A

Report on
OVERVIEW OF RETAIL OPERATIONS
WITH SPECIAL EMPHASIS ON STORE PROMOTIONS &VISUAL
MERCHANDISING AT MAX RETAIL

Mini Project Report submitted in partial fulfilment of the

requirements for
Masters in Business Administration (M.B.A.) in
Retail Management
Submitted By

YAMARTHI ANANDA RAO

Regd. No:
Under the guidance of

Prof. A. NARASHIMA RAO

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE AND MANAGEMENT STUDIES,

COLLEGE OF ARTS & COMMERCE
ANDHRA UNIVERSITY, VISAKHAPATNAM.
2018-2020
 DECLARATION

I YAMARTHI ANANDA RAO hereby declare that the dissertation entitled

“OVERVIEW OF RETAIL OPERATIONS WITH SPECIAL EMPHASIS ON STORE
PROMOTIONS &VISUAL MERCHANDISING AT MAX RETAIL” is a result of
original mini project work done by me in the MBA (Retail Management) program
of Department of Commerce and Management studies, Andhra university. I
further declare that the dissertation or any part thereof has not been submitted
anywhere for any degree or diploma.
All care has been taken to keep this report error free and I sincerely regret for
any unintended discrepancies that might have crept into this report.

Place: Visakhapatnam Yamarthi Ananda Rao

Date: 04-02-2019
-

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 ABSTRACT

The project describes the factors which affects the buying behaviour of
customers and assess the effectiveness of promotions. This promotion includes
both in-store and outdoor promotions.

Some of the important factors are-

▪ Influence of discounts
▪ Influence of family & friends
▪ Income of the individual
▪ Special occasions etc,

The importance of promotions is to increase the sales. This requires framing of

strategies and planning by the management.

There are many offers and promoting means to enhance the sales. Such
promoting means are free gifts; discounts etc. and media used for creating
awareness about these offers are newspapers, television, pamphlets for
outdoor promotions and Visual Merchandising for in-store promotion.

This project checks the effectiveness of these offers and recommends some
changes in it. It also finds the customer point of view for the best media for
promotion and studies the customer’s profile visiting the store like MAX RETAIL.

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 NEED & SCOPE OF THE STUDY

A Retail store runs based on its customer base a greater number of regular
customers helps it to reduce its cost. To maintain this and to regularly attract
and remind the customer about the offers in the store “promotion” is very
important. At the same time understanding the requirements and psyche of the
customers is also a key factor.

Therefore, understanding the importance of the above-mentioned points,

it is important to study and find out that what the factors which influence
customer buying behaviour are and how effective is the store promotion of MAX
RETAIL.

This will help to frame new promotion strategies if the existing are not
effective as well as it will help in designing the strategies according to
requirements of the customers. This strategy also includes the visual
merchandising of the store.

The scope of this study is to know the factors affecting the buying
behaviour of the customers and the effectiveness of promotional offers and
visual merchandising of the store. This study will help in finding the effect of
store promotions on the buying behaviour of the customers which will help in
selecting the best way to promote the store offers, selecting the best media to
promote the offers. Further, understanding the buying behaviour of the
customers helps in improvement of the shopping experience at the store, as it
affects the revenue of the store in the long run.

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 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

This research is done only in MAX RETAIL store in CMR Central, Visakhapatnam
thus it decreases the wide application of this research report which could result
in deviations while application. Thus, it narrows down the total scope of the
study.

The limit of accessibility to the confidential documents, which could not be

compiled or mentioned in the project report acts as a limitation to the result of
the study.

This study focuses only on organised retail sector. Advertising strategy is limited
factor in MAX RETAIL. There was limited consumer base.

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 COMPREHENSIVE TEXT

In a retail chain like MAX RETAIL which has his main customer group of
Indian middle class families (including the upper middle class). MAX RETAIL
provides its customer group with various offers which includes free gifts,
discounts on MRP etc. This attracts the customers to visit again and again to the
store. As well as it also impels the customers to buy extra i.e. impulse buying.
Thus, store promotions acts as drivers for buying extra value from the store.

