Now, online businesses are all set to open physical stores to woo offline customers. Not surprising as there is a large section of prospective offline customers without Internet access which they can cater to. Lenskart, FirstCry, MakeMyTrip and CarTrade are some of the e-retailers that have made extensive offline strategies.
FirstCry has already established 80 stores across India and is planning to add 100 more in a year’s time as it wishes to take advantage of both online as well as offline space.
Similarly, MakeMyTrip has established 18 company owned store and is likely to expand its physical presence in the near future. MakeMyTrip customers had expressed the need for a real time personal interaction with them for going ahead with their travel plans while focusing on customers from metro and non metro cities.
Online furniture retailer FabFurnish operates four stores in the country viz. Gurgaon, Faridabad and two stores in Bangalore. Through these stores, they serve customers who wish to have a real time interaction with the company.
CarTrade , an online auto classified portal also operates through 50 franchisee stores and wishes to double its number in the next two quarters to offer a better customer experience. On similar lines, Lenskart has already set up 60 plus across the country and has plans to set up 10 stores each month within a year. Apart from an offline customer store, Lenskart offers mobile eye check up services too.
LogicSpeak:
It is important to woo and serve customers depending upon their shopping preferences. The need to have presence in both the spaces does become necessary for maximizing the outreach across customers and expanding business too.
