Retail chain, ‘Shoppers Stop’ will shut or relocate unprofitable outlets and redesign some as the nation’s largest department store chain seeks to spur growth by attracting are young consumers.
“We have about 10 per cent of our bottom stores that are not working,” managing director, Govind Shrikhande said. We have planned to cut down size or relocate or shut down three more stores. Eight old stores will go under re-designing. So, cost cutting itself should lead to about 50-50 basis point gain.
“What we are seeing is that non-apparel categories continue to do well and make-up and watches, I think, will help create further differential,” Shrikhande said.
Another change that Shoppers Stop and every other retailers facing is the pressure from increasing discount that e-commerce players are offering. Five year ago, only 22 per cent of the merchandise was on discount as compared to 34 per cent today, Shrikhande said. “The company has been trying to curtail the days when it offers discount. This year, luckily we curtailed end-of -season-sales by 12 days,” he added.
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