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August 12 2018

How malls can become more relevant to their tenants and Brand Mix?

My inspiration to write this article comes from my personal experience post visiting several malls in the middle-east and seeing the desperation amongst the brands and malls to attract customer footfalls. Almost 90% malls today have become “Discount centers or Outlet malls” wherein their tenants (almost all the brands) are trying to attract customers with promotions and their end of season sales of up to 80% discounts.

My current article is an extension to my previous article which I had penned down as Retail renaissance and how malls can help their tenants, check the link here: https://bit.ly/2njCZdo

Again I shall reiterate a quote from Einstein which is still very relevant and applicable to all the malls.

“Insanity is doing the same thing over & over again and expecting different results”. Malls seem to have hit the dead wall and there is a lack of creative ideas in bringing some excitement back into retail.

Below are some of my views which would prompt my readers and especially mall owners to re-think their strategies.

Start understanding your customer’s pain points and change in their buying behavior:

Current trend: As per research conducted by agency Valassis over 1000 US consumers, the reasons as to why respondents prefer shopping online – as opposed to at a mall are:

A broader range of product options/variations (40 percent);
Avoiding hectic crowds/parking (38 percent),
Not having to travel (24 percent)
Reducing impulse purchases (16 percent).

These insights could be used to divert or increase customer footfalls in the malls by:

The solution is Reverse Innovation:

Better parking spaces and increase in their spaces & services such as valet; apps to show customers available parking spaces in real-time even prior to customer’s arrivals.
Events such as pop-up shops.
Concierge services wherein you need not carry your shopping bags but instead, drop off at a particular location and the mall’s logistics partner shall deliver it at your doorstep. Recently such service has been started by grocery hypermarket Carrefour in the UAE, wherein you drop your trolley at their pick up location and they deliver the groceries at your specified address and at the convenient time.

Case study 1: Constapark app service provider in the city of Bangalore, India.

Constapark is transforming the way we park our car around the city by eliminating the hassle of finding parking. Its revolutionary parking & on-demand valet platform connects with customers and helps them skip the traffic every time they plan to go out. Constapark considers its USP the ability to save its customers’ time and effort, and make sure they do not have to worry about parking and the safety of their cars when you use Constapark, you get the valet to pick up and drop anywhere in the specified area limits.

(Reference source:
//economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/48401195.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst )

2) “Food is the new Hot Trend”:- is the mantra that increasingly guiding future development. The expression reflects the idea that food has exceeded apparel/clothes/fashion segment as a force in retail and travel.

Creating new “experiential dining” options that offer more entertainment for consumers. Examples include farm-to-table courtyards, gourmet food halls, and “cook your own food” facilities.

Case study: Wanda commercial Properties:

In China, malls already allocate 30 to 40 percent of their floor area to food and beverages. Certain developers, such as Wanda Commercial Properties, which integrates retail, leisure, and residential into a single large complex, allocate as much as 50 percent of their footprint to public space.

3) Malls owners should focus on generating new revenue sources:

Since in the future many stores are likely to be smaller and lack storage capacity, mall owners could also provide tenants with logistics services.

Other revenue streams might include utilizing a mall’s open spaces or closed stores for POP-UP stores, temporary stores, and other events. Retailers could be charged for this on a per-traffic basis.

(I shall write a separate article as to how retail renaissance could disrupt current lease contracts and leasing teams of the malls. As I always say, future belongs to those who adapt the changes with both their arms open.)

4) Use of Technology: As a consumer & retail professional, I can list down various malls who still don’t offer free Wi-Fi services to its mall’s customers. Perhaps they are still “Old school of thought” but the data insights provided by offering free Wi-Fi services are really eye-opening and could prove to be a Game-changer.

Wi-Fi data can provide malls owners with insights such as:

Hot & cold corridors of the malls– malls can then do activities to make cold corridors to attract more footfalls. These insights can also help leasing managers to re-work on their tenant mix.
Offer instant promotions/offers to consumers not visiting a particular corridor.

Case study: Kamppi shopping center: From its use of beacons to analyze foot traffic patterns, the Kamppi shopping center in Helsinki, Finland, learned that shopper congregate at lunchtime and not after work, as was previously assumed. Using this insight, the mall advised its food court tenants to keep & serve hot food and entice lunch-goers with exciting offers and menus.

I am glad to see that few key mall owners have started to re-engineer themselves & are reinforcing their leadership stance. Again I would like to mention the wonderful pilot project “Valet trolleys” by Carrefour, I am sure this idea was born from the consumer marketing insights.

In case if any of my retail fraternity members want to re-invent their mall’s purpose then you know whom to reach out. (I can be reached at riteshmohan@yahoo.com).

About the author:

Ritesh Mohan is a passionate Retail professional with over 20 years in the Retail sector, handling some of the biggest brands in beauty, fashion and fragrance retail & FMCG sector. He has been instrumental in the growth of some of the regional brands as well, in the Middle East region. He specializes in Retail management, Product development, Brand management, Retail Operations, Sales Management, Business Management & Empowering business owners with his wisdom & experience of over two decades in the industry.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

August 6 2018

Start a business & Not a startup !!

