Customer Relationship Management

A STUDY OF IMPACT OF CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP
MANAGEMENT IN RETAIL INDUSTRY
A Project Submitted to
University of Mumbai for partial completion of the degree
of Master in Commerce
Under the Faculty of Commerce
BY
BHAKTI S. GANTAL
Under the Guidance of
Dr. VARSHA MALLAH
Bhavan's Hazarimal Somani College of Arts & Science
2021
BHAVAN'S HAZARIMAL SOMANI COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCE
MUMBAI CHOWPATTY, MAHARASHTRA 400007
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Certificate
This is to certify that Ms/Mr. BHAKTI S. GANTAL has worked and duly completed her/his Project
Work for the degree of Master in Commerce under the Faculty of Commerce in the subject of
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY and her/his project is entitled, “A STUDY OF IMPACT OF
CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT IN RETAIL INDUSTRY” under my
supervision.
I further certify that the entire work has been done by the learner under my guidance and that no part
of it has been submitted previously for any Degree or Diploma of any University.
It is her/his own work and facts reported by her/his personal findings and investigations.
Name and Signature of Guiding Teacher

Bhakti S. Gantal
Date of submission. 20-04-2021
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Declaration by Learner
I the undersigned Miss/Mr. BHAKTI S. GANTAL. here by, declare that the work embodied in this
project work titled “A STUDY OF IMPACT OF CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP
MANAGEMENT IN RETAIL INDUSTRY’’ forms my own contribution to the research work
carried out under the guidance of Dr. VARSHA MULLAH is a result of my own research work and
has not been previously submitted to any other University for any other Degree/ Diploma to this or
any other University.
Wherever reference has been made to previous works of others, it has been clearly indicated as such
and included in the bibliography.
I, here by further declare that all information of this document has been obtained and presented in
accordance with academic rules and ethical conduct.
Name and Signature of the learner
Bhakti S. Gantal
Certified by
Name and signature of the Guiding Teacher
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ACKNOWLEDGMENT
To list who all have helped me is difficult because they are so numerous and the depth is so
enormous.
I would like to acknowledge the following as being idealistic channels and fresh dimensions in the
completion of this project.
I take this opportunity to thank the University of Mumbai for giving me chance to do this project.
I would like to thank my Principal, Prof.(Dr.) S.V Rathod for providing the necessary facilities
required for completion of this project.
I would also like to express my sincere gratitude toward my project guide Dr. Varsha Mallah whose
guidance and care made the project successful.
I would like to thank my College Library, for having provided various reference books and
magazines related to my project.
Lastly, I would like to thank each and every person who directly or indirectly helped me in the
completion of the project especially My Parents and Peers who supported me throughout my
project.
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INDEX
S No. Content Page No.
1 INTRODUCTION
1.1. Abstract 10
1.2. Introduction 10
1.3. Statement of the Problem 20
1.4. Historical Background 20
1.5. Brief Profile of the Study 27
1.6. Conceptual Framework 28
1.7. Conclusion 30
2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
2.2. Objective of the Study 34
2.3. Hypothesis of the Study 34
2.4. Delimitations of the Study 35
2.5. Significance of the Study 36
2.6. Research Methodology 37
2.6.1. Analysis and Interpretation 38
2.7. Conclusion & Suggestions 45
3 LITERATURE REVIEW
3.2. Review of Literature 49
3.3. Conclusion 52
4 DATA ANALYSIS, INTEPRETATION & PRESENTATION
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4.2. Analysis & Findings related to Secondary Data 55
4.3. Analysis & Findings related to Primary Data 58
4.4. Results and Discussion 58
4.5. Conclusion 65
5 CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
5.2. Major Conclusions of the Study 69
5.3. Suggestions and Recommendations 70
5.4. Conclusions 77
6 BIBLIOGRAPHY 79
7 REFERENCE 80
8 APPENDIX 86
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LIST OF TABLES
S. No Content Page No.
1 Demographic Representation of the Respondents 37

2 One –way ANOVA test for significant difference between 38
gender on the variable of CRM practices towards organized
shopping mall
3 One –way ANOVA test for significant difference age on the 40
variable of CRM practices towards organized shopping mall
4 One –way ANOVA test for significant difference education 41
on the variable of CRM practices towards organized shopping
mall
5 Data showing results of significant variance in opinion on 43
CRM
6 Effects of Product Attributes on CRM 55
7 Customer Perception regarding store attributes 56
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LIST OF FIGURES
1 All in One CRM for End-to-end Customer Lifecycle 11

Management
2 Process of CRM in Retail 14
3 Beginning of CRM 20
4 The First Commercial Computers Evolution 22
5 The Early Days of CRM 23
6 CRM Today 25
7 Trends in retail marketing 28

8 Customer touch points 28
9 CRM Strategy 29
10 CRM Operating Process Cycle 29
11 CRM Technology Framework for luxury retail 30
12 Key principle of Customer Relationship Management 34
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LIST OF GRAPHS
1 Percentage of income group of consumer for retail outlet in 59

Mumbai.
2 Percentage of retail stores collecting customer data 59
3 Percentage of type of information collection by retail stores 60
4 Different ways used to collect customer data 60
5 CRM software status of organized retail stores 61
6 Percentage of the uniformity of the implemented CRM 61
software system
7 Retailers views about the importance of CRM in sales 62
8 Retailers view about attending the customer 62
9 Different ways to build good relationship with customer 63
10 Retailers view about customer complaints regarding their 63
product and services
11 Percentage of special schemes offered by the retailers 64
12 Various ways by retailer to maintain customer loyalty 64
13 Retailers sending greeting cards to the customer 65
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CHAPTER 1
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1. ABSTRACT
Retail industry is one of the most growing industries in India. Retailers are adopting different CRM
initiatives to retain the customer. In India majority of organized retailers are using suitable loyalty
programmes which encourages repeat purchase.CRM initiatives provides a lot of information relating to
the customer expectations, attitudes and pattern. This information is a valid input to plan and facilitate
the task of retaining customers. The states - of - art technologies in this area which are deployed in other
developed economies are still not very prevalent in India. The paper focuses on the increasingly important
topic of customer relationship management (CRM) initiatives. The paper draws attention to the act of
concentrating on the less important group of customers. The highlight of the paper is the reliance of CRM
on customer retention which contributes to growth, profitability and lower customer defection.CRM
initiatives and thereby customer retention is also responsible for the increase in efficiency ratio of the
customers. The paper concludes with the overview of the latest trends in CRM and the challenges
encountered in the Indian subcontinent.
Keywords: Customer, Retail, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Initiatives, Customer

Retention, Loyalty Programmes, Customer Defection
1.2. INTRODUCTION
The retail industry has led to the development of many countries and rising of economies. The retail
industry is included in the most dynamic as well as an industry acclaimed for its fast paced growth in the
country having lot of new entrants to the market scenario. The retail industry is geared up to become the
expectation of the future due to its scope for growth. Retailing deals with the direct interaction of
customer with a store. The Delhi High Court was defining the word ‘retail’ as a sale for final
consumption, in other words, sales done to the end consumer (Association of Traders of Maharashtra v.
Union of India, 2005).
In the modern era the customer has changed a lot, so their preferences are changed and now the customer
prefers to have good shopping experience more than the price. Now price is not the only initiator and
differentiator for the customer. In the competitive world satisfying a customer not enough, the retailer
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can’t expect that the customer will come again. Here the importance of customer loyalty and retention
comes in to application. Customer preferences are changing on account of an ever dynamic environment
of economic, marketing and demographic variables. Modern retail markets are the battleground of big
multinationals and their biggest weapon is customer relationship management initiatives. CRM
initiatives are a holistic process of acquiring, retaining and growing customers.
Get the
customer
Build Deliver
your the
business customer
Support
Bill the
the
customer
customer
Figure 1- All in One CRM for End-to-end Customer Lifecycle Management
CRM can be ‘a cross-functional, customer-driven and technology-integrated business process

management strategy that maximizes relationships’ (Chen & Popovich, 2003). Berkowitz (2006) defines
customer relationship management (CRM) as ‘the organization’s attempt to develop a long-term, cost-
effective link with the customer for the benefit of both the customer and the organization.’ The definition
of CRM according to Dyché (2002) says that the infrastructure that enables the delineation of and
increase in customer value, and the correct means by which to motivate valuable customers to remain
loyal – indeed to buy again. This can be broken down into two specific types; analytical and operational.
The distinction is that operational CRM happens mostly at customer touch points (i.e. where the customer
and firm interact) and is thus concerned with collecting data, planning for it and practicing strategies.
Analytical CRM has more of its tasks in the back office and is concerned with processing and interpreting
data and forming strategy. CRM initiatives identifies and helps to retain valued customers, it helps
increase the customer base, and it utilizes pricing signals to encourage less profitable consumers to
become loyal and more profitable (Milakovich, 1995).
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❖ Application of CRM Initiatives in Retail
CRM initiatives particularly had to take into consideration the whole customer base. Through CRM
practice, a firm can utilize their core competencies to increase the customer base and thereby high
customer value services (Geib, Kolbe, & Brenner, 2006). CRM helps companies to appreciate customer
needs, manage the relationships more intelligently and to create a clear path for the future (Dominici &
Guzzo, 2010). The premise of CRM is that once a customer is locked in, it will be advantageous to both
the organization as well as customer to maintain relationships and would be a win-win situation for both.
Through loyalty programmes, firms can potentially gain more repeat business, get opportunity to cross-
sell and obtain rich customer data for future CRM efforts (Liu, 2007).
Fox and Stead (2001) have described customer relationship management as the establishment,
development, maintenance and optimization of long-term mutually valuable relationships between
customer and organizations. As a CRM tool, loyalty cards are different from other sales promotions due
to their defensive character and long term orientation (Sharp & Sharp, 1997). Consumers find it beneficial
to join such programmes to earn rewards for staying loyal. The first supermarket network to use loyalty
card is G’market (in 2001). In previous literature that Emotional commitment and loyalty program that
gave financial incentives have positive impacts on customer retention (Verhoef, 2003).
To make CRM initiatives more efficient the prerequisite of an organized retailer is to collect customer
data. In order to facilitate this they get in to the mechanism of membership cards which provides all
essential customer information. Information processes available and capabilities possessed within the
firm should be utilized to understand the needs and wants of customers (Vorhies & Morgan, 2005). With
the information collected from customers it’s possible to intimate them about any specific offers or
special discounts provided by the retailer. This area had attracted researchers to carry out research into
creative, innovative and effective loyalty programme design (Bridson, Evans, & Hickman, 2008; Smith
& Sparks, 2009) and programme service quality levels (Omar, Nazri, & Saad, 2009).
Retailers have been able to collect enormous amounts of information at the customer level. It’s done by
measuring customer purchases, response to marketing activities, and thereby getting a feel of customer
attitudes, preferences and expectations. Tesco uses its Loyalty Card as a core tool in planning for its
marketing strategy (Humby & Hunt, 2003). Tesco is one of the successful retailers who uses customer
database extensively. Tesco is frequently cited in textbooks and business publications as a successful
benchmark (Humby & Hunt, 2003; Kumar & Reinartz, 2005). Loyalty Programme was an advantage that
allows customers to get their points in the process of repeated purchases with a firm, according to the
work of (Liu, 2007).
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Vorhies and Morgan (2005) asserted that information processes available and capabilities possessed
within the firm should be utilized to understand the needs and wants of customers which only can make
the firms more effective and efficient in maintaining excellent customer relationships. In simple parlance
a CRM workflow is as follows, acquisition of customers basic data including name, address, gender, age,
etc, is fundamental. But transaction data such as date, time, item, value, etc. at every customer touch
points are of paramount importance. Information is often needed to complement these data and to create
a meaningful correlation to the applications. These data and information are used by marketers so that
they can record the interests and preferences of customers which need to be skilfully analysed. In
continuation to this they attempt to relate purchasing patterns on the basis of transaction records. CRM
initiatives allow firms to learn meaningful information about the customer. Followed by this the emphasis
is to learn how to satisfy them, and determine how and why customers interact with the company. CRM
initiatives build technical and non-technical communication networks which strengthens the relationship
between business and consumers.
Recent states of art technologies like RFID and thereby PSA are used to appreciate the pattern of
purchase, i.e. which specific range of products that are preferred by the customer so that those can be
ordered again by the retailer. Customer’s path undertaken for the purchase activity is being scanned using
this technology. This facilitates product display according to the preferred path and it’s guaranteed to get
more attention. Altogether the synchronization of technologies, personalization and thereby
customization are the buzzwords of the success of modern organized retail organizations.
The use of sophisticated modelling and data mining techniques and behaviour prediction using historical
data related to customer behaviour to predict future behaviours. The tendency that a certain type of
customer is apt to purchase a specific product according to the product propensity-to-buy analysis and
that certain products are often bought along with other specific products by a particular type of customer
according to product affinity analysis has a crucial role in making marketing decisions. Data mining
activities through CRM provides insights and knowledge about most valuable customers to the retailers
which result in maximum sales (Chevalier & Mayzlin, 2006).
Up-to-date information by the store about loyalty programmes and the promotional offers will facilitate
the retailer to create a good relationship with the customer and thereby have influence on the shopping
(Bellizzi & Bristol, 2004). CRM initiatives enables the firm to take this process further by identifying
smaller groups of customers with homogeneous needs, which are sometimes called customer segments
or sub segments. Once sub-segments of customers have been identified, the retailer can understand their
needs and then the create customized contacts which include customized offers which will more closely
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deliver the needs of each subgroup. An issue that sometimes arises when creating such contacts is that
they should be consistent with the overarching brand concept. This is because a retailer that fails to do
this will confuse its customers over the meaning of the brand.
Unmatched personnel service in one of the factor for service quality (Sirohi, Mc Laughlin, & Wittink,
1998). In addition, academic research reinstates the effectiveness of employee service quality with
different service settings under multiple terms, such as quality related to the dealings (Brady & Cronin,
2001; Vesel & Zabkar, 2009). Javalgi and Moberg (1997) observed that lack of personal care and
attention makes many customers consider that there is a little disparity prevailing among providers.
Ultimately, the new representation of loyalty initiatives are apprehensive more with mounting
perceptions of significance through brand relations and personalized interactions with members (Rowley,
2005). Murphy and Murphy (2002) had implied on the importance of creating online association with
the customers because their profit tends to get increased over the life term of a customer and they are
habituated to buy large quantities as their confidence is on the increase. (Manjunath & Prabhu, 2011)
through this study was trying to find out the components of retail service quality in Bangalore
supermarkets. The service excellence of supermarket comprises of 4 factors namely Service Personnel,
Physical Aspects, Policy and Reliability. The results of the study show that the service personnel had the
strongest influence whereas the physical aspect had the weakest one.
Analyzing Customer Data

