Ordering clothes, makeup and accessories online has always been a risky decision to make. Before placing the order, you must scrutinise the product, read all the reviews (especially the negative ones) and make sure that you are absolutely sure of your purchase. But even after all this analysis, you still think twice before confirming your order because you don’t know how the material will feel, will the colour be same, and so on. As customers, we always want to know everything about the product we invest in it. So now, to give the desired satisfaction to their customers, leading online brands are opening physical stores across the country. Websites like Nykaa, Myntra, The Label Life, among others, already have their stores up and running in the metro cities to establish a deeper customer connect and increase their profit.
TheLabelLife.com, an ecommerce lifestyle brand based in Mumbai, showcases home decor, clothes and accessories. The collections are curated by Bollywood celebrities Malaika Arora, Bipasha Basu and Sussanne Khan. The six-year-old website has now become the go-to brand for fun-yet-sophisticated fashion, statement accessories, home decor and limited edition products. After hosting several pop-ups across country, they decided to create an offline presence by opening their first store in Bandra, Mumbai. “Through the years with TheLabelLife.com, we had the wonderful opportunity to connect with our customers. Right from personally calling up these customers, to literally delivering an order to the airport for a customer who was about to catch a flight, we continuously gained insight into these women and their lifestyle. After a while, we understood that we could reach our customers only to a certain level in the online space. We wanted to explore deeper, and opening stores and organising pan-India pop ups offered this opportunity. Since the inception of our flagship store in Mumbai and through our various pop ups, we’ve connected to our customers on a much more personal level and have managed to gain valuable feedback from them too,” says Malaika, style editor at The Label Life.
The leading online make-up and cosmetic store Nykaa has big plans. By 2019 Nykaa plans to open 50 stores across country. The CEO of Nykaa retail, Anchit Nayar believes that through physical stores the customers get the option of first reviewing the product online and then going to the store and physically checking it before making their purchase with utmost satisfaction. “We were always aware that our customers were not exclusively online or offline shoppers. With our omni-channel model we can meet the customer at their convenience to provide a seamless experience. This lets us offer the best of both worlds allowing our customers to access online ratings and reviews while testing the products in store. We currently have 29 stores in India with two formats — Nykaa Luxe and Nykaa On Trend in cities like Mumbai, New Delhi, Bangalore, Amritsar, Ahmedabad and Pune. Given the enthusiasm with which our customers have embraced our brand, we are looking to grow our store footprint to 50 stores by March 2019,” expresses Nayar.
The Bombay Shirt Company is a website that lets you customise your own shirt at reasonable rates, and they have an offline store in the city. Akshay Narvekar, founder, Bombay Shirt Company, feels that people across the globe have different shopping preferences — some are fastidious about looking at things in person before making a spend. “We have been an omni-channel brand right from the beginning because people have diverse tastes when it comes to shopping. Some are okay with ordering products online, while some prefer the touch-and-feel of a real-life retail experience. While it’s true that online shopping is more convenient and can be done at leisure, a lot of people prefer the experience of shopping at a brick-and-mortar store. Be it online or offline, our prices are uniform across both platforms,” says Narvekar.
