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Demand has been rising for last three weeks: Bata India CEO
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SME Times News Bureau | 13 Jun, 2020
In an interview, Sandeep Kataria, CEO, Bata India said that
the demand has been rising for the last three weeks and the trend is
expected to continue as consumers start feeling more confident. "We are
expecting a revival in demand by September with the onset of festival
season," he said.
The company is working on various
cost-optimisation measures including rental renegotiation, closure of
unviable stores and digitalisation drive across the organisation, etc to
eliminate redundancies, he added.
Kataria said that in tandem
with the ongoing market trends, Bata has shifted its focus towards
driving online sales and expanding its ecommerce footprint by ramping up
presence in online marketplaces, rolling its omnichannel home delivery
offerings through 900+ stores, increasing its pan-India footprints in
order to meet customer demands.
"After grappling with severe
business disruptions, we are back with safety and hygiene as our top
priority. We are also recalibrating business operations with a
strengthened product portfolio, a steady focus on cash conservation in
the company and better online presence and services to ensure seamless
shopping experiences for our consumers," Bata India CEO said.
"Change
in consumer behaviour is bound to be a natural fallout of the on-going
crisis. There will be a new order in place in the post Covid world, and
health & safety will assume paramount importance for everyone," he
said on the changing consumer behavior patterns.
Bata India is
increasing the focus on our omnichannel approach where the online and
offline stores are integrated seamlessly to be present at all customer
touchpoints. "We are offering contactless home delivery services for the
customers along with our delivery partners. We see demand picking up in
Tier3-5 towns, where stores have opened earlier than in metros," he
added.
What is the Bata strategy to reopen the stores?
Sandeep Kataria:
We are approaching our store re-opening with utmost care as safety of
our Customers, Store Teams and Retail Operations is of paramount
importance. Basis various directives received from the concerned
Government authorities & learning from the best industry practices
from various retailers across the world, we have created a detailed
Store Re-Opening Checklist.
This instruction manual has been
translated into 11 regional languages so that it's understood by our own
and franchisee store teams. We have created an on-line training module
& it has helped train over 6,000 retail staff via our e-learning
platform.
We have sanitizers, gloves, masks, dispensers,
quarantine boxes for tried shoes for all our stores.We have completed
our entire drill of deep cleaning & sanitization and are welcoming
customers back following best practices.
We would be using easy
to understand marketing collaterals which enable the customer to know
what steps we are taking to make their shopping experience safer &
what care they need to take while they are in a Bata store. We are
encouraging customers to try shoes themselves, make contact-less
payments and insist on an e-invoice. Our contact centre is keeping
customers informed about which stores have re-opened. While, half of our
physical stores are already open, our online store www.bata.in is
already offering consumers essential collections ranging from Work from
Home, Fitness, Washable and more comfortable range of shoes.
What will be the company strategy to evolve a portfolio of products in the current environment?
Sandeep Kataria:
Change in consumer behaviour is bound to be a natural fallout of the
on-going crisis. There will be a new order in place in the post Covid
world, and health & safety will assume paramount importance for
everyone.
Keeping the current situation in mind, we at Bata
India, have curated a special range of Easy wash footwear, Work from
home range, Back to Work and Fitness at Home collections for our
customers. We are also rolling out sanitizing wipes, sprays for footwear
and other protective equipment like masks and others as part of our
bouquet of offerings.
Bata already has a range of anti-bacterial
school shoes in market and we are looking to extend the same
anti-bacterial properties to more of our products.
What are the upcoming cost-optimization measures on rentals and unviable stores?
Sandeep Kataria:
The company is working on various cost-optimisation measures, including
rental renegotiation, closure of unviable stores and digitalisation
drive across the organisation, etc to eliminate redundancies.
How will the neighbourhood stores (In-stores) stay relevant?
Sandeep Kataria:
Being aIndia's leading & most trusted footwear brand, Bata caters
to varied needs and requirements of customers of all age groups through
company owned stores, franchise stores and multi brandoutlets.
Bata has 1,600+ stores reaching consumers in more than 600 towns.
We
understand that consumers might feel apprehensive in stepping out to
shop for a while. That's why we are following 20+ point checklist to
ensure safety of our customers, staff and stores.
As more than
half of our stores are open now for different days of the week as per
local state government guidelines, we are ensuring that we are
communicating the store operations times to our customers alongwith
store manager's number. Customers can call and request information about
products, choose products by going over product pictures received from
store manager over popular chat services and get home delivery of the
chosen products. Neighborhood stores are also able to offer quick
delivery on same day in most cases.
How is Bata expanding the ecommerce footprint due to the pandemic?
Sandeep Kataria:
In tandem with the ongoing market trends, Bata has shifted its focus
towards driving online sales and expanding its ecommerce footprint by
ramping up presence in online marketplaces, rolling its omnichannel home
delivery offerings through 900+ stores, increasing its pan-India
footprints in order to meet customer demands.
In addition,
consumers are shopping from our existing online store www.bata.in that
offers a wide product assortment, free home delivery, and multiple
payment options. The delivery can happen in over 1,300 cities and towns.
What in your estimate will be the impact of the pandemic on consumer behaviour and demand and how will Bata navigate this?
Sandeep Kataria:
Change in consumer behaviour is bound to be a natural. There will be a
new order in place in the post Covid world, and health and safety will
assume paramount importance for everyone.
Brands that employ the
best of safety measures, right from the production stage to, the final
delivery of the product are certainly going to be in vogue and find more
takers. Consumption through online channel will increase as some
consumers will be wary of stepping out of their homes. They will prefer
shopping from neighbourhood stores also.
We have always banked on
our resilience to navigate through trying times and emerge stronger. As
an organization, we remain empathetic towards all our stakeholders and
strongly hold on to our inherent values of putting people first,
something that has always helped us make a strong comeback amidst
unprecedented situations and this time too, it is no different. After
grappling with severe business disruptions, we are back with safety and
hygiene as our top priority.
We are also recalibrating business
operations with a strengthened product portfolio, a steady focus on cash
conservation in the company and better online presence and services to
ensure seamless shopping experiences for our consumers.
What is the Bata growth strategy post lockdown?
Sandeep Kataria:
We are increasing our focus on our omnichannel approach where the
online and offline stores are integrated seamlessly to be present at all
customer touchpoints. We are offering contactless home delivery
services for the customers along with our delivery partners. We see
demand picking up in Tier3-5 towns, where stores have opened earlier
than in metros.
The demand has been rising for the last three
weeks and the trend is expected to continue as consumers start feeling
more confident. We are expecting a revival in demand by September with
the onset of festival season.
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