Sreekanth Chetlur, chief e-commerce officer, of Shoppers Stop, speaks about the three-decade-old physical-first department store chain’s e-commerce journey, goals and strategies
New Delhi: With over 15 years of experience in digital, e-commerce, and omnichannel operations across diverse industries including retail, logistics, real estate, and FMCG, Chetlur has held leadership positions in both start-ups and multi-billion-dollar enterprises in the Middle East and South-East Asia including India, where he has been instrumental in delivering exceptional customer experiences and innovative solutions to address real-world challenges.
His specialities encompass e-commerce, omnichannel, product strategy, product management, digital marketing, communication, content production, process improvement, problem-solving, design thinking, building agile teams, and entrepreneurship.
At Shoppers Stop he shoulders the challenging responsibility of helping the physical-first retailer navigate the digital realm and replicate its success.
The 1991-established publicly listed Shoppers Stop Ltd. operates over 107 department stores in more than 56 cities, over 7 premium home concept stores, 88 speciality beauty stores of M.A.C, Estée Lauder, Bobbi Brown, Clinique, Jo Malone, Too Faced, SSBeauty, and 23 airport doors and 10 Intune stores occupying an area of 4.1 million sq. ft.
It reported a consolidated net loss of Rs 22.72 crore in the June 2024 quarter, hit by subdued consumption due to prolonged heat waves, elections, and inflation. The company posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 14.49 crore in the corresponding period last fiscal, Shoppers Stop, said in a regulatory filing.
In an exclusive interaction with IndiaRetailing, Chetlur speaks about the three-decade-old physical-first department store chain’s e-commerce journey, goals, and strategies.
Edited excerpts…
Tell us about Shoppers Stop’s e-commerce journey.
It has been a phenomenal run. I am about to complete three years at Shoppers Stop—I joined shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic began. Since then, we have seen remarkable digital adoption by our customers. Internally, we have experienced significant change management across functions in approaching our digital channel, lead generation, demand, and sell-throughs of certain categories.
We are now focusing on the customer journey, where customers no longer differentiate between in-store and online experiences. It becomes paramount for us to ensure a seamless experience when targeting and reaching out to customers. This holistic approach has yielded positive results. Overall, it has been an exciting and rewarding journey.
Tell us about your approach to omnichannel.
For us, it is clear that omnichannel is the way forward. But it is easier said than done. For me, the two biggest ingredients for this are: Can I get a 360-degree, single view of the customer and a single view of inventory?
At the end of the day, we are selling products. We have over 100 department stores across the country, four distribution centres, and ShoppersStop.com as our e-commerce platform. Currently, over 70% of our sales come from our stores. That is the beauty of omnichannel. We have ensured that every style and every piece of inventory is mapped to our online business. There is no dedicated inventory solely for online; it is all about first come, first served. Walk-in customers can buy the same products that our online customers can buy.
Is the journey always seamless? Absolutely. That’s the whole purpose. However, there can be certain challenges at times, especially when we have a thin inventory. To address this, we create buffer stocks and implement safety measures. The idea is that the same product at the same price, including any promotions, should be available across all channels. This ensures that the channels are not cannibalizing each other; instead, they complement each other.
How is your mobile application doing?
Our app is natively built and drives 80% of our total online revenues, making it our biggest source of direct traffic. More importantly, it acts as an enabler for onboarding many of our First Citizen customers, who are part of our loyalty program.
The app offers numerous benefits. For instance, customers can use the app in-store to scan any product, access the product page, and learn more about the product’s origins, manufacturing, and characteristics. We provide more imagery and detailed information to enhance the shopping experience.
Additionally, the app facilitates the concept of an endless aisle. In retail, in-store conversion rates typically range from 20% to 40%. This means that out of 100 customers who walk into a store, only 20 to 40 make a purchase, while the rest leave without buying anything. Often, this is because they could not find the right style or size. With the endless aisle feature, if customers cannot find their sizes in-store, they can use the app to shop online. This helps keep the customer within the Shoppers Stop ecosystem, reducing disappointment and abandonment.
