Executive Summary

Shwapno is a part of ACI Logistics. The ultimate objective of Shwapno is to ensure access to a
broader range of people of Bangladesh. It has a special focus to serve the different income group
of the country by providing services that are convenient, affordable and reliable. This report
mainly focuses on the retailer business as a whole and Shwapno place in this competitive industry.
Through the report I have tried to do a comparison between Shwapno
and Agora and find out the competitive advantages of each of the company. In the end, I
have suggested some recommendation that Shwapno can implement to maintain their
competitive advantage be a market leader in the industry.
The report is containing a comparison between Shwapno, Agora and meena Bazar in terms of
their strategy and value branding. There the comparison based on visibility level, area covered by
the company and other branding issue. The report also portrays the industry through Porters’ Five
forces model. The threat of new entrants is low due to the shortage in spectrum and bargaining
power of suppliers is also low. If one studies the comparative analysis of the market, it can be seen
that Shwapno has already built brand equity among its customer. Thus far, it has been able to hold
on to its leadership without doing much.
 Chapter 1: Introduction
SHWAPNO, a concern of ACI group established in 2008 is an integral part of the overall ACI
group. It represents and exemplifies ACI‟s commitment to bring about a better Bangladesh and be
a catalyst to change the lives of millions of individuals for the better. SHWAPNO, with its 46
retails stores, situated in strategic positions around Bangladesh is the largest retail chain in the
country with over 35% markets share of the growing 1500 crore taka retail industry. Retail industry
in Bangladesh has huge scope since only 2% of the entire population is served by the retail
industry. ACI‟s retail arm has carved an enviable name for itself in the market place. Through its
meticulous and analytical top management and innovative marketing strategies, SHWAPNO has
been able to achieve a dominant position in the market place. Even though the other retail chain,
Agora and Meena Bazaar have had long established presence in the Bangladeshi market, neither
has been able to achieve the broad reach and brand equity that SHWAPNO has been able to.

1.1 Objective of the report:

 To find out market strategy and target customer of shwapno

 To know about HRM strategic approach
 To know the promotional tools of Shwapno
 To make a comparison about the challenges and opportunities with the
competitor company Shwapno
 To have a clear view of current scenario of Shwapno
 To learn which are the promotional tools are used.
 To learn strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the company.
 To learn the factors influencing customer satisfaction.

1.2 Methodology:

The data of this study has been collected through secondary sources such as different journals,
articles, research publication, and internet etc. To give the report a better look, secondary data is
also collected from different brochures, newspapers and consultation and some interview sessions

1.3 Limitation of the report:

In every research work there exist some limitations that the researcher faces while conducting
different activities. In the process of the research work, we also come across certain limitations
that hampered the actual findings and analysis of my research work. Some of these notable
limitations can be identified are

 Employees of Shwapno are usually busy with their daily work and activities, so it is quite
impossible sometime to get time from them for getting information about our report.
 Sometimes the authority does not provide their internal information which is very difficult
to collect from any other sources.
 Insufficient information on journals, internet and poor company profile
 Limitation of time is also a barrier for making this report.

Chapter 2: Shwapno and its Strategy

2.1 Overview of the company:

Shwapno is the top retail brand in Bangladesh operated by ACI Logistics Limited. As the largest
retail chain in the country, Shwapno touches the lives of over 35,000 households each day. ACI
Logistics made its entry into retail in 2008 as “Fresh and Near” in order to fulfill the company’s
“Seed to Shelf” vision of connecting farmers directly with consumers.
Shwapno is well set to become one of Bangladesh’s largest businesses in the coming years
Starting off with fresh produce and daily household needs, Shwapno outlets now carry everything
from apparel, home decor, electronics and much more. This includes a number of grocery private
label brands as well as the in-house fashion label Shwapno Life. Today, Shwapno operates 56
outlets across Dhaka, Chittagong, Sylhet and Comilla, with a total retail space of 310,000 square
feet and a workforce of over 2,500. Shwapno operates multiple outlet formats from small
convenience stores to large megamall layouts (ranging from 1,500 to 27,000 square feet),
providing the ideal experience for customers in each location. The company has been successful
in reaching its position as market leader (with 45% market share) not only because of the
exceptional quality, value, convenience and service it offers customers, but because Shwapno has
been successful in developing a truly world class retail architecture.