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Nowadays, the most trending topic in any networking is about Startup and entrepreneurial ventures.

Recently I attended the middle east retail forum 2019 #mrf2019 wherein I met with wonderful people, retailpreneurs, successful retailers and mall developers. It was a very well organized event, ( i shall write a separate blog on the same soon).

One interesting feature that caught my attention was a panel discussion dedicated to startups, for instance.

MRF2019

It was like a famous series called Shark Tank, wherein the startups would pitch their business proposal to a jury and get shortlisted for the awards or VC fundings.

There were some really good concepts that were really path-breaking, however, most of the entrepreneurs had missed on a few main points, which inspired me to re-purpose my earlier written blog on startups.

There is a wonderful saying “What got you here, won’t take you to next level”, you need to keep enhancing your skills, keep innovating yourself by breaking old habits ( point of caution- innovation is not always product-centric, it can be very personalized, even the way you think can be innovated)

One important point that I would like to convey to entrepreneurs is that the VC fund is something like “Vapour capital” it evaporates as soon as it comes into your business.

Try to follow the basics of business i.e. if you invest USD 1 into your business, you need to generate USD 2, re-invest this again in your business till your business becomes self-sustaining. If you follow the ratio 1:2, you shall never have cash flow issues in your business.

I am putting down the most important tips which would help upcoming retailpreneurs with their projects.

1. Start with your own Pain points:

The easiest and straightforward way to create a great product or service is to make something you want to use yourself.

As you build the project, you would soon figure out whether or not you are making any good.

Case study:

Coach Bill Bowerman felt the need for better lighter running shoes for his team. So he went out to his workshop and poured rubber into the family waffle iron. That’s how Nike’s famous waffle sole was born.

Key learning: “Start with your own pain point” and coming out with the solution, lets you fall in love with what you are making.

This very source provides you inner-motivation and go-getter attitude.

2. Keep customer focus through-out:

Always at the start of any project, keep your customer on focus, imagine what you would like your customer to say about your product or service.

3. Be Action taker:

You should feel an urgency about whatever you are planning to start or to do. If you are building a break-through product or service or even a Me-Too product, JUST DO IT (as Nike says it).

Don’t sit around and waiting for someone to make the difference that you would like to see.

Case study:

The Drudge Report, run by Matt drudge is just one page on the web run by one guy.

Yet it has a huge impact on the news industry- television, radio talk-show hosts, and newspaper journalists all visit this page daily to find out as to what’s the current stories.

In July 2016, the site garnered 1.47 billion Pageviews, as a result of US Presidential elections

The Drudge Report’s traffic beat out the likes of news sites from Disney Media Networks (which includes ESPN.com and ABCNews.com), Yahoo, Google, Time Warner, and Fox Entertainment Groups.

Key learning:

Make the difference that you would like to see yourself. Drudge’s report came from nowhere and disrupted the old models that had been around for decades.

Learn as to why good writers build great companies, read here.

4. Understand Your core “WHY”:

Great businesses have a point of view and not just a product or service. You have to believe in something. As you get going, keep in mind as to “why” you are doing “what” you are doing.

Frankly speaking, this is the real Mission and Vision statement of the business.

For instance, Big corporates shell out millions of dollars to copywriters to write it, ideally, it should be written by the founder himself because that is his or her vision.

Case study:

Wholefoods (now a part of amazon.com) stands for selling the highest quality natural and organic products available.

Their customers know and understand Wholefoods purpose, they don’t go to their stores asking or looking for potato chips or coke or junk food.

This very “WHY” adds rock-solid positioning for wholefoods and is one of the reasons for their success.

I shall be writing more about entrepreneurship and management leadership stance in my upcoming articles. I hope you would find these tips or pointers useful in your journey.

In case if any of my readers or LinkedIn connections want any help pertaining to their startup ideation, you are more than welcome to reach out to me at riteshmohan@yahoo.com.

(References: Just tell it – Nike’s story- fastcompany.com article; reference book “Rework” by Jason Fried and David Hansson; My learnings from attending Middle east retail forum, thanks to organisers & management of Retail Images group of Publications.)

Learn about Persistence, read here.

About the author:

Ritesh Mohan is a passionate retail professional with over 21 years in the retail sector, handling some of the biggest brands in beauty, fashion and fragrances retail & FMCG sector. He has been instrumental in the growth of some of the regional brands as well in the Middle East region. Ritesh specializes in Retail management, Product development, Brand management, Retail Operations, Sales Management, Business Management & Empowering business owners with his wisdom & experience of around two decades in the industry.

July 29 2018

‘Jugaad’ – India’s answer to Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

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Jugaad- India’s answer to Minimum Viable product

Recently, I was attending a webinar highlighting the importance of “Design thinking” for start-ups. One of the panelists mentioned Jugaad’s philosophy and it inspired me to re-write my previous article on “Jugaad – a frugal & flexible way to innovate” with the context of the current pandemic of Covid19.

