India Retail Forum (IRF) 2008

Here are my running notes of various presentations, lectures & pannel discussions that happened over the three day period at IRF 2008. I would be happy to be of in case you want to anything more on the subject.

Day 1: India Retail Forum
The conference began with anchors Mr Anish Trivedi, Banyan Tree Communications and Mr Jayant Kochar, GoFish Retail Solutions setting the positive tone for the Indian economy. They point to the fact that though Indian economy at the moment is going through inflationary phase with slower predicted economic growth, the economy is still not doing bad when compared with rest of the world. They showed that US, UK and almost all developed economy are facing much bigger trouble compared to India and the long term story of India remains intact. They felt that India is the most rewarding market and the place for retailers to be in.

Inaugural session by Mr V. Vaidyanathan, immediate past chairman of IRF and ED ICICIC Bank

The salient points covered by him were:
· India is not a decoupled economy.
· India story is indeed intact because of following reason:
o The fact that India is now a liberalized economy and country of entrepreneurs. Combine these two fact and it’s a recipe for success coz given a chance, entrepreneurs will find the way out. He gave the example of USA pointing to the fact that USA also is land of entrepreneurs and has been liberalized for last 200 years.
o Trend of globalization, technology, rising consumer income will help these entrepreneurs who will write the Indian story.
o People now are aware and need growth. Even politics is now more oriented towards growth.
· The risk are there and will always be. It is these risk that will keep us awake. Eg: Japanese fish – shark – fight for life.
· Change is the only constant.
The challenge of Managing the change, By: Mr R Subramanian, Founder & MD Subhiksha Retail
· Realism of Indian retail – Indian consumers are the most arbitrage seeking (will go and compare prices at all shops), most savy and are not time starved.
· Promotional day pricing, loss leader pricing etc will not work in India
· India is different in two key parameters:
o The cost structure – Globally cost of people is high and cost of property is low. That is why the big format stores with self service options got developed. But in India this is just opposite. Indians like being serviced and in fact Indians are most over-serviced population. India is the only country where people will have one lakh car and will still have it chauffer driven. Self service format is not for India.
o Impact of MRP – In India prices are governed by MRP and therefore you will not find wide variation in prices of general items. So there is no locational advantage that could be gained. Usually people will go to far distance to get benefit of prices but if there is no price difference, the stores should better be located near the convenient locations. India will probably always remain “small store format” country.
· One big change that has happened is substantial increase in disposable income of the consuming class.
· Currently India is going through excesses and fundamentals have been forgotten. Indian retail is currently in hyper growth mode which will slow down eventually and only those will survive who will have there fundamentals intact.
· The key to manage the retail store is therefore:
o To manage bottomline, topline are much easier to come. This is difficult because competition is with kirana stores who have traditionally survived with very low margin forced on them by big manufacturers like HLL, P&G etc. They survived because they are the true entrepreneurs. They know how to work in adversity. Generally, big retailers try to use scale of economies to manage margin but it is only increasing sales and not the profit.
o Real estate prices – Retailers have the tendency to get hold of any and all real estate since they believe that anyway over time the prices are going to increase and after some period they will be profitable. But retailing is not a real estate business.
· Consumers are highly value conscious and we should strive to increase the value to the consumers.
· Organized retail still has huge opportunity to grow.
· There is large part of untapped demographic dividend (under served geographies) to be tapped.
· Migration is happening to urban cities coz of growth in manufacturing and services.
· The key to make Indian retailers strong is to expose them to brutal competition.
· India is the most competitive market in the world and those retailers who can survive here can survive anywhere in the world. Thus in next 5-10 years one may find that Indian retailers are moving out and setting up shop in other countries.
Perspectives on the Indian Economy and Implication for retailers: 10 things retailers should do in the next 12 months By, Ireena Vittal, Partner, McKinsey & Co.
· Since 1992, Indian economy is the most resilient economy. In spite of various problems in the past like Asian meltdown, 911 etc and current sub-prime crisis, India can still grow at 7%.
· The rate of growth of Indian economy is increasing and at the same time volatility is decreasing. Since India is an emerging market the volatility will be there but at a much reduced level then before.
· The reasons for India showing resilience are:
o Pvt consumption is driving the growth (68% of GDP). Indians are more confident of future and are therefore spending more and saving less. The savings rate has decreased by 33% from past.
o Positive supply side…
· Basically India is at inflexion point. It is where China was 15 years ago.
· Long term story of India seems good but in short term the future seems uncertain. The consumption has tapered down in last 4 quarters but fixed investment is still robust. This indicates that bottom has been reached and there is no downturn from here.
· Inflation is mainly driven by (40%) fuel and food. The fuel prices will move as per global conditions and nothing can be predicted on that front. The food prices were the lowest and the farmers where the major loosers. The food price correction was long due and what we are seeing is the one time correction which was due for long.
· Cost of financing is likely to remain high in near future & the financing firm may see bad time in near term.
· The consuming class is still thriving:
o Salaries of govt employees has increased.
o More budding entrepreneurs.
o Rural economy and Farmers are doing good.
o The effect of NREGA (100 day employment scheme of govt) is showing results.
· Thus long term story is robust, short term is uncertain and consumption pockets are still thriving and growing.
· 10 things that retailers must do:
o Build sale by:
§ Communicating value to consumer – not by advertisement but by doing real thing that consumer values. Like reduced prices etc. The effect of this will take time.
§ Drive traffic to store – shift promotion and marketing to traffic generating vehicle.
§ Never miss a sale – proper replenishment and incentive to shop staff
o Reduce cost:
§ By simplifying merchandising & sourcing
§ Restructure indirect cost
o Find Cash:
§ Manage for cash – look at cash flow
§ Increase investment efficiency & effectiveness (get 4 stores at price of 3)
o Buy in Buyers market:
§ Use the downturn
· Find partners
· Find who have to sell and get it from them at lower cost
§ Build bench strength
· Recruit talent
§ Local market battle plan – involve local community including kirana’s.
· The retailers need to have speed, simplicity and productivity of space – the long term story is intact and retailers should move confidently.

