Retail Management and Merchandising

Of
Partex Furniture Limited, Bangladesh

Retail Management and Merchandising of Partex Furniture Limited, Bangladesh

Submitted to
Dr. Mohammad Baktiar Rana
Faculty, School of Business,
North South University, Bangladesh

Submitted to
Group Tag: F
Name

ID

Tamhid Ul Islam Nafi

132 1400 660

Khalad Md. Masum

1421252060

Rokon Uddin Ahmed

1421373660

Mrinmoy Kumar Sikder

1430879660

Syeda Shotorupa Zafar

1512772660

MBA-MKT 626: Retail Management and Merchandising

Section: 1, North South University, Dhaka.
Date of Submission: 6 April 2016

Letter of Transmittal

6 April 2016

Dr. Mohammad Baktiar Rana

Faculty, School of Business,
Course: MKT 626: Retail Management and Merchandising
North South University, Bangladesh.

Subject: Term paper on Retail Management and Merchandising of Partex Furniture Limited,
Bangladesh
Dear Sir,
It is our great honor to submit our Term Paper on Retail Management and Merchandising of
Partex Furniture Limited, Bangladesh. For the completion of this term paper, we have tried to
get as much information as possible on current Retail and Merchandise system of the given
organization. For this purpose we had interview sessions with General Manager- Sales of the
organization.
Through this report we have tried to relate different chapters from the book Retail
Management with the given organization. And it will be a pleasure if you find this report useful
and informative.
Sincerely,
Name

ID

Tamhid Ul Islam Nafi

132 1400 660

Khalad Md. Masum

1421252060

Rokon Uddin Ahmed

1421373660

Mrinmoy Kumar Sikder

1430879660

Syeda Shotorupa Zafar

1512772660

Acknowledgement
Before we start the report it is very important for us to convey our heartiest gratitude towards
some of our inspirations. At first, we would like to thank the Almighty Allah who has enabled us
with the ability to think broadly with our learning and complete this report work.
It gives us immense pleasure in presenting our term paper on Retail Management and
Merchandising of Partex Furniture Limited, Bangladesh. The success of this report is a result
of sheer determination and hard work and constant guidance from our mentor. Therefore, we
would like to take this opportunity to add a special note of thanks for Dr. Mohammad Baktiar
Rana, who undertook as our mentor despite his many other academic and professional
commitments. His wisdom, knowledge, and commitment to the highest standards inspired and
motivated us.

We want to show our ample gratitude towards A. K. M. Nazir, General Manager, Sales, Partex
Furniture Limited, Bangladesh; without his insight, support, and information this term paper
would have been incomplete.

We would like thank Partex Furniture Limited; Bangladesh for their rich and informative website
without proper information the term paper would have been vague. Finally, we want to add a few
words of appreciation towards North South University for offering this helpful course which
assigns us to do such immense term paper work.

Table of Contents
Executive Summary ...................................................................................................................................... 1
Objectives: .................................................................................................................................................... 2
Methodology: ................................................................................................................................................ 2
Offered Value to the Customers by Partex Furniture Limited: ............................................................. 3

1.

1.1.

Assortment: ................................................................................................................................... 3

1.2.

Breaking the Bulk: ........................................................................................................................ 3

1.3.

Holding Inventory: ........................................................................................................................ 3

1.4.

Providing Services: ....................................................................................................................... 4

2.

Target market/ Segment: ....................................................................................................................... 4

3.

Retail Mix of Partex Furniture Limited: ............................................................................................... 8

3.1.

Analysis the retail mix components of Partex Furniture Limited: ................................................ 9

3.2.

The major shortcomings of each retail mix components in Partex Furniture Limited: .............. 13

A better retail mix for Partex Furniture Limited: ................................................................................ 14

4.

4.1.

Merchandise Assortments: .......................................................................................................... 14

4.2.

Location Strategy: ....................................................................................................................... 15

4.3.

Communication Mix Strategy: .................................................................................................... 15

4.4.

Store Design and Display Strategy: ............................................................................................ 16

4.5.

Pricing Strategy:.......................................................................................................................... 16

4.6.

