Business Beyond the Pandemic

THE BUSINESS PLAN BUSINESS BEYOND THE PANDEMIC

The pandemic and lockdown brought business to a grinding halt. When work resumed, there was a change in customer expectations and mind-set. In response, the business dynamics too underwent radical change that was to impact the years to come...

SAfE SHOPPINg ENvIrONMENT

An aspect that was acknowledged to have forever changed, even in the initial days post the lockdown, was the approach to safety in the shopping environment. Hygiene and sanitisation of personnel and stores respectively were top priority – almost like a mission statement. Lifestyle as a brand felt the need to underscore the loyalty and trust they enjoyed with customers by assuring them that all stops were being pulled out to ensure their safety.

Stores were made safer, and this was communicated through different channels. Measures taken included contactless payments, paperless invoices and sharing of charge slips only on SMS. Detailed safety precautions were taken by the staff; social distancing within the store was a must; and all merchandize that was going out for trial - whether it was sunglasses or watches - was to be sanitised. External brands too had to adhere to hygiene requirements strictly.

CHANgED CONSUMEr MIND-SET

On ground, post the lockdown, the buying trend of customers was predicted early

on to tilt towards functionality and basics. Soon after the lockdown was lifted, it was noticed that casual wear was taking a front seat, with formal wear being relegated to the background. Track pants for instance, was doing better business than jeans. The projection was that weddings, festivals and the winter season would be key triggers for shopping so the marketing calendar was aligned accordingly. There was a significant drop in offline business in stores but Lifestyle being a strong brand was expected, even in the early days post-lockdown, to emerge successful once the market rebound happened in the near future. For the short-term however, after careful deliberations, the cost structure was optimised in light of subdued consumption patterns. Another aspect that emerged out of the situation, was the need to focus on multi-channel shopping avenues keeping in mind the changes in shopping patterns - triggered by health fears following the outbreak - that were here to stay. Assisted shopping through video calling facilities, Whatsapp based shopping, adoption of Google local inventory and modules for hyper local delivery and

so on were experimented with and successful options adopted. Omni-channel capabilities too were strengthened.

EMPHASIS ON IN-HOUSE BrANDS

In order to offset the dip in offline business, contribution of private labels or in-house Lifestyle brands - both online and offline - became more critical to ensure growth.

PrODUCT-MIx CHANgE

The pandemic was understood to have reinforced basic values, values ‘with heart’ – this idea permeated into all aspects of life, including fashion. So, sustainability, ethical fashion, durability and utility emerged as a strong parallel driver for Lifestyle. The brand had already tied up with an organization called the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI) which facilitates ethical sourcing of organic cotton. Post the lockdown, the brand also explored collaborations with mills for antimicrobial finish and skin-friendly finishes.

Stand-alone stores naturally scored over those located in more crowded malls. This was therefore to be a focus area going ahead, after the pandemic.

THE rOAD AHEAD

With its strong credentials and initiatives mentioned above, even in the months following the lifting of the lockdown, it was estimated that the brand would consolidate business within the year, and move ahead from the short-term turbulence to execute the long term strategy - albeit keeping the new customer expectations in perspective.

Also, it was observed that the customer response at Stand Alone Stores (SAS) post-pandemic was significantly better than in mall stores due to the ‘trust’ factor. This was more marked in Tier 2 markets. This underscored the need to develop and establish the SAS network for which there was a market study undertaken earlier in December 2019. So, along with consolidating its presence in malls with multi-brand formats, the brand hoped to strengthen the private label portfolio and push expansion in Tier 2 cities through the SAS model. These approaches would push up Top Line growth and profitability in the medium to long term. Post the pandemic was felt to be the right time to fast-forward such initiatives.