Connecting with young India, Saurabh Dhoot, Director, Videocon retail
Nothing worth writing!!

Q&A with Kishore Biyani
· Only 3% of India gets affected by EMI.
· Success is about discovering Indian way of doing retail
· “Garv se kaho hum kanjoos hain” – to bring about cost sensitivity to people.
· Key learnings over the year:
o Thoroughly understood Indian consumers
o Invest every rupee smartly.
· There is no right format. Execution is the key.
o Central mall – least risky and most profitable
o Big Bazaar, KB fair price – Lowest cost – true retailing
o Pantaloon – consistent income
o Home town bazaar (new format) – door to door sales – exciting
· Retailing is about understanding consumers
· Pvt labels is one of the major growth drivers for success
· Entertainment is the most difficult business coz the biggest source of entertainment of Indians (gossip) comes free of cost. Next is movie which is considerably cheap.

Round table 1: Where is the opportunity?
- Arvind Singhal, Chairman, Technopak
- Anchor: Bijou Kurien, President & CEO, Reliance lifestyle holdings
- Govind Shrikhande, ED & CEO, Shoppers stop
- Mark Ashman, CEO, Marks and Spencers India
- Ambreesh Murty, Country Manager, eBay India
- Thomas Varghese, CEO Aditya Birla Retail
- Roshini Bakshi, Country Head, Walt Disney
- Sonica Malhotra, ED, MBD group
- Soumitra Ghatak, CEO, My Dollar Store
- Asif Adil, MD, Diageo India
- Dhruva Chandrei, COO, Next Retail India
- Arvind Chaudhary, CEO, Aadhar Retail
- Sanjay Dutt, Dy MD, Cushman & Wakefield
- Doug Hargrove, CMO, Torex UK
- Sandeep Kataria, Global Brand Director, Home Care, Uniliver UK

· Economic slowdown is not crippling opportunity – can be seen from the sharp increase in no. of stores across all formats and across all retailers.
· Diversification in format is happening
· Retailers are expanding their reach by diversifying into geographies (cities)
· Reaching to wider strata (class) of consumers
· Modern format is no longer intimidating (to not so well off)
· Modern retail is having impact in sales of various categories of products
· More brands are looking for vertical integration – manufacturers are becoming retailers.
· Strategic alliance with best in the world – tie ups Bharti-walmat, Tata-Tesco,
· Increasing support from pvt equity
· Consolidation is expected
· More global retailers will come in
· It is expected that within 5 yrs:
o Investment of $30 Bn
o Revenue - $100 Bn
o Mall space – 500 million square foot
o Reach – 600+ towns, 5000+ villages.
· Issues in catchment – reducing
· Stagnation of innovation in certain categories.
· Online retailing (growing at 30%) – key:
o Ease of use
o Safety & trust
o Value (in reduced price & increase convenience)
o Major categories – travel, brand new fixed price product (like tech product, some apparel pdt etc), no confirmed price product (like jewellery) where prices are fixed via auction.
· We should try to exploit synergies between online & offline retail:
o Online provides benefit of large catchment area to be targeted.
o Online can address unreachable market
o Ease of selling end of life inventory