Customer Service Strategy: ......................................................................................................... 17

Conclusion: .................................................................................................................................................. 19
References:.................................................................................................................................................. 19

Interview: ........................................................................................................................................ 19

Book: ............................................................................................................................................... 19

Internet: ........................................................................................................................................... 19

Executive Summary
This following term paper gives us an overall outlook of different aspects of Retail Management
and Merchandising of Partex Furniture Limited, Bangladesh. . This term paper has been done
for the partial fulfillment of the course Retail Management and Merchandising. Purpose of this
term paper is to discover the retail mix of Partex Furniture Limited. Analyze the retail mix
components and find out the major shortcomings of each retail mix components. Identify the
competitive edge where Partex Furniture Limited will position its business among its target
shoppers.
From the interview and with the help of the website of the given organization, we have tried to
cover this entire topic, because retail management and Merchandising now a day is considered a
significant part for all the retail based company in Bangladesh. At first we have discussed about
different types of values of Partex Furniture Limited in Bangladesh. Like: Assortment of the
Product and Services, Breaking Bulk, Holding Inventory and Providing Services. And After that
we have described about different retail element like target market segment of Partex Furniture
Limited, who are the target customers as well as market for the company. Next we have
discussed about six retail mix and their short comings on the basis of Partex Furniture Limited
like: their Merchandise Assortments, Pricing, Location, Product Display and Design, Customer
Services and Communication Mix. And finally we have provided information about competitive
edge of Partex Furniture Limited, Bangladesh and also give an overall recommendation.

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Objectives:

To see the value offered to the customer by Partex Furniture limited.

To observe and describe Target Segment.

To find and analyze the retail mix of Partex Furniture limited.

To find out the major shortcomings of Partex Furniture limited retail mix components.

To develop a better retail mix of Partex Furniture limited

Methodology:
In order to make the meaningful and presentable report, here only secondary sources are used.
Secondary sources of data and information have been collected through internet, and
conversation with Employee of Partex Furniture Limited.

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1. Offered Value to the Customers by Partex Furniture Limited:

Partex Furniture Limited is trying to satisfy their customer by providing different types of values.

1.1.

Assortment:

Our retail brand, Partex Furniture Limited provides assortment of products to their customers.
This retail shop uses Total Care as their slogan. They are indicating by this tag line that, they
are caring on overall side of the customer in the furniture sector. This slogan is indicating that the
overall care about furniture has been providing by the retailer. Partex Furniture Limited
categorized their products into two categories and they are family items and corporate items.
They are providing all of these items to the customers and trying to provide the entire essential in
these two sectors. When they are decorating their showroom they tried to focus the entire
essential in the category.

1.2.

Breaking the Bulk:

Partex Furniture Limited conducted market research and found out the market demand and
supply of their products and they have an idea how much their showrooms demand of the
products. For the part of this process, after the manufacturing of the products they transfer the
products to their main In House. After that they transfer the finished goods to the showroom on
the basis of demand of the products.

1.3.

Holding Inventory:

Partex Furniture Limited follows the techniques to satisfy the customers as well as add value.
Holding inventory is the way by which customers can find the items which they need at that
time. As a result, customers can keep in the mind that they can find the item in the particular
shop when they require them. For this process, Partex Furniture Limited makes a budget every
year for the showroom which is almost eight to ten corers in BDT. Then they send the products
as per the budget. They focused on the fulfillment of the customers demand. On the basis of
current demand they select the existing products. As when new products comes in the market
and if the demand is high then they remove the older one. After finalizing the demand of the
products they collect the selected existing items from the in house on the basis of requirement.
So the customers can find the demanding items in the showroom.

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1.4.

