After Delhi, French retailer Carrefour India is likely to set up its second cash and carry store at Jaipur. Expanding its retail canvas, the company is also scaling up its IT platform to enable its customers shop online.
According to industry sources, Carrefour is keen to establish its presence in North India. The ground breaking ceremony was performed a month ago and construction work has already begun. The Jaipur store is likely to be opened later this year. However, the store will be smaller in size than the Delhi store.
In December 2010, Carrefour had set up its maiden outlet in Delhi’s Seelampur area. The 56,000 sq.ft store houses over 10,000 stock keeping units.
Sources said that with other players in the business such as Walmart and Metro also expanding their India presence, Carrefour is also adopting a similar strategy. The company had earlier indicated that it was keen to set up store in the North before venturing elsewhere.
Meanwhile, the world’s second largest retailer has also initiated the process of setting up an e-commerce site in India for its cash and carry customers.
Subhodip Bandopadhyay, Carrefour WC & C India Director–IT Supply Chain and Organisation, said, “We are also in the process of building a platform for e-enablement to engage our customers. Keeping in mind the Indian IT growth story and tech savvy biz establishments all over India, particularly in National Capital Region, we believe, it will be one more way of delighting our customer base.”
Carrefour has got six major customer segments which includes hotels, restaurants, catering companies, offices and institutions apart from small traders, kirana stores. “Keeping in mind the unique requirement of these specific customers, we are offering them multiple channels of engagement. It happens through phone call, e-mail, direct contact on the shop floor,” Bandopadhyay
The company said that individual consumers will not be able to use the site when it goes online due to Government’s restriction on multi-brand retail trading. Carrefour has chosen IBM-Websphere Commerce as the platform and implementation is being done by Salmon India and the services will rolled out later this year.
Carrefour offers online shopping in France, Spain, Belgium and Turkey with services such as home delivery and an inventory of in-store or in-warehouse collections.
Source : The Hindu Business Line
