Business Operations for Goods and Consumer Products -myassignmenthelp

Question: Write about theBusiness Operations for Goods and Consumer Products. Answer: Introduction: Retail shops are those places, which involves a method to sell goods and consumer products to the customers to earn a profit via their channeling sources. Retailers are those people who satisfy the needs of the varied individuals to earn a profit. The word shopping is included with this process, which generally involves buying the products. Modern business in retail shops involves the owner to make strategic decisions regarding the business about the market place and the types of products to be served and the layout of the shop including the promotions applied. This report discusses about the various technologies applied in the Oz Supermarket. The applied technology to be discussed is the PayWave technology. The report also includes certain recommendations to help increase the business. Discussion: The Oz Supermarket is a new retail shop that is setup with the main mindset of reducing the problems associated with the customers standing in long queues. The supermarket encourages the customers to come inside the supermarket and then get the required products. After the end of shopping, the customers are not required to stand in queues to pay for the products. Instead, they are required to wave their card at the checkout point and the bill is automatically deducted from their card. PayWave technology: The PayWave technology involves the card of the customers to be hovered or tapped at the terminal for transaction. This feature inhibits the requirement of entering the pin in the terminal and facilitates cashless society (Lerner, 2013). Many retail outlets are adopting this feature for cash related problems and fewer queues. This technology needs the person to be within a radius of 4cm and the same transaction cannot be done twice due to the presence of a unique transaction number. Business Process: The goods that are available in the supermarket include those products that belong to the group of household and stationary. The chain of products included is those, which are non-perishable and are available for a long time. This facilitates effective business and does not require the need of constant checking of the products. The store is also supposed to include the technology of PayWave. This technology eliminates the need of customers standing in queues for checkout process. During the entry of the customers in the store, they are required to wave their card at the entrance of the store. This helps them to enter the store without any problems. The trolleys used for shopping are fitted with special Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), which tracks the record of the products that are being put in them. Whenever a customer puts a product in the cart, the product is automatically lined for payment from the card of the customer involved. If the product is removed, the queue is emptied from billing. After the process of shopping, the customers bag the products and leaves without any problem of standing in the queue. The bill to be deducted is automatically made from the card of the customer involved. For the customers without a PayWave technology approved card like the tourists and students, they are allowed to make a cash deposit in the store and are issued a temporary card which will enable shopping for them. The shopping process is same like the other customers. After shopping, the balance amount is returned or recorded to facilitate future transactions. In case the cash deposit for the card is not enough to make up for the purchase amount, an alarm is supposed to ring. The store incurs an extra cost for the necessity for tagging of RFID readers in each of the shopping carts present in the store. This cost is made up from the interest of the customers who are always in a big rush. The store also facilitates the customers to view the detailed list of the products that are available in their cart for easy shopping. These stands for showing the quantities of the cart are placed strategically throughout the store. The store also gets the required resources by charging for car parking. The rates are higher for peak hours are much lower for non-peak hours. Disabled parking rates are free. Recommendations: The business is good but there is presence of certain entities that might hinder the effective sales made by the supermarket. The customers are the potential sales and more products they buy, the more sales that will be made. The supermarket needs to create awareness of using their cards with PayWave technology as not all people have their cards with PayWave technology (Leavitt, 2012). Those who do not have the cards are to be made sure of getting one and not relying on cash purchase every time they shop in the store. This helps in reducing the minimum downtime that is being created because of them. The presence of various stands for showing the cart contents are to be well facilitated so that customers feel more ease in checking their contents. Moreover, this can create a queue when all the customers in a certain area will try to check their contents at the same time (Piramuthu, Wochner Grunow, 2014). The need for a newer technology is required. The sales person responsible for customer relationship is to be well trained so that effective relationship between the customers and the store is made. A retail store is dependent on its customers to make the sales intended for the store (Vivek et al., 2014). In case of any problems or misunderstanding, the sales person is to make them understand regarding any problems faced. This in turn facilitates better understanding and helps to get better loyalty from them. Conclusion: The PayWave technology used in the Oz Supermarket is a better initiative as this helps the idea of cashless society to be implemented. The requirement for cash and the need for standing in queue are limited by the use of this technology. Thus, it is concluded form the report that the business operation is a very good initiative for serving more quality products to the customers and make more sales. Suggestions for customer service improvement: There are many ways to improve the quality of customer experience perceived. This helps in more sales made, as the core business is dependent on these customers. To increase the customer experience, the skills that