2.2 Objectives of Shwapno:

 To give customers confidence and establish and environment of trust.

 Improve product packaging & presentation.
 To offer clean, healthy and a friendly environment to customers for shopping.
 Encourage producers to produce standard & quality products, for better prices.
 Ensure consistency of variety and supplies of products.
 Contribute to the well-being of the people in the process.

2.3 Vision of Shwapno:

Shwapno was launched with a vision to change the lifestyle of Bangladeshi consumers.

2.4 Products arrangement of Shwapno:

Shwapno Products are separated into three master categories.

 Vegetable
 Fruits, Meat and Grains
 Company Goods and Non Food divergence.

The company has tens of thousands of stock keeping units in their portfolio. Each master category
is further subdivided into category, subcategory and type category. These subdivisions great aid
the decision making of management.

Shwapno recently has gone aboard on implementing various businesses and marketing strategies
for each of its master categories. In the VFMG master category, SHWAPNO has introduced live
chicken and live fish products and concentrated on providing consumers with formalin free
products.

In the Non- Food Divergence category, SHWAPNO has introduced products designed by its own
design team, products that can be purchased in interest free installments and lastly, SHWAPNO
has also introduced furniture products to boost sales.

2.5 Target customers of Shwapno:

The target customers of Shwapno are

 Price sensitive customer

 Time- conscious customer

Price-sensitive customers: Those who are highly sensitive — individuals who respond negatively
to higher than average prices and prefer to shop with budget-friendly brands. Price-sensitive
customers tend to be expert comparison shoppers. They’ll research four or five different websites
looking for the lowest possible price before making a purchase decision. Shwapno always try to
keep price reasonable and affordable.

Time- conscious customer: Those who are more giving more importance on time when they are
purchasing any product. Most people are busy with their job. They are not interested to spend more
time on shopping. So they prefer that kind of shops which provide all kinds of item in a one place.
Shwapno is one kind of that store.

2.6 Shwapno’s Strategy analysis

 Non Food Department (NFD) strategy: Swapno came up with a strategy to introduce a
new category to increase sales and gross margin. This is called Non Food Department
(NFD). The goal of this strategy is to increase sales and improve the brand image of
Shwapno.
 Utilization of the surplus space: Management at SHWAPNO thought that the best way
to utilize the surplus space at the outlets was to introduce a category that would increase
the gross margin of the company. By increasing the gross margin of the company,
SHWAPNO would be able to overcome the immense interest payments and turn a profit.
 Business without any monetary contribution: In this strategy, vendors would provide
products at their own cost and shwapno would provide space and expertise in selling these
products. Once the products are sold, shwapno would receive a portion of the sales
proceeds. As for the products that are left unsold, complete liability for these products
would rest with the vendors. This business model proved a win-win for both parties.
 Hiring new designers: New designers were hired from prominent design houses of
Bangladesh that promote Shwapno’s new brand in the lifestyle category. The designers
focused on creating ladies clothing, products for women, male and children. Shwapno’s
designers continually churn out new designs which have captured the imagination of the
Bangladeshi public.
 Revenue Generation: Non Food Divergence category is the most important category in
terms of revenue, potential and growth in the entire company. Shwapno is now not only a
place where consumers come to buy groceries and company goods, but a place where
consumers can have purchase a wide variety of products conveniently.
2.7 Marketing Strategy of Shwapno:
As Shwapno aim is to encourage large sales turnover, their focus is on those income groups who
can afford to buy in large quantities. Therefore, their-marketing strategies are segmented primarily
under the following criterions.
1. Economic status
2. Education
3. Age
1. Economic Status
Person can consider buying an expensive product if he/she has enough spendable income, savings
or borrowing power. Shwapno primarily targets the following classes their customers. They are:
 Middle Class
 Higher-Middle Class
2. Education
The other reason behind choosing the middle and higher-middle class is that they are usually the
more educated among all the other classes, ensure taste and choice according to the management.
3. Age
Consumer needs and wants change with age. Shwapno uses age and life cycle segmentation,
offering different products. Surprisingly, the generation factor seems to be affecting the plans of
Agora in a positive way. According to the marketing manager young people are more at home
shopping at Shwapno rather than going others

Chapter 3: Human Resource Management strategic Approach

3.1 Selection:

The selection process refers to the steps involved in choosing people who have the right
qualifications to fill a current or future job opening.