· Price and discount

· Advertising and sales promotion
· Visual merchandising
· Emotional attachment
· Company
· Festival season

The following factors must be kept in mind while choosing strategies for store
promotion. Generally, all the offers which are given in a store are given from the
Head Office level only and the store has to implement the offer as per the
guidelines given to them.

Price and discount: Customers are attracted towards a store like MAX RETAIL
due to the discounts given on the products. As other fashion retail outlets do
not have such lucrative offers. So the customers prefer and are attracted
towards purchasing at MAX RETAIL.

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Advertising and sales promotion: Advertising is an essential component of
brand building. The advertisement and brand building is done through various
ways, the techniques used are: -

Tag-line- MAX RETAIL tag-line is the key component of advertising. These catch-
phrases appeared on hoardings and newspapers in every city where Big Bazaar
was launched. Everybody understood and connected easily with these simple
one-liners.

➢ Print Ads- MAX RETAIL newspaper advertisements are present just

before launch of any new scheme. This creates aura about the Big Bazaar
brand in the minds of customers.

➢ TV Ads- MAX RETAIL spends a lot of money in brand building exercise.

MAX RETAIL commercials are shown on various channels in India and at
the same time a major amount of promotion is spent on newspaper ads.
Presently, MAX FASHION commercial is aired on televisions.

➢ Road-side Advertisements- MAX FASHION bill-

boards are displayed on prime locations in various
cities as a brand building exercise. They display the
catch-phrases now-a-days.

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➢ Radio Ads- This technique is used in small towns. Now-a-days, it is
replaced by advertisements on FM channels. This informs customers
about all new happenings at MAX RETAIL.

➢ Fashion Shows- Max Fashion, India's leading value fashion brand,

presented the 'Max Emerging Star 2018', the perfect platform for India's
aspiring actors, dancers and fashion enthusiasts to fulfill their dreams
and get groomed for superstardom.

The contest focuses on search for the most fashionable aspirant, who
also has talent, the right body language and attitude to make them an
emerging star.

With Max Emerging Star, Max aims at reaching out to the talent from
India's Tier 2 cities, groom them for super stardom and offer the perfect
platform to showcase their style quotient as well as acting and dancing
skills.

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 SALES PROMOTIONS

Sales promotion techniques used are through various offers given on products.
This could be through
• 1 on 1 free
• Off on MRP
• Gifts
• Freebies
Other than such offers the company is a regular in giving gifts to the customers
on slab basis i.e. providing the customer with certain gifts if his purchasing
exceeds a particular amount.

Emotional Attachment- The customers get attached to that product with which
they are satisfied and therefore they become a regular customer, the same
happens with a store if a customer is satisfied with the service provided by a
store they become a regular or loyal customers as they are emotionally attached
to the store.

A store always wants to retain their loyal customers as they not only bring
business for the store but also they reduce the cost of promotion. As such
customers don’t need special reason to visit or they don’t required to be
attracted through various modes to the store.

Company- Here company refers to the person with whom the customers come
to the store for shopping. It is important for a company to know to which
intensity it affects the buying behaviour of the customer.

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Income- It is generally observed that the main customer group which forms the
target customer group of MAX RETAIL is the middle class families. They are
attracted for their purchases at MAX RETAIL due to its cheap prices which help
them in maintaining their budgets.

So the target customer group is very important criterion to be kept in mind. This
is the group which has to be attracted. All the promotions should stress on the
target customer group.

Festival- In India, there are many religions therefore the number of festivals are
more than any country. The customers are willing to spend money during festive
season. Thus, stores keep track of these festivals to cash it. But it is necessary
for stores to know the requirement of the customers.