Does the application act as a bridge between offline and online?
Yes, the application serves as a crucial bridge, connecting and benefiting both offline and online journeys. It supports my role by ensuring a seamless customer experience, integrating both channels and enhancing overall satisfaction.
Any particular e-commerce strategy implemented in the last couple of months?
We have implemented several strategies recently. One of the key areas of focus has been our customer relationship management (CRM) transformation, in which we are integrating GenAI capabilities. At any given time, we have 80 to 100 agents managing customer interactions. However, fragmented data in silos can make it difficult for them to respond effectively to customer needs. By transforming our CRM, we aim to consolidate data and enhance our ability to be proactive rather than reactive. This shift allows us to provide a more integrated approach to customer service, encompassing voice calls, emails, chats, and social media interactions.
Additionally, we have continued to develop our endless aisle feature, along with options such as buy online, pick up in-store (BOPIS), and buy online, return in-store (BORIS). These strategies significantly enhance the customer experience by leveraging the trust factor associated with Shoppers Stop.
Customers do not see ShoppersStop.com as just another e-commerce site; they recognize the proximity and reliability of our physical stores. This trust enables them to shop online with the confidence that they can return products in-store or research online and purchase offline, creating a seamless and integrated shopping journey.
Have the e-commerce strategies worked?
On a unit economics level, our e-commerce strategies are turning positive from a contribution standpoint. More importantly, the data from our 2.5 million app downloads and numerous sign-ups, allows us to bring these customers into our stores. Many of these customers may not yet be part of our First Citizen loyalty program.
And is that important to you?
Absolutely. In an omnichannel setup, the online channel wears multiple hats. Of course, it is a revenue and profit centre, but beyond that, it is an avenue to recruit new customers and incubate new brands and categories. It is far easier to go to market online compared to in-store, which requires more complicated processes like A/B testing. Additionally, the online channel supports the research of online, purchase offline behaviour, which is prevalent among both Gen Z and millennials. Everyone does their research before visiting a mall or a store, checking inventory and product offerings online first.
How are you training your associates and employees for omnichannel?
For example, with our endless aisle feature, our customer care associates in-store are trained to educate and create awareness among customers. They discuss issues like size availability, colour options, or fitting concerns. Associates then use the app to show customers the full collection available online, effectively making ShoppersStop.com our biggest flagship store.
The omnichannel concept in practice…
E-commerce is much more than just scrolling on a phone. It is an integral part of the omnichannel concept. For any retailer, the journey to omnichannel starts with building a strong multi-channel presence. We have moved beyond multichannel to omnichannel, but it is a constant journey of improvement and adaptation with no end state. We continue to build new use cases based on customer feedback and social listening.
Which geographies are you eyeing for expansion?
We are expanding into new areas, including the Northeast, where we recently opened stores in Shillong and Guwahati. We are also targeting tier-two cities, having opened stores in Kanpur and Pune.
Premium product consumption in tier-two cities is increasing substantially, which is a blessing for us as a premium department store. There is still a long way to go in terms of expansion. Our business development team constantly seeks relevant locations, whether on high streets or in malls, as there is tremendous opportunity in India today.
How do you use cutting-edge technologies like GenAI, AR, and VR?
We have been leveraging AI for quite some time, especially in areas like search, AI-led results, and recommendation engines on our site. These technologies have direct revenue attribution. However, GenAI is taking this experience to the next level by making interactions feel more human.
Currently, we see significant use cases for GenAI in our customer service area. Additionally, we are applying AI in various aspects of our website and marketing efforts, such as copywriting, email marketing, push notifications, and banner titles. These AI-led initiatives help us create more SEO-friendly content by picking up the right keywords.
The application of GenAI and other cutting-edge technologies will continue to evolve. While we are already seeing tangible results, our pursuit of these technologies is ongoing, and we expect to uncover even more use cases in the future.
