Practice-Based Learning and Retail

This assignment delves into the application of practice-based learning within the context of retail. It examines the influence of experiential learning on managerial practices in a rapidly evolving retail landscape, particularly focusing on omnichannel strategies and their implications for employee work-life balance. The assignment also analyzes ethical considerations surrounding data privacy and consumer behavior in modern retail settings.

WORK BASED EXPERIENCE
Student Name:
Student Id:
Professor Name:
Assignment Name:
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Table of content
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Task 1...............................................................................................................................................3
1.1 Research and evaluation of the suitable organization that could provide industry experience. 3
1.2 The evidences of the ability of negotiation with the work and academic supervisors to
achieve the opportunities to gain some work experience in the retail sector..................................4
1.3 The business constraints associated with the negotiation in the work experience..................5
Task 2...............................................................................................................................................6
2.1 The tasks and responsibilities that have to agree and priorities in the area of the work............6
2.2 The required plan for meeting the objectives through the work experience.............................7
2.3 The benefits of the proposed activities that have to perform in the work................................8
Task 3...............................................................................................................................................9
3.2 The use of different type of devices to keep the systematic records of work performed in the
work experience...............................................................................................................................9
3.3 Revising initial plan that has been produced in 2.2.................................................................10
3.4 The suggestions for improvement and revival to supervisor...................................................11
Task 4.............................................................................................................................................11
4.1 Evidence of monitoring the progress of the job against the proposal......................................11
4.2 Evaluation of the quality of the performance of the job..........................................................12
4.3 Reflection on work experience and analyze the learning........................................................13
4.4 Recommendations of the work experience..............................................................................13
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................14
Reference List................................................................................................................................15
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Introduction
The following Work based experience is about the requirement of negotiation in the industry.
The negotiation ability is very important for the present global economic situation of the
industry. There is different type of resources required for continuously doing the business
activity of the organization. The organizations have to buy and collect such resources to do the
business activities in the industry (Dong et al. 2014). The organizations have to negotiate with
sellers at the time of buying such resources because the financial resources of the organization
are limited. The organizations have to buy maximum number of resources through investing the
minimum number of financial resource. Therefore, In present the negotiation skill is very
important for every industry. The work based experience also review and recommended some
suggestions to record the information of the job in a systematic way.
Task 1
1.1 Research and evaluation of the suitable organization that could provide
industry experience
The work experience will research and evaluate the retail industry and the organization of the
retail industry that can provide work experience.
The following job profiles of the retail sector can provide some work based experience:
A: salesperson: This type of job profile can provide some work based experience about the
selling skills, communication skills, consumer behavior and negotiation skill.
B: Inventory manager: The job profile of the inventory manager can provide some experience
about the tools and techniques that used to manage the inventory such as ABC techniques,
Economic order quantity techniques and just in time technique to keep the supply of the product
continuously (Gollan et al. 2014).
C: Counter person: This type of job profile provide work based experience about the payment
devices and options such as computers, bar code reader, card machines that can be used at the
time of payment.
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D: Assistant marketing manager: This type of job profile provide the information about the
different types marketing strategies, advertisements, offers which are used by the marketing
manager to increase sale of the products.
E: Assistant financial manager: The position of assistant financial manager can provide some
work based experienced about the different type of financial statement prepared by the financial
manager. The experience about the income statement, profit and loss statement, purchase budget
of the retail organization.
1.2 The evidences of the ability of negotiation with the work and academic
supervisors to achieve the opportunities to gain some work experience in the
retail sector
The position of the store officer can provide some insight on the consumer behavior, consumer
reaction, and perception of the consumers about the products of the retail organization. This type
of work experience provides some information about the requirements of the consumers
(Kennedy et al. 2015). This position will provide a great opportunity to gain some industry
experience and work with the retail industry also provide some information about the demand of
the fast moving consumable goods among the customers. This type of work based experiences
help to be more comfortable with the industry. The job experience help to understand the factors
of customer’s satisfaction and the process of increase the customer satisfaction for the
organization. The process of building loyal customers and retention of the customers can be
ensured by providing better quality products and customer services. The relationship manager of
a retail organization there are different types of opportunities to get the experience about the
different department of the organization. The store officer can also get the experience about the
different type of resources such as shelves, tables, monitors that help to visualize the product to
the customers. The knowledge about the different types of techniques and tools is required
managing the inventory of the product. It is the responsibility of the store officer to provide some
knowledge about the products to the employee of the retail stores and motivate them to sell the
products as soon as possible (Kolb, 2014). The store officer also provides some advertisements
in the store to aware the customer about the product and the discount offers associated with the
products. This type of activities helps the store officer to increase the sale of the store. The store
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officer is also responsible for the recruiting of right staff in the store. The store officer also
responsible for preparing different types of job recruitment documents such as job description,
job specification, job advertisement etc. Therefore, the selections of the position of store
manager for the work based experience is very good decision to get some knowledge about the
activities done by the retail organizations (Mom et al. 2014)
1.3 The business constraints associated with the negotiation in the work
experience
There are different types of business constraints have to face to getting the type of work
experience. Most of the businesses are not allowing the work based experience in their
organization because the organizations think that this is an unusual burden on the employees of
the organization. Sometime the supervisors of the organizations are not interested for providing
such work-based experience. The work-based experience cannot provide detail information
about the required skills in the organization. The supervisors are not discussing about the
different task done in the organization. The role of assisting the store officer to know about the
activities done by the store officer sometime fail to provide relevant information about the
activities during work based experience. The limitations of the qualification also be disclosed
during the work based experience. The limitations in the communications skills, using the
techniques and tools and selling skills can be known during the work based experience. There are
different types of skills required to manage the retail store such as using the resources of the
store, motivate the employee of the store and increase the sale of the store cannot be known from
the work-based experience (Savery, 2015). Therefore, the student has to try to get the knowledge
about the different activities associate with the store officer during the work experience. During
the work based experience the use of different kind of devices in the bill counter is a very
important limitations that faced by me during the work in the retail store.
