Executive Summary
Carrefour is one of the leading giants in the retail industry of the world. This report is an account
for a successful journey of Carrefour form one store to numerous outlets in the world .Mainly
focusing on the Carrefour in Middle East, this report accounts for detailed analysis of the
Carrefour Operations in the region and their supply chain structure and strategy. Supply chain
and structure deals with their product selection, site selection and the use of technologies and
offers to attract their customers by striking a right balance between efficiency and
responsiveness. Marketing strategy by taking an account of 4 P’s, competitive strategy, logistics
warehousing and procurement strategy also give a detailed analysis of the operational side of the
Carrefour structure. In order to implement these strategies, they issues they are facing globally
and locally are also brought under discussion following by the roadmap of their future plans in
the coming five years with a brief view of improvements that are needed to be address.
Introduction:
Retail is defined as the sale of goods, products or you can say services from some business to a
customer for one’s personal use. A retail transaction purposes to handles small quantities of
products while on the other hand wholesaler tend to deal with the purchase of goods on a large
sector. Retail transactions are different from the online transactions; goods must be sold from a
sole point directly to a customer for end users.
A retailer is a person or business that you purchase goods from. Retailers typically don’t
manufacture their own items. They purchase goods from a manufacturer or a wholesaler and sell
these goods to consumers in small quantities. Retailing is the distribution process of a retailer
obtaining goods or services and selling them to customers for use. This process is explained
through the supply chain.
The first Carrefour shop (not a hypermarket) opened in 1960, within suburban Annecy near a
crossroads. The group was created in 1958 by Marcel Fournier, Denis Defforey and Jacques
Defforey, who attended and were influenced by several seminars in the United States led by "the
Pope of retail" Bernardo Trujillo.
The Carrefour group was the first in Europe to open a hypermarket, a large supermarket and a
department store under the same roof. They opened their first hypermarket on 15 June 1963 in
Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois, near Paris in France.
In April 1976, Carrefour launched a private label Products libres (free products – libre meaning
free in the sense of liberty as opposed to gratis) line of fifty foodstuffs, including oil, biscuits
(crackers and cookies), milk, and pasta, sold in unbranded white packages at substantially lower
prices.
In 1999, it merged with Promodès, known as Continent, one of its major competitors in the
French market.
In September 2009, Carrefour updated its logo.
In May 2011, Carrefour reviewed its situation under conditions of stagnant growth and
increasing competition in France from rivals including Casino Guichard Perrachon SA, and
planned to invest €1.5 billion ($2.1 billion) to change the supermarket with the new concept of
Carrefour Planet in Western Europe.
In April 2015, Brazilian businessman Abílio Diniz revealed he was in talks to raise his 5.07
percent stake in Carrefour and has the support of shareholders to take a board seat.
On 9 June 2017, the Board of Directors chose Alexandre Bompard as the new Chairman and
Chief Executive Officer of Carrefour with effect as of 18 July 2017.
In 2017, Carrefour was working with a small French start-up, Expliceat, on a trial basis.
Expliceat built a commercial mill that is designed to crumb down leftover bread. It rents the mill
to commercial bakeries and then uses the crumb to bake cookies, muffins and pancakes.
In January 2018, Alexandre Bombard announced a strategic plan for the company, entitled
"Carrefour 2022", that ambitions to make Carrefour the "leader of the food transition for all".
The plan includes measures for better food and package sustainability, limitation of food waste,
development of organic products, e-commerce partnerships, two billion euros in annual
investments from 2018 as well as organizational and cost reduction measures.
CARREFOUR IN PAKISTAN:
Majid Al Futtaim, the leading shopping mall, communities, retail and leisure pioneer across the
Middle East, Africa and Asia, has announced to rebrand “Hyperstar” to “Carrefour” across
Pakistan effective 20 December 2018.
Majid Al Futtaim holds exclusive rights to operate Carrefour in 38 countries across the Middle
East, Africa, and Asia. Today it has a portfolio of more than 257 hypermarkets and supermarkets
in 15 countries.
