Table of Contents

Executive Summary.................................................................................................... 3
Introduction................................................................................................................ 3
Organizational Structure............................................................................................. 4
CARREFOUR MIDDLE EAST OPERATIONS....................................................................4
SUPPLY CHAIN STRUCTURE AND STRATEGY.............................................................4
Carrefour My Club................................................................................................ 5
Carrefour Supermarkets and Hypermarkets.........................................................6
Product Categories:.............................................................................................. 8
Carrefour Web Store............................................................................................. 8
Delivery Options................................................................................................... 8
AXA Insurance...................................................................................................... 9
Delivery to Work or Home.................................................................................... 9
Delivery Restrictions............................................................................................ 9
Change of Delivery Date...................................................................................... 9
Secure Online Payments...................................................................................... 9
Value Added Services........................................................................................... 9
Responsiveness VS Efficiency............................................................................ 11
Codification........................................................................................................ 13
Electronic Data Interchange............................................................................... 16
Message Implementation Guide (MIGS).............................................................16
The Trade Item Data Model................................................................................ 17
Carrefour GDS Network...................................................................................... 17
Operational Strategy............................................................................................. 18
Marketing Strategy............................................................................................. 18
Competitive Strategy......................................................................................... 19
Procurement Strategy........................................................................................ 20
Logistics and Warehouse Strategy.....................................................................21
Issues....................................................................................................................... 21
Keeping Possible Minimum Prices..........................................................................22
Monitoring of Performance on Daily Basis.............................................................22
Supplier Selection................................................................................................. 22

Destabilization of the Region................................................................................. 23

Lack of Local Labour.............................................................................................. 23
Roadmap Ahead....................................................................................................... 23
New Customer Experience.................................................................................... 23
360 Approach................................................................................................... 23
Customer Driven Renovations............................................................................23
Renovation in Every Section...............................................................................24
Encouraging Local Talent....................................................................................... 24
Expansion.............................................................................................................. 24
Recommendations.................................................................................................... 24
Enhancing E-Shopping Trends............................................................................... 24
CSR........................................................................................................................ 25
Conclusion................................................................................................................ 25
Reference List........................................................................................................... 26

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 Ps, 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
Carrefour Supermarket Company was founded in 1959 by Fournier, Badin
and Defforey families. In the year 1960 Carrefour opened its very first super
market in Annecy, Haute-Savoie. In 1963, they came up with a new store
concept called Hypermarket and opened their first hypermarket store in
Sainte-Genevieve-des-bois. Later in 1973, Carrefour introduced its
hypermarket to Spain and in 1975 to Brazil. In 1979, Carrefour developed a
concept of hard discount and started Ed chain in France. Meanwhile they
continued to open their hypermarkets in countries such as Argentina in 1982
and Taiwan in 1989. In 1992, they created a filire quality system to make
traceability easy and to keep the record of the origin of the product. From
1993 to 1997 Carrefour took its hypermarket concept to many more
countries which are Italy, Turkey, Mexico, Malaysia, China, Thailand, Korea,
Hong Kong, Singapore and Poland. In 2000 by the name of Ooshop, they
introduced an online supermarket. A European property company was
established in 2004 by the name of Carrefour property. In 2005, they started
acquiring properties around the globe and still are continuing to do so.
(Carrefour History)
Carrefour came up with a number of products and services ever since they
started growing. In 1976, they introduced produits libres the unbranded
products that were cheaper and could compete with any other branded
product. A payment card by the name of The pass card was introduced in
1981. Insurance services were started to provide by Carrefour in 1984. From
1985 Carrefour started introducing products with its own brand name and in
1991 they launched travel services. (Carrefour, company website)
In the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) market, Carrefour, which opened
in Deira City Centre, Dubai was introduced in 1995 by Majid Al-Futtaim who

