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Driven by smart categorization

By Nabamita Chatterjee | December 30, 2013

In the year 1965 Lt. Satya Prasad Roy Burman acquired a small shop in Chitpur, Kolkata, and with it the Khadim's brand. Within a few decades it gained popularity and in 1993 the brand moved into retailing. At present Khadim's owns 600 stores across the nation. VM&RD chats up with Ritoban Roy Burman, Grandson of Satya Prasad Roy Burman and Spokesperson of Khadim India Limited to know their success story and how Khadim's has become a prominent name in the organised lifestyle segment of the country.


What is the basic retail design strategy followed by Khadim's?


In recent times as we have come up with various new brands that has eventually helped us in building a design strategy. Previously in our showrooms, a Rs.599 shoe and an expensive one, double the price were displayed side by side which used to confuse the customers about pricing. But now we have created a retail space where every product line is differentiated giving the right feel of that particular brand which our customer is looking for. Thus the merchandise has gradually led us in deciding an organised retail design strategy for us.

How do the various design elements translate into business benefits in terms of sales for Khadim's?

When we started changing the store decor we maintained separate units for our distinct brands.For example, the British Walker section will have only that category or the section for Sharon will have those products only. After following this, our sale for all the brands really went up as the customers got the right kind of ambience to select their desired product from. Today our customers know about all our sub-brands and on the latest trend of the merchandise Khadim's can offer.

This process started from last September before the Durga Puja and the new look or the revamp got completed this February. Our flagship store in Mani Square first got the exact look of how a Khadim's store should look like for the next couple of years.

What has been your approach to the use of store design as a business tool? Any real experience you can cite which decides on the aspect of budgeting for VM and for specific aspects such as flooring, lighting, mannequins etc?.


We have a specific and standard coding that is done for all aspects of VM which we follow for all the stores. Our stores are located all over the country, be it in metros, tier I, II or III cities, and we have a uniform look for all of them. Thirteen of our Category A stores are our flagship outlets which are located in all the metro cities. Apart from that, all our other retail showrooms and franchised outlets also follow the VM norms followed by us.  

What has been the biggest challenge for Khadim's in the Indian retail market in terms of satisfying customers?

We as a brand from the very beginning have always tried to understand the demand of our customers, whether from the sales point of view or from the merchandise point of view, rather than focusing on what we want to cater to. But now it is a mix of both, we know what the customer wants, what are the latest fashion trends etc. So we try to blend all these things together and present something new to the customer each time. We believe that it is the USP of our product which satisfies our customers.

How have the VM Team been able to get exposure to global store design trends and practice?

When we started charting a proper retail design strategy we followed the universal fundamentals of visual merchandising, but we all believe that the design should be functional enough to support the product line of that particular brand and that with time every retailer must evolve their own unique identity when it comes to visual merchandising. In our team we have visual merchandisers and retail designers who actually help us in executing the whole process.  


How important is the need for retail designers to integrate with visual merchandising and visual communication when it comes to a brand like Khadim's? What has been your experience on this front in the Indian context?


In Khadim's the Visual Merchandising team comes under the Marketing department and thus it does not work in isolation. Since VM is a part of this team, everything moves seamlessly between us in an integrated manner, when it comes to taking any decision regarding brand positioning.  

Though sometimes we see that in other organisations, the VM is  a totally autonomous body which deals with issues related to ideation or conceptualisation in an independent manner. But here all the decisions of branding are jointly taken. Thus every time the customer walk into a Khadim's store he or she will find something new and we try to give a refreshed store experience. There is a calendar which we follow to change the decor for every occasion, and doing it for 600 stores at a time is a big challenge for us.  

What has been Khadim's experience with implementation of design concepts with Indian resources?

As VM is a concept which has flown down from West, India will take some time to reach that level.  The whole concept of standardisation is totally new to India and for our vendors to understand that Khadim's is a national brand and that we need to follow a certain standard and quality will take some time.

What has been the impact of globalization on Indian retail design? Please give us some examples with respect to Khadim's as an apparel brand?

We are glad that it is a global village and in fact due to the impact of globalisation we have evolved as a brand.

What is your take on the recent FDI policy and what do you think will be its impact on Indian retailers?

FDI had to happen and the impact would be revealed may be five years down the line. At this juncture only the MOU's are being worked upon and we are positive about it. We have evolved with time and as we know that there would be some impending changes we will have to keep learning and remain focussed on our work.

What are your expansion plans? What kind of growth rate you are looking at?

In the next three years we want to open 100 more stores in various zones of India.  We have been growing at a very steady pace of 20% and want to continue that as the Indian retail market is really booming at this stage.
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