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 VISUAL MERCHANDISING

Visual merchandising, until recently called simply merchandising, is “the

activity of promoting the sale of goods, especially by their presentation in retail
outlets.” This includes combining product, environment, and space into a
stimulating and engaging display to encourage the sale of a product or service.
It has become an important element in retailing that is a team effort involving
senior management, architects, merchandising managers, buyers, the visual
merchandising director, designers, and staff. Visual merchandising starts with
the store building itself. The management decides on the store design to reflect
the products the store is going to sell and how to create a warm, friendly, and
approachable atmosphere for its potential customers.

Many elements can be used by visual merchandisers in creating displays,

including colour, lighting, space, product information, sensory inputs such as
smell, touch, and sound as well as technologies such as digital displays and
interactive installations.

Visual merchandising is not a science; there are no absolute rules. It is

more like an art in the sense that there are implicit rules but that these also exist
to be broken for striking effects. The main principle of visual merchandising is
that it is intended to increase sales, which is not the case with a "real" art.

Visual merchandising is one of the final stages in trying to set out a store
in a way that customers will find attractive and appealing and it should follow
and reflect the principles that underpin the store’s image. Visual merchandising
is the way one displays 'goods for sale' in the most attractive manner with the
end purpose of making a sale. "If it does not sell, it is not visual merchandising."

Especially in today’s challenging economy, people may avoid designers/

visual merchandisers because they fear unmanageable costs. But in reality,
visual merchandisers can help economies by avoiding costly mistakes. With

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guidance of a professional, retailer can eliminate errors, saving time and money.
It is important to understand that the visual merchandiser is there, not to
impose ideas, but to help clients articulate their own personal style.

Visual merchandising is the art of implementing effective design ideas to

increase store traffic and sales volume. Visual merchandising is an art and
science of displaying merchandise to enable maximum sale. Visual
merchandising is a tool to achieve sales and targets, a tool to enhance
merchandise on the floor, and a mechanism to communicate to a customer and
influence his decision to buy.

Visual merchandising uses season-based displays to introduce new

arrivals to customers, and thus increase conversions through a planned and
systematic approach by displaying stocks available.

Recently visual merchandising has gained in importance as a quick and cost-

effective way to revamp retail stores.

A close sister to visual merchandising is "retail experience". "Customer

experience" looks at the same issues around product presentation but from the
customer perspective, rather than the retailer perspective. In optimal retail
environments such as the Apple Retail Stores, the visual merchandising,
customer experience, and store design are all in synch creating amazing
environments and unbelievable sales.

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PURPOSE OF VISUAL MERCHANDISING

Retail professionals display to make the shopping experience more

comfortable, convenient and customer friendly by:

• Make it easier for the shopper to locate the desired category and
merchandise.
• Make it easier for the shopper to self-select.
• Making it possible for the shopper to co-ordinate & accessorize.
• Provide information on sizes, colours & prices.
• Inform about the latest fashion trends by highlighting them at strategic
locations.
• Merchandise presentation refers to most basic ways of presenting
merchandise in an orderly, understandable, ’easy to shop’ and ‘find the
product’ format.

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VISUAL MERCHANDISING HELPS TO

• Educate the customers about the product/service in an effective and

creative way.
• Establish a creative medium to present merchandise in 3D environment,
thereby enabling long lasting impact and recall value.
• Set the company apart in an exclusive position.
• Establishing linkage between fashions, product design and marketing by
keeping the product in prime focus.
• Combine the creative, technical and operational aspects of a product and
the business.
• Draw the attention of the customer to enable him to take purchase
decision within shortest possible time, and thus augmenting the selling
process.

WINDOW DISPLAYS

A window display is also a "visiting card" for the store. Windows are the
most important factor within the store/shop front as they can communicate
style, content, and price point. They can be seductive and exciting, based on
emotional stimulus, or price-based (when they clearly emphasize value for
money with easy and obvious ticketing). For the retailer, the window is among

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the most controllable elements in relation to image and to what is happening
inside the store, and there are number of decisions to be made about a how
these effects are achieved.

The best store windows can generate great excitement and talking point
for an entire city. They contribute to the environment by entertaining
pedestrians, while simultaneously communicating the products and services on
offer.

