Shoppers Stop expects to grow around 8 per cent this fiscal, as the K Raheja Group retail chain is expanding its sales network by adding new cities and strengthening its e-commerce presence, following Omnichannel strategy, said a top company official. The company will continue to add 2-3 cities in its network every year to broader its footprints, besides adding more Amazon kiosks, selling the exclusive products of US-based e-retail major, as per a PTI report.
The company expects that online sales, which contributes around 1.5 per of its revenue, will double this year as it is eyeing to have at least 10 per of its total sales coming from this channel in next three years.
“The growth would be about 8 per cent (total),” Shoppers Stop Customer Care Associate Managing Director and CEO Rajiv Suri told news agency PTI.
“We expect to be stronger in Q2 and we are looking for 7.5 per cent growth. We are looking next three quarters in this range,” he further said.
Shoppers Stop had registered a consolidated total income of Rs 3,713.25 for financial year 2017-18, and for the first quarter this fiscal it has reported a total income of Rs 833.72 crore last week.
The company is presently operating 83 Shopper Stop in 38 cities and 13 HomeStop stores in 9 cities. It will continue to focus on tier I and II cities.
“Currently we are present in 38 cities and each year we would add 2 to 3 cities in our network. This year we are opening five new department store and 10 to 12 beauty stores,” Suri was quoted by PTI as saying.
US-based online retail giant Amazon had picked up 5 per cent stake in Shoppers Stop last year by investing Rs 179.25 crore. Shoppers Stop now has an exclusive flagship store on the Amazon marketplace listing the company’s portfolio of 400-plus brands.
“We have introduced three Amazon Kiosks in Mumbai and Ban galore, which displays and sells Amazon’s exclusive products such as Kindle, Fire stick, alexa etc,” Suri told PTI.
“We have noticed considerable traction and now we are planning to rolled out across our stores in a phased manners,” he added.
On being asked as how much Amazon kiosk, Shortstop will add this fiscal, he said that the company is waiting for the outcome and would take a decision by end of this quarter.
“The idea is that we would roll it out strategically along with Amazon… what’s the best location for them to open and for us too,” he told PTI.
In its recent annual reports, Shoppers Stop had said that this alliance with Amazon.in will give a significant fillip to the growth of its omni-channel business and help achieve target of 10 per cent of overall sales from digital touch-points, much quicker than the company had anticipated.
Besides Amazon, Shoppers Stop is also investing in its own e-commerce platform as per its Omnichannel drive.
“In the last two years we have witnessed almost 2X growth. Currently, online sales contributes around 1.5 per cent of our revenue and we target to double the sales every year through various digital touch points,” he told PTI, adding that the company has invested around Rs 60 crore to expand online presence and is expanding its digital capabilities.
While organic traffic continues to grow, the company has also scaled its marketing efforts online, he concluded.
