Besides, MCC has not concerned delivery services from its business place to M&P shops, while its competitors, such as wholesalers and monopoly suppliers do it.. Service quality managemen
Trang 1Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1 Background:
Metro Cash & Carry (MCC) Vietnam is a subsidiary of Metro Cash & Carry group originated in Germany This is a typical supermarket specializing in wholesales business MCC Vietnam classifies customers into three groups: HoReCa (Hotel-Restaurant-Caterer), trader (retailers and wholesalers), and CBU (Corporate Business Units including Services Providers, Companies and Offices), in which the trader accounts for 44% of the total business (with subgroup, food trader: 31%, and non-food trader: 13%), while HoReCa’s and CBU occupy 15% and 51%, respectively To trader, there are many types of customer, such as a big grocery, Mom & Pop (M&P) shop1, Minimart, supermarket, fruit grocery, etc The main function of MCC has played a distributor to distribute products of manufacturers to wholesalers, and retailers MCC was held in Vietnam since 2002, and has been popular then Evidently, the turnover of the M&P shops conquered by MCC annually grows about 30% on average from 2005 to
2009, with its share of 13% in total, and of 39% in trader group Accordingly the sole sale of M&P shops in 2007 is 733 billion VND As a result, M&P shops are really worthy of taking into account, they are quite potential market for MCC
1.2 Problem statement
Due to being a wholesale company, MCC Vietnam concentrates on customers who buy
a big amount per visiting, e.g wholesalers and big retailers In order to attract customers, MCC usually gives promotions, e.g discounts to customers and particularly put them on a top priority to get a big quantity whenever attractive trade promotions run Besides, MCC is expected to attract customers to come to MCC’s stores rather than MCC must go to them directly to ask the purchasing contract Although MCC already set up the delivery department, it only serves for the selected HoReCa and traders while the M&P shop is not included It means that MCC has not yet derived any
1 See its definition in section 3.3
Trang 2strategy to approach M&P shops, while other suppliers do Based on the internal report
of MCC, the visiting frequency and average sales per visit of the M&P shops are not interesting enough The initially preliminary rationale behind is that the M&P shops are normally quite busy for their business, so it is not easy for them to manage time to visit MCC This is also a disadvantage for the M&P shop to get sale promotion programs of MCC Besides, MCC has not concerned delivery services from its business place to M&P shops, while its competitors, such as wholesalers and monopoly suppliers do it As
a result, MCC itself loses opportunities to pick up its share of wallet of M&P shops Based on problems just mentioned, objectives of thesis are shown as follows Findings
of thesis will be helpful for MCC toward appropriate business strategies to explore the M&P shop market
1.3 Objectives
− To find out perception of M&P shops on MCC
− To identify M&P shops’ need and expectation to be a partner
− To suggest strategies with respect to the main supplier of M&P shops, pulling M&P shop more frequently visiting, and pushing M&P shops taking account of purchasing more products when visiting MCC
1.4 Research issues and questions
Based on problem statements already mentioned and objectives concerned, some questions are as follows
- Why is the M&P shop important for MCC?
- How does MCC attract the M&P shop?
- What disadvantages and advantages do MCC have?
- What are MCC’s competitors doing to approach the M&P shops?
- What kind of services does the M&P shop expect from MCC?
- What is the best solution to improve the business performance of MCC?
