Cultural diversity in India is complex, and with increasing urbanization, there is a movement of communities from their native locations to non-native urban centers. Retailers, with help from technology, can cash in on this opportunity by creating localized assortments catering to various cultures and food tastes.

1. technology
Cultural diversity in
India is complex, and with
increasing urbanisation,
there is a movement of
communities from their
native locations to non-
native urban centres.
Retailers, with help from
technology, can cash
in on this opportunity
by creating localised
assortments catering to
various cultures and food
tastes.
By Shijo Sunny Thomas
Of Dosas in Delhi and
Paranthas in Chennai:
Localised multi-cultural store assortments
To make this article palatable for The behaviour of people belonging of the non-native population in
thought to the unfamiliar, Dosa is a to different cultures in a non-native many of the urban centres. Many of
pancake made of fermented rice batter environment can have a different these citizens shop extensively at
and a staple dish in the south of India. tendency which is referred to as supermarkets, often finding it difficult
So what does an innocuous dish from the acculturation factor. Some are to find merchandise of their cultural
the southern part of India have to do highly un-acculturated, which means preferences.
with retail and technology? A lot, it that the members live close to and Non-native consumers at any
seems. The dynamism of the Indian socialise only with members of level of acculturation often turn to
economy has resulted in the creation their community. Some are partially exclusive community mom and pop
of many modern urban centres. acculturated, which implies that stores for their shopping needs. These
Increased rate of urbanisation that was they have partially adapted to the stores are often only limited but
traditionally the forte of tier one cities non-culture, but still maintain their exclusive assortments catering to the
is now being actively witnessed in tier native roots when it comes to food needs of the specific community. The
two and three locations as well. The and lifestyle preferences. There freshness of merchandise, level of
rate of urbaniaation is fueled not just are also people who are highly pricing attractiveness and availability
by intra-state inflow of citizens but also acculturated, which imply that of promotional offers will be missing
interstate movements. The end result is they have fully integrated with the from many of these community
that, we now have many urban centres new culture and do not identify retail stores. Yet, consumers flock to
with an appreciable degree of cultural themselves with their culture of these outlets due to the exclusivity
diversity of people originating from origin. Different cultures will have and convenience of merchandise
non-native locations. Diversity that is varied degrees of acculturation. The availability.
further characterised by varied food, partially acculturated population For organised retailers, localisation
entertainment and lifestyle preferences. comprises a significant percentage has mostly been about broadly sending
102 . images retail . march 2013

2. technology
hugely beneficial and can also serve Traditional store clustering tools that
as ideal inputs into creating store provide limited parameters with basic
demographic profiles. The census data demographic attributes will fall short
is a gold mine for local demographic of expectations. Retailers need to be
information and can be effectively sure that the attributes used to cluster
leveraged directly or through data stores are able to support multiple
aggregators. The demographic levels of demographic parameters
profiles will be built as approximate including the store community
percentages of predominant profiles. The store clustering solution
communities of the total population in should be well integrated with the
a defined geographic area. merchandise planning applications so
as to effectively build assortments for
each store profile clusters.
The resultant merchandise matrix
is a complex proposition and will
need to be effectively percolated
to all activities of retail execution.
The localised merchandise matrix
will be in addition to the standard
assortments that are offered at the
retail outlets throughout the country.
The ratio of standard to localised
assortments will depend on the store
demographic profile. The localised
assortment profile will need to be
integrated well with purchasing, space
planning, pricing and supply chain
systems. These are to ensure that the
assortment strategy flows down well
into the execution stage.
Another important aspect of
implementing localised assortments
more of summer wear to one region Parallel to building the store is measuring the performance of the
and winter wear to another. Creating demographic profile, the retailer assortments. Big data technologies
localised multicultural assortments should also build assortment profiles provide the ability to create highly
requires a high degree of granularity in which comprises of the merchandise optimised methods of storage of
merchandise planning and execution. offering for each targeted community customer segments, assortment
Of course, it is also essential to nationally. These assortment profiles profiles, pricing and sales data. These
maintain a fine balance between are created by researching the food, data can be used to create product
prohibitive supply chain execution lifestyle and shopping habits of the level models to be used by in memory
costs and maintaining merchandise communities being addressed by the analytics which can churn out
availability. This would obviously retailer. A significant amount of the decision enabling information in
depend on the size of the multicultural data related to the assortment profiles real time.
population under consideration. can be derived from primary research Additionally, a high degree of
In order to effectively retail to done by consumer goods companies. ingenuity is also required to bind
culturally diverse consumer segments, The final store merchandise profile and harness multiple technology
organised retailers need to focus will be based on a combinative applications to plan, devise, execute
on comprehending and building decision based on store demographic and analyse the local assortment
demographic profiles of their stores. profile percentages and the assortment strategy.
These can be achieved in many ways profiles.
such as qualitative research through Obviously, technology needs
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
in house CRM data, store surveys, to be leveraged optimally to plan
Shijo Sunny Thomas is the
consumer intercepts in stores, and build multicultural localised
Industry Lead for Retail & CPG
consumer intercepts in locations of assortments. Robust merchandise at Fujitsu Consulting India. He
community interests, insights from assortment planning and flexible has worked closely with retailers
consumer goods suppliers, etc. The store clustering applications will in India to conceptualise and
census and population data which is need to be used to provide the inputs deliver technology solutions
available at a locality level in India is into store and assortment profiles. relevant to local needs.
march 2013 . images retail . 103