Airtel launches first All Women Store in Kolkata

Bharti Airtel's All Women Store was recently unveiled for the first time in Kolkata, at Camac Street. With the essential notion of empowering women, this store being operated by 13 female employees of Airtel. The brand has got 10 All Women Stores so far across the country. The existing All Women Stores are in Udaipur, Patna, Mumbai, Guwahati, Bangalore and Delhi.

Ravindra Singh Negi, CEO -West Bengal and Odisha, Bharti Airtel Limited said, "This is a small step towards making female employees feel special at the work place. As a brand, recognising the capabilities of women has always been integral to Airtel's commitment to the society, and thus the launch of this store comes as an important step. Controlled and operated entirely by women, this all new Airtel store will leverage the best of retail practices and will be our first outlet in Kolkata to specifically focus on enhancing the engagement and service experience offered to women.''

This is a Company-Owned-Company-Operated (C-O-C-O) store which is aimed at providing quality service engagement for its customers. It is a one stop shop for all service related requirements including - Airtel Platinum 3G and 4G activations, 4G mobile device and dongle options, Broadband connections, bill payments and complaint resolution. The store has specially trained staff to help Airtel customers choose the right mobile device option and data offerings as per their specific need. The store has been designed keeping the standard template which is used Pan India by Airtel.

Negi further adds, "It is difficult to express in words that how special All Women Store concept is for us and the customers can only feel it through the services. Airtel always encourages women to take the full ownership, to deliver their best in their field, this store bears testimony to the fact that today's women can play successful roles in the society, breaking the conventional mindsets. Also Camac Street being a very prominent location of the city we wanted to make it very special.  In Kolkata we plan to double up the All Women Store within this FY.”

The All Women Stores, are a part of Airtel's innovative approach to address the specific service requirements of its large female customer base in this continuously growing and competitive market. The comfort of the female customers who hesitate to walk into a normal store has also been kept in the mind while planning to open this all women store.

According to the press briefing by the telecommunication brand, India's National Sample Survey reflects that the proportion of working women in urban areas has increased from 11.9% in 2001 to 15.4% in 2011. Women represent 48.4 percent of the total Indian population and the female labour force participation is near about 23% as compared to men, which is 56%.