Collecting Customer Data and Identifying Target
Customers
Process of CRM
in Retail
Implementing CRM
Developing CRM Programs
Programs
Figure 2- Process of CRM in Retail
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❖ The Implication of CRM Practice on Customer Satisfaction
Fairhurst (2000) argues that ‘the best examples of CRM still remain the one-to-one services provided by
shopkeepers who know their customers personally’. CRM helps companies make sense of customer
needs, manage these relationships more intelligently and help predict the future (Dominici and Guzzo,
2010). The literature dealing with CRM gives a lot of narrower, yet relatively tactical outcome measures
and among these the most elementary criteria under consideration for this was customer satisfaction,
according to (Bolton, Kannan, & Bramlett, 2000; Mithas, Krishnan, & Fornell, 2005). Mithas et al.
(2005) had a real time picture of the influence of CRM drives on the understanding of the customer and
thereby customer satisfaction, it was clarified that CRM initiatives was relying too much on customer
knowledge. The conclusion of the study says that the information received by the customer instigates
retail organizations to build upon their customer satisfaction. The characteristic benefits offered by
customer relationship management were the significant factors customer satisfaction and loyalty, as per
the works of (Krasnikov, Jayachandran, & Kumar, 2009).
❖ The Implication of CRM Practice on Customer Loyalty
The underlying assumption of CRM is that by nurturing the existing customer relationships and keeping
the lucrative customers satisfied and loyal it is possible to make the business more profitable. CRM
initiatives provide benefits utilizing customer loyalty and positive word-of mouth campaigns and inherent
opportunities (Wong & Zhou, 2006). Reichheld (1993) states, ‘Employees who deal directly with
customers day after day have a powerful effect on customer loyalty.’Corporates all these days had
multiple ways of getting in to CRM initiatives and ways to encourage loyalty programs. Raines (2005)
were of the opinion that an effective CRM regime is not just dedicated to the best customers, but also to
adopt approaches that will elevate other customers to climb up the ‘loyalty ladder’. ‘Reliability refers to
the promises given by the store. If the store cannot keep or breaks the promises, it dissatisfies customers
and results in negative word-of-mouth. In contrast, when the company was able to keep its promises, it
increases customer confidence in the store and creates customer satisfaction and lead to loyalty’(Yuen &
Chan, 2010).
❖ The Implication of CRM Practice on Customer Retention
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Peel (2002) opined that CRM initiatives had become a focus area for many organizations as there was a
gradual shift away from merely customer acquisition to more customer retention initiatives which
concludes to a reduction strategy which vouches for the need of good CRM initiatives and procedures.
Although most firms use CRM initiatives for new customer acquisition, majority believe the real value
of customer relationship management initiatives is customer retention. Ang and Buttle (2006) were able
to prove empirically that ‘a 5% increase in customer retention can generate an increase in customer net
present value of between 25% and 95% across a wide range of business environment’.
Several firms fail to understand the importance of improving customer retention which is an important
means to profitability (Payne, 2006). Different investigational works had guaranteed for the influences
of relationship marketing and its related plans had a strong influence on the behavioural intentions and
thereby customer retention (Peng & Wang, 2006). The management of retail shops is trying different
methods to retain the customers. Customer retention happened to be the most significant characteristic
carried out by the firms who had a very good relation built up (Coviello, Brodie, Danaher, & Johnston,
2002). It could differ how it was done and practiced across industries and organizations. Customer
retention is defined as the practice of working to satisfy customers with the intention of developing long-
term relationships with them (Hoyer & MacInnis, 2001). Joining hands with customers were centred on
three attributes trust, care and sincerity and even by the application of CRM. It’s possible to have a good
rapport with the customer, take care of them and in still trust and in return the customer would be sincere
to the firm (Murphy & Murphy, 2002).
When customers get the product or service beyond the expected level, customer prefer the same retail
shop next time just by human tendency. When the retailer through services like free home delivery or
loyalty programme in the form of membership card make the customer feel honoured, it will lead to
customer retention. CRM initiatives identify and help to retain valued customers and it helps increase the
customer base. Thereby it utilizes pricing signals to encourage less profitable consumers to become loyal
and more profitable in the days to come. Higher retention leads to lower customer defection and higher
profits. Lengthy customer relationships reduce acquisition and business activity costs. This can be
significant when customer acquisition costs are high to acquire a new customer. Moreover business
relationship that fosters customer tenure can improve the firm’s efficiency in terms of profitability as
purchase volume increases and relationship cost decrease.While retention based CRM programmes can
provide a lot of intangible benefits, organizations can enjoy economic benefits as well. Retaining current
customers is less expensive than attempting to find new customers (Massey, Montoya-Weiss, & Holcom,
2001). There is a positive binding between retention and profitability and it’s certainly a directly
proportional relationship. Repeat or high-volume customers may indicate some level of satisfaction. But
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purchasing behaviour is just one component of customer loyalty as it may reveal circumstances other
than customer satisfaction.
The Latest Trends in CRM Practice in India

The Indian retail market is in cut throat competition with established Indian players and global players
who have entered the market. Because of the ever increasing competition in the organized retail the
Indian retail giants have resorted to new technological initiatives to retain customers.CRM techniques
are helping retailers to add value to the existing customers and convert them from a casual to a loyal
customer whom in turn creates a bond between the store and the customer. A variety of loyalty
programmes are exercised by Indian players to implement CRM initiatives. Some of the leading player’s
term loyalty programme as follows
• Reliance Fresh has its initiative called ‘Reliance One’

• Big Bazaar exercised EDLP effectively
• Westside provides two types of club membership named ‘Club West’
• Pantaloons provides ‘green card’ in three categories
• Globus provides ‘privilege club card’
• Shoppers stop provides the ‘First Citizen Card’
➢ Challenges facing to implement CRM initiatives
However, the same success story is not shared by most of the other retailers. .A recent McKinsey study
says that retailers are unable to recover the investments made in loyalty programmes. This is mainly
because only less than fifty percent of customers increase their spending after enrolling in a loyalty
programme. The dilemma of the practitioners has been a part in multiple deliberations with the academic
community on the effectiveness of loyalty programmes in retailing. The challenges were centred on the
following aspects like quality of customer data, to align the processes and people, the unavailability of
skilled professionals and ascertaining the timing of customer needs. It is also challenging to put to the
availed data to the best use using the right technology, relating the customer data to customer preferences,
to get reliable real time data spread across channels and lastly to have a 360- degree overview of
customers to have an exhaustive understanding.
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➢ CRM Assumption
Before looking into the various customer relationship management problems, it is necessary to identify
some of the assumptions which often mislead companies into making poor decisions. CRM is a strategic
focus that is aimed at long-term success and establishment in the marketplace by attaining maximum
shares in terms of loyalty.
The long-term focus means everyone in the organization is responsible in ensuring the company’s goals
are achieved as laid out, and within the set timeframe. One of the assumptions made is that CRM should
be left to the sales and marketing team alone. This used to be the traditional thought which is no longer
applicable as research revealed customer support practices that involved the contribution of all members
produced better results.
The current assumption is as a result of technological advancements which have misled businesses to
view customer relationship management as software. This notion has meant businesses invest in
comprehensive CRM application packages and bestow implementation responsibilities to the IT staff.
This is one of the main reasons for failure in many attempts to build effective customer relationships.
➢ Customer Relationship Management Problems to be Aware of
There are various problems which face and hinder CRM practices leading to inefficient results and losses
in terms of wasted resources. These problems are usually caused by incorrect focus, poor implementation
of strategies as well as unclear objectives. Since CRM is to be implemented in phases as results are
monitored and procedures adjusted, the problems will often follow the same pattern. It is important to
recognize that these problems may continue escalating if not identified and corrected.
❖ Some of the challenges include the following:
Unclear goals/objectives – As already established, CRM is a strategic focus which requires the
contribution of all organization members. To gain optimum participation from everyone, clear
objectives need to be set at every level. This includes departmental goals and overall objectives which
the business aims at achieving by the end of a given timeframe.
These objectives should include short term goals which will be evaluated and measured
through the CRM. They should all be listed down and assigned concrete measurement metrics which
the business will easily access to monitor progress. Although many businesses already know that
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without this success is almost unlikely, it still remains a major problem. In many occasions, companies
fail to set clear measurable objectives which limit their chances of accessing CRM’s ROI.
Appointing the right core team – The next problem that most businesses experience during the
course of CRM is core team appointment. The initiative is often mistaken for an IT project as opposed
to organizational approach. Customer relationship management requires a core team to guide, monitor,
evaluate and adjust implementations accordingly.
This is supposed to be backed by the participation of senior executives, top management, sales and
marketing team, IT, customer service as well as end users. After all the requirements from each
individual has been established, the initiative to develop suitable interfaces should then be handed
over to the IT team. The core team needs to be trained on how strategies will be implemented and
which key quality evaluation points will be evaluated. This is however just as difficult as setting clear
objectives.
Defining CRM processes – This is different from setting goals. All the processes that will be
undertaken in achieving the set goals should be clearly defined and relayed to everyone. The best
practice involves establishing a central repository system that can be accessed by everyone. This
system should contain all the process definitions as well as a section for documentation to act as a
referencing resource. Businesses often find problems in defining key processes such as management
changes, re-evaluations and security measures. This has arguably been the demeanor of many attempts
to establish effective CRMs that can last. Security is important as it identifies those who are authorized
to access information at any given level.
Application management – This is another customer relationship management problem that

many businesses face. Re-aligning staffs work culture around the rolled out CRM plan and mapping
accordingly with the same is tantamount to success. This involves enabling customers and end users
to engage in day-to-day activities using the CRM application not as an option, but by default.
Management includes assessing the nature of operations, evaluating the results by comparing them
against goals/objectives and adjusting the processes.
Right solutions – Regardless of all other efforts put in place to achieve the best CRM results,
solutions have a larger influence on that possibility. Finding the right solution and solution partner
will determine whether the processes produce desired results or not. Most businesses rush into CRM
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solutions using the strategies learnt or copied from other successful companies. This eventually
amounts to failure since the processes lack customization which is fundamental to ensure solutions
are suited to the specific nature of business. The partners are equally important since they assist in
both strategy formulation and implementation. It is important to choose vendors who understand the
business’s work culture, available technology and employee personalities and capabilities.
1.3. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
There are various customer relationship management problems that businesses are faced with time after
time. Proper management of customer interactions is a major challenge for modern companies, especially
with the high competition that is now witnessed. The ages of monopoly are long gone and consumers’
rapid sophistication rate has meant dissatisfaction in the first experience will lead to ultimate loss.
The key to brand building has shifted over the years to rely solely on quality, reliability and efficiency
of service. Businesses are therefore faced with the challenge of retaining existing customers and sourcing
new ones in their path to success. Poor customer relationship management will result in disastrous
outcomes including customer loss, company misdirection and eventual liquidation.
1.4. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
The word ‘retail’ originates from a French-Italian word ‘retaillier’, meaning ‘to cut a piece off’ or ‘to
break bulk’. In simple terms, it implies a first-hand transaction with the customer.
Figure 3- Beginning of CRM
There is a misconception that “customer relationship management” or CRM is something new that
originated towards the end of the twentieth century. The term may be new, but the practice is as old as
trade and even older than money. The first recorded example of trade dates back 20,000 years, during
this time obsidian knives were traded in what is now Papua New Guinea, between islands that had
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valuable obsidian deposits and those that did not. Obsidian was prized globally in those early times for
its suitability for knives and other cutting implements and was traded in early Europe and Asia as well
as the Americas. Take into consideration what was required to be a successful trader and maintain a
sustainable business then and now, and you realize that very little has changed over the countries. Here
are 3 things you need to know-
▪ Your buyers and sellers in the supply chain

▪ their location
▪ what they wanted to buy or sell.
Even in Palaeolithic times, there must have been an understanding that it is easier to sell to an existing
customer than find a new one, and that it was advantageous to nurture the relationship. We are not sure
how this information was stored, whether it was simply committed to memory (where competitors could
not access it), or whether some early customer list was maintained. When you consider the risks involved
in travelling across the Gobi Desert with camels or taking to the seas in small ships, it makes sense that
these early traders were experts in marketing and sales, with excellent customer knowledge.
➢ Where there is Trade, there must be Accounting
Maintaining a recording of who owned what, and who owed what to whom required some form of
notation and permanent record, and some form of accounting that has been practiced for thousands of
years. Naturally names and locations were part of the accounting records and were the earliest form of a
customer database. There would have been some early form of segmentation applied too, probably based
on personal wealth and ability to pay. So, when we discuss when the concept of CRM was introduced,
we need to be less myopic; CRM started a long, long time ago, that's how successful businesses,
governments, and countries arose.
➢ Moving to the Twentieth Century
Fast forward through the various forms of record-keeping, accounting methods, and devices and jump to
the first commercial computers. Automation was eagerly adopted by anyone with record keep concerns
and lots of money to spend, starting in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The main focus was on maintaining
accounting records, either on accounting machines or computers, in banks, stock exchanges and
government departments. As the price of computers decreased dramatically, by the 70s, even small
business could afford to join the computing revolution.
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The customer list belonged to the accounts department; salespeople kept their own records on index
cards, either in a tray or held by a Rolodex, and believe it or not, you can still buy this 1950s invention
on Amazon today, maybe there are more Luddites out there than we realise, and maybe we should take
them more seriously.
It gradually became apparent that automation could be useful in other areas of the business, especially in
sales, and in a few short years,CRM, in its digital format, emerged.
Figure 4- The First Commercial Computers Evolution
➢ Automating Sales and Marketing.
The beginnings of CRM as we know it started in the 1980s. Robert and Kate Kestnbaum were pioneers
of database marketing. Which was a form of direct marketing that analysed the customer database
statistically to identify which customers would be most likely to react to a marketing campaign. The
concept took off and Kestnbaum, together with Robert Shaw, brought us new concepts and
methodologies, ranging from customer lifetime value to channel management. There is a lot of debate
about who invented CRM, but, if you take Bob Kestnbaum's contributions to modern marketing and
strategy, he probably has earned the crown.
Others who argue when CRM was introduced will suggest that two Texans, Pat Sullivan and Mike
Muhney, were the guys who invented CRM, with their product ACT!. Act went through many name
changes and acquisitions, but is still around today. While the acronym ACT stood for "Automated
Contact Tracking" early in its product life, it could well be regarded as the first automated CRM.
➢ The Emergence of CRM as a Product