As most of you are aware that I always touch upon topics that relate to either Entrepreneurship, Retailing, Brand management & Leadership. I feel, my current topic would help upcoming entrepreneurs to start their ventures in the most economical way.

What is Jugaad?

Jugaad is a Hindi word that loosely translates as “the gutsy art of overcoming harsh constraints by improvising an effective solution using limited resources.”

Jugaad is an antidote to the complexity of India: a country of mind-blowing diversity; pervasive scarcity of all kinds; home to million millionaires (aims to reach by 2020, 1 million millionaires mark)

Jugaad is based on six fundamental pillars:

1. Seek opportunity in adversity

2. Do more with less

3. Think and act flexibly

4. Keep it simple

5. Include the margin

6. Follow your heart.

Jugaad during times of covid19

Looking at the positive side of the pandemic, it has made people more creative.

Check the picture of one of the elevators wherein the toothpick is being used to press the floor buttons in order to avoid surface touches.

To cater to the emergencies of hospitals in terms of beds, an Indian company has designed beds made of cardboard boxes. Watch the video here.

Jugaad innovators innovate faster:

Jugaad innovators don’t use linear, pre-planned, time-consuming R&D processes. Rather, they rely heavily on rapid prototyping techniques — i.e., they collaborate intimately with customers and use their constant feedback to zero in on the most relevant product features.

Jugaad innovators innovate cheaper:

Jugaad innovators are highly resourceful in the face of scarcity. Unlike many Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, raising capital is the least of their worries. The practitioners of Jugaad work with what they have got.

Jugaad innovators innovate better:

Jugaad innovators recognize that consumers in emerging markets are low earners, but high yearners.

To explain the concept, I would like to mention a few case studies of Jugaad innovators cum entrepreneurs as to how they have dealt with situations and innovated to make the lives of their customers easier.

Case study 1: Using adversity to own advantage:

Kanak das, a resident of North East Indian state, grew riding his bicycle on roads full of potholes & bumps, rather than complaining, he turned this constraint to his advantage by retrofitting his bicycle with a makeshift device that converts the shocks received from bumpy roads to kinetic energy which accelerates the bicycle…. Allowing his bicycle to run faster on bumpy roads.

Case study 2: Jugaad gave birth to a completely new business:

In 1980, a businessman Mr. Tulsi Tanti set up a textile unit in Surat, sooner he found himself facing the bottlenecks like power shortages.

Alternatively, He compensated by producing power through generators but resulted in very high running costs due to high fuel prices in India.

His profit margin was a mere 5% wherein his power & fuel bill used to run up to 45-50% of overall operating costs.

Mr. Tanti immediately moved towards wind power by installing air wind turbines in his unit, resulting in uninterrupted power supply and reduced operating costs. (Also the initial investment of installing wind turbines were recovered in the first year itself from the savings generated from power & fuel costs).

Mr. Tanti realized the power of wind turbines and industry in feeding the power-starved country and its rural villages.

This very thought gave birth to a business whom we have known as “Suzlon wind”.

Today, Suzlon is the world’s fifth-largest wind energy solution provider. The company operates in thirty countries over 6 continents.

Learn how to make your brand stand out from the clutter, read here.

Case study 3: Mitti-cool refrigerator:

Mitti-cool refrigerator

Jugaad innovator Prajapati (resident of Kutch region in Gujarat), post-2001 earthquake wherein his entire village was destroyed.

He noticed that they were left with no source of providing residents with cool water options.

Being a clay artisan himself, he developed the world’s first sustainable, eco-friendly refrigerator “Mitti-cool”.

Mitti means clay, his refrigerator is divided into two chambers, the water from the top chamber seeps through the inner sidewalls, cooling the lower food chamber through evaporation.

The refrigerator is 100% bio gradable, uses zero electricity… an ingenious invention.

Today Prajapati’s Mitti-coolers are available in rural Indian villages and soon it would be exported to the African region.

Simplicity is the new mantra for success.

Learn about quarantined economics, click here.

I hope my article would help in giving directions to business owners and retailers in the Middle Eastern region & would force them to think differently and innovatively with their existing businesses.

In case you want to brainstorm and understand Jugaad concept more holistically, you may reach me on riteshmohan@yahoo.com

(Reference book – Jugaad Innovation by Navi Radjou, Jaideep Prabhu, and Simone Ahuja. I thank & salute the writers for bringing out the most unique feature of our Indian ecosystem so creatively and innovatively)

About the author:

Ritesh Mohan is a passionate retail professional with over 20 years in the retail sector, handling some of the biggest brands in beauty, fashion and fragrances retail & FMCG sector. He has been instrumental in the growth of some of the regional brands as well in the Middle East region. He specializes in Retail management, Product development, Brand management, Retail Operations, Sales Management, Business Management & Empowering business owners with his wisdom & experience of around two decades in the industry.

July 22 2018

What is the Last-Mile Logistics & Why Ecommerce retailers are looking at this logistics function?

