CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 GENERAL

ABOUT THE PROJECT

Research Objectives

 To understand the competitive landscape of Collezione on the basis of price

analysis, in UAE.

 To understand and analyze the performance of key categories through report

generation.

 To suggest merchandise mix on the basis of merchandise’ sales performance.

1
1.2 PARENT COMPANY PROFILE

AL NASSER HOLDINGS (ANH)

The economy of the United Arab Emirates has been dominated by the
petroleum industry ever since the discovery of oil. Since the 1970 the
lack of local industries, services and skills meant that almost everything
required to develop and maintain an efficient petroleum industry had to
be imported.

In 1977 AL NASSER HOLDINGS (ANH) was incorporated by Abdulla

Nasser Hawaileel as a vehicle for the creation of new schemes and to
manage the company’s diversified investments at home and abroad.
ANH’s rapid growth into new fields was driven by the Group’s principles,
which focused on delivering excellence in products and services.

In the early 1980’s, ANH decided to pursue a diversification policy in

order to reduce its dependence on oil-based projects and services. This
strategy is demonstrated in the multi-disciplinary expansion of the
group’s portfolio.

Today, ANH is a dynamic and professional organization with strategically

focused and diversified business objectives and with a substantial
presence in oil services, manufacturing and retail sectors throughout the
Gulf region.

The Group operates a number of joint ventures with leading international

companies, including Exxon Chemicals and GEC- Marconi. ANH also
acts as an agent for a large number of multinational companies including
Foster Wheeler, Chicago Bridge and Iron, Dowell Schlumberger, Baker
CAC, the American Bureau of Shipping Industrial Verification and
Framatome.

2
VISION & MISSION

Vision

Their vision is to be leaders in our diverse businesses, in areas where

we operate.

Mission

They are a dynamic multi-disciplined business group, we strive to

achieve strong returns on investments and long term growth for stock
holders, providing the highest integrity service stands to our clients and
ensuring career opportunities to our employees.

Core Values

 Employees as assets.
 Team Work.
 Integrity.
 Professionalism.
 Customer Services.
 Transparency.
 Health and safety environment

3
Figure 1.1

4
ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE – AL NASSER GROUP

Figure 1.2

5
1.3 COMPANY PROFILE

LIWA TRADING ENTERPRISES, L.L.C (LIWA Group)

ANH established Liwa Trading Enterprises LLC in 1987 to spearhead its

entry into retailing. It started with the opening of a flagship franchise
store for British Home Stores (BHS), which when it opened, redefined
the concept of lifestyle shopping in Abu Dhabi.

Over the years, Liwa has followed the consistent expansion policy of
forging associations and becoming agents of a large number of
internationally reputed retail brands.

Liwa has expanded its geographical base, forming exclusive

arrangements with more than 25 leading brands including Aspinal of
London, BHS, Charanga, Collezione, Disney Fashions by Liwa,
Diva, Florsheim, Gant, Gocco, LaSenza, Lee Jeans, Lovisa, Menbur,
M&CO, Nautica, Olymp, Orchestra-Premaman, Suite Blanco, Think
Kitchen and Throttleman. Additionally, high-end brands such as
Bassetti, Zuchi and Lacoste Home are sold in Liwa’s own home concept
store, Dwell.

Liwa continues to be a key retail player in the GCC. Countries included in

the GCC are: Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia (KSA) and
U.A.E - United Arab Emirates. Liwa has emerged as a leading retail
group and has amassed exceptional skills in operating international
franchised brand. Currently, Liwa operates and manages in excess of
500,000 square feet of hi-street and mall retail space with more than 200
stores and growing to 275 by the end of 2014 throughout the Gulf region,
Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Yemen and Libya.

6
The company has laid great emphasis on modernizing and improving its
service delivery and internal systems and has implemented state-of-the-
art information systems to integrate financial, commercial, payroll and
personnel systems. Liwa has been recognized for many of its
achievements, and has also been awarded ISO 9001:2008 Certification
which complies with the highest international standards of operations.

ORGANISATION STRUCTURE – LIWA GROUP

Liwa Trading Enterprises has a strong organizational structure to support

the current portfolio of brands. However, Liwa revaluates its
organizational structure on a yearly basis to support future growth.
Currently Liwa has following departments:

 Merchandise Department
 Sampling Department
 Operations Department
 Marketing Department
 Project Department
 I.T. Department
 Business Development Department
 Personnel Department
 Finance Department
 Logistics Department
 Visual Merchandising Department

The Liwa General Manager reports to the Managing Director of the

Group. Liwa currently has more than 500 employees in UAE and

7
other 120 in GCC countries. The Liwa head office is based in Abu-
Dhabi and has more than 40 Managers and other personnel. Liwa is
also supported by the ANH Group Legal Department. The following
diagram illustrates the organization Structure of the company.

Figure 1.3

8
 Figure 1.4

BRANDS UNDER LIWA TRADING ENTERPRISES

9
1.3.1 Franchisor and Franchisee Terms of Association

A franchise is a license to use the name, trademarks, and proprietary products

of an existing company. In product /trade name franchising, a franchisor owns
the right to the name or trademark and sells that right to a franchisee.
The Liwa Group as a company is holding a position as a franchisor which owns
a franchise that is allowing it to distribute the company’s products as well as to
use their business systems. The company owned by the Franchisor is called a
Franchisee, which the Collezione brand holds the position as. In simpler terms,
the Liwa Group as a company, in order to expand its market, it’s offering
products to be sold or distributed through a franchisee that is the Collezione
brand.
The Collezione Franchise Agreement with Liwa Group includes:

FEES:
 The Franchisee shall pay the First Cost of Goods (excluding duties &
freight) at a ratio of 42% of the Increased Original Turkish Retail Ticket
Price in respect of all Products it orders in accordance with the Product
ordering procedure.
 The currency in which all charges and payments under this agreement
shall be paid by each party to the other shall be the USD unless
otherwise agreed in writing between the parties; the Parties shall equally
bear the currency conversion charges as a result.

FRANCHISOR'S INITIAL OBLIGATIONS

 Providing general advice on how to set up the Franchisee's Business
 Providing the Equipment, Stationery, fixtures and fittings as are listed in
the Manual at the expenses of Franchisee;

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 FRANCHISEE'S OBLIGATIONS

 Meeting the sales forecast and opening stores in accordance with the timing,
terms and conditions, use its reasonable endeavors to further promote and
develop the Business including by identifying opportunities to open additional
Stores and opening and operating such Stores from time to time in accordance
with the Store Opening Requirements and Manual;
 The Franchisee accepts to present any information regarding sales in daily,
weekly, monthly basis as a report at any time the Franchisor requests. The
Franchisee is liable to inform the Franchisor daily with its sales including the
information on stock code, color, type, size and sales price of the product,
payment type, etc. The Franchisor is entitled to modify the form of the report in
any way at any time.
 Franchisor can request the store personnel to be replaced for such personnel
not providing service in accordance with “Collezione” brand and image, not
achieving high consumer satisfaction and similar conditions. In case of the
Franchisor’s such request, the Franchisee accepts, declares and undertakes
that it will realize such request and will not forward any kind of claim in this
respect.
 The Franchisee accepts and undertakes to make the decoration of the store in
accordance with the term and conditions approved by the Franchisor. The
decoration for the first stores shall be done by a firm approved by the
Franchisor and the decoration cost will be covered directly by the Franchisee.
The decoration of the remaining stores shall be done by a firm presented by the
Franchisee and approved by the Franchisor and the decoration costs shall be
covered by the Franchisee.

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ADVERTISING

 The Franchisor shall provide the Franchisee with such promotional display
literature and other point-of sale material as the Franchisee
may reasonably request from time to time, with covering the cost.

 The Franchisee shall:

 promote and advertise the Franchisee's Business in the Territory in
accordance with the Manual and co-operate with the Franchisor without
prejudice to carrying on profitably viable commercial activity, in relation to
any special promotion or advertising campaign as the Franchisor may
require.
 Franchisee shall never directly or indirectly, without prior written consent
of the Franchisor, carry on advertising and promoting activity, publish,
distribute, hang posters or announcements. All the costs of the
advertising activity of the Franchisee that is approved by the Franchisor
will be covered by the Franchisee.

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For my current internship, I was assigned to work for the Brand
Collezione.

1.4 BRAND PROFILE

COLLEZIONE

ABOUT COLLEZIONE

Origin and Meaning of the Brand:

The meaning and the origin of the word “Collezione”: The word
Collezione is an Italian word and in English, it means “collection”. In the
initial years of its foundation, the company’s founder Ekrem Akyigit chose
it as the brand name because the Italian fashion and Italian brand names
were popular at the time, especially in men’s wear.

Brand History:

One of the leading names in the fashion industry in Turkey, Collezione

set on the journey of becoming a brand with the first store it opened in
Bakırköy in 1987.

Having continued to grow on a gradual basis every year and having led
the industry for 25 years, Collezione has become one of the largest
brands in fashion and ready wear retailing in Turkey with 200 stores in
Turkey and its widespread corner network as well as about 50 sale
outlets in about 20 countries abroad.

Collezione continuously invests in technical infrastructure and updates its

information systems in order to provide higher quality service to its

13
customers and continues to grow with the stores opened in various parts
of Turkey and of the World. Collezione stores bring together good quality
fashion products and the young and those who feel young with its ‘fast
fresh fashion’ approach. Collezione is one of the leading brands in
Turkey as it differentiates itself with the style and life style it created and
endeavors to be the most preferred fashion brand in Turkey as well as in
the world. Collezione continues its journey to become a global brand as
the leading fashion brand in Turkey as a whole with its purpose of
existence, goals and values.

Target Audience:

Collezione’s target audience is fashion-freak young people who follow

world trends closely. They strive to provide, that reflect the spirit of of
street to its loyal customers with its affordable prices. Offering annually
12 collections and 120 new models every week, Collezione aims to have
a change, achievement oriented, playful, dreamer, heroic, seductive and
rebellious brand character in all of its communication.

Collection:

Trendy School:

This reflects the lively, fresh, independent dressing style, which is

positive and incorporates the campus life and the friendship, where the
energy is at the forefront and which is used during the social activities.

Hobbies, Gossip:

This reflects the dressing style for the ones, who want to express
themselves by creating difference and which is young every time,
independent, trendy and provocative.

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PartyTime:
This is the dressing style for the youth, who are party and entertainment
oriented and who want to express themselves glittering, independent and
stylish outside of the daily style.

Hierarchy/ Product Range

Figure 1.5

15
Figure 1.6

16
1.5 PROJECT ELEMENTS

1.5.1 PROJECT - 1: Competitor Analysis

Objective: To understand the competitive landscape of Collezione on

the basis of price analysis, in UAE.

Competitive Pricing Analysis

Competitive Pricing Analysis or “Comp shop”, as the company names it,

is one of the pricing strategies that the brand follows, by setting the
prices of the products based on what the brand’s competitors are
charging. A report is prepared every season that enlighten comparison
between the prices of, Collezione products that are similar to the
competitor’s products. Generally, Collezione competes with brands such
as Splash, H&M, New Yorker, Pull & Bear, Aeropostale and Bershka in
the market.

Methodology:

The techniques I used to accomplish this project allowed for a

standardized list of relevant information (behavior), which was described
and explained by means of observation which were:

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  Market Scanning: First and foremost, through this process I had
to continually and actively monitor the external environment that
comprises of Collezione’s competitor brands in order to identify
customer needs, anticipate competitive actions, and, identify
prices and their changes which will provide
new market opportunities or market disruptions for the brand

 Caller Research Technique: Keeping in perspective,

that observation is particularly useful in cases where
information collected using survey methods is not
sufficient or falls short of reflecting the full nature of a
given trend. I had to discreetly undertake the mystery
shopping project to gather knowledge regarding the
seller and service provider as well as evaluating the
environment in which similar products are sold of the
brand by observing and recording the prices charged by
its competitors.

Findings.

