Consumers are increasingly shopping late hours

The purchase pattern of Indian consumers is changing rapidly and increasingly they are shopping at late hours on working days or only on weekends for their favourite smartphone or plasma TV. To leverage this opportunity, Unique Infoways via its brand House of Technology (HOT) has recently launched the first 24*7 electronic store in the
country at Nehru Place, and spread over 48, 000 sq ft, it offers more than 100 consumer brands.
In a candid conversation, Vipul Jain, MD & CEO of Unique Infoways, shares his insight on changing consumer behaviour and their recently launched store.

Baibhab Das (BD): Kindly elaborate on consumer behaviour patterns and the need to open a 24 * 7 store?

Vipul Jain (VJ): The lifestyle of consumers is fast changing and they often get to shop only during late evening hours on working days or during the weekends. Our stores would offer a wide range of brands including Apple, Sony, Lenovo and Toshiba, amongst others, coupled with our convenient store location would help consumers considerably.

(BD): Kindly throw light on your customer service strategy?

(VJ): We allow consumers to experiment and try various brands, before purchase and our sales staff is also well trained to answer queries. As part of that strategy, we have allocated space in our store for pre and post- product sales, and organise shows and exhibitions for explaining products, technology and its advantages. In addition, in our post-product area we deal with problems related to a product and allied areas. Apart from that, the wide aisles in our store should also help to enhance the customer experience in our store, keeping in mind our target audience ranges from 6 to 70 year olds. We also plan to issue smartcards for our loyal customers.

(BD): Kindly highlight the role of social media in your promotional and marketing strategy?

(VJ): We have just launched our Facebook page and have already received 2,500 registrations on this site. We are attempting to grow our sales by nearly 66% to Rs 250 crore via this store and social media will be a crucial ingredient in our strategy. Our store infrastructure would also enable consumer brands to carry out product launches here and allied activities.