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Specsmakers aims to have 250 stores by 2018

By Swaminathan Balasubramanian | December 12, 2017

In an exclusive chat for Retail4growth, Pratik Shah, CEO, Specsmakers Opticians, shares his views on the current trends in the optical market and his expansion plans.

Chennai-based Specsmakers, one of the leaders in optical retail chain, believes in increasing density in a small market than extending presence across the length and breadth of the country. The retailer plans to focus only in the Southern part of India, and after successful journeys in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, it plans to enter Telangana, with a chain of retail stores in Hyderabad. In an exclusive chat for Retail4growth, Pratik Shah, CEO, Specsmakers Opticians, shares his views on the current trends in the optical market and his expansion plans.

What are the key expectations from a customers in purchasing spectacles?

In my view, customers expect affordability, quality and after-sale service. We innovate in terms of design like providing sun-glass option embedded with spectacles. We provide specs at affordable price factors. 

How you do classify your retail stores?

Currently we have 112 stores in three cities Chennai, Bengaluru and Madurai. Our product ranges from INR 900 to INR 4 Thousand. We are present both in high-street and neighbourhood regions. High-street is for customers with higher affordability and with affluent social status. Neighbourhood stores are for customers to locate our store within their vicinity, develop a loyalty so that they come again and again. 

At the store, what are the key elements you focus on to attract customers?

Our typical retail formats are between 300 to 350 square feet stores. We focus majorly on lighting and visual merchandising. We have unique display style which is acrylic that impresses the customers. We have our products placed in a nice way and we showcase it with the offer-boards displayed well. Also, on the marketing end, we have cricketer Ravichandran Ashwin as our brand ambassador for the past two years.

What are your expansion plans?

We have currently 112 stores in three cities. We are eyeing the Hyderabad market and we are aiming to open 50 stores in Hyderabad. That way, by the end of the next calendar year, we will be having total 250 stores. We believe in having a denser reach rather than wide-spread. According to me, it is better to have more stores in a particular region and not like having 500 stores across 300 cities. We are also focusing on shop-in-shop model to have our dedicated section in large retail stores and having our experts with select hospitals and private clinics. 

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