My consumer experience with the great Indian Retail revolution – Report as on Oct 2017

My consumer experience with the great Indian Retail revolution – Report as on Oct 2017

The retail industry has matured in India over the last ten years, the latest boost came from the e-payment enablers through the mobile phone.

This observation is constrained to my experiences as an average middle class consumer looking for quality, value and fun of shopping.

My shopping is distributed over the following avenues:

1.       MORE store

2.       Big Bazaar

3.       The Metro store

4.       The local buy and save shops on my street

5.       The cart based hawkers

6.       The marketing push to door to door

7.       The e-commerce sites

I have stopped shopping in Reliance outlets as I never sensed the customer stickiness from any angle.  I do not shop at Tata’s Star Bazar or any other super market stores as they are not near by.

I find the MORE store among the ones in the list above as the most crisp from the experience of shopping and the shop appearance. The store keeps you at ease, makes it distinct as to the offers available, and is quite predictable as the discounts it regularly offers. The offers this store makes are more genuine in nature and really offer value.

Big Bazaar used to be the darling for value, but was quite untidy before. That has changed now. The store has become crisp since last one year. They have created more space to move around and are striving to move up the standard. However, their own native brand for processed food and beverages is below par and pulls them down on customer confidence. This is not so with their pulses brand Golden Harvest, since they have huge investments in offsite agri-product processing, their packed pulses are of quality and still offer reasonable value. But, the days of great offers gone, we do not see much of the vendor’s marketing offers on new launches anymore.  Most of the food products are sold close to MRP. There is remarkable improvement in the quality of clothing and households though not much value to the buyer.  So, Big Bazaar is no more a darling to a casual consumer who visits randomly.

But, this does not mean that Big Bazaar is no more attractive. It has shifted its focus on paying back customers on loyalty. It has numerous loyalty programs like payback card, profit club card, T24 mobile recharge and the latest 10% discount offer card upon Rs. 1000 payment.  When we use these loyalty programs effectively, the Big Bazaar remains to be a great value provider. For example, the profit club card takes Rs. 10,000 from you up front and allows you to shop for Rs. 1000 over 12 months. If you miss a month, the balance accrues for the next month which is nice. This offer is like 20% annual discount on cash value, but since one shops every month, the return needs to be averaged to half the period, which then is 40% return on investment to the consumer, leaving lot of room for harvesting value.  Similarly, for the discount card, one pays Rs. 1000, but one gets 10% discount on most of the merchandise, effectively, let us say the customer shops for Rs. 2,000 per month, he is likely to get a return of Rs. 2,000 minimum on Rs. 1,000 investment over an year. Once in a year, they have simply added Rs. 500 cash to the profit club card promoting the loyalty. On average, let us say, a consumer like me shops there for Rs. 24,000 per annum, the savings is close to a minimum of Rs. 4,000, 20% on average, this is excluding the other product specific offers. So, loyalty pays at Big Bazaar, if you have the patience to buy only what is reasonably priced there.

The attraction of the Metro store for me is the availability of specific items at reasonable discounts which otherwise is quite expensive elsewhere or I need to run helter-skelter, combined with their ability to announce specific vendor/product based discounts making your visit to the store worthwhile.   Just an example, the fish snacks for our cats cost Rs. 30 a pouch, I get to pick up a month’s supply for Rs. 25 each, a Rs. 150 saving on one item. Like this, each store visit gives a saving of Rs. 300-500 over Rs. 5000 bill, if one limits the buying to only to the items with offers and discounts.

The local Buy and Save shops do offer discount of Rs. 1 through 5 on packaged goods, but they are more suitable for emergency buys and for smaller volumes. Therefore, they are more of convenience purchase in between the visits to the super markets.  Of course, the local street vegetable vendors are one of the best bets for fresh vegetables, compared to super markets. The super market stocks have only 20-30% types of items as fresh, and therefore no point counting on them for fresh vegetables and fruits.

The cart based hawkers are the direct connection between the price change in the wholesale market where they pick up the perishables and your door step. They offer great discounted price, the item is very fresh. Once a while, if they are in hurry to go home, they tend to sell the stuff at half the price given they made the target profit for the day. That is the time, I do shout from the window, make them stop, help them and myself buying double the amount than I need and then wonder what to do with excess inventory. I do not waste the excess though, it unleashes cooking creativity, I might hear murmurs on my cooking volume though!

The door to door sales and marketing is quite common in our residential area, as the residents are more friendly to such people, responding to their request to entertain them.  One type of merchandise is the marketing and sales diploma students having to meet targets for graduation. They sell average quality items, like a full shirt for Rs. 350 or socks or something else. Also, there are vendors of household items, clothing, bed spreads, carpets etc.  I tend to buy full shirts, as my hands are too short to my size, none of the branded stores cater to me, but these vendors tend to have off-standard products, and one of them are the shirts with short sleeves (unintended), that works fine for me. Also, these students from rural areas having to meet the target are helped in the process. I find the girls more aggressive than boys on pushing the products, I do converse them while buying and get the charge of their flare for success in the process, a humble reminder to stay hungry and stupid in life ahead.

The e-commerce sites have become the darlings for electronics, mobiles, accessories and any products that are not heavy to transport. So, this channel has monopolized the sales for such items. One needs to eye for offers before buying big ticket items, which then could easily ensure additional 20% savings on the budget.

