Aditya Birla Online Fashion Case Study

Challenge
Introduction

abof, Aditya Birla Online Fashion is a digital platform to serve the digitally active consumers of
this popular technological world, with the core proposition of creating a mega lifestyle brand which
runs across categories. The growing competition in the e-commerce industry has eliminated the
advantage of having differentiated offerings for any company. To stand out from the rest, the
fashion portal has taken a bold step to reach out to its customers though the brick and mortar
route with an objective to provide greater exposure to the brand and build trust. abof would venture
in the offline channel as Experience Zones to create new touch points for its customers which
would be more real and engaging.

Building on the concept that humans are irrational and look for social currency, it is believed that
customers feel more important when shopping in a physical store than on an online channel. And,
with a brand like abof which runs exclusively on new fashion trends and designs, the touch and
feel factor has become a need. So, what’s the aim for setting up experience zones? Just to
increase sales via this new channel? Well, absolutely No!

The aim is to follow the Long Tailing Concept introduced by John Lewis, which states that it is not
necessary to have sales via the new channel (physical store in this case), rather the experience
from the new channel should be so amazing that the customer gets inspired by the brand recall
and perception and visits back to make the purchase from any of the channels. The objective is
to make sales irrespective of the point of purchase or the channel through which it is made.

Retailers nowadays focus on providing a seamless and coherent experience across all channels,
turning their traditional stores into “connected stores”. They engage with customers in the ‘parallel
universes’ of online and offline, in the same way and at the same time. The offline store acts as
a pull factor to attract the new customers and increase trials for the brand, either impulsively in
the store or rationally via other channels. Thus, this Experience Zone is to provide an ambience
to the customers, instilling in them a belief, that abof offers reliable products and services.

Source: https://www.strategyand.pwc.com/trend/2017-retail-trends

Primary Research Sources

Most of the credit for our proposed plan goes to the primary research conducted by us which gave
us brilliant insights. Below mentioned are the details of all the primary sources which we got in
contact with. The respective insights would be shared in the document all across at different points
in time as per the requirement.

1. Understood the business models of Lenskart, Pepperfry and FirstCry, them being
successful brands which integrated their online channels with offline channel.

Contact Details: Mr. Vikram, Operations Manager, FirstCry (9599805055)

Mr. Mohsin, Store Manager, Lenskart (9999902451)
Mr. Kanhaiya Ojha, Pepperfry (0120 6888930)

2. Visited Multi Brand Outlets and Exclusive stores to understand the merchandising, store
layout and other retail management concepts.

Contact Details: Ms. Swati, Visual Merchandiser, Shoppers Stop (9999680193)

Mr. Aman, Sen. Rep., Shoppers Stop (9821190041)
Mr. Saurabh, Visual Merchandiser, Madame (9899305566)
Mr. Goldi Singh, Associates, USPA, Lifestyle (9953415055)
Mr. Munil, Associates, LP Denim (8744036622)
Mr. Manoj, Associates, AND (9971875080)

3. Customer survey to understand the shopping behavior and the brand association for abof
among the consumers. It included both the qualitative interviews and an online
questionnaire based survey.
Link for the questionnaire
https://goo.gl/forms/0hoJZWrpmvK4qKIt2

Link for response sheet

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1easA8F2IImkIfCOmBZJmfUDczDFW7rwIyruK
DkcrSjU/edit?usp=sharing

4. Qualitative interviews with people associated closely with the fashion industry.

Contact Details: Mr. Kaustav Das, Student, Pearl Academy [Interned at abof]
(9937415167)
Ms. Sheena Agarwal, Fashion Designer (8427553333)
Ms. Urvi Soni, Student, Pearl Academy (9560604996)
Ms. Shreya Jain, Student, Pearl Academy (9417807770)
Ms. Rasika, Student, IMT Ghaziabad [NIFT graduate]
(7977584090)
Ms. Richa Jaiswal, Fashion Designer (8828092368)

Sentimental Analysis
In addition to the primary research, to better understand the online sentiment of the abof buyer,
we conducted a sentimental analysis of reviews extracted from mouthshut.com. The tag cloud
which was retrieved from the analysis is shown in Figure1.