3.2 Selection Process of Sales Associate in Shwapno:

HR people of Shwapno think selection process is one of the crucial part of the Sales Associate
recruitment; because if the sales force is not recruited efficiently then the organization may get
hampered. So recruitment and selection team ensures that the applicants who are selected must be
capable enough to provide extensive customer service and maintain the organization’s image,
reputation and culture. To choose the right candidate in right way selection process is divided into
some steps. Those are:

1. Sort resumes to short list candidates for interview

2. Interview of candidates
3. Pre-Service Training for selected candidates
4. Reference and Certificate Check
5. Job Offer

Selection process is described below:

Sort resumes to short list candidates for interview:

The first step is to sorting the all resumes to short list the potential candidates according to the
requirements which was provided in the job posting. So while resumes are screened, recruitment
and selection team become concern about the education, experience, age, grooming etc.

Interview of candidates:

Once the potential candidates are short listed from the huge number of applicants, then they are
informed about the interview date and time through phone calls to each candidate with detail. each
candidate is interviewed separately by the interview panel. The panel judges the language skills
proficiency, way of speaking, pronunciations, smartness, cooperativeness, eye contact, knowledge
about customer service and other interpersonal skills as well.

Pre-Service Training for selected candidates:

Pre-service training is provided to candidates who are selected from the interview. It is a 2days
training session where master module is followed. The training contains organization information,
product knowledge, sales policy, customer service.

Reference and Certificate Check:

After the selection is done through the test; then the HR team carries out the background
investigation of the potential candidates by checking their all certificates, references.

Job Offer:

After the verification of the certificates and references the candidates finally become eligible to
join the sales associate team of the Shwapno; so they are requested to carry the joining procedure
of the Shwapno.

3.3 Shwapno’s four Building Blocks analysis:

Superior Quality:

Shwapno has a total quality management team that tightly controls and maintain the quality of all
kind of their products. The customer have guarantee to get the good quality of deshi brand product
and also they get the post purchase facilities like if they found any problem with the product they
can return the product but they have to do it within fifteen days in terms of nonperishable goods.
Shwapno made up mind to make good competition in the market and they are determined to
provide highly quality goods to the customers. Other companies are trying to compete with them
and recently are getting enough close to them.
Superior Innovation:

In the Shwapno, they are explored a range of technologies that are reshaping their activities more
accurately and less timely. They are practicing their regular activities through modern technology.
They keep their daily record of purchase and sales volume through computerization.

Superior Efficiency:

Shwapno do not keep over stock of their products. They always purchase materials, goods in the
daily basis especially in perishable products. For this at the end of day they have no enough
inventories. They also use expertise employees and gave proper training about materials
management. The management team also monitoring on records, inventory, employee
performance that’s why they can easily avoid wasting materials, energy, effort, money and time in
doing something or in producing a desired result.

Customer Responsiveness:

Customer responsiveness is the ability of a business to recognize and respond to changing

customer needs. Because the all of the employees in the Shwapno were given proper training about
their products, they can easily manage customers. They can understand customer’s intension,
preference and on according that they provide products on respective quality.

3.4 Porter Five Forces Model on Shwapno

1. Number of Competitors: Established brands have fewer barriers than others. The rivalry
continues on depending on the industry. In this industry the number of competitors is huge but the
potential customers are few. Some Shwapno competitor’s names are given below:

 Agora
 Meena Bazar
 Chaldal.com
 Unimart
  Lavender
 Priyo
 Others

2. Number of Substitutes: All business firms fight with the competitors and try to offer better
product and service. Lower price and higher quality substitutes are always two important criteria
for the customers. Rapidly available products and lower switching cost can be the factors of
stronger substitutes. Shwapno’s competition is mainly Dhaka based for this industry because the
potential customer who earns more than 40 thousands monthly resides in Dhaka or Chittagong.
That is why maximum retail stores are situated in two big cities. Non-perishable are available in
every stores but the best perishable products are available in Shwapno.

