AMITY COLLEGE OF COMMERCE

AND FINANCE
Internship Report
On
Retail Audit, Mistry Shopping & Marketing Analysis
By
Aveek Sen
A3146913018
B.com (Hons)
Under the supervision of
Adarsh Arora
Amity College of Commerce and Finance
Amity University Uttar Pradesh
Sector 125, Noida-2O13O3, Uttar Pradesh, India
2O15

Declaration
Retail Audit, Mistry Shopping &
Marketing Analysis
I, Aveek Sen declare
(a)That the work presented for assessment in this
Internship project report is my own, that it has not been
previously presented for another assessment and that my
debts (for words, data, arguments and ideas) have been
appropriately acknowledged.
(b)That the work confirms to the guidelines for
presentation and style set out in the relevant
documentation and format.

Date: 19/07/2015
AVEEK SEN
A3146913018
B.com (Hons)
2O13-2O16

INDEX
PARTICULARS
Acknowledgememnt
History
About Vtransform
Expertise
Service Available
Reviews by clients
Mistry Shopping Brief
Participants in Mistry Shopping
Retail Audit
The Basic Rule of Mystry Shopping
Brief on Internship Rerport: WEEK -1
Brief on Internship Rerport: WEEK -2
Brief on Internship Rerport: WEEK -3
Brief on Internship Rerport: WEEK -4
Brief on Internship Rerport: WEEK -5
Brief on Internship Rerport: WEEK -6
Case Study
Problems Faced
Biblography

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Acknowledgement

I, Aveek Sen take this opportunity to thank my guide,

Dr.Adarsh Arora, Professor,Amity College of Commerce
and Finance, Amity Noida for his constant vigilance of
my work and her endearing support, guidance and for
providing valued contribution. This project would not
been possible without her contribution.
I would like to thank my Guides for their constant support
and assistance without which making this project
wouldnt have been possible.

History
Elements Akademia was the first company to bring
mistry shopping to India not just that but with in few
years the company had hundreds of graduates signing
under the name and becoming professional auditors and
mistry shopper. Over the last 5 years, we in Elements
Akademia have visited more than 200 business
schools in 30 different cities. Based on this research, they
identified 9 Missing Elements in an MBA a widely
published article that you can see on this portal too.
Industry complains that our MBAs lack practical
knowledge of their function, MBAs lack awareness of their
own chosen sector, their CVs did not have a clear USP,
they did not know how to lead the interview etc. And of
course, many MBAs need to improve their communication
skills and their attitude.
Unfortunately, even after sharing this with hundreds of
MBA colleges, we havent really seen much change at the
campuses. Unfortunately, the level of an average Most
faculty are themselves lacking in a good quality corporate
exposure, so how can they prepare the students. A typical
case of the deaf leading the blind!
Further more the company was bought by Mrs. Gurleen
Kaur (my mentor and my auditing senior) and now what
Elements Alademia had started is now carried but us
altogether, presently in the form of Vtransform Solutions.

Also Vtransform Solutions is the only one in India of a

type different from all other auditing firms.
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About Vtransform Solutions

Vtransform Solutions is one of the leading Training and
Market Research organisation. They partner with their
clients to accelerate their business by providing
innovative solutions and services that enable them to
win.
It was started in the year 2007 by a group of IIM
Alumni/Faculty members including CXOs of companies
like Procter & Gamble Cadbury, Sara Lee, iGate etc.

Expertise
Market Research and Mystery Shopping Theri
mystery shopping solution provides a thorough evaluation
of the quality of your customer service, benchmarked
against your own quality objectives.
Corporate training They are one of the pioneers in
India to offer training as consulting, taking in mind your
particular needs, then planning a mediation to get the
answer to actual problem, and further pursue it to ensure
that the required goals have been achieved.