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Stage set up for the Last-Mile logistics

Recently, there was a news headline in one of the business dailies in UAE under “Last-mile Logistics headline” about one of the region’s leading e-commerce platform to initiate grocery deliveries to its customers.

The headline got my attention and prompted me to deep dive more about “last-mile logistics” and why it has suddenly become the “blue-eyed” function for major e-commerce players in the region.

I am sure my article and its insights would help my readers and blog followers in understanding the importance of logistics function and how Omni-channel retailers are using it to their advantage.

What is the “last-mile logistics”?

Last-mile logistics refers to the final step of the delivery process from a distribution center or facility to the end-user. Although the name implies, it is the final mile delivery, actual last-mile delivery can range from a few blocks to 50 or 100 miles.

Most often, last-mile logistics involves the use of courier or small package carriers to deliver products to consumers.

Why is it crucial for e-tailers or e-commerce players?

It’s pertinent to understand the logistics process in any e-commerce company.

The Logistics Cycle in e-commerce can be broken down into 5 major components, first-mile delivery, fulfillment, processing/sorting, line haul, and last-mile delivery. (For some lean start-ups, it involves 3-4 components only)

First-mile delivery: This involves picking up goods from the sellers and transporting it to the e-commerce retailer’s fulfillment center or directly to the mother warehouse.
Fulfillment: Post first mile logistics, the next phase that follows is fulfillment, which involves picking and packaging of products once an order is placed on the website and then moving it to the mother warehouse.
Sorting: After fulfillment, the products are sorted on the basis of the final delivery location.
Line-haul: This stage involves connecting the main supply center with the main demand center, via land or air.
Last-mile delivery: This is the last however the most important phase of the logistics cycle. It involves the dispatch and shipping of products from the mother hub and to the delivery hubs, from where they are delivered to the end-customers.

The reason why “Last-mile delivery” becomes critical is due to the fact that the majority of customer complaints in any e-commerce company are pertaining “Late deliveries” which are mainly due to lack of processes in workforce management, no real-time coordination between fulfillment teams and last-mile delivery teams.

Customer returns and the ability of a retailer to quickly process the returns to enrich customer experience is another major challenge faced by e-commerce retailers.

learn about the business model of food delivery apps, click here.

The emergence of new entrants in “last mile logistics”

Companies such as Amazon have already jumped into the fray with its Amazon Prime Air service that it hopes will soon use small drones to deliver packages in 30 minutes or less. Drones, droids, and parcel copters are here to stay.

Future for Last-mile logistics companies:

Companies like Uber eats, Deliveroo has mastered the model of Airbnb but for transportation/logistics.

Technology has allowed these companies to leverage their advantage and offer jobs to anyone with a car or bike. They are able to analyze data and figure out how to do the job for less. They can fill capacity in vehicles that weren’t previously open to them.

I feel the future for Last-mile logistics providers is very promising provided they adapt to technology advancements at the earliest & ride the disruption wave.

Case study: Carrefour Valet trolley (home delivery services) available in Dubai.

Hypermarket giants like Carrefour have been fast enough to realize the importance & advantages of last-mile logistics for enhancing their customer experience and also leading to customer retention strategy.

Today in Dubai, Carrefour offers a Valet trolley facility to its customers. Leave your trolley at their store and have your items delivered to your doorstep at your convenience.

The benefit to customers:

Convenient shopping experience without going through hassles of pulling overloaded trolleys to parking lots etc.

My article would definitely help budding entrepreneurs and start-ups who are either venturing into e-commerce or are already an established player. I would be more than glad to share my knowledge and wisdom on “Last-mile logistics” with budding entrepreneurs in case they need any of my assistance to build up their e-commerce model. My connections can reach me on riteshmohan@yahoo.com if they wish to know more about this exciting tool.

About the author:

Ritesh Mohan is a passionate retail professional with over 20 years in the Retail sector, handling some of the biggest brands in beauty, fashion, and fragrances retail & FMCG sector. Ritesh has been instrumental in the growth of some of the regional brands as well in the Middle East region. He specializes in Retail management, Product development, and Brand Management, Retail Operations, Sales Management and Franchising & Business Management. He strongly believes in empowering business owners with his wisdom & experience of around two decades in the industry.

July 14 2018

4 Must Do’s for Luxury Retailing.

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Recently, one of my blog followers asked me a question as to what makes Luxury brands so aspirational and different.

This question prompted me to write this article which will give you 4 “Must do’s” to build a luxury brand.

Having worked and being involved in leading the team that produced a luxury concept arising from United Arab Emirates (in beauty & fashion domain), I would like to share my wisdom acquired from my personal experience.

Foremost you need to understand the difference between non-luxury brands and luxury brands.

Most non-luxury brands succeed because they are marketed in terms of the problems they solve. These are their reasons for being. For example – Brand X of t-shirt whisks sweat away to keep you cooler; A Particular sweetener gives you the taste without the calories, brand car X gets more miles to the gallon so you spend less on over-priced gas.