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Where these pioneers led, there were many early followers, and the 1990s saw many new products that
managed customer data. The acronym "SFA" (Sales Force Automation) described these products, that
were an amalgamation of database marketing and contact management. One of the early products from
a pioneer, Tom Siebel, who was working at Oracle at the time, left to form Siebel and sell his solution,
which became the market leader in its day. The ERP companies also saw an opportunity and the market
became very competitive. However, not all companies were offering megalithic and expensive solutions.
Companies such as Goldmine (1990) and Maximiser (1987) provided off-the-shelf software that was
affordable for small businesses, but had enough features that made them attractive to large multinationals.
Both companies are still around today.
By the mid-90s this market skyrocketed into product offers of all shapes and sizes, now known as CRM
systems. Customers were spoilt for choice, although aggressive acquisitions made it hard to work out
who your vendor would be in a year's time.
Figure 5- The Early Days of CRM
Then in 1999, there were two major changes:
▪ Mobile and e-CRM was offered by companies such as Siebel

▪ Sales force hit the scene with its cloud offering
➢ Electronic and Mobile CRM
Technologic advancements impacted the CRM market with new devices and new channels, both for
internal and customer-facing use. When Siebel launched its "Siebel Sales Handheld", the other vendors
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soon followed suit with products of varying consistency and reliability. Market demand created the need
and the vendors were quick to respond.
➢ Software as a Service: Sales force the Stealth Bomber
Salesforce did not create a great stir when it launched in 1999; most competitors regarded cloud services
as a fad and not a good vehicle for CRM. Salesforce's initial attention was directed at small to medium
businesses and by the time competitors woke up to the migration of customers to the cloud, Sales force
had become the world's largest vendor of CRM.
➢ CRM in the 21st Century
As of now, the market for new CRM products does not seem to have reached it’s saturation point. New
companies continue to come to market with cloud products, while existing vendors have changed their
licensing models to offer cloud alternatives to traditional site licenses. The latest shift is the rise of social
data and the need to interact with customers on the various social platforms.
Mobile has become even more imperative as an offering with the advent of the smartphone. The pace of
change is so rapid that many vendors are battling to keep abreast of the latest developments, ranging from
chatbots to big data and AI.
While it could be expected that CRM products have matured, customers still experience difficulty in
achieving successful implementations. This is because they too, are struggling to keep their business
models relevant and sustainable in this disruptive age.
It will be interesting to see what happens next in our turbulent future. Maybe even the phrase "Customer
Relationship Management" and its acronym, CRM is due for a change, since it now encompasses much
more than it did at its inception.
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Figure 6- CRM Today
➢ What's in a Name?
There is even a lot of debate about who coined CRM as a term in the first place. Chances are it came
from academe or one of the consultancies. Some of the contenders are:-
• Professor Jagdish Sheth, venerable marketing Guru
• Professor Leonard Berry (Texas A&M University)

• Hugh Bishop, who headed up Aberdeen's CRM division
• Tom Siebel
• Gartner Group
What is certain is that it was used within some businesses as a new label for sales staff as early as the
1980s, so people who ascribe its origins to the 1990s are a bit off the mark. It does not really matter who
coined the name, CRM is here to stay, until it gets replaced with a new acronym more suitable for Industry
4.0
❖ History of Retailing in India
Retailing as an occupation came into existence when farmers started producing more food than they
required. Trading was an important part of daily life in the ancient world. Different people had different
skill sets, and people who had a surplus of one good desired the goods they did not have nor could not
produce.
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In India, the existence of the current kirana format and other shops can be traced to the Manusmriti and
Kautilya’s Arthshastra. These texts provided guidelines for dealing with customers, after-sales service,
and quality and price guarantees. Such scholarly works provided the equivalence for exchange in case of
barter. They also defined the tax structure for retail and wholesale transactions. Kautilya commented on
the location of stores dealing in specific products in the city. He also discussed the manner in which fund
and investments could be managed for better results. Memoirs of traders who came from Europe indicate
that Indian merchants carried out business with low margins in order to enhance sales. Indian history and
archaeology record the existence of markets during the Harappan civilization also. Elaborate descriptions
of local and periodic haats have been found. These were the places where commodity exchange was
carried out and people congregated and derived several non-economic values.
Retail in India is still at a very early stage. Most retail firms are companies from other industries that are
now entering the retail sector because of its amazing potential. There are only a handful of companies
with a retail background. One such company is Nilgiri’s from Bangalore that started as a dairy and
incorporated other areas in its business with great success. Their achievement has led to the arrival of
numerous other players, most with the backing of large groups, but usually not with a retail background.
Most new entrants to the India retail scene are real estate groups who see their access to and knowledge
of land, location and construction as prime factors for entering the market.
New retail stores have traditionally started operations in cities like Mumbai and Delhi where there has
been an existing base of metropolitan consumers with ready cash and global tastes. The new perspective
to this trend is that new entrants to the retail scenario should first enter smaller cities rather than focusing
entirely on the metro’s. Spending power in India is not concentrated any more in just the 4 metros (Delhi,
Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata). Smaller but upcoming cities like Chandigarh, Coimbatore, Pune,
Ahmedabad, Baroda, Trivandrum, Cochin, Ludhiana, Shimla etc., will fast be catching up to the metro’s
in their spending capacity.
Cities in South India have taken to the supermarket style of shopping very eagerly and so far the
maximum number of organized grocery and department stores are in Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad.
The north has a long way to go to come up to par. International stores now prefer to gauge the reaction
of the public in these cities before investing heavily in a nation-wide expansion. Milou, the Swiss
children’s wear retailer, recently opened up its first store in Chennai, bypassing Delhi and Mumbai.
Besides the urban market, India’s rural market has just started to be seen as a viable option and companies
who understand what the rural consumer wants will grow to incredible heights. The bulk of India’s
population still live in rural areas and to be able to cater specifically to them will mean generating
tremendous amounts of business.
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1.5. BRIEF PROFILE OF RETAIL MARKETING
The Indian retail industry is now beginning to evolve in the line with the transformation that has swept
other large economies. The liberalization of the consumer goods industry initiated in the mid-80 and
accelerated through the 90’s has begun to impact the structure and conduct of the retail industry.
The concept retail which includes the shopkeeper to customer interaction, has taken many forms and
dimensions, from the traditional retail outlet and street local market shops to upscale multi brand outlets,
especially stores or departmental stores.
The objective being to assess the various parameters that influences a buyer to visit or shop at
departmental store thereby contributing to its turnover (in terms of sales and profits) hence leading to its
overall success.
The extensive research brought me to conclude that departmental stores are soon emerging on the top
priority lists, amongst the shopping spree in Nagpur city, as they seem to derive immense pleasure of
convenience and exposure to variety under one roof, in their extremely busy lives, when they don’t have
time for things.
Though some of the customers perceive departmental stores to be expensive and only high income
category’s cup of tea, the stores make constant efforts to induce them to at least visit the store at once
during the sale period, or discount offers.
Trends In Retail Marketing
At this point, I can summarize the main development retailers and manufacturers need to take into
account as they plan their competitive strategies.
In India the trends are mainly in three sectors. These sectors are:
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Urban Sub-urban Rural
Figure 7- Trends in retail marketing
1.6. CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
(Physical shop & e-shop) Back office
Customer
data
Practice Process
Strategy data
New
Strategy
Operational Analytical CRM

CRM
Figure 8- Customer touch points
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Customer
Satisfaction
Customer
Experience
Marketing &
Communication
Data Integration & Analysis
CRM Strategy
Figure 9- CRM Strategy
•Information such as •Differentiation should

name,address and be relatively easy for
retail sector to achieve
purchase information once the data has
must be collected across collected,Wth the
the company. information gained on
total spend of each
customer.
Differenti
Identify
-ate
Customize Interact
•Once the interaction •Having categorized the

and reactions of each customers, the retail
customer have been sector is in a position to
analyzed, a full one-to- treat them differently.
one service can be
offered to customers.
Figure 10- CRM Operating Process Cycle
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Workflow Management Transaction engines
Transaction engines
Broadcast engines
Broadcast engines
Content engines
Content management
Personization engines
Personization engines
Customer storsge & analysis Customer storage & analysis
Figure 11- CRM Technology Framework for luxury retail
1.7. CONCLUSION
The above problems compound those frequently faced by businesses in the general CRM operations.
There are other minor challenges faced which are much easier to deal with and have marginal impacts
on the results. Dedication, comprehensive planning and professional execution should all be harmonized
to produce the best results and minimize chances of losses through misdirection. Customer relationship
management problems should be expected and forecast to ensure various solutions are put in place to
deal with them, if not totally prevent them.
Through customer relationship management, the aspirations of the customers can be appreciated similar
to how the product or service was being introduced to them (Hardeep & Amandeep, 2011). Work ethic
pride is another indicator of customer satisfaction as it usually motivates employees to meet customer
needs and expectations. Yet employee failures, product or service delays, or other malfunctions may
hinder the customer’s future relationship with the business. CRM identification and resolution of these
issues can increase the customer efficiency ratios. This is because satisfied customers normally have
greater purchase volume than non-satisfied customers. And as a result of this the relative cost per-
customer drops which again works out as good economics and thereby profits. Customer relationship
management strategies that promote business retention can provide significant advantages for an
organization. Empirical evidence indicates it can contribute to the financial wellbeing and thereby
prosperity of an organization. CRM programmes must include a customercentric management approach
which identifies and segments profitable customers, while fostering satisfaction and loyalty. This is
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mutually beneficial for the business and customers. It facilitates the efficient use of labour and technical
resources to meet even more consumer needs and due to the effectiveness can serve a bigger and better
market. India is one of the sought after markets in the world when it comes to retail market development.
But sometimes the challenge involves in the effective conversion to the organized sector which needs
some push by way of CRM initiatives. The loyalty programmes, membership cards and dynamic schemes
like every day low price (EDLP) will take the Indian organized retailer a long way. But the technological
initiatives which are prevalent in the world are still in the infancy stage in India which has scope for
further research. And days are not far when the effective implementation of CRM initiatives makes India
the most prospective retail market. A qualitative analysis has good scope in the research in order to get
retail customers feedback as result of an in-depth analysis. This could give detailed and in-depth
suggestions regarding the expectations and aspirations of the customers in various dimensions.
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CHAPTER 2
2. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
2.1. INTRODUCTION
The most challenging and exciting time to live in is on the cusp of change. And that is where India is
today. This huge, multicultural country India is transforming from a socialist economy to a consumption
led creative economy. The scope and depth of change that is taking place across the India defies
description .This Change provides both a humongous challenge and a gigantic opportunity for marketers
and retailers.
Retailing is not only an important aspect of the economic structure but very much a part of our lives.
Though trading of goods has been in existence since the older days, it is only in the recent past that the
buying and selling of goods have become more dominated activity. In fact, today retailing is evolving
into a global, high tech business.
❖ Retail Industry Scenario in India
Retailing is the largest private industry in the world, with total sales of $ 6.6 trillion World over the retail
sector is not only the oldest but also one of the most advanced users of the technology. Retailing is also
India's largest industry accounting for over 10% of the country's GDP and around 8% of the
employment(CII-Mckinsey report). Retailing in India is gradually inching its ways towards becoming
next booming industry.The Indian retailing industry is highly fragmented with 97% of its business being
run by the unorganized retailers such as the traditional family run stores and corner stores.
Organized retailing, however, is at a very nascent stage though its share is expected to rise to 9-10% by
the year 2010.The figure is much higher for the U.S. & U.K. and relatively higher too for neighboring
Asian countries like China, South Korea, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and Malaysia. (Vedamani G.
Glbson "Comprehensive policy vital", The Hindu survey of Indian Industry 2007).
According to India Retail Report 2009, even at the going rate, organised retail is expected to touch
Rs.2,30,000 cr (at constant prices) by 2010, constituting roughly 13 per cent of the total retail market.
Global Retail Industry is of size USD 08 Trillion. Over 50 of the Fortune 500 companies are retailers.
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In this modern era Indian retailing industry is eyeing the global retail players. Indian retail industry is
one of the fastest developing industries which have inculcated modern techniques, exclusive retail
outlets, emergence of retail chains etc.
Large Indian players like Reliance, K Rahejas, Bharti, and ITC are making significant investment in this
sector, leading to the emergence of big retailer who can bargain with suppliers to reap the benefits of
economies of scale.
❖ CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT
CRM is a combination of policies, processes, and strategies implemented by an organization to unify its
customer interactions and provide a means to track customer information. It involves the use of
technology in attracting new and profitable customers, while forming tighter bonds with existing ones.
Customer relationship management is an emerging tool that enables marketers to maintain their presence
in the dynamic marketing environment. Customer relationship management is high on the corporate
agenda. Recent research carried out by Business Intelligence reveals that six out of ten companies have
already started out on the CRM journey.
CRM needs a deep understanding of the customer expectations, attitude & behaviour through a well
organized & maintained customer database & innovative customer strategies. The goal of CRM is to
ensure customer satisfaction & delight at every level of interface with the company (Pahuja & Verma,
2008).
❖ CRM and Organized Retail Sector
Products are easy to copy, services are harder to copy but the learned relationship that a customer has
with or his supplier is nearly impossible to reproduce. It increases profitability of the retail business in
five key ways:
• Customer loyalty translates into reduced price competition.

