Shoppers Stop increases retail footprint, added 15 stores in Q3

In the third quarter Shoppers Stop added 15 stores. Of these, six were department stores and nine beauty doors. This takes the total footprint to 89 department stores and 135 beauty doors across 42 cities in India. During the quarter the first citizen loyalty program contributed 84 per cent of revenue. The beauty segment grew 9.6 per cent. The company launched four new brands in beauty. The personal shopper program grew by five per cent.

Against a subdued retail landscape with a dampened festive season, revenue growth was muted like to like. Nonetheless, the company proactively increased its productivity and efficiencies by keeping costs in control.

In a challenging economic environment Shoppers Stop found opportunities to seed future growth by aggressive expansion through internal accruals. During the year the company opened 28 stores (eight department stores and 20 beauty stores) and plans to open 23 stores (four department, 11 beauty and eight airport stores) in the fourth quarter. During this fiscal, the company has made large investments in digital and information technology transformation. These investments will enable it to sharpen its analytic capabilities which will improve overall customer experience and personalization besides supporting growth. The plan is to upgrade the beauty experience in existing stores.