Reviews Link:
http://www.mouthshut.com/product-
reviews/Abof-com-reviews-925806373

Web scrapped Data:

Figure 1: Tag Cloud for abof.com (reviews from

mouthshut.com)
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1yqsmMvxS4Hif6YcrXVHt7UGrs
gQVsZjLpyjtUvOAQAw/edit?usp=sharing

The words associated with abof are similar to a general perception of any e-commerce shopping
website and there is no differential association in the minds of the consumers. The brand should
be distinguished from the pack and its proposition be aligned with the perception of the
consumers.

The tag cloud shown in Figure 2 contains the suggested keywords by the teams which form the
basis for consumer’s perception towards the brand. The report suggests key points and priority
steps which abof can take on both online and offline front of its business.
 Figure 2: Proposed tag cloud for abof

Possible Differentiators

Amalgamating the above analysis with other secondary research conducted, it was evident that
the purchase of Private Label Brands (PLBs’) is influenced by two attributes i.e. Product
Presentation and Product Performance. This data was backed by the insights from the primary
surveys too. To make the grounds firm on these two major attributes, it is inferred that the following
factors proposed by us, if implemented in the physical store would differentiate abof from others.

Visual Merchandising
It would be a major differentiator for abof’s physical
stores. More often than not, it is the layout of the store
and product placement which attracts the customers
to enter the store and further lead to trial through
purchase of the product. Based on the interaction
with couple of the VMs of different brands, the
suggestions for differentiated ways of visual
merchandising are:

1. Trend Corner
It is a 250-sq. ft. themed space as shown in Figure
3, designed specifically to showcase the latest
trends of best of all the collections available in the Figure 3: Trend Corner
store. A shopper would be able to relate oneself
with the trend on display.
 The display would be strictly monitored and curated and would be through
customized fixtures, mannequins, stacking and folding etc.
 A complete pack of cross merchandised layout with all the ranges of product
categories would be displayed
 It will be replenished fortnightly with a new trend theme e.g. Glory, Panache’,
Acoustic, Hustler etc.
 There will be a Like Counter device outside the glass which customers can press
if they like the trend on display. This number will help the brand understand their
customer likes and dislikes which will be beneficial for trend forecasting
2. Mannequin Merchandising
To establish quick connectivity, mannequins as buyer personae would be kept in the store.
This way the consumers will be able to relate more with the brand as shown in Figure 4.
E.g. a Yoga trainer looking for athleisure bottoms will be highly inspired by the mannequin
in the display who looks exactly like her alter ego; similarly, a teenager who is bogged
down by studies will be pulled towards the store which is tapping on one of its personal
strings etc.

Figure 4: Examples of Mannequin resembling buyer personas

3. Product placement
The online Indian Fashion catalogue is dominated by Apparel (47%) followed by
Accessories (40%) and because of which it is proposed that accessories and footwear to
be placed along with apparel, thereby increasing convenience for the customer to mix and
match and in turn increase in category sale. Some examples of product placement are
shown in Figure 5.
 Technological Installments
As per the interaction with customers at various touchpoints, it was clear that there is a huge buzz
amongst the target group for digital technologies. They like getting involved into new ways of
shopping. In addition, we also found that there is a stark difference between the requirements of
a Tier 1 and Metro city audience to that of Tier 2 and 3 city audience. To cater to all kinds of
audiences, we have suggested few technological installments which will be the potential
differentiators in abof stores.

 Beacons: It is a technology that will send messages directly to the smartphones of

customers as they pass by the abof store. This will act as a constant reminder to the repeat
customer to visit the store and spend some quality time with those people. Figure 6 shows
the functioning of a Retail Beacon.