are the leading retail, shopping mall and leisure pioneer in the MENA region.
(Linkdin) It comprises of two kinds of store concepts; hypermarket and
supermarket. In the Middle East they have enjoyed a steady growth and in
the future they have plans to expand even more. (Carrefour UAE, company
website)
Currently Carrefour group is the second largest retailer in the world after WalMart and the leading retailer in Europe. Their head-quarter is located in
Boulogne-Billancourt, France. They have more than 10,100 stores in around
34 countries having nearly 365,000 employees. Carrefour offers a huge
range of products at reasonable amount of prices to nearly 10 million
customers around the world every day. In 2013, Carrefour generated
revenues of 100.2 billion.
They started their operations in Brazil in 1975 and in China in 1995 and now
they operate in three major markets namely Asia, Europe and Latin America.
Carrefours network includes Hypermarkets, Supermarkets, online stores,
convenience stores and discount stores. 55% of Carrefours sales are
generated outside of France.
Carrefour, wherever it operates exhibits its commitment to local economic
growth. They always try to hire people who live locally in the country where
they are operating instead of hiring other nationals. They also train their
managers and staff on site. In addition to that Carrefour usually gives priority
to local supply chains and that is the reason that 75% of all the food products
that we see there comes from local suppliers in the countries in which they
operate.

Organizational Structure
The structure of Carrefour is hierarchical with a more functional managerial
organizational structure. The presidents, of management board and
supervisory board forms top of the hierarchy in Carrefours organization.
Under them are Directors of organization and systems and Merchandize and
Marketing. And after this point there is a director for every specific zone in
which Carrefour is located.
This kind of structure proved to be very efficient for Carrefour. It authorizes
to important functions the abilities to take care of pivotal business dealings
of each division. It helps in comparing the performance of each division with
the performance of other divisions. In addition to this, it also helps in
coordination among the functions of each division, reducing the chances of
confusion and of overlapping responsibilities. (Scribd, Carrefour Structure)

CARREFOUR MIDDLE EAST OPERATIONS

SUPPLY CHAIN STRUCTURE AND STRATEGY
For almost two decades now, Majid Al Futtaim Retail Carrefour, which was
established in 1995 with the opening of Deira City Centre has become the
most dynamic, fast-paced and popular hypermarket and supermarket chain
in the region. Carrefour became popular because of its effective concept of a
one-stop-shop for all of the customers needs. Two distinct operating
functions constitute Carrefour; hypermarket and supermarket. Majid Al
Futtaim Retail - Carrefour plans to open a number of hypermarkets and
supermarkets stores in a number of new locations and territories in the UAE.

Carrefour My Club

Figure 2: Carrefour My Club (Carrefour UAE 2013)

In the image above, (Carrefour UAE 2013), customers can obtain free loyalty
cards that are available in all Carrefour stores (in the UAE) at the customer
service desks or at the cash register, and also on the web store. Shopping
customers are able to get free points without extra cost, and provides them
with special loyalty card offers.
Carrefour Supermarkets and Hypermarkets
Carrefour Market aims to give customers a unique shopping experience. The
customers are only offered the freshest product in the market from baked
breads, fisheries and butcheries. Carrefour does not only offer their
customers a massive range of products to choose from, but theyre products
are all in affordable prices. Carrefour Markets are industry leaders that work
hand in hand with local farmers and fishermen just so they could provide the
consumers only the freshest products available in the market, they also have
one of the largest square footage in the gulf. Highly trained in-store bakers,
butchers and fish mongers are on hand to provide freshly baked breads, the
finest cuts of meat and the biggest selection of freshly caught fish available.
Our employees having vast knowledge of their products means, that you can
get the best advice on which product suits your needs and even tips on how
best to work the ingredients. The hypermarkets also offer gardening
equipment, outdoor furniture and sporting goods, everything the outdoor
enthusiast could want. With all the latest toys, books, electronics and
movies, you can ensure that your whole family will be entertained. Carrefour
offers the highest standard of fresh produce and the biggest selections of
household items, coupled with excellent customer service. In the image
below (Carrefour UAE 2013), Carrefour market locations across UAE and the
timings are shown in details.

Figure 3: Carrefour Market Locations (Carrefour UAE 2013)

Product Categories:

Figure 4: Categories (Carrefour UAE 2013)

Carrefour Web Store

An online shopping experience with Carrefour UAE offers a wide range of
hypermarket products which includes televisions, gaming and electronics. It
has an easy-to-use, safe and secure online payment system. Exclusive offers
and special discounts can also be enjoyed and experienced by Carrefours
online web store customers.
Delivery Options
Free delivery service for large items and smaller items are delivered by UPS
or Aramex across all parts of the UAE. Customers can track orders online for
all small items via the UPS or Aramex tracking system. Please refer to the
table below for shipping cost indication (Carrefour UAE 2013).

