Indian Retail 2016’s Buzzword: Click-and-Mortar

With 2015 coming to an end, getting into a contemplative mood is quite expected. If we look back at the Indian retail industry, it has come a long way from small traditional retail stores to shopping apps.

But lately the lines between offline and online retail is getting blurred. And experts believe that the future of retail is – Consumer Centric Commerce.

Click and Mortar retail model

In this DailyO article, Rupak Agarwal, Business Head with Godrej Properties Ltd stated that C2C Commerce (Consumer Centre Commerce) is the future of the Indian retail industry where click-and-mortar will rule. He wrote, “So what does 2016 and beyond look like? Well, it will be “click and mortar” in the new era of what I call “C2 Commerce” – yes, “Consumer-Centric Commerce”. Technology, the biggest disruptor of retail today, will become the biggest enabler of retail tomorrow!”

What’s click and mortar, you ask? When brick-and-mortar amalgamates brilliantly with ecommerce, it gives birth to click-and-mortar. It’s an advanced form of omni-channel strategy where technology will be used to acquire customers, maintain customer loyalty, product discovery, payment, delivery, and after sales service across online & offline platform.

Online going offline and vice-versa

We can already see hints of click-and-mortar. Etailers across various retail segments such as furniture store Pepperfry, lingerie portal Zivame, eyewear Lenskart or online marketplace biggie Flipkart, Snapdeal have started offline experience zone. So did fashion etailer app-only Myntra.

The retail players, be it traditional or online, now understand Indian customers are omni-channel shoppers. So the only way to get more sales, reduce cost and personalize shopping experience is by adopting click-and-mortar.

Agarwal emphasized, “Retailers of tomorrow will have to catch you (prospective customers), follow you as you move from one channel to another and from one device to another across all five stages (Research, Selection, Transaction, Delivery and Customer Care) of your purchase cycle, to give you a seamless shopping experience. Retailers will have to continuously measure your online and offline movement behaviour and enable you to purchase, offering lots of localised information.”

In the end, Agarwal stated how omni-channel is no longer a choice but an essential survival tool in today’s retail industry. Are the existing retail players ready for this transition? The year 2016 hopefully holds the answer to that question.