers.

Customer Service Part II - Forever 21

Poor services portrayed by Forever 21

1. Disorganisation

This occurs more often during peak hours. It is a poor reflection on the business when salespeople are unsure of things and matters in their store.

Forever 21 tends to get very crowded during peak hours, especially for the outlet at Wisma Atria as it has a rather small area. When the place gets crowded, you will notice that the apparels would be all over the place, and customers would be having a hard time to look for what they want, either that, you will notice that customers looking out for any salespeople for any enquiries that they have. 

A seemingly organised business reassures the customers that you can do the job and provide the sales and necessary service. Providing organised customer service will make customers want to come back for more.

2. Lack of initiative

The staff of F21 sometimes lack the initiative of approaching the customers and render help. There will be customers who are looking for something which may not be visible enough to them, and when the salespersons spot them, they do not immediately approach and render help. Instead, they will wait for the customers to come forward and ask. 

This may discourage shoppers to continue shopping as they are unable to find what they want. 

3. Delays & unreliability 

Customers usually expect prompt delivery of service or product. When customers are unable to reply on you to get a product or service to them in a timely manner, it is bound to discourage them and stop them from coming back. Granted, sometimes delays do happen and can't be avoided. However when this occurs, make amends to customers and assure them that there would not be a second time. 

4. Poor attitude

During the peak period, the changing room is always a long queue. When this happens, there would usually be a few staff handling that area, either folding/hanging up the clothes that customers don't want, or ensure that customers get their turns to change quickly. However, from experience, the staff there are not as efficient. They tend to be chit-chatting among themselves rather than being efficient. 

In addition, there is also an inconsistency of service level when it comes to greeting of customers. F21 do not usually greet their customers when they enter the store. 

Tutorial 8 Question 2 of 1

Retailer Chosen: Gordon Max & Co. Pte Ltd

GordonMax is a local company first established in year 2001. The company's main selling products are the simulated diamonds, which are exclusively grown in Europe. They too, carry other accessories such as leather bags, and "bling" bags, which are decorated using Swarovski crystals.

1. How are the sales associates trained? What are the criteria for evaluation?

Sales associates who just entered the company are first allocated to 1 of the boutiques for training for the first few weeks. This is to get them familiarize with the working environment, as well as to allow them to get to know more about the products. A training manual will be provided to the staff during the weeks of training. A supervisor or senior staff will also be in the store to guide the new sales associate along with the manual as it contains almost all the product information, and other matters which they need to know about the company's regulations. 

They will also have to pass the "test" in which the supervisor or senior staff would put on them in preparation of serving their first customer. This is to ensure that they are well-prepared and informed, and to prevent them from giving wrong information to customers. 

The criteria for evaluation are as follows: 

1. Working Attitude
2. Behaviour
3. Ability to handle abrupt situations

2. How often are they evaluated?

Quarterly

3. Do salespeople have quotas? If they do, how are they set? What are the rewards of exceeding quotas? What are the consequences of not meeting these objectives?

No, they do not have quotas.

4. Can sales associates make a commission? If yes, how does the commission system work? What are the advantages of a commission system? What are the disadvantages?

Yes, sales associates are able to make commission. 

Advantages of a commission system

• Sales associates will be able to earn more money as the more sales they get, the higher chance of hitting their personal target, and therefore, able to earn the commission. This will add on to their basic salary. 
• Sets a goal for employees monthly.
• Form of motivation.

Disdvantages of a commission system

• Inconsistent salary

5. If there is no commission system, are any incentive programs offered? Give an example of a specific program or project used by the store to boost employee morale & productivity.

Even with the existing commission system available, GordonMax too, still try to boost empoloyee morale & productivity. They make use of the Overseas Trade Show as a form of acknowledging their employees' hard work. 

Staff who have performed well in their work are given the chance to participate in at least 1 of the Overseas Trade Show. They get to benefit from the Trade Show as it will be a fulfilling experience to explore the other countries, as well as learn from the working experience at the show. 

