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Retailers step on e-tail bandwagon with aplomb [Tech News] [Times of India]
[October 31, 2014]

Retailers step on e-tail bandwagon with aplomb [Tech News] [Times of India]


(Times of India Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) CHENNAI: Brick-and-mortar stores and online portals are no longer different avenues to reach the same consumer. They are two different worlds, with different clientele.

Traditional Indian retailers who have taken their business online to be part of the e-shopping frenzy say that their online presence has opened up a new set of customers with just a fifth of the business coming from existing customers, a trend that indicates a polarisation of sorts in the retail world.



With online shopping catching on like wild fire, several brands like consumer durables retailer Viveks, clothing companies Basics Life and Arvind Ltd, jewellery retailers Kirtilalas and saree retailers like Nalli or Palam Silks that have been selling in traditional brick-and-mortar stores, have stepped on to the e-shopping world to secure their share of the growing market. And a study of demographics show that most of their customer who shop online are new ones who earlier had no engagement with the brand and no access to its products earlier.

"We see that there is just a 20% overlap of customers who earlier shopped in our stores and are now shopping on our online portal, opening up a new customer base for us. From the data we have, we see that a lot of our new clients come from tier-2 and tier-3 towns and based on the products ordered, we see that the customer base is predominantly the youth segment," Suhail Sattar, co-founder and director of Hasbro Clothing which owns the Basics Life brand, said. Ditto with Arvind Brands, which recently started its e-commerce arm Creyate has also seen scores of new customers. "We have had thousands of new customers registering on our online portal. The familiarity of the Arvind brand helps but we also see many new clients coming online and shopping for products costing over Rs 1.5 lakhs," Tejinder Singh, COO of Arvind Internet Ltd which owns creyate.com, said.


A customer who has lived in a metro city and is familiar with the lifestyles of people in larger towns, but has now moved to a small town is a typical buyer on online portals of traditional brands.

This results not just in the market size widening, but also the need for specialized marketing by companies to their new customers who don't have access to the stores and products except on e-commerce portals. While brands like Basics Life are investing heavily on digital marketing, spending about 40% of their ad spends for digital engagements with the new customer base, other brands like saree retailer Palam Silk Sarees are exploring new ways to reach out to the customers.

"I have a completely new client base for my online portal, and they are those who have no access to my products in any other way. For my products, what matters most is the fabric, and if I can take my sarees to them once by organizing an exhibition at their place, and show them the fabric, it will win their confidence and they can then start ordering different colours or designs from the online portal," Jayashree Ravi, proprietor of Palam said.

Industry experts say that another fall out of this would be a correction of prices.

"Now, with many companies, prices online differ from store prices. For instance, a book at Crossword store costs Rs 499 while the same costs Rs 374 online. This kind of discounting online will settle down with the growth in the customer base. Online portals will reduce discounts and offline stores will cut prices to meet demands of a larger customer base," Ashish Jalani, CEO of eTailing India, an e-commerce consultant, said.

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