1.5 Data collection
Trang 3In order to meet objectives, secondary and primary data are concerned Secondary data
is sourced by the internal reports, website Additionally, journals are also searched to look for relevant researches done and then select appropriate approaches consistent with the objectives of thesis To primary data, in depth interview was conducted on five persons who are specialized in the sector, e.g some ones involved in marketing department, operational department, and big and representative M&P shop owners Questions engaged in this term pay attention to discussing with those five persons about their business, together with disadvantages, advantages that they got from MCC In general, the purpose of the in-depth interview is basic to develop the questionnaire for directly interviewing Yet, based on the in-depth interview, the questionnaire is produced after that The pilot survey was then conducted on ten M&P shop owners, which to look for the final and complete questionnaire Respondents who are interviewed must be M&P shop owners, must have their business time at least one year already started The survey is conducted in Ho Chi Minh city, where District 2, District
6, and District 12 are mainly concerned and respondents are randomly selected The sample size expected is 100 observations Because most of M&P shop owners are quite busy, not easy to contact 100 hard copies of questionnaire were directly sent to them There are 80 samples returned, completely filled, and sufficient
1.6 Scope of research
The research conducted in Ho Chi Minh City, respondents interviewed are mainly responsible for their business, e.g owners, managers, who have engaged in business above one year Because of time limitation and unwillingness of M&P owners and managers to accept the questionnaire for interviewing, the number of samples is not so big, just 80 samples Hopefully the result is partly a representative voice for the project
1.7 Methodology
Descriptive analysis is used to analyze the raw data collected, together with secondary data Additionally, SWOT analysis is also applied
Trang 4Chapter 2: Literature Review
2.1 Introduction
As we know, the business function of MCC plays a business store with self service as a supermarket So literature reviews in this section will discuss issues relevant to supermarket Supermarkets are generally viewed as providing outputs superior to those
of traditional formats (Goldman, 1981) However, some consumers may view supermarkets as providing similar or inferior outputs than traditional stores (e.g higher prices) Currently, there are positive changes in consumers Consumers think that shopping in supermarkets is quite helpful to save their time At the same place as the same time consumers can buy a lot of items or product categories Also they partly accept reasonably high price because they are compensated by an attractive internal environment, such as cool air, free looking and selecting, etc Evidently, during study how different between supermarket buyers and retail store buyers, Goldman (2005) argued that a higher opportunity cost of time is making multi-stop shopping in many small stores more costly than the one-stop shopping associated with the supermarket
2.2 Distribution definition
According to (Stern and El-Ansary, 1982), a distribution system is a network of organizations liking a supplier to its various customer segments Distribution decisions are subject to the challenge of dealing with a concurrent pressure to promote distribution efficiency and at the same time ensuring that the corporate identity is communicated properly (Parment, 2008)
To manufacturer, the distributor provides physical distribution services as one of the
four P elements (e.g product, price, place, and promotion) of marketing mix, and support the manufacturer to transfer goods to consumer directly or indirectly A good distributive system must be combined the manufacturer’s support services, retail outlet, advices, location, etc Services are consisting of tangible and intangible actions (i) Tangible actions directed at people bodies such as transportation services, delivery
Trang 5services, repairmen and maintenance, etc; (ii) Intangible actions are mental stimulus
processing that are services directed at people’s mind or information processing
To retailing distributor, the distribution is based on information gathered through
marketing intelligence The retailing distributor plays an important role to transfer product information message to consumers If the retailers can get the client to perceive the establishment and its offer as superior to the competition, it will be probable that satisfaction is increased when making the purchase The retail distributor offers variety
in product categories can improve the convenience of purchase, in this way increasing consumer’s satisfaction (Dellaert et al., 1998)
Albrecht and Zemke (1985) argued that the distribution services are based on three components combined, e.g strategy, system, and people Strategy means how the company positions itself in the customer’s mind System means the way of deploying sources, and people present the manpower force of the company interact its services to customers
2.3 Service quality management
The concept of perceived service quality has been developed in the services marketing literature during the past decade In order to keep a strong position in the market place, the service quality has played an important role for retailing and wholesale companies
In an attempt to analyze the aspects of service quality perceived those companies can meet customers’ expectation There are various approaches as to the concept of quality, which are summarized in figure 2.1 According to Vazquez, et al (2001), the service quality is based on the demand approach, recognizing that quality of a service depends
on its evaluation by the consumer
Figure 2.1: Approaches to the concept of quality
+ Internal view of quality + External view of quality
+ Production/Supply approach + Marketing/demand approach
+ Adapting to pre-established
specification + Customer real judge of quality
