Prakash Jain from The Raymond Shop, T Nagar, Chennai has an indomitable spirit of rising in the retail business. Jain shares his enlightening story post-association with The Raymond Shop.
Food grain business to apparel retail is an interesting business shift, what inspire you do that?
We had our food grain trade family business in Rajasthan. In 1986, through a friend, we got an opportunity to get associated with Raymond, who was already operating The Raymond Shop in Chennai. Inspired by his success, we started our first store in Pondy Bazar and since then there was no looking back. In 1998, we bought a store at Manokamna Extension in Usman Road, T.Nagar, which is the retail hub of Chennai. Currently, we have five Raymond stores in Chennai.
How has franchising helped you to grow your business?
Raymond has always been too kind with its franchisees. The brand offers a lot of support to grow the business and handhold its partners in operations, sales, marketing, etc.
Where do you see yourself in this competitive market?
With influx of more domestic and international chains getting organized, the competition is increasing day by day. To always be on the top, we concentrate on customer service, custom tailoring and availability of the products, which are in trend.
How has the retail consumer evolved over the time?
Earlier the customers had less options as compared to now. Due to technology enhancement and increased travelling, our clients are well aware of the products available in the market, more over new-age customers are more specific about the product and stylings.
Tell us about your renovation experience with Raymond as you have renovated and expanded the stores last year.
We renovated our store and re-launched it on May 2016 with a better look and feel. Post-renovation, the display and the colour blocking of products have been changed. With novel VM, it has given more visibility on products. The overhaul has lead to revenue increase of our readymade section with 50 per cent growth.
What is your advice to the aspiring franchisees?
Concentrate more on customer service, right stock maintenance and proper display of products with product knowledge and the positive ambience, which automatically leads to success. Never take short cuts.
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