Shopper's Stop Limited - Securities and Exchange Board of India

Stocks are delivered to stores on a daily basis or once in two days (as per their needs) in the morning, to
the Receiving Bay Incharge who verifies the stock and keeps it on the floor, which is then displayed on
the shelves, before customers enter. We do not have any stocking point at our stores.
This ensures that the desired service levels are effectively delivered, costs are variable, allows capturing
economies of scale that the service provider is able to bring in. The service providers are accountable for
all shrinkages in the distribution system.
Buying & Merchandising
Buying and Merchandising (‘B&M’) is an important function, under which our team plans the product
offering for our customers, and procures them. They are responsible for ensuring product availability for
the customers in the style and design desired by them.
The B&M team work closely with the store planning, marketing and visual merchandising teams and
influence the marketing plan and capacity allocation.
The B&M function works on the basis of two seasons (Spring-Summer and Autumn-Winter). Each season
is broken down into 26 weeks, with planning and monitoring done at the weekly level.
Based on market research, past performance analysis and forecasts for fashions and trends in the
ensuing season as available from various industry bodies and research agencies, the B&M team plans
and sources the product range for all our stores.
Financial Planning
The B&M team converts the corporate financial plan into divisional and department plans covering sales,
margin, markdown and inventory.
Range Planning
Range planning is where our teams decide what to buy, how many options (types of merchandise) to buy
and how much to buy of each option, and when to put it on sale. This is derived from the financial plans
formulated for each season, for each division and department.
Our B&M team with the help of the software can fine tune the range for each store.
Product Development and Ordering
Generally, each brand makes a brand offering for the season. The merchandiser, based on trends and
past data, selects the range and places the order.
For private label, we prepare the design brief for each season based on the trends and fashion forecasts.
The design brief is converted into samples by our vendors, based on which we place the orders.
In Season Management
We monitor actual performance of our merchandise against the plan on a weekly basis during the
season, and accordingly decide on the short term strategy to be adopted. These include additional
markdowns and special promotions, in excess of what had been initially budgeted.
This may also require us to revise our plans, and also our purchase orders with our vendors, wherever
possible.
Our private labels
We have a strong focus on our in-store brands, which are also called private labels. These help us
complement the product range that we receive from national and international brands and allow us to
offer to our customer an enhanced range across price points.
Since we do not advertise our private labels, our costs are lower enabling us higher margins as well as
permitting us to offer our customers quality products at lower price points.
Private labels accounted for 16 % of our sales in FY 2004. It is our endeavour to enhance the share of
our private label portfolio in our total sales.
Our Gift Vouchers
We also sell gift vouchers, which are purchased by our customers for gifting purposes. These gift
vouchers can be used in any of our stores for purchase of merchandise. Various corporates have
purchased our gift vouchers for their gifting purposes.
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