• Customer information allows companies to target profitable customers.
• Predictable buying patterns lower inventory holding costs, spoilage, and distribution costs.
• Customer loyalty reduces advertising and marketing costs.
• Customer loyalty extends products life cycle.
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Figure 12- Key principle of Customer Relationship Management
Collabar
ation
Key CRM Value

Touch point
Alignment Segment
Principle ation
Real Time
Information
Manager
• Source: Sunder K Shyama & Dr. Ramji (2000), "Coming Closer to the Customer", Indian
Management, December.
2.2. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
• To understand and identify the Customer Relationship Management Practices followed by the
retail stores.
• To study the various CRM techniques adopted by organized retail firms and stores.
• To study the benefits of CRM to the retailers and customers.
• To provide the effectiveness of loyalty program adopted by retail stores.
2.3. HYPOTHEIS OF THE STUDY
o H1: There will be significant variance in opinion on CRM practices towards organized shopping
mall among the Gender group.
mall among the Age group
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mall among the Education
mall among the Income
2.4. DELIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
1. Record Loss
Some Customer Relationship Software utilizes remote Internet Connections to keep customers’
data. The downside of this kind of CRM is that the organization has no control of customers’
details, and in case there is an outage in the CRM system, it will be next to impossible for the
business to retrieve the relevant details. If the organization chooses a small Customer Relationship
Management program which is unstable, it may imply thousands of dollars in lost income for the
business.
2. Overhead
If a business chooses a local Customer Relationship Management software, there will be overhead
costs linked to it. If the application is proprietary, the organization will need to pay for
professionals such as system administrator, software developers, and maintenance personnel to
ensure the efficient running of the software. Keeping backups for the data also adds to the
expenses of operating a personalized CRM system.
3. Eliminate Human Element
Although CRM applications allow for the automation of processes within a company, there is a
loss of human element in the organization, something which essential for creating an excellent
business relationship with customers. It’s the same as receiving an automated menu system at the
end of the phone rather than the voice of an actual person. When the company loses its human
touch, then clients will likely drift away and this will mean a reduction in revenue on the part of
the business.
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4. Training
If it’s a small business, the issues of training aren’t so much pronounced. Nonetheless, the large
companies will be required to roll out training sessions for the workers. For CRM of larger scale,
this will mean appointing professional to conduct the training. In many occasions, training
deprives the company the time required for enhancing productivity, so this is quite a disadvantage
for new CRM applications. Additionally, the CRM training is usually different for the staff and
managers because a good number of these applications have specialized features and functions
for executive and managers. What’s more, these additional features also require training. It should
be known that the training session can be short (take a few hours) or even longer, taking several
days.
5. Security Issues
Although the CRM application is secure, data which is found in a centralized location is a threat
for any company running the CRM solution. What if a resentful employee adds inaccurate data
to the system? To avoid this, there need to be encryption safeguards as well as supervision and
backup system so as to maintain the integrity of data in the CRM system.
6. Technical Support
There are two options available when it comes to CRM support: to outsource the work to a
different person or to hire a specialist within the organization. Many organizations offering CRM
solutions will offer support, but this usually comes at a higher rate. Buying the software is just a
part of the consideration process and many tend to forget the costs of ongoing support which is
associated with the CRM application.
2.5. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
CRM, or Customer Relationship Management, has been an unsung hero in the retail industry for a
long time. This is where the role of CRM comes into the picture. With the help of this
technique, retailers can keep track of their customers' purchasing behavior, requirements, feedback and
gaps in service, etc.
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2.6. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
In order to accomplish the objective of the study to collect data for this research study, both primary and
secondary sources were used. Secondary data collected through the researcher reviewed articles related
to research objective that appeared in the scholarly literature, key journals, reports, magazines and
proceeding were systematically scanned for articles related to the research topic. Primary data collected
through an empirical investigation, online survey was conducted, using a structure questionnaire.
Present study consists and the questionnaire two parts. Part-I questionnaire measures the distribution of
participants on the bases demographic characteristics and part-II questionnaire measures CRM practices
at shopping mall on a five point scale ranging from (i) strongly disagree to (5) “strongly agree” Sample
was collected on the basis of non probabilistic convenience sampling method. The population in this
study comprise of customer who loves shopping malls at Bangalore. It is decided to choose in order to
collect the data a through online survey structured questionnaire was farmed Questionnaires were
distributed amongst the sample of 150 But received 142 customers respondents of shopping mall in April
2013. The data was collected tying a survey and interpretation through to check the reliability of the data
cronbach alpha test was applied in order to find out the most preferable CRM practices shopping malls
view point Sample percentage method and one –way ANOVA analysis was applied. All the analysis was
carried out by SPSS 16.0
Table: 2.1 Demographic Representation of the respondents
Demographics Number of respondents Valid Percentage
A) Gender
Male 85 59.9
Female 57 40.1
B) Age
17-25 46 32.4
26-35 47 33.1
36-45 28 19.7
46-60 13 9.2
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Above 60 8 5.6
C) Education
Undergraduate 15 10.6
Graduate 57 40.1
Postgraduate 70 49.3
D) Monthly Income
Less than 10,000 8 5.6
10,001 – 20,000 36 25.4
20,001 – 30,000 41 28.9
30,001 – 40,000 23 16.2
40,001 – 50,000 20 14.1
Total 142 100.0
2.6.1. ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION – DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE SAMPLE.
A total number 142 respondent participated in the survey the demographic characteristics the respondent
(Table1) shows that the sample consisted, majority of respondents percent 59.9 of male and 40.1 percent
female respectively. The respondents were mostly between the age 26-35 years age group with
33.1percent and in the age group of 36-45 years 19.7 percent this shows the majority of the respondents
were in the group of middle age persons shows much for more influencing to come for shopping malls
at Bangalore.
Almost 49.3 percent were postgraduate, 40.1percent post graduate are reported that education level play
more significant dominant to give preferences and exportations shopping malls at Bangalore in India.
Most of the respondents belong to the income groups of Rs (10,000- 20,000) 25.4 percent and (30001,-
40000) 16.2 percent the sample mostly represents the middle class income preferred to visits shopping.
Table: 2.2. One –way ANOVA test for significant difference between gender on the variable
of CRM practices towards organized shopping mall
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N Mean Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig.
Consumer Promotional
Between Groups 142 .066 1 .066 .190 .663

Within Groups 85 3.4882 48.475 139 .349
Total 56 3.4439 48.542 140
Consumer Services
Between Groups 142 3.4706 .093 1 .364 .219 .640

Within Groups 85 3.5521 58.973 139 .424
Total 56 3.6046 59.066 140
Activities of Shopping
Malls Employees
Between Groups 142 3.5729 .364 1 .364 .831 .364

Within Groups 85 3.4617 60.873 139 .438
Total 56 3.5655 61.237 140
Data Mining
Between Groups 142 3.5029 .293 1 .293 .380 .539

Within Groups 85 3.3221 107.203 139 .771
Total 56 3.4152 107.493 140
Mall Presentation
142 3.3590 .006 1 .006 .012 .912
Between Groups 85 3.8422 70.007 139 .504
Within Groups 56 3.8557 70.013 140
Total
Loyalty Programs
Between Groups 142 3.8475 .038 1 .038 .078 .781

Within Groups 85 3.6338 67.940 139 .489
Total 56 3.6674 67.978 140
Customer Satisfaction
and Retention
Between Groups 142 3.6472 .936 1 .936 1.830 .178

Within Groups 85 3.8196 71.087 139 .511
Total 56 3.9861 72.023 140
From this ANOVA table 2 The Analysis of Variance test is applied to test for significant difference
among the different gender for each influencing factor separately. The results of the ANOVA are given
in the above table. It is found from the results of ANOVA that influencing CRM practices factors
Consumer promotional tool, Customer services at malls, Activities of shopping Mall employees, Data
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mining, Mall presentation, Loyalty programs, Customer satisfaction and retention–do not differ
significantly among the respondents of the different age groups. Hence, the null hypothesis with respect
to all the six influencing factors is accepted.
Table: 2.3. One –way ANOVA test for significant difference age on the variable of CRM
practices towards organized shopping mall
Sum of Df Mean F Sig.

Squares Square
Between Groups .663 4 .166 .474 .755
Within Groups 47.913 137 .350
Total 48.575 141
Consumer Services
Between Groups 2.627 4 .657 1.587 .181
Total 59.316 141
Malls Employees
Between Groups .816 4 .204 .461 .764
Total 61.488 141
Data Mining
Between Groups 3.261 4 .815 1.072 .373
Total 107.496 141
Mall Presentation
Between Groups .926 4 .232 .457 .767
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Total 70.368 141
Loyalty Programs
Between Groups 1.133 4 .283 .579 .678
Total 68.134 141
Customer Satisfaction
and
Retention
.205 4 .051 .098 .983
Between Groups
71.926 137 .525
Within Groups
72.132 141
Total
From this ANOVA table 3 the Analysis of Variance test is applied to test for significant difference among
the different age groups for each influencing CRM practices factor separately. The results of the ANOVA
are given in the above table. It is found from the results of ANOVA that influencing factors Consumer
promotional tool, Customer services at malls, Activities of shopping Mall employees, Data mining, Mall
presentation, Loyalty programs, Customer satisfaction and retention do not differ significantly among
the respondents of the different age groups. Hence, the null hypothesis with respect to all the six
influencing factors is accepted.
Table 2.4. One –way ANOVA test for significant difference education on the variable of
CRM practices towards organized shopping mall
Sum of df Mean F Sig.

Squares Square
Between Groups .214 2 .107 .308 .735
Total 48.575 141
Consumer Services
Between Groups .115 2 .058 .135 .874
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Total 59.316 141
Malls Employees
Between Groups .097 2 .048 .110 .896
Total 61.488 141
Data Mining
Between Groups 6.319 2 3.160 4.341 .015
Total 0107.496 141
Mall Presentation
Between Groups 2.656 2 1.328 2.726 .069
Total 70.368 141
Loyalty Programs
Between Groups .296 2 .148 .303 .739
Total 68.134 141
Customer Satisfaction and
Retention
Between Groups 2.521 2 1.261 2.517 .084
Total 72.132 141
From this ANOVA table 4, it is observed that the sig calculated are .735, .874, .896, .015.069, .739, .084
for all the influencing CRM practices factors which are greater than the significant (P > 0.05) and so it is
not significant. Some factor data mining which is significant hence, the hypothesis formulated is accepted
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and it is inferred that there is no significant difference among the different educational qualification of
the respondents on the influencing CRM practices factors in shopping malls in Mumbai city.
Table 2.5. One –way ANOVA test for significant difference Income on the variable of CRM
practices towards organized shopping mall
Sum of df Mean F Sig.

Squares Square
Between Groups 1.888 5 .378 1.100 .363
Total 48.575 141
Consumer Services
Between Groups 1.089 5 .218 .509 .769
Total 59.316 141
Malls Employees
Between Groups 2.822 5 .564 1.308 .264
Total 61.488 141
Data Mining
Between Groups 3.429 5 .686 .896 .486
Total 107.496 141
Mall Presentation
Between Groups 3.515 5 .703 1.430 .217
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Total 70.368 141
Loyalty Programs
Between Groups 3.351 5 .670 1.407 .226
Total 68.134 141
Customer Satisfaction and
Retention
Between Groups 3.873 5 .775 1.543 .180
Total 72.132 141
From this ANOVA table 5 , it is observed that the sig calculated are for all the influencing .363, .769,
.264, .486, .217, .226, .180,CRM practices factors which are greater than the significant (P > 0.05) Hence,
they are insignificant and so the above stated null hypothesis has been accepted.
Table: 2.6 Data showing results of significant variance in opinion on CRM
No. Hypothesis Results Tools
H1 There will be significant variance in opinion on CRM reject ANOVA

practices towards organized shopping mall among the one way
Gender group

Age group

Education

Education
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2.7. CONCLUSION & SUGGESTIONS
Customer relationship management is highly exercised in the industry like hospitality, services industry
etc. but it is having equal importance in the retail industry also. The customers don't take a single second
when it comes to change the preference and break the loyalty for an organization, in such a situation it
the customer relationship management of the organization which will compel the customers to visit the
retail outlet again and again.
Based on the findings & observations, of the Customer Relationship Management Practices in Retail
Sector, the following suggestions will give boost to the retailing:
• Retail stores should keep the purchase records of the customers along with the personal
information of the customers. It would provide them a way analyze the buying behavior of their
customers.
• The management of the retail store should give a personal touch to the customers. It will encourage
the customers to make frequent visit to the retail store. It also helps in building personal
relationship with the customers leading to the higher level of the customer loyalty.
• The management of the retail store should provide special training to the sales staff of the
organization to keep a healthy and friendly relationship with the customers.
• Timely feedback from the customers should be taken by the retail store it would make the
customers realize that they are important for the growth of the organization.
To compete successfully in the competitive world the retailers must focus on managing the buying
experience of consumers. Sustainability of the fittest and the fastest is the secret rule of success
in the game. So to be successful the retailers must understand the perception of customers and
reach to the customers with speed and update themselves with the latest trends, ideas and services
in building long term relations with customers.
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CHAPTER 3
3. LITERATURE REVIEW
3.1. INTRODUCTION
“A customer is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not depending on us. We are depending
on him. He is not an interruption on our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider on our
business. He is a part of it. We are not doing him a favour by serving him. He is doing us a favour by
giving us an opportunity to do so.”
- Mahatma Gandhi
-
Focusing on the customer has become a key factor for companies of all sizes, especially with survival in
the competitive world at stake. Customer retention is particularly important to SMEs because of the
limited resources they have available to them (Hubert, 2002). Another aspect of CRM is that knowledge
of the customer and their traits allows for the easier acquisition of new customers.
The essence of the information technology (IT) revolution, in particular the online presence on the
internet, is the opportunity for businesses to build better relationships with customers. Companies have
developed a greater ability today to establish, nurture, and sustain long-term customer relationships, by
combining the abilities to respond directly to requests and to provide customers with an interactive and
customized experience.
According to Romano (2003), developing sustainable long-term relationships with valuable customers is
economically sound for businesses in order to avoid invaluable ones. The need for gaining a better
understanding of customer behaviour allows the organization to focus on those customers who can
deliver long-term profits. This change in ideology has effected a change in how marketers view the world.
The traditional approach by marketers has been to acquire customers; either new ones who have not
entered the respective product category yet or those who are currently linked with competitors. In order
to do so, mass advertising and price-oriented promotions have been undertaken targeting customers in
the hope of positive returns. Today however, the core of the conversation has evolved from acquisition
to retention. This reflects the change in mindset and the adoption of a new set of tools that help businesses
grow, including CRM.
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CRM helps businesses manage customer relationships in an organized manner by combining
methodologies, software, applications and internet capabilities. In order to build long-term customer
relationships, the existence of effective communication, trust, and commitment between the participants
is important (Wells et al., 1999). Every point of interaction and communication between the participants
of a relationship leads to a trail of transaction and non-transaction data. It is the integration of this data
that is essential to making the future interactions with customers powerful.
In the present world, most organisations are availing the benefits of the process by implementing CRM
(Bose, 2002). Companies who accumulate large amounts of customer data and support a niche market
avail most of the benefits of CRM. In contrast, those companies who have limited interaction with
customers are less likely to be at advantage by using CRM, as they remain prone to customer turnover.
➢ Goals and Objectives of CRM
There are four objectives of CRM as stated by Dimitris et al (2002):
▪ Company movement towards customer orientation

