Shopper Marketing: The Future of Retailing

India is known to be one of the toughest markets for retailers and marketers to establish their foothold. This is primarily because of the myriad factors that influence the consumer buying decision. However there is one trait that is common to all Indians, Indians are deal seekers. Hence we see the value retailing formats flourishing in India. With India opening its doors to FDI in Retail, the competition in the market is soon going to increase.

In a price sensitive market, establishing loyalty is difficult. To establish store patronage retailers today offer a wide range of promotions in terms of price and services. However, with the advent of Foreign Retailers this is going to change. Foreign retailers have evolved practices and activities that help achieve them customer loyalty.

Currently in India we have 300 new malls, 1,500 supermarkets and 325 departmental stores being built, and with these statistics one can gauge the level of competition that will take place in the Indian Retail market.

The answer to convert customer into store loyalists lies in Shopper marketing. Shopper marketing basically aims to capture consumer insights and deploy them to customize the store to consumer needs. Shopper marketing when implemented rightly will communicate to the consumer the positive aspects about the store.

Shopper marketing realizes the fact that there are several variables like assortment planning, promotions, shopper experience management, shopper buying behavior etc. which will help the consumer in his path to purchase, and hence the research paper tries to elaborate on these different facets from an Indian perspective.

Further the paper tries to provide a framework for implementing Shopper Marketing in the Indian context.