Figure 6: Beacon Technology functioning

Figure 5: Product Placement

  Like Counters for every trend store which will keep track of the likes and dislikes of the
customers
 Portable Virtual Stores: Tablets inside the store with few sales man for online catalogue
viewing and purchasing
 Magic Mirror on the display of the store to attract the crowd inside the store and creating
a buzz around the store
 3D Virtual Try On: 3D Virtual trial rooms inside the store, supporting match making, guided
selling and catalogue viewing.
 Couple of touch screen displays, “Virtual Shopping Hubs” integrated with a scanner and
AISHA for real time search of items, whether the similar kind is there in the abof store.
(Improvement upon the existing feature “Image Search” on AISHA which doesn’t work
properly often)

The below diagrams show a rough draft of how abof store would look like as per our suggestion.
Figure 7 is an AUTOCAD curated store layout as per the store size assumptions and calculations
done at a later stage in the report. Figure 8 shows a sample entrance and where the suggested
differentiators will be placed.
 WOMEN ABOF WESTERN
WOMEN WESTERN
WOMEN ETHNIC
WOMEN ABOF ETHNIC
SKULT
ATHLEISURE
MEN ABOF
MEN
TREND CORNER
CASH COUNTER
MENNIQUIN AREA
3D VIRTUAL SCREENS

Figure 8: Store Appearance from front (example)

store layout

Return on Investments (For

above suggested items)

Estimated cost per store

 Matchmaker Tablets (4)

including Application Figure 7: AUTOCAD curated store layout
₹65,000
 Magic Mirror ₹ 30,000
 3D Virtual Screens (4) ₹9 Lakhs
 Other Fixture Costs (for 5000 sq. ft.) ₹ 1 Crores
Approx. ₹ 1.1 crores would have to be invested in developing the store and installing all the
technological assets. These investments would be broken down over years with an approximate
payback period of 7 years. These are not taken into calculation for the report as the returns
specific to these cannot be estimated.

Proposed Store Format

From secondary research, we identified various store formats which are adopted by the
companies and out of all those formats; we chose to implement Segment Concept. This format is
chosen because while integrating online with offline it is not feasible to showcase all the products
in the store. Thus, we have decided to focus on specific segments of product mix to be kept in
the store.

Furthermore, it would be ensured that while placing the external and internal brands in the store,
there is a smooth flow of shopping experience. For example, in the Women Ethnic section we will
make sure that abof is placed between the external brands so that customers don’t feel any
perceived value difference (an insight from the review analysis) between the external and the
internal brand, only focus be on the designs and the quality of products being offered.

In addition, we will make sure that the basic hygiene factors of the retail management is followed
like identification of focal points, usage of nesting tables, significant gaps between the hangers,
enough walking space and mannequin tracking system.

Boutique Layout is proposed for Abof Experience Zone in the retailing format. It would provide
control of traffic flow along with enhanced assortment exposure, better space utilization which
helps in minimizing costs, provision of service and personal selling resulting in a lasting store
experience.

Source: https://www.strategyand.pwc.com/media/file/Strategyand_Footprint-2020.pdf

Furthermore, the decision of opening up company owned stores on rent has been made by us
because of the following reasons:

1. The size of the store will be large enough which needs a company owned grip for better
functioning
2. To make the operational chain smaller and eliminate the number of intermediaries to make
the system smoother and standardized as per the abof benchmarking of quality and trends
3. To keep abof as the sole decision making unit for the brand
4. For the quick turnaround of stock

We also have a target for opening up exclusive stores of abof 6 years down the lane since in
approximately 3 years we will be break even. (Calculations are shown at a later stage in the
report)
Proposed Product Mix

The product mix in the store would be based on the Segments Concept as stated earlier. The
products kept in the physical store would be highly curated and based on exhaustive forecasting.
Also, it would be ensured that the merchandiser who buy the products for external brands makes
the purchases based on a specific criterion which would indirectly enhance the purchase of In-
house brands.
When a store appears to have similar set of products, a shopper is likely to browse through most
of the available brands, whereas if there is high difference in the type of products kept on shelf
for various brands, a shopper is likely to have his own discretion and not even pay attention to
some brands.