Hypermarket: Experience and learning
- Viney Singh, MD, Max Hypermarket
- Andrew Levermore, CEO, Hypercity
- Rakesh Biyani, CEO, Future Group
- Anchor: Hem Chandra Javeri
- Brendan Dorrian, CEO, Patonz Global Retail Network, UK

· Hypermarket & Kirana: major benefit in terms of assortment mix and price to some extent. Hypermarkets tend to increase the assortment variety that people consume. Eg. Sales of Kellogs has gone up significantly due to increase in no. of hypercity. People get exposed to products in hypermarkets. Kirana is mainly about services.
· The worries are cost of energy, real estate, week infrastructure and rising people cost.

· Major people challenge are:
o Lack of experience – because of nascence of business.
o Bringing people from outside or training in house – the two options being explored. Future group has not brought any people from outside.
o Discipline among shop floor employee is a big problem – can be overcome by giving proper motivation.
o Collaborate with institutions to train people. Future group has tied up with around 22 programs in country
· Supply Chain challenges:
o Supply chain is very well developed in India. How else can u justify the fact that over 12 million retail outlets in India are getting their products and surviving. But it is long, complex and involve multiple handlings. Lead time is long. The thing that is supplied by two trailers in US is being supplied by >300 vehicles in India at different time.
o Retailers can hold their own logistics systems.
· Consumers:
o Sales are skewed in weekends and holidays.
o Retailers trying to manage sales over week uniformly
o Loyalty is defined by no. of visits the consumers make per month. Some customers does shopping with whole set of shoppers and are loyal to all.
· Pricing:
o Consumers want 5 quarters in a rupee.
o Country governed by MRP – locational pricing a problem
o Pvt label – the key
o Creat new categories where there is no price comparison – to gain higher margins
· High rentals – developers need to understand the business model of retailers and work along with retailers.
Don’t try to change people habit – it will take more time and will cause more pain
Rather try to create new habit – its easier and faster.
· Concern was shown in safety of woman – collaborate with police, bylaws to have proper covered atriums, toilets etc, multi-level car parking. But anyways, malls are much safer then streets of India.
· Finding a good location is a challenge.
· Finding a mall with right mix of retailers and convenience to shoppers is a challenge.
· Retailers should try to create entrepreneurs in the store who can manage stores to provide better service to customers.

What could be the future concepts
- Anchor: Gagan Singh, MD, Sandalwood Living Retail
- Anchor: Harminder Sahni, MD Technopak
- Kabir Lumba, ED, Lifestyle
- Damodar Mall, CEO, Innovation & Incubation, Future Group
- Arvind Nair, MD, DLF Retail
- Vishal Mirchandani, CEO, Wadhawan Lifestyle
- Subhinder Singh, MD, Reebok India
- Akhil Chaturvedi, Director, Provogue
- K R Suresh Kumar, GM, Retail Sales, Indian Oil
- Rajiv Agarwal, CEO & Director, Essar Telecom Retail
- Ashwin Puri, CEO, Pioneer Property Zone
- Sanjiv Gupta, CEO, GKB Lens
- Nilesh Khalkho, CEO, Sharaf DG, UAE
- Ravi Showan, Head of Retail, Empire Direct, UK

· (Missed some part)
· Innovation in concepts – mobile banking & shopping, virtual payment, elimination of experts to tell about products
· Oil companies - To maintain margins – go closer to consumers and improve the service levels.
o Sell pdt in oil court like mobile recharge, movie ticket etc for which customer don’t like to move out to purchase it specifically.
o Display commodity price for farmers and even provide trading facility at courts for farmers.
· India has the advantage of directly leap forging and find out what works rather than going through painful process of trial and error.
· Innovating concept that can bring local & big retailers together is the key
· Specialty mall like Emporio in New Delhi, Homes in Pune are the next gen formats.Collaborative retail (like two players coming together) to exploit the synergy is also very much possible in Indian scenario.

