Trent Ltd., established in 1998 under the Tata Group, operates Westside, one of India's largest retail chains with 36 stores across the country. The company focuses on providing a wide range of affordable fashion and household products while emphasizing customer satisfaction through a comprehensive understanding of their needs and high-quality service. Despite facing challenges such as changing consumer preferences and limited shelf space for international brands, Westside continues to be recognized for its excellence in retail through various awards.

1. Westside-Retail Giant
Established in 1998 as part of the Tata Group, Trent Ltd. operates
Westside, one of India's largest and fastest growing chains of retail stores.
The company has already established 36 Westside departmental
stores(measuring 15,000-30,000 square feet each) all over across various
cities in India.
Trent ventured into the hypermarket business in 2004 with Star Bazaar.
Westside is exclusively designed and the merchandise ranges from
stylized clothes, footwear and accessories for men, women and children.

2. Mission Statement :
“To be regarded by our customers as the most relevant retailer in the country.”
Achieving the Goal :
Develop a comprehensive understanding of customers needs, strive to win
their confidence, and offer them best-in-class products and services at
affordable prices.
Policy :
Satisfy our customers with the range, quality and value of the products we
offer and attain new heights of excellence through teamwork, in an
atmosphere that encourages creativity and innovativeness.

3. Factors Shaping Westside Success
Style
Affordable Price
Quality

4. Arrangements
Ground Floor Private Brands in Westside
Cosmetics
Jewellery 2F4U
SRC
Watches Gia
Bags Urban angel
Intima
Ist Floor David Jones
Women Section Ascot
Blackberry
Children Section Lee
Household items Spykar
Provogue
IInd Floor (Men Section)
Casual Clothing
Formal Wear
Ethnic Wear

5. Services and Store Atmosphere
Pre-purchase services include accepting telephone & mail
orders, advertising, window & interior display, fitting rooms, fashion
shows.
It provides post purchase service including shipping & delivery, gift
wrapping, adjustments & returns, alteration & tailoring.
It also provides ancillary services including general information , check
cashing, parking, restaurants, repairs, interior decorating, credit etc.

6. Levels of service
• Self service- Self service is the corner stone of all discount operations.
Many customers are willing to carry out their own locate compare select
process to save money.
• Self selection- Customer find own goods, although they can ask for
assistance.
• Limited Service- Westside also offers services like credit, merchandizing
etc.
• Full Service- Sales people are ready to assist to any phase of the locate
compare select process. Customers who like to be waited own prefer
these types of stores.

7. The Three Cs
• Comfort- Aims to create harmony between the person and the clothes
they wear.
• Crispness- Employees get training, wish list acting as tool to know
customers preferences.
• Coordination- Finding star employees and designating them as trainer and
coach to train the staff.
3 Kind of coaches :
Customer service coach
IT skills Coach
Product knowledge Coach

8. Westside Model
• MARKET RESEARCH
• RETAIL LAYOUT
• CUSTOMER FEEDBACK
• PRODUCT POSITIONING
• ADVERTISING AND PROMOTIONS

9. Market Research
• Appreciated importance of MR – conducted before entering new city
• 5 member in house team
• Collected information on buying patterns, demand potential , lifestyles etc.
• Support from Tata companies like Taj Group , Titan, Voltas, Tata AIG , Tata
Engineering.
• Before entering retail segment conducted research
FINDINGS
1. Store owned brands and other brands ratio 30:70
2. Many international retailers stocked only own brands due to more loyalty
, flexibility , high returns.
3. Heavy investment for brand building and poor economies of scale.
MR conducted to understand customer behavior to enhance customer
loyalty .

10. Retail Layout
PHILOSOPHY & PROBLEMS FACED
 Sold in house brand only – higher margins, more control over
manufacturers( quality, cost), no intermediary costs.
 Expensive real estate – leased shop space.
 Required spacious showrooms in metros : 10000 – 20000 sq ft.
THE MODEL
 Free Form Layout/Boutique Layout – fixtures and aisles arranged
asymmetrically.
 Merchandise displayed at 2 levels on same floor.
 Merchandise in separate clusters e.g.. Women's wear and accessories
clubbed together for convenience.
 2 main divisions :
Apparel –men's’ wear, women’s’ wear, lingerie, kids wear
Product – household, gifts, other accessories

11. Sourcing and Stocks
 Each store on average stored 30,000 SKU’s of different products.
 Merchandise sourced from 250 exporters from Delhi , Mumbai
and Bangalore.
 Centralized buying for all products except cosmetics and
perfumes to avoid sales tax.
 Carried 63 days of stock days.

12. Product positioning
• Positioned as value for money products - good quality, low prices
, contemporary and exclusive designs and wide variety.
• Good store ambience – shelves not overloaded.
• Focus on “ I-got-a quality-product-at-a-reasonable-price” feelings.

13. Promotion and Advertising
Focus on 2 parameters – style and affordability
Total advertising spend 8% of sales
INHOUSE PROMOTIONS
 Peaked during summer, Diwali and Christmas – “Festival of Delights”
program.
 Promotions based on themes – matching decorations , liver bands and
Other.
 attractions Clubwest Classic and Clubwest Gold.
EXTERNAL PROMOTIONS
Advertising on media - Model Fleur Xavier for advertising contract.

14. Retail Mix- Promotion

15. Retail Mix- Promotion

16. Retail Mix- Advertisement

17. Pricing
• Pricing decisions consistent with firm’s
marketing strategy and target market.
• They believe in democratizing their
service and charging fair price.
• Offers Value for Money proposition for
consumers, especially by offering their
own brands.
• Helps to augment their sales margin.

18. Pricing ( Cont.)
• Types of Pricing:
• Promotional discounts
• Seasonal Pricing
• Image Pricing.
• Product form Pricing
• Psychological Pricing
• Product bundling Pricing
• Value Pricing.

19. Customer Feedback
• Conducted research to better
serve customers.
• Focus on customer feedback.
• Trust in customers reflected
confidence in products.

20. Problems faced by Westside
• Target customer base changed over
time.
• Not much shelf-space is given to the
International brands.
• Customer preferences are changing
from in-house labels to international
brands.
• Lesser media promotions.

21. Why They Should

22. Accolades
 Balanced Scorecard Hall of Fame.
 India Brand Summit – Brand Leadership Retail.
 IFA Visionary of the Year Award, 2002 – Mrs. Simone N. Tata.
 Most Admired Large Format Retail Chain of the Year - Lycra Images
Fashion Awards 2005.
 NDTV Profit Business Leadership Awards 2006 - Retail Category.

23. THANK YOU