05 Reasons Why You Must Develop SOPs For Retail Stores | YRC

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10/5/2017
Reasons Why You Must Develop SOPs For Retail
Stores Your Retail Coach
05 Reasons Why You Must Develop SOPs For Retail
Stores YRC Aug 8, 2017
Behind all that we get to see in a modern retail
store organized aisles/merchandising, wide
range of products, uniformed employees, payment
terminal with readers and scanners, a cool and
clean environment, designer interiors, lighting
and seating arrangements etc. theres a
multitude of integrated business processes at
work in the background to ensure that the
customers have a pleasant and delightful in-store
experience. These business processes have to be
planned in advance and executed with utmost
precision. Its easy said than done. Firstly,
there are several processes involved in the
functioning of a retail store like customer
service, inventory, stafing, finance and
accounting etc. with each process having unique
operations. Secondly, these processes need to be
integrated at the right places. To overcome these
challenges in managing of processes, retail
stores can go for SOP development. Developing
Standard Operating MPreoscseadgueruess can help
retail stores in five important areas. Store
Merchandising
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10/5/2017
Reasons Why You Must Develop SOPs For Retail
Stores Your Retail Coach Through planned store
merchandising, retail stores can ensure an
appealing visual display environment and also
provide an easy shopping experience for
customers. It can also help a retail store
achieve upselling and cross-selling. E"ective
merchandising often leads to impulse purchases as
well. And most importantly, planned to
merchandise help retail stores e"ectively manage
its available space and provide convenience to
employees in stacking arrangements.
Merchandising is not a one-time e"ort. To
continue deriving the benefits of merchandising,
retail stores need to lay down stringent
merchandising procedures in place and ensure
that these procedures are being consistently
followed by the employees on an everyday basis.
Di"erent stores use di"erent positioning
criteria for the display of their products. These
criteria include category-wise (departmental
stores), alphabet-wise (pharmacies), price-wise
(bakeries and confectioners), on the basis of
brand name (apparel stores) etc. SOP (Standard
operating procedures) procedures can prove to be
very useful for employees in retail stores for
sorting, stacking and placing of products in
their designated areas right from the moment
fresh inventory reaches the store.
Through planned store merchandising, retail
stores can ensure an appealing visual display
environment and also provide an easy shopping
experience for customers
Customer Service Customer service can be simply
defined as the organized set of e"orts performed
by a business enterprise to create customer
satisfaction and customer delight through
customers shopping experience. Customer service
goes beyond smiles and behavior. It encompasses
a wide range of focus areas which include
ensuring availability of products, organized
merchandising for the convenience of customers,
home delivery for bulk purchases in local areas,
a customer-friendly communication policy for
providing information on promotional o"ers and
gathering productive customer feedback, adherence
to product return policies, proper billing, a
swift and e"ective grievance redressal mechanism
etc. Working in these areas not only helps a
retail store render customer service but also
gives them a competitive edge. Thus, customer
service has evolved as a strategic business
process which cannot be left to chance. This
process has to be built on stringent operating
procedures to ensure that the established
standards of the retail store are met in every
area and stores performance exceeds customers
expectations. Documented operating procedures for
employees in the form of SOPs in various
operations of customer service process can help
retail stores maintain high standards of
customer service to create and maintain a
delightful shopping experience for their
customers.
It encompasses a wide range of focus
areas Messwaghe uics h include ensuring
availability of products, organized
merchandising for the
http//www.yourretailcoach.in/blog/05-reasons-why-
you-must-develop-sops-for-retail-stores/
3
Reasons Why You Must Develop SOPs For Retail
Stores Your Retail Coach convenience of
customers, home delivery for bulk purchases in
local areas, a customer- friendly communication
policy for providing information on promotional
o"ers and gathering productive customer feedback
10/5/2017
Supply and Inventory Irrespective of the size and
operations, maintaining adequate storage and a
steady flow of inventory is vital for retail
stores to avoid stock out situations and thereby
prevent customers from turning to competitors.
