Approach to retail

In the last two years there has been an increase in the focus on customers, good quality products and the retail platform which has facilitated quality selling in our country. Also, professional sales staff with soft skills has been assigned the role of representing the brand which has helped us to move in the right direction.

Investment in Retail

It costs Rs 15 lakh to create a store. We currently have 109 stores in India where the revenues we have generated for this year was Rs 200 crore.

New formats

We are exploring smaller formats which we feel are more productive. We are also looking at non conflicting alliance partners.

Expansion plans

We are looking at 300 stores in two years' time, and currently we have 109 stores across 56 towns and we are looking at reaching 100 towns in two years' time by 2015.

Innovation at retail

In retail, square feet are a very important currency and every hour makes it productive. This can be done by making the area more optimized; it does not have to be a big area we only need space to carry out promotions and activities with shopper involvement. For example, recently carried out a photography workshop at our stores. Customers usually prefer to walk in the store in the evenings and the stores are nearly vacant from 10.00AM to 3.00PM. So to optimize and utilize the space we are carrying out shopper engagement activities during this time. Our shopping engagement also takes care of education, and spreading awareness about new technology applications like cloud printing etc. The customer involvement for us also includes customer excitement and customer experience.

Retail Experience Influencing Buying Decisions

The retail space should be used for building trust for the brand and retailer and it has to be unique to the customer. By giving a unique experience to the customers, their needs are fulfilled and they are able to find relevant information without any inconvenience and this way that they can find the experience compatible enough to make a decision.

Approach to retail in India in comparison with the global approach

Internationally we focus on multi brand retail stores, while in India we are creating exclusive specialty stores and are calling them Cannon Image Squares. This creates a very specialized case for customers because Indian customers need a lot of education and also in building stronger experience. Where as in developed market, customers are well informed and are clearer about what they want to buy. In India, shoppers very often decide what they want to buy at the store. Most of the decisions are taken in the store by going through the experience and this creates a bigger differentiator between India and abroad.

Shopper Insights

1)    The new age shoppers are very comfortable with technology, they use all kinds of devices and connectivity and they understand the technology very well.

2)    The new age shoppers do their preparations well in advance before buying.

3)    They are also demanding and ask many questions and take more time while buying.

4)    The buying decisions are more functional than emotional.

5)    The frequency of purchasing technology items amongst the new shopper has increased tremendously.

Taking into consideration all the above points, dealing with the new shopper requires a good mix of emotions and knowledge. Technology buying is very high on the aspirational quotient and strong peer pressure combined with shorter life of the products has resulted in the growth of the segment.

Challenges in in-store visibility execution

 One of the challenges is that India does not have large format stores so the space available is less. The rental cost in India is very high in comparison to the revenue that it generates. Any retail activity that you will do will consume space.

The innovation in Indian branding and the quality of the vendor still leaves much to be desired. The quality they produce sometimes is not very long lasting. But I do see major transformation happening in a few years' time.

The opportunity in India is tremendous but the retail segment in India is still not very high on experience and this is the aspect that the marketers need to focus more on. But I do foresee major transformation in this industry.