TOTAL PURCHASE

UPS/ARAMEX DELIVERY

FROM

TO

0-5
KG

5.1-10
KG

10.1-15
KG

15.1-20
KG

20.1-25
KG

25.1-30 KG

0 AED

250 AED

15
AED

15 AED

18 AED

18 AED

25 AED

25 AED

Figure 4: Web Store Delivery Options (Carrefour UAE 2013)

251 AED

500 AED

11
AED

11 AED

14 AED

14 AED

19 AED

19 AED

501 AED

750 AED

0
AED

0 AED

7 AED

7 AED

12 AED

12 AED

751 AED

1000
AED

0
AED

0 AED

0 AED

0 AED

11 AED

11 AED

1001 AED

And
Above

0
AED

0 AED

0 AED

0 AED

0 AED

0 AED

AXA Insurance
All deliveries are insured by AXA insurance from Carrefours warehouse or
suppliers warehouse up to customers home.
Delivery to Work or Home
Customers can keep two delivery addresses within the UAE in their profile
work and home addresses. When an order is placed, customer can specify
the preferred delivery address for that. If the customer would like to send a
gift to someone, he has the alternative address of the receiver as an option.
Delivery Restrictions
There are areas in Western Region which are not covered in Carrefours
delivery service.
Change of Delivery Date
Prior to dispatch of the ordered materials, customer may request to change
the delivery date by email delivery.webstore@mafcarrefour.com.
Secure Online Payments
Customers online purchases can be paid by using any of the following major
credit cards:

Via Emirates NBD operating on a professional third party, all payments are
being transacted. In case of refund, through the Mastercard payment
gateway, it will be done on the same credit card. Carrefours processing time

is 2 working days and then it will be credited back to customers card. The
entire procedure may last for approximately 10 days. Online security is being
taken cared by Carrefour extremely seriously. The customers data is
encrypted to the highest standard and held on a secure computer to be
protected from hackers and criminals. All data is being hosted by the
Mastercard payment gateway. Credit card details are never stored within the
systems or computers of Carrefour. When a customer places an order with
www.carrefouruae.com/webstore, it's absolutely secure.

Value Added Services

C4 Extended Warranty

Figure 5: C4 Extended Warranty (Carrefour UAE 2013)

All electronic goods sold in every Carrefour store has an available warranty
and are available at the time of purchase of the consumers goods. The cost
of repair, including the parts and call-out charges for the electronic item by
one of the Carrefours reputable repair service center is covered in the 3 year
warranty. Carrefours skilled service representative can repair your large
household goods onsite in the comfort of your own home. Enjoy peace of
mind and minimal additional charge with Carrefour Extended Warranty.
Najm Card

Figure 6: C4 Najm Card (Carrefour UAE 2013)

The Najm credit card, is for shoppers that offers the best cash back and
benefits for leisure, entertainment, shopping and more. Members at
Carrefour Hypermarket are able to enjoy 4% Cash back on all the products,

zero interest easy payment plans are offered to the consumers for all their
electronics purchases above AED 1000 at Carrefour web-store.
Carrefour Gift Cards

Figure 7: Carrefour Gift Cards (Carrefour UAE 2013)

Is present buying becoming a hassle? Then top up a Carrefour Gift Card with
an amount of AED 100 at any checkout and the recipient will be free to
choose their own gift. This gift card is absolutely perfect for any occasion for
family and friends.

Carrefour Easy Payment Plan

Figure 8: Carrefour Easy Payment Plan (Carrefour UAE 2013)

Buy now and pay within 3.6 and 12 month installment with 0% easy payment
plan.
Responsiveness VS Efficiency

Figure 9: Responsiveness vs. Efficiency (Supply Chain Management 2005)

Figure 10: Responsive Supply Chain (Center for Systems Innovation 2010)

Good Supply Chain Strategy is Based on Timely and Accurate Data

According to Michael Hugos (2010) accurate and timely information is the

central supply chain driver, good strategy starts with improving the accuracy
and flow of data between companies working in a supply chain. All other
strategic decisions and tactical actions depend on this. Effective strategies
support creation of a virtuous cycle of continuous improvement; and good
information is what makes that possible.