Private Label: An armour of organized retail

(Article written by self and my colleagues and published in RetailBiz)

A popular story within Food Bazaar as told to us by an employee mentions how Food Bazaar came up with the idea of their own Tasty Treat – the ready-to-eat snacks, a private label of Food Bazaar, when Pepsico’s Frito-Lay decided not to sell to Pantaloons Food Bazaar as they disagreed on terms of trade. And now Tasty Treat competes head on with market leaders like ITC’s Bingo and Pepsico’s Lays and Kurkure in a Rs 2000Cr snack market. Today Pantaloon Retail has more than 80 products comprising 350 SKUs with private labels in four main categories. Encouraged by the success of the private labels, the company is planning to launch more brands in various other categories. PRIL aims that, in the long run these brands will enjoy same trust that the best manufacturers brands enjoy today.
We wonder if this is some indication of how large organized retailers are now leveraging their power and position of being the only one, in entire value chain, in direct contact with the end consumers, in dictating their terms with manufacturers. We wonder how the manufactures are going to deal with this rising power and can both the manufacturers brand and private brands co-exist.

According to a Euromonitor study, the global private label market was estimated to be worth $1,411 billion in 2005, and is growing at 6% per annum. Organized retail currently forms only about 3.59% of total retail in India (graph 1), but its share will leap to 28 percent by 2017, according to a study by Technopak Analysis. And a 2007 study by Technopak says that overall, private labels already form 19 percent of the total market share in India

Why private label?
A private label is an industry jargon for the brands sold only by the retailers exclusively through their stores. Today’s private labels represent essence of stores image. It is no longer about few top brands that store carries. Instead it is about offering exclusive products that define the retailer’s image. It helps retailers to create value for consumers by providing them high or comparable quality products at a price lower than the major brand thus filling in the value gaps and thereby gaining customer’s loyalty.

Also, in the current Indian scenario only 20-30% products are branded. This makes it difficult to fill up the shop space. Private labels can accomplish this and may lead to an increase in the footfalls. But at the same time retailers must ensure that private labels have a strategic positioning rather than merely introducing a product.

WEAKNESS
ü High development & innovation cost
ü Inventory risk
ü Dependence on manufacturer of private label
STRENGTHS
ü Decrease reliance on national brands
ü Increased negotiating power
ü Allows differentiation from other retailers
ü Higher profitability and profit margins
ü Flexibility in controlling & managing shelves
ü Helps increase footfalls
ü Increased customer loyalty
ü Full control on pricing

Private labels give the retailers the ability to negotiate better terms with manufacturers. It also gives the retailers an opportunity to earn higher margins as it cuts down on middlemen and other non-value adding costs.

OPPORTUNITIES
ü Huge market potential
THREATS
ü Low hanging fruits is gone – enter more challenging categories
ü Manufacturers partnering with local kirana stores.
ü Negatively affect relationship with national brands.

In the apparels category there are players like Tata groups Trent with their Westside brands, Rajan Raheja-promoted Globus Stores pvt ltd with Globus brand, who have developed a business model purely on private labels. Stores like Hypercity Retail have dominated the apparel segment majorly through its private labels. There are others like Shoppers’ Stop which believe in capping the percentage of private labels in apparel in spite of being one of the pioneers in this concept as they believe that customers need choice of at - least 4-5 exclusive brand options which may not be possible with private labels only stores. The success depends on how the store is going to position themselves and create a value perception in the minds of consumers.

As mentioned in the annual report of Shoppers Stop Ltd, the contribution of the private label has increased to 21% of sales from 19% last year and private label sales have increased by 37%. Revenue of Vishal Retail Ltd grew to 15% in FY’08 from 9.8% in FY’07. The contribution of private label is expected to increase from 15% at present to 25% by FY’10 and 50% by FY’13.
The one major hurdle in using private labeled products is the high associated development and innovation cost. Therefore, before venturing in for private label products, retailers should have a clear long term strategy and should market the product to right customer in the right manner. It is intuitively evident that retailers should enter into that product category that has high profit margin, low entry barrier to labeling, and low switching cost to consumer, which may be either monetary or affective.