The process that was followed to understand and carry out the further
analysis involved:

The recording took place in a way such that prices of competitor’s

products of Collezione that had similar styles to Collezione were noted:

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 COMPETITOR BRAND ANALYSIS REPORT

Description Collezione Splash H&M New Yoker Aeropostale Pull& Bear Berkhsa
WOMEN
ATHLETE AED 69 AED 40 AED 59 AED 75 AED 149 AED 95 AED 75
BAG AED 69 AED 60 AED 59 AED 99 AED 99 AED 95 AED 109
BELTS AED 29 AED 25 AED 26 AED 19 AED 69 AED 35 AED 39
BIKINI AED 45 AED 15 AED 39 AED 39 AED 89 AED 75
BLOUSE LSL AED 49 AED 30 AED 89 AED 19 AED 89 AED 95 AED 75
BLOUSE SSL AED 39 AED 20 AED 79 AED 79 AED 59 AED 75 AED 39
SHIRT LSL AED 69 AED 50 AED 89 AED 79 AED 149 AED 109 AED 99
SHIRT SSL AED 59 AED 40 AED 59 AED 29 AED 129 AED 95 AED 75
T-SHIRT LS AED 39 AED 45 AED 59 AED 55 AED 49 AED 55 AED 59
T-SHIRT SS AED 29 AED 30 AED 26 AED 39 AED 39 AED 35 AED 30
TUNIC LSL AED 49 AED 35 AED 129 AED 55 AED 129 AED 65 AED 99
TUNIC SSL AED 45 AED025 AED 99 AED 39 AED 109 AED 55 AED 75
TRACKSUIT AED 69 AED120 AED 129 AED 55 AED 149 AED 95 AED 109
TROUSERS AED 75 AED 60 AED 99 AED 69 AED 169 AED109 AED 109
BOLERO AED 79 AED 20 AED 69 AED 39 AED 109 AED 65 AED 65
DRESS AED 69 AED 70 AED 99 AED 69 AED 149 AED 95 AED 99
JACKET AED 229 AED 140 AED 149 AED 149 AED 199 AED 195 AED 129
LEGGINGS AED 39 AED 15 AED 49 AED 29 AED 129 AED 55 AED 55
SALOPET/DUNGREE AED 229 AED 199 AED 269 AED 250 AED 250
SHAWL/ SCARF AED 39 AED 20 AED 29 AED 19 AED 89 AED 95 AED 59
SHORTS AED 75 AED 50 AED 59 AED 79 AED 99 AED 95 AED 75
SKIRT AED 59 AED 40 AED 49 AED 69 AED 89 AED 75 AED 75
EYEWEAR AED 45 AED 20 AED 39 AED 29 AED 89 AED 75 AED 75
HAT AED 29 AED 35 AED 59 AED 55 AED 89 AED 75 AED 99
SHOES AED 59 AED 105 AED 59 AED 55 AED 169 AED 129 AED 119
SLIPPERS/ SANDALS AED 59 AED 30 AED 89 AED 29 AED 129 AED 129
SOCKS AED 19 AED 15 AED 29 AED 45 AED 49 AED 19 AED 35
TOWEL AED 59
WALLETS AED 29 AED 40 AED 39 AED 55 AED 79 AED 35 AED 39
WATCH AED 99 AED 69 AED 99
MEN
ATHLETE AED 69 AED 50 AED 59 AED 99 AED 149 AED 109 AED 89
BAG AED 69 AED 80 AED 99 AED 39 AED 169 AED 95 AED 129
BELTS AED 19 AED 60 AED 26 AED 29 AED 149 AED 35 AED 35
SHIRT LSL AED 75 AED 60 AED 79 AED 59 AED 149 AED 129 AED 129
SHIRT SSL AED 59 AED 50 AED 59 AED 39 AED 109 AED 109 AED 99
TROUSERS AED 79 AED 60 AED 79 AED 79 AED 129 AED 109 AED 109
T-SHIRT LS AED 39 AED 35 AED 59 AED 69 AED 99 AED 75 AED 75
T-SHIRT SS AED 29 AED 35 AED 26 AED 19 AED 39 AED 55 AED 35
TRUNKS AED AED 60 AED 40
SALOPET/DUNGREE AED
BOXER AED 49 AED 30 AED 59 AED 29 AED 49 AED 55 AED 99
SHORTS AED 75 AED 80 AED 59 AED 55 AED 119 AED 95 AED 99
SHOES AED 19 AED 90 AED 129 AED 29 AED 299 AED 129 AED 129
SLIPPERS/ SANDALS AED 29 AED 35 AED 79 AED 29 AED 149
SOCKS AED 29 AED 15 AED 26 AED 29 AED 29 AED 35 AED 39
EYEWEAR AED 45 AED 20 AED 26 AED 29 AED 129 AED 95 AED 75
HAT AED 29 AED 30 AED 26 AED 55 AED 99 AED 40 AED 39
JACKET AED 189 AED 140 AED 149 AED 149 AED 199 AED 149 AED 149
SHAWL/ SCARF AED 39 AED 30 AED 49 AED 29 AED 69 AED 119 AED 75
TIE AED AED 15 AED 59 AED 29 AED 129
TOWEL AED 59
TRACKSUIT AED 69 AED 120 AED 99 AED 79 AED 129 AED 109 AED 129
WALLETS AED 29 AED 45 AED 55 AED 79 AED 75 AED 75
WATCH AED 99 AED 55 AED 109

Table 1.1

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In the above table 1.1, average prices, against each category of the
brand, are added by the Collezione brand itself as well as that of its
competitors. There were pictures also taken which were included in the
presentations that I prepared, comparing the prices of the products sold
by brands such as Pull & Bear and Bershka that are similar to that of
Collezione’s. The presentations would include pictures and their
respective price ranges and this is prepared to get a better view of all the
competitor’s products sold at once.

COLLEZIONE PRICE: 39

AEROPOSTALE PULL&BEAR BERSHKA

LE

PRICE: 49 PRICE: 55 PRICE: 59

SPLASH H&M NEW YORKER

PRICE: 45 PRICE: 59 PRICE: 55

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The above figure shows the pictures taken of T-Shirts Long Sleeves
under the clothing category of different brands along with respective
prices ranges, which is how the recording of information takes place.

Through the reasearch, I was able to comprehend a brand in a way

where it stands in the market. I was partly working working with the
Buying and Planning Team to formulate this brand positioning map.

Figure 1.7

Collezione as a brand considers establishing a position in the market

which, the brand desires to attain in the minds of the target group and
conducting communication activities accordingly. It has positioned itself
as a brand that appeals to the youth offering affordable fast fashion
products with a widespread network of outlets across the GCC and a
pleasing shopping experience with a self-service mentality. Their main

21
goal in brand positioning is to appeal to a youth who has higher brand
awareness, who are trendier, have a sense of quality, who are pioneers
in fashion, successful, change oriented, intellectual and attractive.

In the above figure 1.7, Collezione is positioned on the map based on 2

parameters; which are Fashionability and Price. On a scale of X axis and
Y axis, where X axis measures a brand from being basic to being more
fashion forward or, that, aligns with the trends and offer newer styles in
the market, Y axis measures the price ranges of the other brands.

Brands like Aeropostale indicate, they offer high prices of clothing that is
more basic oriented. Pull & Bear indicate they offer higher prices but are
a little close to being fashion forward. Bershka offers prices slightly lower
than that of Pull & Bear but are considered the most fashionable brand
out of the spectrum. H&M offers prices close to being affordable and
closer to the fashion forward scale. Splash offers affordable prices or
prices lower in range crossing the mid position of the fashionability scale
but not being the most fashionable out of the other players in the market.
New Yorker offers higher prices but slightly less fashionable than its
other counterparts and Collezione comes right in the middle of the
spectrum where it doesn’t offer too high or too low prices and include a
mix of basic and fashion forward elements in its offerings.

I conducted one of the basic tasks under this project to understand the
full overview of the project.

22
  Task.

Based on my knowledge after evaluating the brand on the pricing

terms I was given a task to set the prices of the products based on
a competitive scope.

Efforts were taken to match the prices of those products with the
competitor’s or set prices within a comparable range but at the
same time realize the profit margin the brand aims to achieve
which is 70%. Generally a price increase by 10 Dirhams, 20
Dirhams and 30 Dirhams is applicable. I had to visit the
competitor’s stores, take pictures and note the prices of those
products that have attributes similar to the ones Collezione is
selling. After that, a report is prepared that outlines the brand’s:

 Department
 Range
 Style Numbers
 Picture of the products that are similar to that of the
competitor’s.
 Prices of the products listed.
 Prices of the competitor’s products.

This strategy is applied on all divisions/ categories of products that

Collezione offers and prices are changed accordingly but ensuring the
overall profit margin is met.

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1.5.2. PROJECT - 2: Sales Performance Measurement

Objective: To understand and analyze the performance of key

categories through report generation.

The process of measuring and analyzing the sales performance of the

brand involves preparing the following reports, known as:

 Sales Performance Reports

 Weekly Section wise Reports
 Best Seller Reports

Completion of these reports as a function can be carried out with the

help of the following tool:

Navision system

Navision (Dynamics NAV) is an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning)

Solution or software suite designed for small to mid-sized
businesses to automate the majority of their transactions from CRM
(Customer Relationship Management), to Quoting, Ordering,
producing, shipping and Invoicing on the sales side, to Purchasing,
Receiving, Paying and Inventorying on the supply side. In other
words, the system offers specialized functionality for
manufacturing, distribution, government, retail, and other
industries.

24
Methodology:

For conducting this project the following methodology was used.

 Desk Research Method: Desk Research, also called as

secondary research. This method comprises searching for
information using existing resources, such as the analytical
reports which is then followed by cross referencing and the
collation of data.
This task involved having me, mainly acquire and work on reports
sitting at desk and collect data from existing resources such as
directories and the Navision ERP system where most of the basic
information could be easily fetched.

 One type of desk research technique I followed was:

Internal Desk Research – This is the most reasonable
form of research where much of the information was
generated internally within the organization as a course of
normal process. Account related information which
indicates what type of products are sold, in how much
quantity and at what cost, sold to which type of customers
including their geographical location etc. were conducted
mostly through Excel Analysis that helped in organizing the
collected data and was easily usable.

25
Findings.

The process of analyzing and measuring the sales performance of

Collezione involves undertaking the following process:

Collezione as a brand functions with the help of Microsoft Dynamics Nav

(Classic). In other terms, called, Navision, which holds the database of
all the brands owned by the Firm/ Company, Liwa Group. It is through
this, that the employees extract all necessary reports and figures. This is
updated on a continuous basis, for example, every time a purchase is
noted at the till in each store, the Navision system gets updated by the IT
department. The following are the types of reports I prepared:

Sales Performance, Weekly and Bestselling Styles Report:

It is through the Navision system, these reports are generated. Since

SS17 stock is running at the stores currently, data pertaining to the SS17
season is taken into account and worked upon. All the top line numbers
are then reviewed by Store and Territory level, through excel which then;
help in determining their performance.

The Sales Performance reports denotes the Sales acquired by the brand
for 2 periods

 Month-to-Date (MTD): Sales acquired from the start of the

month to the current date
 Year-to- Date (YTD): Sales acquired from the start of the
year to the current date

26
The Sales is ascertained by the amount it generated by each country
where the figures are further obtained by the amount each store is
earning in that country. The key aspects of this report show how the
brand’s sales performance is measured by measuring:

 Performance of the selling space of the stores.

 Performance of inventory.
 Performance of productivity by looking through the items
generated per transaction or sales per customer.
 The Sales figures data is taken out from Navision but their
performance is measured in this report.

MTD 1 April to 29 April, 2017

No. Name Sales Budget

QAT TOTAL 1,234,522 885,391
DWC COLLEZIONE CITY CENTRE 663,165 433,081
EZD EZDAN MALL 571,357 452,309

Table1.2

The above table 1.2, shows the sales performance of Qatar by each
store with respect to its budget for a span of one month in April (MTD)

YTD 1 January to 29 April, 2017

No. Name Sales Budget

QAT TOTAL 4,413,289 3,571,327
DWC COLLEZIONE CITY CENTRE 2,456,101 1,718,144
EZD EZDAN MALL 1,957,187 1,853,183

Table 1.3

27
The above table 1.3 shows the sales performance of Qatar by each store
with respect to its budget for a span of 4 months from January to April
(YTD)

This report is done for all the countries of the brand.

Weekly Report

The Weekly Section wise reports denote the Weekly Sales acquired by
the brand. This report takes the following periods into account:

 Week-To-Date (WTD): Sales acquired from the start of the

previous week to the current date
 Year-To-Current Date(YTD): Sales acquired from the start of the
month to the current date
 The last to last week sales (PwTD): Sales acquired from the
start of the last week before the previous week to the current date

The figures are ascertained by the sales generated in each country

where the figures are further obtained from each division. This report
gives a general view of the sales generated in each division and the
weekly sales performance are measured by comparing it with each of the
period’s figures. This report is also reviewed cumulatively and
individually through excels to help determine:

 Top 30 styles at Store department and Category level.

 Forecasting the sales for the upcoming week.

The Weekly Sales figures are taken out from Navision and their
performance is measured by comparison of different periods in this
report.