Not so in the business of luxury. No one wears a Burberry trench coat merely to stay warm. No one forks over $200,000 for a Bentley simply to get from point A to point B.

No Luxury products exist for a much less rational reason. Therefore, the marketing of them must be much more emotional.

In short, mass marketing is the business of selling reality. Luxury marketing is the business of selling dreams.

Forget about positioning; luxury is not comparative. Advocate beliefs:

Luxury brands should advocate the beliefs of customers rather than simply rely on brand values. Beliefs go further; they’re more specific and, consequently, more segmenting.

Unlike mass brands, luxury brands should not strive to please everyone, but those customers whose beliefs align with their own.

A good example of this is Ferrari’s belief in high performance. The brand rarely advertises in mass media, but it invests significant amounts in Formula 1 events. It focuses on actions related to its belief to reinforce this tenet in consumers’ minds.

Another good example is Louis Vuitton’s belief in art. Among other collaborations, the fashion house linked up with Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama to create a limited edition of products.

In mass markets, brands distribute their investments across several efforts because they want to reach and please the broadest possible spectrum of customers. Instead, luxury brands’ investments are focused on the specific beliefs of the brand, creating a very focused experience for the right customers.

2) Bring a sense of exclusivity and experiential emotive:

A true luxury brand cannot stop their offering at the product itself; they must go beyond that to offer unique services or rituals. This can start with something as simple as attentive salespeople and prompt customer service, but it should really go beyond that to create a consumption “ritual” that allows customers to experience the brand.

Perfume brand Le Labo does this very well. Using the premise that the quality of perfume deteriorates over time, it revolutionized the consumer buying experience by offering a special personal experience: each Le Labo perfume is hand-blended and individually prepared in front of the customer at the moment of purchase. The glass decanter is then dated and the customer’s name is printed on the label. After taking the perfume home, the customer must let it marinate in the fridge for a week before using it. Through this ritual, buying Le Labo perfume becomes more than an exclusive product; it becomes a personal experience.

3) The store becomes the epitome of luxury for discerning customers:

Luxury brands must pay extra special attention to the way they sell and innovate at the point of purchase. Before, it was enough for luxury brands to use brick and mortar stores to sell their products, but they must now aim to design multifunctional, controlled spaces that create brand experiences and communicate brand beliefs.

BMW World in Munich is another example of a temple-like showroom, where consumers can “experience” the brand rather than simply buy the product.

BMW world.

4) Don’t respond to rising demand.

One of the key premise that Luxury brands work on is “Less is more”. Connoisseurs of luxury brands relish a sense of exclusivity that comes along with Luxury products, its emotional gratification that provides a sense of belonging to the elite club.

One of the most famous and highly successful brands that have mastered this point is Hermes. The bags are scarce, sought-after a simply the best, and they have the price tags that go along with all that exclusivity.

Hermes- Kelly Bag

Status… status… status.

If you’re looking for a bag to tell everyone who sees you that, not only have you arrived, but you’ve arrived with exquisite taste, Hermès will do that every single time

To summarize, I would like to end up with a famous quote by Hubert Givenchy, “Luxury is in each detail”.

I hope the above pointers would help my fellow retailers to develop their brands more luxurious for their discerning customers.

I would be more than glad to share my wisdom and knowledge with my retail fraternity. You can reach me on riteshmohan@yahoo.com

About the author:

Ritesh Mohan is a passionate retail professional with over 20 years in the Retail sector, handling some of the biggest brands in beauty, fashion and fragrances retail & FMCG sector. He has been instrumental in the growth of some of the regional brands as well in the Middle East region. He specializes in Retail management, Product development and Brand management, Retail Operations, Sales Management and Franchising & Business Management. He strongly believes in empowering business owners with his wisdom & experience of around two decades in the industry.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

July 8 2018

Does “Loyalty programs” any longer excite millennial’s?

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Recently I was brainstorming with one of my good friend who is also a retail professional in developing a loyalty program. My inspiration to write this article comes from the feeling that how we (marketers & retailers) tends to get myopic and lose out on overall objective or big picture.

Securing customers’ loyalty goes beyond having a loyalty programme. Winning both Hearts and Minds is a big challenge for today’s Retailers.

I suggested my friend to explore the following areas first to determine whether his company really needs a loyalty program:

Can you build customer’s loyalty using Top of Mind recall?
Can you win customer’s loyalty by providing him/her great in-store experience?
Have you evaluated the cost of acquisition of new customer vs the cost of retaining existing customer? (This ratio would vary from industry to industry, for example in the telecom industry (especially in the Indian subcontinent) the cost of acquiring a new customer is comparatively lower than retaining an existing customer.)
Will your customer pay in advance to become a member of your loyalty club? (Read the case study on this point at the end of this article highlighting this aspect)

If you have answered “Yes” to any above first 3 questions, then work on the same and delay launching any new loyalty program.

The reasons for me making this bold statement are as follows:

Traditional financially driven loyalty schemes can become a financial liability for businesses if not properly planned in initial stages itself. Your initial plan should very well capture the proposed sales expected by loyalty card and expenses that would be accrued to run it smoothly.

