# Introduction o meet the demands of today's marketing environment, organizations are looking to service initiatives as a means to create or sustain competitive advantage. A strong brand provides the leadership framework and umbrella to focus all marketing and resources in a manner that will generate the greatest results. Now a day's retailers are turning to brand strategies to strengthen their marketing programs in an environment that is increasingly characterized by accelerating rate of changes, variety of products, extreme competitions and superior customer services etc. Super market or super shop sector is expanding hand over different marketing events every day. As the demand for better service increases day by day, they are coming with different innovative ideas & products. As a result, it has become essential for every person to have some idea on supply chain management (SCM). Supply Chain Management is the core business practice that determines true effectiveness of other management activities. An efficient Supply chain Manager holds such a position that deals with Marketing, Human Resources, Finance, Operations, IT and as a whole the regulator of total business actions. # II. # Methodology of the Study The study is a descriptive in nature, which was conducted by collecting primary and secondary data. The study tries to focus on the supply chain management practice of branded retail super chain shop and how the customer perception about the super shop. In preparing a report about the topic, it is a difficult and complicated task and no single method is appropriate for preparing the report. For these reasons, a number of procedures were followed to prepare a meaningful report. The methodology of the task can be depicted as follows: Sources of Data: Data have been collected from both primary and secondary sources. Primary sources of data: Primary data is the type of data that is collected for the research purpose at hand. For the purpose of our study we have been collected primary data through informal conversation with the management (Officers & stuff), conversation with customers and the observations of various super shops. Secondary sources of data: Secondary data is the type of data that is collected for addressing the other purpose, not the present purpose. I have been collected secondary data through brochure, operational manual, different circulars, and web sites. Analysis of data: Collected data analyzed by using percentages, graphs to draw the conclusion. All the data is shown in tabular form. # III. # About the Super Shop The super stores are currently focused in food retailing, ranging from a wide variety of fresh vegetable, fruits, meat and fish to grocery, bakery, dairy, personal and household products. It provides its customers with guaranteed quality and freshness. It carries more than 30,000 varieties of products and has plans to expand its product portfolio to carry other ranges of consumer products in the coming years. It buys products direct from the growers, which benefits the latter as well as the customers. The products are procured under the direct supervision of its officials who maintain strict procurement and marketing standards. Products on the shelves are regularly monitored for expiry dates. About 2,000 customers use every day in every stores. Customers prefer using both cash and credit cards. The super shops are open from 8 am to 9 pm every day. # Year ( ) A Rush of customers is experienced in the morning and evening. Most of the employees of these stores are young and well-educated, some with Masters and MBA degrees. # IV. Organizational Structure of a Super Shop V. # Definition of 'Supply Chain Management -Scm' Supply Chain Management (SCM) is the streamlining of a business' supply-side activities to maximize customer value and to gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace. We represent an effort by suppliers to develop and implement supply chains that are as efficient and economical as possible. Supply chains cover everything from production, to product development, to the information systems needed to direct these undertakings. A supply chain is comprised of all the businesses and individual contributors involved in creating a product, from raw materials to finished merchandise. Examples of supply chain activities include farming, refining, design, manufacturing, packaging and transportation. Retail companies become involved in supply chain management in order to control product quality, inventory levels, timing, and expenses. In a global economy, supply chain management often includes dealings with companies and individual contributors in other countries, which requires involvement in politics, trade and tariff laws, quality control, and international relationships. Because global supply chains are both logistically and technologically complicated, there are now global supply chain management specialists and firms who oversee the process for many different retail companies. SCM is also called the art of management of providing the Right Product, At the Right Time, Right Place and at the Right Cost to the Customer. # VI # Formation of Supply Chain Formation of supply chains are Trade environment, Nature of the commodity, Strategies of the company, Availability and cost effective infrastructure, Economic strength of the consumers, Consumers demands etc. # VIII. # Management of Supply Chain Management of the supply chain depend on various decision, such as-Supply chain strategy or design: This decision involves how to structure the supply chain. It is process of making a configuration of the chain. It involves the decision regarding the selection of locations, mode of transportation and capacities of the production unit. Supply chain planning: It is decision regarding the planning of the set of operating policies to be performed to achieve the framed objectives for short term period. It involve the plans of inventories production, supply target, subcontracting, replenishment of the stock etc. Supply chain operation: The Company makes weekly and daily decision regarding the operations based individual customer orders. It involves allocation of the