Codification
Carrefour implements the GS1 coding of products, services and locations
which enables efficient management of supply chains.

Figure 12: Carrefour Codification (Carrefour.net 2008)

The efficient movement of goods and the optimization of the logistics chain
can be gauged based on the precision with which products, services and
locations are identified. Carrefour effectively maintains an optimized
Logistics Chain through the GS1 system. This is a set of rules designed to
enable efficient management of supply chains by assigning unique
identification codes to products, logistic units, locations and services. Coding
is the fundamental aspect of the GS1 system: stable coding means a
coherent system. For optimum data quality, coding is used to synchronize
physical flow with information flow.

Products and Services of Codification

For products and services, GTIN is the unique identifier assigned.

Figure 13: Carrefour GTIN (Carrefour.net 2008)

uniquely identifies items. This is used in consumer

units or standard groupings of consumer units in a standard format like
cases, packages, boxes and pallets. A GTIN is assigned to any trade item
The GTIN (Global Trade Item Number)

which can be ordered or invoiced, or priced at any point of Carrefours supply

chain.
Locations

The unique identification key for locations is the GLN.

Figure 14: Carrefour GLN (Carrefour.net 2008)

The GLN can be utilized in identifying the physical locations and legal
entities. Carrefour is capable of retrieving pre-defined information to improve
the efficiency of communication with the supply-chain. Global Location
Numbers are a prerequisite for EDI messages. This is necessary to access
information from the Global Data Synchronization Network. The GLN is
composed of a 13-digit code.

Logistics Units

These barcodes are used for the boxes which do not pass through retail
checkouts.

ITF-14 can be printed directly on cases/boxes.

Figure 15: Carrefour Logistics Units (Carrefour.net 2008)

Dispatch Units

For consignments of products, SSCC or the Serial Shipping Container Code is

the unique identifier.

Figure 16: Carrefour Dispatch Units (Carrefour.net 2008)

The SSCC is the GS1 Identification Key for the products for transport and/or
storage which needs to be managed through the supply chain. Carrefour is
capable of following the physical movements of individual items by mapping
the physical flow of goods to the associated information flow. The SSCC is the
key in different supply chain like cross docking, batch routing, automatic
reception and traceability.
At every point on the supply chain, barcodes allow the automatic
identification of all products.

Figure 17: Carrefour GSI System Barcode Family (Carrefour.net 2008)

GS1 DataBar

Figure 18: Carrefour DataBar GSI (Carrefour.net 2008)

The main advantage of the DataBar is its size because it is relatively smaller
having no margin. This means it can be used on products currently unable to
receive a barcode because of very small size.

Electronic Data Interchange

Electronic Data Interchange popularly known as EDI allows companies to
exchange commercial, logistical and financial information. With minimum
intervention of human, Data Exchange can happen from computer to
computer.

Figure 19: Carrefour EDI (Carrefour.net 2008)

Message Implementation Guide (MIGS)

The MIGs (Message Implementation Guide) are guides allowing Carrefour

Figure 20: Carrefour MIGS (Carrefour.net 2008)
and the suppliers to share
information on the standards that will be used
during EDI.

The Trade Item Data Model

The Trade Item data model is based on 3 key principles: a single product

tastes and needs of this population and also take into account their buying
power (SIS international Research 2009).
Price

Price is an important factor in the success of the hypermarket concept.

