Monday, September 20, 2004
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OPTIONS, Rajkot
“Your power to choose.”
A premier lifestyle store that single-handedly accounts for nearly 30 percent of Saurashtra’s retail market in branded apparels and over 60 percent in branded watches and perfumes – that’s Options for you. A pioneering endeavour of entrepreneur, Bharat Thakkar, Options is the final fructification of his vision to offer his community a complete, quality-shopping experience.
Options, which began as a modest apparel and accessories showroom, was one of the first retailers to induce big-time brands into coming to Gujarat, way back in the late ‘80s. And ever since, the store has grown from strength to strength, emerging as the single-most tenacious link between the retail industry and the potentially pregnant market of Gujarat. In a region starved of quality merchandise and retail services at par with metropolitan (if not global) standards, there lay a vast bank of consumers waiting to be tapped. This is the customer base that the store had been quick to target.
Other than their loyal band of local residents, the trendy outlet also targets consumers from the neighbouring areas of Saurashtra, corporate travellers and NRI visitors. Conspicuously situated along the posh locales of Yagnik Road, right in the heart of Rajkot, this preferred shopping destination is easily accessible from all parts of the city. Not that the shop’s location could in any way have daunted the intrepid Hasmukhbhais and Kantabehns from getting to it, considering the local penchant for shopping and Navratri festivities (not necessarily in that order)! A destination on the lines of Options is all that the affluent community was waiting for. But it has to be admitted that for their part, the management and staff at Options had to face the challenge of creating product and brand awareness among the consumers, instilling into them a sense of quality-consciousness – in short educating their target consumers to an understanding of global buying trends.
Built over an area of 18,000 square feet, with an effective display area of more than 11,000 square feet, the store is spread over three floors. While the ground floor displays perfumes, watches, footwear, jewellery, leather accessories and women’s and children’s ethnicwear, the first floor caters to casualwear for men and women, and the top floor is entirely dedicated to formalwear. The store’s collection of apparel and lifestyle accessories includes more than 150 national and international brands, such as Levi’s, Scullers, Allen Solly, Lakme, Maybelline, Revlon, Omega, Rado, Tissot, Titan, Paco Rabbana, Hugo Boss and many more.
Registering an average of around 600 footfalls per day is impressive for a store situated in a non-metropolitan location. That the footfalls have positively contributed to the store’s profitability, is amply borne out by the turnover figures for last season’s quarter (October 2003 – March 2004), which shows that sales reached over Rs. 14,000,000 during that period. Through all this, Options, Rajkot, has emerged as the city’s landmark retail destination, preferred by both residents as well as out-of-towners. Loyalty programmes, efficient and friendly customer service, creative merchandising and innovative value retailing has seen to it that people keep coming back for more.
True to its name, the mega store has introduced Gujarat’s consumers to a whole new range of buying ‘options’!
THE LOFT, Mumbai
“India’s biggest footwear store.”
This one definitely has to be seen to be believed. A three-storied shoe store displaying more than 120 national and international brands of footwear, together with a huge range of footcare accessories and an in-house repair/ alteration corner! And if you thought that was mind-blowing, try this – this multi-brand, large format shoe store also offers pedicure services, with free fortnightly consultations by expert orthopedics – this is innovative retailing in action!
Owned and managed by M/s. Lakewood Malls Private Limited, which is headed by Susil S Dungarwal, The Loft is the amongst the very few retailers who are affiliated with the FDDI (Footwear Designs & Development Institute) in India. But then the company, now a chain of the biggest footwear store in South East Asia, had always nurtured bigger plans for itself by launching such an innovative retail store format – the likes of which had never been seen in the country. That such originality of idea was also a profit-wise viable option, was proved by the unexpectedly high turnover of Rs. 7.5 crore in the very first year. And this was no flash-in-the-pan either, for the company has clocked close to Rs. 7 crores for the fiscal year 2003-04, with estimates of crossing Rs. 25 crores by the end of this year.
Currently operating its 18, 000 square feet flagship store from Powai, Mumbai, and a 22,500 square feet branch at Hyderabad, The Loft has plans of launching eight more stores by 2007. The result of nearly of 18 months of extensive research on the Indian footwear market, the efforts certainly seem to have paid off. This first of its kind, multi-brand footwear store has come a long way since its experimental beginnings and within a very short span of time has managed to create its own niche in the as-yet unorganised footwear sector.
More than the sheer volume and variety of the merchandise displayed, it’s the unconventional format of the store that hits a first-time customer. Built on three levels, each level having two circumferences – the walled, outer shell operates as the storage area, while the inner works as the display area. The store has been custom-designed as the first specialty footwear store in the country without a loft.
The more than 1,00,000 pairs of shoes on display include brands such as, Bata, Liberty, Lotus Bawa, Woodland, Reebok, Nike, Adidas, Gaitonde, Birkenstock, Rockport, Lee Cooper, Clarks, Barker and Florshiem, to name just a few. The ground floor houses formal and party footwear for both men and women, while the first floor displays sportswear, casualwear, ethnicwear and foot accessories (such as branded socks, shoe polish, shoe shiners, shoe storage units, shoe bags, medicated insoles, laces, shoe horns, shoe deo's, perfumes and foot talc). The top tier is solely dedicated to children’s footwear. Free pedicure services come with purchases of certain amounts and are also available on payment.
India’s biggest shoe store goes by the belief that footwear is all about the right size, leather quality, brand and comfort. Having already positioned themselves as a complete footcare destination, this attitude has stood the store in good stead, creating a much-coveted loyal customer-base of all socio-economic sections of society. The store’s value for money pricing strategy, which offers shoes from Rs. 40 to Rs. 40, 000, has also helped in harnessing their customers. This one-stop shoe shop, which can even fit into your shoestring budget, despite its grand presence, is now one of Asia’s Best known retailer, thanks to its unique services, well-trained and knowledgeable store staff, and of course, the discerning customer.
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