individual orders to inventory or production department with due dates, generation of pick lists, allocation of orders to shipment etc. The process in a supply chain is divided into a series of cycles, each performed at the interface between two successive stages of a supply chain. It involves customer order cycle, replenishment cycle, manufacturing cycle and procurement cycle. The processes in a supply chain are divided into two categories depending on whether they are executed in response to a customer order or in anticipation of customer orders. Push processes are initiated by performed in anticipation of customer orders. Pull processes are initiated by a customer order. For example the productions of the spare parts of the machinery are push processes and assembling the parts as a unit on demand of customer are pull processes. # IX. # Process of Supply Chains # X. # Strategic fit in Supply Chain Management # Frame Level Strategies of Supply Chain There are various levels of strategies for a supply chain management. Such as-Market led production, Quality Production, Group Marketing, Adoption of Technology, Undergoing Training, Community use of infrastructure etc. # XII. # Drivers in Supply Chain Management The drivers in supply chain management are- In this part of study we will describe about the product marketing system, how they position their product, how they distribute their product, how they communicate with consumers. Every shop always tries to create a successful marketing mix, such as-The right Product, Sold at the right Price, In the right Place, Using the most suitable promotion b) Pricing strategies and practices At first they do marketing their products and then they run their activities in operation and after that they ensure the availability of that product when the consumers want these products. The super shop's growth over the last 12 years has involved a transformation of its strategy and image in Bangladesh. Its initial success was based on the "Pile it high, sell it cheap" approach of the founder management. The disadvantage of this was that the stores had a poor image with middle-class customers. In the year 2001 Agora's brand image was so negative that consultants advised the company to change the name of its stores. It did not accept this advice, yet by early 2003 it was the largest retailer in Dhaka, with a 29.0% share of the grocery market according to retail analysis. TNS Super panel, compared to the 16.8% share of ASDA and 15.6% share of third placed NANDAN, which had been the leading competitor until it was beaten by Agora in 2004. Key reasons for this success include: An "inclusive offer"-this phrase is used by Agora to describe its aspiration to appeal to upper, medium and low income customers in the same stores. According to Citigroup retail analyst David Mccarthy, "They've pulled off a trick that I'm not aware of any other retailer achieving". That is to appeal to all segments of the market -By contrast ASDA's marketing strategy is focused heavily on value for money, which can undermine its appeal to up market customers even though it actually sells a wide range of up market products. During its long term dominance of the supermarket sector Nandan's retained an image as a high priced middle class supermarket which considered it to have such a wide lead on quality that it did not need to compete on price, and was indifferent to Year ( ) # ( ) attracting lower income customers into its stores. This strategy has been abandoned since losing the number I spot to Agora and particularly since the adaption of new management in 2004 that has established a new customer focused strategy closer to that of Agora. Similar brand super shops are Swapno, Menabazar etc. was focused their image by selling at cheap and advertizing various types of offer to popular their shop. These company has taken the lead in overcoming customer reluctance to purchasing own brands, which are generally considered to be more profitable for a supermarket as it retains a higher portion of the overall profit than it does for branded product. c) Supply Chain (Place) Strategy and Practices Supply Chain of the super shops is not a lengthy process. Basically their supply chain is totally ware house based. Most of them have a large ware house. At first they store the entire product from different manufacturer in their warehouse. The transportation cost is totally born by the manufacturing company. Then the stored products are distributed through their own vehicles to its several outlets. There is no intermediary between ware house and manufacturing company. No product directly comes to the outlet without the hand of warehouse. These are the supply chain of a super shop at a glance. Now the product wise supply chain explanation of a super shop in Bangladesh is as below. Supply Chain of Consumer goods: In case of consumer goods every super shop have contract with the manufacturer like Unilever, Reckit-Benkizer, Square, Keya, Kohinoor Chemicals etc. This company directly deliver product to the ware house of these super stores. There is no intermediary between this two. The products are never come to the outlets without the hand of ware house. Supply Chain of Agricultural product: The supply chains of Agricultural products of the super shops are too much flexible. They have contract with some agricultural firms like vegetables firms, hatchery, poultry firms, mushrooms firms, dairy & flesh firms (Milk, Beef, Mutton) etc. These firms supply fresh agricultural items as daily, 2 days, 3 days, weekly, bi-weekly or monthly based to the shops. The transportation costs are taken by the producer. All the products are first come in warehouse. Then they deliver to outlets. Each supply occurs at the interface between two successive stages of the chain. Supply chain management by Sunil Chopra describes that a grocery supply chain has all four cycles separated. We have found the validity of this in the speech of Mr. Labib, the Head of agricultural foods items of Agora. When the customer of Agora buys products from its outlets like Dhanmondi, Uttara, Hatirpul etc, it is customer order cycle, when the outlet likes Uttara