Retail chain Shoppers Stop Ltd. has plans to launch 12 new stores in FY23, primarily in tier-2 and tier-3 cities and will continue to invest in store renovations.
Shoppers Stop plans to increase the share of new and refurbished stores to over 50% in FY23, said the latest annual report of the company.
The company will also continue to invest in its private labels, including celebrity endorsements.
Shoppers Stop is investing in the new-age technology and is backing its data analytics project Jarvis to maximise its understanding of customer behaviour and preferences.
“Project Jarvis, a massive data lake and analytics project, will significantly improve our overall analytical capabilities, enabling us to get ‘closer’ to our customers through the use of a propensity model and better mining of behavioural data and preferences,” the report said.
This can then be translated into much more effective marketing and product recommendations, leading to greater customer accretion and stickiness.
“We are enhancing the supply chain function through an automatic inventory replenishment system that can trigger customer-centric product assortments to optimise sales,” it said.
Shoppers Stop revenue for the financial year ended on March 31, 2022, was at Rs 3,111 crore, and the company was operating 88 stores that contributed 86% of its sales.
“We have planned the launch of 12 new stores in FY23, primarily in tier-2 and tier-3 cities, and will continue to invest in store renovations, which have a typical payback of about 3 years,” it said.
Its omni-channel play is growing stronger with increasing digital sales, while offline sales are improving with increased coverage.
“Our omni-channel transformation has been very well-timed and our aim is to replicate the captivating in-store browsing experience with an array of categories and brands across all the channels,” said Shoppers Stop MD & CEO Venu Nair while addressing its shareholders.
Besides, the KN Raheja group firm will also continue to invest in its private labels which continue to be a strong focus area for the company.
“Kashish, Life and Fratini have grown to become power brands and we will continue investing to market them further, including celebrity endorsements,” said Shoppers Stop.
In FY22, Shoppers Stop’s 16 private labels accounted for 14% of sales.
“In beauty, we are planning to introduce more products in the make-up, skincare and fragrance categories,” said Shoppers Stop, adding: “The growth in private label sales will also see a boost with our expansion in tier-2 and tier-3 cities, which usually witnesses higher sales of private labels due to our strong value proposition.”
According to Shoppers Stop, it is the largest offline retailer of beauty products in India.
“We are expanding our omni-channel presence with the launch of standalone SSBeauty stores and SSBeauty online in FY23, catering to a diverse customer base — from teenagers to women in their late 40s.
Besides, Shoppers Stop is also unlocking a diverse and more powerful workforce and is continuously working towards the inclusion of employees from different backgrounds.
Currently, around 1% of our team are persons with disabilities and LGBTQIA+ community, and we are planning to increase this to 2% by the end of FY23,” said Shoppers Stop non-executive chairman BS Nagesh.