For a retailer willing to exploit the full potential that a window gives, the
image-building process can be exciting and have enormous potential. A fashion
retailer, for instance, will often change a window weekly to show the latest items
on offer.

A glance into a shop's window by a passer-by establishes the time of the

year and, very likely, a timely contemporary event. It might combine seasonal
and festive points of the year such as Back-to-school, Spring, Summer, Easter,
Christmas, New Year approaching, Diwali, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day etc. At
other times the propping may be based on colour schemes, materials or cultural
themes - the possibilities for innovative ideas around such themes are endless.

Interior displays

In-store visual merchandising can be used to capture the attention of

consumers whilst they are in the store,
which essential in the buying decision-
making process. To capture the
attention of the customer the retailer
must consider the customer’s needs
during this process.

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STORE LAYOUT

The layout of a store is a significant factor for the maintenance of a

thriving business, which can help advance sales and profitability.

A well-planned retail store layout allows a retailer to maximize the sales

for each square foot of their allocated selling space. This is done by featuring
merchandise in an efficient way that encourages customers to consider making
additional purchases while they browse.

The draft of a store layout generally shows the size and location of each
department, any permanent structures, fixture locations, and customer traffic
patterns.

Each floor plan and store layout will depend on the type of products sold,
the building location, and how much the business can afford to put into the
overall store design.

A solid floor plan is the perfect balance of ultimate customer experience

and maximized revenue per square foot. Many retailers miss this point. They
simply focus on revenue and forget customer experience. Retailers who deliver
on experience have higher revenues than those that don't—even if the square
footage is comparatively smaller.

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Straight Floor Plan

The straight floor plan is an excellent store layout for most any type of
retail store. It makes use of the walls and fixtures to create small spaces within
the retail store. The straight floor plan is one of the most economical store
designs.

The downside to this plan is the sight lines in the store. Depending on the
front entrance, it may be difficult for a customer to see the variety of
merchandise you have. Customers might not quickly find the products they want
to purchase.

Diagonal Floor Plan

The diagonal floor plan is a good store layout for self-service types of retail
locations. It offers excellent visibility for cashiers and customers. The diagonal
floor plan invites movement and traffic flow to the retail store.

This plan is more "customer friendly." Unlike a straight plan, which can feel like
a maze, this floor plan offers the customer a more open traffic pattern.

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Angular Floor Plan

The angular floor plan is ideal for high-end specialty stores. The curves
and angles of fixtures and walls makes for a more expensive store design.
However, the soft angles create better traffic flow throughout the retail store.

This design has the lowest amount of available display space, so it is best
for specialty stores who display edited inventories versus large selections.

Geometric Floor Plan

The geometric floor plan is a suitable store design for clothing and apparel
shops. It uses racks and fixtures to create an interesting and out-of-the-ordinary
type of store design without a high cost.

This plan makes a statement about the products the store sells and the
customers it wants to attract. So, make that statement speaks to the message
you want to associate with your brand.

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Mixed Floor Plan

As you might have guessed, the mixed floor plan incorporates the straight,
diagonal and angular floor plans to create the most functional store design. The
layout moves traffic towards the walls and back of the store.

It is a solid layout for most any type of retailer. Some of the most-admired
examples of customer experience can be attributed to stores that have multiple
shapes, elevations, and designs. This appeals to a larger array of customers.

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SIGNIFICANCE OF THIS STUDY IN MAX RETAIL

Selling and in management jargon ‘Marketing” is the key facet for a store to
survive, the various ingredients for fulfilling it are promotion and visual
merchandising.

A customer’s mind is preoccupied with information which is collected by various

sources; customer uses this information to make decision regarding his
purchases. Promotion of the store (MAX RETAIL) is done in order to make the
customer know about the benefits of the store and also to occupy a valued
position in the mind of the customer, regular promotion acts as a recall and
reminder for the customer which results in learning. Visual Merchandising
attracts the customer and persuades the customer to make their purchase
decision faster.

