Online furniture retailer Pepperfry has taken on lease 1,800 sq ft of retail space in Mumbai high street, becoming the latest e-tailer to have an offline presence as well, property consultant JLL said.
"Pepperfry has joined the list of e-tailers going 'hybrid' by recently leasing a 1,800 sq ft space at Linking Road, Santacruz," JLL India Chairman and Country Head Anuj Puri said.
Stating that the trend of eCommerce players foraying into physical retail is pretty new to India, he said: "As part of differentiating their brand from the clutter of online brands, some e-tailers have been setting up shop offline."
Lenskart, a well-known Indian eyewear brand that started online, has lately opened up stores in retail malls to directly connect with customers, the consultant said.
"While online travel firm MakeMyTrip has opened more than a dozen company-owned stores in the recent past, baby and kids product portal Firstcry has reportedly taken its tally to more than 100 stores across the country," JLL said.
Freecultr, an online fashion apparel brand, has been swiftly moving into the physical space in order to give their customers a chance to touch and feel their merchandise.
"According to market sources, in 2014, over 70 per cent of eCommerce website-based transactions came from the top-10 cities of India. This means that a vast majority of transactions, particularly in cities within tier-II and beyond, happens in physical stores," JLL said.
Paytm, an online payment solutions company, has already installed over 50,000 kiosks for customers to be able to load their e-wallets. By being offline, the company is building trust with customers who would otherwise have felt lost in the already-crowded online space.
"So strong is the urge to move offline globally that for the time ever, Amazon US has opened a physical store in the US in early 2015, and it plans to open more such stores by mid-2015," Puri said.
JLL said that the biggest nightmare for every online seller was to deal with a shopping cart abandonment rate of 70-80 per cent.
"The sweet spot is to be in a middle zone where online sellers connect with the actual customers and also promote their products in multiple avenues. Expect this trend to continue in the times ahead," the consultant observed.