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 23 April .. 29 April 16 April .. 22 April 1 January .. 29 April
COUNTRY: QATAR TOTAL Weekly Sales Previous Week Sales Sales till date
Sales Sales Sales Variance Sales Sales
Department Category Division Quantity Mix Quantity % Quantity Mix
MAN ACCESSORIES BAG 6 0% 6 16% 133 0%
MAN ACCESSORIES BELTS 75 1% 137 -33% 2,059 1%
MAN ACCESSORIES BRACELET 1 0% - 0% 244 0%
MAN ACCESSORIES GLOVES 0 0% - 0% 50 0%
MAN ACCESSORIES EYEWEAR 0 0% - 0% 53 0%
MAN ACCESSORIES HAT 0 0% 1 -100% 150 0%
MAN ACCESSORIES SHAWL 0 0% - 0% 83 0%
MAN ACCESSORIES SCARF 0 0% - 0% 92 0%
MAN ACCESSORIES WALLET 0 0% 1 -100% 285 0%
MAN ACCESSORIES WATCH 0 0% - 0% 44 0%
MAN ACCESSORIES Total 82 1% 145 -27% 3,193 2%

Table 1.4

In the above table 1.4, for the country Qatar, the sales figures are
ascertained by way of Sales Quantities for each of the periods for the
Man’s department of the Accessories category of different divisions

Here, WTD: 23 April to 29 April

PwTD: 16 April to 22 April

YTD: 1 January to 29 April

This report is done for all the countries of the brand for both the Man and
the Woman departments and for all the categories of the brand.

29
Bestselling Styles Reports

This report gives an analysis on the top 10 performing styles across the
territory ie) GCC which implies all stores in all the countries of the brand.
With the help of Sales Performance and Weekly Reports, the Bestselling
Styles Report is generated

Best Seller Report takes into account:

 Week-To-Date (WTD): Sales acquired from the start of the

previous week to the current date

It is through this report all the bestselling styles with their colors, by the
division are generated every week.

Every Style’s Sales figures are taken out from Navision through a sell-
through report with reference to its color and their performance is
measured by the highest amount of sell-through.

23 April….29 April QATAR

Sta tus NON SALE

Division StyleColor Description Retail Price Season Sum of Sales Amount Sum of Sales Sum of On Hand
ACCESSORIES UCB260663 A10 Acces s ory 49 SS16 294 6 1
ACCESSORIES UCB260676 A02 Sa ra ci ye 49 SS17 245 5 16
ACCESSORIES UCE260105 A41 Sa ra ci ye 79 SS17 237 3 26
ACCESSORIES UCE270374 A41 Bel t wi th s i l ver grey buckl e 29 SS17 203 7 45
ACCESSORIES UCE260112 A10 Acces s ory 99 SS17 198 2 8
ACCESSORIES UCB260677 A02 Sma l l ba g wi th l ong meta l i c ha 59 SS17 177 3 19
ACCESSORIES UCE270373 A02 Bel t wi th l ea ther deta i l ed buc 29 SS17 174 6 39
ACCESSORIES UCE270371 A10 Contra s t s i des a nd meta l i c buc 29 SS17 174 6 32
ACCESSORIES UCB120952 A44 Dokuma Us t 169 SS17 169 1 34
ACCESSORIES UCB250282 A15 Acces s ory 39 SS17 156 6 4
ACCESSORIES Total 2,027 45 224

Table 1.5

In the above figure, for the country Qatar, the sales amount and the
sales quantity are generated for each style under the Accessories
division which are termed as the bestselling styles as they have the
highest sell through under that division

30
Here, WTD: 23 April to 29 April

This report is done for all the countries of the brand for both the Man and
the Woman departments and for all the categories of the brand.

NOTE:

During the course of my internship, I was even given the responsibility to

prepare various reports and submit it to the members of the brand
Collezione. Team. These reports are then presented by them every time
a Trade Meeting is conducted at the Head Office.

31
1.5.3 PROJECT - 3: Planning and buying process

Objective: To suggest merchandise mix on the basis of merchandise

sales performance.

Introduction:

As a franchisee, the Liwa Company solely performs the job of acquiring

options produced by the Principal Company that is the Collezione
retailer. Therefore, the Principal Company takes the responsibility and
have their own Buying Team to execute the whole sourcing process. The
Principal Company’s Buying Associates will oversee trends in the
International Market, and based on which, the tasks are then handed
over to the other teams to develop or design range for a season. The
Buying Associates will prepare a list of the already developed product
range and sent to the Franchisee’s Buying Team.

This list consists of the following contents:

Item Name Name of the Item Decided by the Prinicipals

Item Code Style Number of the Item
Color Code Color Code of the Item
Color Color Name of the Item
Gender Belonging to either the Man or the Woman Department
Material Material Type of the Item
Division Division of the Item
Department Department of the Item
Section Category of the Item
Turkish Retail Price of the Item charged by the Principal Company in the market
Collezione Cost Cost incurred in purchasing the item from the supplier
Theme Principal Company's theme followed by the Item
Size Breakdown Size Split of each Item (Small [S],Medium [M], Large [L], Extra Large [XL])
Size Quantity per package Number of units each size per package
Grade Assessment of each style by the franchisee where A:Super good; B: Good; C: Average

Table 1.6

32
The list is a record of style numbers of each item that the product range
comprises of. It is an important aspect of the list without which the item
cannot be referenced to be ordered by the Franchisee Company.

Methodology:

 Past Data Analysis/ Historical Analysis: This methodology

involved understanding of various historical events, documents
and processes of the brand Collezione. The goal was to develop a
narrative about the planning and the buying process based on the
evidence at hand which involved not only reviewing and
interpreting sources, but also encompasses a wide range of
analytical skills through Excel Workings

Findings

In order to analyze I had to understand the various processes under this

project.

Typically a franchisee’s buying team follow a distinct process to carry out

their respective buying functions:

1. First and foremost, the Principal Company informs the firmed date
of range presentation of the upcoming season which in this case
is AW17 so the Liwa Group starts planning the necessary
workings needed in executing to generate the proper OTB which
is a retail inventory management tool that helps to find out
how much inventory one needs to buy on a monthly basis to
make the company’s sales projections. It’s a guide for the

33
 amount of dollars the company has to spend on merchandise,
and constantly flexes based on how the business is doing.

Although this task is carried out by the Liwa’s, Planning Team, a

full support and assistance, is also provided by its Buying Team
as well. The teams work up on a Sales budget file which
comprises of planned sales for each store by each month. The
Planned Sales are the sales that the company generates taking
into account the store sales figures and the country where the
store is located. With that information, forecasted or planned sales
are generated for every month by each store. In other words, the
file will enable the teams to see the planned and forecasted sales
for the entire year by every month by each store.

The main aim of the company is to generate an increase in the

forecasted sales at least more than the actual sales achieved in
the previous year which could only enable the brand to grow. So
this rate of increase or the growth rate is decided by the Liwa
Company main head associates which are The CEO, the Head of
Planning and Merchandising, Business Managers and Senior
Planners in a trade meeting.
15% growth rate

2016 Actual /Forecast Summary 2017 BP

SALES MARGIN MARGIN % SALES MARGIN MARGIN % Sales Mix Margin Mix
BRAND COUNTRY STORE STORE NAME Date MONTH SEASON Sales % Margin %
(ACT/FCT) (ACT/FCT) (ACT/FCT) (BUDGET) (BUDGET) (BUDGET) % %

COL UAE YAS Yas Mall 1/31/2015 Jan 148,882 57,465 38.6% AW 170,769 57,627 33.7% 14.7% 0.3% 8.2% 5.6%
COL UAE YAS Yas Mall 2/28/2015 Feb 116,440 59,514 51.1% SS 133,558 76,563 57.3% 14.7% 28.6% 6.4% 7.4%
COL UAE YAS Yas Mall 3/28/2015 Mar 153,228 71,823 46.9% SS 175,754 92,399 52.6% 14.7% 28.6% 8.4% 9.0%
COL UAE YAS Yas Mall 4/28/2015 Apr 161,482 71,266 44.1% SS 185,221 91,682 49.5% 14.7% 28.6% 8.9% 8.9%
COL UAE YAS Yas Mall 5/28/2015 May 166,590 80,481 48.3% SS 191,080 103,538 54.2% 14.7% 28.6% 9.2% 10.1%
COL UAE YAS Yas Mall 6/28/2015 Jun 117,467 65,172 55.5% SS 134,735 83,842 62.2% 14.7% 28.6% 6.5% 8.1%
COL UAE YAS Yas Mall 7/28/2015 Jul 208,830 108,651 45.1% SS 239,530 134,805 56.3% 14.7% 24.1% 11.5% 13.1%
COL UAE YAS Yas Mall 8/28/2015 Aug 153,720 69,325 45.1% SS 176,318 89,185 50.6% 14.7% 28.6% 8.4% 8.7%
COL UAE YAS Yas Mall 9/28/2015 Sep 158,139 83,754 56.9% AW 181,387 107,748 59.4% 14.7% 28.6% 8.7% 10.5%
COL UAE YAS Yas Mall 10/28/2015 Oct 151,453 56,862 37.5% AW 173,718 73,152 42.1% 14.7% 28.6% 8.3% 7.1%
COL UAE YAS Yas Mall 11/28/2015 Nov 123,301 34,200 27.7% AW 141,428 66,299 46.9% 14.7% 93.9% 6.8% 6.4%
COL UAE YAS Yas Mall 12/28/2015 Dec 160,291 41,382 25.8% AW 183,856 52,208 28.4% 14.7% 26.2% 8.8% 5.1%
COL YAS Tot Yas Mall FULL YEAR 1,819,824 799,895 44.0% FULL YEAR 2,087,355 1,029,047 49.3% 14.7% 28.6% 100.0% 100.0%

Table 1.7

34
In the above table 1.7, shows the actual sales figures for 2016 season
which is generated by Yas Mall Store that is located in UAE. So the sales
data (extracted from Navision) is taken for every month in the entire year
with the help of which planned/ forecasted sales is calculated for 2017
season.

 To begin with, growth rate is pre-decided by the main head

associates by taking into account the 2016 sales, there should be
a 15% increase in the overall planned/forecasted sales for 2017
which is shown as a 2 million figure.
2017 planned/forecasted sales for the year = 2016 actual
sales for the year + (2016 actual sales for the year*15%)
=18,19,824 + (18,19,824*15%)
=2,087,355
 The next step requires to generate the 2016 sales mix% and
margin mix% pertaining to each month with the help of which
forecasted/planned sales for every month of 2017 is calculated.
2016 Sales Mix for January= 2016 Actual Sales for
January/Total actual sales for the entire year
 After this step, the forecasted/planned sales for every month of
2017 is calculated by taking into account the 2016 sales mix%
and margin mix% pertaining to each month and the overall
planned sales 2017 has to cover (2,087,355)
2017 Sales Mix for January= 2017 planned/forecasted sales
for the year* 2016 sales mix% for January.

In order to cover the 2017 planned/forecasted sales by Yas Mall for the
year, the above working will provide the proportion of sales to be
achieved for every month.

35
NOTE:

 For both 2016 and 2017 seasons, the Margin and Margin
% are also added onto the report to get a better
measurement of the AW16 performance and the upcoming
measurement of the AW17 performance. Sales Mix % and
Margin % for 2017 are also consequently added out of the
2017 planned figures generated.

 In a similar fashion, Margin Mix % is calculated for 2016,

the way it is for Sales Mix% to calculate the proportion of
margin to be achieved for every month out of the overall
margin forecasted for 2017

 The next function the Liwa Company undertakes is to forecast

sales per season for each store. This calculation is worked in the
store growth file. Like the previous function, the main aim of the
company is to generate an increase in the forecasted sales at
least more than the actual sales achieved in the previous year.
But in this case, the sales is forecasted by season for each store,
again, enabling the brand to grow.

The rate of increase or the growth rate is again decided by the

Liwa Company main head associates which are The CEO, the
Head of Planning and Merchandising, Business Managers and
Senior Planners in a trade meeting. The growth rate is decided by
comparing by how much rate the previous period grew to its last
to last period.

36
 COL AREA i n Sqm SALES VALUE IN AED

Mkt Store AW 17 Sl s AW 16 Sl s AW 15 Sl s 16 Fcs t vs 17 vs 16 17 vs 15

Store Name Status AW16 AW17
Code Code Fcs t Fcs t Act 15 Act Growth Act
UAE DEL Da l ma Ma l l LFL 69 69 1,079 1,018 949 7% 6% 14%
UAE YAS YAS Ma l l LFL 101 101 824 750 799 -6% 10% 3%
UAE FES Fes ti va l Ci ty LFL 33 33 967 896 745 20% 8% 30%
BAH BAH SEEF MALL LFL 52 52 636 624 282 121% 2% 126%
QAT EZD Ezda n Ma l l LFL 579 579 2,223 2,078 1,825 14% 7% 22%
QAT DWC Doha Ci ty Center LFL 301 301 2,458 2,315 6%
QAT DFC Fes ti va l Ci ty NEW 224 1,395
OMN AVN Avenues Ma l l LFL 397 397 530 482 460 5% 10% 15%
ALL 1,532 1,979 11,185 8,161 5,060 61% 37% 121%
ALL MKTS
LFL 1,532 1,532 8,717 8,161 5,060 61% 7% 72%

Table 1.8

The report will show the total forecasted sales of all the stores in each
country taking into consideration the growth rate of the season, decided.