Ensuring steady inventory levels involves
real-time and accurate stock information
reporting mechanism, timely reordering, smooth
internal indenting process and e"ective
storage/warehousing and logistical solutions. Use
of modern-day supply chain management practices
and technologies like SKU (Stock Keeping Unit),
NOS (New Old Stock), GPS tracking and
supply-chain ERP application have become very
popular with many retail stores to e"ectively and
e ciently manage their inventory. But to ensure
that the inventory processes and associated
technologies facilitate a healthy and stable
inventory management, retail stores need to
establish clearly-defined operating procedures
for the execution of these processes in tune
with the technologies in place. Retail stores can
achieve this end with SOP development and
implementation. A systematic step-by-step
approach to execute operational activities will
help in timely and accurate reporting and
decision-making pertaining to the inventory
levels, indenting, reordering, logistics,
storage and warehousing.
Ensuring steady inventory levels involves real-
time and accurate stock information reporting
mechanism, timely reordering, smooth internal
indenting process and e"ective
storage/warehousing and logistical solutions
Store Safety and Security To protect and
safeguard employees, customers, equipment and
inventory from potential hazards or from the
consequences of any unforeseen incident, safety
and security are of paramount importance in
retail stores. Theft, fire, damage to building
and accidents arising from the use of faulty
electrical, mechanical and electronic equipment
are some of the common safety and security risks
in a retail store. Di"erent kinds of retail
stores are exposed to di"erent kinds of safety
and security risks. This calls for the
implementation of adequate protective and
preventive measures for safety and security in
retail stores. SOPs can prove to be very
instrumental in maintaining the established
standards of safety and security in retail
stores. The measures adopted by retailers to
ensure safety and security in Mtheesisrasgteorues
s can be incorporated into the routine operating
procedures. This will help ensure that theres a
routine check on the established safety and
security
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10/5/2017
Reasons Why You Must Develop SOPs For Retail
Stores Your Retail Coach parameters of the
store. Timely renewal of insurance cover,
properly working condition of CCTV cameras,
deployment of security guards from reliable
agencies, procedures for using equipment in
stores, placing fire extinguishers and first-aid
facilities etc. are some of the necessary
measures that need to find a place in the SOPs
of retail stores.
The measures adopted by retailers to ensure
safety and security in their stores can be
incorporated into the routine operating
procedures. This will help ensure that theres a
routine check on the established safety and
security parameters of the store
Training Training is a very important area of
work all for retail stores. There is a host of
processes involved in running a retail store and
these processes are executed by the employees.
Any glitch on the part of an employee can cause
the entire system to slow down or even arrive at
a halt. Therefore, it becomes important to impart
necessary training to the employees to make sure
that the operational activities in every process
are executed as per the established standards
leading to the smooth functioning of the entire
store. For example, the employees in charge of
the stock should be well-acquainted with the
operating procedures of the stores inventory
management. Any shortcoming in performance on the
part of stock/inventory management process will
have a direct bearing on another crucial process
i.e. customer service. SOP-based training
programs have emerged as very e"ective tools for
making employees ready for the job in a short
span of time. Training modules built on a
step-by-step learning methodology emulated from
the actual SOPs at work help employees quickly
understand the flow of work and the standards of
output/performance required to be delivered at
each stage.
Training modules built on a step-by-step
learning methodology emulated from the actual
SOPs at work help employees quickly understand
the flow of work and the standards of
output/performance required to be delivered at
each stage
The outer glitter and glimmer of retail stores
rest on the foundation of robust internal
processes built on systematic and integrated
operating procedures. And these operating
procedures can be designed with the help of SOP
mechanism. With more and more retail stores
opting to go omnichannel, SOPs (combined with
emerging technologies) will continue to serve as
a useful management tool for the integration of
business processes.
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10/5/2017
Reasons Why You Must Develop SOPs For Retail
Stores Your Retail Coach
Author Bio Nikhil Agarwal Chief Operations O cer
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