Review of 6 Indian Fashion Outlets

1. Are you Paying Attention?
Indian Fashion Stores
October 2012

2. Indian Fashion Stores I visited
• Fab India
• b-ethnic
• Biba
• Pantaloon
• Ritu Kumar
• Rekha’s

3. Store Anonymity
The Stores I visited all sell
Clothes with based on
traditional Indian fashion.
I never realized how
similar and generic they
looked.
They all looked the same
– from lighting to inside
colors (white to off-
white) and all of them
approached displaying
The merchandise in an identical fashion. Right to the one swanky line
being displayed on 3- 4 mannequins.

4. Similar trends
Relatively few women sales
people even though the majority
of the merchandise was for
women. The sales people were
dressed in regular street clothes
that did not in any way reflect the
fashion available in the stores.
And across the board, did not see
a single “Sale” announcement or
display or mention of it. I had
never realized that staff in these
Fashion stores had no uniform as opposed to the electronics, book
stores and café’s we visited where there was strict uniforms enforced.

5. Opportunities out in the open
Of the 6 stores I went to, the two designer ones had the customer
pass through some kind of detector door frame at the entrance and
made to feel that it was our privilege to be allowed into those stores.
Being an air-conditioned mall, all stores had closed front doors of see-
through glass. Making customers feel welcome is an obvious one.
Other than the generic opportunities like “Sale” signs and Discount
racks, there is a huge opportunity here to actually apply retail science
as is to prevalent in western countries. There is compelling science to
suggest that there is more to retail than stocking clothes (as great as
they might be). The merchandise has to be suggestively displayed to
create impulse buying. A concept lost upon the shops I visited.
Huge Opportunity missed by Sales staff not wearing and promoting
store ware.

6. Hidden Opportunities
 Having not only a staff that knows what they are selling but one
that is trained to “sell”, have a sort of script and well versed in the art
of “closing” the deal would greatly add value to these stores by not
only adding to the bottom line but also to provide some kind of
semblance of a professional front to the customers.
 Being well practiced in the art of turning over the merchandise that
would greatly enhance the customers shopping experience. When
there is not a bottom line approach to closing out inventory, the store
becomes cluttered with old inventory with a lot of “one-off” pieces
available in only one size or color, giving off the impression that the
store has very poor stock and not much of anything when in fact
stocks may be in excess of what it would be if stock was well
controlled.

7. Thank You