By: Himanshi Jain
Last updated : June 22, 2026 4:55 pm
As D2C brands are opening stores and legacy brands are going experiential in metros and beyond, plug and play experiential platforms like PIXe are helping brands create more consistent and engaging shopping experiences. Hence, simplifying expansion in metros, Tier 2 and Tier 3 outlets.
India's retail growth story is increasingly being written beyond the country's major metropolitan centres. From Indore and Jaipur to Kochi and Ahmedabad, brands are accelerating their expansion into Tier 2 and Tier 3 markets, drawn by rising disposable incomes, growing consumer aspirations and improving retail infrastructure.
At the same time, the retail landscape itself is undergoing a transformation. Direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands are opening physical stores, while established brands across categories are investing in experiential retail formats to create stronger customer engagement and differentiate themselves from competitors. As store networks expand across multiple locations, maintaining consistency in customer engagement, product storytelling and brand experience has become a growing challenge.
Understanding this need, Digital Tranzform Private Limited has introduced PIXe (Phygital In-store Experience Ecosystem), a plug-and-play experiential retail ecosystem, consisting of in-store tangible experiences held by a digital experience layer, designed to help brands create structured customer journeys and standardised customer experiences across different retail categories, store formats and geographies. The company is currently implementing PIXe for two clients in the home décor segment.
“The idea is to guide shoppers through a complete retail journey - from discovering the brand and learning about its products to comparing options, trying products physically or virtually, and finally making a purchase. To support this journey, we use technologies such as QR codes, touchscreens, digital catalogues, smart mirrors, virtual try-ons, product visualizers, and interactive displays,” explains Anurag S., Founder Director and Chief Digital Transformation Officer of Digital Tranzform Private Limited.
The company has packaged the solution into three categories based on budget and store requirements: Interactive, Premium, and Immersive. The Interactive package includes basic tools like scan-and-learn features and product information systems, while the Premium package adds holograms, digital signage, visualizers, consultation tools, and analytics. The Immersive package is designed for flagship stores or experience centres and includes advanced technologies such as projection mapping, anamorphic displays, and immersive digital experiences. These systems also seamlessly integrate with the existing ecommerce sites, CRMs, POS & ERP systems of the brands offering optimised deployment.
PIXe works with the systems brands already have in place, whether it's their ecommerce platform, CRM or POS system. Since it integrates with existing infrastructure, deployment is largely plug-and-play in most cases, making implementation quicker and easier.
“One of the main reasons we developed PIXe was because we saw brands struggling to scale experiential retail consistently across their store networks. While flagship stores often receive significant investments in customer engagement technologies, replicating the same experience across multiple locations can be difficult because of cost, execution and operational challenges. PIXe was designed as a framework that makes experiential retail easier to deploy, manage and standardise across stores of all sizes,” he mentions.
The challenge is particularly evident in most slow moving consumer goods categories where consumers require greater product understanding before making a purchase. Paints, Tiles, home interiors, jewellery, Sleep, Technology, beauty and lifestyle products often involve extensive comparison, consultation and visualisation before customers arrive at a final decision.
Customers today expect physical stores to offer the same convenience, information and personalisation that they experience online. “They want to explore products, compare options and understand what they are buying before making a decision. They want their buying history and loyalty to reflect in customised offerings in-store. The opportunity for brands is to take greater ownership of that conversation rather than relying entirely on individual store personnel where training can be challenging. This also allows brands to push bundling, impulse purchases, personalised offers to induce higher ROI and conversion. PIXe helps create a structured, technology-enabled framework that supports both customers and store teams throughout that journey while ensuring a more consistent brand experience across locations. One of the hidden advantages is getting the data on what the customers were interested in versus what they bought. This tells brands a lot more about their product mix than just comparing footfall with sales data” Anurag explains.
With Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities expected to contribute significantly to India's future retail growth, solutions such as PIXe highlight how brands can scale experiential retail more efficiently while maintaining consistent customer engagement standards across both metro and emerging markets.