▪ Adoption of customer retention as focus
▪ Provision of value to customer
▪ Incorporating technology for effective data and knowledge management
According to Swift (2001), CRM increases business opportunities by improving the process of
communication with customers, developing accurate information for customers, and providing the right
offer to the right customer at the right time. CRM systems and applications help in operational flexibility,
as well as providing the opportunity to analyse customer behaviour and data in real time (Ryals & Knox,
2001).
❖ Customer Orientation
Customer orientation is basically a business philosophy that defines the ultimate goal of an organisation
to be the fulfillment of customer needs for the purpose of maximising business profits. In the current age
of competition, maintaining business advantage is becoming increasing difficult. The change in the
outlook of management on the placement of customers has been propelled by accelerating technological
developments, which have shortened the product life cycle and made it necessary to innovate in order to
sustain a level of superior performance.
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Customer orientation has often been associated with market orientation. Upon close analysis, the goal of
putting customer at the centre of all marketing activities remains the primary goal for both. The
dissemination of information, formulation of strategies and tactics to satisfy market needs; all form the
crux of activities in this process (Hajjat & Mahmood, 2002).
❖ Focus on Customer Retention
With the evolution of technologies and the customer, it has become more difficult for businesses to get
new customers. There is a realisation that in order to be more profitable, businesses must maintain
relationships with the existing customer rather than constantly seek new ones (Hildebrand, 1999).
Reichheld, (1996) proposed four reasons to outline the greater profitability gained from retention of
customers, as compared to seeking new ones:
Acquisition of new customers costs the business in the form of sales and marketing;
Profits are realised from the customer in each year after acquisition;
Older customers show tendency to buy more and be less price sensitive; and
Satisfied customers are a source of profit and revenue generation for the company since they
possess the powerful force of word-of-mouth marketing.
According to Newell (2000), there are three types of customer relationships: the top, middle and lower
groups. Customers in top group make up 10% of the whole customer-base, and are the most profitable
with the highest levels of loyalty to the organisation. An organization’s CRM focus should be in retaining
these customers, by providing them excellent service. Middle group customers make up a large majority
of the consumer-base, and are the ones who deliver good profits hold the potential for future growth and
loyalty. Using CRM to target the middle group customers effectively will ensure in acquiring a good
source of potential growth. Lower group customers are only marginally profitable. The expense and effort
involved in targeting these customers hinders the effectiveness of servicing existing customers in the top
and middle groups.
❖ Provision of Customer Value
Customer value is an important component of a successful business-customer relationship and the ability
of a business to provide superior value to its customers is regarded as successful competitive strategy.
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Customer value is defined as the customer’s overall assessment of the utility of a product/service, based
on the perception of what is received and what is given (Wang et al., 2004).
Customer value is a strategic tool in attracting and retaining customers, and has become one of the most
significant factors in the success of both manufacturing businesses and service providers. By adding more
value, companies try to improve customer satisfaction so that the bonds between the two entities are
strengthened and customer loyalty is gained.
Traditionally, customer value was defined and understood in terms of product/service quality and low
prices. Business are continuously searching and exploring different ways to provide customer value
(Wang et al., 2004).
Delivering superior customer value has become an ongoing concern in building and sustaining
competitive advantage (Hansemark & Albinsson, 2004). A CRM strategy can provide a high level of
satisfaction by optimizing the business processes and making every interaction more customer-centric.
3.2. REVIEW OF LITERATURE
CRM ascent of devotion projects, mail request and the Internet has given retailers genuine access to
purchaser information. Information warehousing and mining advances offers retailers the devices they
have to comprehend their buyer information and apply it to business. This, alongside the different
accessible CRM (Customer Relationship Management) Systems, permits the retailers to ponder the buy
conduct of buyers in point of interest and develop the estimation of individual shoppers to their
organizations.
The greater part of the clients favors Organized Retail area due to more Tangibles and Empathy towards
its clients. With a specific end goal to hold and pull in new clients, the sorted out retail segment ought to
enhance client's administration level and ought to give affirmation towards its client. Sorted out retail
outlets give better nature of administration, item extend when contrasted with the disorderly retail outlets.
The greater part of the clients are fulfilled by the nature of administration gave by the sorted out retail
outlets. Faithfulness programs, particularly focuses programs, appear to have a positive transient effect
on various parts of client conduct, including buy recurrence, bushel size, lifetime term and share of wallet.
Showcasing contacts through business people, post office based mail and telesales are found to impact
client maintenance, and benefit. In any case, the relative viability of exceptionally interpersonal salesman
contacts is more noteworthy than that of less interpersonal modes, for example, regular postal mail .
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Retailers regularly record exchange information, which can be accumulated to the client level measuring
the quantity of past exchanges, verifiable esteem, and sorts of items obtained.
Data warehousing & mining technologies offers retailers the tools they need to make sense of their
consumer data and apply it to business. This, along with the various available CRM (Customer
Relationship Management) Systems, allows the retailers to study the purchase behavior of consumers in
detail and grow the value of individual consumers to their businesses.
Most of the customers prefer Organized Retail sector because of more Tangibles and Empathy towards
its customers. In order to retain and attract new customers, the organized retail sector should improve
customer‘s service level and should provide assurance towards its customer. Organized retail outlets
provide better quality of service, product range as compared to the unorganized retail outlets. Most of
the customers are satisfied with the quality of service provided by the organized retail outlets. Loyalty
programs, specifically points programs, seem to have a positive short-term impact on different aspects
of customer behavior, including purchase frequency, basket size, lifetime duration and share of wallet.
Marketing contacts through sales people, direct mail and telesales are found to influence customer
retention, and profitability. However, the relative effectiveness of highly interpersonal salesperson
contacts is greater than that of less interpersonal modes such as direct mail. Retailers often record
transaction data, which can be aggregated to the customer level measuring the number of previous
transactions, historical value, and types of products purchased.
Customer relationship management is a customer based relationship management philosophy that

enables the coordination and cooperation between all the departments, customers and business associates
as a front office practice (marketing, selling and customer service) and back office practice(accounting,
production and logistics).The basic objective of the customer relationship management is to create
customer loyalty. Besides, the objectives of customer relationship management can be listed as follows:
to make the customer relationships profitable; to form and preserve long-term and profitable relationships
with customer. Customer relationship management means following all the information about the
customers through special software and seeing all that information with just one key at will. Customer
relationship management is a philosophy of working that should be extended to the whole of the firm.
Goldenberg (2000) said attempting to connect the customer with the product can be achieved by
automating a series of processes within the organization that allow the creation of that
connection.Ciborraand Failla(2000) said it is apparent that the CRM concept has a technological
component,
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➢ Impact on Retailer
The implementation of a CRM system can help a retailer in understanding the customer, enhance the
relationship as well as predict potential behaviour and sales; all forming an effective way of managing
the client-retailer relationship (McKenzie, 2001: 143).
Some successful examples of CRM implementation by retailers include Wal-Mart, Tesco and Boots etc.
The example of Wal-Mart is highlighted below:
“There is a story that a large supermarket chain, usually Wal-Mart, did an analysis of customers’ buying
habits and found a statistically significant correlation between purchases of beer and purchases of
nappies (diapers in the US). It was theorized that the reason for this was that fathers were stopping off
at Wal-Mart to buy nappies for their babies, and since they could no longer go down to the pub as often,
would buy beer as well. As a result of this finding, the supermarket chain is alleged to have the nappies
next to the beer, resulting in increased sales of both.” (Onetel.co.uk, 2009)
Utilizing CRM, Wal-Mart was able to collect detailed customer information, and then create a flexible
and high-speed supply chain IT system for effective business strategy. The model adopted by Wal-Mart
model amalgamated the enterprise resource planning (ERP) and with a strong communication medium
to create a hybrid system that could allow it effectively understand the trends being adopted by the
consumer. From the above case study, Wal-Mart was able to quickly reflect on the consumer demand,
linking it to production and following up with the development of a customized product according to
customer needs. This is identical to the model used by ASDA in the United Kingdom, acquired by Wal-
Mart. While the general perception may be that the organizations are focused on price, the actual benefit
of employing IT systems in collaboration with CRM systems is to systematically understand the
customer, and market according to the developing trend, growing the consumer-base steadily.
The implementation of CRM helps an organization to compete both in service and quality. According to
Freeland (2002:118), the key point of CRM is that it helps organizations win customers enhance stable
relationships, utilising appropriate time, money and resources of the organization.
➢ Non-achievements of CRM
CRM applications can be used to enhance productivity, improve decision-making, and streamline call
centre operations (Iyer and Bejou, 2004: 67). However, it is illogical for any organization to think that it
can achieve the completion of all tasks using this system.
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CRM relies on the sales staff to perform tasks like following up with clients and closing sales, while it
remains a component of the market structure. The success or failure of the transaction depends on the
skills of the staff. Also, since CRM applications are based on historical data, they cannot predict the
future. Rather, they offer projections based on the collected data to highlight areas that could become
possible changes in trajectory. Lastly, CRM systems are not complete solutions to every any crisis that
an organization may face. They are designed to assimilate with an organization’s existing culture, and
amalgamate with established processes. CRM is not a fool-proof method of establishing business
sustainability if innovation and change is not implemented.
3.3. CONCLUSION
CRM has become a key element in the modern marketing world in recent years. Across the world,
companies of various sizes have adopted and implemented CRMS systems to help in establishing a
competitive business. At the same time, the increased level of competition in the market has resulted in
it being harder for companies to acquire new customers, as well as retain those who have an active and
sound relationship with the firm.
It is important for CRM processes to be implemented across all departments of a business, especially
the sales and marketing ones which forms the core focus. In recent years, corporation have become
attracted to a new ideology or market approach called customer value management. The aim of this
process is to identify the value that can be delivered to a customer through processes and services running
in parallel to the product offerings. This new approach encompasses a key idea of CRM which is to focus
and understand the customer, and target the ones who bring more overall value to the organization, rather
than simply going after larger volumes of clients.
In order for there to be a successful relationship, it is up to the company to perform a customer’s

profitability analysis. This analysis allows the company to judge whether or not a customer is doing well
against the set of products and services that are on offer, allowing an informed decision to be taken in
regards to finding an ideal solution. It is also important for an organization to understand the variety of
customers that it has relationships with, and therefore must accommodate when establishing new
strategies or developing new products and services.
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CHAPTER 4
4. DATA ANALYSIS, INTEPRETATION & PRESENTATION
4.1. INTRODUCTION
The Indian retailing sector is a booming one accounts for over 20% of the country’s GDP and contributes
8% to total employment. The current estimated value of the Indian Retail sector is about 500billion USD
and expected to reach 1.3trillion USD by 2020. The contribution of modern retail is currently 5% is
expected to increase from 27billion USD in 2020. The Indian retail sector is expected to grow at a CAGR
of 15 to 20%. In this dynamic and competitive business environment understanding the perception of
Indian consumers became the biggest challenge and very crucial in designing retail strategies.
Building and maintaining relationship with the customers and maintaining loyalty of the customers has
been identified as a major source of competitive advantage in the retail sector(CHANG & TU,2005). So
in this competitive business environment Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is emerging as one
of the most important business activities to market the products and services. Now retailers are more
focussed on customer retention by concentrating on providing more value to their best customers using
targeted promotion and services. This shift in attitude of the retailers is supported by research studies that
it costs three to six times more to sell the products to the new customers than to existing customers that
small increase in customer retention can lead to dramatic increase in profits. So the retail managers are
required to identify the significance of CRM as a tool in influencing consumer perception and decision
making.
• "CRM is the business strategy that aims to understand, anticipate, manage and personalize the
needs of an organization's current and potential customers" -- PWC Consulting .
• CRM is a business strategy, one that puts the customer at the heart of the business.
• “That’s nothing new” I hear you say, and you would be right. Good business people have always
understood the relationship between happy customers that come back again and again and
creating long term, sustainable profitability.
➢ Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
The concept of CRM was first propounded by Pine Peppers and Roger (1993) in an article published in
Harvard Business Review where they defines CRM as “customer whether consumers or business do not
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want more choices. They want exactly what they want, when, where and how they want it and technology
now makes it possible for companies to give it to them.”
Fox and Stead (2001) have described customer relationship management as the establishment,
development, maintenance and optimization of long term mutually valuable relationship between
customer and organizations. They emphasized that successful CRM focuses on the understanding of the
needs and desires of the customers is achieved by placing these needs at the heart of business by
integrating them with the organisation’s strategy, people, technology and practices. The scope of CRM
is very vast and includes different aspects like customer satisfaction, service quality, quality of
relationship, trust, loyalty, commitment, customer retention etc.
Levitt (1986) introduced the concept augmented product which emphasise on the fact that consumers are
interested in the total buying experience not just the core product. Srinivasan and Moorman (2005) have
indicated that increased expenditure in CRM leads to more customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction
is also linked with increase in customer loyalty and reduction in customer complaint (Boltone and
Forenell,1992) and shareholders value (Anderson et al, 2005).
There is a rapid change in customer expectations. Fuelled by new technology and large scale availability
of advanced product features and services customers expectations are changing on daily basis. Customers
want value for money whether they are budget shoppers or high spenders they are less willing to make
compromises in product or service quality. So cooperative and collaborative relationship with customers
seems to be most effective ways to keep track of their changing expectations and influencing it properly.
(Sheth and Sisodia,1995)
In India the share of organised retail accounts for only 5% which suggests for potentiality and growth.
There are many factors contributing to the growth of modern organised retail. The demographic profile
like emergence of young population, rising income level and its influence on aspirations and lifestyle,
increasing number of working women, double income families etc. modern retailers are using
sophisticated and technologically updated clues to attract and hold shoppers. A retail store experience
involves activities such as browsing, price comparisons, search for merchandise, evaluation of product
variety and quality and interaction with store personnel (Terblanche and Boshoff, 2001).
Indian retail sector is dominated by traditional retailers but modern formats are also emerging. In
comparison to traditional outlets the new format retail stores are pre engineered retail outlets
characterized by ambience, product display, self service, designed layout, value added services,
technology based operations etc. They have more power to attract and influence young minds by
satisfying both hedonic and utilitarian needs (Jain and Bagdare, 2009). CRM is able to attract the attention
as an effective tool because of its applicability in the service industry. (Jain and Jain, 2005) emphasized
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that behavioural dimensions play a critical role in determining the effectiveness of CRM programmes.
The purpose of this research paper is to find out the effectiveness of CRM in Indian Retail sector.
➢ Customer Experience Management
The Indian retail experience has gone beyond the traditional store and include numerous touch points
such as on-line stores, social networks, call centres etc. Changing economic dynamics, variety of choices
in products and services, numerous shopping formats and unparalleled access to information has
empowered customers to expect more from their retail experience. In the rapidly changing and digitally
connected world, customers are more value conscious in purchase decision.
4.2. ANALYSIS & FINDINGS RELATED TO SECONDARY DATA
The analysis of demographic variables suggest that 64% of the respondents are female. The purchase
patterns of male and females are also different. Men prefer to save time and effort but women are choosy,
they take time to compare various items and also look for other items on display. Regarding income most
of the respondents belong to the income category of >2.5lakh rupees/annum and are educated and of high
occupation. They enjoy shopping experience. Most of the respondents are young and are under 35years
which indicates the emergence of young shopping class. Most of the respondents prefer organised retail
and 65.97% of customers prefer to pay through credit or debit cards.
Table 4.1 Effects of Product Attributes on CRM
Product Not Least Somewhat Very Extremely Position Rank