Therefore, regular up gradation of the above mentioned is necessary. In today’s

scenario it is very hard to know and change according to the needs of customer
as customer’s expectation is very high in terms of the service offered by the
stores. The challenge for the stores is to keep pace with the changing desire of
the customers and to keep them satisfied, at the same time increase the
revenue of the store i.e. growth of sales is necessary to obtain.

Thus, if the following topics are considered for a survey as a topic for the project
the result obtained could be used by the store as well as the information gained
while preparing the project would help in understanding the basics of the store
in a better way, because at last only customer satisfaction matters for a store as
it results in customer loyalty.

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OBJECTIVE

Objective can be derived from the importance of the study as given above. The
study will help to find out-

• The major factors’ influencing a customer’s buying behaviour

• Assess the effectiveness of the promotions and visual
merchandising.
• Seek the best media in terms of return of investment.

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

“Research” means a scientific and systematic search for pertinent

information on a specific topic. Research comprises defining and redefining
problems, formulating hypothesis or suggested solutions; ‘Methodology’ is
defined as “the study of methods by which we gain knowledge, it deals with
cognitive processes imposed on research by the problems arising from the
nature of its subject matter”.

TYPE OF RESEARCH

Descriptive type of research has been used in this study; it involves

surveys and fact findings enquire of different kinds the major purpose of
descriptive research is the description of the state of affairs, as it exists at
present. The main characteristics of this method are that the researcher has no
control over the variable; he can only report what has happened or what is
happening. The methods of research utilized in descriptive research are survey
method.

Observation method is used for making a comparison between the sales

revenue of the store on offer days and non-offer days in order to analyse the
effect of offers on the sales of the store.

RESEARCH INSTRUMENT

The research instrument used in this study is “structured questionnaire”.

Structured questionnaire is those questionnaires in which there are
predetermined question relating to the aspect, for which the researcher collects
data. The questions are presented with exactly the same wording and in the
same order to all the respondents.

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QUESTIONNAIRE DESIGN

The structured questionnaire for consumer was framed with the following
types of questions open ended, multiple choice, Likert scale.

The open-ended question is only one in which the customer writes his
name.

The multiple-choice questions have 4 to 5 choices given to the customers

from which the customers must make a choice. The choices are carefully framed
according to the mindset of the customers studied during the period of the
study.

Likert scale’s questions contain strongly agree, agree, disagree and

strongly disagree, from which the customer must choose the one which is more
appropriate according to the respondent.

DATA COLLECTION

The data collection for this study consisted of both - Primary and Secondary data.

Primary data

The primary data are those that are collected through questionnaire and direct
personal interview. The questionnaire was framed in such a manner to obtain
correct information, graded suitably for the study. All the questionnaires were
collected through personal contact from the respondents at MAX RETAIL.

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Secondary data

Secondary data has been collected through oral communication with the
people in the organization and through personal experience while working, the
data is collected and compiled during the course of project. It includes the sales
record of the organization which is used for the observation made on the sales
of the organization during offers running at the store.

SAMPLING PROCEDURE

Convenience sampling has been used in this study. Convenience

sampling is used for selection of homogeneous sample for the study. It refers to
selecting a sample of study objects on convenience. It is a non-probability
sampling. Thus, research study may include study objects, which are
conveniently located. Research findings based on convenient sampling
however, cannot be generalized.

SAMPLE SIZE

The sample size for this project was nearly 90. The sample was the people
visiting the store for their purchases and most of them were the regular
customer group. The sample size is selected according to the number of factors
selected. The sample size should be 5 times the values of the factors selected.

COMPOSITION OF THE SAMPLE –

The sample consists of the customers visiting MAX RETAIL regularly. The
customer group consists of housewives, young adults, College students, Teen
moms etc.

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 SALES PROMOTION STRATEGIES

Flat 50% SALE:

The first work which was allotted was to promote their scheme of FLAT
50% SALE to the customers; it involved attending the customers and explaining
the scheme.

