GURGAON: Hindware, a premium bathroom company in India, is using digital platforms to inform its traditional retail formats and shorten the customer journey.
Anamika Sirohi, Hindware’s vice president and head of marketing, stressed the growing importance of omnichannel shoppers at the recent MRMW Asia 2018 conference in Singapore.
“In categories like mine – lifestyle, furniture, home decoration and consumer durables – it might actually cost you 20% to 30% of sales if you do not have an omnichannel strategy,” she said.
The massive uptake of affordable smartphones in India, along with cheap mobile data, is creating a new digitally empowered consumer, Sirohi observed.
And, crucially, “39% of mobile users in India visit a store within the same day after conducting a local search. It’s not just searching, it’s action after search.” (For more, read WARC’s report: How Hindware is merging digital platforms with traditional retail in India)
Accordingly, Hindware is adding physical and digital assets at various points of the consumer decision journey in order to shorten the decision-making cycle.
One example is the use of augmented reality enabling Hindware products to be overlaid on-screen for consumers to visualise how the products would look, and fit, in their bathroom at a glance.
The app has had 150,000 downloads – “the amount of sessions, the intensity with which people are approaching it is quite impressive” – and helps nudge consumers along a decision process that might otherwise take four months, Sirohi reported.
“Once they are digitally inspired, they come to the store where we have in-store experts and other assisting ways of making sure that the dream bathroom that the consumer has is delivered to them,” she added.
Additionally, concept stores allow customers to wander around with a smart tablet, capturing the items that they like before in-store designers bring them together in a digital space matching the customer’s domestic arrangements.
“At every step, you are shortening the cycle, so that these four months becomes shorter,” said Sirohi.
“You are able to make decisions quicker, and you are hopefully selecting the Hindware products instead of our competition because we are helping you in the entire process.”
Anamika Sirohi, Hindware’s vice president and head of marketing, stressed the growing importance of omnichannel shoppers at the recent MRMW Asia 2018 conference in Singapore.
“In categories like mine – lifestyle, furniture, home decoration and consumer durables – it might actually cost you 20% to 30% of sales if you do not have an omnichannel strategy,” she said.
The massive uptake of affordable smartphones in India, along with cheap mobile data, is creating a new digitally empowered consumer, Sirohi observed.
And, crucially, “39% of mobile users in India visit a store within the same day after conducting a local search. It’s not just searching, it’s action after search.” (For more, read WARC’s report: How Hindware is merging digital platforms with traditional retail in India)
Accordingly, Hindware is adding physical and digital assets at various points of the consumer decision journey in order to shorten the decision-making cycle.
One example is the use of augmented reality enabling Hindware products to be overlaid on-screen for consumers to visualise how the products would look, and fit, in their bathroom at a glance.
The app has had 150,000 downloads – “the amount of sessions, the intensity with which people are approaching it is quite impressive” – and helps nudge consumers along a decision process that might otherwise take four months, Sirohi reported.
“Once they are digitally inspired, they come to the store where we have in-store experts and other assisting ways of making sure that the dream bathroom that the consumer has is delivered to them,” she added.
Additionally, concept stores allow customers to wander around with a smart tablet, capturing the items that they like before in-store designers bring them together in a digital space matching the customer’s domestic arrangements.
“At every step, you are shortening the cycle, so that these four months becomes shorter,” said Sirohi.
“You are able to make decisions quicker, and you are hopefully selecting the Hindware products instead of our competition because we are helping you in the entire process.”
Sourced from WARC
