गल्ला छोडो, आगे बढो !! Galla Chhodo, Aage Badho !!
If you look at it, a Mithai Retail Shop is a simple matter – weigh the mithai and take money from the customer, isn’t it? But if you look at it from an Organized Retailing perspective, it goes much deeper with many aspects to it. Of Course, all this is not possible without Technology. Let us look at a typical Manufacturing and Retail operation which is Technology driven.
PURCHASE – this is where it all begins:
·
What do we need to buy? Know Your Stock Movement
·
From whom? Register your Supplier
· How much? Check your Re-Order Levels and Re-Order Quantities.
· At what rate? Consider Last Purchase Rate etc
All
this is included in your Purchase Order. Against this, goods
arrive at our factory gate where a Parcel Receive Note (PRN) is
made and the Freight recorded, Goods Inwarded and Purchase
booked. After that Supplier needs to be Paid on the Due
Date.
PRODUCTION PLAN – this depends on multiple factors:
· For Regular Stock replenishment
· For Orders received at stores
· For Institutional or Corporate Orders
ACTUAL PRODUCTION – Quality is a result of standardisation. The recipes need to be followed and material issued accordingly. After preparing the product, they are placed in Trays, and the Tray Weight must be considered. The Tray has to be weighed and a Barcode label generated which includes the details like the Product Name, Best Before Date, it’s Weight and the Sale Price which the consumer can see. The products which are “Bar-coded” or “By Piece” are treated accordingly. The sticker Label layout must ensure compliance with Legal Metrology guidelines.
TRANSPORTATION FROM FACTORY TO SHOP – At the point of dispatch, the barcode label on the trays can simply be scanned before loading onto the vehicle. E-way Bill and E-Invoice (if required) can be generated along with the shipping document (which may be an Inter-Branch Transfer or a Sales Invoice as required). On arrival, these Trays can be optionally weighed before being taken in. The details of goods transferred from factory to shop are electronically transmitted and no interference is allowed.
RETAILING – This is the most exciting part where technology plays the biggest and most impactful role in making the customer experience smooth and the retailer's life easy. We all know that the customer spends ample time in choosing what to buy but has no patience when it comes to the billing process. Usually the challenges involved are :
· Not enough trained manpower– Staff is not available and whatever is available, not highly educated. Remembering product code numbers is a challenging task which makes the retailer dependent on these staff members.
· Customer traffic is seasonal – it suddenly spikes up during festivals (Raksha Bandhan, Ganesh-Utsav, Dussehra, Diwali, Pongal, Holi etc) or special occasions like 10th standard results, Election results etc. A retailer cannot employ staff for 12 months just to cater for these few days of high walk-ins.
· Losses due to excess weight given – If a customer asks for half a Kg of laddoos, the actual weight given is a bit more, for example 515 gms, and one lands up in losing the revenue of the weight difference.
·
Confusion and chaos at the billing counter
– Every customer’s material is delivered at the billing counter and once packed,
it’s impossible to know what is in the box. The owner who typically sits at the
billing counter, he depends on his semi-literate staff to tell him the value
of the entire consignment (he has to depend on his mental mathematic
ability). On many occasions, this leads to incorrect amounts. This results in Long
Queues and Increased Waiting Time for the customer.
·
Chat Counter outside my shop is
difficult to monitor and hence leading to revenue leakage.
Solution:
Using an excellent software solution with RFID integration, with weighing scale integration, connected to POS terminals can help resolve all the above challenges and ensure customer delight. The Touch POS terminals can have images of the products being given (no need to remember the code numbers thereby quick training of new staff members). Since the customer carries the products himself to the billing counter, chaos at the billing counter is minimized. In addition to this, during festive days, staff requirement is reduced. Weighing scale integration makes it possible to charge as per exact weight dispensed. In one case, we have seen additional revenue being generated of almost 1 Lakh rupees in one shop in one year because of this. RFID tokens absolutely slash the billing time.
The weight of the empty box can be automatically deducted from the weight captured from the weighing scale. This will vary from one type of mithai to another depending upon packing type. For example, Gulab Jamun is given in a plastic container whereas Barfi is given in a cardboard box. The weight of each mithai container is different for quarter kg, half kg and one kg. These weights can be automatically deducted without using the “tare” option every-time thereby increasing the speed of dispensing.
Earlier, Cash was the only mode of payment accepted but today we live in a more complex world with UPI, Cards etc. Integration of billing software with the credit card machines etc
It is important to display “Manufacturing” and “Best Before dates” while products are placed in the shop displays. Use of Electronic Shelf Labels (ESL) can provide a lot of relief and are more presentable.
Major and unique benefit – normally any mithai retailer cannot measure the performance of his salesmen – with technology you can easily get to know which salesman has sold how much quantity of which product, what value he has generated for our business and if we want, we can give him performance-based INCENTIVE.
All the above benefits will result in quick service to customers and help increase our business turnover while helping reduce our staff costs. All this is in-store but what more can we do to grow our business? We can generate more revenue from corporate or institutional sales. But for this, we need to go out and book orders. A mobile app to book customised bulk orders is very handy. Many times, it is observed that a corporate says place 2 pieces of pedha, 1 piece of Kaju katli, 1 piece of Motichoor Laddoo etc in a box, place them in a particular fashion and give me 1,000 boxes. All these details can be recorded in the mobile app with a picture of the sample box so the delivery will match the expectations of the corporate customer.
To summarize, with the help of correct combination of software & hardware with some related best practices of the Retail Industry like Loyalty Program, Whatsapp to send bills to customers, deployment of Enterprise Dashboards to monitor health of our business etc, we can grow our single store business to a chain of stores setup, whether owned outlets or franchisee outlets and still live a quality life with time for the family. Hence my favourite line is “Galla Chhodo, Aage Badho”!! गल्ला छोडो, आगे बढो !!