Providing Services:

Partex Furniture Limited also follows this value additional

activity. Services can be provided in two ways by this retailer,
before sales services and the after sales services.
Before sales services includes showing the products to the
customers. Telling the features of the items is the most
important and co-operate the customers to select the products
which will be useful and fulfill their requirement. Executives behavior in this process is the
most important service for the customer which ultimately adds value. Providing catalogue is the
important value adding process by the Partex Furniture Limited. Providing the required and
appropriate catalogue to the customer is a value adding service followed by them.
Different types of after sales services have been provided by Partex Furniture Limited as well.
For Partex after sales services include all the services to fulfill the needs of the customers after
sales. They try to deliver their products within time. But that is within twenty days after the
order. One major after sales service is to fitting the products. These process reliefs the customers
from hire other to fix the furniture. They also accept customers complaints and suggestions to
improve their services. Sometime they replace furniture for the satisfaction of the customer.
Providing the after sales services till the one year as a guarantee is another after sale service. As
a result customers get relief and safe for one year

2. Target market/ Segment:

Partex Furniture Limited focuses not only demand but also the need of customers. That is
why the target group of Partex Furniture Limited is people belonging to the high and middle
income group. This includes not only big companies like Sqaure, Rahimafrooz, Unilever, Apollo
Hospital, City Bank but middle class corporates and many others who buy products in bulk
amounts almost every month. To them, quality instead of the price is the major factor for
purchase. Likewise, customers of household products include the high-income group who would
consider quality as the main determinant, and the middle income group who would consider
price and quality as their major determinant of their purchase.

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The customers of Partex Furniture Limited can be divided into two categories corporate and
household.
Target Group

Segment

Characteristic
Niche Market, for them price

Upper Segment

does not matter, outlook is

important

Group 1: Family
Upper Middle Segment

wooden, size (Slim Fit)

Middle Segment

Laminated Board

Higher Class Corporate

Quality instead of the price is

the major factor for purchase
Price and quality as their

Group 2: Corporate:

Middle Class Corporate

major determinant of their

purchase.

The target market can be divided according to social class. Partex Furniture Limited follows a
differentiated marketing strategy since its target market includes the middle, upper-middle and
the upper class society. Their target market is based upon the following general profile of the
customers:
Consumer lifestyle
Consumer lifestyles have evolved over the last decade, with increasing upper middle class
people. In this time poor cash rich society, there will be an increasing tendency towards fewer
traditional wooden furniture and an increase in demand for stylish, light weights, durable
furniture.
Target segment determination in terms of VALS framework: More in-depth analysis of
the target segment of Partex Furniture Limited can be done by the lifestyle segmentation. One of
the most widely used tools for lifestyle segmentation isVALS, developed by Strategic
Business Insights. Though the VALS framework is developed for American lifestyle we can
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use this framework to understand the target segment of Partex Furniture Limited. According to
VALS framework the following are different Psychographic of target customers.

Innovators:

Successful, sophisticated and receptive to new technologies.

Their purchases reflect cultivated tastes for upscale products.
Educated, conservative, practical consumers who value

Thinkers:

knowledge and responsibility. They look for durability,

functionality and value.
Goal-oriented, conservative consumers committed to career

Achievers:

and family. They favor established prestige products that

demonstrate success to peers.

As we observe with the help of VALS

framework we can see that the customers
who will appreciate the offerings of Partex
Furniture Limited in the high segments of
the VALS framework hierarchy. As
only few population of the world belongs
to the innovator segment we cannot say
for certain about the observation of innovators towards Partex Furniture Limited offerings but as
they are receptive to new technologies and new trends innovators may welcome the way of
Partex Furniture Limited. The main targets segment of Partex Furniture Limited is thinkers,
achievers.Thinkers are educated and they are practical thinking customers who will definitely
value the importance of durability, styles, design, and quality. Achievers will also fit in the
Partex Furniture Limited target segment as they are extensively focused in quality.
Demographic Variables:
Age:
The customers for household furniture are generally over thirty five years of age. Due to the high
prices, it is usual that people who have been working for at least ten-to-twelve years can afford to
buy Partex products.
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Sex:
In case of corporate houses, it has been observed that most of the customers are male. On the
other hand, both male and female usually come together to purchase home furnishings.
Education:
As mentioned earlier, due to the high prices of Partex products, they are not affordable by all
income groups. Therefore, Partex products are purchased by people who are at least graduates.