Tutorial 8 E-learning

Topic: Retail Workforce Skills Qualification (WSQ)

How does this help a person who is interested in a retailing career in Singapore?

Retail Workforce Skills Qualification (WSQ) helps individuals with basic work skills, training, and assessed employability through the Employability Skills System. They may specialize in different areas such as service excellence, employability skills system, community and social services industry.

With a WSQ certification, one can upgrade skills, can assess your skills against established work standards, have credentials for your existing skills that are recognized by other employers in Singapore and can plan your career path. Hence, with recognition from WSQ, it prepares individuals who are interested in a retailing career with excellent skills.

How does this help the retailer? 

As a retailer, your organization can reap benefits of Retail Workforce Skills Qualification (WSQ) by sending your staff for training and assessment under the WSQ. These benefits include:

1. Benchmark against best practices across the industry;
2. Guide job description development;
3. Improve performance management systems and training programmes;
4. Establish employee career paths;
5. Guide training needs analysis;
6. Facilitate recruitment of competent staff; and
7. Provide skills assessments.

The benefits will undeniable improve customer service provided for the retailer.

How does it help the retail industry?

WSQ provides the retail industry with skilled and well-assessed individuals that are crucial as customer service is one of the most important factor in the retail industry. Hence, WSQ assist the retail industry by preparing individuals who are interested and working in the industry.

Customer Service Part I

At Forever21, the sales personnel are really knowledgeable about the products they are selling as well as the stock availability and they are very glad to help should you need any.

Forever21 has the return and exchange policies within 7 days from date of purchase, provided item is in saleable condition (only applicable to some merchandise).

By selling their merchandises online too other than in physical stores, it allow the customers to have a wider variety as some items may not be available in stores and also at the ease of their home. This brings convenience to the customers who do not have the time to go out to the physical store to shop.

Merchandise Presentation & Store Design

Customers have described Forever 21 store as organised, clear and neat. However, during peak hours, one might disagree as it may sometimes get messy. The store follows a free-form layout. A free-form layout is where fixtures and aisles are arranged asymmetrically where its used in specialty stores like Forever 21. The store layout allows one to wander amidst the fabulous creations and indulge.

The view of inspiring mannequins wearing the latest fashion displayed outside the store welcomes customers to enter the brightly lit store of organised and different colours of the apparels. The display of the apparels and accessories draw you to explore the store and even make impulse purchases. The store has a promotional area section and an accessories section. The promotional area have items priced at an affordable low-price that customers wouldn't miss! You can easily also find the accessories, thanks to its organised store layout.

HR Practices

What is Human Resource Management (HRM)?

HRM is the strategic and coherent approach to the management of an organisation's most valued assets - the people working there who individually and collectively contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the business.

3 HR Practices

• Selecting the right people

Forever21 focuses on its customer service they provide to their customers. As such, employees must possess positive working attitude and are motivated as they are positioned at the front line, whom customers interact with at the sales floor. A partial of Forever21's image is dependent on the customer service the staff provide on the sales floor. Good working attitude and customer service will leave customers a good impression, and therefore, keep the customers coming back for more.

• Training and developing people

All employees of Forever21 must learn to use the POS system as they will be assigned to the cashiers for a period of time. They have to learn how to operate the system. In addition, Forever21 also ensures that their employees provide good customer service, and ample information about their products to their customers. Forever21 

• Compensating the employees

Forever21 provides overtime pay for their employees during the festive season, as well as public holidays. 

Price Management

Forever21 is a retailer mainly catering to teenage girls and young adults who want to have both fashion and value.

Forever21 uses leader pricing. They price their merchandise at different price points, with some retailing to prices as low as $15 (e.g. the basic wear) to attract the customers and crowd so as to boost sales for the other slightly higher priced apparels and/or accessories.

Forever21 usually displays the lower prices merchandise right at the door step so that people notice them when they walk pass. This will lure the customers in to take a look and from there, the customers will go around browsing other products and might even make other complementary products purchases that are at higher prices.

Merchandise Management

What is Merchandise Management?

