How Godrej & Boyce's Furniture Brand Script is Creating Contactless Shopping Experience

Script is an attainable premium home furniture brand from the house of Godrej & Boyce, which offers ‘freedom of living’ through its contemporary design-forward offerings. Script caters to consumers who enjoy contemporary living.

Explaining about the brand, Rajat Mathur, Business Head, Script, said, “The idea has always been about serving customers with purpose-driven solutions. We started with our first store in Bengaluru in 2017 and the journey since then has been extremely exciting. We have set foot in the 5 metro cities in the past 3 years.”

Work From Home Culture Boosts Furniture Demand

Script has witnessed a 2x growth in the sale of WFH furniture and a 35 percent growth in the sale of accessories, including soft furnishings, tableware, lamps, clocks, kitchen tools through H2FY21. Through the pandemic, Script has also seen an uptick in demand for home décor and furniture in the Tier-II cities. 

“We have designed and launched compact furniture and ecosystems to enable the highest level of experience working from home. We have also strengthened our soft furnishing range seeing the traction towards the same post the first lockdown,” Mathur told.

“At Script, we believe in presenting products that are design-forward and aesthetically appealing. We try to understand our customers and accordingly serve solutions. Our ‘ecosystems’ are furniture solutions that consist of different units of furniture and accessories put together in various combinations, double up both for work and leisure. One of our recently launched ecosystems, ‘Archipelago’, is activity-based furniture that stems from the consumer’s need for purpose, ergonomics, and aesthetics. Ecosystems like Archipelago not just fit into any space but also enable a fluid lifestyle,” he further informed.

Creating Contactless Shopping Experience

The furniture industry relies heavily on its touch and feels for its purchase.

He stated, “Consumers generally prefer to start with browsing furniture on portals and follow through on their purchases at the physical store. However, since the pandemic began, we have witnessed customers making purchase decisions online. For furniture and home décor accessories, we need to ensure they are aptly detailed on the portal as well as make sure it gives a fair idea of what the product promises.”

Digital platforms such as WhatsApp Business have been imperative to engage virtually with the brand’s customers and leverage social commerce to keep them abreast with the latest developments at Script.

“Towards contactless commerce, we have QR-coded all our display products in the stores. Customers can simply scan these codes and know everything about our products without human intervention. Additionally, we continue to strengthen our digital lead generation process through SEO/ SEM for ease of discovery on digital,” Mathur added.

The Importance of Customer Experience

Be it in-store, virtual, or digital, it is all about the customer experience. A consumer gets back to the store or portal only when they had a pleasant experience the previous time.

“Footfalls depend massively on the experience that we, as a brand are able to serve them with. With our stores, both in the metros as well as in the upcoming stores in mini-metros, we are constantly trying to bring alive the experience of a fluid lifestyle,” he remarked.

Script offers a top-class in-store shopping experience where consumers can interact with a variety of access points and enjoy a contactless shopping experience. To ensure a seamless customer experience online, the brand plans to leverage its vast network of warehouse locations, service stations to deliver in 20 cities within 2-4 days of placing the order and also offer extensive after-sales benefits to the consumer. After-sales benefits happen to be another important segment of customer experience as it doesn’t get over with product purchase; consumers do look forward to after-sales services in terms of their evaluation of a brand.

“Technological integrations in retail are integral to enhance the customer experience in today’s world. We took our stores to WhatsApp last year. This allowed us to upload campaigns, catalogs, brand/product stories, while also building direct contact with consumers through virtual store tours and experiential,” he asserted.

Omnichannel is the Way Ahead

Currently, through its omnichannel distribution strategy, Script has been able to bring in a balance between physical and digital retail. In order to reach a wider set of customers, the brand is enhancing its presence through social and e-commerce channels, and local franchise stores in Tier-II cities.

The brand believes in the combined power of offline, online, and social channels.

“Even though technology has become an integral part of our lives, little can replace the in-store shopping experience. We are planning on ramping up our store footprint with 13 new franchisee stores in Tier-2 cities. We wish to connect to a larger spectrum of audiences in these cities and penetrate the market deeper. Our franchise stores are opening in Chandigarh, Kochi, Guwahati, Patna, Jammu, Lucknow, Madurai, Varanasi, Dehradun, Bhubaneshwar, Surat, Hyderabad, and Chennai. We have also extended our e-commerce delivery reach from five metros to 20 cities pan India,” Mathur observed.

Future Plans

Script is set to launch 13 new channel stores in Tier-II cities in the next three months.

He said, “While through the pandemic we have observed an uptick in demand for furniture and home décor accessories in the Tier-II cities, we are expecting 20 percent of our revenues to come from there.”

“Through our e-commerce portals, we wish to continue to deliver our products to 20 cities across India. We also plan to leverage our vast network of warehouse locations, service stations to deliver to 20 destinations within a span of 3-4 days of placing the order,” Mathur added.

“We strongly feel that nothing would replace the experience that in-store shopping provides consumers. However, given the pandemic impact, technology will play a vital role in our business. With our e-commerce portals and WhatsApp stores, we wish to continue to deliver our products to as many homes as possible,” he concluded.