3. Bargaining power of the Buyer: When there are few buyers and they buy large amount of
products, they can control the bargain. Again if there are so many suppliers, buyer can have the
power. Most of the Shwapno owns the power of bargaining but sometime it varies. Seasonal
perishable products like vegetables, fruits can be bought in a comparatively lower price. Besides,
Shwapno has contract with some fixed suppliers who supply products in a large amount with an
affordable price.

4. Bargaining power of the Supplier: When there are fewer substitutes’ products or suppliers,
the bargaining power is higher. In this case suppliers can threat to change another buyer for a
higher price. Sometimes for the unavailability of the product or the imported product, supplier can
charge a huge amount. Shwapno tactfully deals with them so that competitors cannot have the
unique products.

5. Entry barrier: There are some factors those perform as an entry barrier: brand loyalty of the
customers, cost advantage by buying large amount, economies of scale by producing large amount
so that per unit cost decrease, government regulation, switching cost. In this industry entry barrier
is huge because it requires huge amount of investment.
3.5 Shwapno’s Competitor Analysis

Shwapno’s main Competitor are Meena Bazaar and Agora.

Meena bazar:

Meena Bazaar has 18 outlets spread across Dhaka, Chittagong and Khulna. (Bazaar, 2014). Meena
Bazaar’s target market is mainly the upper middle class, middle class and affluent segments of
Bangladeshi society. Meena Bazaar has focused extensive attention on providing their consumers
with high quality organically produced. it has recently launched free home delivery service and
ordering through the internet in order to take advantage of the booming ecommerce business in
Bangladesh. In store communication and branding are other strong points of Meena Bazaar. It also
has a very efficient inventory management system.

Strengths

 Good Inventory Management System

 Focus on organic products
 Outlet are not rented
 Free online delivery

Weaknesses

 High operating costs

 Reliance on vendors to source products
 Only three outlets are making profits Figure

Agora

In 2001, Agora first introduced in Bangladesh to the concept of super market retail stores. Agora
has around 13 outlets spread across Dhaka and Chittagong. In terms of product displays in their
outlets, Agora is way ahead of their competitors. In the retail industry, proper display of products
is vitally important to ensure sales. Agoras in store communications are quite advanced when
compared to what SHWAPNO usually implements. The greatest advantage is that it has developed
processes in a structured manner, which has enabled them to develop effective key performance
indicators for success in the industry.

Weakness of Agora:

 Late comer for implementing enterprise resource (ERP) planning software.

 Lack of ERP has had an adverse impact on their performance.
 Failed to attain the share of the market as large as SHWAPNO’s
 Highly dependent on vendors for their perishable and protein products.
 Hard time maintaining the quality of some of their products
 The inventory management system at Agora is also inefficient.

3.6 Comparative Analysis of Shwapno over others

Outlet: Compare to other organization such as Agora, Meena Bazar Shwapno is in first position
in every aspect. Shwapno has 47 outlets all over 17 Bangladesh, and day by day the number of
outlets is increasing. Market share of Shwapno is 35% in modern retail system. The biggest
advantage of Shwapno is that, different age and different income group of people is the target
people of Shwapno that is the main uniqueness as Shwapno.

Decoration: Decorations of Shwapno outlets are different than any other super store. Shwapno
always try to decorate their outlet in a different way to attract the customers then their competitors.
Likely they decorate their new outlet with balloons and much colorful material.

Prices: Compare to other super shop, the price of the products in Shwapno is less. The main reason
is that Shwapno usually collect their products directly from whole seller and another important
reason is VAT .Shwapno usually pays the government VAT themselves for that reason they take
less price from the customers.

Advertisement: Promotional activity of Shwapno is totally different from competitors.