replenish its products (that are already sold) from outlets. It is replenishment cycle, when retailer brings products from distributer. It is manufacturing cycle, when distributer collects materials from manufacturer. And it is procurement cycle, when distributer collects materials from manufacturer. And it is procurement cycle, when manufacturer collects raw materials from suppliers. # Supply ii. Push/Pull process and Boundary These super shops usually use push process. At first the raw materials of any particular product go to the manufacturer. Then the manufacturer produces the products and sends the products to the warehouse of these shops. The products are inventoried over the warehouse. Whenever the products from outlet finished, then the products completely replenished from the warehouse to outlet. At the end the products are exhibited to the outlet and products are purchased by the customer. All the promotional activities are taken by the manufacturer about the product. sponsor the various kinds of events such as: concert, various social activities such as blood donation etc. Besides its have own website by which they make relation with consumer. By public relation every stores want to build a good corporate image in consumers. Direct Marketing: In direct marketing, they communicate with consumers by direct mail, SMS, e-mail etc. # f) Physical Environment of super shops Their interior is similar to most supermarkets in design and layout due to trends in marketing. It produces ends to be near the entrance of the store. Milk, Bread and other essential items are located in the rear and other out of the way places. This is purposely done to ensure maximum time spent in the store, strolling past other items and capitalizing on impulse buying. The front of the store or Front-End is where one might find point of sale machines or cash registers. Every shop has plans to implement self-checkout devices in their stores in an attempt to reduce labor costs as well as bringing complete customer satisfaction. XIV. XV. # Summary of Findings # Recommendations, Suggestions and Conclusion The combination of quality and price under various brand name offers customers value for their money. We have examined and evaluated the operations of the shops including its strengths and weaknesses. To get competitive advantage and to deliver quality service, top management of these shops should try to adopt the following recommendations: ? Every company must increase the superior customer service by arranging best quality good environment providing discounts and placing the convenient outlets for customer's home resident. ? Actually, they maintain the environment calm and quiet, hustle and noise free. So, they should extent their space broadly in orders to increase to keep large customers. So that customers find comfort relax and hustle free environment. ? A super shop must arrange their product as a way that customers can easily purchase all kinds of products at a short time, because most customers remain busy. So maintain their products with systematically for reducing the time consumption. Here customers give the agree statement for time consumption for purchasing products. ? The company needs to advertising to increase popularity and brand image. ? Most of the customers are satisfied with the super shop products for maintaining the full satisfaction of customers for purchasing products from the shop. ![cycle is related to-a. Arrival of customer, b. Order entry, c. Fulfillment of order and d. Receiving of the product. c) Replenishment Cycle Retailers Replenishment Cycle Distributor This cycle is related to-a. Triggering the order, b. Order entry, c. Fulfillment of order and d. Receiving of the products. d) Manufacturing Cycle Distributors Manufacturing Cycle Manufacturers This cycle is related to-a. Arrival of orders, b. Planning of production schedule, c. Manufacturing of the products and d. Receiving of the product by distributor. e) Procurement Cycle Manufacturers Procurement Cycle Suppliers This cycle is related to-a. Arrival of the order of the suppliers, b. Planning of production schedule by suppliers, c. Manufacturing of the suppliers and d. Receiving of the as input by manufacturers. f) Push/Pull View](image-2.png "") Supply Chain Management of Super Shops in Perspective of BangladeshManaging DirectorChief Executive OfficerFunctional Head2014Operation ManagementHR & AdminMarketing & SalesAccounting & FinanceProductionInternal AuditYearManagerManagerManagerManagerManagerManager2 50ExecutiveExecutiveExecutiveExecutiveExecutiveExecutiveVolume XIV Issue IX Version IManagerManagerManagerManagerManagerManager( ) ( ) Global Journal of Management and Business Research AFlow Chart of Supply Chain Management Transaction Finance Packaging Supplier Manufacturer Distributor Warehousing Transportation RetailerCustomersVII.© 2014 Global Journals Inc. (US) 1 Imported Goods HelpfulHarmfulInternalStrengthsWeaknessesDirectly import ExternalOpportunitiesPurchase from import house Threats? Every shop build up a very strong relationship withthe customers and that is the main strength of theirbusiness?a) FindingsA SWOT analysis identifies and assesses theStrengths. Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats anorganization faces. SWOT analysis of these shopsillustrates to upper management what the company isexcelling in, what improvements need to be made,where growth is possible and what preemptivemeasures need to be taken to protect shareholder orcompany value. During the research study, severalfindings are found:Internet and website: Every shop has its own website © 2014 Global Journals Inc. (US) * Supply Chain Management SChopra PMeindil 2011 Dorling Kindersley Pvt. Ltd India 4th Editions * NMIslam An Introduction to Research Methods, 2nd Editions Bangladesh Mullick & Brothers 2011 * Principles of Marketing, 13 Editions PKotler GArmstrong 2010 Pearson Publications India * ColinScott HenrietteLundgren & Paul Thompson Guide to Supply Chain Management * Janeza Trdine Pengzhong Li 9 51000 Supply Chain Management Published by InTech * CroatiaRijeka * DaweiDr Lu Fundamentals of Supply Chain Management Ventus Publishing ApS 2011