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Decoding the customers of 2021 | Xenopulse 74th edition

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Published On
July 9, 2021
TABLE OF CONTENTS

Lockdowns with little advance notice, panic buying, supply chain disruptions, hastily made changes to health and safety regulations, and extreme swings in consumer needs and expectations. Such are the challenges that retailers faced during the pandemic. How did they fare and how have consumers changed due to their pandemic experience? We answer these questions in this week's Xenopulse edition along with some other exciting stories. Check it out ;)

Good Friday Morning,

Hope you had an amazing week. I am all excited for the new quarter & all set to achieve some amazing results🥰️ And ofc, have a lot of fun along.

Well, one thing that will happier is definitely some rain It’s July, like where’s the monsoon.

All I am rooting for is some rain next week. Are you with me?

In today’s edition:

  • Inside India’s luxury e-comm race: Ajio, Myntra, Darveys, Nykaa
  • Decoding the customers of 2021: Changed shopping behaviours and expectations
  • Talk with Marketing Leaders: Lotto shares their Journey with Xeno
  • Hand-picked tool for the week: Poptin

Ecommerce

️😎Inside India’s luxury e-commerce race: Ajio, Myntra, Darveys, Nykaa

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While the luxury market in India is developing steadily to the benefit of both Indian designers and international brands, there’s a missing piece in the fashion jigsaw puzzle — a robust e-commerce sector. The e-commerce names to watch include Ajio Luxe, NNNOW.com, Darveys, Tata CliQ Luxury, and Nykaa.com, which are all jostling for the opportunity to sell luxury goods to India’s wealthy customers.

  • The online opportunity: Supriya Dravid, editor at Ajio Luxe, remains upbeat and points out that the wealth is spread across a wide number of cities, making a strong argument for the benefits of e-commerce. “I think there is a retail renaissance happening in India,” she says, explaining that more than 60 per cent of Ajio Luxe orders already come from outside the top eight cities in India.
  • Sensible luxury retailers are taking an omnichannel approach to selling. The high levels of personal service offered in a physical luxury store in India have to be recreated online, according to Gitanjali Saxena, business head of global luxury at Tata CliQ Luxury.
  • Diverse business models: Nykaa, which focused on beauty from 2012 to 2019 and has now expanded to include fashion, is less discount-driven. The company sells mass-market fashion brands in the international space, such as Gap, but also has a luxury offer of Indian labels and launched home decor and furnishings. CEO Adwaita Nayar says sales have grown between 300 and 400 per cent over the past year and expects to see approximately $250 million in gross merchandise volume next year.
  • Category expansion: The luxury resale market is also growing. Luxepolis.com, a platform for discounted luxury stock and pre-loved items, clocked in a 300 per cent rise in seller listings during the pandemic, with brands like Hermès, Patek Philippe and Sabyasachi Couture garnering the highest click-through sales.

Learn more here

Customer Understanding

🙌Decoding the customers of 2021

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Lockdowns with little advance notice, panic buying, supply chain disruptions, hastily made changes to health and safety regulations, and extreme swings in consumer needs and expectations. Such are the challenges that retailers faced during the pandemic.

  • Adaptability tested

Almost a third of consumers report better online shopping and delivery experiences during the pandemic and more than 20 per cent report that in-store experiences improved. Consumer-facing businesses have built valuable goodwill among their customers.

  • Consumers unevenly impacted

Many consumers took a cautious approach to their finances amid the pandemic. Some 42% reduced their overall level of spending and 40 per cent redirected money normally spent on experiences like travelling, towards savings and investments.

  • Priorities reset

The majority of those who spent more time than previously on cooking rather than dining out, being with partners/children, reading, and leading healthier lifestyles, indicate these habits will stick. This illustrates a change in value set for a proportion of the population that is not only influencing preferences but is an opportunity for businesses to better align with what customers really care about.

  • Changed shopping behaviours and expectations

There has been a huge increase in consumers’ preference for online as their preferred channel. Nevertheless, in-store overwhelmingly remains the channel of choice. Effective omni-channel strategies are more important than ever before. Additionally convenience and quality have become more important to shoppers

More here

State of retail post COVID-19

🎧Talk With Marketing Leaders

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Our CEO, Pranav Ahuja had an amazing conversation with Dharmender Khanna, Head of Digital Transformation, SSIPL Retail LTD.

Here are some key highlights of their conversation:

How are retailers approaching e-commerce during COVID-19?

Post-COVID, customers became more digitally aware & were very quick to adapt to the digital channels. We expanded our online presence aggressively & were able to generate 2x sales through online channels vs offline during the month of May 2021.

What led to Lotto winning “Best Digital Customer Experience Awards of the year in retail?”

We conducted a survey with our customers where 84% of them said they are fed up with the spam SMSs & email & we didn’t want to become another such brand. This is why we turned to Xeno’s CRM which enabled us to reach out to our customers in the way they want.

Why choose Xeno?

The people at Xeno were always talking about how we win together & the kind of commitment Xeno provides always made us more confident about achieving our revenue goals.

Catch the full conversation here

🔎Hand-picked tool for the week: Poptin

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Popups are a great way to improve your overall conversion rate. Poptin helps you to quickly and smoothly create different types of popups and improve your overall conversion rate and generate new leads.

It’s easy to use, and you don’t need any design knowledge to create eye-catchy popups. Just use Poptin’s drag and drop builder, integrate Poptin with your website, and you’re ready to grow.

Check it out here.

🤗Brand & Marketing News

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  1. Spotify Audience Network lands in UK, Australia and Canada with far-flung targeting
  2. Digital may overtake TV ad spends by 2024, says report
  3. Facebook’s ad business expected to surge, following Google’s act

That’s all for today folks. Hope you liked today’s edition.

Stay in & stay safe :”)

Marketing & Content Strategist

Anisha Arora is an experienced Marketing & Content Professional who often breaks down complex topics for readers here. She collaborates with various teams to seamlessly combine different viewpoints and knowledge about customer retention, CRM, loyalty, and marketing technology. When she's not working, you'll find Anisha sipping coffee and binge-watching her favorite TV shows.

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