Shoppers Stop

As mentioned in the earlier report, Shoppers’ Stop is a chain of retail stores in India owned by K. Raheja Corp. It was established in 1991 and is presently spread across the nation. Shoppers’ Stop is considered as one stop multi-brand retail outlet providing leading international and national brands in clothing for men, women and kids, accessories, cosmetics, footwear and home furnishing.

Independent store| In the earlier report, we came to a conclusion that even though Shopper’s Stop as a brand is very sociable, it needs to pick up momentum. While, they are very active on social networks like Facebook and Twitter, they need to pick up the pace on LinkedIn, on blogs and also Orkut. The recommendation pointed out the earlier report were that Shopper’s Stop needs to get more active on networks such as LinkedIn, YouTube and also on blogs since their target audience is more connected these networks. India, as a country is not as advanced with respect to social media.

Some reports read that as per 2011, the most popular social networks in India are (in order of popularity): 1) Facebook 2) LinkedIn 3) Orkut (See Appendix 1. 1) Now, as we can see, Shopper’s Stop has successfully managed to tap two of the most widely used networks in India – Facebook and Orkut. It still needs to build itself and its network on LinkedIn and also on blogs since majority of the youth in India is now getting hooked to the blogging culture. Problem Statement Shopper’s Stop as a brand, is not very active on social networks which are very popular in the Indian market today.

To make presence felt on networks like Facebook, Twitter on blogs and social media in general * To do interactive projects with different target group through the medium of social media * To make the Shopper’s Stop staff more efficient in dealing with customers and more aware of their presence on social media networks Audience identification and messages Shopper’s Stop should selectively identify its audience since they are promoting themselves online. They should target the net savvy generation and also people who run most of their businesses online. Strategies

The strategy that Shopper’s Stop should use to build their image and name should be an Interactive strategy which will involve their publics to help them head off their problems. * Regular updates on Facebook and Twitter: * Shoppers Stop gets active on Facebook and Twitter only when they have offers, sales, discounts, etc. They should start posting randomly on Facebook and Twitter. They should start discussing some topics on Twitter, using a hash tag for identity and should regularly follow what their followers have to say and also regularly pitch into the conversations following those hash tags.

On Facebook, they should not only put up posts about their offers and discounts; they should put up pictures of the kind of clothes that are currently on sale and they could also have hyper-links on those pictures which will take the viewer directly to the online shopping website if they like that particular clothing range. This might help changing the perception that people have about Shopper’s Stop not being a “net savvy brand”. * More offers: * As already noted in the weaknesses above, Shopper’s Stop does not run many offers. They run offers only during occasions like Diwali or Independence Day.

I think they should run more offers like – discounts on women wear for Mother’s Day and the same with men’s clothing and kid’s clothing on Father’s Day and Children’s Day respectively, etc. This will help them not only hike their sales, but it will also help them increase interaction with their customers online once they start talking about such regular offers regularly on the social circuit. * Advertise on various websites: * Shopper’s Stop should tie up with website that their different target group frequent and should and try and advertise on such sites.

For example, to attract children to their ‘Kids collection’ they should put up advertisements on website which allow kids to play to games; to attract the attention of the teenagers, Shopper’s Stop should target social networking sites and promote themselves there by putting up advertisements there, etc. By this, they will be in constant view of the public which will help them better their social presence. Another benefit that Shopper’s Stop can derive from this is the revenue they will make every time someone clicks on the advertisement.

Shopper’s Stop is not completely out of the blogging world. They blog regularly about their stocks, shares, market fluctuations, etc. But this attracts only investors and not customers as such. Blogs is the best way to attract youth to your products since today’s youth is easily influenced by bloggers. Shoppers Stop has their maximum buyers between the age of 26 and 30 (See Appendix 1. 2). Youngsters from this age group are very net savvy and are very active on blogs.

Shopper’s Stop should start blogging not only about their stocks and shares but also about their products, services, brands they sell, price ranges, etc. They should publicise about their blogs on Facebook and Twitter which will bring them to the notice of their customers. * Staff efficiency: * In the earlier report, we pointed out that Shopper’s Stop does not respond to any negative feedback posted either on their website or on their Facebook page. This builds a negative reputation for the company in the eyes of its public because the public feels neglected.

Shopper’s Stop should appoint someone from the communications team to monitor these feedbacks and send out suitable response. However, if any of these feedbacks seem like they are serious and could be blown out of proportion, the senior management should be contacted immediately. With regards to negative feedbacks, it always works in favour of the company to be proactive than be inactive. Communication tactics Shopper’s Stop should rely on networks like Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, Google, etc as a tool for communication with its audience. Different networks have a somewhat different genre of people on it.