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
