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Making Data Work
Using
Analytics, New Technology to Boost Footfalls
A month ago Shoppers Stop, India's oldest big box retailer, was an indirect
beneficiary of a surge in the stockmarket indices. As the markets rose some
8% in early-to-mid September, the retailer took a punt that Gujaratis,
whose purchases are closely linked to upswings on the bourses, would go on
a spree. And, true to form, they did, adding 25% in incremental growth on sales
to Gujarati customers in mid-to-late September when the stock markets rose
around 8%. It isn’t Gujaratis alone that the retailer has targeted. In the
past, Shoppers Stop has used analytics to target promotions at Muslim
shoppers during Id, the holy month, and tailor promotions specifically at
them. Like with its Gujarati promotion, it used the 2.6 million members of
its First Citizen customer loyalty program and name searches to yield
additional revenues of . 1 crore in August this year.
Shoppers Stop has found other ways to mine its data. For instance, it has
even devised special programs for working women — who shop most often in
the middle of the day — to keep them coming into its stores.
Shoppers Stop's marketing chief Vinay Bhatia is the man responsible for
juicing out every drop of data from the retailer’s loyalty program. “Vinay
is able to string together data strategy and analytics and use them to
devise winning campaigns,” says S. Swaminathan, co-founder and CEO of Hansa
Cequity, a marketing solutions firm.
By doing this, the lifestyle retailer can throw up surprising bits of data
on consumers (example: women are most likely to buy salwar tops and men's
undergarments together) that allows Shoppers to tweak its promotions and
push them to buy more of the 15 broad categories it vends. “Analytics
allows me to tailor programs for individual consumers and track their
spending to the last naya paisa,” says Bhatia.
This intense focus on analytics is already paying dividends; in fiscal year
2012 Shoppers Stop earned additional revenues of some . 35 crore; and it
has already beaten this figure in the first six months of this fiscal year.
It expects to earn up to . 70 crore this year.
An adventure sports junkie, who recently made a trip to Thailand to explore
its underwater caves, Bhatia is bringing some of this adrenalin to work. He
has been pushing Shoppers Stop to try new technologies whenever they
surface (like QR or quick response codes and augmented reality), build
targeted programs for individual consumers and make Brand Shoppers Stop
stand out in an increasingly competitive market. “From putting the brand at
the centre of our business, we want to make the customer our focus,” says
Bhatia.
The challenge for Bhatia is to not just unearth more and more shopping
patterns, but to find innovative ways to communicate them to consumers.
While an earlier generation of customers took their cues from linear
advertising and promotions, Bhatia thinks Gen Y is breaking the mould. “Our
target consumer is urbane and constantly networked,” he says. “Digital and
social media today play a critical role in reaching them.”
Shoppers Stop has been quick off the blocks on this front, with some 3.6
million fans for its Facebook page, nearly 4,000 followers on Twitter and a
growing presence on Pinterest, the latest rage in the social media space.
“We need to be setting the trend and not be a follower on this front,” he
adds. Bhatia then wants to move from a linear approach to advertising (via
the regulation TV and print ads) to using Shoppers Stop’s interconnected
ecosystem – which includes its content-rich website and mobile application
– to attract the consumer.
The online initiatives are dovetailed with promotions that are aimed at
converting more and more consumers into shoppers.
As a marketer, Bhatia has in the past hawked everything from paints to
suitcases and firmly believes that the consumer and not the company is
king. So, the first thing he did when he started at Shoppers Stop nearly
four years was to spend a week on the floor, actually playing shopping
assistant. It's there he discovered that it is easy to knot your own tie,
but harder to put one on a potential customer; and that a disproportionate
number of people bought shirts, but didn’t bother with trousers to match.
That was nearly five ago when Shoppers Stop had some 24 stores; today the
retailer has 54 and expects to add some eight more a year for at least the
next three years.
Vinay Bhatia
Marketing Chief, Shoppers Stop
MISSION: Unearth more and more shopping
patterns from data and find innovative ways to communicate them to
consumers
Combining social media and analytics to home in on shopping trends
SUCCESS: Focus on analytics helped Shoppers Stop earn additional revenues
of some 35 crore in fiscal year 2012
RAHUL
SACHITANAND MUMBAI ET121023
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