Attributes Important Import Important Important Important weight
-ant
1 2 3 4 5
Product 0 0 10 65 75 665 1
Pricing 0 4 18 60 68 639 2
Assortment 4 8 37 55 46 581 5
Quality 0 0 32 55 63 631 3
Availabilit 2 8 36 48 57 603 4
y
Peter Drucker has rightly said that business exists to satisfy customers. Therefore it is essential to
understand the need of the customers and what is the perception of the consumers regarding the product
attributes. The retailer is required to identify the factors which influences the purchase along with the
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place of purchase from where they purchase the product. The present study has identified five factors-
product, price of the product, availability of the product in the store, product assortment in the outlet and
quality of the product. The respondents were also asked regarding the importance of factors which affect
their choice in order of preference.
It is found from the study that product and its originality is the most preferred attribute followed by price,
quality, availability and assortment. Indian consumers are price conscious and they want value for their
money.
Table 4.2, Customer Perception regarding store attributes
Neit
Stro her Posi
Strongl
S. ngly Disa Agre Agre tion Ra
Description y
no disag gree e nor e Wei nk
Agree
ree Disa ghts
gree
1 2 3 4 5
Value
1 10 27 26 52 35 525 5
Delivery
Location
2 Convenien 5 10 45 57 33 553 4
ce
3 Ambience 43 12 27 49 19 439 13
Informatio
4 n about the 35 13 31 51 20 458 12
Product
Customer
relationshi
5 p 10 30 27 51 32 515 6
maintenan
ce
Parking
6 23 15 31 55 26 496 10
facility
Special
7 4 9 37 49 51 574 3
offers
Provision
of 10
8 2 15 61 62 613 1
customer
Service
Behaviour
9 of Store 31 12 32 53 22 473 11
Personnel
Understan
10 ding 13 33 26 50 28 507 8
customer
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Requireme
nts
Speed
11 20 22 26 53 29 499 9
delivery
Loyalty
12 4 8 38 51 49 583 2
Schemes
Window
display
13 11 30 26 52 31 512 7
and
Catalogues
Advertisin
g and
other
14 54 17 24 44 11 401 15
medium of
Communic
ation
Handling
of
15 customer 44 11 29 48 18 435 14
Complaint
s
Increasing competition and continuously growing retail business has forced many retailers to rethink on
the strategies they should follow. In this value driven world competing and winning requires the retailers
to understand the expectations and perceptions of the customers on various retail attributes. So the study
identified fifteen variables for the measurement of store and retail attributes which are very essential and
the basic requirement for designing the retail strategies.
The analysis indicates that customer service is the most preferred factor followed by loyalty schemes,
promotional offers and discounts, location, value delivery and customer relation management,
catalogues, speed delivery etc. the research has unveiled the dimension that retailers have better
understanding regarding customer expectations because they are in direct contact with them. Availability
of parking facility, better handling of customer complaints, behaviour of in store personnel, location of
the outlet, advertising and ambience are getting back seat in the list of customer preference but these
factors should also be taken in to consideration.
➢ Changing Consumers
The customers are getting smart. They are aware, informed, demanding and well equipped with latest
developments and want to have best experience. As a result of which they try to associate many things
with the products and services which leads to augmentation. Levitt also has emphasised on the fact that
customers are interested in local buying experience not just the core product. This has led to the
requirement of more emphasis on relationship marketing. The retail customers are more concerned on an
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ongoing relationship with the store and reduce perceived risk, save time and effort. Customer satisfaction
is an important component of CRM which depends upon customer’s perception of service quality.
(Panda,2003) has emphasized that delivering a product after understanding the type and nature of
customer and their buying pattern increases the return on investment and makes the marketing strategy
more scientific and value driven. Another dimension of CRM which needs to be focussed is building
customer trust. The processes and practices developed and implemented by the company in value
delivery to the customers build faith of the customers on company’s efforts. Some other elements which
the customers look for in a service are responsiveness, behaviour of the store people, promptness in
service delivery, keeping promises, understanding the expectations of the customers, communication,
accessibility and continuous interaction with the customers. The role of the employee is very crucial in
retaining the customers as they are the face of the organization. In order to maintain long term relationship
with the customers proper check on customer touch points is necessary. The customer touch points are
the points where the customers come in contact of the organisation. With the experience they get they
make their perception about the organization.
4.3. ANALYSIS & FINDINGS RELATED TO PRIMARY DATA
The sampling technique used in the survey is non - probabilistic judgmental sampling using a structured
questionnaire, interviews and observation methods to collect data from the customers. The research
methodology adopted in CRM in retail is a descriptive research technique taking 30 organized retail
stores as the sample population and sample size. The sampling technique used in the survey is non -
probabilistic judgmental sampling using a structured questionnaire, interviews and observation methods
to collect data from the customers.
4.4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
1. Percentage of income group of consumer for retail outlet in Mumbai.
There are 27% of the organised retail outlets in Mumbai, which are targeting the high income consumer
segment, and then it is followed by the medium income consumer segment (23%) being targeted by the
retail stores in Udaipur. Only 10% of the retail stores are targeting very high income consumer segment.
Some of the stores which are targeting very high income consumer segment are: Flying Machine,
Provogue etc.
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Percentage of Target Income Groups of Consumers for
Retail Outlets in Mumbai
12%
27%
10% Ver High
High
12%
Medium
23%
16% Low
Very Low
2. Percentage of retail stores collecting customer data:
From the responses given by the 30 retail stores it is found that 80% of the organized retail stores are
heavily relying on the constructing customers' database to let their CRM system work effectively.
On the other hand only 20% of the organized retail stores say that they are not collecting data and
constructing the customers' database.
These facts indicate that there exists a trend of maintaining customers' database to maintain further
relationship with the customers. These retail stores are having an added advantage over the other players
in the retail industry which are not maintaining customers' database.
% of Retail Stores Collecting Customer Data &

Constructing Customer Database
20%
Yes
80% No
3. Percentage of type of information collection by retail stores:
About 23% of the total retailers require the personal information of the customers and the same number
of the retailer also collect the all types of the mentioned data relating to the customer. The above % data
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are based on the total number of frequencies for each of the factor of the information relating to the
customers.
The total number of 12.31% of the retailers who collects only the occupation relating information also
collect the personal information of the customers. These % figures are not supposed to be in exclusive
manner.
% of Different Types of Information Collected by the Retail Outlets
25
20
15
23.08 23.08
10 16.92
12.31 13.85
5 4.62
3.08 3.08
0
4. Different ways used to collect customer data:
43% retailers prefer to use feedback forms to collect the customers' information. The simple reason is
that it not only provides the customers' personal information but also provide the customers'' views in the
form of feedbacks regarding their service and product quality etc.
36% of the retail outlets prefer to collect customers regarding information through the entry form.12%
retailer use bill records to collect the customers' information. These are desired by those retailers who
want to have to records of only those customers who make purchase at their retail stores. Only 9% of the
organised retail stores exercise all the methods of collecting customers' information.
%of Ways Used to Collect Customers Data
9% Entry Forms
36% Bill Records
43% Feedback Forms

12% All Methods
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5. CRM software status of organized retail stores:
67% per cent of the organised retail outlets are using computerized CRM system to have a smooth CRM
process and an added advantage over the other players in the industry.
But there also exists contrasting figure of 13% retailers who say that they don't require any kind of the
computerized CRM system. They believe manually process the data.
The retail stores in Udaipur who don't have CRM system at present but are willing to implement it in
their organization amounts to a handsome number of 17%.Only 03% of the total surveyed retail outlets
in Udaipur assert to have ordered the CRM system to the organization for the effective implementation
of the CRM principles and the strategies.
%of Organised Retail Store Regarding their CRM

Software Status
13%
YES (Running)
17%
Ordered
67%
Willing to Implement
3%
Don't require
6. Percentage of the uniformity of the implemented CRM software system:
The 70% of total retail stores who have implemented the CRM system in their organization say that CRM
software system is uniformly implemented nationwide. All the features and customers' data collection
methods are same for all the outlets of their retail firm are same. Whereas only 30% of 67% retail stores
have their own exclusive CRM software systems.
% of Uniformity of the Implemented CRM

Software System
30%
Yes
70% No
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7. Retailers views about the importance of CRM in sales:
Total 77% of the organised retailers strongly agreed that CRM is very important in maximization of sales.
This point of view of retailers about CRM's role in sales generation reflects that without effective CRM
implementation in the retail store the retailers would not be able to achieve their target goals and they
will remain illusive.
On the other part only 3% of the retailers were neutral on the importance of CRM in sales. These facts
say that CRM is anonymously considered as the key aspect of the sales generation tools but the level of
the impact if CRM may very strong or average on sales of the retail stores.
Retailer's Views about the Importance of CRM

in Sales
3%
20%
Neutral
Agree
Strongly Agree
77%
8. Retailers view about attending the customer:
Managers of the retail stores of Udaipur are giving less personal touch to the consumers as only 7% of
the retailers believe in personally communicating with the customers. Only 3% of the retailers say that
they do not attend the customers personally as they provide self service to the customers and when
customers face any problem then they help them.
Retailer's Views about Attending the Customer

3%
7%
13% Manager
Sales Executive
27%
Salesman
Receptionist
50%
Any Other (self service)
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9. Different ways to build good relationship with customer:
Almost all of the retailers of Udaipur are using various mean to build a good relationship with the
customers. Festival offers, Regular feedbacks and after sales services constitute the major part of the
practices used to build a healthy relationship with the customers. There are only 8% of the retailers who
are making the use of all kind of the practices to have the faith of the customers in them.
%of Retailer's using different ways to build good relationship

wih customers
Coupons
11%
19% Membership Cards
12% Festival Offers
12% After Sale Services
23% Home Delivery
15%
Regular feedback
10. Retailers view about customer complaints regarding their product and services:
Only 23% retailers said that the customers never complain. But this per cent is very low which reflect
that in Mumbai 77% retailers are facing complaints of the consumers regarding their products and
services and they are not providing up to the mark services and products to the consumers though the
complaints may be rare and few.
The total number of 40% retailers admit that there are rare chances that the customers complain about
their products because these try to satisfy the customers up to their best level.
37% of the total retailers admit that sometimes there may be faults in the products and services provided
to the consumers but only few consumers complain depending on the impact and level of the fault and
defect in the product.
Retailer's View About Customer's

Complaints regarding their products &
Services
23% 37% Few Complaints
Rarely Complains
Never Complains
40%
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11. Percentage of special schemes offered by the retailers:
15% of the total retailers are very aggressive in offering the special schemes to the customers and they
offers all schemes like heavy discounts, free product with special purchase, gifts and bumper prizes, any
other schemes like festival offers etc. to attract the customers and to have maximum footfalls. There are
17% organised retail store in Udaipur which not offering any of the special schemes to the customers.
The reasons vary from the retailer to retailers. Some of the retailers say that they incur high production
cost and their products' quality is much higher than the products offered by the competitors, so why to
use these cheap gimmicks.
% of Special Schemes offered by the Retailers

17% Heavy Discounts
26%
15% Free Product with

special purchase
15%
12% Gift
15%
12. Various ways by retailer to maintain customer loyalty:
Only about 9% retail stores are making the use of all the methods of the building customer loyalty like
guarantee and response forms, accepting credit/ debit cards, mail orders, loyalty cards, and credit sales.
The maximum number of 33.33% retailers focus on accepting credit/debit cards as higher income
segments and the foreign customers prefer to use the debit/credit cards to make purchase.Guarantee and
response forms and credit sales are also given high weightage (about 21% and 18% respectively).Loyalty
cards and acceptance of mail orders are least in trend in the tier II city like Mumbai.
%of ways adopted by retailers to maintain Customer Loyalty
Credit sales 18.18%

Loyalty cards 9.09%
Accepting mail orders 9.09%
Accepting Credit/Debit cards 33.33% %of ways adopted by…
Guarantee and response… 21.21%

