NEW DELHI: Adidas has introduced the country’s fully integrated Omni-channel model even as Indian retail giants have been raving about its potential to take on e-commerce players for a while now.
The company says this will help grow its India business by around 15% every year.
Adidas stores will now have tablets that will allow walk-in customers order goods from any of its stores irrespective of its location. By 2017, all Adidas and Reebok stores here (around 750) will be Omni-channel ready, said Abhishek Lal, Adidas’s senior e-commerce director. “Around half of Adidas India’s total Omni-channel sales will come from Tier 3 and 4 cities,” he said.
For instance, if a walk-in customer at an Adidas store in Chandigarh does not find a particular model of footwear in the store, he can order it from an Adidas store in Delhi through the in-store tab and it would be delivered to his house. “Earlier, the customer would have walked out. Now, salespeople in the store have the tool to close the sale through the Omni-channel model. They have been trained to step in and engage the customer through the tab when they feel that the sale is ending,” said Lal.
The Omni-channel strategy will allow Adidas to showcase more than 5,000 SKUs at a store using its stores as warehouses while the actual number of SKUs available at an Adidas store at any given point in time is around 700. The world’s second-largest sports goods maker has also kept certain product lines such as, Adidas Neo, which falls a rung below its Originals line, exclusive to its Omni-channel model keeping in mind the expected demand from smaller cities and towns. “People who aspire for the Originals range may opt for Neo because it’s more affordable,” said Lal.
Adidas has tied up with several logistics companies such as, Fedex, Ecom Express and Bluedart for its Omni-channel venture. While running the pilot, it also had to indianise its lingo. “We introduced around 400 search terms that Indian customers use to look for products online.
