E-com banking on brick & mortar retail to drive growth

After having tested success in homeground, Indian e-commerce companies are all set to venture into global markets. Lenskart (online eyewear shop), Zivame (lingerie e-commerce player), and Pepperfry (online furniture company) are some of them who opened a physical store in India. E-commerce spend is still less than 2 per cent\% of total retail spending in India, says a Deloitte study.

While online companies are still enjoying the perks of being available 24X7 and 365 days, their growth seems to be stagnant for quite some time. They are opting for brick-and-mortar stores along with online presence. Experts opine, a physical store is a great brand building exercise since it has high recall value for a customer. Physical stores also offer an opportunity to expand customer base who are still not tuned to buying online.

Online lingerie retailer Zivame has opened eight stores across the country so far and plans to add 30 more by the end of March 2017. The reason being most women in India wear ill-fitted bras. So it made perfect sense for the company to expand offline presence as well and get close to customers. The project was piloted at Zivame’s office where many women walked in and expressed their concern surrounding the lingerie issues they were facing. This has helped the company attract customers who would be hesitant shopping online because of issues over fit.

On the same lines, Myntra thinks it as an important step in strengthening the online fashion segment. According to the CEO, fashion is a touch and experience based category. The company is taking an omni channel distribution approach to create multiple touch points for customers. The firm’s tech-enabled stores, set to open in the next two quarters, will have digital walls to help customers navigate and browse products.

Being omnipresent good for business

This trend is being witnessed across the globe. Players like Amazon, Birchbox and Bonobos in the US, Spartoo in France, Astley Clarke in the UK and Alibaba in China are all expanding beyond just the online space. Although Amazon is an established player in the global retail e-commerce market, e-commerce still represents less than 10 per cent of the global retail market. Hence, even for these global players, offline presence is inevitable if they wish to attract more customers.

Analysts believe that this is the era of convergence and one can’t just work in their own domains. They need to be omnipresent to attract maximum customers for their products. Today, it’s all about availability, connectivity and timely delivery, which is what would differentiate you from the rest. Online and offline both are essentially aimed at expanding reach and engaging with shoppers in more customised ways, thereby providing convenience. This is an emerging trend, which will play an important role for online retailers in the days to come, for those who choose to embrace the backwards step.