 In the above table, 1.8, it shows the actual sales figures for AW16
season and AW15 season which is generated by Yas Mall Store
that is located in UAE. So this sales data figures (extracted from
Navision) is the total sales figures generated for the entire year by
the Yas Mall for those seasons with the help of which the total
planned/ forecasted sales is calculated for the entire year by the
Yas Mall in the 2017 season.
 The table shows, for YAS Mall AW17’s sales growth rate to
AW16’s is decided, as per the sales growth rate of AW16’s to
AW15’s which is -6%.

AW16 forecast sales vs AW15 actual sales = (AW16 forecast

sales - AW15 actual sales) /AW15 actual sales = -6%
Here the growth rate is low, of AW16 as compared to AW15 sales
figures. So the main head associates decided to increase the rate
deliberately for the AW17 season that is by 10% with the help of
which forecasted sales figures were generated for AW17 for YAS
Mall store for the entire year by the help of AW16 Sales figures.

37
 AW17 forecast sales = AW16 actual sales + (AW16 forecast
sales * AW17 proposed growth rate)
= 824461
 After this step, a total of all the AW17’s forecasted sales for the
entire year by every store in a particular country is calculated and
that figure, thereby, enable to generate the OTB for the AW17
season.

 The OTB generation task is worked up by the Finance team in the

Liwa Company. They prepare a template, for which the
Merchandising and the Buying Team have to enter the calculated
forecasted sales which they had generated in the previous step,
which automatically calculates the OTB for the whole season by
every country. In this case, it’s the AW17 season. This task is
carried out exclusively by the Finance team who are solely
responsible to prepare a template that derives the OTB to be
bought and its based on the Liwa Company’s policy to not share
the working of the file to any of the departments. The below table
shows the OTB generated by the Finance team.

38
 COL

Tot Sales from Stores (AED) 2,980,632

Intake margin % 64.5%
Avg Cost Price in AED 32.00
FP Sales from C/o Stock 220,000
Season's Sell Thru% 90%

Sales
FP+PM sales 2,070,474
Adding MD Sales 690,158
Provision for Drop stock 306,737
Total 3,067,369

FOB value 381,763

OTB incl. cancellation 400,851

AW17
Store Sales (AED) 2,980,632
Store Margin % 42%
Gross Buy factor 1.54
FP Buy factor 2.21
OTB @ LC (AED) 1,624,402
OTB @ Ret (AED) 4,575,780
OTB in FOB £ 400,851
Unit Buy/Intake Qt 50,763
No. of Stores 3

Table 1.9

 Once the total number of OTB figures are generated for the
season by every country. This figure is then broken down by every
category; the stock has to be bought for the season’s
planned/forecasted sales that were calculated initially by the
Merchandising and the Buying teams by taking the historical data
by category into consideration. This is another report where
specific contents are worked upon which are the Plan Mix% of the
season by each category, Average Units bought by each
category, Average Units sold by each category, Final Mix% of the
next season and the OTB breakup of the next season

39
 18 OTB 1,624,402 1,078,566 967,212 824,462
Sea s on AW16 38% 34% 29%
DEL FES YAS
Profit OTB
Final Mix
DEPT UAE Division Div Name Description Category Sell thru Stk Mix Sls Mix Mix Plan Mix AU Bought AU Sold Unit cost Breakup
MANDeni mSHIRT MAN Apperal Deni m SHIRT 27% 1% 0.56% 0.51% 0.5% 68 18.4 56 0.5% 8,728 3,280 2,941 2,507
MANDeni mTROUSERS MAN Apperal Deni m TROUSERS 30% 7% 6.09% 5.43% 5.8% 76 22.6 50 5.8% 93,545 35,152 31,523 26,870
MANJers eywea rATHLETE MAN Apperal Kni tti ng ATHLETE 30% 0% 0.06% 0.06% 0.1% 90 27.0 11 0.1% 945 355 318 271
MANKni twea rJUMPER MAN Apperal Kni tti ng JUMPER 67% 0% 0.00% 0.00% 0.0% 2 1.0 32 0.0% - - - -
MANJers eywea rSHIRT MAN Apperal Kni tti ng SHIRT 35% 3% 3.19% 3.15% 3.2% 78 27.2 34 3.2% 51,516 19,358 17,360 14,798
MANJers eywea rTRACKSUIT MAN Apperal Kni tti ng TRACKSUIT 93% 0% 0.70% 0.77% 0.7% 47 44.0 35 0.7% 11,890 4,468 4,007 3,415
MANJers eywea rT-SHIRT MAN Apperal Kni tti ng T-SHIRT 63% 5% 10.69% 10.97% 10.8% 81 51.0 18 11.0% 178,684 67,145 60,213 51,326
MANOUTWEARCOAT MAN Apperal OUTWEAR COAT 39% 2% 2.25% 2.04% 2.1% 36 14.0 104 2.1% 34,845 13,094 11,742 10,009
MANOUTWEARJACKET MAN Apperal OUTWEAR JACKET 15% 1% 0.61% 0.59% 0.6% 90 13.3 94 0.5% 8,122 3,052 2,737 2,333
MANOUTWEARVEST MAN Apperal OUTWEAR VEST 31% 0% 0.16% 0.16% 0.2% 24 7.5 89 0.2% 2,615 983 881 751
MANTri cotCARDIGAN MAN Apperal Tri cot CARDIGAN 29% 2% 1.66% 1.73% 1.7% 64 18.5 40 1.7% 27,553 10,354 9,285 7,914
MANTri cotJUMPER MAN Apperal Tri cot JUMPER 36% 6% 6.35% 5.99% 6.2% 67 24.2 32 6.2% 100,254 37,673 33,784 28,797
MANWoven BottomTROUSERS MAN Apperal Woven Bottom
TROUSERS 13% 3% 1.30% 1.16% 1.2% 72 9.5 41 1.0% 16,244 6,104 5,474 4,666
MANWoven TopSHIRT MAN Apperal Woven Top SHIRT 28% 11% 10.43% 10.87% 10.7% 78 22.0 30 11.0% 178,684 67,145 60,213 51,326
MAN0 MAN Apperal Total 38% 42% 44.06% 43.44% 43.8% 73 27.7 32 43.9% 713,626 268,163 240,477 204,985

Table 1.10

In the above table 1.10,

 The Plan Mix% is the % mix generated for the previous Season is
the average % of units that is bought by each category for the
previous season.
 The Average Units bought is the number bought for the previous
season that takes into account is the opening stock by each
category and number of colors that was available in that category,
derived from the raw data of the previous season.
 Average Units sold is the number of units that was sold in the
previous season by total sales generated by each category and
the number of colors that was available in that category, derived
from the raw data of the previous season.
 Final Mix % is the % mix that should be bought by each category
for the next season. In most cases, the final mix % of the next
season is same as the plan mix % of the previous season.

OTB breakup of the next season is breakup of the planned OTB by each
category for the next season.

 In the above table, In order to get a breakdown by each category

of the amount to buy for the AW17 season, the AW16 sales
figures generated by category data is taken into account. So the

40
 figure shows the actual sales generated by each category for
AW16 season in UAE and it is this data that is carried forward for
further workings.
 All the contents in the report from the Department to the Profit Mix
of each category of the entire AW16 season is the raw data that is
taken out from Navision.
 In the table, the Plan Mix% for AW16 Season by the Shirt
Category is the average % of Sales Mix of the Shirt Category and
the Profit Mix of the Shirt Category which is 0.5%
 The Average Units bought takes into account the opening stock
by each category and number of colors that was available in that
category derived from the raw data of AW16.
-Average Units bought for AW16 Season takes into account the
Opening Stock of the Shirt category and the number of colors that
was available in the Shirt category.
AU bought= Opening Stock /Number of Colors=68
 Average Units sold for AW16 Season takes into account the
sales generated by the shirt category and the number of colors
that was available in the shirt category.
AU sold= Total Sales/ Number of Colors= 18
 Final Mix% for AW17 season will be the same as the Plan Mix%
of the AW16 season as a function followed and a decision made
by the Liwa Company for the Collezione brand. Final Mix %
certainly implies, the company plans to buy the same percentage
of stock for AW17 from AW16.SO he final mix% of the shirt
category is 0.5%
 OTB Breakup is the breakup of the OTB figure for the AW17
season, by the shirt category, that was generated in the initial

41
 report that takes into account the planned OTB figure for AW17
season and the Final mix%
OTB breakup=Final Mix%*Planned OTB

Clearly, this report indicate a conduction of the Assortment Planning

Technique followed by the brand for AW17 season which shows a
process whereby products are selected and planned to maximize sales
and profit for a specified period of time. This assortment plan considers
the financial objectives and seasonality of merchandise to ensure proper
receipt flow.

After all these reports are worked upon and generated and are taken into
consideration for the next assignments that the team undertakes which
are:

2. Principal Company is based to view the range presentation and

select the items that Principal Company offers. The place to buy is
no other than the Principal Company’s chosen area of Location.
The list sent to them via Principals is taken into account.
3. The team reviews, witness the touch and feel of the products,
selects or pick items that are suitable to the market (In this case,
GCC) where they operate on and consistently refine the list.

The list that was sent to the teams previously by the Principal Company
now comes into the picture.

 The teams as and when are reviewing the styles, they add the
grade against each style they see. For instance,
 Grade A is for the styles that are great and most likely suitable for
the market.
 Grade B is for the styles that are good but can be kept on hold to
be bought.

42
  Grade C is for the styles that are average and most likely
cancelled to order if given on conditions.

 The team adds the quantities of packs that they need to order
against each style they select for the entire market by each
country for every store in that country.

 After which the total quantity of packs selected for every store in
each country is then taken into consideration and a sum of all the
total quantity of packs per country selected for each style is
generated which is called the Total Market Quantity.

 To get a better breakup of the total quantity of packs that are

selected for each store, the total number of units that are selected
for these stores by country are also drawn up as the Total
Assortment Quantity. The units are generated depending upon the
size quantity of the number of packs noted.

Total
Item Name Grade DELMA FESTIVAL YAS
UAE

ManUnderwearBoxer ABERS 3'LÜ PAKET B 3 3 3 9

ManJerseywearTrackingsuit Bottom
ABERT B 2 2 2 6

Table 1.11

 In the above table, the total quantity for the UAE market is the
sum of quantities of packs for the style, to be ordered for each
store.
Total UAE Market (packs) = Delma Mall + Festival City + Yas
Mall

43
 =3+2+3=9 which implies 9 packs that were selected for this
style

 Total UAE Market (units)= Delma Mall + Festival City + Yas

Mall
= (3*6)+(2*6)+(3*6) -------6 is the size quantity in this style
pack

 The total assortment quantity is the total of all the market

(units) =18+12+18=48 units

 Total Assortment Quantity = UAE Market + Qatar Market +

Oman Market + Bahrain Market = 90+48+12+12=132

The team then resumes work at the main Head Office in UAE and further
updates the list by working out the amount of quantities of the item that
was picked initially to be ordered by checking up on the planned OTB
and reviewing if the quantities match the OTB amount to be bought for
the season. In this case the AW17 season.

Apart from that, the company, reviews on the quantities to be bought per
size for each category for Collezione brand.

• The quantities are decided as per the Size Mix Analysis which
denotes the weighted average of sizes sold based on the previous
year’s same season’s projections which is AW16. Thus, creating a
bell curve wherein all the commonly sold sizes will have the
largest quantities ordered. One needs to ensure, to order the
correct sizes for the items one is going to buy. Therefore, efforts

44
 are taken to order the quantity in the required sizes based on the
past season’s size mix percentage of that particular division. The
generated quantities help on to decide on the amount of quantities
to place order for which division. Generally the main data that is
required to initiate the size mix report is the Buy Data pertaining to
the AW16 season. The data is further streamlined into:

 Seasonal By Store: Where the Buy Data of AW16 which

helps to determine which store grew and by how much by
reviewing the Sales made through that season and the
profit generated by also taking into account the
Conversion% and the number of transactions taken place
for every store.

 Seasonal By Category: Where the Buy Data of AW16

which helps to determine which Division grew and by how
much by reviewing the Bought Quantity of that season,
Sales made through that season and the Margin it
assessed by taking into account the sell-through and profit
% of each category.

