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At a time when most retailers and brands are witnessing single-digit sales growth, Raheja-owned department store chain, Shoppers Stop, has seen over 10 per cent like-to-like growth in the June quarter of the financial year, its managing director said on Friday. Like-to-like (LTL) growth means sales growth coming from existing stores that are in the business for a year or more.
Anything above eight per cent LTL growth is considered good, said Govind Shrikhande, managing director of the company.
"In the same quarter last year, we renovated four to five stores in Mumbai, Noida, Bengaluru. Now all the four stores are seeing over 20 per cent LTL growth, which is pulling up sales growth," said Shrikhande.
Shoppers Stop saw LTL growth of 0.8 per cent in Q3 of FY15 and four per cent in Q4 of FY15, also due to heavy discounting by e-commerce portals.
"Every brand has come out with new collections, which has led to higher volumes," Shrikhande said. Brands such as Arrow, Louis Philippe and Van Heusen have come out with new collections, he said.
He claimed that new brand launches such as Wrogn and Desigual, new ranges and new merchandise in brands such as Vettorio Fratini have done well.
Shrikhande said the impact of discounting by e-commerce portals has come down in the first quarter of financial year 2016.
"There is a realisation among customers that there is a lot of hype about discounting but they are getting old season's merchandise on e-commerce portals. To get new merchandise, you have to go to the stores," he said.
But many brands had come out with discounts and promotional offers during May to push sales.
"Online retailers ordered merchandise but did not pick up. That led to brands coming out with discounts. Many brands have started end-of-season sales in the past two weeks but we are yet to come out with sale offers," he said.
Shoppers Stop on Friday tied up with enterprise software provider SAP to boost its omni-channel strategy. It said it will invest Rs 60 crore over next three years in this strategy and is targeting to achieve 15 per cent revenues through digital ventures.
Shrikhande said the company is working on three-pronged strategy on digital front.
First, getting online operations better by this Diwali, launching multi channel operations by January next year and launching a omni channel operations by Diwali next year. Secondly, leveraging on our loyalty programmes. "We have 3.6 million members of loyalty programmes and 6.8 million Facebook fans. Even if we get them to make one more trip to our store or online, our like to like sales growth can go to 15 per cent. Thirdly, driving share of private brands and exclusive brands from 17 to 35 per cent," he said.
Shrikhande said the chain is also launching a brand called 'Rocky Star' designed by designer Rocky S. It is also launching Rheson by actress Sonam Kapoor and Rhea Kapoor and another brand Femina Flont in August.