Carrefour is aware of the competitive prices and then prices are set lower or
at the same rate than the competitive prices.
To keep ahead of competitors and continue to provide low prices, Carrefour
started purchasing products locally. This helped Carrefour position itself as a
leader in fresh products enabling them to meet the needs of local consumers
(Bell, Lal & Salmon 2004 p.290).
Place

Globally, Carrefours stores are located outside the town or city limits in
order to accommodate for the large layouts due to the hypermarket concept.
The size of the stores on average typically is 108,000 square feet. Usually
the interiors of a Carrefour store resemble a warehouse facility and hence
are able to achieve total investment per square meter of selling space
(Bell, Lal & Salmon 2004 p.289). In the UAE, Carrefour is mostly located in all
the major shopping malls which are a departure from the standard
warehouse facility. The malls are easily accessible by the Dubai metro and it
becomes easier for the consumers to opt for shopping at Carrefour stores
(SIS international Research 2009).
Promotion

Carrefour offers promotions throughout the year which include Crazy sales
on household essentials, food products and electronic items. Carrefour has
special in-store lotteries where a cash register counter number is picked at
random and the customer billing out from that counter receives his entire
shopping free of charge. This promotion entices customers to shop more
frequently. Additionally, customers are also offered the Carrefour MyCLUB
card which they can get at the cash registers. This card allows customers to
accumulate points on every shopping trip and redeem them. They are also
offered special loyalty card offers (MyCLUB 2013).
Competitive Strategy
As of now, none of Carrefours major competitors like Wal Mart, Tesco, etc
are present in the UAE. Though Gant is present in the UAE, it has not been
able to make a notable headway into the UAE market.
By keeping a continuous eye on prices, Carrefour has been able maintain its
position as second largest global retailer with Wal-Mart being ranked as

number one. Carrefour faces competition from retailers such as LuLu Group,
Spinneys, and Choithrams etc. Price of fresh foods is a major aspect of the
competition in the UAE and therefore the margins gained will be less though
items such as household items, clothing etc can be sold at higher margins
(SIS international Research 2009).
Even though Carrefour offers discounts and other attractive concepts to its
customers as mentioned earlier, it is important to note that smaller
supermarkets and other local grocery stores attract many of the customers
due to the proximity and accessibility of the stores in the residential areas.
Another very important strategy that helped Carrefour Group gain success
was its decentralized organizational structure which it follows to this day. The
Groups head office in Paris manages the long term strategy, financial and
technical matters. With decentralization, store managers became wholly
responsible for the profit or loss a store could make as well as they would
provide forecasts to the headquarters. Also the store manager decides the
store layout, the environment of the store, and the space to be allocated to
various departments (Bell, Lal & Salmon 2004 p.289).
Procurement Strategy
Carrefour Group is able to work along with all its major and minor suppliers
at the global, regional and local levels. It has an annual negotiation process
(Export Solutions n.d.) and this defines the conditions for procuring all
products for a whole year. Products are bought through online auctions and
this has become a standard for the Carrefour Group. The negotiation process
began in 2000 and the suppliers are pre-selected according to the rules laid
down by the Group. The negotiation process provides the benefit of
transparency (Export Solutions n.d.). The headquarters in Paris negotiates
the expansion of suppliers into new countries by setting up global
agreements without compromising the pricing at the national level (Bell, Lal
& Salmon 2004 p.28).
The Carrefour Group also uses a direct procurement strategy and obtains a
majority of its product from the local farmers and breeders in which it is
based. This strategy benefits the customers by providing an array of choices
and better quality due to the close relationship with suppliers (Carrefour
2013). This enables Carrefour to have lower prices when compared to
competitors (Kamath 2010).
The Group provides its support to its suppliers so that they have better
policies with regards to social responsibility. To ensure high quality products

