E-tailiers opting for physical retail to attract buyers

Several e-commerce companies are opening physical stores to give customers the touch-and-feel experience of products and stand out in the clutter of online retail space. Flipkart, Zivame, Pepperfry, FirstCry and Lenskart have started offline experience zones to differentiate their offerings from their online rivals and to increase credibility.

The reason is being brick-and-mortar stores serve as a window shopping zone and a starting point for purchases. Zivame has just opened its first offline store in Bangalore. The online lingerie company plans to open 100 stores in the next three years. Pepperfry.com has set up six offline stores and will open four more in the next three months. Almost 20 percent of the sales of the furniture and furnishings company come from real life stores. Companies feel such stores can act as both a marketing tool and a sales channel and save them advertising costs.

FirstCry.com, an online kids’ wear company, reduced its marketing budget by 25 percent after opening 135 physical stores. It will increase its offline store strength to 150 by the end of the year. Flipkart has rolled out 20 offline stores across 10 cities and hopes to expand to 100 experience zones by March. Online eyewear retailer Lenskart has about 110 stores across India and targets 1,000 by 2020.