It is a process by which a retailer offers the right quantity of the right merchandise in the right place at the right time and meets the company's financial goals. It helps to sense the current market trends and analyze past sales data, which then aid in making the appropriate adjustments. 

Forever21, being a foreign brand of fashion, its apparels will of course not match 100% to the trends in Singapore. For example, it is known that Forever21 launches its apparels season by season. Out of the 4 seasons, Winter is one which is not applicable in Singapore at all. Therefore, for every launch of the Winter season, the stores tend to not have as much winter clothing as they have in the other countries. For it is known that this form of apparels is not required in a country like Singapore. Hence, when it comes to determining the quantity of the apparels, this will be a factor taken into consideration.

Before ordering, Forever21 will also take a look at its past sales data to analyze the sales performance for a certain period of time for comparison. From there, they can predict the quantity demand so as to reduce the number of wastage and to prevent any shortage. 

Category Management

It is the process of managing a retail business with the objective of maximizing the sales and profits of a category.

Forever21 makes use of Category Management to help them further classify the various products together to aid customers in searching for what they want. 

For example, Forever21 categorized their basic apparels at the far back of the store, and they consist of sleeveless tops (tank tops/spaghetti straps), t-shirts, undergarments, as well as shorts. 

This form of categorization helps customers to easily locate what they want, and also aid the staff at Forever21 to show the customers the different categories of products and their locations.

Retail Store Strategy

1. Retail Format
   
   Forever21 operates as a specialty store that specializes in selling their own brand of products with their own labels and related items (clothes, accessories and bags). They carry an extensive width and depth of stocks in the item they specify in, serving the customers with a high level of service.
   
   The store is clustered with trends of clothing and accessories which fill almost every space you can find in the store. The latest fashion trends are usually placed at the front of the store, stirring impulse visits from customers.
   
   
2. Target market
   
   Forever21 target the group of female consumers in their teens to those in their thirties, who go for the latest fashion at affordable prices. Some similar high-end fashion apparels and accessories can be found at Forever21 and this provide an alternative to the consumers who wish to go for cheaper alternative without compromising on looking fashionable.
   
   Recently, Forever21 introduced a new line of plus-sized clothing to cater to a new market of women of a bigger package.
   
   
   
   
   
    
   
   
   
   
3. Sustainable competitive advantage
   
   Forever21 have placed their stores at the hottest malls in Singapore such as VivoCity and Wisma Atria which have a high human traffic. Moreover, with the latest fashion styles similar to their competitors on their racks priced at affordable and cheaper prices, it is no wonder customers opt for this brand compared to their competitors. If you are in need of help, the staff will readily assist you without any hesitation. At payment they are ever polite by never failing to greet you with a smile. These are a few of the many beneficial advantages Forever21 has from its competitors.

The Retailing Environment

Retailer chosen: Forever 21

1. VARIETY & ASSORTMENT

Forever21 is one of the leading fashion retailer in Singapore and they carry a handful of assortment which ranges from apparels to shoes, and lastly, accessories. The target consumers of Forever21 are those who go for the most current fashions at the greatest value. F21 launches new collection every season, and every and then, they do launch certain new design for the ongoing months. Their products are fashionable items that grow with the current trends, examples would be bags, shoes, accessories and apparels. Keeping up with the existing trends, F21's merchandises are also kept at affordable prices for consumers who constantly keeps themselves updated.

2. CHALLENGES FACED

• Competitors
  

There are too many brands and names to be mentioned when it comes to the retail industry. And being one of the leading fashion retailer, F21 has got its competitors to be aware of. As such would be TopShop, Zara, Pull & Bear, etc. These are the few brands which are on par with F21 in the current fashion.

In order to keep leading, F21 has to constantly keep up and work on strategies which keeps their consumers coming over again.

• Visual Merchandise

The way that F21 displays their merchandise are known to those who have visited the physical stores. Their products are mostly clustered together, hence giving consumers the "messy look". Though time and again, there may be consumers who continue to shop, however, visual merchandising is one of the crucial part in the retail industry. The "messy look" does not allow efficiency as when all clothes are clustered together, it is hard for consumers to look for what they want.