Under this scheme majority of the products in store are kept for sale for
flat 50%. Except the new arrivals

CHRISTMAS & NEW YEAR SALE:

Under this scheme, there are freebies given to the customers who make a toatal
bill of Rs.4000 & Above. The Freebies include Trolley bags, Pressure Cookers Etc.,

LANDMARK REWARDS:

Landmark Rewards is the Landmark Group’s award-winning loyalty programme,

which allows you to earn valuable rewards points on your purchases and spend
them for instant savings.

This card helps in customer retention and increases customer loyalty as

customers must use the shopping card in order to use the amount deposited in
the rewards for future shopping.

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 CONCLUSION

The result from this study suggests that –

As customers are attracted by various offers provided by MAX RETAIL and

the customers are attracted by the discounts which are offered by MAX RETAIL
store, CMR Central. Therefore, the store should maintain its USP of offering
products on various discounts offers. Most of the customers visit the store due
to these discounts. Therefore, MAX RETAIL should always try to maintain its low
margins in order to retain its customers.

Income status is referred to as one of the most important criteria for

amount of purchase made by the customers. The segmentation of customer
group can be done on demographic factor of income; the main aim of starting
MAX RETAIL was to cater the huge middle class segment of India. The target
customers were pre determined for the store. Thus, it could be concluded by
this statement that customer group of MAX RETAIL which is mainly

• Middle-Middle class
• Upper-Middle class

These classes should be focused by MAX RETAIL so as to retain its customer

group who are the regular customers of MAX RETAIL.

The Print & Visual ads should be stressed more as most of the
respondents gained the information about the offers through Print or Visual
media. These media comes out to be most viewed.

So, more promotion of offers should be through print and visual media. In the
recent times promotion of MAX RETAIL was generally done through print media.
But now MAX RETAIL has recognized the reach of Visual media. Therefore

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advertisements of the offers are shown regularly (as comparative to previously
occasional ads) through the visual media.

Most of the customers are influenced by comments of family and friends.

For their purchase decisions.

Respondents admitted that they are driven to buy extra during special
occasions like Festivals etc. Therefore, offers during festivals should be more
advertised, so that customers are driven to buy extra quantity.

INFERENCES DRAWN FROM THE MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS

The age groups of the customers who visit MAX retail store in majority are
of young age thus the offers which are given in the store should be such that it
attracts the customers.

Mostly female customers come for shopping At MAX RETAIL; it is because

most women take up the shopping responsibilities and therefore, they know the
needs of their family.

The following data suggests that as newspaper is the best medium to

communicate the offer to the customers therefore it should be continued and
could also be increased as per the requirement.

In-store promotion of the offers is always important; Visual

Merchandising plays an important role in it. Therefore, it should always be
emphasized.

A large number of customers think that they are not able to find the
product easily, this means that the store signage need to be put in such a way
that they are easily visible and are eye-catching. In the same way placing of the
products is also not satisfactory. The reason for the mentioned is the limited
space area of the store which cannot be increased.

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 RECOMMENDATIONS

More promotions should be made targeting on youth segment. Offers on

luxury clothing and accessories should be emphasized at youth is attracted
towards them.

The customers of young adults come in majority to the store. Therefore,

offers should be such which attracts such customers.

The media and outdoor promotions should focus more on youth and
women customers.

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REFERENCES

• Internal references from MAX RETAIL, CMR Central.

• Store Manager & Assistant Store Manager, Max Retail
• Internal data obtained from the store in form of reports.
• Practical experience of working in the store.
• Day to day activities performed in the store.

WEBSITES:
• http://www.ibef.org/industry/retail-india.aspx
• http://www.maxfashionindia.com/en/contact-us
• http://www.maxretailstores.com/policy.asp
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Fashion
• http://www.maxfashionindia.com/sites/all/themes/maxfashion/g
overnance/COC%20book-%20Final.pdf

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