Traditional points-based schemes are often not agile enough to meet rapidly changing customer expectations in the same way that ‘connected stores’ and new technologies can engage with consumers.

Today’s customers are exposed to Gigabytes of advertising information daily that they no longer value the reward that is offered in the end (post-purchase). For example, Majority of hypermarket retailers offers approx. 1% of customer’s purchase as loyalty rewards i.e. On spending DHS 2000/-, a customer can expect a reward of DHS 20/- (approx.).

Retailers today are in kind of rat race… “Oh my competitor has a loyalty programme, why should I miss the bandwagon”. They tend to ignore their customer’s shopping habits, their frequency of store visits, their basket size, are they value seekers or discount lovers.

Today’s Retailers need to understand and accept the fact that “Loyalty” is overused, over-exploited concept and does not excite new age shoppers who are much more aware of the products & services and are more demanding. Although the word ‘loyalty’ is often associated with the points and financial incentive schemes that were launched over 30 years ago, these schemes have lost its relevance in current times.

How to be a disruptor then? (Simply by not launching a point-based loyalty card/app)

Loyalty should be about more than just collecting points. If not innovated, your Loyalty club would end up looking like Me-too offering.

Segment your customers, ask your store teams as to what is making their regular customer come back to their stores.
Use technology in making the customer’s purchase cycle Seamless.
Loyalty is often tied to routine, so any innovation that simplifies a routine while enhancing the customer experience is a reward in itself.
Understand from your customers as to what drives loyalty in them for your brand. Is it discounts, happy hours or convenience, customer service, good assortment of large merchandise offerings?

Winning loyalty in the Digital era needs a mix of Personalization, Engagement, and a sense of Exclusivity across all different channels (in-store, website, mobile app, social platforms).

As per a study conducted by Deloitte research when it comes to consumers’ attitudes to loyalty programmes, research shows that personalization and relevance are high on the list of what consumers expect from a loyalty scheme. The study showed 41 percent of consumers agree with “Loyalty schemes help brands know what their customers want and provide them with helpful suggestions and rewards, (e.g. receiving vouchers and coupons on products they buy regularly)”.

Case study: Amazon Prime.

Amazon Prime is an outrageously successful membership program with the stats to prove it:

80 million members
$1,300 average member annual spend vs. $700 non-member
60% of Amazon customers are Prime Members

Amazon Prime, which offers free streaming of thousands of movies and TV shows and, most important, free two-day shipping on most Amazon purchases. The service usually costs $79 annually, though it’s cheaper for college students ($39 annually, after six months free).

Subscribers not only ordered more often but after paying the $79 fee, they started buying things at Amazon that they probably wouldn’t have in the past. Since shipping was always speedy and free, members saved themselves a trip to the store for things like batteries and coffee beans.

Can your loyalty program boost of statistics like Amazon’s Prime. If not, then your loyalty program is on its way to becoming a liability for your business. It’s time to run a timely checklist & overview of your loyalty program.

I would end my article with a quote from Sir Terry Leahy: “The true source of loyalty is to create benefits for people.”

My article is my attempt to help retailers who are either planning to launch their loyalty program or looking forward to fine-tuning their existing program. I would be glad to share my wisdom with any of the retailers who believe in having an innovative loyalty program which can put them in a different league altogether.

About the author:

Ritesh Mohan is a passionate retail professional with over 20 years in the Retail sector, handling some of the biggest brands in beauty, fashion and fragrances retail & FMCG sector. He has been instrumental in the growth of some of the regional brands as well in the Middle East region. He specializes in Retail management, Product development and Brand management, Retail Operations, Sales Management and Franchising & Business Management. He strongly believes in empowering business owners with his wisdom & experience of around two decades in the industry.

References: http://business.time.com

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July 1 2018

Do fashion retailers need to participate in “Omni channel retailing” rat-race?

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Recently, I was asked this question by one of my Linkedin connection, who was responding to my article on Omnichannel retailing.

His question prompted me to think about Phygital evolution more holistically and I realized that though every retail or digital consultants/ forums have been shouting from the rooftops for seamless multichannel integration which is the key to successful retailing.

This is spot on but I would like to present a case study of one fast fashion brand that could be the exception to above rule. This brand is highly successful and is questioning the status quo of buying & selling processes that are normally followed by retailers.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Let me introduce you to Primark (hi-street fashion retailer) who does not have an e-commerce arm nor e-commerce website.

Whether Primark is right not to sell online, there’s no denying its success. This is one high street retailer that is prospering during rough economic circumstances.

The stats tell the story:

In 2017 the retail business generated a revenue of approximately 7.1 billion pounds.
As of 2018, it ranked is the second largest clothing retailer in the UK, following Marks and Spencer, with a market share of approximately seven percent.
The company now has 345 retail stores located in eleven countries across Europe and the rest of the world, including the UK, the Republic of Ireland (trading as ‘Penney’s’), Portugal, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, and France. Italy and the U.S.

