BackDamodar Mall: the customer is right
A retail executive's thoughts on what works for Indian consumers, and how we assert our choices
PremiumNEW DELHI :
Damodar Mall is the chief executive officer (value format) at Reliance Retail. In his book Supermarketwala: Secrets To Winning Consumer India, he distils his observations around modernized retail in India: why retailers should make room for the “elbow push factor", how to stop short of becoming a “shopkeeper-in-law", and what to design for the “Gold-collared man", among other things.
In a phone interview, Mumbai-based Mall talks about what retailers can change on the service and products side to win over customers. Edited excerpts:
What inspired you to write this book?
A lot has been written about malls—the investment in them, the sq. ft (the real estate aspect), supply chain and RoI (return on investment). But there’s also an important consumer story which drives modernizing retail, like how it empowers the woman shopper. This story needs to be told and shared. I used to write about it in a blog, which got some great feedback. That’s where the book Supermarketwala started.
What is the elbow push factor?
You’ll have noticed this in crowded airports, for example. When the line for boarding moves forward a tad, the person behind you nudges you to fill the gap immediately with his luggage trolley. In stores, if you leave a space in the line going up to the payment counter, then pretty soon it will become an aisle for others to pass or someone will cut in front of you. We are a space-crunched culture. Empty spaces often make people uncomfortable. And I see this not just in India. During a big sale when things get this crowded on Oxford Street, people in London would behave in a similar way.
What do malls still need to learn service-wise about accommodating Indians, just as we are?
Quite often we also miss out on understanding the lifetime value of a customer (that’s the amount of money they would spend at the store if they become long-term customers). If I want an alteration on something I just bought and you treat me like an inconvenience, then are you not missing something? Often, the store staff look at the value of an individual transaction. Some stores limit the hours when they will do alterations to, say, weekdays in the afternoons. If you treat me well when I am buying a pair of trousers, and not well at all when I want to shorten the length by an inch, then I am going to feel you don’t care for me the person but only my cash.
And from a merchandise point-of-view, what lessons do product brands and retailers need to learn?
Take the example of men’s dressing. White-collared men in India have the most staid fashion sense. Everybody wears the same white or striped shirt with dark coloured pants. They take pride in that sameness. But this is a small section of the population in India. The majority of the people are self-employed. They don’t have the backing of a corporate business card or very often a fancy degree. They use what they wear as a sign; they want to be known for their tastes. Most modern retailers design for the white-collared man, what Kishore Biyani of Future Group calls credit-card India in the preface of my book. The fashion sense of self-employed—or gold-collared—men is served well by many stores like Amarsons, Benzer, Provogue and Charagh Din.
It’s the same with our tastes in food. We are an emerging market but we are also an asserting market in terms of our tastes in food. At an educational institution I visited, the canteen stocked four varieties of cup-noodles and one type of bhelpuri packaged in a cup by Haldiram’s. The bhel outsold the noodles by five times. Modernizing the delivery of foods we prefer is a much bigger opportunity. There is a lot more the branded food players can do on this axis.
How will online retail change the supermarket?
Online is another interesting modern choice for the shopper. The computer literacy barrier will vanish from online buying in 12-18 months. As bandwidths go up, video streaming becomes commonplace and shopping interfaces become touch and swipe, digital shopping will change all over again and a much bigger bunch of customers will come on this platform. An interesting thing with online shopping is that it takes away the tactile or physical burden your mind feels as you shop. When you add something to your purchases cart online, you don’t see the items pile up or feel their weight as you push the trolley through the store. Nor is there an act of counting your money and giving it away. Online shopping is thus much lighter on our senses.
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