Saturday, August 23, 2008

Stylish Retailing

There is a trend towards offering extended product ranges that are focused onto a particular customer type; this is called lifestyle retailing. It is a real understanding of how far a lifestyle can extend and formulating a product offer that reflects the approach to life and the choices a consumer would make. A lifestyle retailer can be a generalist or specialist. A generalist lifestyle retailer would offer a wide variety of product categories, with shallow but very specific orientation to the products. A specialist lifestyle retailer might offer both depth and variety, but targeted to very specific lifestyle needs. The introduction of lifestyle format is not an easy one to undertake as it involves lot of innovative activities. But the companies generally lose the ability to innovate as they develop and mature. To allow innovation to occur firm must acquire a dual mode of operation one made of the existing business and a very different approach for new embryonic business. Research findings highlight that recipe of success of lifestyle retailing not only lies in product and design but also in managing the customer relationship management and designing organizational structure to manage innovation. In Britain, there is no consensus on what the concept means and further there is no theoretical and empirical research on the concept as it means somewhat different things to different people.

Retailing in India in the lifestyle segment as well as the value retail segment is in the nascent stage. The opportunity is really big for any player in the retail sector. Lifestyle has been a trendsetter of sorts in the Indian retail industry. In India we have used international experience and expertise to redefine the retail environment which has reached new heights of customer delight. Today, there are five major lifestyle retailers in India; Lifestyle, Westside, Shoppers' Stop, Globus and Ebony which alone account for a little over 200,000 square feet of retail space. ITC’s Lifestyle Retailing Business Division has established a nationwide retailing presence through its Wills Lifestyle chain of exclusive specialty stores. Pantaloon also sees spurring further growth in lifestyle retailing focus. The most recent example is of Madura Garments Lifestyle Retail Company, a 100% subsidiary of AV Birla Nuvo, is working on setting up 12-14 stores to meet the fashion needs of the urban Indian man.

2 comments:

The Evil's spirit said...

its another link providing detail insight about Wills lifestyle: must watch for wills fans

http://www.itcportal.com/lyfestyle_retailing/lifestyle_retailing.htm

Akhilesh said...

Lifestyle retailing targets specific customers. Also customers get new styles and depth in fashion products. Customer loyalty is high in lifestyle retailing.