Shoppers Stop Eyes 10% Sales From Omni-channel Outlets in next 3 years

Shoppers Stop is aiming to corner 10 per cent of its sales from the online channel in the following three years as K Raheja group retail chain is betting big on its omnichannel system.

Shoppers Stop, in which US-based online retail giant Amazon had picked up 5 per cent stake last year, is expecting contribution from online will get doubled every year as channel matures.

Besides, the company is expecting to be debt free this fiscal and has plans to add more stores in its network by going to tier II cities such as Guwahati, Pune, Bhubaneswar, Calicut, and Nashik.

"This year, we would cross one per cent of overall sales (online Omni) and then would continue to double every year for the next three years," Shoppers Stop Customer Care Associate & Managing Director Govind Shrikhande said.

He further added, "In next three years, we would hit 10 per cent on our share would be online."

The company has witnessed around 5 million visitors to its site in last fiscal.

Over its association with Amazon, Shrikhande said, "As far as Amazon is concerned, its invest arm has invested Rs 179 crore in January and our working towards building the catalog has already started. The whole momentum should be bigger in quarter 2 and quarter 3 as we get more and more brands on Amazon.”

About second round of investment by Amazon in Shopper Stop, he said, "Nothing has been planned or discussed on that horizon. There is no discussion about it right now".

Shoppers Stop, which had registered a consolidated total income of Rs 3,713.25 for the financial year 2017-18, is expecting a growth of 7.5 per cent and above.

"Next year, we are targeting 7.5 per cent and above growth. The first quarter would be slow but Q2 onwards the growth would start ramping up and we believe that all operational parameters should improve," he said.

Besides, the company is also trying to be debt free by the end of next financial year.

"If you look at our current debt, we are at Rs 87 crore but net debt is about Rs 67 crore," Srikhande said.

The company has exited from its non-core business by selling Hypercity, Timezone and duty-free airport retail joint venture NGIPL and is focusing on core department store business and omnichannel strategy.