The latest trend is the e-payment and credit/debit  cards. Every e-payment player, whether pure play one or the retailer attempting to expand to this zone is throwing offers which ensure 5-10% cash back which is quite attractive. This route is quite suited for big ticket items. Now a days, I catch myself loading the e-payment wallet in the store using the debit card at the counter for the circus of additional 5-10% discount which is in the range of Rs. 50-100-200-300 and even Rs. 500 too per shopping visit. Such discounts sound like golden age of e-payment for the consumers. (I am yet to confirm whether credit card recharge will be treated as a purchase with no charge or as a cash withdrawal asking for too much fees, hence avoiding credit cards for now. If you have clarity on this, pls. let me know)

There is one caution in retail shopping, which is the billing error. I pride myself, as a South Indian consumer, meticulously check the bill just before the security check, and typically save myself around Rs. 3,000 to 5,000 per annum in getting the billing errors fixed. Most of these errors tend to be not reflecting the offers as announced, having bought too many items due to offer, one tends to lose a lot by ignoring billing errors.  All super markets regularly make the billing errors due to lack of effective co-ordination between MIS and the offers managed by sections. The worst one to make more errors is the MORE store, and they are also less effective (but better than than the Metro store) in dealing with these errors. For example, today I caught them on Rs. 900 over-charge, which was not reflecting buy one get one free offer on pants. Only recourse on such an error was to leave the merchandise behind, as they cannot fix it through customer service immediately. Big Bazaar too makes mistakes, but they are friendly in providing the related customer service, if not efficient. They have the flexibility to adjust the bill and offer cash difference at their customer service counter, which is great.  The worst service on billing error comes from the Metro store, there is no flexibility to deal with it at the customer service, things need to wait for the section associated, the person will walk up and down two-three times before the customer service section can decide to act, taking a minimum of half an hour in the process. Every time, they push me to shout, hoping that they will understand their lack of customer service folly this way. Their customer service is a shame on their German ownership. (Still I have to shop, with some grumpiness that suits my current age, for the value they still offer!)

When it comes to customer service, I trust the Big Bazaar most, as they never take you for a ride, and are trained to treat customer with a level of friendship. Only once, I came across an incident that shook this faith, when I produced the parking ticket for validation post bill, the counter could not validate it, the customer service manager said I was too late and can't help. I did bring to his notice as to nowhere in the store that it was written that one has to produce the parking ticket before billing, he dint budge, I asked for the escalation, instead of escalating to store manager, he pointed to 1-800 number, I followed up with both phone call and email, I got the right attention, the store manager called me to fix, he said I could collect the refund whenever I could return to the store, I said fine, I was not in hurry, but the ticket had to be kept open until I say it is closed, and I said I can't close it unless I am paid Rs. 20 back for the parking fees occurred, the store manager was smart enough to credit me Rs. 20 to my T-20 account enabling me to close the ticket immediately. So, my faith with Big-Bazaar on customer service was duly restored! Due to their affability and true friendly behavior, I tend to ignore their lack of professionalism or effectiveness at times. Over the years, some of them have become good friends too!

One needs to be bit careful in buying clothes through e-commerce. The cloth looks jazzy in the photo, but the discount tends to be associated with poor quality too. The bed sheet we bought for sub par Rs. 200 offer, survived only a few washes and was retired within three months for wear and tear.

It is obvious that one needs to check the prices across all e-commerce channels before making buying decision. This may take some time, but it is worth as one will get the pulse as to where to shop which item over time. Amazon and  FlipKart are the key rivals, the third player has fallen way behind and I have even forgotten the brand associated though I did shop quite regularly there before! Once a while I do buy from ebay as ebay offers protection against fraud.  I was defrauded once on memory cards, ebay simply refunded me the money not asking me to return the product. I felt great about their fulfillment of promise!

It also helps to proactively maintain a separate section of gifts at home, needed for birthdays, house warmings, marriages, anniversaries and door gifts to the visiting friends and relatives. These gifts need to match the occasion, and the relevance to the party. By proactively buying gifts and stocking them ahead of demand, but avoiding overstocking, one can save upto 50% when compared to impulsive or emergency gift buys. Also, one saves a lot of stress and running around at the last minute. We have become pretty good in this aspect now a days. We do have good stock of household items, sarees, kurtha materials,  kid’s play things etc. and replenish the stock upon great offers. Also,  I do not have any shame in mixing the customary gifts we receive which we have no value for, into this pile, for re-gifting given they are fresh and unopened and also are not linked to specific emotional value, rather given as a customary gift.

In conclusion, one can benefit immensely by the retail revolution in India by choosing the right channel for the right product, and shopping both for quality and value and not for just one of them. 

This requires one to have the pulse of all the channels and constantly look for offers and opportunities.  Also, one needs to have a reasonable inventory of customary gift items that suit different occasions, and replenish this inventory when the offers are galore.  One should always look for billing errors before leaving the store. One should always buy only on need and for both quality and value. One should avoid buying on impulses and as a retail therapy. One should track a level of wastage in the inventory of things bought and assess the efficiency and effectiveness of being a prudent and smart consumer. 

Always, when in doubt, whether to buy or not, err on not buying, as missed offer resurfaces sooner than one can imagine.  Rate self on maintaining just-in-time inventory.  Evaluate your spending pattern and life style against value, standard of living / income level and fulfillment gained over time.  Invest prudently on improving life style and standard of living on most effective (not cheap) investments, meaning to extend value, durability, quality over the spending caused.

Never go for retail therapy as an excuse, it is just being dumb and irresponsible. Do not trust the slogans at face value. Evaluate return on investment constantly, accounting for value, durability, quality, happiness/fulfillment achieved etc. 

Let the shopping experience become a step up in your transformation towards better life ahead!

Best Regards