Paco Underhill where he came to sign the much awaited coffee table book East India Retail: 2010 & Beyond on July 15, 2005. The author of best sellers like Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping and Call of the Mall, Paco Underhill was glad to be in the city of book lovers. “As the excitement builds up with swanky malls changing the face of retail and more and more brands and retailers entering the region, consumers importance will increase to a new high and I promise you will love it!” said the man who is known for research on consumers worldwide.
Addressing an excited audience on customer psyche, he said, “Let’s divide the world into things that are consistent and things that are different. For instance, our eyes age at the same rate in Madras or Kolkata as they do in Chicago. As we age, our eyes react slower to objects around us. Secondly 90% of us are right-handed and lastly we tend to move in the same kind of social clusters. But what we should recognize are the cognitive differences in the way customers interact with various products and use them as guidelines for selling a particular merchandise”.
He continued, “We can identify the differences in terms of what happens in Kolkata, Tokyo and Chicago. The unique factors defining customer behaviours in India is the cost of real estate, which is driven by population density, the nature of access, weather and social customs”. Giving interesting insights on our shopping culture, he drew our attention to the changing status of women in India, “Although society is managed by men, it is women who buy”. Most importantly, “we should be perceptive to the customer whose clock is ticking loudly – who wants make an immediate buy - and the one whose clock is ticking softly – who would like to browse in peace and spend time at your store”.
The audience would have loved to hear more of him but he had to take leave of the gathering. And just before leaving, the man who riveted professionals, booklovers and students alike with his retailing common sense, signed our special guest book saying:
For the retail genius, this time has surely not arrived as yet as he agreed to give an exclusive interview to the content team of www.oxfordbookstore.com. Read on to find out more about the fine art of retailing from Paco Underhill.
What do you feel about the retail industry in India?
Retail is waking up after a 50-year nap. Indian merchants need to visit other emerging market locations and see what other retailers have been doing.
In your view, why are the retail industries expanding at regular basis in India? Do you think the retail boom in India is here to stay and evolve?
India’s consumers deserve better than they are getting. Better goods, better prices, better locations. If India wants to participate in a global economy it has to dramatically improve its retail infrastructure.
How will you rank India in retailing?
India has much to be proud of in terms of in terms of national progress. However, its organized retailing is very underdeveloped.
How do you see the Indian marketplace?
Ready for development.
How would you define an Indian consumer/customer? Is there anything that strikes about their shopping behaviour?
Like all emerging market consumers with access to movies, television and the Internet they are hungry for more than they are getting.
What are your views on e-tailing in India? Will it compete with or supplement offline retailing in the coming years? Do you think online shopping might adversely affect the love-hate relationship that we share with a mall?
In first world economies we are seeing an integration of the store, the catalog and web. The future application of the web as a shopping medium is local, in the sense that the web has to be adaptable to local needs and conditions. Our office product merchants in the US have developed a very effective system where customers read the catalog, order on-line and if needed pick up their orders at the store. While on-line shopping will be part of our future, we go to a shopping mall not just to acquire goods, but also to look at other people, meet our friends, eat and hangout.
How would you describe the psyche of a faceless e-shopper? What are the strategies to win a customer for an e-tailing venture?
The e-shopper is not faceless. The progressive e-commerce merchant has a host of tools to better understand the visitor to an e-commerce location. Historically the problem with commercial web sites is that they are designed by web-geeks with little understanding of shoppers needs.
How different is book retailing from other retailing industries? What are the challenges faced by book retailers and e-tailers today and how can they overcome the same?
The bookstore business is struggling to re-invent itself. In the face of television, video games and the Internet, the competition for book merchant has never been tougher. Bookstores have to be more evangelical about facilitating falling in love with books. In my home, books exist in every room, from my kitchen, to my bathroom and bedroom to my library and living room.
What do you think is the ideal way to modify consumer behaviour in a developing country like India?
Consumer behavior is never modified; it is followed and adjusted to. From Brazil to China, human beings respond to the same set of basic biological stimuli. We are mostly right handed, our eyes work and age in the same way, we love our children and mostly like our spouses.
What does it take to build a retail brand?
Building a retail brand is about understanding the relationship between your physical location, your merchandise and merchandising and your operating culture. A progressive merchant is always tuning those parts.
And finally, what did you think of Oxford Bookstore Kolkata? Any suggestions?
Good bookstores are magical places. Increasingly, they are also a social context. In many first world cities, they are places where educated and literate singles seek out
like-minded mates. Perhaps an Oxford Bookstore Dating Service might be a new offering…
Interviewed by Sujoy Sarkar, Devapriya Banerjee and Satarupa Ray
Designed by Subhadip Mukherjee
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