Economic Retail in Myanmar: ABC Convenience Store

The retail landscape in dominated by local retailers who are mainly traditional, but there has been establishment of modern retail chains who serve the country. Several of these convenience stores include ABC convenience store which operates more than 100 convenience stores in Yangon and Mandalay. This study focuses on the position of ABC convenience store in the country, exploring its concept, establishment, objectives, technology, and ethical practices in the country. In this case, it seeks to use ABC convenience stores as the target company to highlight the retail market landscape in Myanmar, its trends and development. Key words: Myanmar, retail market, convenience stores, business ethics, Introduction Many retailers around the world, especially food retailers have eventually started recognizing the need for international expansion.

The target retail store in Myanmar will be ABC retail store and its mission and objectives in the market. It will also explore, the fundamental marketing decisions of the convenience store, the ethical perspectives of the store and technological use the stores. The paper will also explore the major developments and trends in retailing in Myanmar market. This study, therefore, builds upon the situation of the retail market in Myanmar based on the ABC convenience store. Retail Economy of Myanmar One of the engines which are spurning the retail sector in the world is developing and emerging countries, as most of the world renown retailers are concentrating on expanding their trades into these untapped markets. 2 billion (Hardaker, 2017). One of the aspects which makes the economy of Myanmar good for retail is because of the emerging middle class in Yangon and other major cities in the country.

This has been fueled by the abroad remittances in the country which are not reflected by international monetary bodies. However, as of 2017, 90% of the retail market in the country is dominated by traditional retailers, with this huge chunk of market share targeting the lower and middle-class individuals. Modern retail in the country takes less than 10% of the market share, but it’s still growing. This market is currently underrated and is a representation of a strong opportunity for retail investments. Investors need to look beyond the IMF economic report on the country and visit places such as Junction Mawtin and Tawwin Plaza as benchmarks for the potential purchasing power in the retail market (Euromonitor, 2013). This is because, inside the shopping malls, it is evident that there is high demand for items in retail markets.

However, for many years the products which were in the country where government-run enterprises. This is due to an epoch where the country was treading on a socialist where its government had initiated an isolationist policy. In the streets of Yangon, there have been increased sights of glass -fronted and air-conditioned convenience stores. Many of the convenience stores in the country lack good customer service, they lack efficiency, have inefficient supply chains coupled with poor professionalism (Bissinger, Cook, Walt & Walt, 2012). It is evident that most of the residents of Myanmar are not as picky as the western shoppers, and therefore, if one were to cut into the market, they would only need to lower their prices and offer high-quality services. Most of the transactions in Myanmar are done in cash, and therefore it offers untapped potential to other retailers to invest in cashless systems.

Engaging in a more digitalized economy will make a tremendous impact on the retail market, as it will open doors for other retail opportunities. The disadvantage is that to have a hyper operation market; it can cost several years of time and fund investment before it becomes operational ("Myanmar Indo Best Company Limited," 2018). This has made the ABC Group consider opening doors to new investors. Opening a convenience store can be done for about two to three weeks, and this makes them more palatable to the economic landscape of the country. With continued economic reforms, the management believes that growth and expansion will become a reality. The Thai investors are some of the front-runners to invest in the country largest convenience store operator, which is part of the ASEAN.

As a result, as the mission statement states, the primary company objective is to make the experiences of the customer in the store to be simpler, with the reduced time taken in shopping. This will give the customer a hypermarket experience albeit on a small-scale basis. A vision statement for a company is essential because it details how the future will be after the realization of the aspects of the mission statement. The vision of the organization should be credible, realistic and attractive to the future of the organization. The vision of the ABC Convenience Store is “The Best Retail Service in Myanmar” which aspires to make the convenience stores the best in the country ("New Challenges | ABC Convenience Store," 2018). However, there are organizations which have implicit codes of conduct in such a way that the required ethical conducts in the organization or company are unwritten (Dahl & Eagle, 2015).

The people involved have understood a set of rules and regulations which are expected of each person in the organization. These standards of conduct and a sense r responsibility are some of the building blocks of the company and if they fail the company can sink in total anarchy and loss. The legal issues in the ethical perspectives are these aspects which the society has deemed be clearly right or wrong. These are set of laws which have been drafted for the sake of the company and must be followed by everyone in the society (Dahl & Eagle, 2015). One of the aspects which are required of any employee is taking care of the company assets. The convenience stores in the country are fitted with modern facilities and equipment which are as par the economic standards of Myanmar.

The management does not tolerate any misuse of the assets of the company as it can cost it fortunes. Employee theft is one of the aspects which concerns retailers most, as this is a term which includes when employees steal merchandise while on the job (Jensen & Limbu, 2018). Being a retail store, there are chances that products and items can be stolen, however, it is the responsibility of the management of that store to ensure the investor is updated and that staff is not taking items outside the store without the due process. Defrauding a consumer can be when the retailer gives false information on what a product or service can offer. Also, there are chances of overpricing and having hidden charges for practices of business which are deceptive.

