Strategies for winning the Indian consumer

Global retailers looking to make a foray or already having a presence in India can find the below strategies useful to lure the Indian consumer

• Hypermarkets must target families: unlike US where individuals purchase from hypermarkets, in India a visit to the hypermarket is a family outing. Hence retailers must target families as a whole. Also by doing so the retailers would gain from more purchase per footfall (considering the family as one unit).
  

• Store accessibility: the nearer the store, better it is. Retailers must assure they are within convenient reach of the consumer. To better reach the customer they can open outlets in places where products can be picked on the way back home from offices. In fact stores can be opened in commercial complexes also to target the workingwomen. This is particularly necessary for grocery and general merchandise stores.

• Introduce international labels: the Indian consumer, especially the aspiring middle class; is obsessed with the western culture and brands. They would naturally expect the global retailers to bring in western products to the country. These international brands would differentiate the product offerings of the global and domestic players. They would also provide better margins to retailers.

• Keep them involved - keep the customers involved with the stores,increase the footfalls. When an Indian customer comes to the store, he generally ends up buying something or the other, more so if children accompany him. It is a general practice in India for parents to buy something (normally snacks and desserts) for their children. Even if they don’t purchase general merchandise, the kids will surely be tempted to buy some eatables. Also parents feel guilty when they eat out without their children. This shows the importance of attracting children or parents with young children to the store.

The retailers must keep the consumers highly involved with their stores. A case in point is the latest Big Bazaar exchange scheme. One can exchange any old thing for anything new from the store and get the difference waived off. Another case is of Wal-Mart’s in-store events like the teacher of the year award.

• Keep waiting time low – this is the chink in the armour of many supermarkets and hypermarket in the country. Time spent in taking the shopping cart and at billing counter must be reduced as far as possible.

• In-store events: Introduce innovative in-store events especially in hypermarkets. These though are not very commonplace in India but have a great potential of attracting customers, especially women and children.

• Provide modern store amenities and ambience: retailers must provide amenities likeescalators, lifts, clean and adequate restrooms, presence of information kiosks, entertainment facilities for children, good fire safety equipments, presence of bank ATMs, electronic communication facilities like internet café, telephone booths. The stores especially hypermarkets and supermarkets are crowded, congested and suffocating. Retailers must provide appropriate ambience especially in these formats.

• The right shopping experience: There is already a strong trend in favour of large format retail outlets, in both food and non-food sectors, as people are showing preference for one-stop shops. Customers are also looking for ambience and convenience in shopping. In the future, with more dual income families, the consumer ability to spend will increase, but at the same time, it is predicted that the time available for shopping will go down. In such a scenario, the retailers will have to increasingly develop shopping as an experience and at the same time, the more successful ones will be those that provide faster service.