Services Available
Audits pertaining to customer experience
Check on prices
Audits with regard to promotion and popularity of
products.
Audits on phones and emails

Reviews by Anonymous Clients

Vtransform was consulted to do a scientific and
comprehensive assessment of existing organizational
culture and recommend an action plan this was
followed by implementation of restructuring activities
After an intervention of 8 months a second assessment
was conducted which yielded a score ahead of our
internal targets and achieved optimal culture in the
organization ---Secretary and CEO ICS

I actually saw my team was implementing the kind of

business partnering Vtransform has taught us and was
well enabled to focus on the big picture. In fact, Cadbury
India unit was strongly congratulated by our global CFO
for developing organizational capability. Vtransform has
now been asked to drill out the same training across
whole of Asia. --- Finance Director, Cadbury Asia

Vtransform delivered a workshop on Effective Report

Writing honing skills in analytical written
communication.The workshop got a wonderful
feedback, with 93% trainees rating it as good/excellent
Vtransform has now been asked to roll out similar

trainings for a wider audience. --- Learning &

Development, KPMG

Mistry Shopping Brief:

Mystery shopping or a mystery consumer or secret
shopper, is a tool used externally by market research
companies, watchdog organizations, or internally by
companies themselves to measure quality of service, or
compliance with regulation, or to gather specific
information about products and services.
Mystery shoppers perform specific tasks such as
purchasing a product, asking questions, registering
complaints or behaving in a certain way and then provide
detailed reports or feedback about their experiences. The
mystery consumer's specific identity and purpose is
generally not known by the establishment being
evaluated.

Participants in mystery shopping:

Participants in mystery shopping Under the MRS Code of
Conduct a Participant is any individual or organisation
from or about whom data is collected or is approached for
interview. In mystery shopping, information may be
collected about individual employees, subject to the
restrictions laid down in the Code and in the Data
Protection Act 1998. They should therefore be considered
to be Participants when interpreting the rules of the Code.

Retail Audit:
Study of a selected sample of retail outlets, provided as
subscription-based service by market research firms.
Retail-audit service providers gather information on a
brand's sales volume, sales trends, stock levels,
effectiveness of in-store display and promotion efforts,
and other associated aspects.

The Basic Rules of Mistry

Shopping:
1. Members must ensure that research conforms to the
national andinternational legislation relevant to a given
project, including in particular the Data Protection Act
1998 or other comparable legislation applicableoutside
the UK.
2. Members must act honestly in their professional
activities.
3. Members must take all reasonable precautions to
ensure that participants are not harmed or adversely
affected by the members professional activities.
4. Members must take reasonable steps to design
research to the specification and/or quality standards
agreed with the client.

5. Members must ensure that participants give their

informed consent where personal data are collected
directly from them.

1O

Briefing of Summer Internship

Report:

FIRST WEEK:

The First day Started with familiarising me with basic

rules and regulations about auditing and mistry shopping,
alont with how it is helpful in indentifying problems that
are faced by business in a regular basis.
As day passed I was tought the basic skills and attributes
of Mistry shopping and auditing.

After the ice breaking session I was taken to a actual

mistry shoping. Since first day I was just allowed to watch
and learn from my seniors. As they continued aquired
various details about various products, asking about the
availability about the products and other specific
customer satisnfacti related questions.
At the end of the week I was made to form a report of
whati learnt in the first week of my internship, submitted
to my seniors.

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SECOND WEEK:

Second week learnt about the basic rules of auditing and

the formalites that we must keep in mind during or while
conducting an audit.

Proper audit should be conducted so that the shopkeeper

or the sales personel is unaware about the auditor and his
intensions.A proper code of cunduct should be
maintained and the device used for capturing images or
recording video should be hidden in a proper manner.
The week continued with auditing tours at various GNC or
Guardian Pharmacies around NCR with my senior.
At the end submitted the report of what I learnt in this
week of my internship programme.