are being used by the sales person responsible in the store are to be made more efficient (Perdikaki, Kesavan Swaminathan, 2012). The need for patience and consistency is a necessary quality in the sales person. Many customers will ask the same questions for their satisfaction until they get what they want. The sales team needs to be more patient when dealing with such kinds of customers. The sales team needs to adapt to the changes in moods in a day. These must not come as a surprise and business must not be hampered due to this reason. The requirement for clear communication among the sales person and the customers are a necessity. The communications perceived can affect the business as it can totally change the mindset of the customer regarding a product. The customers also rely on the knowledge of the sales person as they have a habit of directing their queries to the sales person (Wan, Evers Dresner, 2012). The presence of effective knowledge is required to answer the queries of the customers and make more conversions regarding any problems associated. The honesty and the knowledgeable skills are always appreciated by the customers as well as the storeowners. Suggestions to improve business service/operations: The customer service can also be improved by increasing the interactions with the customers. The presence of common ground between the sales person and the customers helps in resolving conflicts more easily and provides better solution to the customers (Ene Ozkaya, 2014). The need to hear is present in all the customers to direct their issue and queries and the sales people need to hear them to make the customer feel more welcome in the store. After solving the issue or queries of the customers, the store needs to check up on them to facilitate strong relationship with them and ensure that their loyalty lies with the store. By emailing the customers or by inviting for a survey, the effectiveness is always ensured. The store needs to know the loyalty of its customers (Heizer, 2016). The change in behavior of a loyal customer is characterized by frequent visits, fewer issues in dealing with a situation and more time spent in the store. The promotions for getting customers that are mor e loyal are to be included in the marketing aspect of the store. Effective surveys and emailing for convenience is an effective strategy for getting more loyalty from the customers. The loyalty of the customers is also affected by several factors like the cleanliness and attractiveness of the staff, helpful employees (Mani, Kesavan Swaminathan, 2015). These aspects are to be analyzed and then effective solutions are to be made in these parameters to help increase the required outcome. The operational effectiveness is a parameter, which always requires effective planning and applying the changes to increase the way of doing the business. The operational efficiency is the parameters that should be checked in terms of the stores. The different areas for applying the changes are to be made sure and then the changes are to be applied (Liu Ko, 2012). The geographic location plays an important role in the operation of the store. The needs and preferences of the customers are to be considered first and the products in demand are to be considered to meet the requirements of the customer, which will facilitate effective operation. This type of targeted marketing and selling will help the business to increase (Vivek, Beatty Morgan, 2012). The area where the operation needs to be improved has to be checked and improvement is to be applied in accordance to the preferences discovered. The marketing of the store helps to know the preferences of the customers and helps to apply the optimization required. By analyzing the surveillance videos, the store can determine the quality and effectiveness of the methods for driving traffic to the store (Russo Spena et al., 2012). The videos can also help to see the engagement of the audiences and apply the results for increasing the effectiveness of the results. Another optimization that is needed is the increase in the engagement of the employee. The sales person needs to be made aware of the relationship between the customer and the store and the impact it can make on the market concerned (Shamim Ghazali, 2014). The required training for increasing the efficiency of the employee dealing with certain situations are to be given by trained personnel to facilitate better solving of the issues. The sales team with a low amount of conversions is to be recognized and effective training is to be given to them. The store needs to ensure that no legal issues are raised, as this can be a setback to the effectiveness of the store (Kim Kim, 2014). To ensure this, the legal issue is to be addressed by effective sales person and the complaints to be solved are to be quickly sent to the legal team associated with the store. As the customers of the store are the most important aspect, their decision must be heard so that they feel that they are heard and welcome. The sales person must reach to the customers and invite them for a free product review and the review must be listened with care even if it seems to be not relevant (Pantano, 2014). This product review and feedbacks relating to the product must be considered which in turn will facilitate the strengthening of the relationship between the customer and the store. Along with these suggestions to help strengthen the relationship between the store and the customer, the layout and the design of the store needs to appealing and attractive to get more visits both from loyal as well as new customers (Harter et al., 2013). The interactive design and the better facilities provided are the aspect to consider better sales. In addition, presence of better technologies to streamline the process of operation is also another factor that is to be considered to make an impression on the customers. References: Ene, S., Ozkaya, B. (2014). A study on corporate image, customer satisfaction and brand loyalty in the context of retail stores.Asian Social Science,10(14), 52. Harter, J. K., Schmidt, F. L., Agrawal, S., Plowman, S. K. (2013). The relationship between engagement at work and organizational outcomes.Gallup Poll Consulting University Press, Washington. Heizer, J. (2016).Operations Management, 11/e. Pearson Education India. Kim, J., Kim, J. E. (2014). 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