Reymond - Indian Physical Retail Stores Need a Reboot

2.1 Problem worth Solving

The problem we are trying to solve here pertains to retail store. We think that “Indian Physical Retail Stores Need a Reboot”. The brand we have chosen for this is Raymond. The e-commerce sites are taking away the market with various offers and engagement online. There are host of problem that retail store are facing today. Today’s consumers, so called Omni-consumer, don’t follow the conventional consumer decision journey path. This is evident and can be seen in the McKinsey framework given below.

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This has given rise to the following problems:

Engagement:  All the communication from retail brands are one way and have no element of engagement and dialogue with the brand. The only engagement medium is through mass media i.e. TV ads, banner ads, occasional events. A brand is only considered if the customer is driven by loyalty or brand recognition.

Product Discovery: One retail brand is discovered only if the consumer has clear set of recognised needs. There are no or limited medium that a consumer can research through and discover your product. Word of mouth is the only and critical way in discovering a brands product for new consumer.

Purchase: Brick and mortar is the only available option to buy for many retail brands. The numbers of SKU are also low in comparison to e-commerce thus limiting the option for consumer. Checkout lines are long and thus create frustration sometimes. The only advantage is touch and feel. The chance of customizability is very limited in physical stores.

Post-Purchase: It becomes difficult for retail stores to track their customer after they have left the system and looses the chance to convert them into brand advocate. Thus, one consumer purchase doesn’t really affect the purchase of other. Also, the chance to market complementary products and services is lost if it’s a onetime transaction.

Today 90% of purchase decision is affected by digital somewhere in time. Every search start from mobile and without moving an inch customer finds their consideration set. And, once they find the product of their choice, digital media flood him/her with offers to persuade him to buy.

E-commerce websites have data and based on that they can create customized offers and also reflect if any people in your connection has bought it or not, thus putting an option to evaluate the consideration their only.

Physical store are unable to capture the data required for making sound decision about the consumer while online store’s decisions are 100% backed by data. It has become necessity for the brick & mortar retail stores to explore different customers inside and outside the store. Companies like Raymond are finding it difficult to integrate both online and offline sales due to infrastructure and logistics challenges involved.

2.2 Our Solution

With our solution, we aim to connect with customer at all possible touch points and create an Omni-channel strategy to influence their shopping behaviour. The retail store has to compete with e-commerce in terms of convenience, customer engagement and wide range of choice.

For this, we will modify the business model of existing retail stores of Raymond and equip it with digital solutions, one that combines every link in the value-chain of the retail. This model will support the Omni-consumer experience and will enable Raymond to provide a consistent yet highly- personalized brand experience across all platforms. The solution will create a platform which enables Raymond to extend brands and sales across all channels—from the in-store experience, to at-home e-Commerce shopping, the growing mobile commerce space, and consumers who access any and all of these digitally enhanced alternatives.

Channel:

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In our business model, we plan to integrate the in-store experience with app and website for seamless shopping experience. All the stocks in the store will be updated on website also. The following points will be taken care of:

1. All designs and colours will be available online. However, physical store will carry only limited stocks. There will be an option to order online in case you like some cloths buts its colour and size it not available in store.
2. Every customer’s mobile number will be his/her loyalty number and he can shop using that. This will help us track the shopping habits, ticket size, social media use and other related data so that we can customize out offerings targeting all individual.
3. All stores will be equipped with heat mapping technology to record the pattern of customer shopping and track various shopping behaviour. This will help us in designing our store and visual merchandising. This data can be shared through a platform to those seeking deep insight of consumer behaviour.
4. There will be “Magic Mirror” to enhance engagement level of customer and in-store kiosk to browse and order merchandise online if it’s not available in store.

Transforming In-Store Experience: The first and for most thing is to transform the in-store experience because nowadays store and not just sales channel. They have become an experience centres for consumer – with various touch points of an enterprise. In order to engage customer in and ensure Omni-channel experience, organisation have integrated digital innovation with in-store experience. Our Raymond stores will be connected to digital media in many ways. There will be a “Magic Mirror” at the extended length of entrance. this mirror will be equipped with motion sensors and camera and will be connected to internet where people can stand in front and select their apparel and try it virtually with various permutation and combination of available merchandise. Once they are done they will receive a coupon code or an offer personally customized. They can share it on their social page by logging in through their customer id i.e. which is their phone number. From here on they will have option to buy the selected merchandise in-store or online. With our insights from data base we will deliver a custom tailored experience. Another experience centre is using kiosks and digital display where customer can simply interact with motion and browse through the entire catalogue and wide range of choices in different colours and style. Those which are available in store will be marked and others he/she can buy online. In addition, the associates in the stores will be enabled with selling and advisory tools where they will have customer information and insight to guide them to right product and close the transaction leaving no room for show rooming.