Task 2
2.1 The tasks and responsibilities that have to agree and priorities in the area
of the work
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There are different types of responsibilities and tasks I have to do during the work-based
experience in the retail store. The responsibilities and tasks are helping me to be more
comfortable with the retail industry. The priorities responsibilities and tasks are as follows:
Sale the product: I have to sale the products of the retail store and try to promote the different
types product of the retail store to the customer.
Using different resources: I can try to use the different types of resources of the retail store which
help me to increase the sale of the store. The retail store use different types of resources such as
shelves to reveal the different kind of products of the retail store and computers to prepare the
bill of the customers and other payment devices that helps the customers for easy payments.
Manage the inventory (Piotrowicz and Cuthbertson, 2014). To work in a retail store I have to try
to get some knowledge about the inventory management techniques used in the retail store.
There are different kind of techniques such as level techniques, ABC techniques, just in time
techniques and EOQ to maintain the continuous supply of products in the retail store.
Preparing marketing strategies: During the work based experience process I have to acquire
some knowledge about the marketing strategies of the organization. I can also prepare some
aggressive marketing strategy to increase the sale of the store. I have to prepare some
advertisements and poster to promote the products of the store.
Lead the team members: The process of lead the team and improve the performance of the team
members also have to be learned by me. During lead the team members I have to learn some
mechanisms to resolve different types of conflictions among the team member and grievances of
the employees. In that, I have to increase the satisfaction among the employees (Brynjolfsson, et
al. 2013).
Customer services: During the work-based experience in the store I have to work in the customer
service department also and it is responsibility of mine to learn about the process to satisfying the
customers and getting some positive feedback from the customers through providing them good
quality products and services. I have to learn different types of mechanisms and techniques to
handle the grievances of the customers about the quality of the products and services.
Preparing financial statement: I have to learn about the different types of financial statement of
the store such as income statement, inventory statement, income statement, profit and loss
statement, cost statement etc. I learned about the process of control the cost, minimize the cost
and increase the sales revenue of the store (Henly and Lambert, 2014).
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Performance measurement: I have to learn different types of techniques and use the tools to
measure the performance of the employee after measure the performance I have to rectify
different types of problem faced by the employees at the time of discharging their responsibilities
and try to make some solutions to solve the problems.
2.2 The required plan for meeting the objectives through the work experience
The following table is about the plans, which are required at the time of the work based
experience to meet the objectives of the learning:
ObjectivesOutcomesStrategiesIndicatorsTimeline
Selling skillIncrease the of
the products
Promote the
products to the
customers
Achievements of
the sales targets
2 weeks
Resources
utilizations skill
Utilization of
resources
properly and
increase the
sales
Use the
resources
optimistically
invest minimum
on the resources
and maximum
amount of sales
of the products
Increase the sales
amount of the
store
1 week
Inventory
management
skills
Manage the
inventory of
the store
Using different
types of tools
and techniques
of inventory
management
Supply and sale
amount of the
store
2 weeks
Marketing
skills
Increase the
sales of the
store
Aggressive
marketing
strategies
advertise,
Increasing in the
sales amount of
the store and
increase the
3 weeks
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promote the
products,
discount offers
etc
number of the
customers
Customer
services
Increase the
number of
satisfied
customers
Improve the
quality of the
products and
customer service
Getting the
positive feedback
from the
customers
1 week
Leadership skillTo learn the
process of
Leading and
managing the
employee of
the store
efficiently and
Resolve the
confliction
among the
employees and
motivate them to
increase the sale
Increased the
number of
satisfied
employees and
improvement in
the performance
of the employees
1 week
Financial skillsUsing and
preparing
different types
of financial
statements of
the store
Observing
different types of
financial
statements of the
store
Increase the
revenue of the
store and reduce
the cost of the
store
2 weeks
2.3 The benefits of the proposed activities that have to perform in the work
The benefits of the activities, which are performed during the process of getting work, based
experience in the store:
A. I can get some knowledge about the activities of the retail industry that helps me to be
familiar with the contribution of the retail industry in the economy.