• It is based on the above data a consolidated size curve sheet is

prepared that keeps a note of the overall units bought and sold of
a particular division/Category for each size. The rest of the
contents of the sheet has to be generated. In other words, the
report lists down per every Division/Category of Collezione: The
below figure shows the way the size curve sheet is formulated.

45
 Figure 1.12

• The team then sends the list within 2 weeks to the Principal
Company giving them a proper breakthrough of the styles of each
item that were picked by them along with their respective
quantities to be ordered.

• The list is further reviewed by the Franchisor – Principal Company

who will make necessary arrangements to deliver the items to the
Franchisee’s -Liwa Group’s preferred place of arrangement.

46
1.6 RECEIPT STATISTICS

The Collezione brand run by the franchisee company keeps track of a

document that is significant for the working of the organization

 Orders vs Receipts:

This is a document which keeps track of the shipments that are

received from time to time by the respective suppliers, who work
alongside and are subsumed under the Principal Company of
Collezione. The document in view, is a report which will keep a
‘monthly track’ in terms of units and costs of the shipment
received catering to Man as well as the Women Departments of
Collezione. I had to prepare this report regularly so as to ensure
proper execution of the task.

 The procedure that is consistently followed works on the

grounds of the receipts that are received with respect to the
shipments that are received, along with it. Once the
shipment arrives and it’s cleared from the port, the
Warehouse Department would take in charge and an MRV
document is created considering the document that is
received along with the stock/shipment from the respective
supplier of the factory/manufacturing unit. This document
received is termed as Invoice. Efforts are taken to
constantly check against the items that are received and
made a note of. This process is particularly called as
Inspection and is done item by item. It then cross checks’,
by the packing list of the invoice what items/how many

47
 items have been received and it is through this process an
excess and shortage list is drawn. This list is then sent to
the IT department of the Head Office along with the MRV
document created at the Warehouse. The IT team then
reviews and posts the information into the system which in
turn gets updated in the Receipt Statistics application in the
Navision.

 Meanwhile the Planning/Merchandising and the Buying

Department at the Head Office will receive a Master File by
the Principal Company of Collezione after having been in
close contact with the suppliers. The Master File is sent by
them after every shipment they consign or dispatch.
Generally a Master File comprises of a Product and a
Pricing sheet which is a list of all the items along with their
respective prices charged by the Principal Company that is
sent through the shipment.

 This file is reviewed by those above departments where the

prices are checked and changed according to the GCC
Market. Once, this task is done, the document will then be
handed over to the IT Department who assess the units
sent of the items and invariably posts their details of those
into the system. Most importantly, their barcode. So when
the item is scanned at the till when a customer picks that
item, all the details of the item as well as its barcode would
appear. This process is carried out for registering any
transactions that are made at the point of sale.

48
  Concurrently, the Buying team will simultaneously keep a
track of the units and costs received by the invoice that is
sent and the shipments that are arrived at the Warehouse
and they have to effectively verify by the units/orders the
company has planned initially against the units/orders
actually received at the Warehouse from the supplier.

Table 1.12

 Here, In the table above, 1.12, shows the report includes the
number of units and respective costs planned initially by the
Franchisee Company for each department; Men and Women,
(which the Warehouse team segregates and put on record the
number of units as and when the stock arrives) for the months as
a part of this season along with the units that are actually
received. In this case, January and February have already
received the units at the right place whereas the current month
that is March, are continuing to receive or still in the process of
receiving the units as per planned. Hence, it keeps updating every
week as and when the shipment arrives. The report also
comprises the number of units that is yet to be received as per
planned at the end of the month.
 Variance is consecutively calculated for every month when the
total units keep updating with their subsequent costs. In this case,

49
 for the month of January, 149% more is actually received against
the planned which implies the company has received more stock
than planned.

 Transit signals the shipment ordered has already left the origin,
which is the manufacturing unit of the supplier and the company
would receive it as per planned by the time. Transit generally
includes the amount of stock that is delivered from the origin that
which the Principal Company would inform the
Planning/Merchandising and the Buying team that an amount of
shipment/ stock is on its way.

This task is done to consistently ensure that the company is on track of

acquiring stock at the right time. If this isn’t carried out, it is then
presumed that the company won’t guarantee sale. Also if the stock or
shipment is arriving late, it would not have enough time to be on sales
floor before the sale period begins which when the item could be
assigned for sale during the time thereby decreasing the margin of the
brand and the company. The more full priced stock sold, the more
margins the brand and the company will entail. So when this problem
occurs, the Planning/Merchandising and the Buying team will then inform
the Principal Company that this company would reject the order.

NOTE:

 When the orders are placed by the Franchisee’s end, in this case,
the company in UAE where I had to place orders in, for the GCC
market by the inputs sent by the Principal Company which is the
Franchiser, it was taken into account that the orders were placed

50
 differently for each country, considering the GCC market. This
implies the quantity and type of styles ordered for every country
would not be the same and the shipments are received at each
country’s own warehouses by the units that are planned.

 As the company will plan 6 months in advance the items and the
number of units to buy in the Buying stock file sent by the
Principal Company, this company will then decide upon the
delivery date of those items for the countries. The company, after
that, will sufficiently determine by the months how many units are
going to arrive.

 By the excess and shortage list, one can claim for an amount for
the shortage of stock. So as and when the Warehouse team
prepares this list, they will send it to the IT Department at the
Head Office who then would direct this list to the Finance
Department where the Finance team would claim for the shortage
of stock in the shipment received from the respective Principals or
the suppliers thereof.

51
1.7 COSTING FACTOR

The Franchisee which is Liwa Trading Enterprises has to pay certain

amount to the Franchiser, the Principal Company in the Turkey –
Collezione. for every product item that is being shipped from them to
Liwa.

Along with that, it is also because the products are arranged by the
freight founders and shipped by them from Turkey, Liwa Group has to
pay the total cost of the landed shipment for their services that account
to the components of the cost of each product the brand offers which
include:

UAE BAHRAIN QATAR OMAN

Elements of Landed Cost % FACTOR % FACTOR % FACTOR % FACTOR

Foreign Currency FOB USD 3.7000 USD 0.3877 USD 3.7000 USD 0.3870

Master Franchisee fee 0.00 0.0000 5.00 0.0194 5.00 0.1850 0.00 0.0000
Freight 8.00 0.2960 13.00 0.0504 8.50 0.3145 10.00 0.0387
Insurance 0.50 0.0185 0.50 0.0019 0.50 0.0185 0.35 0.0014
Bank Charges 0.50 0.0185 0.50 0.0019 0.50 0.0185 0.10 0.0004
Import Duty 5.50 0.2035 5.50 0.0213 6.00 0.2220 5.50 0.0213
Miscellaneous Charges 0.50 0.0185 1.00 0.0039 5.00 0.1850 0.10 0.0004
Landed Cost 15.00 4.2550 25.50 0.4866 25.50 4.6435 16.05 0.4491

Table 1.13

In the table 1.13, taking an example of the UAE Market, since the
Principal Company in Turkey do most of their dealings of their
transactions with the Liwa Group in Dollars, about 3.7 Dhs (Exchange
rate) is added as a costing factor which is paid to the principals to build
up the cost of the product once the product is received in Liwa Group’s
hands.

1 Dollar= 3.7 Dhs

52
Apart from the Costing Factor, other components of the landed cost such
as Freight, Insurance, Bank Charges, Import Duty and Miscellaneous
Charges are also added to build up the product’s unit cost.

*Exchange Rate = 3.7 Dhs

Master Franchisee Fee 0% 0.000

Freight 8% 0.2960
Insurance 0.5% 0.0185
Bank Charges 0.5% 0.0185
Import Duty 5.5% 0.2035
Misc. Charges 0.5% 0.0185
Landed Cost 15% 4.2550

Table 1.13

15% Landed Cost (Total of all its components) is to be paid to build the
cost of the product where each of the components are added to the
costing factor/exchange rate and a sum of which that amounts to 4.2550
(Which now, converted into Dhs) is the Landed cost in UAE.

The Landed Costs could be different for different countries such as for
Bahrain and Qatar, depending upon their exchange rates, have to pay
25.5% of landed cost and Oman 16.05%, is added to build the actual
cost of the product in each of these countries. On that cost, one can
markup the final prices of the product items in order to cover this cost so
as to earn the needed profit out of the product that would be charged to

53
the customers (This task is most likely to be done when pricing for
products)

 Task

As per every Shipment, the pricing sheet and its invoice are sent
by the Principal Company for the brand. With the onset of Sale in
the previous weeks, certain arrangements are made to have the
prices modified to their respected terms. And since the Principal
Company already pre-allocates, as per the stores, and ships the
stock, the documents, it sends also lists down the pre-allocated
stock as per the stores with their respected price ranges.

Much of the pricing process in the Collezione brand under Liwa

Group is spent in determining how much price is to be set for all
the products of their styles, the brand plans to offer.

I had to prepare a Pricing Report or a Pricing sheet which is

created with the help of the soft copy of the invoice that lists down
the invoice number typically catering to the current shipment,
along with the item’s:

 Store Name (Where the particular item would be sent to)

 Barcode (Of the particular item’s)
 Division (Man/Woman)
 Department (Dress/Shoes)
 Type (Denim/Footwear)
 Season (SS17)

54
 Style Number (Of the particular item’s)
 Theme (City/Streetwear)
 Description (Of the particular item’s style)
 Color Code (Of the particular item’s)
 Color (Of the particular item’s)
 Size (Of the particular item’s)
 Fit (Regular/Slim/Undefined)
 Quantity (Of the particular item’s)
 Freight On Board (FOB) Cost (Cost what the Principal
Company is paying for the production of the item)
 Turkey Retail Price (Price charged by the Principal Company
to its own customers in its country)
 Final Retail Price (Priced charged by the Franchisee- Liwa to
its own customers in the GCC; expressed in Dhs.)
 Retail Value (Total amount received from the customers.
Formula: Final Price* Quantity of the product item shipped to
Liwa)
 Cost Value (Total amount received by the Principal Company
in the Turkey; Formula: Landed Cost * Cost Price of the
product item acquired from the Principal Company
(expressed in USD- United States Dollars) *Quantity of the
product item shipped to Liwa)
 Margin (The Liwa planned Margin for Collezione is 67%. All
product items’ Final Prices are subjected to change to attain
this required Margin; Formula: (Retail Value – Cost
Value)/Retail Value)

55
  Price Lookup (Looking up of all the prices of styles that have
been received previously by the Principal Company, hence
making it the Current Price of the particular style of the item)
 Difference (Formula: Final Retail Price of the item - Current
Price of the item)
 Comment (Right after sale, a message informing that the
item’s style is reverted back to its full price)

The list will take down all such attributes and then sent to the stores so
they start making all the preparations to change the tags and re-print
prices on the product items. The prices of the styles that are looked up,
are from the Year To Date (YTD) sell-through as one could look up on all
the consolidated styles received so far unlike the Week To Date (WTD)
sell-through wherein not all the styles could be recognized. Usually the
current price only looks up for those styles that are already recognized
and the difference of the particular style is then noted along with Turkey
Retail Price which thereby helps in comparing and composing the Final
Retail Price for the GCC.

It is also considered that if the difference amount between the Final price
and the Current price is too high, it implies that the particular style is on
Sale. At such a time, efforts are to be taken in conveying that the style no
longer should be held for Sale and reverted back to full or the original
price of the item style by passing on the message “Existing style on sale,
all stock to revert to full price” so a better information is communicated to
the stores.

56
At the time of looking up, it so happens that the prices of some of the
item style’s may not be looked up which indicates new styles are sent by
the Principal Company and not the same styles of the past. In which
case, new prices for those product styles are formulated.

NOTE:

 Notably the prices charged by the Franchisee-Liwa Group will be

10 to15 % higher than the ones set by the Principal Company for
the brand in Turkey. The reason being, to meet as much margin
as it could, by the margin set by the Franchisee Company-Liwa
Group.

 If the cost of acquiring product items turns out to be low for the
Principal Company which could then lead a way for them to
reduce the price of the product items for its own customers and for
the Franchisee Company-Liwa Group. However, this will not
change the way Liwa Group prices its product items. It will still
offer the products with the current price points even if the Principal
Company charges their product styles at lower prices.

57
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 ORGANIZATIONS CHOSEN: MIDDLE EAST AND UAE

Just 40 years ago, Middle East was a region surrounded by desert, and
one could all see today the metropolis it has become in that short time.
While Middle East’s particularly, UAE’s tourism is thriving, its fashion
industry is in a growth period. With big ideas of becoming a globally
recognized fashion hub, this region will soon be listed with the likes of
London, Paris and New York as a key fashion territory in the future

This market is slowly expanding in way where western brands are

capitalizing on the spending power of fashion consumers in the Middle
East to increase their revenue streams. According to the 2014-15
Thomson Reuters State of the Global Islamic Economy Report (GIER),
Middle East consumers (comprising largely, Muslims) spend US$266
billion on clothing and footwear in 2013. The figure is predicted to reach
US$484 billion by 2019 and account for 14.4 per cent of global
expenditure.

