By Mitesh Bhandari, Co-Founder & Director, IndiaShoppe
Dec 22, 2022 / 7 MIN READ
In the last couple of years, several aspects of the business have been changing rapidly, like research and development, products and customers, manufacturing and marketing, and so on. The global marketplace too has been changing and challenging for most market players. But it has also been rewarding for those who’ve identified their game early on. But, how exactly does one do that?
There are some important matters that should be taken care of to grow steadily in the competitive market.
Identify Your Arena: Focusing on the right segments of society, that you concern yourselves with, helps in serving your customers better and also in expanding your market. For eg. If ‘middle’ and ‘upper-middle’ income groups are the parts of the society that you cater to, it makes sense to remember they aren’t residing majorly in urban communities but in Tier II, and Tier III cities and also some Tier IV towns. As they are actively striving for a better lifestyle, it makes more sense to stay clear of being identified as just another brand in the pool of players eyeing a slice of the metro market and concentrating where your customers are.
Scope of Service: It is when you gauge the potential of business volumes from the untapped markets, you can size your expansion plans accordingly. This also gives a better picture of the expected ‘repeat’ customers. A few of the options:
(A) Warehouse: If going national is the dream, having 4 warehouses, in each zone could be a safe bet, where the distribution to the various outlets can be facilitated wholesale from a centralized warehouse for that region.
(B) Store: Opening an exclusive store in every location may not be a viable solution as it brings with it, a list of overheads that’ll have to be incurred like rent, infrastructure, power, system, security, etc. It must be noted that serving customers in rural areas was, is, and will be a challenge.
(C) Pick-up Centers: A cost-effective and convenient mode of serving the customer, pick-up centers are points where after placing the order comfortably at home, the customer goes to the pick-up center to pick-up the order at his convenience.
(D) Fulfillment Center: Usually an extension/ a part of an existing store, it is where the online orders get processed, to be picked up by the courier for delivery on the date chosen by the customer. It is where all of a customer’s orders get packed into one shipment.
Like so, the customer shops online, and based on when the customer wants, a delivery mode is chosen. To increase the business from these regions, the marketing team could conduct surveys/ polls to even find out why the people weren’t subscribing to your products. Also incentivize the people to shift to your products as the business isn’t simply coming, from the air.
Follow the Customer: By definition, a customer is the king of the market. But not every time can a customer be made to feel like one. However, with the advancements in telecommunications and the boom of high-speed internet, it has now become almost mandatory to allow the customer the ease and flexibility of shopping whenever-wherever. From shopping, adding to cart, across devices, payment options, delivery choices, and returns, it is now taken for granted that our systems be updated and in sync with real-time transactions and provide the customer with the right status updates of his purchase, payment, and shipment. In fact, it is not a question of yes or no, but simply when and how deep one is going to be present, based on their business model and customer base.
Keeping Steady: As the business grows for any company, to be able to focus and achieve that same number or maintain that percentage of growth becomes more challenging. So the team would have to continuously keep working and trying to add new categories or products that would solve the problem(s) that are present in the market. Today, almost all health hazards are directly correlated to the rapid changes in our lifestyles. The R&D team, QC team, product team, and marketing teams must continuously work on adding new products that solve new problems by constantly engaging in surveys and polls. They must also be responding promptly to emails and messages with practical, easy, and early solutions/ suggestions. In fact, the products that are in development must be directly in response to the customer feedback they’ve received.
A Challenge That Ought to be Discussed More and Loud: With the rapid advancements in the travel and communications industry, our world has become and is still continuing to become smaller. This has most players in the market, pepped-up and in a hurry to expand internationally. Not just to test the global markets, but also to add value to their business. This challenge could be more effectively addressed, once they realize that there are many states within the country where their potential is yet to be reached. And instead of focusing on anyone in particular or all of those states, the players want to go international.
These challenges are not just making the market more competitive, but are also making it much more efficient and competitive in a healthy manner. And without a doubt, omnichannel is the way forward for businesses.
In the last couple of years, several aspects of the business have been changing rapidly, like research and development, products and customers, manufacturing and marketing, and so on. The global marketplace too has been changing and challenging for most market players. But it has also been rewarding for those who’ve identified their game early on. But, how exactly does one do that?
There are some important matters that should be taken care of to grow steadily in the competitive market.
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