+ Error-free service transaction, lowing + Company’s ability to determine
Trang 6costs and avoiding deviations from the
+ Appropriate for standardized activities + High customer contact activities
Source: Garvin (1988)
The concept of service quality is linked to the concepts of perceptions and expectations Service quality perceived by the customer is the result of comparing the expectations about the service they are going to receive and their perceptions of wholesale and retailing companies’ actions (Parasuramand et al., 1988) If perceptions exceed expectations, the service provided by those companies will be considered excellent; if it only equals the expectations it will be regarded as good or adequate; if it does not meet them, the service will be classed as bad, poor or deficient Therefore, perceived service quality is frequently referred to as the comparison between the customer's expectations
and his/her perceptions of the service provider's performance Parasuraman et al
(1988) have also suggested that service quality consists of five generic dimensions: tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy
Customer satisfaction, which according to the dominating expectancy-disconfirmation paradigm is defined as a function of the customer's expectations and perceptions of performance (Tse and Wilton, 1988; Anderson and Sullivan, 1993), is a phenomenon
closely related to perceived service quality According to Anderson et al (1994), two
major conceptualizations of customer satisfaction can be identified: transaction-specific and cumulative satisfaction The causal link between perceived service quality and customer satisfaction, and which of the constructs has a direct impact on customer loyalty, has been debated in the literature (Cronin and Taylor, 1992, 1994; Teas, 1993; Parasuraman, 1994) This debate emanates largely from differences in how the two constructs are defined The viewpoint taken here is that perceived service quality, which is defined as the consumer's perception of a firm's offering, or performance, is an antecedent of customer satisfaction, which in turn is positively related to customer loyalty As Cronin and Taylor (1992) argue, it seems reasonable that customer
Trang 7satisfaction is affected not only by the quality of what the customer receives, but also by
price and convenience We also agree with Anderson et al (1994) that from a firm
performance perspective, cumulative satisfaction is the more adequate study object
2.4 Attributes characteristic to the grocery store identified
In a traditional way, price has been considered as an important element at the moment for determining the perception that the consumers have on a store (Ruiz, et al., 2010) Thus, frequently, retail distributors use price as a key aspect to their commercial policy with the purpose of obtaining a certain image in the markets For this reason, they design and carry out strategies oriented generally to obtain a positioning of discount prices With the purpose of achieving this objective, sometimes fixed prices are specially reduced on those products and product categories (loss leaders) that are important to the consumers
For a large arrange and assortment, understood as the variety of products and the number of different items that are offered by a retail distributor (Levy and Weitz, 1995) Certainly, a greater variety not only helps the retail distributors attract more consumers, but can also stimulate them to make more purchases while they are in the establishment Additionally, a retail distributor who offers greater variety in product categories can improve the convenience of purchase, in this way increasing consumer satisfaction (Dellaert et al., 1998)
To analyze supermarket buyer decisions, Montgomery (1975) conducted a survey on one hundred twenty four new products with 18 variables: (1) Promotion; (2) company reputation; (3) Quality; (4) Newness; (5) Introductory allowances; (6) Competition; (7) Packaging; (8) Gross margin; (9) Advertising; (10) Private label; (11) Guarantee; (12) Distribution; (13) Broker; (14) Sales presentation; (15) Category volume; (16) Category growth potential; (17) (Shelf space; (18) Cost
2.5 Study approach
Based on the literature review argued, together with internal report, and in depth interview, some information is selected to be designed in the questionnaire We can see
Trang 8that information depicted in figure 2.2 Accordingly, the M&P shop is interviewed through the questionnaire available Besides what the M&P presents its consideration when buying product categories, it also expresses its mind of how attractive to think of MCC
Figure 2.2: Consideration and evaluation of M&P shop for MCC
Consideration How attractive
Product
Assurance of product quality
Well-known brands/products
Availability of products
Wide variety of product categories
High hygienic standards on all items
Fresh products
Price
Competitive Pricing
Consistent Pricing
Customer Specific Pricing (Based on
volume/quantity of operation or other factors)
Fixed Pricing
Everyday low prices
Promotion
Regular Specials and Discounts
Promotion gifts or gifts from manufactures
Value added offers (trips, show, etc ,,,)
Delivery
Free home delivery
Quick and on time delivery
Good after sales services
Strong personal relationship
Ease of return guarantee
Ease of return products
Order by telephone/fax
Service
Clean Floors Large displays Friendly Sales Associates Regular visits by Customer Consultants Fast check-outs
100% in stock conditions Ease of parking
Product
Assurance of product quality Range of/diversity of categories Range of well known local brands Range of well known international brands
Exceptionally hygienic fresh departments
Trang 9We need information just mentioned, because it is helpful for this project meeting objectives The study approach framework presented in figure 2.2 is applied to find out how the M&P shop perceives MCC’s services, as well as to evaluate the M&P shop’s thinking In parallel, a customer service quality measurement is also concerned, together with looking for what the M&P shop wants from MCC giving them a perfect service