Social class:
Majority of the customers of household products come from the upper working class.
Considering the showrooms, approximately 70-80% of the consumers come from the upper class
while the remainder comes from the upper middle class and middle class. On the other hand, if
countrywide dealers are considered, the upper class constitutes around 55% of the consumers and
the upper middle class and middle class around 45%.
Income group:
Since Partex products are high-priced, the main target market includes the upper middle and the
upper class. These include retired government employees, people working in the private sector,
businessmen, politicians, etc. The SEC (Social Economic Class) is a measure of the social class
dependent on variables like education and income etc.
Geography:
Most of Partex target customers are concentrated in Dhaka. The target area are 70% in Dhaka
and 30% outside of Dhaka. This is why the company focused mainly In Dhaka (Own
Showroom). Majority of the companys showrooms are located near areas like Panthapath,
Gulshan,Monipuri Para,Mirpur Kazi Para (Main Hub), Mirpur Chiriakhana Road (New), Jamuna
Future Park (New) etc. where it can effectively serve its target customers. The dealer outlets are
also located in regions where significant number of target customer can be found like Sylhet,
Chittagong, Khulna, Noa-khali.
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3. Retail Mix of Partex Furniture Limited:

Customer
Service
Sales Service
After Sales
Service

Store Design
and Display

Machendise
Assortments

In house
Architecture
Wall Paint,
Lighting, Floor

2 Categories:
Home Care
Corporate
Care

Retail Mix of
Partex Furniture
Limited
Pricing
Home Care
Furniture
Corporate
Care
Furniture

Location
In Dhaka
Outside of
Dhaka

Communica
-tion
Campaign
SMS
Print ad and TVC
Sponsorship
Many more

Figure: Retail Mix of Partex Furniture Limited (At a Glance)

8|Page

3.1.

Analysis the retail mix components of Partex Furniture Limited:

1. Merchandise Assortments Strategy:

The Tagline of Partex Furniture Limited is Total Care. And its purpose of merchandise
assortments is to give an attractive and suitable image or reflection to the customer of Home and
Office environment.
Partex Furniture limited displays two types of furniture in its showrooms with few items in each
category:
Home Care

Corporate Care

Bed Set, Bed Room Chair

Table Series

Sofa Set and Divan

Drawer and Side Rack Series

Dining Table Set

Chair Series

Cup Board and Chest of Drawer

Sofa Series

Dressing-Table

Lounge Care

Display Self

Sheet Metal

Miscellaneous

Industrial Care

Edu Care (Study Table and Chair)

Medi Care

On the basis of materials it put on view of four types furniture:

Wooden Furniture
Laminated Furniture
Steel Furniture
Melamine Coated Furniture
For creating a particular environment Partex
Furniture Limited displays lamp for bed room
and living room, magazines and newspaper with
sofa-set, a flower vase in the dining table,
corporate files and pen holders in corporate
tables so on.
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2. Location Strategy:
For selecting showroom locations, Partex Furniture Limited is doing Continues Market
Research by their research team. Moreover, it also focuses on two things:

Target Customers and Overall Population: How easily Partex Furniture Limited may
reach to its target customer. Also number of residents is a main reason for this company
to choose a location or area.

Transportation and Communication Facilities: Areas those are suitable for Partex
Furniture Limited to distribute its products and get information by maintaining
information flow.

Location Chart
In Dhaka (Own Showroom)

Outside of Dhaka (Dealer Network)

Gulshan
Pantha-Path (Main Hub)

Sylhet
Mirpur Chiriakhana Road and Kazi
Para (Main Hub)

Khulna

Monipuri-Para(Main Hub)
Tejgoan
Uttora(Main Hub)
Jamuna Future Park

Noakhali

Chittagong

Moghbazar

3. Communication Mix Strategy:

Partex Furniture Limited is used different types of strategies for promoting its products and
services to its target customers.
Communication Mix Strategies of Partex Furniture Limited

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Advertising

TVC, Newspaper, Magazine, Billboard, Radio

Personal Selling

SMS, Mail, Call, Greetings in Occasions

New Product Launching

Fire door for garments factory workers security

Discount Offer

In Pohela Boishakh, 2 Eid and 26 March

Others

Participate in Dhaka Trade Fair, Sponsorship of Programs

4. Pricing Strategy:
Pricing Strategy of Partex Furniture Limited is to fix optimum price of furniture and it depends
on its marketing objectives, demand, product attributes, competitors and economic trends. Partex
Furniture Limited never compromises its quality for low price. As a result, for some furniture the
price is higher than the competitors.
Home Care Furniture
Furniture

