How did you conceive the idea of introducing the "Epicuisine" section in Spencer's Hyper Market?

Spencer's Retail is introducing the'Epicusine' in the hyper stores of Kolkata located at Axis Mall and Quest Mall apart from the Gurgoan flagship store of the brand.

Recently we observed that there are so many retailers in India in this category and our challenge was'how to differentiate' us from them. As we have the legacy of'food first retailer' Spencer's thought on emphasising that aspect with a great assortment of foodstuff where a customer can really interact, touch, smell and buy the products whereby achieving a different experience altogether for which they would revisit the Spencer's as it'makes fine living affordable'. After this we are also trying to extend this experiential zone concept into our non-food, general merchandise and other sections like apparel.

Given the above what are your value additions to that?

We are trying to make daily needs shopping more convenient and for that we have added few new things here, for example, we are offering freshly chopped vegetable packs having different variety and one may just need to buy that for their particular preparation. In fact in the near future we would like to explore the idea where one may pick up any of the vegetable and ask to get it chopped for you.   We also have different food items from across the world and the live bakery as well. Here our main idea is to facilitate the customers by reducing their elaborate search for major edibles or processed food from different countries.

What kind of research you had to do for introducing such specialised zone in the hypermarkets?

We did various segmented research like catchment study, we asked the following things: what are the restaurants present in these particular locale and what are the cuisines people are looking at? What are the special products people generally require when they cook at home? Do we do the packaging for one time use, or if it is for multiple use how should the packs be so that the freshness of the food is not compromised at etc?

How much of your efforts have gone towards new in-store initiative plans such as displays, promos etc. How do you think these influence the shoppers/consumers?

Inside our stores there are lot of communication happening where the offers are mentioned giving value to your money. We have lot of fixtures especially for the Epicuisine section with live bakery where one may also see the products being made. Here we have more than 3000 new SKUs in food alone. Thus, this really helps in targeting the specific buyers for each particular segment.

Any new trends that you are seeing in terms of consumer behaviour/buying pattern especially when it comes to procuring the daily needs?  

Today we observe various changes that have come up in the daily need segments especially when it comes to food and also personal care products, which is growing in a steady pace.  

As Spencer's Retail caters to a very large section of consumers, what does it take to capture and then retain this segment of consumer?

We believe that the store experience that we provide to all our customers brings them back to us over again and we keep researching on developing new strategies for enhancing the relation with our customers.

How encouraging is the market growth in terms of segment like yours in India?

The growth is definitely on the higher side as people are more adopting the modern retail approach and thus it is not exactly competition, but it is complimenting the traditional trade as well.

What is your take on the recent FDI Policy in terms of more International brands coming in?

I feel it is a good move because as new brands would come in, the market would evolve having new possibilities.