Figure 2.3: The study approach framework
Metro
supermarket
(MCC)
Product Price Promotion
Delivery service Payment
Quality customer service
Mom & Pop shop (M&P) Consideration
Evaluation and expectation
What MCC provides What M&P shop thinks of
Trang 10Chapter 3: Market and Performance of Metro Cash & Carry
Vietnam
3.1 Introduction
MCC Vietnam is a subsidiary of Metro Cash & Carry Group with more than 670 stores
in 31 countries, being the internationally leading self-service wholesaler It was found
in 2002, which Ho Chi Minh City is the first place concerned by MCC for its business MCC is one of the largest trading companies in Vietnam, pioneering the concept in Vietnamese market MCC offers an assortment of over 15,000 products, with over 300 staffs per store and over 90,000 registered customers Currently, MCC has a sales force
of over 100 staffs to canvass businesses and to maintain customer relationships across Vietnam
MCC is a leading model of wholesale business in Vietnam Year by year, then, it expands through the whole country e.g Hanoi in 2003, Cantho in 2004, Hai Phong in 2005Hai Phong, and so on, (see figure 3.1)
Figure 3.1: Revolution of MCC in Vietnam
March, 2002 Found in Ho Chi Minh city, the south of Vietnam
December, 2002 Second MCC found in Ho Chi Minh city, the south of Vietnam July, 2003 Found in Ha Noi, the north of Vietnam
December, 2004 Found in Can Tho, the Mekong Delta in the south of Vietnam October, 2005 Found in Hai Phong, the north of Vietnam
December, 2005 Found in Da Nang, the middle of Vietnam
December, 2006 Third MCC found in Ho Chi Minh city
September, 2007 Second MCC found in Ha Noi
July, 2009 Found in Bien Hoa, in the south of Vietnam
September, 2010 Found in Long Xuyen city, An Giang Province in the Mekong
Trang 11Delta, the south of Vietnam October, 2010 Found in Quy Nhon City, Binh Duong province, the south of
Vietnam
Source: MCC’s internal report, 2010
Due to the market expansion, a number of buying traders of MCC have a significant growth As depicted in figure 3.2, three classes of traders, e.g big trader2, trader3, and M&P shops4, are defined by MCC, the average growth rate from 2002 to 2009 is about 35%, but 36% for M&P shops solely Consequently the value or the sales achievement
of MCC increases as well (figure 3.3), in which the annual average growth rate of the whole value of the trader is 67%, solely for M&P shops is 64%
Figure 3.2: An increase in a number of buying traders
M&P shop Big traders Traders
3 For trader, generally consisting of retailers and wholesalers; in specific, traders include Generalist Food, Specialist Food, Petro Station, Kiosk, Street Market, Wholesale / Buying coop, Non-Food traders and others
4 For M&P shops, mentioned above
Trang 12Figure 3.3: Sales achievement of MCC from trader group
Source: MCC’s internal report, 2010
In sum, the significant growth of traders is proving the M&P market still attractive for MCC However, how to win that market is still questionable Yet, in order to retain and increase the market share of MCC, the M&P shop should be studied and concerned by appropriate strategies, due to the fact that M&P shop has a high growth rate, and seriously contributes into the sales achievement of MCC
3.2 Business function of MCC
MCC is very much interested in
principles: (1) focusing on professional
customers; (2) one stop shopping; (3)
efficient store concept designed for
professional needs; (4) advanced
customer service; (5) enhanced
customer’s competitiveness; (6)
excellence in supply chain and quality
management; (7) strengthening of local suppliers; (8) development of national infrastructures; (9) career opportunities; (10) internationally transferable concept
Trang 13There is a variety of products that MCC is concerned in business The most popular categories for most shops across cities are body care products, cooking materials, washing-up liquids, confectionary and milk, stationary, batteries or tissues / nappies Moreover, Metro supermarket is the top choice for hair care products and washing up liquids purchase, whereas monopoly suppliers and wholesale markets share the major sales for drinks (beer/alcoholic drinks, milk), noodles of all types, confectionary and spices
Business type of MCC only accepts customers who registered a business card Customers can use the business card by which as a means to access and pay directly by cash at MCC’s stores Unlike other supermarkets, e.g Coopmark, MCC has not been responsible for delivering services from supermarket to customer’s home after buying products, even a big amount (just for big traders) As mentioned, the business card can
be a specific strategy to present a typical supplier However, the home delivery ignored can be disadvantageous to attract M&P shops, because the other competitors (wholesalers, monopoly distributors) as dynamic suppliers are willing to provide products to M&P’s orders with delivering services
3.3 Definition of Mom and Pop shop
Every unit presents its different
concept For MCC, the definition, in
term, M&P shop is conceptualized as
small scaled grocery shop selling a
wide variety of products, such as
personal care products, dried food,
beverages, confectionery, and so on
Other criteria of M&P are follows
− A floor space of around 10-20 squared meters on average located at the owners’ house,
− A monthly turnover of around VND 10 million,
Trang 14− Mainly run by 1-2 people who, most of the time, are the store owner and/or the spouse with/without help from some other family members,
− Focused on day to day business, supply and demand,
− Unaware of market issues and current and future challenges in retail - happy to simply survive,
− Very price sensitive and focused on margins - looking for the best possible price in all situations,
− Business open for seven days in a week between 07:00-22:00 hours is implemented Consumers of M&P are anyone who has their private demand Mostly they are families, students, workers, etc living around where M&P is doing business Consumers are not close to the shop, accounting for a small rate These consumers buy because of on way going to somewhere and have unplanned demand
