Shoppers Stop hopes omni-channel will be ready by FY18

Kolkata, March 17 : India's leading modern retailer Shoppers Stop Ltd is hoping to be ready with its omni-channel project by 2017-18, a top company official said on Friday.

Omni-channel refers to retailing through both online and offline channels.

"Omni-channel has been the phased journey for us. The first phase is over and the second phase is expected to be rolling out in next September," said the retailer's Customer Care Associate and Head Marketing, Anuradha Bose.

The retailer has envisaged an investment of Rs 60 crore for the omni-channel project.

"The first phase was of launching the platform, mobile app and keeping the basics right. We have identified tools and solutions for order and inventory management. The implementation of that will be done in the second phase and third phase," she said, adding that the second and third phases should not take a long time.

The K Raheja Corp promoted retailer has about 80 stores presently and has been restructuring its outlets.

"We are restructuring stores which are not performing well. We closed about three stores," she said on the sidelines of an event -- Smart Retailing -- organised by CII.

Post demonetisation, the retailer's sales had gone down in November but December saw an upswing in sales resulting in a double-digit growth for the month and overall 11.8 per cent growth for the third (September-December) quarter.