After turning urban Indians into mall-rats, the Big Daddies of retail are wooing India's growing population of Internet users for additional revenues. Almost all major retailers have in the last six-eight months launched or are in the process of launching their online business.
Just last week, More, the retail arm of the Aditya Birla Group, set up a virtual store called Moremegabuys.com. It showcases deals in 32 different product categories. Tata-owned Croma, a part of Infiniti Retail, says it will be launching its online format shortly, while Shopper's Stop is looking at adding a shopping option on its Facebook page. Early mover Future Group-promoted FutureBazaar is targeting a daily sales of Rs one crore from its portal.
Rising real estate costs is one of the big triggers for companies to start Web stores. It also saves a lot of logistics issues. Mr Ajit Joshi, CEO and Managing Director, Croma, notes that most compelling reason to get into the online format is to tap the youth market. “The Indian youth is adapting to technology like never before. Viral marketing and social networking are the order of the day. The song Kolaveri Di's popularity is a fine example of it,” he pointed out.
FutureBazaar.com, the online arm of Future Group, was re-launched last year. Though originally introduced in 2006 as a concept, it went live last year and retails products in categories like fashion, home and living and even utilities. FutureBazaar.com, President Mr Kashyap Deorah said, “We are looking at 10 per cent of the group's revenue to come through the online platform in next couple of years”.
He added, “Our group footfall is 220 million annually. With the digital arm in place, we are looking at converting and even acquiring a new customer base.”
The group's current total annual turnover from all the retail formats such as Big Bazaar, Pantaloons and eZone, is estimated to be over Rs 10,000 crore.
On the logistics challenges, he said the supply chain is managed by its sister concern Future Logistics. Additionally, it also works with over 30,000 vendors. “In a traditional offline format, the challenge was to get boxes and cartons to the warehouse. But now we have got vendors to directly ship products to the customer. This saves both cost and delivery time.”