3.4 Why is the M&P shop important for MCC?
As mentioned in previous section, the M&P shop plays an important role in MCC In addition, M&P market size is still large, evidently, due to the fact that there are above 300,000 outlets nationwide However, the MCC is just taking account of a small share
of wallet
Additionally, MCC gets an average margin ranging 4-5% when selling products to the M&P shop, while it takes from 2% to 3% if selling to the wholesalers5 (big trader) Conclusion is that the M&P market is more benefit than the wholesale market
5 According to the internal report of MCC, the delivery cost accounts for 1%
Trang 15Chapter 4: Analysis and Empirical Results 4.1 Overview of survey description
Qualitative is concerned because it is helpful to identify and understand attitudes, behaviors of respondents It also contributes into producing a reasonable questionnaire Therefore, through a group discussion done, the questionnaire is developed and completed Then, the survey is conducted on the 80 respondents who have been selected for interview earlier
Based on the descriptive analysis, most of M&P shops in the sample have years in business less than five years accounting for 38%, and from 5 to 10 years accounting for 36% (figure 4.1) However, for the class of less than five years must be understood, the years in business of the M&P shop is between one and five years Because as previously mentioned, we accept sufficient samples when the M&P shop had already run its business for at least one year We are strict for that due to avoiding bias information and looking for a right strategy
Figure 4.1: Years in business of M&P shops
Source: Own survey
The size of M&P is popular from 10 to 20 squared meters, accounting for 43% of the total sample, and from 20 to 30 squared meters accounting for 20% (figure 4.2) But not
Less than 5 years 38%
5 - 10 years 36%
More than 10 years 26%
Trang 16much percent for the large size with more than 30 squared meters, due to high cost to buy land or to rent the comfortable location
As shown in figure 4.3, M&P shop mostly has monthly average revenue of less than 10 million VND/month, accounting for 56%, and between 10 million and 20 million VND/month accounting for 22%, more than 30 million VND/month accounting for
12%, and above 20-30 million VND/month accounting for 10%
Figure 4.2: Size group of M&P shops
Less than 10 squared meters 19%
Above 20 - 30 squared meters
meters 43%
More than 30 squared meters 16%
Source: Own survey
Figure 4.3: Monthly average revenue of M&P shops
Less than 10 million VND 56%
10 - 20 million VND 22%
Above 20 - 30 million VND 10%
More than 30 million VND 12%
Source: Own survey
Trang 17M&P mostly has its own storage, due to the question “does your shop has a storage area?”, its answer presents that 58% of M&P shops has storage at its shop, and 5% of M&P shop has storage nearby its shop (figure 4.4) As a result, the M&P market is dynamic, because more than 60% of the M&P shops have their own storage Besides, the M&P shop wants to prepare a dynamic business with a speculative concept when
changes in market happened
Figure 4.4: Storage of M&P shops
I have storage
at my shop 58%
I don't have storage area in
my shop 37%
I don't have storage at my shop but near
my shop 5%
Source: Own survey
However, if looking at figure 4.5, the storage size of the M&P shop is not so big, and popular for the class from 5 to 10 square meters, accounting 58%
Figure 4.5: Storage size of M&P shops
5 - 10 squared meters 58%
More than 20 squared meters 6%
Less than 5 squared meters 24%
Above 10 - 20 squared meters 12%
Source: Own survey
Trang 184.2 Input and output market of M&P shop
The M&P shop’s function plays an intermediary actor Its business is based on procurement and selling with a profitable expectation of a big margin The Input and output channel system of M&P shops are shown in figure 4.6, which four suppliers, e.g wholesale market (21.3%), wholesalers (28.8%), monopoly supplier (23.8%), Metro supermarket (26.3%), are concerned by the M&P shop’s procurement
According to MCC’s definition, wholesale market consists of suppliers doing business
at market, for example, Cho Lon market, Saigon market, etc Wholesalers who are not located at market, they play an intermediary actor specializing in wholesale distribution system Monopoly suppliers are distributors under manufactories or companies, for example Unilever, Vietnamese Beer Company, etc…
Figure 4.6: Market channel of M&P shop
Source: Own survey
The share of those four actors are not quite different from each other, in which the wholesaler and MCC are little bit more important suppliers over the others for the M&P
(M&P)
Neighbourhood family
Passing customers Worker
Student and Pupil Drink shop/coffee shop Other M&P shop Nearby eatery