The Middle East Market consisting of Dubai, as a part of UAE, in

particular "enjoys the reputation of a leading fashion destination not only
because of the fashion affinity of the consumers but also because it is
the gateway to the rest of the GCC countries", says Dubai-based fashion
expert Asil Attar, chief executive of Lead Associates and EST2014
(established 2014). Nearly 62 per cent of the global Middle East
population, according to Thomson Reuters State of the GIER, is under
30, “and the well-travelled, fashion-forward youth is influencing the
output of the fashion industry," says Alia Khan, founder of the Islamic
Fashion & Design Council (IFDC), Dubai.

58
Also, according to Jane at WGSN, ‘The entire shopping experience is
fundamental to the way of life in the Middle Eastern market where
women have an expendable income, and the touch and feel of product is
vital. Therefore, the enclosed mall with individual designer stores are
even more important, particularly since many designers have moved
away from the modest clothing that has been a part of Middle Eastern
culture, embracing new and extremely glamorous trends in single
shopping.’

So, although in today’s world, while moving with technology is key and
convenient for consumers, in a country where shopping is so important,
more number of incredible malls and shopping districts would be set up
and would grow even more in 2017 with new openings and expansions
across the country.

2.2 RETAIL ENVIRONMENT

Retailing in the UAE is expected to reach Dh200 billion by 2017, growing

by a 5 per cent on average each year, according to an analysis by the
Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Consumer spending is also
expected to continue rising in the medium-term, with growth rates
projected to stabilize at about 4 per cent on average per year leading to
a total spending of more than Dh750 billion by 2017 across many
categories.

The retail industry in the Middle East is, therefore, experiencing

phenomenal growth over the past five years. Factors such as the boom
in construction of new malls, growth of the younger population, increase
in purchasing power, entry of major international retailers and strong

59
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth are encouraging regional
retailers to think differently. Therefore Middle East has shown continued
strength as a dynamic retail market with five countries — UAE, Kuwait,
Saudi Arabia, Oman and Jordan — ranked among the top 25 in the 2014
A.T. Kearney Global Retail Development Index (GRDI). This year, the
UAE claimed the fourth position.

As the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) region's second largest sector,

retail makes a major contribution to economic diversification and
development. The retail culture has evolved from traditional outlets to
today’s large shopping malls, hypermarkets and supermarkets, with an
influx of premium and luxury brands to the region. Increased populations,
urbanization, indigenous and expatriate wealth, strong household
consumption and a growing tourism sector continue to provide ideal
conditions for growth.

New mall announcements and Dubai’s successful Expo 2020 bid have
placed the UAE at the epicenter of a global retail revolution. In the run-up
to Expo 2020, the next few years will prove to be critical as regional
retailers and mall owners invest heavily in new technologies and trained
manpower to maintain profitability, according to a leading expert on
international retail trends.

The Middle East has led the way in this sector and the more mature
markets like Dubai still have ample opportunity for neighborhood malls
and mini-malls. As the population grows further and new leisure
attractions draw more tourists in, additional large-scale shopping is likely
to develop. Abu Dhabi has traditionally lagged behind, with high
spenders typically heading for Dubai for shopping trips, but this is now
starting to change. The larger developments target broad lifestyle
appeal, going beyond shopping to improve the total customer

60
experience. The region would aim to act as a social hub for families and
friends, offering air-conditioned environments with food & beverage,
cinemas, bowling, etc. Mall leisure and entertainment offers are core
drivers of retail footfall and have become more competitive and
ambitious.

With the onset of this ‘Lavish Mall Culture’ particularly in the region and
as the retail environment in the Middle East has been witnessing steady
growth with a lot of regional and international companies have been
entering the market and setting up their own businesses, in a few years,
the companies will expand and adopt newest strategies, which would
enable to deploy omni-channel retailing initiatives that involve in-store,
online and mobile shopping activities, to maintain their growth.

• International Exposure

Belonging to India, the full immersion experience of living in a

different country like UAE afforded me the opportunity to learn or
master that country’s language at social and professional levels.
Understanding the Middle Eastern environment and interacting
with its native population allowed me to gain greater respect for
other cultures and a broad and sophisticated worldview which
diversified my thoughts and values to work effectively in order to
tackle global or multinational challenges.

In other words I was getting a broader range of work experience

and it is through NIFT that I developed my soft skill set and the
kinds of skills that were transferable into the work place; for
example team building, leadership, determination and patience.

61
CHAPTER 3: OTHER LEARNINGS

During the course of my internship, I was made to work on the following

reports

3.1 PROMO WORKING

To improve the sales of the product as well as the sell through of the
product, Sell through: Total product sold / Total product bought.

(The higher the Sell Through, the better the performance of the
product.)

The brand runs In-Season promotions. The types of promotions that

offered were:

• Buy 1 Get 1 at Half Price

• 2 for (particular set of prices)
• Further Markdown

A report is to be generated and a criteria is set to run the above

promotions at the company planned Profit/ Margin %

Margin % = Retail price of the product – Cost price of the product

Retail price of the product

These promotions are set up for the both the Men’s and the Women’s
Department of the brand. A report is prepared considering all the Sale as
well as Non-Sale items. But, generally, all the Non-Sale items are put

62
through these promotions. Also, all those styles in each of the
department’s that have been 0 sellers (Styles that have not been selling)
or styles that have a low/ poor sell through or in brand terms, are called
as Bad Sellers at the stores, undergo such promotions.

The report is primarily prepared to be sent to the stores so the sales staff
could implement the promotions at the stores as soon as they can. This
report carries content such as:

 Status of the items (Sale/Non-Sale)

 Division of the items (Accessories/Clothing)
 Category of the items (Gloves/T-Shirt)
 Promo (The item carrying a particular promo)
 Style Numbers of the items
 Color of the items
 Description of the items
 Season
 Department (Which the item belongs to- Man/Woman)
 Retail Price of the items
 Original Price of the items
 New Price of the items
 Margin %

I had to prepare this report for the country Bahrain and its market which
is a part of GCC.

The promotions for those products are set up depending upon the
following category of items:

63
 Item- Category Promos Opted

Trousers
Buy 1 Get 1 at Half Price

T-Shirts
2 for 8.9

Cardigans, Coats, Jackets,

Further Markdown
Jumpers, Shoes, Gloves,
Boots, Hats

Table 3.1

 Buy 1 Get 1 at Half Price: Here, if a customer buys 2 items on this

promotion, the product with the lower price amongst the 2 items is further
discounted by 50%
(For example, if there are 2 products sold, at particular price points, one
of which is priced at 15 Rs. and the other one is priced at 10 Rs. The
product with the lower price point will be sold at a discount for a half
price. The customer is inclined to pay full price for 1 item ie.) 15 Rs and
the other item for 5 Rs (half priced) ).

1 3

2 4
¼ =25% off discount

Considering, if two pairs of Trousers are sold at 14.9 Dinar each, the
total price the customer has to pay is 29.8 Dinar. But if the Trousers’
Category is kept on promotion, the discount would be set on one of the
two items. In this case, it’s the Item 2 which is priced at 50 % off (Half the

64
 Original Price). So, the overall price the customer has to pay is then
reduced to 22.4 Dinar at such a promotion, by 25% off of the total initial
price of any 2 Trousers.

Discount = Total (General Price of the items) – Total (Promotional Price of the items)
Total (General Price of the items)

Type Item1 Item 2 Total

General 14.9 14.9 29.8

7.45
Promotion 14.9 (14.9/2) 22.4

Discount (29.8-22.4)/ 29.8 25%

Table 3.2

 2 for 8.9: As the T-shirt Category is sold on this promotion; the overall
price the customer has to pay is 8.9 Dinar collectively if they buy 2 T-
Shirts regardless of what the price of each T-Shirt will be whether it’s 4.9,
5.9 or 6.9 Dinar where the overall amount of those 2 T-Shirts could result
to any value. The system in any case, would scan each T-shirt at a price
as 4.45 Dinar; if at all the customer picks any 2 T-shirts at any of those
previously mentioned prices. Here, in this case, if the customer picks 2
T-Shirts, on no promotion where the price of 1 T-Shirt is 6.9 Dinar and
the other T-Shirt is 4.9 Dinar. The total price the customer pays is 11.8
Dinar collectively if they pick 2 T-Shirts. Whereas, if on promotion, as the
customer picks two T-Shirts in a similar fashion, the total price the
customer pays is 4.45 Dinar collectively.

65
 Type Item1 Item2 Total
General 6.9 4.9 11.8
Promotion 6.9 4.9 4.45
Table 3.3

 Further Markdown: The rest of the product/item categories mentioned

in the table given is put on this promotion. Here, the brand will discount
the item by 30% of the original price. Considering the item, originally
priced at 8.9 Dinar will be sold at 8.9 Dinar but on promotion the very
same item will be sold at the discounted price; 5.9 Dinar.

Promotional Price = General Price of the item * (1-0.30)

= 8.9 * 0.7
= 5.9

Item
Type 1
General 8.9
Promotion 5.9

The report then has to generate the overall Margin along with its
percentage of the products that could be achieved through these
promotions. Efforts are taken to ensure that all the Non-Sale products on
such promotions achieve just enough Margin to secure a favorable
outcome.

Depending upon the requirements/ performance of the brand, these

criteria’s are subject to change. All these promotions have been given on
all full priced product lines/styles.

66
I had to prepare a report to analyze sell through of all the product styles
and assign them the required promos so that eventually, those products
could sell better.

NOTE:

 For the Bahrain market, the currency that is taken into consideration
is Bahraini Dinar or typically called as Dinar.
Where, 1 Dinar = 9.7 Dirhams (Taking UAE currency into account)

Or

14.9 Dinar = 145 Dirhams

 Commonly, the promotions are run for Bestselling product styles in

the season and not because they don’t sell well (It’s when Promotions
or Sale is launched so the products could sell). But in this case, it is
considered, the brand could only attain its profitability, if these
bestselling styles are kept for it and mainly not, if they aren’t.

3.2 CONTINUITY TRACKING:

Principally, a continuity program is a company’s sales offer where a

buyer is agreeing to receive merchandise or services automatically at
regular intervals (often monthly), without advance notice, until they
cancel.

67
 The brand Collezione duteously keeps track of a particular set of lines or
‘special’ lines that are generally termed as Core or Basic items. These
are the items that will run in the stores always and are often called as
continuity items. In other words, the brand ensures that these items or a
particular set of styles are always ordered because they are perpetually
picked or brought by customers at all times. Hence, keeping in mind the
customer’s ‘needs’, the brand makes certain, the stock for continuity
items are available at the stores.

Since the brand follows a Continuity Sales Model, there are certain terms
and conditions the company has to consider before accepting the offer of
periodic shipments of those particular merchandise or delivery of
services, which are:

Continuity Program Obligatory Terms and Conditions

Principal/ Franchiser (Company) must give the Franchisee (Company)
information about the plan’s terms and conditions, clearly and
conspicuously, in their promotional materials.
These terms may include:

 That periodic delivery of merchandise or services will occur — with

no further action on the Franchisee’s part;
 A description of the merchandise or services, the Franchisee
agrees to buy;
 Whether there’s a minimum purchase;
 How often the Franchisee will receive the products or services;
 An explanation of the plan’s billing procedure for each shipment or
period of service.
 The price of the goods or services if a consumer fails to cancel,
including shipping and handling, if applicable.