The idea is to indulge the customer, make him walk through the store, providing him a smooth
experience, such that the private labels appear to stand out as reputed and well- known brands
to the him who is unaware of the brand.

At the company’s end, focus would be on procuring Concessionaire/ Bought or Return Brands
which allows to gain extra margin as compared to the consignment brads which have to be taken
care of. External Brands would be required to bring the footfall which would be difficult to gain
otherwise.

Assumptions for Ideal Product Mix

 The mix would be based on the current trend and seasonality, and modified as per
requirements.
o Seasons: Spring-Summer
Autumn-Winter
o Trends: Festive Seasons (region based)
Large Scale Events like IPL, Concerts etc.
Celebrity Inspired trends
Media generated trends like Memes, Game of Thrones etc.
 The geographic location would determine the floor space to be provided to a product category
and various brands. For Instance, Athleisure would be provided more space in Metro Cities
as compared to HRA Classification Y cities and similarly metro cities would have higher range
of brands as compared to a lesser ranged brand in HRA Classification Y cities.
 Demography of the region would determine the cloth type, style and the categories to be kept
in the stores. Stores in a metro such as Bengaluru would have larger variety of women western
wear including shorts, whereas on the other hand a city like Ghaziabad would have more
Ethnic and western with lesser of shorts
 Brands Which Can be partnered with
 Product Categories that Women ethnics Women Men Athleisure
abof physical store would abof abof abof Black Panther
be stocking in would Auerelia Famella Being Human Proline
include: Ayannay VeroModa Blue Saint SKULT
1. Casuals Biba TT Campus Sutra
2. Partywear global desi Only Highlander
3. Loungewear Shree Jack and Jones
4. Denim Visudh Kulprit
5. Athleisure
Soch Locomotive
6. Ethnic
Rangriti Peter
7. Footwear
8. Accessories W Status Quo
UCB
Wrangler
LP Denim
Van Huesen

 Introduce new range of products in Casual

range under their private label of abof. This
new range will be the latest “media based”
trend prevailing in the society. This range
attracts young crowd who are indulged into
impulsive buying if they simply liked the
product design in a click. They are not
looking for brand but a trendy look which
makes them look cool. Some of the samples
are shown in Figure 9.

Figure 9: Brands Which Can be

Partnered with

External Brands (16) ABOF SKULT

Avg. Monthly Sale (in pcs.) 7200 1260 360
Avg. Annual Sale (in pcs.) 86400 15120 4320
Avg. Annual Inventory (in pcs.) 16000 4200 1200
Turnover (times) 5.4 3.6 3.6
Annual Sales (₹) ₹ 8,64,00,000.00 ₹ 1,16,57,520.00 ₹ 51,01,920.00
 Avg. Annual Inventory Cost (₹) ₹ 1,44,00,000.00 ₹ 25,91,400.00 ₹ 9,49,200.00
Gross Margin % 10% 20% 33%
GMROI % 60% 90% 177%

Inferences

1. The proposed layout includes 6 brands to be kept for men including abof, women western
has 5 brands including abof, women ethnic has 5 brands including abof and athleisure has
4 brands including SKULT.
2. Space allocated to PLBs' are larger as compared to external brands as it was desired to
increase the sales of In-house brands.
3. The GMROI of abof and SKULT is 90% and 177% respectively, which shows that the
company would gain much more in these two brands as compared to the other external
brands.
4. The product mix is largely dependent on the floor space provided to the brand along with
the inventory at display. In this case abof and SKULT together comprise of 1350 sq. ft. as
compared to 2400 for external brands, yet the two brands are able to yield better returns
5. The overhead expenses for first year amount to ₹2,57,89,860 which are way beyond the
calculated profits. The breakeven with these values can be achieved when the Gross
Margin gained is increased.

