Opinion Retail addiction

Organised modern retail business still has just 5 per cent share of India’s Rs 22,50,000 crore retail size. Speculating with statistics,global consulting companies have created hype about the greenfield potential of India’s retail industry. Tapping this opportunity,Indian businessmen have taken the real estate route. They’ve set up large,plush,brick-and-mortar retail spaces. But have they gone through the shoppers’ sensitive core?

Like a rose,retail business is sensitive,fresh and fragile. It’s different from manufacturing companies that can multiply its distribution to sell products in different areas at any given time. Retail business cannot be mobile like that. If you miss out on the expected average bill per square foot on an every day basis,it means the retail is losing money. That’s why the shopper’s permanent addiction to the organised retail is the only solution for success.

The retail store management team needs to anticipate shopper psychographics in product involvement and purchase behaviour. She can be serious,bored,snobby or showoff. She can be window shopping,romancing,smitten,arrogant,speculative,impulsive or just a value seeker. By addressing these moods,you can expect an increase in the share of her wallet. Her shopper-centric retail experience means she gets what she wants and gets surprised to refresh her desires. A hypnotic retail façade and internal merchandise that cues shoppers to enter will attract footfall from both planned and impulse shoppers.

In-shop experience can change the metaphor of a brand. The shopper’s purchase act is linked to the type of outlet and its merchandise. It’s not the same in different types of outlets. Store plan and merchandising creates the impact,the outlet type defines the merchandise,and purchase act responds through the psychological parameter. The more hallucinating a store,the shopper returns to spend more. To retain her and make profits,the retailer must provide an unparalleled shopping experience. This will increase footfall,conversion,retention,repurchase and increased wallet share. Merchandise that’s unparalleled,coupled with the right price,can give you the power to sustain an ethical retail practice.

Seamless backend alignment. Proactive backend alignment is a retail’s key executional point for commercial success. Excellence in negotiating for purchase,brilliant selection,consistency of quality,speed and time management need to be interlinked like a honeycomb. Unlike a manufacturing company where automatic systems can be exploited,the retail business has profuse human interventions. No manufacturing company will have such wide product variety that any retail has to manage. That¿s why seamless coherence in every front and backend function is important,coupled with sensitive,microtone shopper catchment area.

Honeycomb backend coherence effectively drives shopper footfall,retention,repurchase and increase in wallet share. If a single honeycomb cell gets disconnected,the business will suffer. How should the staff ingrain this? A simple,fun way to understand the honeycomb culture is to compare backend support functions with some symbolic expression as aspirational element. Here’s how different animal characteristics can be activated in people.

A merchandiser/category management procurer should be like a cow,a holistic provider of the company. A procurer for private label should be smart like a chimpanzee,and be able to surprise shoppers with real alternatives. Consignment purchase/payment-after-sales person should be like a monkey,tricky and play around for a while. The concessionaire/shop-in-shop negotiator should like a swan,get classy products but also shout when things don’t go right. Warehousing personnel managing large spaces must be reliable like an elephant with a sharp memory and do correct bar coding. The store manager should be alert like a wolf before issues escalate. Department managers should handle all personnel and functions to create unique differentiation,just like every zebra’s black-and-white lines are unique. Support service has to be hardworking and diligent like ants working in teams to provide all necessary service. Like a trained German shepherd,the securitymen should guard the premise and equipment with full loyalty. Housekeeping should be like the weaverbird,neat,meticulous and paying attention to details.

The most crucial customer care function should provide overwhelming service and assure shopper comfort like a sheep dog does. The strategic marketing function should imitate a rabbit,multiply business by jumping towards growth and profitability. The sales associate should be opportunistic like a fox to close deals. MIS should be proactive,sensitive and provide silent yet effective networking like a spider. Like a goose,Human Resource should have extreme human sensitivity,ability to choose the right people to enable streamlining of all operations. Billing system/cashier should be fast and friendly,not succumb to pressure and be interactive like a cat. The entire backend attitude,behaviour and action should be an interlinked honeycomb of extraordinary teamwork.

Within the next 10-15 years,India will undoubtedly be the hub of the world’s organised retail business. As soon as FDI opens,fashion and fashion accessories organised retails will particularly face huge pressure of their brand worth. Global brands with strong brand image,quality and product sourcing competence will mesmerise India. These Indian brands will then be constrained to reduce price as they have not built aspiration beyond cut and fit.

Grassroots retail strategy is nothing more than a focus on how to occupy and maximize the shopper’s eye space. What addiction will you offer the shopper so they converge and occupy your organied modern retail space? To sustain business with reasonable profit,retailers will require patience and passion in plenty to understand the shopper’s sensitive areas.

Shombit Sengupta is an international creative business strategy consultant to top management. Reach him at http://www.shiningconsulting.com