NEW DELHI: Centuries ago, India’s rich and famous liked to buy their luxuries at home. Rich silks and gold and silver jewellery were taken by the merchants to the homes of kings and landlords, where men and women picked their objects of desire within the privacy of their homes.
Now, global luxury brands are finding value in tapping the same route to sell their product lines in the Indian market. “We are actively tapping this new format, where we offer our clients the luxury of shopping at home. We call them Trunk Shows. In fact, between 30-40% of our sales in India are currently from the home visits,” says Prasanna Bhaskar, regional director of Italian luxury brand Salvatore Ferragamo.
Dolce & Gabbana, Ferre, Trussardi and Lladro are all achieving about 15-20% of sales in India through the ‘home visit’ route. The conversion factor through this channel for most brands is very high and transaction values have also been relatively higher. Many of the luxury brands in India are now using this route not just for discounted sales, but also for their newly-launched products.
Big brands are now realising that because most rich clients are hard-pressed for time, this often acts as a convenient option for them. “We serve many of our rich clients through the personal viewing of merchandise channel. It is far more convenient when the merchandise is viewed at a place of their choice rather than at the store,” says Puneet Khanna, director of Epoca, which retails brands such as Dolce & Gabbana, Ferre and Trussardi in India. This way, the company is able to service them with cent per cent personal attention. The modus operandi maybe relatively expensive, but it gives the companies a leverage to approach the right customer, with appropriate merchandise, rather than wait for them to visit the store.
For Lladro, the Spanish handcrafted porcelain brand, home visits are the best way to sell very personalised pieces of art, and help clients to match the pieces with their home décor. The company has been visiting clients at home since 2002, and this channel now comprises an important part of the overall Indian business. Says Amar Aggarwal, managing director of Spa Group, which has a collaboration in India with Lladro, “At least 15% of our sales come via this route. In fact, in the cities where we are not present, we even make trips to visit customers on special request.”
Like Lladro, the ‘trunk show’ is also helping many other luxury brands to tap markets in various cities where they don’t have stores such as Hyderabad, Jaipur, Ahmedabad and Jalandhar. This is also as many wealthy Indian families prefer personalised service in the privacy of their homes over and above visits to upmarket retail outlets. “There are many well-travelled customers in such cities who we are reaching out to through home visits. In fact, our marketing team in Mumbai spends at least fifteen days a month doing such visits. This is working all the more in India because the cost of setting up retail infrastructure is very high,” says Bhaskar.
Other luxury brands, too, are introducing themselves in cities where they don’t have a retail presence through the experiential private showing route. “When we do not have retail presence in a particular city, Alfred Dunhill introduces the brand and its heritage by a private showing where our potential customers are invited to experience the brand,” says Anjani Kasliwal, director of SKNL, which is the exclusive franchise for the brand in India. She adds that the ‘shopping at home’ concept is very well received among corporate chieftains who are short of time and prefer their homes for selecting clothing and lifestyle products.
Tags:Dolce and Gabbana, Ferre, Trussardi, Lladro, Salvatore Ferragamo, Epoca, Spa Group, Amar Aggarwal, Alfred Dunhill, Anjani Kasliwal, international franchise
Source:12 SEP, 2010, 12.21AM IST, ISHANI DUTTAGUPTA & NEHA DEWAN,ET BUREAU
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