In case where the margin percentages are increase (abof to 50%, SKULT to 50% and
External Brands to 20%) the Gross Margin per year would be as follows:

Gross Margin Year 1 Gross Margin Year 2 Gross Margin Year 3

₹ 2,56,59,720 ₹ 2,80,47,686 ₹ 3,06,67,145
Avg. Sales per Day (pcs.)
Floor Space (in sq. ft.)

Avg. Selling Price (₹)

Gross Margin Year 1

Gross Margin Year 2

Gross Margin Year 3

Avg. Monthly Sales

Avg. Annual Sales

Gross Margin%
Floor Inventory
Articles/sq. ft.

Sales (₹)

abof 1050 3 3150 42 1260 15120 20% ₹ 771 ₹ 1,16,57,520 ₹ 23,31,504 ₹ 26,11,284 ₹ 29,24,731
SKULT 300 3 900 12 360 4320 33% ₹ 1,181 ₹ 51,01,920 ₹ 16,83,633 ₹ 18,85,669 ₹ 21,11,949
External 2400 4 9600 240 7200 86400 10% ₹ 1,000 ₹ 8,64,00,000 ₹ 86,40,000 ₹ 93,31,200 ₹1,00,77,696
Brands
Total 3750 13650 294 8820 105840 ₹10,31,59,440 ₹1,26,55,137 ₹1,38,28,154 ₹1,51,14,377
In this case, the company would be achieving the Breakeven in 3 years taking assumptions
mentioned as constant.

Assumptions
The following assumptions have been taken to make the above calculations

Category\Brand Abof SKULT External Brands Total

Men 1 0 5 6
Women 1 0 4 5
(Western)
Women (Ethnic) 1 0 4 5
Athleisure 0 1 3 4

Gross Margin % Average Sales Price (₹) COGS (ASP-GM%) (₹)

External Brands 10 1000 900
Abof 20 771 617
SKULT 33 1181 791

No. of Brands Avg. Sales per day (pcs.) Shelf Space (in sq. ft.)
Abof Men 1 18 pcs 450
Abof Women 1 12 pcs 300
Abof Women Ethnic 1 12 pcs 300
SKULT 1 12 pcs 300
External Brands 16 15 pcs 2400 (150 per brand)

1. GMROI (Gross Margin Return on Investment) = (Annual Sales*Gross Margin %)/Avg.

Annual inventory Cost)
2. For calculation, a month comprises of 30 days and a year of 360 days
3. SKULT is never on Discount and Average Sales Price is as mentioned in case
4. Average Sales Prices (as mentioned in case) for abof and External brands includes
Discounted Prices and Promotional offers
5. Year on Year Sales Growth (store wise) is taken as 8% for External Brands (Industry
Average)
6. Year on Year Sales Growth (store wise) is taken as 12% for PLBs'
7. Gross Margin Percentage is as mentioned in case
8. Floor Space for merchandise is divided into blocks of 150 sq. ft. (10 ft. wide, 15 ft. long) as
per the average space allocated to brands in MBO’s
9. Inventory per Sq. Ft. for External Brands is 4 articles/sq. ft. and for abof and SKULT is 3
articles/sq. ft.
10. Accessories and Footwear (only abof) would be displayed along with the space provided
11. Revenue and Profit from Accessories and Footwear is not considered for calculation as
values are not provided in the case
12. Season End Sales would be for 4 months i.e. Jan-Feb & July- Aug
 13. Complete Inventory is displayed on the Shelf (in Non-sales months i.e. normal period)
14. Inventory for sales period is increased by 200% for external brands and 100% for PLBs'
(abof & SKULT)
15. A Trend Corner would be created in a space of 250 sq. ft.
16. Store Space for aisle, billing, display, backend office/ warehouse etc. is estimated at 25%
over space for merchandise
17. The overhead expenses are taken at 25% based on industry average (it includes rent,
electricity, salaries, logistics, stationery etc.)