are provided to customer, the Group, in 2006, developed an online selfdiagnostic tool that helps the suppliers bring their products on par as per the
requirement of international organizations such as the ISO. Furthermore,
Carrefour has multi- year partnerships with its suppliers to ensure long term
growth.
Logistics and Warehouse Strategy
The Carrefour Group asserts the need for On- Shelf Availability (OSA). The
non -availability of the right product leads to a lost sale for both the Group
and its suppliers. To ensure the availability of a product, an electronic system
tracks the inventory available in store and replenishes the stock by
automatically placing orders to the suppliers (Carrefour.net 2008).
Increasing the product rotation is another logistics strategy that can help to
ensure OSA in the outlets. To achieve this, cross docking is implemented.
Cross docking is a technique to reduce material handling and also eliminate
the need to store goods in a warehouse. In this method, products received
from different suppliers are combined into a mixed product pallets as per
the requirements of the particular store. (Murray n.d.)
Carrefour would supply its outlets from the suppliers warehouses leading to
increased costs. In order to reduce costs, deliveries to outlets are made after
cross-docking is done (Waters 2003, p. 91).
The suppliers send the goods to a distribution/consolidation centre and the
products are consolidated as per the orders of the particular outlet. This
leads to reduced expenses for the suppliers (Abbas 2012).
Other benefits can also be seen for the Group; such as the need for
minimum order quantity is reduced due to consolidation of the orders of the
outlets and there is also a safety stock maintained (Carrefour.net 2008).
Carrefours success in maintaining OSA can be attributed to a well -organized
supply chain process. Therefore, information sharing becomes a very
important aspect in this process. There should be a ready availability of
reliable order information through data exchange. The use of EDI (electronic
data interchange) was implemented and sharing point of sale is required as it
is associated with activities such as cross docking, store replenishment,
promotion etc. Sharing point of sale would lead to identifying when stocks
would run out as well as better delivery and production of items required for
promotional purposes and the time required in getting the product to the
market. Information sharing would also lead to considerable reduction in the

order cycle and payments. Also notable is the introduction of Shelf Ready
Packaging (SRP) which helps to increase sales and the costs are also lowered
of the products (Carrefour.net 2008).
Carrefour Group is taking a lead by introducing responsible procurement in
order to reduce the carbon footprint of their operations. To do this, Carrefour
plans to implement different forms of transportation such as using the rail
network to transport product and also switch to using hybrid lorries to
procure its products (Carrefour 2013).

Issues
Keeping Possible Minimum Prices
According to Majid al-Futtaim, Carrefour attracting the customers in the
MENA region with the logo of Low prices & so much more. According to this
logo its a challenge for them to provide their customer with minimum
possible price but with maximum possible value. So, they have to enhance
the value of their supply chain to keep the prices minimum and to gain the
loyalty and trust of their clients and customers.
Low Prices & So much More is not that easy to sustain continuously. It
requires continuously developing, unbiased & clear procedures and practices
for their suppliers to keep their confidence and faith in administration and
policies of Carrefour. It demands continuous monitoring of the needs and
demands of the people and to provide them the quality & variety under one
roof with the key aspect of affordability. Consequently, they have to
continuously enhance their own products not only in quality but also in
affordability and reliability, not only to keep an edge on competitors but at
least to provide their customer same level of the product to their customers.
Striking a right balance between responsiveness and efficiency is always a
tricky task for any hypermarket especially in markets like Middle East.

Monitoring of Performance on Daily Basis

Majid al-Futtaim and Carrefour jointly running approximately 50
hypermarkets and 44 supermarkets in MENA and Central Asia. It is a tough
job to identify the potential competitors in different areas and keep
themselves aware of the strategies related to pricing, varieties and services
of their competitors on the day to day basis. It is a daunting task to sustain
the profitability on daily basis. It puts pressure on the supply chain to provide
efficiency and responsiveness at the same time. The have to maintain the
flow of the products from upstream to downstream and failure anywhere in

the chain would result in losing the confidence of their clients. So, they
always need to adapt state of the art procedures to promote innovation
within all their departments to provide efficient services to their clients and
customers and the failure would result in gradual decrease in profitability
which is the prime purpose of any supply chain model.

Supplier Selection
Carrefour deals in numerous products from perishable to non-perishable,
food items to home appliances, hardware to software and many more. To
become an efficient supplier they have to rely on the local suppliers. One of
the major issues for any hypermarket in GCC is to provide best possible
quality to the customers. GCC in food item is not a region which is dependent
on imports of the food items. So, it is necessary for players like Carrefour to
select efficient suppliers to provide them quality imported products specially
food items which require efforts for their handling. So they have to keep an
eye on their suppliers whether they are complying with the given standards
of governments and as well as their own standards or not.

Destabilization of the Region

Carrefour is operating in countries like Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and
Iraq. After the Arab Spring the region is destablized due to political reasons.
In these conditions its very difficlut to maintain the supply chain and also to
provide efficient services to their customers. In countries like KSA and UAE if
you want to import anything, definitely neighbours are the best options
because of the shortest routes the costs are usualy lower but with growing
uncertainity in the region, it puts extra pressure on the supply chain
structure and eventually effects the efficiency and responsiveness of the
supply chain structures. As UAE is not an island, so political unrest in Iraq
and Iran will defenitely impact the bussiness in UAE as well.

