Management
We have been assigned the task to critique a retail plan for a store on several dimensions of strategic decision. The retail store chosen for this purpose is named as Corner Market. It is a grocery chain located in Mississippi precisely, Hattiesburg, MA. The retail store is more like a specialty store which offers quality items and saves trips to Walmart and other big stores. Although the products available at Corner Market are a bit towards the expensive scale but it is still worth the repeated visits. A critique of the retail plan of Corner Market is discussed based on six strategic dimensions.
As mentioned, the Corner Market grocery store is located in Mississippi which means nearby residents can see the store as a great opportunity for shopping at their convenience. Big stores such as Walmart are visited by customers regularly but those living far away from the store location find it rather difficult to make trips after every three or four days. So nearby residents will prefer to do their grocery at Corner Market.
The target market of Corner Market includes families, single households, students, senior citizens, and teenagers. Customers would prefer to do groceries at Corner Market as they find the retail store close to their place, sometimes just at the walking distance. This would save their fuel which would be otherwise spent on visiting big chain stores.
Another reason why people would prefer to shop at Corner Market is that the retail store is opening up its stores within small distances across the Mississippi area which means almost every area has one of two stores of its own. The grocery items available at Corner Market are all fresh and healthy and mostly organic. In this era of today where healthy lifestyle has become the buzz word, customers would definitely choose to shop at Corner Market. So healthy food and convenient location of the retail stores of Corner Market are seen as important strategic moves by Corner Market.
Service Strategy
The service which Corner Market offers to its valued customer is of superior quality. When a customer enters into the premises of any Corner Market store, the staff greets him politely and directs him to the respected section. The products are readily available on the shelves which are replaced constantly by making use of technological methods. Loyalty programs have been introduced by Corner Market for those customers who visit the grocery store on a regular basis. Special discount offers are given to customers on repeated purchases on some items. On special holidays and occasions, Corner Market offers small gifts and cards to all the customers who make their purchases at any of its stores as a gesture of kindness and love. Very recently, Corner market has come up with a new way to improve and strengthen its customer service. There will soon be a delivery service available to the customers through which the customers will place their orders online or on the phone and the van of Corner Market would deliver fresh and organic grocery items at the doorstep within thirty minutes of order placement. This strategy is helpful for busy customers who work double shift as well as for senior citizens who find it difficult to go outside for shopping in extreme weather conditions.
Pricing Strategy
It must be mentioned that the pricing of all grocery items at Corner Market is set up by keeping the shopping trends of target customers as well as their behavioral and social characteristics. This means that the prices at Corner Market are kept affordable so that residents of Hattiesburg, MS can confidently make their purchase at any of the nearby stores without having to worry about disturbing their monthly or weekly budget. The vegetables, fruits and meat available to customers at Corner Market are of supreme quality- they are fresh and no leftovers from previous days are sold. The prices of meat and other grocery items are again kept very affordable.
However, customers do feel that the prices of meat and vegetables are higher as compared to other convenient stores to which Corner market defends by claiming that it never compromises on quality and offers only fresh, healthy and organic grocery items to its customers. Weekly deals are announced by Corner Market which is available at special discounted rates and customers rush to grab them so as to make the most of this offer. Special discounted coupons are also given out to the customers with a validity date. These coupons allow customers to buy certain meat or vegetable items at prices which are very less than the regular rates. Customers try to get hold of as many coupons as they can so as to enjoy their shopping experience at Corner Market to the fullest.
Promotion Strategy
Corner Market believes that promotion is significant to the success of any organization particularly in the case of grocery stores. In the presence of competitors such as Walmart, it becomes really challenging for Corner Market to create strong promotional strategies for the purpose of increasing its market share and satisfying customers. The most interesting promotional tool used by Corner Store is a recipe section on its website where Chef’s special recipes are available. These recipes are very healthy and easy and are made with fresh and organic ingredients which are easily available at all the branches of Corner Market. The recipes are the main attraction for single households and families who are always busy searching for new and unique recipes for satisfying their taste buds.
Another very successful promotional strategy used by Corner Market to attract more customers is a free mobile application. According to the website of Corner Market, the new mobile application allows the customers to improve their shopping experience at Corner Market. There are several features offered by the new app. For instance, there is a recipe box section where recipes of all kinds are available- the customers are encouraged to try and rate each of the recipes. There is a locations section in the app which lets the customers find out the nearest location of Corner Market store. With the help of this app, the customers can get a notification about weekly deals so that they can enjoy the lowest priced best deals at their convenience. The best feature of the Corner Market mobile app is that the customer can create a grocery list for their next visit to the store. The list is synchronized with the bar code of chosen items at the store and when the customer is doing shopping, the list acts as an automatic reminder so that none of the essential items are forgotten to be added to the shopping cart.
Merchandising Strategy
Corner Market understands the significance of merchandising strategy for strengthening and improving its profits and reputation. Like every convenience store, Corner Market has a merchandising mix which means a list of all the possible items which it offers for sale to its customers such as dairy items, meat, fruits, vegetables, canned or processed food items, newspapers, cigarettes, bottled drinks, alcohol, snacks and much more. The items which are used on a daily basis by the customers are placed at the eye level or reach level on the shelves so that the customers do not miss the purchase of these items by looking here and there on several shelves.
Special sections are allotted for items belonging to similar category so that the customers at Corner Market feel valued during their shopping experience. The merchandising strategy also requires the management to do planning for placing products in the store intelligently. For instance, meat and dairy section can be placed in the furthest corner of the store whereas newspapers and magazines and candies are kept near the cash counter so that these small items grab the attention of customers as they wait for their turn for billing.
Retail Environment Strategy
The retail environment of Market Corner is made up of microenvironment and macro environment. Microenvironment is composed of customers, suppliers, dealers of the grocery store whereas the macro environment is made of uncontrollable factors such as political, economic, social, technological and legal factors. In order to compete effectively and smoothly, Market Corner must improve and strengthen its relationships with suppliers, distributors and wholesalers so that it can deliver maximum value to its customers. On the other hands, factors in the external environment need to be analyzed and Market Corner must ensure that there is a strategic alignment between the objectives of the grocery store and requirements of the external market so that a strategic fit is achieved.
Reference
Corner Market. "Corner Market App" Corner Market. Corner Market, 2016. Web. 3 April 2016.