Source: statista.com

These figures mean that Primark doesn’t necessarily need to be in a hurry to open up an e-commerce site, as it still has room for growth offline.

Why is Primark not keen to move towards “Omnichannel” platform?

Primark believes in the fact that “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.

In no way does a transactional site fit in with how Primark is growing. Its strategy is store based.

Associated British Foods, Primark’s parent company, outlined the outlook for its business divisions which reiterated its commitment to the high street and plans to grow space by 10% in the coming year.

Understanding their customer’s shopping behavior & preferences:

The shopping tactic for Primark customer is to get in, grab a basket full of low-priced garments, and get out again with as little hassle as possible.

It’s not experience based, its product based which means that a multi-platform business isn’t a necessity as it is for many of its higher priced high street rivals.

It would take an awful lot of £1 pairs of pants to offset the cost associated with setting up and running a transactional site.

Using Power of PR rather than advertising:

It relies on strong PR, word of mouth and its stores to do the talking. Any big budget marketing campaigns would only serve to eat into the margins and nudge the prices up.

Having worked with another fast fashion brand Forever 21 in the past, I completely understand the business model i.e. to strike a balance between fast fashions at the lowest possible price. The same is true and relevant in case of Primark. Any changes in variables could prove a disaster for fast fashion value retailers.

In Primark’s case, it’s a bold move not to jump into online because everyone else is doing it but to stand firm with a strategy which is working for the business.

I would love to share my retail wisdom acquired by handling fashion brands with any of my connections or regional retailers who need bespoke solutions to their current issues at hand. You may reach me on riteshmohan@yahoo.com

About the author:

Ritesh Mohan is a passionate retail professional with over 20 years in the Retail sector, handling some of the biggest brands in beauty, fashion and fragrances retail & FMCG sector. He has been instrumental in the growth of some of the regional brands as well in Middle East region. He specializes in Retail management, Product development and Brand management, Retail Operations, Sales Management and Franchising & Business Management. He strongly believes in empowering business owners with his wisdom & experience of around two decades in the industry.

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June 25 2018

Do You Know The Foremost Requirement For Being Successful?

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Do you know the foremost Must-have for being successful? Its Believe in yourself.

Most of my readers would have noticed that I use a hashtag Believe in Yourself, every time I post my articles on social media i.e. #believeinyourself.

Today, I have decided to reveal the secret for using this hashtag which aligns with my core purpose i.e. to share my wisdom & experience in retail management with several business owners & entrepreneurs and help them succeed in their respective ventures by publishing regular articles and case studies which are concise & keeps them updated in the field of retailing.

My inspiration to write this article comes from a quote by Norman Peale,

“Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without reasonable confidence in your own powers, you cannot be successful or happy”.

You got to have faith in what you do.

For if you do not believe in yourself in your thoughts and deeds, no one else will.

Successful people are confident of their actions and they know that if they pursue it overtime & consistently, success will come their way.

Believe in Yourself gives rise to Faith & brings a sense of destiny and purpose

One way to have this confidence is to find faith in yourselves by making a commitment to whatever you wish to achieve & then call on the universe or a higher power to help you accomplish it.

If you do not believe in yourself, you have little or no chance of being successful.

Learn about Persistence, read here.

Watch this motivational video

Find your true purpose

Find out what is your USP (unique skill proposition; I changed selling to skill).

What makes you happy within? Why are you doing things that you do? Does it bring a sense of achievement & contentment to you?

Evaluate if you can do things which others are doing, differently & own that space for yourself in your field?

These are a few questions that you need to ask and introspect & I am sure you shall find your true sense of “why” or “Purpose”.

I recall my management days wherein one of our Indian ethos professors mentioned a quote of Sri Paramahansa Yogananda which left a deeper impact on my life i.e.

“When my trials become very great, I first seek understanding in myself. Don’t blame circumstances or try to correct anybody else. I go inside first. Try to clean the citadel of my soul to remove anything that obstructs the soul’s all-powerful, all-wise expression. That’s the way to find & live purposeful lives”.

I conclude my article by wishing all budding entrepreneurs all the very best in their projects and journey. I hope my article would provide them with the daily dose of motivation and would excite them all over again to move forward towards their goals.

learn the Business model of Rent the Runway, click here.

About the author:

Ritesh Mohan is a passionate retail professional with over 19 years in the retail sector, handling some of the biggest brands in beauty, fashion and fragrances retail & FMCG sector. He has been instrumental in the growth of some of the regional brands as well in the Middle East region. Ritesh specializes in Retail management, Product development, Brand management, Retail Operations, Sales Management, Business Management & Empowering business owners with his wisdom & experience of around two decades in the industry.

June 17 2018

Is your social media strategy working for your brand? If not, learn from these case studies.

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“Is your social media strategy working for your brand?”

We all know that social media marketing is a force that one cannot ignore. The new media requires a new strategy and mindset to leverage it.

Loser’s mindset

The most common mindset in today’s retail companies pertaining to social media is to hire a social media resource (headcount) to their existing marketing team & this would get them to top of mind recall in their targeted customer’s minds.

