Customer is king at Croma

A combination of brand consciousness, desire and necessity for high-end sophisticated electronic appliances and rising disposable incomes is giving the Indian electronic market a huge growth opportunity.

Croma, the consumer durable retail arm of Infiniti Retail, is the first pan-Indian large format electronics megastore chain. A mystery shopping survey of the store was undertaken to analyse its business operations.

Store position, presentation

Croma has 22 exciting exclusive stores in the business hubs of Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Vadodara and Surat. The brand has selected choicest locations at malls; it has also picked up enviable retail locations at Santa Cruz airport and on the express highway in Mumbai, which are high on consumer potential. While still being nascent in their development, it has the first mover advantage in the space. The Croma glowsign is very finely defined in shades of aqua and the show window is meticulously designed with an attractive display of products. On average, the sizes of Croma mega stores range between 15,000 - 20, 000 sq.ft.

Store layout

The sprawling length of Croma store dazzles with smooth white and ash-coloured tiles and powerful fluorescent lights, which illuminates the entire store magnificently. The key VM features of Croma are its wide, clear aisles, a clean, well-maintained interior and a logically- planned store, giving it an upscale modern décour.

The compelling retail environment of the store highlights the exhibiting brands like Samsung, Canon, Microsoft, HP, et al with glowing promotional branding at the outer limits of the display racks. To acquire a sustainable positioning in the consumers’ minds, Croma has designed the store in eight-category layouts, namely home entertainment, small appliances, white goods, computers and peripherals, communications, music, imaging and gaming software.

During this sale season, the store is being decorated with the hangings (titled SALE in red colour). Even the entry and exit gates are designed with the banner of sale. Digital signage hanging from the ceiling has been interestingly installed by Croma for educating customers about products available in the store. Interesting branding like ‘Chalo Croma’, ‘Join our extended warranty’, ‘Ask for your exchange offer’, ‘Easy EMI’, etc. further enrich the customer’s awareness. The store designs and merchandise presentation give a touch-and-feel appeal to the customers. The merchandise is elegantly displayed on the square wooden and steel stands at comfortable heights with clearly revealed respective product price in addition to screen-based products displayed along the store walls.

Care for customer

Croma stores have an impressive customer service. The security levels at the stores are really high, as there are four security guards (two males and two females stationed at both the points of entry and exit) to greet the customers while entering and exiting the store. Croma has also installed sensormatic systems for tighter security. A dedicated spot has been set aside to leave the bags and belongings of the visiting customers. There is a provision of a wheel chair for the physically-challenged customers visiting the store.

There are around 35-40 store assistants per store with higher percentage of male staff members. Store staffs are dressed up in black trousers and red half-sleeve T-shirts, on which ‘Croma’ is embossed in its brand colour in addition to ‘A TATA Enterprise’ in white on the sleeves. They also wear their name badges clipped on their shirts. The store assistants are warm and friendly with in-depth product and customer service savoir-faire. Especially in case of sophisticated appliances like laptops, camera, mobile phones, etc, they are ready to explain to the customers about everything, from configuration, features and benefits to the MRP and other facts with enthusiasm, and also encourage product testing.

Croma has a concrete system to capture the customer experience. They insist customers to fill feedback forms or directly mail to their email id, which is displayed in the store. When a shopper is through with his shopping, they insist to record his/her voice against their queries.

Products, marketing

Being a large format store, Croma has a distinct category segmentation for product display, ensuring easy brand selection. Glowing rectangular-shaped inscriptions, suspended from the ceiling, clearly divide the stores in sections like ‘computers’, ‘home entertainment’, ‘gaming’, ‘imaging’, ‘communications’, ‘musics and dvds’, ‘small appliances’, ‘large appliances’, ‘personal care’, ‘mobile accessories’, ‘food preparation’, etc.

Croma stocks 6,000 products from 180 national and international brands and it has been made possible because of technical and sourcing agreement with Australian retail giant, Woolworths Ltd, supporting its back-end operations.

Croma assures that its product offerings are price competitive and also runs attractive schemes on various products. Every year, during sale season of July-August, it offers special discounting on most products. The store also has “Only at Croma” section, which gives it an edge over its competitors in the market. Croma also invites people from the corporate offices of the brands it houses, like LG, Bajaj, Sony, HP, Kodak, and others, for launching new products or to give special demonstrations of their respective products.

The striking display at Point of Sale (POS) is also one of the most important key features for elevating promotion and marketing at Croma stores. While the store might experience a large number of customers during the peak hours, nonetheless, they seem to be cheerful even while waiting in the queue.