ShopClues goes all out on digital

This festive season, ShopClues is going where its customers are. Even as it struggles to beat the might of the big e-commerce brands Amazon and Flipkart and the marketing thrust of a newly resurgent Snapdeal, the company is rolling out a digital campaign targeted at its customers in small towns and in keeping with their expectations for the upcoming sales season.

ShopClues says that it will back up its digital campaign with a new and exclusive line-up of digital brands. The company says it is in the process of producing exclusive for digital showstopper products for varied consumer segments. There will be at least 50-60 such offers, it says.

The company will use traditional media to merely communicate festive sales. The digital campaign will look to target the company's 40-50 million online customers with specific offers and any other brand-related communication that may help create deeper customer connections.

"More than mere festive season sales announcements, people are looking at what we have to offer. We will use traditional media for announcement of sales but use our digital campaigns to let people know the offers. The idea is to ensure that offer marketing happens instead of mere sale announcement," says Nitin Agarwal, AVP Marketing, ShopClues.

The company is also focusing on its merchandise. "Increase in transactions during festive seasons is from mostly tier-II and III cities. Hence, we are trying to understand customers and designing offers accordingly. For instance, there will be special offers for women's ethnic wear since the category picks up big time during Diwali," Agarwal added.

Digital is the fastest growing media type in India. It is expected to grow by 31.5 per cent in 2016 and 39.6 per cent in 2017 over the previous year according to a report on media spends released by Carat Media (Carat Ad Spends Report September 2016). Evidence of the growing power of digital is all around and in fact several companies, over the last six months or so, have launched digital only or digital first campaigns to announce new products or brand overhauls. Still the share of digital on total media spend (8.9 per cent expected in 2016 and 10.9 per cent in 2017) still remains relatively low.

In every country, the growing clout of digital is being driven by the rising reach of the mobile phone. The report said that India is gradually transitioning from a 'mobile first' to a 'mobile only' country. And spending on mobile is forecast to grow by 27.2 per cent in 2016.

No brand can afford to ignore these numbers. For ShopClues, it is especially critical that it tracks these numbers closely, given that its spread so far has been dwarfed by the giants in the market.

The company said that it is working in tandem with Facebook and YouTube and will be releasing around 8-10 films online on different offers in different categories. "On the creative communication side, we want people to keep coming back for shopping. Digital forms bulk of our strategy this season," Agarwal added.