Shwapno always tries to connect with their customers with different occasion. So they always
make different advertisement based on different occasion. From their unique advertisement it
is highly noticeable.
3.7 Comparison of Core competences between Shwapno & Meena Bazar:

Characteristics Shwapno Meena Bazar

Wide Product Range
Maintain Quality
Extensive area for
shopping
Product differentiation
Investment in decoration
Home delivery facility
It provides 20,000 different items It has only 6000 – 8000 of
in each store verity of product
Shwapno always maintain the customer of Meena bazar
quality of its products sometimes faced this problem
It has been made with a plan of Meena bazar is very
maintaining wide area congested
Maintain a varied brands It only keep some known
differentiated products brands and rest of their own
products
It has a plan of doing investment But Meena bazar has no focus
more in decoration of their shop on that
It does not give the service of It has recently launched free
home delivery home delivery service

3.8 Shwapno’s Marketing Promotion Tools:

3.8.1 Advertising:

 Newspaper: Shwapno mainly use newspaper as their advertising tools. Newspaper helps
the consumer to save time
 Bill boarded: Bill boarded is another advertising tool for promoting Shwapno’s products.
After using bill board Shwapno able to sell their punjabi and salwar kameez got double
than ever before.
 Catalog: after several years Shwapno introduced product catalog in terms of their
marketing promotions. Catalog will basically help customer to save their time by having
look at a glance at the product picture with price quotation.
 Television advertising: Shwapno have already gone for TV ad from last Eid Ul Fitre and
got good response from the customer.
3.8.2 Sales Promotion

Sales promotion is basically marketing technique that attract customer to take a specific action
such as make purchase.

 Clearance sales event: shwapno lifestyle is going to arrange a clearance sales event from
18th September, 2014 where they will offer up to 80% discount for the customers.
 Leaflet: at first they introduced poster as a promotion tools but later they thought that
Poster can create cheap impression upon customer. Then they decided to for leaflet.
 Banners: Shwapno can also use banner for their clearance event. For each outlet they
arrange two banners for their outlet. Then they make some dangler to hang in the outlet.
 Colorful t-shirt: for their sales person. These t-shirts will be printed with discount offer
package. These colorful t-shirts will catch the customer’s attention which can manipulate
for the purchase.

3.8.3 Internet Marketing:

Online branding and marketing strategies are now mandatory for the exposure and success of any
organization.

 Facebook: shwapno mainly use social networking site Facebook. They have their own
Facebook page. They upload all the photo shoot pictures, packages and offerings in their
Facebook page. Catalogs are also given in the Facebook page. From the catalog customer
can see price and size details which will help them to select product within their budget.
 Chapter 4: Findings and Conclusion

4.1 Findings
After analyzing data we find various problems and their solution, such as:-
 Females are more interested to go super shops
 We find that which peoples are visit there most of them are young
 We find that service holder is top of the other occupation group
 Shwapno is one where approximately 33% respondents are going for their daily shopping
 63% (approximately) respondents have said that, they informed about this shop from their
family member/friends who have already visited this shop
 80% People have said that, the Location is very important factor other than the product
availability in selecting a departmental store.
 30% respondents are totally neutral for supporting Local Acceptance
 We can say that External Outlook is important for selecting a departmental store.
 Parking is moderately important for everyone
 Every customer wants to buy product in Reasonable Price and that’s why 97% people said
that Reasonable Price is very important in super shop’s product for their satisfaction
 Baby Care is moderately important for everyone
 Through our survey we can say that Security is very important for everyone
 Interior Decoration is important for every respondent
 Billing Statements is very important for all super shops customers

4.2 Recommendation

Faster Work Execution:

To get proper success in any particular work, faster work execution is needed to a great extent. If
the execution gets faster then it will be very profitable for the company.
More Potential Corporate Visit:

Sales officer should visit more corporate offices to get the potential clients.

Increase Response in E-mail:

To expect the work to be done in time and share information among all the employees, quick
response towards the mail has to be increased and all the personnel should open the mail link the
whole day and has to go through them often.

Following of Company’s Written Policy:

All the decision should be made based on the company policy. If that is done and problem occurs
in the future then we can always depend on the company policy.

Responsiveness:

If the employees find themselves more serious and focused towards work then it will be more
profitable for them as well as for the organization.

Update Software:

If the software is updated, the work can be completed in a faster way.

Filling up Recent Vacancy:

The sales dept. should go for recruitment process for the vacancy position in order to make work
effective.