Retail Marketing Interview Questions and Answers

1. What is Retail Marketing?

Answer:

Retailing is an activity of selling the goods to the final consumers while retail marketing is done by the retailers to promote awareness and interest in their goods and services. These promotional activities generate sales. Retail marketing includes the planning, promotion, and presentation of the product.

Video : Retail Interview Questions and Answers

2. What is retail marketing mix?

Answer:

A retail marketing mix is a mix of various variables to attract the customers and increase the sales.

A good retail mix meets the expectations of target customers while being competitive to the offerings from the competitors.

3. What are the important P's of retail marketing mix?

Answer:

The retail marketing mix consists of following 7 P's:

i. Product
ii. Price
iii. Place
iv. Promotion
v. People
vi. Processes
vii. Physical Evidence

4. What is the difference between e-Commerce and Retail?

Answer:

e-Commerce stands for electronic commerce. Any trade that happens over Internet or any transactions that take place online come under the category of e-Commerce.

Retail on the other hand is the transaction between a buyer and a seller through a point of contact in which the buyer procures a small quantity of goods to be used by themselves.

When these buyers buy these products for self-use through online stores, it is called as e-tailing.

5. How would you get new customers to your store?

There are a lot of things you can do to get new customers to your store. Let’s start with what you can do at your store and then move on to the outside world.

i. Pay attention to your stock and display – Stock things that would interest the buyers. The word of mouth does a lot of work. Pay attention to what you stock where. New, fashionable and high margin products should be displayed in an area that catches immediate attention. In fact, try to get referrals from your existing customers. As, we just discussed, word of mouth makes a lot of difference.

ii. Dress your window and make your Curbside interesting – Interesting window displays attract the customers to walk in and similarly adding interesting “curbside extras” attracts the customers to walk in. It is very important to keep both these areas neat.

iii. Pay attention to your staff – Hire right kind of people, keep them motivated, pay them well. Happy employees can be your biggest marketeers.

iv. Use Social Media – Make good use of Social Media platforms suitable to your business. A good presence on these platforms is a must to be seen, get noticed and connect with your customers.

v. Use Email and Mobile marketing – And send interesting deal and offers to them based on various factors.

vi. Network – Among your own stores or stores with similar clientele.

vii. Use influencers – You can ask them to review your products or use and recommend them. For this you can give them affiliate links and for really influential people, you can pay them to evaluate your product and recommend it if they find it good. You can even customize the product for their followers, if required.

6. What are the different types of retail stores?

Answer:

The different types of retail stores that we see in the market are:

i. Speciality stores – These stores focus on a very narrow product line. And, most of the things from that product line which you won’t find anywhere else in market, will be available here.

For e.g. The fitness and sports stores or a dedicated Camera and Photography equipment store.

ii. Departmental Stores – These stores sell a lot of products under various categories but these categories are not exhaustive. E.g. of these stores are like Shoppers Stop, Max, Central etc.

iii. Supermarkets – These are huge shopping destinations selling a large variety of things. They’ll have various variants of a product. They display the products to attract the customers and run various offers to make them buy these products. E.g. of these stores include DMART, Big Bazaar etc.

iv. Convenience Stores -  What these stores offer is the convenience. You’d easily find them in your locality. These stores do not have products in too many categories or a deep product line but they’d meet your requirements to run your house.

v. Drug Stores – These are the stores in your vicinity that sell medicines. But, we have been witnessing lately that the drug stores have also started selling other grocery stuff and are more or less towards becoming convenience stores.

vi. Discount Stores and Extreme Discount Stores – Discount stores buy the products in bulk and pass on the price benefit to their customers. They work on volumes rather than margins. And, the products would even be branded ones.

However, an Extreme Discount Store would sell good quality products from local manufacturers at a throwaway price. They work on “deal basis” with these manufacturers and may not have the product available always.

vii. Off Price Stores – These are the stores that sell products with minor defects. These defects may at times not even be visible to general buyers. The goods are sold at discounted rates and the inventory gets over very fast. These are also referred to as Factory Outlet.

viii. Used goods stores – These stores are gaining a lot of momentum these days. While online stores like Olx let you sell directly to other people, car stores like Cars 24 buy from you and then sell the car to other customers.

ix. Hypermarkets – These stores are the malls in themselves. They sell all the products, in all the ranges under one roof.

x. E-Commerce Stores – These are the stores where you buy things online without going to a brick and mortar store. Anything that you can’t find offline is easy to find online as the sellers from all over the country sell their products here.

While we talk of all these, we can’t forget our Local Kirana Stores are the lifeline unorganized retail market.

7.What are the different categories of customers you would see in your store? What’s the best way to sell to each of them?

Answer:

The customers visiting a store can be classified into following categories:

i. Well-informed shoppers – These are the people who have thoroughly done their research and know what exactly they want. The best way to sell to these buyers is to have a good online presence, appear in front of them early during their research and try to get shortlisted in their list. If there is any negative information about you online, make sure that you deal with it quickly because these buyers will definitely catch it.

ii. Showroomers – These are the shoppers who would look around but buy the products online or from a place where they get the best price. To make them buy them from you, offer them benefits or give them some in store offers that they can get only with you.

iii. Wanderers – These are the people who are just looking around without actually intending to buy. Just acknowledge their presence and tell them that they can let you know if they want anything. At the same time, try to highlight certain things in your store – you may get the advantage of impulse buying.

iv. Quick buyers – These people walk in knowing what they want and are usually in a hurry to do the next thing. Help them by quickly locating what they want and get the billing and exit process as quickly as you can.

v. Indecisive buyers – These are the shoppers who have little information or too much information that they are not able to decide for themselves. Give them a good product comparison and an honest advice to make a decision. Don’t try to sell to them by fooling them; you’ll lose their trust.

vi. Regular Customers – Acknowledge their presence and give them what they come to you for. You don’t need to sell anything hard to them. They have come to you because they want to buy.