Customer journey should be paramount in any retail design: Venu Nair

Presenting his keynote address on "Building a perfect shopping experience for new age expectations” at In-Store Asia 2016 in New Delhi, Venu Nair, Managing Director, Marks & Spencer Reliance India, stressed on the need of studying customer behaviour in order to deliver the best retail experience.

"The changes in retail across India have been complex, challenging and dynamic. And off course technology has changed the expectations significantly,” pointed out Nair. Speaking about  M&S's new boutique-styled retail design, Nair presented the audience with five elements to explore in the process of delivering the best of retail designs. These included  high quality products, excellent customer service, right price, technology and check-out time. "When we talk about store design, keep in mind that first impression is the last impression,” he added.

Answering questions from the audience on the growth of online retail, Nair said that online is just one of the channels thus making it a new entrant which should be part of the brick-and-mortar stores' seamless 360 degree communication. "Understand that when a customer is walking into a store because of what online is offering today, he/she already knows a lot about it. All you have to offer is an unforgettable experience,” Nair concluded.