Suggested Pricing Strategy

On basis of detailed study of Lenskart model, it is proposed to keep the price of a product same
across all the platforms on which it is available irrespective of the location. The customers would
be able to match the prices of the products for both online and offline, which would further enhance
the shopping experience and build trust over prices. This would be applicable to all the discounts
and offers as they would also be same across all the sales channel. The mechanism would enable
the shopper to add their choices in the shopping cart and pay for the products online, which means
no queues, no billing services and often no carry bags (free delivery at home) even in the physical
stores.

This strategy would ensure that there is no cannibalization for the brand.

Inventory Management
Being a fast fashion brand, abof needs to have an efficient inventory management system to cater
to the changing demands in the market. Time allowed for a product to be on the shop floor is
critical and needs to be constantly monitored. To keep the inventory costs in control, forecasting
should be spot on and in alignment with changes in trends. Based on secondary research and
study of several research papers, we propose to use Short Term Forecasting methodology of
Fuzzy Logic Based Hybrid Model, to cater to the fast fashion model adopted by abof. Other factors
to be considered while forecasting and inventory management are inferred as:
 Use of data collected from the industry expertise and the trend corners in the stores. This
would provide insights on short term consumer behavior and demands
 First In First Out inventory model for clearance of stock at warehouse and shop floor
 Ratio of Sizes per Design (per article) to be based on critical analysis of trends and
purchase data, to ensure odd sizing does not create issues in clearance of stock
 Rotation of inventory amongst stores after a stipulated time allowed for the article to be on
the shop floor (in case of multiple stores later)

Note: Excel Sheet for detailed calculations can be found here,

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BxgZm0aqOwWXRXFSMVZmMEJ3MEk
2 High Priority Steps for profitability in 2 years
1. Integrated Marketing Communication

One of the two high priority steps to attain profitability would be the change in the marketing
communications.

abof’s vision, “Build India’s most admired online fashion player that provides youth with
unparalleled “personalized” shopping experience using a curated set of branded merchandise”,
goes well with its current positioning and we believe that abof is very clear with what it aims to
achieve. But, there is a loophole which may act as a barrier in reaching its goals.

From the analysis of the current Ads and other communications of abof, it is inferred that abof is
advertising as a highly women centric brand and there is a need to cover all types of personas in
the communication audience. Also, most of the ads are concentrated on add-ons or deals and
discounts which is way past its aim to become the fashion icon among the youth.

Thus, to cater to this change, we have designed few campaigns for the current launch of abof
stores, which would be one of the strong reasons of increasing footfalls and hence, the sales.

Supporting our proposal, the customer survey reports showed that 43.3% of the respondents are
neutral towards visiting abof store in future, either online or offline. This reflects that there is no
resistance in terms of brand name for abof and people, if provided an opportunity, would be willing
to experiment with abof products at stores. Thus, marketing communications if improved would
result in increased experimentation and adoption of the brand, pulling them to the stores and
entering mind-space of the customers.

Key Insight: From the interaction with the target audience, it was found that the customer range
of abof is high on involvement and spends a lot of time in exploring different options before
purchase and keeps transaction size per purchase low. Though, they are also indulged into
impulse buying but that is only when the product seems to project their self-persona.

Message to be communicated: abof is all about discovering yourself with fashion and driving the
trend
Campaigns:

A. Campus Ambassador Program

This will be a semiannual college level
program, wherein abof can have tie ups
with fashion institutes like NIFT, Pearl
Academy etc. and invite entries from
these institutes. The best designer will
be the Ambassador of abof for 3
months in his institute and will be
invited in the abof store to sell the
curated designs. This will bring in new
trends in the store and would attach an
aspirational value to the brand amongst
the fashion trend setters and the like. A
sample for the poster inviting the
entries is shown in Figure 10, which
can be circulated on both online and
offline mediums.
To firm the grounds, we had
conversations with few designers and
students and they were looking forward
for this sort of collaboration.

