Mumbai, April 4: The growing trend of online shopping has not only impacted the small retailers, but also even large format retailers like Croma, a Tata Group’s consumer electronics retail chain, is feeling the heat and is looking to change its strategy.
Croma is gearing up with a mixed online and offline business model at its stores. Croma views the combination of online-offline will help it increase the reach and sales at the same time, also offering convenience to its customers.
The company sees a huge opportunity in the ’store pickup’ approach, adopted by the American retailer Best Buy to increase sales across its retail outlets in the country.
Ajit Joshi, CEO and MD, Infiniti Retail Ltd, the company which runs Croma stores, said, “No retailer in India offers this facility, which will act as a key differentiator for Croma stores in the country.”
The ’store pickup’ concept allows customers to order online and pick it up later from store. The company is planning to introduce this service at its Zip stores and regular stores.
“The retail store wants to imitate the footsteps of Western countries, especially with Big Buy, and Croma is looking at playing on similar strengths. The new store pickup concept will allow customer to choose or buy the latest phone online and collect it from the nearest store thus reducing the transaction time. This will be a unique offering, something no other company is providing either online or in the offline space. Additionally, the Croma staff would also help customers personalize the product being purchased in addition to transferring data, photographs, etc.”
“We have over 100 retail stores and we will combine the forces of offline and online for expansion,” said Joshi.
With this new dual strategy, Croma intends to add 10-14 stores this year. The focus, however, will be to invest and expand in the existing cities, thereby avoiding the need for multiple distribution centers for multiple stores.