All 9.09%
0.00% 10.00% 20.00% 30.00% 40.00%
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13. Retailers sending greeting cards to the customer:
The graph shows that 80% of the organised retailers believe in to be in touch with the customers. They
send festival greeting, birthday greetings, and anniversary greeting to their customers especially loyal
ones. Festival greetings constitute a major part of these greeting cards. Reason being is that along with
these festival greeting cards these retailers can also send the special offers of schemes of the specific
customers only.
%of Retailers sending Greeting Cards to

the Customers
Birthday
20% 18%
Anniversary
12% 18% Festival Greetings

All
32%
None
4.5. CONCLUSIONS
The CRM practices is important variables in the success of the shopping mall.. The study has identified
the variables influencing customer satisfaction. It can be understood consumer promotional tool,
customer services at malls and high variance in explaining towards services offered by mall retailers at
shopping mall at Bangalore.
The retailers should see in implementing the Activities of shopping mall employees and loyalty programs
variables for enhanced satisfying to go for shopping to build a long term relationship with services
provided by mall retailer by customers.
Shopping malls retailers should take in to consideration and understanding the customers touch points
related to services offered by shopping malls. Even through the mall retailer were making adequate
efforts there are some factors where the salient or unsatisfied services levels are make clear and improve
some measures those levels to bridge the gap to built long term relationship enhances customers
satisfaction and offers a pleasant shopping experiences when the customers are visiting shopping malls.
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Today “ customers is God “services offered by mall retailers play a major role in meeting customers’
expectations and perception make comfortable better shopping in malls.
A complete CRM system is a combination of each of these types of relationship strategies: value-added
incentives, emotional bonding, an interactive dialog, customized and personalized treatment, and an eye
towards the ethics of the situation. The key objective of a comprehensive CRM system is its ability to
retain customers at each stage of the business life cycle.
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CHAPTER 5
5. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
5.1. INTRODUCTION
The retail service industry is the highest speed growing business in the global market and has undergone
a significant transformation over the past decade. As the develop service landscape, because of the
increased industrial competition, the retail industry faces more enormous challenges in maintaining a
competitive position to continue to having high profitability. One of the challanges is making innovation
in the development of new service and the existing service. But it seems that the service business,
including retailers, failed to do what is called the consumer perception of service innovativeness
(Kristaung & Riorini, 2010),
The modern retail store that has been so popular has experienced a tremendous shock with a disruptive
economy, which actually started when entering the 2000s. It's just that at the beginning that was affected
at that time was the business of mass media such as magazines and newspapers, entertainment businesses
such as tapes and CDs that had been abandoned or were being scaled up. The violent turbulence that hit
the retail business in 2017 as data presented by Deloitte in India as one of the emerging markets in the
world presents fascinating information (Deloitte, 2017; 2019). This actually confirms from various
previous empirical data from various users globally. Retail businesses that only rely on conventional
networks (off-line stores) are genuinely threatened by the ecosystem.
The impact of retail sales per category affects consumers, known as the term High Digital Influencer
Factor (DIF). The digital influence factor is the % of in-store retail sales influenced by shopper's use of
any digital devices (laptops, desktops, smartphones, tablets, wearables) and in-store devices (i.e., kiosk,
mobile payment devices) (Deloitte, 2017).
It has become a widely accepted agreement, that in order to survive in the current competition, any
business including the service sector that the company's efforts to improve customer relationship
management (CRM) capabilities must be managed as well as possible, therefore the company is
competent to capture the essence of customer needs and desires (Wang, Cavusoglu, & Deng, 2016;
Maggon & Chaudhry, 2017). But it also needs to be understood that CRM is not only related to capability
but also with organizational commitment, customer experience, process-driven approach, reliability and
technology-orientation (Padmavathy, Balaji, & Sivakumar, 2012; Lee, Back, & Park, 2017). CRM
capability is divided into three measurements by Wang & Feng (2012) and also Valmohammadi (2017),
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namely customer interaction management, customer relationship upgrading, and customer win-back
capability.
One criticism of CRM is that study and implementation are too dominated by the perspective of
information technology and information systems. Even though it should also take into account service or
customer orientation and value co-creation (Saarijarvi, Karjaluoto, & Hannu, 2013) (Steinhoff &
Palmatier, 2016)). As the introduction at the beginning of the 1990s, customer relationship management
(CRM) has evolved various concepts. General concepts and fragmented research were caused by domains
operating at several levels of analysis: conceptual, empirical, and practical (Lainamngern, 2019).
(Saarijarvi et al., 2013) argues that one of the bases of CRM is that customer data is used for the profit
of the company, to be exact as main supply for company processes.
Through CRM, events such as cross-selling, marketing communications are adjusted or segmented, the
potential worth of customer data is processed into data and information for companies to be able to market
more products and to manage better customer relationships (Saarijarvi et al., 2013) . Developing
customer relationship management measurement tool is very fundamental to get the right measurement
construction. Some studies have projected measuring instruments in marketing relations (Padmavathy et
al., 2012). Thus, the most considerable part of the scale is shaped in the context of business-to-business
(B2B) relationships and is generally the most prominent in the banking and financial business. It is
critically to recognize the useful measurement tools in the context of business-customer relations (B2C)
for other service business, especially the retail industry. Thus, it is not just adopting existing measuring
instruments; on the contrary, developing a scale that precisely considered for a specific business seems
to be a more feasible research strategy. Sometimes the CRM companies' activities can also cause misuse
of customer data, mostly known as the "dark side" of CRM (Anabila & Awunyo-vitor,
2013)(Lainamngern, 2019). Increasing the challenges of conventional CRM activities carried out by
companies need to change the paradigm with innovative ways to use customer data, such as selecting
and providing the data back to customers(Reijonen & Laukkanen, 2010).
Recent research on CRM has not discussed this kind of customer data. In contrast, most research which
centers on gathering knowledge about existing CRM domains, which means ignoring both theoretical
and managerial opportunities related to this phenomenon, is growing (Reijonen & Laukkanen, 2010)
(Lainamngern, 2019) Similarly, a comprehension of relationship marketing will not be completed
without determining CRM dimensions or attributes first. A comprehensive understanding of crucial
dimensions is essential because without this information, it would be sufficient to convince practitioners
and researchers that marketing relationship is the critical success in marketing ((Ernst, Hoyer, Krafft, &
Krieger, 2011), (Colbert & Dantas, 2019). A massive purpose of the marketing literature exposes various
dimensions of marketing relations that have been proposed and tested, such as faith, commitment,
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cooperation, communication, shared values, problem solving, power, non-opportunistic behaviour,
bonding, empathy, interdependence, satisfaction and much again as a critical variable of successful CRM
and relationship marketing (Saarijarvi et al., 2013). However, most of the dimensions of the marketing
relationship are validated in the context of mature markets and the possibility that differences in consumer
culture will affect their application in dissimilar settings. Thus, this article aims to develop and validate
customer relationship management with new measuring instruments that are uniquely shaped for the
retail service business. The new instruments were tested empirically based on multi-dimensional
chronicles, reliability, and validity using exploration and confirmation of factor analysis. Then, this study
aims to construct the relationship management dimension from the customer's perspective for the retail
service business. This research is expected to provide a more effective customer relationship management
instrumentation for the retail service business in the current millennial era.
The retailer and customer relationship is favourable for organizations to flourish in any economic
condition and for customers to receive quality products and services. Therefore, the right Customer
Relationship Management Strategies practiced is able to create a strong relationship with customers and
at the end of the day it will creates loyal customers. This will subsequently increase company’s
profitability regardless of economic condition.
5.2. MAJOR CONCLUSIONS OF THE STUDY
As discussed earlier, it has been recorded that the cost of keeping an existing customer happy is far less
than that of acquiring a new one. But the maintenance of a relationship with an existing customer requires
the organization to be dynamic. The automated CRM system plays a critical role in such cases, by
allowing for more processes to be made efficient and more effective than those already in effect.
The social bond that an organization creates between itself and its customers is the foundation of the
relationship that could result in long-term benefits to both parties. The term ‘social bond’ refers to the
friendly companionship whose properties are incorporated by the organization in the relationship.
Interpersonal interactions between people within the organization and customers strengthen the linkage
and decrease the likelihood that the customer will want to switch providers; thus, efforts that focus on
such bonds will help in increasing the level of customer loyalty.
As with producer brands, differentiation is a central concept in retail brand strategy, and applicable across
all retail sectors. We identify six key sources of retail brand differentiation: investment in store brands,
investment in the supply chain and supplier relationships, mass marketing, the development of direct
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customer relationships, brand integrity and brand culture. Overall, segmentation is relevant in retail brand
strategy, particularly in repertoire and service retailing, but it is less central than it is for producer brands.
While there are examples of segmented propositions in product retailing outside fashion and home,
lifestyle retailers often compete for maximum market share in their categories, across all customer groups
within their catchment areas and across a wide range of price positions. A real and important difference
between most producer brands and most retail brands is the sheer multiplicity of retail brand attributes,
and their high rate of change. The problems this creates around clarity of brand positioning are greatest
in grocery and hypermarket or supercenter retailing, which need to work hard to create a broad umbrella
brand assurance of quality, value and service, overlaid with unique store brands. The multiplicity of
attributes of a retail brand also creates practical differences in decision-making, control and organisation
relative to classical fmcg brand management. Two intrinsic differences are often argued to exist between
the economics of retail brands and producer brands: the level and nature of the brand premium, and the
ability to invest in brand-building. For retailers with highly developed and high quality store brands, there
is no fundamental difference in the potential for a volume and price premium; but retailers who mainly
sell producer brands cannot extract any material longrun price premium, and must instead focus on
volume advantage versus competitors. There is no innate difference between retail and producer brands
in their ability to invest in brand-building: the high financial and operational gearing of many non-UK
retailers is a choice rather than an inevitability and need not constrain productive investment; operating
margins, thin or fat, are the result of strategy, not the cause.
5.3. SUGGESTIONS & RECOMMENDATIONS
The retail industry is awash with data on customers – personal characteristics, income and spending
habits, lifestyle, social media activity, and so forth. Data collection can take the form of POS systems to
customer surveys to publicly available demographic data. Numerous analytics firms offer to turn your
unstructured data into digestible reports. Faced with infinite possibilities to utilize retail data, how does
a retail owner, regional manager, branch manager move forward implementing strategies that capitalize
on customer insights for tangible gain?
A great number of potential strategies tie into your CRM. Your retail CRM is more than a repository of
contact data and transactions. A well-featured CRM integrated with data from your POS system can
provide a complete picture of customers, sales benchmarks, marketing campaign performance and KPIs
while predicting trends and providing a unified platform for customer service. Retail CRM automation,
properly configured, can free up store agents on the floor from busy work and focus their attention on
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customer engagement. There are numerous actionable strategies to be built outward from your retail
CRM, and we’ve assembled a concise list of 10 that you can implement from the right platform.
1. Segment Customers to Improve Marketing ROI
A retail CRM will allow custom tags and fields to be associated with contact info. These tags and fields
can refer to specific customer attributes that aren’t built into the CRM; filtered reports can isolate
correlations between specific criteria and buying behavior, products, receptiveness to certain kinds of
marketing, and so forth. (Determining which criteria is relevant depends on your industry, company and
customer base.) Identifying these correlations allows you to target marketing resources towards
customers based on known interests and needs, which in turn yields better marketing ROI.
Retailers market products differently based on which customers are likely to buy them. A fast food chain
might determine based on retail CRM data that chicken nuggets are popular with kids, and might target
internet ads on websites popular with that age demographic while selling nuggets in kid-friendly
packaging with toys. That same brand might market breakfast meals towards the adult crowd coming in
before work – coffee and a breakfast sandwich. Marketing sensibilities that themselves are not new can
be implemented through a retail CRM and measured, tailored and better redeployed for accurate KPI
measurement and allocation of budget.
2. Identify and Upsell Your Most Profitable Customers
The more customer data in your retail CRM, the more you can pinpoint opportunities and pitfalls. High
granularity in customer data allows you to identify costs per customer (CPC), a metric that includes
marketing expenses and customer service costs weighed against how much they spend. Not only does
this inform individual agents’ time allocation for the value of service calls but it also identifies your most
profitable customers.
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Pareto’s Principle of 80/20 applies – the top twenty percent are worth eighty percent of your revenue (or
a comparable percentage). This aligns with customer segmentation in that you’ll likely find correlations
between characteristics and shopping habits, but there may be outliers. Whatever the case, identify your
top customers, their types of purchases, the value they bring, their purchase lifecycle, and then sell to
them more.
3. Prevent Leads from Leaving the Sales Funnel
This Accenture Strategy are the most profitable customers – and might browse items on your website or
leave items in their shopping carts. Customers can be shown recently viewed items when they return to
your site, or receive email reminders for unpurchased items.
The most common reason for online customers to abandon their shopping carts is the discovery of
unexpected costs. This can be mitigated with a one-time promotion of, say 10%e off the items in their
cart.
This data can be used for in-person interactions as well. Sales associates interacting with customers in a
physical store can link customers to their online accounts and provide individual discounts to
encourage a sale, if they feel a customer is unlikely to buy without one. The in-person engagement
provides an opportunity to obtain further data to contribute to future promotions, whether online or
offline.
4. Improve In-store Customer Experiences (CX)
Of course, this applies to retailers with a brick and mortar presence. Retail CRM data informs retailers
to their shoppers’ demographic traits with associated spending habits and preferences. The same
analysis for customer segmentation isolated for a region or branch informs store layout (positioning
frequent product pairings together) and promotions (discounts on a poorly selling item when paired
with a popular one) while local loyalty cards can contribute to the larger CRM database.
Wi-Fi in stores allows floor staff to access retail CRM data for product availability, customer data or
communication. Customers can opt-in to receive targeted promotions based on their browsing or buying
behavior on other platforms – information also stored in the CRM. Providing services like allowing
customers to interact with the products and have them shipped directly to their homes with the same
shipping deals as online channels (for example, free shipping over $50) helps customers feel they aren’t
missing out by shopping in-store, and there’s the opportunity for anonymous surveys on the spot.
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Customer experiences correlate strongly with brand loyalty; therefore, the in-store experience is an
excellent opportunity to directly, positively influence customers’ brand opinions. Brick and mortars have
excellent potential for implementation of digital customer data to create a personalized brand experience.
5. Unify Customer Support Across All Channels
Timely, personal responses to customer complaints avert negative brand impressions before they gain
steam (or appear on social media). Customers expect consistent engagement across all channels – what
they tell an agent on the phone should be available to the next agent they engage in a web chat, an email
or on social media. CRMs for retail must provide a unified inbox for support tickets, created
automatically from emails or web forms with manual input from agents when necessary. Helpdesk CRMs
like Zendesk or Freshdesk build tickets from email, phone calls, SMS, social media, and web forms,
which can be merged, prioritized, tagged, assigned to specific agents and reported on. This provides
insight into individual agent performance, overall service department performance, which items produce
the most complaints through custom helpdesk reports.
With the abundance of channels through which customers engage your brand, a unified helpdesk enables
your support agents to address customer needs from a central hub. From a proactive standpoint, helpdesk
CRMs can integrate with social media monitoring services which ping a support agent when the brand
begins to trend negatively. This brings agent attention to problematic issues to resolve customer service
issues before they gain steam.
6. Spot Weak Links with Customer Feedback
Customers’ product complaints logged in helpdesk features of retail CRMs provide valuable data on
which product features reduce customer satisfaction, why products are returned and how customers
would prefer they perform better. This informs you whether the product is worth carrying and which
alternatives might produce better sales or customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction surveys specific
to a product provide additional context to the product’s actual use and the circumstances in which it fails.
This allows you to warn customers about potentially hazardous uses or sub-optimal conditions for a
product which can reduce complaints.
Customers are influenced by online reviews. The feedback your business receives is a fraction of what’s
shared online or through word of mouth. Identifying weak product links allows you to adjust your product
or service offerings accordingly to limit impact from unhappy customers.
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How many negative reviews would you have to read before
changing your mind about buying a read before changing your
mind about buying a product or service?
45%
40%
35%
30%
25%
20% 39%
15%
24% 22%
10%
5% 11%
4%
0%
1 2 3 4 5 or more
7. Improve Productivity with Automation
Employees’ time and mental bandwidth being best used towards productive ends, and valuable CRM
data – though often scraped from digital marketing and online tracking – still requires some manual input.
Retail CRMs are able to automate data entry as well as task notification and follow-up reminders to
reduce employees’ time spent navigating the platform.
One type of automation comes with the addition of new contacts, leads or opportunities. The end user
selects a custom workflow from a list to apply characteristics – demographic data, status, urgency – while
manually entering unique criteria. Then they apply a separate automation, sometimes called a macro, that
reminds CRM users in the marketing department to follow up post-purchase – maybe 24 hours later,
maybe 3 days – through email or a channel specified by the customer. These online interactions provide
more opportunities to collect data and further refine and personalize individual engagement.
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CRM automation is usually distinguished by which ‘pillar’ of CRM they address – sales, marketing or
customer service. Sales force automation refers to order management, contact management, leads,
opportunities and so forth. Marketing automation refers to emails, social media and website activity.
Service automation typically addresses common customer questions with the ability to draw human
attention when the request gets too complex. All three types of automation are being increasingly
deployed in leading CRM solutions.
7. Optimize Marketing Tactics with A/B Testing
Retail CRMs allow marketing approaches to be tested against one another for the best outcome within
customer segments. A step beyond customer segmentation, A/B testing allows a business to optimize
email marketing strategies – tone, structure, images, promotions – and custom landing pages by
comparing performance with online metrics like click-through rates, bounce rates, exit rates, conversion
rates. The same clinical approach can be taken to inbound marketing and content production. Certain
CRMs allow built-in A/B comparisons for email templates and landing pages with statistics for
competing approaches side by side. This allows for clearer oversight over marketing direction and
potentially further increased ROI.
There are a number of minutiae you can drill down to determine which drives more customer
engagement. After a certain point, you may find diminishing returns per time spent – trying to squeeze a
few fractions of percentage points with tiny changes – but A/B testing offers measurable gains to retailers
willing to refine their inbound marketing approach.
8. Retrieve Lost Leads with New Engagement