Figure 10: Sample Poster for invitation

B. SKULT Contest
A contest would be conducted in the pre-launch phase of the store opening in different locations.
It will be a Tattoo designing competition wherein designs will be invited over social media handles
and put to poll. The best entries will then be invited to the abof store on the launch day. Figure 11
shows one of a kind invitation. This contest is designed keeping in mind the message
communicated by SKULT of free spirit and out of the box life.
Figure 11: Sample Poster for invitation
C. Brand Awareness Posts
These will be the constant and updated posts on
various channels over Internet to develop a loop
among the viewers, informing them about the
launch of offline stores. This idea is developed
based on the insights (shown in Figure 12) from
comScore, a media measurement and analytics
tool, which states that the total number of unique
visitors on the site is decreasing since July 2016.
This piece of information shows that most of the
purchase is made by the repeat customers and
comparatively lesser unique customers are
acquired by abof over the period.

Supporting the above fact, the results from the

customer survey shows that 50.8% respondents
knew about abof but out of these 50.8%, only
16.7% had purchased from abof. The reasons
mentioned by them are as followed:
 Never thought of it
 Don’t prefer new unheard sites Figure 12: comScore Data
 Inactivity
 Satisfied with other mediums
It is inferred that people are not ready to try it even for the first time because of the fear of getting
cheated or because they are not comfortable with switching from their current preferred brands.
Also, from NPS we saw that abof has a huge base of repeat customers and unique customer
acquisition is very low. Thus, to increase the first-time purchase from the stores, both online and
offline, there is a need to create a strong bond between Aditya Birla and abof as a brand which
would modify the customers’ beliefs that it is something known and trustworthy with a strong
backup. Once they come on board it will surely lead to repeat purchase because of the good
quality products backed with consistent promotional activities. Therefore, creating targeted brand
awareness for abof is a necessity. Figure 13 shows the sample creative for these kinds of
awareness and upcoming posts.
 2. Developing Employees and their increased engagement
In retail management, associates play a very important role during the decision-making process
of the purchase by the customer. Thus, employing efficient and quality associates for the stores
is a high priority step to increase the customer engagement, interest and finally, the conversions.

In addition to the quality hiring, an effective training programs are to be developed for constant
nurturing of the employees. Investment on employees would eventually lead to higher customer
satisfaction and conversions.
The employees are to be made responsible enough to take independent decisions on the shop
floor while dealing with the customers instead of just being followers of rules and instructions.
Similar to the concept of ‘Personal Shopper’ in Shoppers Stop, where some customer executives
are given an additional weekly training to cater to high value customers of the company, abof
should adopt a #NoDifference training program for all the employees’ irrespective of their role so
as to keep a consistency in the organization which will be the key differentiator.

Well-groomed associates eventually lead to increased sales, not only of the brands they handle,
but also other brands, thus increasing the sales of the shop rather than a brand. The shopping
experience of the customer poses direct influence on the mindset of the customer. The associates
can influence the customer in a way that the shopper may purchase additional products rather
than just what is required, resulting in increased transactional values per purchase.

Furthermore, certain employee engagement activities can be scheduled as a part of internal

marketing. This will help the brand develop trust among the employees and vice a verse.
Shortcomings in the online channel

From the web scrapping and sentimental analysis as discussed at the start of the report, several
insights were gathered which can be used to improve the online offerings to get the perfect Omni
channel system of operation.

1. Even though, there is a customer care number, it is not that efficient. There is no option for
lodging complaint online on any portal or social media handle. This results in customers
visiting the third-party websites to post reviews. E.g. mouthshut.com
Proposed Solution: abof Community

An online community like a forum for abof where one can simply post and talk about the
experiences with abof and have relevant discussions related to fashion, apparel etc. Occasionally,
abof can arrange for live interviews or chats with famous designers, celebrities and abof’s
influential employees. This will keep the social bond active and customers would feel that they
are valued, being listened and served better than before. The community not only provides the
customers a platform to have their opinion, but also gives abof the opportunity to understand the
behavior and demands of its customers.