Majid Al Futtaim had a presence in Pakistan since 2009 through the Hyperstar brand, which
introduced modern retail to the country. Hyperstar grew from one store to six hypermarkets and
expanded to three major cities in Pakistan: Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad. The rebranding to
Carrefour will further enhance modern retail in Pakistan and provide customers with the retailers
bespoke shopping experience and customer service offering.
The rebranding to Carrefour is an important milestone for Majid Al Futtaim in Pakistan and
comes with major expansion plans in the country. As an investor in Pakistan, we are proud to be
contributing to the economy and we will continue to create more direct and indirect job
opportunities with every new store we open. Operating under the Carrefour brand, will reinforce
our association with Majid Al Futtaim and enable us to deliver an exceptional shopping
experience to our customers, offering an unbeatable choice of products at the best price and
creating great moments for them everyday.
As part of the rebranding, Majid Al Futtaim will also launch a loyalty program for Carrefour,
along with a mobile application for the first time in Pakistan. To reduce the environmental
impact, Carrefour will continue to use bio-degradable, reusable bags. The stores will continue to
offer a wide selection of food and non-food products at unbeatable prices. Moreover, free Wi-Fi
and power banks will be available across the stores for customers.
Carrefour opened up its first store in Lahore, Pakistan in a joint venture with MAF in 2009 under
the name of Hyperstar, and a second store in Karachi in 2011. Hyperstar has 7 stores in total that
is 3 in Lahore, 2 in Karachi and 1 in Islamabad. In 2019 Carrefour was opened in Faisalabad.
Significance of study
CARREFOUR deals with no of large items under one roof in this study we discuss about the
strategies of Carrefour which they are adopt for increase their customer and maximize their
market share. As we know only in faisalabad the customer have many other options to choose
like imtyaz, Al fatah , chaseup Emart and so many other and why customer choose Carrefour. In
this project we elaborate the strategies of Carrefour and give some suggestions according to
market demand and how Carrefour competes with their rivals by adopting simple techniques.
Objectives of the study:
The study of this project according to these objectives
To meet the specific needs of customers and offering these products at competitive,
reasonable prices that will still yield profits.
To Increase Customer Loyalty and brand image.
To understand the customer need and make a connection between customer and
Carrefour with direct marketing.
To give some suggestions to improve merchandising.
We also measure the behavior of sales persons and how this effects on sales and
perception of customer
MARKETING MIX OF CARREFOUR
Marketing Mix of Carrefour analyses the brand/company which covers 4Ps (Product, Price,
Place, Promotion) and explains the Carrefour marketing strategy. In this reportwe discuss about
the pricing, advertising & distribution strategies used by the company.
Let us start the Carrefour Marketing Mix:
Product:
Carrefour is a multinational retailer; in short it has every product or a brand which a
person could see in his day to day life.
The broad range of product categories include movies, crafts, gifts, college essentials,
Electronic items, home appliance, jewelry, photo center, toys, outdoor living, funeral,
grocery, video games, fresh food etc.
Price:
Carrefour business model doesn’t include manufacturing of any product; it procures
products across the globe in large quantities in order to enjoy benefits of economies of
scale.
This makes price of Carrefour to offer products at 15% lower price than other retailers.
Carrefour uses different pricing concepts to get focus of the customers and compel a
purchasing behavior through discount strategies.
They focused on the term “Always lows prices” and “Everyday low prices”; according to
this each product is offered at different discount prices based on the time and demand of
the hour.
Place:
Carrefour has more than 10,020 retail units which is spread across 28 countries and
operates under 60 banners.
It sells both by brick and mortar (traditional stores) and Brick and click (e-commerce)
formats. The average size of each Carrefour store is more than a 10,000 (1lac) square
feet.
Its store operations are categorized into following.
Promotion:
Carrefour discount stores
Carrefour super centers
Carrefour neighborhood markets
Carrefour express stores
Promotions in the Marketing mix of Carrefour
Carrefour has its own in-store promotional activities which includes sales promotions through
product bundling and its pricing strategies. The online store of Carrefour earns major revenues
from through customers placing online gifts.
The pricing strategies adopted by Carrefour like “Everyday low prices”, “value of the day”
increases the sales turnover. The online store uses strategies to pull customer by attractive
slogans like ‘Grab it before it’s done’ which pushes customer to take a purchase decision
immediately before the deals get expired.