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The CRM will contain data of past customers or old leads that haven’t engaged your business in some
time. Automations can be set to contact customers after a period of weeks or months with a
personalized message to inform them of unique promotions for re-engagement or announcements of
new inventory or services. Certain approaches – such as inviting recipients to fill out a survey,
providing them with interesting content or discounted goods, asking them to update their email settings
– can be A/B tested.
The customer has already gone cold – outreach wouldn’t hurt. Sometimes a lost lead just needs a reminder
to come back to your brand.
9. Eliminate Churn using Predictive Analytics

Among the reporting features of retail CRMs is the ability to forecast product sales and demand,
revenue, costs from which you can extrapolate inventory needs and pricing. The forecasts build on
CRM data incorporating imported POS data; the CRM can integrate with third-party predictive
analytics companies that incorporate additional data like weather, social events and customer
sentiment. The reports can be further filtered to forecast based on customer segments, seasonality,
location and other granular criteria.
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As machine learning develops and retail CRMs can better segment customers based on receptiveness to
marketing approaches – such as which respond well to email promotions of which nature – forecasts will
be better able to predict marketing performance according to specified criteria and allow retailers to
optimize prices for improved margins and reduced churn.
Secure Your Data and Collect Wisely!
A data-driven retail CRM strategy can bring the most value from your tech assets, but data security and
privacy are on the front of customers’ minds. Inform customers when data is collected and provide fair
value for the information; for example, offering online visitors gated content, a chance to win a prize,
or simply optimized service in exchange for filling out a survey. Meanwhile, protect customer data by
reinforcing security practices among employees, storing information securely, ensuring PCI
compliance, SSL encryption and so on. Customer trust, convenience and satisfaction are the keys to
brand distinction in the omnichannel age, and your retail CRM can play an integral role in getting your
company up to speed without sacrificing security.
5.4 . CONCLUSIONS
Keeping in mind the diversity and the innumerable opportunities that our city offers, we have devised a
multiple array of ideas and solutions that are uniquely Indian. From small kiosks that serves the average
Indian with snacks and food that cater to local Indian taste whenever and wherever he wants, to large
scale formats that will cater to every need and requirement of homemaker, Thus we are implementing
concepts that will ultimately help it achieve its vision of delivering "Everything, Everywhere, Every time,
for every Indian consumer in the most profitable manner."
The cross functional analysis revealed that a gap exists between the perception of the organizations
employees and the perception of the customers’ on the prime objectives of CRM. The organizations
employees and its customer are on two extremes. The employees perceive that customers are satisfied,
are loyal and trust the bank, whilst customers appear to disagree on this, as the analysis show that
customers believe that there is more room for improvement.
Therefore the organization needs to improve immensely on its CRM initiatives, plans, strategies, and
implementation activities as the organization at present is not achieving CRM objectives. Another reason
for the organization failing to meet the CRM objectives can be contributed to the fact that no proper
initiatives have been taken to improve the basic CRM components. Failure to measure current CRM
initiatives that have been rolled out also can be concluded as a factor for the organization not been up to
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the benchmarked standard. Therefore it’s important that organizations measure CRM as the high
percentage of CRM failures has been attributed towards lack of CRM measurement indicators (Payne
2001 & Zabalah et al 2004)5.2.2- Conclusions derived from the cross functional analysis of CRM
objectives in the organization.
Summarizing the finding on the customer questionnaire where the author directed an open ended question
on how the organization can take measure to improve customer experience the following were revealed
The organization taking measures rotate staff specially the relationship officers, every three months is
said to dissatisfy the customers to a great extent. Reicheld (1993) agrees that organizations should be
very tactful a as research has found customers are more satisfied with dealing with one staff and were
easily dissatisfied when change occurred.
The customers felt that processing transactions at the branch are much more time consuming when
compared with the competitors. The reason for this also could be contributed as recruitment of new staff
is taking place within the bank as the bank is in its expanding stage and therefore staffs in the branch are
trainees most of the time.
• Customers find it hard contacting employees regarding banking matters.

• Lighting in the branch needs to be improved.
• Queuing time to be reduced
• Introduce e-banking facility and telephone banking for transaction convenience
• Extend banking hours
Therefore in order for the CRM to be initiated the organization firstly needs to allocate resources to meet
the requirements of the CRM components. The primary research suggests that the employees in the
organization remain a critical success factor of CRM. Therefore to enhance effectiveness of CRM ‘
organization’s people’ will play a huge role, especially in a service driven organization as it is lead by
the organizations employees Rootman, Tait & Bosch (2008).
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APPENDIX
Appendix A: Interview Protocol
Participants: Prior to interview, participants will be selected based on the doctoral study criteria:
1. Documented marketing strategy success with online website selling apparel and accessories
2. Classified as small business with less than 100 employees
3. Brick-and-mortar location in Central, Southside and Tri-Cities areas of Virginia
4. Business is 5 years old or older
5. Twenty- five percent of total sales in e-commerce, verified with business owner
Questions: Nine questions about marketing strategies, customer relationship management, social media
strategy, and target market characteristics and details
Location: I will conduct interviews onsite at the store or manager’s home office location or via telephone
if a space conducive to no distractions or interruptions is not available.
Audio Recording & Transcription: I will voice record the interview and write notes during the
interview. After review of the notes and voice record, I will use the Livescribe instrument to transform
my written notes into digital content. I will forward the transcribed synthesized notes of the interview for
member checking to the interviewee within 1 week of the face to face interview. Member checking will
be conducted via email.
Length of Interview: Each interview will have a time allotment of 1-2 hours.
Checklist:
1. Share objectives of interview

2. Ask for permission to audio record the interview and reason for recording
3. Share with the interviewee, that he or she has the choice to ask for clarification about a specific
question
4. Share with the interviewee that he or she has the choice to decline to answer a question
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5. Share with the interviewee that he or she has the choice to ask questions of me during the
interview
6. Reiterate confidentiality.
7. Share time frame allotted for interview
Appendix B: Interview Questions
1. How would you describe your target market for both your physical location and online website?
2. What marketing strategies have you used for both the goods and services you market to your
target customers online?
3. What strategies do you use to establish and maintain relationships with your target customers in
store and online?
4. What are your pricing strategies for the online store and the physical store?
5. What promotional strategies do you use for marketing to online customers?
6. What social media sites do you use to reach your target market?
7. What strategies do you use to reach online customers?
8. How do you measure the effectiveness or success of your marketing strategies?
9. Please share any additional information pertaining to marketing strategies for your store that were
not covered.
Appendix C: Invite Correspondence Letter to Participants
Greetings,
My name is Nikki Hicks. I am a Doctoral Student at Walden University conducting a study on successful
marketing strategies used in the local retailing scene. I am contacting you because of your experience in
retailing and working with online customers for your organization. This email is a formal invitation for
you to participate in my study. My study will explore effective marketing strategies that small store retail
owners and/or managers use to successfully sell apparel and accessories in online markets.
If you agree to be part of this research project, I would ask that you:
• Complete an approximate 1-hour interview

• Allow me to voice record the interview
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• Allow me to review marketing and promotional materials and your social media websites
(examples of marketing and promotional materials include: Advertisements, manuals,
background papers, brochures, journals, event flyers or programs, letters, memoranda, newspaper
clippings, press releases, radio/TV scripts, organization reports, survey data, conversion rates for
social media pages sales, and conversion rates for website sales
• A few weeks after the initial interview, review an interview summary for accuracy –
approximately 30-60 minutes
I anticipate collecting data during the months of July and August. I will coordinate the exact times of
data collection with you in order to minimize disruption to your normal business activities.
If you prefer not to be involved in this study, that is not a problem at all.
I am excited for the opportunity to interview experts that have experienced success in the local retailing
scene. I would be pleased to share the results of this study with you at the conclusion. If you are interested
in participating, please email me at XXXXX. I will schedule a day and time that is convenient for you to
conduct the interview. I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Nikki Rhue Hicks,
Doctoral Business Administration Candidate
Walden University
Appendix D: Follow-Up E-mail Thank-You and Interview Summary
Dear Study Participant,
Thank you again for agreeing to meet with me a few weeks ago to discuss marketing strategies you are
using to attract and retain customers in your physical and online stores.
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I am attaching a copy of the interview interpretation based on transcription of the audio file. Please review
the attached file. If you agree with the interpretation no reply is needed to this email. I ask that you
respond in 7 days if any changes need to be made.
Any questions, please feel free to contact me.
I sincerely appreciate your willingness to participate in my study. I will share my results with you upon
final approval.
Best regards,
Nikki Hicks Doctoral Business Administration Candidate
Walden University
Appendix E: Study Participants Response Record
Dear Student Participant,
Attached is the transcribed file for your review regarding summary of the question responses. Please feel
free to provide any comments to me via e-mail within 2 days with any changes.
1. How would you describe your target market for both your physical location and online website?
2. What marketing strategies have you used for both the goods and services you market to your
target customers online?
3. What strategies do you use to establish and maintain relationships with your target customers in
store and online?
4. What are your pricing strategies for the online store and the physical store.
5. What promotional strategies do you use for marketing to online customers?
6. What social media sites do you use to reach your target market?
7. What strategies do you use to reach online customers?
8. How do you measure the effectiveness or success of your marketing strategies?
9. Please share any additional information pertaining to marketing strategies for your store that were
not covered.
89 | P a g e
Appendix F: McLean and DeLone Prescreen Checklist
Success Variables Defined Characteristics Met Not

Met
Desirable information system Alternative visual design
System Quality
System flexibility
Response times
Ease of placing and tracking
order
Secure and easy payments
Accuracy of price and product
Information Quality Desirable system outputs
info
Up to date information on
website
Useful information
Enjoyment
User Satisfaction Attractiveness of website
Attractive appearance
Inspire user control
Easy to navigate
Usability Ease of use website
Error prevention
Speed
Consistency
90 | P a g e

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A STUDY OF IMPACT OF CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP

MANAGEMENT IN RETAIL INDUSTRY

University of Mumbai for partial completion of the degree

Under the Faculty of Commerce

Under the Guidance of

Dr. VARSHA MALLAH

Bhavan's Hazarimal Somani College of Arts & Science

BHAVAN'S HAZARIMAL SOMANI COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCE

MUMBAI CHOWPATTY, MAHARASHTRA 400007

Name and Signature of Guiding Teacher

Date of submission. 20-04-2021

Name and Signature of the learner

Name and signature of the Guiding Teacher

S No. Content Page No.

3.2. Review of Literature 49

4 DATA ANALYSIS, INTEPRETATION & PRESENTATION

5 CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

S. No Content Page No.

1 Demographic Representation of the Respondents 37

S. No Content Page No.

1 All in One CRM for End-to-end Customer Lifecycle 11

2 Process of CRM in Retail 14

4 The First Commercial Computers Evolution 22

5 The Early Days of CRM 23

7 Trends in retail marketing 28

S. No Content Page No.

1 Percentage of income group of consumer for retail outlet in 59

Keywords: Customer, Retail, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Initiatives, Customer

Figure 1- All in One CRM for End-to-end Customer Lifecycle Management

CRM can be ‘a cross-functional, customer-driven and technology-integrated business process

Analyzing Customer Data

Figure 2- Process of CRM in Retail

❖ The Implication of CRM Practice on Customer Loyalty

❖ The Implication of CRM Practice on Customer Retention

The Latest Trends in CRM Practice in India

• Reliance Fresh has its initiative called ‘Reliance One’

➢ Challenges facing to implement CRM initiatives

➢ Customer Relationship Management Problems to be Aware of

❖ Some of the challenges include the following:

Application management – This is another customer relationship management problem that

1.3. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

1.4. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Figure 3- Beginning of CRM

▪ Your buyers and sellers in the supply chain

➢ Where there is Trade, there must be Accounting

➢ Moving to the Twentieth Century

Figure 4- The First Commercial Computers Evolution

➢ Automating Sales and Marketing.

➢ The Emergence of CRM as a Product

Figure 5- The Early Days of CRM

Then in 1999, there were two major changes:

▪ Mobile and e-CRM was offered by companies such as Siebel

➢ Electronic and Mobile CRM

➢ Software as a Service: Sales force the Stealth Bomber

➢ CRM in the 21st Century

• Professor Jagdish Sheth, venerable marketing Guru

• Professor Leonard Berry (Texas A&M University)