"Customers expect to save at hypermarkets"

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: Though only two years old, HyperCity Retail, a 1,25,000-square-feet hypermarket in the suburb of Malad, Mumbai, has managed to make its presence felt in the suburb and adjoining areas, thanks to its size and merchandise mix. Plans are afoot to take the format to cities such as Jaipur and Bangalore. The company is confident the format will work the way it has in Mumbai. But this isn’t the only venture for HyperCity Retail. A second format in catalogue shopping called HyperCity Argos has been expanding its base in Mumbai. There are some six Argos stores in Thane, Mumbai at this point. All of this implies that Esha Anand, head of marketing and visual merchandising at the K Raheja Corp-promoted company, has her hands full. She took time out to respond to questions posed by FE’s Viveat Susan Pinto about HyperCity and Argos. Excerpts:

What is the average customer purchase at HyperCity like? From how far are customers coming to your Malad store?

The average cash memo is over Rs 1,200. We have customers coming from as far as Colaba, since HyperCity is a popular destination for shopping for many.

Is a customer from south Mumbai ready to travel north to Malad, when there are a number of options available on the way?

We do have customers traveling from south Mumbai to Malad. One reason is the range of products we offer. The space and shopping experience also helps.

Your target audience is upscale yet value-for-money shopping is something you focus on. Does it not create confusion in the minds of your target audience?

Great value is a benefit offered by all hypermarkets. It’s no different with us. Customers expect to save money when they walk into a hypermarket. I don’t think our target group (TG) grudges that in any way. We have positioned ourselves as a format that offers an assortment of products across categories. You can expect to discover something new whenever you walk in.

At a time when big-format retail is struggling to get the required footfalls, how are you making sure that HyperCity gets its fair share of visitors? What are its footfalls per day?

On weekdays, we get about 7,000-8,000 footfalls. On weekends, it’s upwards of 20,000. On a monthly basis, about 3 lakh customers walk into our stores.

What are you doing to ensure that customers come back to your store? What marketing initiatives have you undertaken for the same?