68
In general, the types of item categories that are always ordered by the
brand mostly include Denims, T-Shirts, Long Sleeves Basic Shirts,
Woven Bottoms, Sweatshirts, and Cardigans. In terms of Accessories,
there are Belts, Boxers and Bags which are considered for each of the
Departments: Men and Women. I had to make a report to keep track of
all the continuity items that are supposed to be ordered for all the stores
for each country and send it to the Principal Company. This report
consisted of:

 Style Number of the Continuity Item

 Continuity Item Name
 Continuity Item Code
 Color Code of the Continuity Item
 Color of the Continuity Item
 Gender (The department the Continuity Item belongs to;
Men/Women)
 Material of the Continuity Item
 Division (The division the Continuity Item belongs to)
 Size Breakdown of the Continuity Item
 Size Quantity of the Continuity Item per package
 Remarks of the Continuity Item ( Any comments with respect to the
Continuity Item)
 Total Sales of the Continuity Item (Total sales generated till now by
the Continuity Item/Actual sales reached)
 Weekly Sales of the Continuity Item (Weekly sales generated till
now by the Continuity Item)
 Stock on Hand (SOH) of the Continuity Item (Current stock of the
Continuity Item)

69
 SS17 Orders of the Continuity Item (Number of orders placed
already for the Continuity Item in the current season)
 Forecast Sales of the Continuity Item (Weekly forecast sales
generated for the Continuity Item)
 End Of Period (EOP) Stock on Hand (SOH) of the Continuity Item
(Forecasting stock of the Continuity Item/ stock remaining of the
Continuity Item at the end of the period or after sale)
 Minimum Presentation (Continuity Item size breakdown in a
pack/number of units per size of the Continue item made available)
 AW17 Forecast Sales of the Continuity Item (Sales forecasted of
the Continuity Item for the next season)
 AW17 Final Order of the Continuity Item (Number of orders to be
placed of the Continuity Item for the next season)
 Final Cost (In Dollars) of the Continuity Item (For the next season :
AW17)
Managing this report will be an ongoing process of obtaining, updating
and computing the following:

 Total Sales
 Weekly Sales
 Stock in Hand
 Forecast Sales (Weekly Sales * Number of weeks part of the
season [in this case: SS17] )
 End Of Period (EOP) Stock on Hand (SOH) ( [SOH + SS17
Orders] - Forecast Sales )
 Minimum Presentation (Weekly Sales * Number of stores
available in the country)
 AW17 Forecast Sales (Weekly Sales * Number of weeks part of
the next season [in this case: AW17] )

70
  AW17 Final Order ( [Minimum Presentation + AW17 Forecast
Sales] - End Of Period (EOP) Stock on Hand (SOH)] )
 Final Cost (In Dollars) ( The number of AW17 Final Orders placed
* Original Cost of the Continuity Item placed by the Principal
Company)

Once, the Continuity Items’ list is taken note of, the report is there and
again reviewed by the Head and later sent to the Principal Company.
The report will then help them to get a better understanding of the
requirements of the market and stay aware and alert to make
preparations to have them produced and ordered at the right quantity,
and offered to this company whenever the need arises.

NOTE:

 The items are offered in packs by the Principal Company and these
packs; contain items, segregated in different sizes. Hence, the number of
units per pack and their sizes are always taken note of when estimating
and computing results for the brand.

 The colour of the item styles also matters. As one colour of a particular
style maybe picked by customers than any other colour from the same
style. A colour of a particular style sells well while the other colour of the
same style doesn’t sell at all. So, the brand ensures to determine what
colour a customer prefers and what they don’t. Hence, the report also
comprises the colour and its code referencing to the item to be ordered.

71
 The types of sizes available for the brand are:

XS
S
M
L
XL
XXL
XXXL

And the size breakdown is given in this format:

XS: 2 ___ S: 3 ___ M: 4 ___ L: 2 ___ XL: 2 ___ XXL: 2

3.3 SUPPLIES ORDER

At the time of my internship, I was partly working with the Operations

team to prepare Supplies Order Report for Collezione for all countries.
The report keeps note of a list of consumables that are to be ordered and
made available to the stores in sufficient quantity, namely:

 Collezione Shopping/Carrier bags

 Gift Boxes
 Watch Cases
 Sunglass Cases

Further made available in different sizes as per the brand’s categories for
both departments; Man/Women:

72
Shopping Small (S) Accessories
Bag

Shopping Medium (M) Clothes

Bag

Shopping Large (L) Clothes

Bag

Small (S) Accessories

Gift Box
Large (L) Clothes
Gift Box

Table 3.4

A small sized shopping bag is meant to hold only accessories as they

are recognizably smaller in sizes whereas clothes are covered by large
and medium sized bags. The same goes for gift boxes; small to cover
accessories whereas large for clothes.

Other consumables like watch cases and sunglass cases are both
offered in free sizes.

The consumables, are typically shipped from the Principal Company as

they arrange, their production. The Liwa Company handling the brand
would ideally follow to hold 6 months’ stock for these carrier bags and
other consumables. If that is not the case, they are, as and when
reordered through the Principal Company. The report will include:

 The Name of consumable

 The Size of the consumable

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  Monthly Consumption (Number of units of stock consumed per
month)
 Number of units available in a box/pack (Stock arrives in packs)
 Current Stock On Hand (Stock available at the stores)
 Current Stock On Hand: Stockroom (Stock available at the
stockroom)
 Total Stock (Number of units available in a box/pack + Current
Stock On Hand (SOH) + Current (SOH) Stockroom)
 Current stock covers in months (Number of months the stock
could last)

For instance, if taking a particular store into consideration, the report will
generate the total stock and the current stock covers in month which is
all the information needed to be sent to the Principal Company. The rest
of the details in the document is extracted from the Liwa’s ERP system
called Navision.

Consumable Size Monthly Consumption No. of units available pack/ box Current SOH Current SOH Stock room Total Stock Current Stock covers in months

Shopping Bag S 900 2900 615 324 3839 4 months

Shopping Bag M 2100 1400 425 986 2811 1 month
Shopping Bag L 350 550 665 414 1629 5 months

Gift Boxes L 40 190 80 56 326 8 months

Gift Boxes S 40 100 243 0 343 9 months

Watch case 20 20 5 146 171 9 months

Sunglass case 150 190 10 617 817 5 months

Table 3.5

From the above figure, against the type of consumable and its size, the
monthly consumption is derived from the number of transactions that is
taken place every month. The number of transactions denotes the
number of units consumed/bought by the end customers. So to say for
every transaction, there is a requirement for 1 bag/gift box/watch
case/sunglass case.

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 1 unit of transaction = 1 unit of bag/gift box/watch case/sunglass case
consumed

Consumable Size Monthly Consumption No. of units available pack/ box Current SOH Current SOH Stock room Total Stock Current Stock covers in months

Shopping Bag S 900 2900 615 324 3839 4 months

Table 3.5 (Continued)

In this case, while taking the example of a shopping bag of size small,
about 900 units of transactions have taken place or 900 units of stock of
accessories that have been bought by the end customers for every
month ie.) The store will utilize 900 units of these bags every month. The
initial amount of stock that was ordered by the company and made
available to the stores were 2900 units. The stock that was still present in
the stores were 615 units and the remaining stock left at the stockroom
were 324 units. The total stock is the sum of all the stock pertaining to
accessories (2900 + 615 + 324 = 3839) and the current stock covers in
months is generated by taking into account the monthly consumption and
the total stock (900 / 3839 = 4 months) which implies only for 4 months
the shopping bags would be made available for the 900 transactions.

But it is advisable by Liwa to have a 6 months cover because it takes

one and half month of production time for these consumables from the
placement of order that is the host brand:-Principal Company, a
minimum 30 days to process and 1 month to ship the order of these
consumables

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 Current 6
Remaining
Stock months
Total stock to
covers Stock
Stock be
in cover
ordered
months amount
4
3839 5759 1920
months
1
2811 4217 1406
month
5
1629 2444 815
months

8
326 489 0
months
9
343 515 0
months

9
171 257 0
months
5
817 1226 409
months

Table 3.6

From the above figure, keeping in perspective of the total stock amount
that was generated initially (refer previous figure), which the shopping
bag consumable could cover for 4 months, the 6 month stock cover
amount refers to the number of the units that would be covered for 6
months:
= Total Stock * 6 = 3839 * 6 = 5759 units
4 4
Therefore, the remaining stock to be ordered (1920) is the amount of
shopping bag consumable that are to be ordered to cover for these 5759
units; calculated as under:
= 6 months Stock cover amount – Total Stock
= 5759 – 3839 = 1920

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 All this information is then reviewed by the team and sent to the Principal
Company as early as possible. Primarily, the following contents are the
important aspects of the report and the team is to ensure the required
information is included in it.

 Monthly Consumption
 Total Stock
 Current Stock in covers
 6 months Stock cover amount
 Remaining stock to be ordered

NOTE:

 As the Principal Company is responsible to process and produce these

consumables. The reason it takes about one and a half month to
dispatch the order is because, as these consumables are produced in
bulk or in large quantities, they are therefore, sent by the sea freight
service and not the air freight. Voluminous orders could only be shipped
through sea which takes almost a month to arrive its destination.

 Usually, the Liwa Company, depending upon the amount of quantities

ordered for different categories, it places 30% small sized, 60% medium
sized and 10% large sized shopping bags orders and about 50% of both,
small and large sized gift box orders, each.

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3.4 WAREHOUSE SALE REPORT

I was given the assignment to prepare a Warehouse Sale Report, for

UAE, which list items typically belonging to the older seasons such as

 AW14
 SS14
 AW13
 SS13

The criterion behind conducting Warehouse Sale (WH Sale) is to get rid
of the stock that is 2 years older than now (SS17) from the system. This
is the kind of stock that is, by and large, obsolete, having a diminishing
quality and its trends, not at the latest. These stocks belonging to the
older seasons is then put through the WH Sale and are sold off at
cheaper or reduced prices. The report includes sell-through of all those
styles of stock that are 4 seasons older which are later written off by the
brand. The sell-through, of items, is taken by style because in general,
the items are priced by style and not sizes.
The report takes note of the items’ sell-through along with the other
details:
• Status (Sale/ Non-Sale)
• Division (Clothing, Footwear)
• Category (Shirt, Trousers)
• Style Number (Unique number assigned specific to a product)
• Color (Navy Blue, Dark Blue)
• Description (Woven Top, Denim)
• Season (SS16, AW15)
• Department (Men/Women)
• Type (Jacket, Skirt)

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 • Section (Fashion, Basics)
• Cost (Amount given to obtain a product)
• Original Price (Price, the product originally assigned at)
• Retail Price (Current/reduced price of the product from the
Original Price)
• On hand (Quantity)
• Sale Amount (Sale generated by the product)
• New Price (Price that’d be assigned for the WH Sale)
• Original Value (Original Price * On Hand)
• New Value (New Price * On Hand)
• Cost Value (Cost * On Hand)

These items could belong to any of the Departments either from the
Men’s or the Women’s but they are priced depending upon the category
they fall under:

Product Category New Price for the items

Boxer, Belt, Wallet,

Socks, Hat or any other Dhs. 5
type of Accessory

Trousers, Coat, Vest,

Skirt, T-Shirts, Shirts, Dhs. 10
Leggings, Jumper, Tights,
Tracksuit and Cardigan

Dresses Dhs. 15

Table 3.7

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 The new prices are assigned; all the categories are then consolidated to
get a better understanding of the quantity of items that would be sold at
newer prices.

New Prices (in Dhs.) Sum of On Hand

5 19
10 427
15 15
Grand Total 461

Table 3.8

Here about, 19 items will be sold at 5 Dhs, 427 items will be sold at 10
Dhs and 15 items will be sold at 15 Dhs. Overall, about 461 items are put
through the WH Sale.

This step is further consolidated to get a better understanding of the

quantity of items, their sum of new values, sum of their original values
and sum of their cost values by each department.

 Primarily, the sum of cost value, 23,845 is the total cost the
company paid to buy those 461 units of products/items. The

80
original value, 61,852, is the amount of sales that is supposed to be
incurred through it (by selling 461 units) and the sum of new value,
4,590, is the amount that would be incurred now (forecast) if those
number of units are sold through the WH Sale. That is to say, the
WH sale should generate 4,590 amount by selling a total of 461
units that will be made available to the customers to purchase them
at Sale.
In other words, the brand is at a loss anyway to be selling the
number of units (461) to attain 4,590 amount of sales while it’s
supposed to be sustaining 61,852 for the cost the brand paid to
acquire them. Much as to say, because the prices assigned for the
units are so low, the value of the stock is reduced to this amount
(4,590). But, since, the main objective of the company is to sell off
this old stock. It could only do so if it is prepared to lose this
(23,845) value of stock and sell them by accepting and obtaining the
4,590 amount.

After which, a Write Off document is prepared wherein all the older
season’s stock will be removed from the brand and more so, from the
company’s system. The WH Sale event that is going to be held on, 27th
April, 2017, is the final clearance of the older season’s stock. After which
it is then discarded as it is valueless to the brand and the company.

Table 3.9

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 AUR stands for Average Unit of Retail that is the average price of
the product offered to customers. In this case, its (10 Dhs and 9
Dhs) prices of the products made available to the customers
through the WH Sale while the original, average, price of the very
same products are (129 Dhs and Dhs 138).
 About (92% and 93%) of discount is applied to the products offered
at the onset of the WH Sale while considering how low the new the
retail value is from the original one.
For instance, the discount percentage is calculated as:

Discount% = New Retail Value – Original Retail Value

Original Value

Discount% = 2,125 - 27,668

27,668

Discount% = - 25,543
27,668

Discount% = - 92%

At last, this WH Sale report is then sent to the Warehouse in UAE in

advance which is why this report had been worked out at an earlier time
ie.) In the month of March. So, the Warehouse could start planning the
required resources to set up the place for Sale. Also, the Warehouse has
to be prepared to receive the stock, transferred from other countries,
which are a part of GCC, that have Collezione stores. This is done,
since; the number of stores in those countries is comparatively less, than
that of UAE. Hence, the stock will be less and so it would not be feasible
to conduct a WH Sale at those points/places.