B. I can get a huge knowledge about the financial statements used by the retail organization.
C. I can comfortably work in a retail store after completion of the education.
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D. I can use the different kind of devices and resources, which are used in the store (Leonidou et
al. 2013).
E. The activities which are associated with the work-based experience also provide me a huge
knowledge about the different types of marketing strategies followed by the retail organization to
increase the sales.
Task 3
3.1 The process of fulfill the requirement of the placement and conforming to all the related
code of practice
Every organization imposes their requirements on the employees. The companies ensure that
workers abide by the code of conduct as well as organizational policy. () have pointed out that
these criteria include compliance with the industrial standards that determines the behavior of the
employees within the workplace. The following determinants require to be followed by all the
employees:
Working hours: The retail Organization has adhered to the Working Time regulations of 1988,
which define the working hours of the employees in the United Kingdom. According to the
Governmental rules and regulations, the employees are permitted to work for 8 hours. The retail
organization values time management and punctuality thereby pushing on the employees on
reporting on time (Leonidou et al. 2013).
Payment: The organization is not liable to provide any wages to the students applying for
internship. However, the organization has always been supportive in procuring incentives, which
may vary with situations.
Equal opportunity: This is one of the principle of the codes of practice that every organization
addresses. The retail organization complies with the Equal Opportunity Act and bars the practice
of discrimination at workplace.
Confidentiality: The organization complies with the Data Protection Act thereby ensures
concealment of the personal information. The firm has restored stating that no information would
be entertained for commercial use and the employees can exercise legal rights for non-
compliance. Thus, I would adhere to the confidentiality rules ensuring no exploitation of the
personal information of either the customers or my colleagues.
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3.2 The use of different type of devices to keep the systematic records of work
performed in the work experience
I can maintain different types of diaries, logbooks, portfolio, spreadsheet and databases to keep
the records about the different activities, which are performed by me during the work, based
experience in the store. I can use the spreadsheet to keep the information of my attendance in the
store, to keep the detail information about the activities, date of the activities, time of allocation
of the activities and end time of the activities etc (Brochet et al. 2013). I can also maintain a
database to keep the record of the detail information about the target achievements, relevant
information about the team members and the strategies, which are followed by the me to achieve
the target. I can also ask the supervisor to provide me a report about the performance of mine in
the store. I can also maintain the logbooks and diaries to keep the detail information such as
amount of the products stored in the inventory, demand in the market of the products and
delivery time of the products in the store about the products of the retail store.
3.3 Revising initial plan that has been produced in 2.2
To bring improvement in the running of the operations of the business the storekeeper needs to
follow these activities for efficient working of the stores. These would help the storekeeper to in
better arrangement of the products in front of the customers when they come to buy the products.
This revised plan should help the storekeeper to help the organization to achieve their goals in a
more better way (Dong et al. 2014, p. 26). The utilization of these skills in a correct way will
help the storekeeper to maintain the daily activities of the store in a better way and to attract
more customers in the market.
Short Term Plan (1 month)Medium-term Plan (2 months)Long-term Plan (3 months)
1. Selling skills with effective
communication that would help in
promoting the customers.
2. Customer satisfaction strategy
would help in achieving the sales
target
3. Financial skills with accounting
Resource management and
utilization skills would help in help
in using the utilization of better
way of resource
This process of resource usage
would help in increase in sales
1. Marketing skills helps in
enhancing the sell and sales
amount
2. Enhancement of skills
related to the customer
services
3. Leadership skills would
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amount
3. Skills of inventory management
using effective techniques
help in minimising the
conflict and negotiation
3.4 The suggestions for improvement and revival to supervisor
The employees should always learn to interact with the customers in a proper way. It will help
the customers to feel more comfortable in buying the products from their store. It will help the
store manager to solve their problems by speaking with the employees in a proper and systematic
manner. The retail organization should learn the importance of correct marketing strategies to the
people who come to buy products from them in the stores (Gollan et al. 2014, p. 35). The
Organization should always make the customers aware and attract more customers to buy the
products from the retail organization. They need to attract more customers to buy more retail
products from them than other organizations by giving special offers and discounts to the
customers who come to buy the products from them in the market. The Organization should also
use the social media as a weapon for promoting the correct marketing strategies to the customers
in the market (Martinov-Bennie and Mladenovic, 2015). They should post the pictures, contents
of all the products of the Organization in social websites like face book, twitter and attract more
of the customers to buy products from them than other organizations in the market (Kennedy et
al. 2015 ,p. 62). The customers would know more about the different features of the products in
details and ask know about the different types of services that the organization provides to their
customers in the market from the different types of social pages and websites.