Factors affecting success of private labels:
The success of private label in a category is a consequence of differentiation between manufacturers brand and their store counterpart. If consumer perceives little difference in value and quality between the two kinds of offerings they have little incentive to choose the typically more expensive offering.
Trust gap between retailers and manufacturers brand, packaging, and advertising intensity of national brands are the three most crucial factors that cause differentiation in the minds of consumer and hence affects the success of private brands.

Private Label Manufacturers:
For products to be considered for private labels, they must have a large sales potential, because retailers are not usually interested in branding low-demand items. In addition, the manufacturer must be able to assure that the product quality is as good as or better than the leading brands.
The type of manufacturing process involved is another important product-related aspect of private labeling. In general, private labels are most appropriate for products that can be manufactured on a tight schedule while maintaining high quality standards. Private label manufacturers must be able to assure their retail clients of reliable, on-time delivery. In addition, they must be flexible enough to ramp up production quickly to meet increases in demand or to change the product's formulation according to the retailer's wishes.
Price is another important component of successful private label manufacturing. The price must compare favorably to competing name brands while also enabling both the manufacturer and the retailer to make money. In general, private label sales provide high volume but tight margins, so price calculations are crucial. Also the private label goods are usually priced 20 percent or more below the market leader. In addition, the retailer generally expects to see a profit margin on private label goods that is 8 to 10 percent higher than it receives with name brands. When calculating the final sales price for private label items, manufacturers must be sure to consider any costs that are incurred especially for the private label line. These may include tailoring the product to meet retailer specifications, or designing special packaging for each retailer.
The third factor in successful private label manufacturing is a strong marketing program. The marketing program for private label goods consists of two parts: contracting with retailers to become their supplier for a certain product, and assisting the retailer in marketing that product to the final consumer.

Overall, the private label manufacturing can present tremendous opportunities for small businesses, as well as significant challenges.

How national brand’s can fight back?
A knee jerk reaction to the competition from private labels is usually to slash prices which might adversely affect the profitability and the image of the brand.
Manufacturers now need to continuously innovate product and come up with value additions regularly and at affordable cost. For example, Gillete – has always came up with new razors, new blades and has upgraded its product regularly, hence the share of private labels is very low for this category.
Manufacturers now need to fight the selective battle. They need to move out from those categories where they are not the market leaders and focus on those brands which the consumer will definitely demand from retailers.
Last but not the least, manufacturers have to respect the strength of retailers and should start partnering with them to create a win-win situation from each other.

Conclusion:
Private labels are no more considered ‘cheap’ substitutes for branded brands. That they are cheaper and do not compromises on quality attract a lot of consumers. In the last couple of years, private labels have seen unprecedented growth with the entry of retailers such as Future Group, Shopper’s Stop, Reliance Retail, and Vishal Megamart. Worldwide experience shows that as retailers become more powerful, they have increasingly focused on their own brands at the expense of manufacturer brands. Experts believe that private label brands, which occupy less than 5 per cent of the market in India now, are likely to corner 50 per cent of the market as the retail space opens up and matures. The question is not whether this will happen, but when & how?

Bharti Walmart Tie up...

(From the article published in “Marketing Mastermind”, written by Doris Rajakumari John, Team Leader, ICFAI research centre)
About Wal-Mart: (Annexure 1)
1) Largest retailer in the world – net income for $11.2 Bn on sales of $316 bn for FY 2005-06
2) Operates in more than 13 countries & serves more than 176 million customers through more than 6100 stores.
3) Established in 1962 by SamWalton.
4) Customer oriented focus – “Sundown rule” & “ten feet rule”.
5) Everyday low price the USP of wal-mart.
6) Excellent SCM – pioneered the use of barcodes & RFID in retailing.
7) Wal-mart entered different countries through various routes like acquisition, JV, partnerships etc depending on market conditions & the expertise level in working in such market.
8) Wal-mart procures more than $2bn worth of goods from India and more than $18bn from china.

