Titan spreads the net, enables 'reserve-online-and-pick-up' at store

Embarking on an omnichannel journey, watches major Titan is going,  to  use  industry  lingo, Bopus-Ropus. The Bengaluru-headquartered  company  has enabled  Bopus  or book  online  and pick-up  at  store and Ropus or reserve  online options,  offering  customers  the  convenience  to  order  from home,  walk  in  and collect  the  timepiece according to their convenience.

Keeping with time, the Tata Group company had piloted this strategy at five of its flagship Bengaluru stores for three months. After witnessing success in the beta phase, it would now be introducing the omni-channel strategy nationally in the next 12 months.

“We will roll out it out in our over 500 World of Titan stores, 170 Fastrack, and 75 Helios stores in a phased manner over the next year,” said S Ravi Kant, the chief executive officer of watches and accessories division at Titan.

The watchmaker will also be providing the option of home delivery for people who do not wish to take a trip to the store. A customer can buy online and get the product delivered at home within three-four hours from the nearest store. Titan has already tied up with three logistics companies to offer these last-mile deliveries.

Underlining the importance of omnichannel, Kant also said keeping in mind the range of watches that Titan offers, each store cannot carry such a large inventory. 

 

If a customer likes a watch online, and it is not available at a store near their location, it could be delivered from another store in Titan vast network.

“It is about bringing the synergy between the two channels and giving customers the best of the digital and physical world,” said Krishnan Venkateswaran, chief digital and information officer, Titan.

Titan is in the process of imparting training and education to its staff at the store level for a seamless transition to omnichannel. It is rganising regional programmes for store staff across India to facilitate this.

The company would be gunning for at least a 5-6 per cent increase in store-wise sales in the first 12 months of rolling out of the omnichannel strategy.

However, experts say omnichannel is not about selling from multiple places,but to keep the interest alive in the minds of consumers. It is more about storytelling of a brand over a period of time than selling a product, they say.

“Omnichannel is a basic necessity these days particularly for a consumer facing brand like Titan. Given the kind of products they sell, which you don’t buy very often, it becomes important to keep prodding people to remind about the brand to try out,” said Bengaluru-based communications consultant Karthik Srinivasan.

Titan has already made its websites Titan.co.in and Fastrack.omni-enabled. The company currently has no plans to make its affordable brand Sonata’s website omni-enabled. 

“You can run omnichannel only if you have control over it. Sonata is a largely distributed brand present in over 8,500 retailers across the country,” says Kant. 

Titan’s Sonata brand has been growing on a consistent 10-11 per cent yoy over the past few years both in terms of value and volumes and sells over 5.5 million watches annually.

Overall the company has maintained a strong foothold in the watches market over the years. The watches business of the lifestyle focussed company recorded a revenue of Rs 719 crore in the second quarter of the current financial year, up 6.4 per cent over Rs 676 crore in the year-ago period.

Titan is also ensuring if the need arises to return a product, a customer need not wait for a courier service assistant to come and pick up the product. 

It is integrating shopping carts to make sure the record of the web purchase also becomes available to the store person for easy and efficient return of a product at stores.

Loyalty is key

• Titan wants to offer consumers a fully-integrated shopping episode by uniting user experiences from brick and mortar to handheld devices and everything in between
• Its omnichannel strategy will lead to a seamless experience -- no matter which platform a customer chooses to interact on, the shopping experience is the same
• With omnichannel a brand is able to coalesce customer insights and tailor the communication for each channel accordingly. So when a customer receives a personalised experience they get a clear message: The brand cares about them. 
• The project has been in the works for two years now