Lack of Local Labour

In few countries in Middle East, companies have to rely on the labour from
other countries. This fact, like in UAE, they do not offer local labour to run
their affairs. So players like Carrefour have to bear extra pressure on their
supply chain because of strict visa restrictions as well as labour laws for the

foreigners.

Roadmap Ahead
New Customer Experience
According to Carrefour, they as a group working hard to enhance the
customer experience. Right form the parking of your car to the point of sales
experience. It is in their vision of 2013 to go towards modernization. This
modernization will help in making sites more attractive, enhanced comfort
and developments consistent to their company throughout the world. They
want to improve each store individually according to a particular site but
keeping the original identity of Carrefour intact. Only in 2013, 49
hypermarkets had been renovated and restructured. All across the world the
clear roadmap has been chalked out and action is in progress.
In order to improve customer experience they are following three different
strategies.
360 Approach
It deals with the technique that think like a customer. Drive a car to
Carrefour, park it and note down the experience of shopping till going back
from Carrefour. It will give idea to feel the customer experience at Carrefour.
Customer Driven Renovations
It is a way to make improvements by taking the customer surveys. Customer
surveys help the management to make necessary possible changes. For
example in France in one of a store while doing the renovation (St Quentin
en-yvelines) they took the survey of 1000 customers. Now in all parts of the
world they are making several round table meetings with their customers to
get more positive results.
Renovation in Every Section
Renovation is different in nature and style in every different store. Same is
the case with each section. Each section has its own criteria of improvement
and order of its products, They are also working on the concept of
improvement of enhancing the experience of each particular section.

Encouraging Local Talent

They have a policy to give chance to local either as an employee or
suppliers. This would give the locals to involve with the Carrefour and helps
them to make their position stronger in any particular area. This would not
only help to increase the skills of local people but also helps them to gain a

positive image in that region.

Expansion
They have a plan to extend their presence in different regions. Like Majid alFuttaim as a group has announced AED 3 Billion before Expo 2020. In this
investment they are apart from other activities they are planning to open 2
new hypermarkets and 4 supermarkets in Dubai. Same in Qatar they are
planning to go big before FIFA world-cup in Qatar. (Issac, 2013)

Recommendations
Carrefour is present in the countries indicated in the map in the Middle East
region. Although political unrest is affecting the market but still Carrefour has
manged to run its supply chain effectively and efficiently and they are
earning good revenues within this region.

Enhancing E-Shopping Trends

Carrefour in Middle East needs to focus on enhancing the experience of Eshopping. Although they have their online shop but it does not contain the
whole range of the products. Groceries and other house hold items are still
not available on the web store of the Carrefour. It is a window of opportunity
for them to take the lead in the Arab market by adopting some model like
TESCO in South Korea where people can use their cell phones to purchase
items on the move in places like subways.

CSR
Internationally, world is becoming more and more aware of the impacts of
the business activities socially and environmentally. In order to deal this
issue, companies are continuously publishing their efforts to deal with those
impacts. (Guziana & Dobers 2013, p.193-194)
According to Carrefour UAE, they have already initiated its first campaign in
UAE in 2007 to promote reusable bags and with their efforts they have sold
around 80000 bags till now. Decreasing the use of plastic bags is one of the
concern of Carrefour to help improving environment but still apart from these
efforts there should lot more to be done as not much information is available

on their UAE website which shows they should give much more detailed
policy on CSR.

Conclusion
Competing in a competitive world requires continuous up-gradation and
innovations. Carrefour in recent years hasnt performed as per their
expectations. Although they are continuously trying to keep themselves
prepared for the any challenging task but still they are unable to capitalize
the market as a retailing giant. They need to cut their costs more and at the
same time responsive to needs and demands of the people. Systems like
RFID on one hand giving them luxury of maintaining supply chains but on the
other hand costing them a lot as well. Multichannel Marketing is another
technique that they should focus upon and in order to make it effective
supply chain support is very crucial.

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