Indian Terrain plans to open its exclusive online store by this festival season to widen its multi-channel retailing.

Chief Executive Officer Charath Narasimhan said, “We have always relied on multiple channels to sell our goods. We sell through departmental stores, traditional menswear retail outlets, factory outlets, and on the Web, through multi-brand e-stores such as Myntra.com and Flipkart.”

Stable prices of cotton (raw material) have also helped it to tap new market segments and bring the benefits to the price conscious.

He says the brand philosophy is to follow the consumer – “If the consumer is comfortable buying at a certain sales point, we have to go there. That’s our brand philosophy. We view the online store as another physical store. We would like to provide the same experience, except, of course, the presence of a salesperson.”

Offering goods at varied sales channels poses the challenge of cannibalisation – one sales channel dragging down another. While it cannot be eliminated , but can be minimised ensuring no channel sells at subsidised prices and all platforms are on par with one another.

With cotton prices remaining stable for the last 12 months, Indian Terrain has been able to introduce apparel for the price-conscious also, apart from catering to its mid-premium segment of consumers. The apparel maker had to raise prices following a surge in cotton prices in March 2011 (Rs 67,000 a candy). “It was a tough period and the consumers felt the pinch.”

But raw material has not been one of recent concerns. Stable pricing has helped us draw more buyers and retain our loyalists, said Narasimhan.

“We are growing at the clip we had envisaged — 15-20 stores a year,” he added.

bharani.v@thehindu.co.in

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