TATA CROMA: The Electronic Megastore Stores

The Tata Group (one of India’s largest diversified conglomerates) has launched India’s first national consumer electronics retail chain, Croma, in collaboration with Australia-based Woolworths. The Tata Group reportedly invested USD 87 million in these stores, which will be operated through a new wholly owned company called Infiniti Retail. Another wholly owned company owned by Woolworths will provide back-end logistics, sourcing, and technical advice.

A typical Croma store occupies around 20,000 sq.ft. of space and offers products under eight categories including Home Appliances, Home Entertainment, Computers & Peripherals, Gaming Software, Imaging Products, and Communication Equipment.

With over 6,000 products comprising 180 varieties of national and international brands in eight product categories, India’s first nationwide electronic mega store Croma promises a unique shopping experience that’s consistent across the country.

Infiniti Retail has two formats, the mega store being called Croma ranging in size of 15,000 to 20,000 sq.ft and Croma Zip in the size of 850 sq ft.

TIE UPS

MS@Retail is a new joint venture (JV) between Tata’s Infiniti Retail and Microsoft, and will provide networking solutions for home.

Microsoft will retail software through which each room of the house can be connected to exchange music and movies. The software will be retailed through Infiniti’s retail store brand Croma. The technology available at Croma, Juhu, will showcase Microsoft-connected homes that bring together music and movies, thereby enriching and enhancing the lifestyles of consumers.

The technology will help in assisting to connect camera to an Xbox and put up a show for the whole family, watch movies by connecting Xbox to the LCD, as also convert the PC to a gaming machine, thereby providing the unique technology for a completely networked home

USP OF CROMA

Croma is a retail venture from the house of TATA in electronics segment. The USP of Croma is they do not sell but they help the customer to buy electronic items.

The uniqueness of our store lies in the live model display of every product. Croma has accessories for every electronic product under one roof.

Something that is really great about the Croma Mega Store is the fact that the trained assistants are very helpful to customers and provide them with in-depth knowledge of the vast array of products available. Armed with the motto, “We Help You Buy”, the store assistants make sure that customers are guided and helped according to their needs. After all, the Croma store assistants have actually undergone an extensive training programme that has equipped them with complete knowledge on all products and brands available at Croma.

On visiting Croma, anyone will realize that the USP of this digital lifestyle store is its huge size and capacity to store more than 180 national as well as international brands. More than 6000 products are also on display, allowing customers to get a touch and feel of a product before actually buying it. This means that you can take your time while deciding which phone or laptop to buy, test it out and then make a decision that you won’t regret.

FOOTFALLS

For Croma’s first branch at Juhu the footfall was around 1500-2000/day, that too in first week. This is because before launching the store they did a detailed market research. Based on the data gathered from the research they had done an excellent advertising across Mumbai town. The communication media used were TV commercials, Print Ads, Yellow Pages and Catalogues. So not only they used mass communication methods but also one on one communication techniques. The catalogue marketing they did was one of its kind efforts in the industry. For the distribution of the catalogues they used a very innovative idea. They took the help of postal service instead of the private couriers.

After the launch, to increase the footfall they tried many other initiatives.They conducted workshops on PC assembling along with INTEL and helped the participants of the workshop to build their own PC. Also they leveraged on various other occasions like Diwali, Ganesh Chathurti etc.

Also is important the conversion of consumers entering the store to customers. Location hence plays an important role in the overall footfall conversion. Conversion ratio is higher in the standalone stores than the stores located inside a Mall.

The layout of the store and fixtures used inside the store helps in the conversion of consumers. They have specifically designed fixtures for Mobile section so that consumers can have a feel of the product from all four sides.