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 And since the Sale is conducted in UAE, all the remaining stock present
in other countries have to be transferred there for which the company
has to pay a transport amount or fee to transfer and deliver it to the
respective destination.

NOTE:

 For the UAE market, the currency that is taken into consideration is
Dirham(s) or typically known as Dhs.
Where, 1 Dhm. = 17.66 Indian Rupee (Taking Indian currency into
account)
≈ 18 Indian Rupees

Or

5 Dhs. = 88 Indian Rupees

 Generally, WH Sale is not carried out at the time when the Promo/Sale
offers are already running at Collezione stores. Or more so when any
kind of Summer Festival period begins particularly Dubai Shopping
Festival where a multitude of brands sign up for it to offer customers
various discounts or deals.

 By principle, months like March, April, June and October are the times
when the WH Sale is conducted as it is only during this time when a
season is close to ending. But predominately, June is by far, the best
time to conduct this type of Sale as it’s usually the time when the holiday
period begins for the customers.

 Since the number of Collezione stores in UAE is more, hence the stock
belonging to the older seasons’ is more whereas the number of stores in

83
 other countries of GCC is less, the stock remaining will unquestionably
be less. It would be a loss to the company to conduct a WH Sale event
for a limited amount of stock at such countries where the company has to
pay for the investment of a Warehouse in each country. Therefore, it
would be economically viable to conduct such a Sale at one point/place,
that is, UAE at its own Warehouse.

 Stock belonging to (AW16, SS16, AW15, and SS15) are presented and
put on Sale through stores during the Promo/Sale period and not on
Warehouse. This stock can be made available at Warehouse if stores
are closing in a particular country. Any stock that is 3 years or more,
older, (stock belonging to 2012, 2011 and the like) is handed over to the
charity as the company already take measures to write off this kind of
stock and their details are removed from the system. This is the last
resort a company takes to get rid of the items.

 It is advisable not to keep older seasons’ inventory/stock at the

Warehouse that is if a company or a brand is taking a long time in
devising a plan to conduct a WH Sale event. Although the inventory/
stock, maybe, of no use to the company or the brand but it’s paying for
its storage. The older the stock, the more stock the Warehouse has to
store and save. Moreover the stock is outdated. Longer the time it is kept
at the Warehouse, the harder it is to sell, even if it comes at a position to
be made available to the customers. Also, as the brand places orders
every once in a while and it so happens, there wouldn’t be enough space
to store the current or the new season’s stock when 4, or more years
older stock is laid there. Therefore, WH Sale is an important event to get
rid of the stock as soon as possible.

84
 As sell-through of older stock belonging to clothing is, generally taken
into consideration while preparing the WH Sale Report. For home
products, sell-through is taken at item or size level. (For instance, under
the Towels category, Beach Towel, Hand Towel, Bath Towel may all fall
under the same style but a home could be of a different shape and
hence the size of the products placed is taken into account.)

85
CHAPTER 4:
PROBLEMS AND SUGGESTIONS
4.1 PROBLEMS

During the course of my internship, there are some of the problems I

witnessed and discussed, internal to the organization, while I was
working for the brand in the Franchise Company (Liwa group).

 Since the Liwa Group’s (Franchisee) Buying and Merchandising

team of Collezione take a trip or have to travel to Turkey to view
the range presentation offered by the Principal Company. It so
happens, that only 70% of the range is presented by the Principal
Company as sample pieces to be selected for the market, the
rest 30% is kept as reserved OTB for the Principal Company
which in their view and estimation, the 30% stands as the
balanced range of the next season (AW17). This decision is made
by the Principal Company irrespective of what opinions their
franchisee’s hold. The rest of the range the principal company
prepares is based on the current trends close to the season
(AW17) and without the Liwa Group’s knowledge is prepared. The
30% range is then sent as pictures to the Liwa’s group’s teams for
the brand via email to view it. In which case, they wouldn’t get the
touch and feel of the products. Hence, only 70% of the products
are reviewed as the teams don’t get to see the entire range.

 When the products are reviewed, ordered and shipped for the
season by the Franchisee Company. The stock the Principal
Company sends is mixed by Department (Men/Women) for the

86
 brand. Therefore, it becomes a time consuming process by
Franchisee Company’s Warehouse Department to segregate the
stock, thereby, taking time to launch at the stores of Collezione.
Possibly it takes 2 – 3 days, time to be launched if the task of
segregation takes place, lessening the sales productivity of the
stock at the shop floor.

 When the soft copy of the raw file of the consignment is sent by
the Principal Company typically referring to it as the Invoice file
that is sent with the shipment and the Pricing file sent via mail to
the Head Office, it so happens, that the Buying and
Merchandising team review the range of the season sent through
this shipment, they are not able to understand the contents of the
products as the principal Company sends a very generic report
outlining the Turkish Descriptions of the product’s styles which is
unknowable to the brand teams for which they have to look up on
the main Collezione website to get a better idea of the styles sent
to them

 Marketing support provided by the principal Company to the

Franchisee Company is very less, as the Visual Team of the
principal company is not very effective and efficient in sending the
images required by the Franchisee company on time. So the
franchisee company has to chase up the principals at regular
intervals to send the images on timely basis. The images are in
reference to as window graphics and banner placements set up at
the franchisee’s stores. The images have to be sent exclusively by
the Principal Company in good quality and required sizes which in
no other way the Franchisee Company can access it through any

87
 sources or forums even from the website. They have to rely on
Principal Company for this aspect.

4.2 SUGGESTIONS

 Principal Company should show 100% of the range presented by

them to the Franchisee Company once they arrive to select the
stock for their market. As the 70% range is already viewed by the
Franchisee company, the rest 30% range once they prepare,
develop and finalize it, instead of being sent as pictures to the
Franchisee to select for their market, the Principal company
should take the step of setting up Video Conference Skype to
show the 30% range of styles to the teams by dressing the styles
on mannequins to see the fit. If the Principal Company cannot in
any way help the Franchisee teams to get the touch and feel of
products, the best option they can carry forward is setting up such
video calls.

 To run the production of their range fast, the principal company

should let one of their suppliers to produce one style of a
particular size and another supplier to produce other size of the
same style. So once the styles are produced and delivered from
the suppliers to them. The Principal Company should carry out the
task of having to segregate the stock s as and when they receive
on their shelves at the warehouse for every style developed. This
task, however, can be easily undertaken since all their suppliers
are available in the same region they are based which is Turkey

88
 and not from other countries like China and India. So they can
easily manage the stock.

 Since the Principal Company carry out most of their transactions,

functions and communications of reports through their native
language which is Turkish, in order to deal with their franchisees
from across countries, they should hire a person who could
coordinate well with these franchisees and work with respective
teams to fulfill the task to translate their native language and put
proper descriptions of the products when indicating styles in their
reports they create so as to help the franchisee to understand its
contents.

 The principal company is slow in providing the needed marketing

support to its franchisee for which they should also, push their
visual team and bring them up to code to send the franchisee
images from time to time so the franchisee’s marketing team
could receive them in advance and start working over it. They
should also send cut out images of the brand so as to help them
expand their marketing through different mediums as this would
enable the franchisee to contact the PR agencies of their country.
In this case, UAE, for newspapers and magazines, (the UAE
accounts to magazines such as Friday, Bazaar, OK!) which could
help them boost their marketing efforts.

89
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION
To judge the overall brand’s sustainability, profitability and productivity, the SWOT
Analysis was created for the brand.

SWOT ANALYSIS

Figure 6.1

90
Strengths

1. As it is a fast-fashion based brand and the main USP of the brand

is that it is made in Turkey. Hence, it’s got a good top of the mind
awareness amongst customers.

2. The brand is very competitively priced in the market where it

stands against competitors that are already established brands
such as H&M, Pull &Bear, Aeropostale, New Yorker, Bershka and
Splash with the product range the brand offers appeal to large
number of customers

3. With the product offered, at lower price points, store ambiences,

customer service and quality are some of the factors that adds to
the value of the product. Hence, the brand offers a value of the
product for the money being spent.

4. If the product is selling well in any market of the GCC region, it is

then notified to the Principal Company who takes all the needed
efforts to reorder the stock as soon as possible to be sold in the
market. Hence, the stocks can be turned around and delivered to
the stores in a short period of time.

5. As mentioned before, the main USP of the brand is that it is made

in Turkey, which is considered to be the world’s best cotton
produced country in the world.

91
Weakness

1. As the Principal Company doesn’t give much attention to

marketing which also implies they don’t spend much on this
activity. Hence, the brand awareness to its customers is
negatively affected.

2. As mentioned before, the Principal Company doesn’t give much

attention to marketing which also implies they don’t spend much
on this activity so their marketing and visual team is not strong
enough to have their displays launched at the right time

3. The staff hired for servicing at the stores, find it difficult to

understand the brand and its various aspects thereby affecting
their job to attract customers. The staff hired are not very well
groomed and in most cases do not hold any flair for fashion. This
in turn would let customers drive away than spend time at the
stores.

Opportunities

1. The brand should be set up at Dubai Mall which is one of the

World’s largest Mall. Hence the footfall is more so it will give a
good exposure for the brand

2. Since Collezione is a value based brand and KSA is considered to

be a ‘value market’ where mostly people shop for value based
products. The brand could also be set up in other GCC countries
like Kuwait as well which is considered to be a ‘trendy market’

92
 where there is no value segment but the fashionability aspect is a
part of it so the Liwa group could tap this market.

3. The brand can offer schemes that have all its loyal customers to
gain 10% discounts on the products they shop from the brand by
having them make available Liwa Loyalty Cards.

4. As the brand’s target market are the younger students, by offering

discounts, these students would be drawn to the Collezione stores
as they would find the brand fashionable along with being
valuable.

5. The brand can take up the opportunity to contact Middle East

based bloggers who run social media mediums to promote its
products. By offering them, vouchers or outfits of the brand, these
bloggers can reach a wider audience particularly the brand’s
target market as they belong to the social media age.

6. By conductions promotions such as “2 for Multibuy”,”2 for 89”,”Buy

2 Get 1 Free”, the brand can attain profitability. It’s robust because
such promotions conducted by the brand are proven to be
successful and the brand knows these activities specifically work
for them.

7. As online businesses are slowly gaining momentum in the middle

east and websites like Souq or Noor which are lifestyle online
shopping websites, that include various brands to offer best
prices, which are very popular amongst customers. These sites
caters to value segment of the business like readymade

93
 garments, perfumes and household items so it would be a good
option to have the brand introduced to such platform.

Threats

1. As mentioned before, online businesses are slowly gaining

momentum in the Middle East with sites like Souq and Noor let
brands promote and sell their products at reasonable prices to a
large number of customers. A lot of the Collezione’s brand’s
competitors are already introduced through such platforms. If by
chance, Collezione becomes a part of it, it will lose its market
share if it doesn’t offer products at compelling prices through such
a platform and may lose to it to its other competitors who provide
better offerings for their customers in terms of prices.

2. As there is a threat of cost of living increasing in the Middle East,

so accordingly prices offered by the brand will also increase. To
the brand’s itself, cost of acquiring the product from the Principals
will increase, Therefore, it will be challenge for the brand to
sustain its prices in the market because the company, overall, will
lose its margin if the cost of its products increases.

3. Apart from economy being down, the rent of the malls where the
company chose to set up the brand’s stores, are going high. So
there are more chances of having the brand’s and company’s
financial stability being affected

94
CHAPTER 6: REFERENCES

 http://www.thenational.ae/business/industry-insights/economics/dubai-aims-to-
become-a-global-fashion-hub

 http://www.thenational.ae/business/economy/cross-cultural-rules-to-help-
companies-flourish

 http://www.emirates247.com/business/economy-finance/uae-retail-sector-to-
grow-5-each-year-through-2017-dubai-chamber-2016-04-11-1.626809

 http://www.arabianbusiness.com/qatar-named-mideast-s-most-attractive-retail-
market-ahead-of-uae-594945.html

 http://gulfnews.com/business/sectors/retail/middle-east-retail-forum-
engagement-key-to-retail-growth-1.1608309

 http://www.euromonitor.com/retailing-in-the-united-arab-emirates/report

 http://gulfnews.com/business/sectors/retail/flat-uae-retail-sales-expected-in-
2017-1.1943081

 http://www.thenational.ae/business/retail/uae-retail-sector-still-has-room-to-
grow#page2

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