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THIRD WEEK:

On my third audit week I took up the task of

understanding audit and mystry shopping in case of

various products such as cosmetic related products to

hardwares and to automobile sector.
My seniors had given me the audit and mystry shopping
of all the GNC stores, Gurdian Pharmacy stores of Delhi
NCR reigion and I soon began to formulate stratagies and
ideas to conduct the audit in the best manner possible.
Mid week I kept auditing the stores around and in Delhi
buying products and retaining the bill amout of my
purchase.
At the end of the third week I submitted a report of all
expenses I made while auditing including purchases and
travelling and submitted the report to my senior.

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FOURTH WEEK:

On my fourth week of internship I formulated new

stratagies as my previous audits did not go up to the
mark as I did it completely all by myself.
I verified my plans of the next audits with my seniors they
verified it and also said these are very well planned.
I continued my audit of the medical stores around Delhi
and everything this week went well.I sumed up an
expence sheet along with other product list and expences
I incured during the audit, sumed up all the details in my
week ending report and submitted to my senior.

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FIFTH WEEK:

On my fifth week I continued my auditing and came with

the audit of all the stores in Delhi and Gurgaon but faced
problem in auditing the airport store at IGI International
Airpor and a picular residence in Gurgaon as it was an
extreamly Porche Society and outsiders were extreamly
not alowed.
Except These two stores I was nearly and completely
completed with my audit report and since the field is
mostly practical I enjoyed my audit always.
At the week end I submitted a report to my senior of the
details I incured during the last audits.

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SIXTH WEEK:

Continued auditing of the remaining stores, purchasing

products, knowing details of ofeers, checking availability
and so on.
Coming up to the end of my audit programme and my
summer internship I submitted my last report to my
senior and on a positive note ended my intership
Programme.

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CASE STUDY
In this case study I would like to share some information about the
company I audited.
GNC,Guardian Pharmacy is one of the leading Companies for
health supplements in the whole world. Their unique business
model allows us to create value for each of our customers.
Working with them individually, we design a pharmacy service

offering to improve resident care by focusing on accuracy and

efficiency of medication distribution also by streamlining
communication between facility and pharmacy.
Guardian Pharmacy provides pharmaceuticals and
pharmaceutical services to assisted living, skilled nursing and
correctional facilities, to hospice programs and to behavioral
health group homes.
My main job was to go to the shops aquire knowledge about the
various offers and promotions that the company had to offer
during the period I visited. My main objective of the audit was to
see wether the stores ar clear, are the sales personel wearing
proper uniform, are the customers dealt sincerely and
importantly, are the substitutes of the unavailable medicine or
drug is available in the shop or not and much more. I followed the
basic skills ofmistry shopping and auditing in this programme and
the end result turned out to be amazing with good results across
and in Delhi.
Necessarily all the stores did not go so well there were store
where I was about to literally get caught on the fact that I am an
auditor and this might change the way the sales personel behave.
Some of the shop sales personel were rue and very in convinent
in what they were doing.
Altogether I can sum it up to the level that most of the shops were
cery well and everything went well. My job also was to make a
proof as video graphy so it was a little difficult but with time
management of the video recording device becomes esier.
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The problems faced during

auditing:
Lack of experience in the initial stage
Inexperience in handling the device used for
recording
Nervousness
Not knowing what question to ask
Forgeting some medicinal terms and names in
precise that are uncommon in medicine store just to
check the availibility and substitutes.
Trying to calm
Forgeting certain promotional questions at the initial
stage.
Wrong approach in auditing in the initial stage
Making shorter video in the initial stage due to panic.
Fear of getting caught as an auditor.

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Biblography
The following information has been taken from the following sites:
History/About the company--http://www.vtransform.com/
http guardianpharmacy.net/

Definations--http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/retailaudit.html#ixzz3gXhaV7n2
https://www.mrs.org.uk/pdf/2014-09-01%20Mystery%20Shopping
%20Research%20Guidelines.pdf

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