Retail scene in India:A detail report will be mailed on request (akshat1604@gmail.com), subject line: “Akshat’s retail blog: request for report on Indian Retail Industry”
1) Huge potential – total retail industry size of more than $350 Bn.
2) Increasing Organized retailing share in the market
3) Market dominated by unorganized sector
4) Favorable demographics, rising income level (DINK’s) & changing mindsets of Indian consumers – giving boost to consumerism
5) FDI was allowed between 1990 – 96 but due to protest from small retailers it was again restricted in 1997.
6) According to new regulations – “foreign retailers could set up wholly-owned subsidiaries in India for the purpose of trade, but they could only sell to wholesale buyers (ie to domestic retailers) and not to end customers. By definition, the rules described a wholesale buyer as the one who held a sales tax registration number. 100% FDI was thus permitted only in franchissee and/or cash-and-carry wholesale operations”
7) In 2006, the govt announced no. of reform in FDI policy. 51% FDI was allowed in retail trade of “single brand” products

The Deal with Bharti:
1) JV announced on Nov. 27th, 2006.
2) JV will manage procurement, inventories and logistics, while stores would be set up under franchise agreement with wal-mart.
3) The deal size was not disclosed but experts say it amounts to initial investment of $100mn by two firms each and increasing it to $1.46bn
4) The JV will help wal-mart to localize. Wal-mart has to pull back from Germany & south korea mainly because it was unable to cope up with localizations.
5) Areas of synergy (exhibit II)

Challenges:
1) Competition: (Detail report on completion available on request: (akshat1604@gmail.com), subject line: “Akshat’s retail blog: request for report on Indian Retail Industry”)
2) Talent sourcing & retention – According to RAI, while the total requirement for the fron end alone is about 1.25 million, the employee base in organized sector is 1 mn. The requirement is expected to go up to 3.25mn by 2008-09.
3) Poor infrastructure – cold chaisn, warehousing & logistics a big bottleneck
4) High & rising real estate prices – as pwer PwC, the current avg lease rentals across some of the top cities range from Rs 88 per sq ft to as high as Rs 120 per sq ft a month. On an avg, lease rentals take up 7-8% of the revenue and constitute 40-45% of the non-material cost for retailers.
5) Another key challenge will be to decide the kind of format to be used in a particular region.
6) Large no. of intermediaries & loss during transportation, the current wastage level of perishable items is as high as 40%.
7) Image of wal-mart is a problem – stifling policies with suppliers, forcing them to operate on very thin margins. The strategy seems to be like – “buyer wins, customer wins and somebody has to loose”
8) Approach to farm produce procurement – “the seed to shelf approach”
9) Managing diversity of Indian consumer (more than 6000 castes and sub-castes in 28 statees, and every community has its own nuances) – walmart faced huge challenge of localization in Germany, SouthKorea & South America (exhibit IV)

The key success factors in Indian retail industry will be customer loyalty apart from other factors such as location, value-added services, price, and the ability to read shifting trends (forecasting & analytics). How the retailers position themselves and how they are perceived will also be crucial factors for success. The evolution of the Indian retail scene continues to pose challenges to the various market players and it remains to be seen how each of them will grapple with them and who will emerge a winner….my guess is that Bharti-wal-mart will be a great success story creating lot of value for Indian consumers and for the suppliers as well though in short run they may face some problems!!.

Drop Shipping

One form of retailing that has become very popular with the advancement of e-commerce is drop-shipping. The process in which a retailer markets a product, collects payment from the customer and then orders the item from a supplier, to be shipped directly that customer. The retailer's profit is the difference between the amount collected and the amount spent. No inventory is held and the retailer is not involved in the shipping.
The biggest appeal of drop shipping for the retailer is that there is no inventory to stock. This frees up cash as it allows the retailer to collect the money before purchasing the wholesale product. Because it is the supplier's responsibility to ship the merchandise to the customer, the retailer is free from any transport headaches that may occur.
One issue retailers may find in working with a drop shipper is the lack of control. Drop shipping isn't risk free and when problems arise it can become frustrating to simply play middleman. Retailers may still be faced with back-orders, returns and customer refunds. Some drop shippers assess a drop shipping fee or even a membership fee to the orders which may erode profits.

Critical Success Factors for Retailers

1) Maintaining a low cost operations.
2) Investing in appropirate & cost effective technology.
3) Focusing on customer service and loyalty.
4) Building a reliable supplyc chain and logistics systems.
5) Making adequate capital investments.
6) Effective positioning of the retail outlets.
7) Efficient human resource training & retention.
8) Creating & nurturing private lable brands.
9) Reducing shrinkage & pilferage.