Task 4
4.1 Evidence of monitoring the progress of the job against the proposal
I have gathered the necessary communication skills by communicating with the customers i n a
polite way so that all the customers are pleased with the behavior of them. I have also adopted
better satisfaction and financial skills by learning the skills more efficiently in a systematized
way (Wei et al. 2014). I also have better utilization skills by utilizing the resources more
effectively by correct utilization of the products according to the needs and preferences of the
customers in the market.
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ActivitiesSkills AcquiredTime Frame
Selling skills with good communicationGood communication skills2nd Week
Customer satisfaction skillsGood knowledge about consumers’
preferences
3th week
ActivitiesSkills AcquiredTime Frame
Adequate use of resource usageMinimum effort can bring the
effective sales
4th week
Using of resources in effective manner with
knowledge in inventory management
Get to know various skills of
inventory
5th Week
ActivitiesSkills AcquiredTime Frame
Marketing skillsIt helps in keeping close all the
department and knowing IT skills
6th Week
Leadership skillsIt helps in conflict management with
effective negotiation
7th Week
4.2 Evaluation of the quality of the performance of the job
I always understood about the different types of rules, regulations and performances of the
Organization. This is one of the critical factor that the policies of the Organization are
understood more easily and also improved the quality of my work (Kolb ,2014 p .46). I have
always maintained time punctuality and maintained discipline in the Organization. I always
performed my duties very sincerely which helped to improve the quality of my work. I have
always communicated well with the employees working in the organization more properly. I
have always maintained good relations with the manager of the organization and always worked
in coordinated way. I have always maintained good skills for monitoring the work of the
employees working in the organization. I have always seen that the organization is meeting with
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the quality of producing the products in comparison to other companies prevailing in the existing
market. As a supervisor, I have always directed the workers of the organization to work as a
team which would help to achieve the objectives of the organization as a whole. I have always
tried to keep good care of the stores by maintaining the store properly. I have always tried to
maintain the budget of the organization so that all the activities of the Organization are carried
out properly in a more systematic way. I have always talked with the customers who came to buy
the products from the organization so that they do not face any problem regarding buying of the
products from the organization.
4.3 Reflection on work experience and analyze the learning
I have learned many skills by working in the organization as a storekeeper .These includes the
time management skills, problem solving skills, interpersonal skills and teamwork skills (Mom,
et al. 2015, p. 73). I should always try to learn new ways of time management and strictly
manage the work with the given time in the Organization. I should also have problem solving
skills by talking with the employees working in the Organization and solve their desired
problems. I should also have proper interpersonal and teamwork skills. I should always direct the
employees to work as a team in the Organization. I should always perform a management report
in which there should be proper details of the working of the management by the Organization. I
should always keep a proper record of all the activities performed in the Organization.I should
always have proper communication skills so that they interact properly with the customers who
come to buy products from their stores in comparison to buying products from other retail stores.
I should also have proper details of the evidence of the workings of the employees in the
Organizations. I should also maintain the budget in the daily activities of the Organization. I
should also try to manage a better team of employees who should have better management, time
solving and interpersonal skills. This should help in building a more quality team for achieving
the goals of the Organization.
4.4 Recommendations of the work experience
To improve the quality of the work done to maintain the stores in the retail sector the storekeeper
should bring about necessary changes (Savery, 2015, p. 55). I should think of alternative ideas
regarding maintaining of the stores in the retail sector. I should make ideas about changing the
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locations of the retail stores so that it can be reached more by the people who come to buy their
products. This should help the Organization to increase the sales more and more people would
come to buy products from them rather than from other Organization. I should also make
changes in the time management of the employees who works in the Organization. I should also
have done better preparation in making correct strategies for attracting more customers. I should
also have made better preparation in maintaining the assets of the retail stores so that they can
present the products in a better and organized way to the customers who come to buy products
from them. I should also try to create a good image about the Organization in front of the
customers who come to buy their products. I should always see that the overall profit of the
Organization is maintained by maintaining the daily cash activities of the Organization and also
increasing the sales of the Organization. I should also see that there is no theft activity-taking
place in the store and it is free from such activities all the time.
Conclusion
In the above study, I have learnt that the storekeeper should always keep in mind the necessary
changes in the workings of the Organization. The storekeeper has made an analysis of the
experience in his working and has seen that some changes should be made such as time
management skills, interpersonal and better team building skills . The storekeeper should also
review the current performance of the store and help them in better achievement of the goals of
the Organization. The storekeeper should also try to develop the necessary skills for the well
being of the retail Organization in comparison to other Organization.
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