Books retailer Crossword to open 10 stores in tier-II cities

Even though the online shopping is a growing trend in India, the offline players like Crossword, a books retailer chain  of Raheja Group, is planning an expansion in tough market conditions.

The company is opening 10 stores across India focusing on tier-II cities. These cites are  Guwahati, Kozhikode, Surat, Coimbatore, Ballarpur, Vapi, Kohima, Gandhi Nagar and Goa. Most of the stores will be based on franchise model. Currently, Crossword has 89 stores in 27 cities across India.

Commenting on the rising trend of e-commerce and online shopping, Kinjal Shah, chief executive officer, Crossword said,  “Our largest business comer from the books category. The online shopping has increased in India and is growing rapidly. But its is not going to affect our business because In India people still prefer to visit a book shop for buying. The touch and feel factor for buying books will remain for long. The retail book shop business is still growing at 15 per cent annually. Most of the players in the retail books shops, have shrinked its business where as we are expanding our network. Retail book shop is a challenging business and sale per square foot revenue is lower. Our stores are designed as a new age bookstore which focuses on being a community centre for society. There is a lot of emphasis on recommendations, browsing pleasure & discovering your next read."

Crossword's revenue for this fiscal year is of Rs 200 crore. In a retail outlet, Crossword has a five categories namely books, music, toys, stationary and others. Its 60 per cent revenues come from books, 20 per cent from music and movies, 10 per cent toys & stationary and 10 per cent from the other products. In total crossword has 89 stores in which 45 are franchises and 44 are company owned. Recently, Crossword has opened its largest in the country, in Pune.

Crossword has recently introduced a self publishing programme for upcoming writers to publish their work. According to Shah, this initiative will provide writers a platform to showcase their work. The books will be sold through Crossword stores. The writers will not only get the publishing but as well as marketing platform from Crossword. Crossword Bookstores Ltd is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Shopper's Stop Ltd.