Price Range (Taka)

Wooden Bed Set

20000-150,000

Laminated Cupboard

15000-35000

Wooden Cupboard

35000-120,000

Dressing Table

15000-55000

Sofa Set (Middle Class)

40,000-70,000

Sofa Set (Upper Class)

70,000-2,50,000

Dining (Middle Class)

45000-70,000

Dining (Upper Class)

80,000-2,00,000
Corporate Care Furniture

Executive Chair and Table

26,000-40,000

Senior Executive Chair and Table

70,000-250,000

Junior Executive Chair and Table

10,000-15,000

Visitors Chair Series

5,000-25,000

Drawer and Side Rack Series

10,000-70,000

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5. Store Design and Display Strategy:

Partex Furniture Limited tries to create a special environment
of Home & Office in their store or showroom. The spaces are
designed in a way that promotes an enjoyable and hassle-free
shopping experience for the consumer. Here, customer can
easily imagine their office or home designs and decorations of
furniture.
Store Design and Display Strategies of Partex Furniture Limited

Floor Decoration

Multi-Store Floor

Main Stream-15000 Square feet Showroom (Pantha-Path, Mirpur,

Uttora, Monipur)

Wall Paint (Usually prefer white walls as Partex Furniture uses

dark color in its furniture)

In house
Architecture

Lighting (White Lights)

Floor (Mirror Tiles)

Carpet, Ceiling, Ventilator, Air-Conditioner

6. Customer Service Strategy:

Partex Furniture Limited is a sister concern of Partex Group and also a popular brand in
Bangladesh for furniture. Partex Furniture Limited is used two types of customer service strategy
to increase the number of loyal customers and to maintain a good relation with their customer for
long time.
Sales Services

Comfortable and Clean Environment

Showroom Executives are always

After Sales Services

On time Delivery and Fitting the

furniture in Customers Home.

1 year Warranty. (If any customer

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Available in the Showroom and

complains about the furniture within one

Answer Customers Queries

year, Partex Furniture Limited replaces it

without any Charge.

Customize Furniture (Only Kitchen

If there is a problem occurs after one year

Partex Furniture Limited must repair the

Cabinet)

furniture but by taking a charge.

Catalogues of Furniture are

Greetings to customer in Occasion,

Birthday or Anniversary, Special

Available

3.2.

Discount for Golden Customers so on.

The major shortcomings of each retail mix components in Partex

Furniture Limited:

Retail Mix

Short Comings

Component

Furniture itself is a lifestyle based product. Peoples demand and

trend change everyday

Merchandise
Assortments

Difficult to curve with international level

Limited space in the showroom, so new products get preferred

than other products

Pricing

Price of some Furniture is higher than competitor because of

good quality woods

Communication Mix

No Short-Comings Exist. Communication Strategy is strong than

competitor because of Brand Value and Sister Concern of Partex
Group.

Store Design and

Display

All showrooms do not have same sizes

Huge investment on Interior Design while renting a new

showroom in new location

Location

Government Barriers
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Inaccurate Market Research

No Call Center Facilities Available yet. As a result, No

immediate solutions of customers complain

Customer Services

Online/ Website is not so updated

Policy Problems regarding Customers after Sales Services.

4. A better retail mix for Partex Furniture Limited:

In addition to the elements that are already in the retail mix, here some more propositions are
given for the betterment of the retail mix so that Partex can attain competitive advantage from its
competitors:

4.1.

Merchandise Assortments:
Fixing the errors

There were clumsy arrangements of furnitures in some retail outlets. Like there were no gaps between
sofa and bed. Improved category and SKU management will take the assorment to next level.

More Inventory
Partex can include more inventory to arrange their outlets. For example an artistic show peice on the sofa
table will creat a lookrative sight in the eyes of the customers.

A clear assortment strategy

This should be an integral part of your overall strategy

Use an Assortment Intelligence tool

Use an Assortment Intelligence tool to know your competitors' assortments at all times.

