Excellent display, great ambience

Store positioning & presentation

Oma’s three stores---Delhi (2) and Mumbai (1)---are sensibly located in malls and high-streets. The first Oma store was opened in upmarket Khan Market in Delhi in November 2007. The other two Oma stores soon thereafter followed in Delhi and Mumbai. While the Mumbai store is spread across an area of 3,500 sq. ft., the stores in Khan Market and Select CityWalk are 900 sq. ft. and 1,500 sq. ft. respectively.

Seen from a distance, the exterior view of Oma stores gives the appearance of a blackish background finely brushed with white colour in various shapes of home design products. The excellent product display helps the customer to find the smallest merchandise in the store. The retro-chic look of the store is created with good positioning of the merchandise on the deep black tables. The entire space is well-lit with fluorescent bulbs enclosed in four-flipped suspended sockets giving an ambience of modern art décor.

To keep the ambience same across stores, the flooring is done in black vitrified tiles and the stores have wide aisles for the customers to go through the merchandise. Similarly, the store wall consists of ash-coloured granite marbles which is brightened up with merchandise placed on the deep black coloured racks. Suspended chandeliers glow with fluorescent lights bringing in a serene airy impression with melodious English music in the background.

Customer service

Oma has a excellent customer service programme. There are around 10-15 staff with a higher percentage of male staff members. The staff is clad in black trouser and white T-shirt on which ‘Oma’ is embossed in silver colour. The staff is eager to assist the customers with their in-depth product knowledge and pleasant attitude. However, there is no provision for customers to leave their bags and belongings. However the customers are not asked either to deposit their bags either at the Point of Sale (POS) or with the security guard.

The Oma stores stock merchandise mostly for customers who are connoisseurs of home décor. Thus, its clientele fits in the up-market segment. Given this fact, the operations within the Oma stores run smoothly as the footfalls are manageable. The stores usually work from 10 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. getting an average footfalls of 100 in the weekends and 70-80 during the weekdays.

Products & marketing

The fashionable home décor merchandise appeals to the middle and upper middle-class buyers with price points starting from Rs. 400 and going up to Rs. 2 lakh. The layouts, equipments and displays demonstrate a touch and feel appeal to the ambience. The store has superior iron display racks for the products with a various nonpareil collection of bouquets full of artificial flowers in the middle of the store sounding a warm welcome to the customers.

Oma offers the finest artificial flowers with different astonishing vases, aroma candles and home decoration. Albeit, Oma has a diverse array of merchandises, all of them come under the home décor category, however, the merchandise is commonly used for designing and decorating the offices, restaurants, bars, stores, etc. The Oma stores have average SKUs of 6,000. The store products seem to have unusual cuts at a first glance and carry astounding collection of lamps and lamp sets, decorative candles and candle sets, dinner set, cups, saucers, tea set, trays made up of metal, glass and mirror, flower and flowerbase, soap and soap holder, bath set, napkins and napkin holders, etc. The store stocks an overwhelming and fabulous collection of home décor products like china clay, silver and glassware, bath and spa accessories, fine porcelain et al. To name a few flowers like Gerbera Daisy Spray, Flower-Orchid Spray and Poeny Spray are kept inside the vases like hammered planter, bamboo planter, etc. imported from overseas, specially Europe. On the other hand, the impressive and uniquely designed suspended chandeliers, which either have glowing bulbs or candles inside, and arty wall painting add a special glamour to the store.

Presently, Oma does not have any loyalty and promotional card programmes, but maintains the data of their loyal customers and also gives them discounts. The store policies in terms of exchange or refund are declared at the POS. The striking display at POS is also one of the most important key features for promotion and marketing. While the store might experience a quite a good number of customers during the peak hours, nonetheless, the customers do not require to face the hassle of long queue for streamlined operations.