This is a sorry affair of transacting business as it would reduce the customer satisfaction. This occurs when the retailer provides false claims through a misleading advertisement in what the makeup of the product (Jensen & Limbu, 2018). For example, in cases where groceries are concerned, many people favor organic farming to genetically modified foods. Many people in the country are already embracing the developing a taste of luxury after the country learned into a more capitalist economy. Therefore, this section of the society expects to get the best service for their money. Backdoor selling is another aspect which ethical conduct between the employees and the customers is a concern of the ABC convenience stores. It upholds the virtue that all employees believe in proper channels of transactions.

Backdoor selling will include aspects such as using black-market goods in the store which have not followed the proper channels into the country or the market. In this case, discrimination is between a class of employees in the store who receive better treatment based on characteristic against another employee in the store. As the condition of protecting the employees, the state of Myanmar has instated some reforms which can alleviate the plight of employees in the country. ABC group offers employees compensation to overtime or services rendered and not part of the job description. This is because the company believes it is ethical to have a pay rate of overtime and have the same payment system in between the genders. However, in Myanmar, since it is a patrilineal society, many of the menial jobs around the store are done by men and therefore are more remunerated than the females.

The other technology which the store deploys is air conditioning, as a way of attracting customers especially on those stores which have eateries. The air conditioning also provides an ample working environment for their staff as the country has at the time high temperatures or coldness depending on the season. The reason for deploying air conditioning in their stores is to dehumidify the air to the comfort of customers, staff and even the products therein. This air conditioning is deployed because it removes humidity and heat from the surroundings through infiltration (Niemeyer, Catena & Zocchi, 2014). The convenience stores are also fitted with digital checkouts to ease of customer and reduce huge cues in case of increased traffic in the stores. The digitalized checkouts use the barcode technology where they increase speed, accuracy, and efficiency without increased expenses.

In the traditional retail, many of attendants usually rely on manually entering information of the items in the check out desks. However, the use of barcode and barcode scanners increase the accuracy of goods which exchange hands. Human error is limited, and the scanners can read the information accurately eliminating any possibility of human errors (Evans, 2018). The ABC chains in the country have deployed this technology to ensure that goods which change hands from the producer, supplier to the customer do not get lost. It is a battle to create a market niche, get a share of the market and share the wallet of every retail customer in Myanmar. As the market, it developing and new entrants being welcomed into the country, the ABC convenience store needs to differentiate themselves and win the hearts of each consumer in the country.

The retail chain has robust brand value, is the leading retailer in a number of the store opened around the country and offered its customer's value propositions which are well defined. The main reason why the ABC group has instituted a marketing strategy is to maximize the performance of the business and the retail chain. The main objective is to gain the market share that it to have increased customer traffic into the store. It is a tool which can increase sales as more diverse customers will have increased traffic into the store, raising the sales per day. In Myanmar, many of the shoppers are women, as they are mostly confined into the running of families and since the retail chain deals with such items, it is women who form the bulk of the customers in the store (Euromonitor, 2013).

Therefore, the retail chain has initiated strategies which will tap into the male purchasing power and increase male traffic into the stores. This is by having the store stocked with products which are dominantly used by men. Also, the management understands the changing dynamics of the society as the millennials are embracing westernization. This is an aspect which seeks to appeal more to the emerging middle class who have higher spending power. The more one spends, the more loyalty coupons one will achieve at the end of the day (NNA/KYODO, 2018). This is because studies have shown that women and men are more interested in frequent buyer programs. This program highlights the loyalty of the customers and tailor promotions based on how they frequently pop into the store.

Also, the store is using mobile phones as means of marketing as the current generation has smartphones. Although the potential for growth is highly lucrative, one of the issues which has discouraged investors is the instability in the real estate sector, which is key component of setting up brands in any territory. Growing urbanization and logistics infrastructure make retailers to be sensitive to the regularity systems and real estate markets (Euromonitor, 2013). Any new investor who would need to enter the market must strategically overcome the cultural, economic and geographical diversity of the country and its uncertainty. This is a country which is rich in culture and has diverse religions which would inform the consumer culture of the country and the reception of international brands or expansion of the local brands.

The retail market in Myanmar is highly expanding and international brands have already entered the market such as KFC, King Burger, and Coca-Cola. There are several challenges which these retailers have to undergo, aspects which are beyond their control. The country has an underdeveloped financial system which makes the retailers lack credit financing to expand, which is coupled with limited financial options to retailers who would need to expand or upgrade the individual units. The economy is largely cash-based, which leads to the risky and costly affair of retailers managing money. Also, there is scares financing which limits the options of traditional retailers to modernize (Turnell & Nordic Institute of Asian Studies. This poses challenges of doing business as the country because the country performs poorly in the world ranking of doing business standing at a sorry position of 169th out of 189.

In most cases, the monthly rent of operating a convenience store in Myanmar takes up to 40% of the total costs of operations (Intelligence, 2018). To conclude, Myanmar is becoming increasingly attractive to retailers around the world. The ABC convenience store occupies a strategic position in the country as takes care of a larger percentage of the Myanmar population purchasing power. There is a need for increased investments in the country for the retail store to expand, have more retail space and incorporate of the internet of things in the retail store. The retail economy is in its initial stages, and an influx of foreign capital is expected to change the retail landscape in the country. com/2012/09/18/think-again-burmas-economy/ Burma Economy: Population, GDP, Inflation, Business, Trade, FDI, Corruption.