2. Absence of reviews w.r.t. products on the

website, which diminishes the credibility of the
products. Customers check the reviews for
assurance and satisfaction before
Figure 14: Positive feedback rate and count of experimenting with new brands, unavailability
pieces sold for a product (as shown on website) of the same reduces the chances of
conversion of sales.
Proposed Solution: Review Options
Customers to be provided with review options and the same to be integrated on the abof site
along with all products. The “positive feedback and count of pieces sold” as shown in Figure 14
are not enough.
3. What’s Hot’ section is the USP for abof website. Though, the concept is really appealing, it
doesn’t come out well and not in line with the brand’s perception of not being a deal sensitive
site rather a fashion driven portal. (Insight from the qualitative interviews with customers)
Proposed Solution: Rework on Website Layout
As shown in Figure 15, the first fold of the website talks mostly about deals and the collection
content is mixed up the ads, creating ambiguity in the minds of customers. It reduces the appeal
of the ‘first look’ and also diminishes value which the customer could derive. Thus, the suggestion
is to showcase all the collection, Get the look, Trends Cards in the first fold of the site itself.

Figure 15: Website Screenshot (first fold)

4. Presence of AISHA and Social Media handles is inconsistent between website and mobile
application. Also, there are frequent errors in suggestions for apparels in terms of visual
search, seasonal changes and fresh/past collection.
Proposed Solution: Mention links for both in Focus Range and rework on suggestions
Link for both AISHA and Social Media handles must be mentioned in the focus range of the
website and application, maintaining coherence amongst them. The collection should be
frequently updated and pushed forth in the feeds rather than repetitive feeds and suggestions.
Long term Expansion Plan

Apart from the above-mentioned steps for the launch and ongoing of abof sales, we propose few
long term expansion plans which abof can implement at a later stage of their lifecycle.

1. Geographic Expansion Plan

Referring to the Google Trend data, below mentioned tables show the interest index for abof over
the past 12 months, city wise and region wise. Currently, the plan is to start with Bangalore, being
a highly cosmopolitan city with the perfect blend of all the age groups, our target audience belongs
to. Moving further, abof can use the interest index as one of the major attributes to decide on the
place for other stores.

Past 12 months
City Interest Index
Pune 100
Noida 96
Gurgaon 94
Ghaziabad 72
Jaipur 70
Navi Mumbai 69
Thane 68
Kolkata 66
Secunderabad 65
Vadodara 61
Visakhapatnam 59
Bhubaneswar 59
Mumbai 58
Bengaluru 58
Nagpur 56
Surat 46
Guwahati 44
Hyderabad 42
New Delhi 40
Jammu 33
Pune 33
Bhopal 29
Kochi 27
Ahmedabad 27
Howrah 26
Bhankrota 26
Indore 25
Chennai 24
 Lucknow 22 Past 12 months
Raipura 21 Region Interest Index
Thana Shankar Sikkim 100
Dwari 18 Meghalaya 75
Mizoram 53
Goa 51
Manipur 40
Tripura 33
Odisha 31
2. Retail Intelligence Solutions Karnataka 30
Since, abof is all about serving the changing Andaman and
fashion trends of the customers, it is very Nicobar Islands 29
important for abof to understand the data Haryana 28
collected from its store. For this purpose, abof Jharkhand 27
can purchase retail intelligence solution Maharashtra 25
packages which will give all the data mining Assam 25
solutions which will help abof take better Uttarakhand 23
decisions. One sample brochure is as Telangana 22
followed, Chhattisgarh 22
http://www.tcgroupsolutions.com/files/files/t- Punjab 21
cuento-brochure-en.pdf. Himachal Pradesh 20
Delhi 20
Andhra Pradesh 20
Jammu and
Kashmir 18
Gujarat 18
Uttar Pradesh 17
West Bengal 17
Rajasthan 17
Puducherry 15
Madhya Pradesh 13
Tamil Nadu 13
Kerala 13
Bihar 12
Chandigarh 11