Few premises for the above belief in many retail companies:

Social media is easy to handle and does not require great efforts nor any specialized skillset resource.
Putting posts about their services and offers is all they mean with “content”. Flashy artworks, offers/promotions, and beautiful product shots are all they know about content management.
They fail to identify, social media channels as a source of revenue and customer engagement.

Basically there is a lack of strategy to handle this new form of media.

With the popularity of Instagram Stories, Facebook Live, and messenger apps have fundamentally changed how retailers interact with consumers online.

Simply posting photos or updates to a branded social profile won’t cut it anymore.

Need some Strategy for reconsidering your social media?

Here are a few retailers that have winning social media strategies:

Case 1: Birchbox

Birchbox uses Facebook Live to share great content and engage with fans. The cosmetics brand regularly runs Facebook Live videos in which members of the company share news, give away prizes, and answer questions.

According to MarketingDive, Birchbox’s top-performing stream “lasted 40 minutes and had an average view time of 10 minutes among the nearly 50,000 viewers who participated live.”

Strategy delivering result:

Birchbox sees the live video as a two-way street. It helps Birchbox engage with target audiences in real-time, but it also allows consumers to interact with the brand. The retailer approaches live streams as Q&A opportunities with audiences where Birchbox can market the products included in their monthly subscription boxes and educate audiences about the brand.

While some Middle Eastern retailers might still be wondering whether to consider live video as part of their strategy, Birchbox (the online beauty retailer) has been bullish from the start and is an early adopter of Facebook’s new live video feature.

Case 2: Born Originals

German fashion brand Born Originals has a large and engaged Instagram following.

For the benefit of my readers, Born Originals creates customized sneakers and leather goods.

Born Originals also makes good use of Instagram Stories. Their account is filled with gorgeous photos from the company and their customers alike.

Learn how food delivery apps like swiggy, zomato makes their money, click here.

You may reach me on riteshmohan@yahoo.com

About the author:

June 12 2018

Is your brand ready for Omni-channel retailing? Learn from Brand Zara- leading the Phygital evolution in fashion.

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Do you know what is the biggest challenge in today’s digital era for businesses? Here it is, we have access to gigabytes of information at our fingertips yet we fail to see or identify or decode this information/data into useful insights for our businesses.

Zara, the Spanish fashion retailer has been fast to decode the importance of Phygital experience in their stores.

Zara is attempting to elevate the customer experience with a technology-enhanced concept store in London’s Westfield Stratford shopping center. The store focuses on a service where shoppers can try on the clothes they like in store, pay for them online and have the clothes delivered to their homes.

Inditex SA, the Spanish company that owns Zara brand, calls it an example of the technologies it will implement around the world.

Key features of Zara’s Phygital experience are:

Use of robotic arm to retrieve online orders and deliver to customers in-store (Buy online pick up in store):

The new flagship store uses an optical barcode reader system which scans the QR or PIN codes that customers receive when they place an order online. Behind the scenes at the automated online collection pick-up point, a robotic arm then collects trays and organizes the packages optimally based on their sizes, smoothly delivering orders for customers to collect in seconds. Customers can collect online orders made in store on the same day if placed before 2 pm, or the next day if placed after 2 pm.

2. Use of Interactive Mirrors based on AI and AR technology:

In addition, the new store also features interactive mirrors equipped with RFID technology which is able to detect what garment a customer is holding and offer more information on the item as well as multiple choices of what a complete outfit may look like. In store employees will work with iPads and be able to advise customers on product selections or accept payments on the spot.

3. Use of RFID in merchandise inventory planning:

Every garment is fitted with a radio-frequency identification tag. The technology lets Zara check a store’s inventory in two hours, a process that used to take about three days.

4. Digital payment options:

Customers can choose to pay using their mobile phones via the Zara app or the Inditex’s Group app, InWallet.

5. Self-service checkouts:

Shoppers can buy clothes without talking to anyone. Self-service checkouts on floors let customers pay with their mobile phones or credit cards.

Retailers will need to connect decades-old fundamentals & processes with the newest front-end user interfaces. The Spanish brand Zara is one of the few fast fashion brands who has embraced technology and leading its brand’s evolution into the digital world.

Food for thought for Middle Eastern retailers:

Are we getting ready to embrace the fast-changing consumer’s shopping trends? Are we fast enough to embrace the change in our retail environment?

I shall conclude my article with these two thought-provoking questions to my readers and retail fraternity members to share their opinions by leaving a comment below and let the world learn from their wisdom.

About the author:

Ritesh Mohan is a passionate retail professional with over 20 years in the Retail sector, handling some of the biggest brands in beauty, fashion and fragrances retail & FMCG sector. He has been instrumental in the growth of some of the regional brands as well in Middle East region. He specializes in Retail management, Product development and Brand management, Retail Operations, Sales Management and Franchising & Business Management. He strongly believes in empowering business owners with his wisdom & experience of around two decades in the industry.

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