Analyze constantly
Getting the right product at the right time for your customer a priority

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4.2.

4.3.

Location Strategy:
Parking: In two retail outlets of
Partex Furniture there are no
parking. In three outlets of partex
parking space is small. Partex
should improve this so that every
customer in every location can get
the advantage of parking.

Providing more space: In some

retail outlet, space is very clumsy.
They should have take a more
spaceious outlets in shops like
Gulshan, Mirpur.

More outlet inside Dhaka: They

should have retail outlet in
Dhanmondi, Owari,
Mohammadpur and other
business areas of Bangladesh.

More outlets outside dhaka:

They should have outlets in
Gazipur, Rajshahi and other
developing cities outside dhaka.

Communication Mix Strategy:

Use of
Technology:
They should have
a better website
by which
customers can
easily browse and
communicate.
Vendor
Relations:
They should
give preference
in creating
vendor and
dealer
relations.

Online Branding and

Promotions: They
should give referance to
electronic channels and
electronic branding
through social media and
emails.

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4.4.

Store Design and Display Strategy:

Knowing target
customers mind

Knowing your target customer inside and out will help them
tremendously when it comes creating effective merchandising
displays.

Finding Some
Inspiration

Because of Internet people dont have to wait around for that

brilliant idea to hit you when thinking about putting together
your next merchandising display. Instead, there are a number of
invaluable resources available in the form of blogs, boards, and
more. Partex can get ideas from there.

Remembering
people have 5
Senses, Not 1

People have five senses: Sight, sound, touch, smell and taste.
Partex should give emphasis on every senses for better making
store design and display.

Rule of third
and
composition

Human eyes like to see things with perfect

composition. For example: Rule of Third. If
thefurnitures can be organized in the store in this
way people will like them more.

Lighting to
dictate mood
and attention

4.5.

Lighiting plays a tremendous role while desiging

stores and display. Partex lacks the sense of artistic
lighiting. Artistic lighting will add more value in
customers mind.

Pricing Strategy:
Selecting a third
party to analyse the
price of the
competitors

Comparing the
price with the
quality of the
competitors
products

Changing the price

maintaining quality
and profit if
possible or
necessary

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4.6.

Customer Service Strategy:

Customer
Loyalty
Program:
Customers must be committed to
buying
merchandise
and
services from Partex. This can be
accomplished through retail branding,
positioning and loyalty programs. A
loyalty program is like a Target card.

Call Centre and Sms Service: Partex should

fix a specific cell number or phone number to
which customers can contact them for
customer service. Partex also should include
sms service and should send service sms to
the customers.

Strengthen customer service skills: Partex

has to make sure that your customer service
team has the right skills like empathy,
patience,
consistency, adaptability, clear
communication, work ethics, knowledge and
thick skin. If possible partex should arrange
training program to teach these skills.

Enhanced customer service strategy: Staff

may have the skills and know-how to interact
with customers. But Partex should upgrade
their organizational strategies too so that they
can be more personal and available to the
customers.

Getting customer feedback: Partex have to

make sure they learn about the good, the bad,
and the ugly experience their customers have,
create an easily accessible way for customers
to give feedback.

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Competitive advantage is gained when a firm acquires attributes that allow it to perform at a
higher level than others in the same industry. If Partex adds our suggested retail mix with their
existing retail mix, they will surely get competitive advantage from their competitors like Otobi,
Hatil, Navana, Wood Marc etc.

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Conclusion:
Retail Management and Merchandising refers to the various activities which contribute to the
sale of products to the consumers for their end use. Every retail store has its own line of
merchandise to offer to the customers. The display of the merchandise plays an important role in
attracting the customers into the store and prompting them to purchase as well. This term paper
is based on Retail Management and Merchandising of Partex Furniture Limited where we
discussed briefly about Retain Management Mix and Merchandising by using the information
that we got. Also provide recommendation where we felt necessary.

References:
Interview:
A.K. M. Nazir, General Manager Sales, Partex Furniture Limited, Bangladeh

Book:
Retail Management. Michael Levy, Ph. D, 11 Editions

Internet:
http://partexstargroup.com/companies/partex-furniture-industries-limited/home/

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