BUSINESS

A st r deal comes alive

Star Bazaar is reinventing the shopping experience
through its farm-to-fork offers, superior-value
products and services, while catering to different
cities, localities and customer groups

ts a regular day at Star Bazaar.

People are busy buying groceries
and stocking up on essentials.
Jamshed Daboo, the chief
executive of Trent Hypermarket
the subsidiary of Trent that runs the
retail operation is standing quietly
near the checkout counter when he
notices an old man with a full trolley
of shopping bags whos looking
worried. The man says, My wife just
called me because she remembered
that she wanted mushrooms. But I
have already paid the bill and will
have to stand in line all over again.
Taking the money from him,
Mr Daboo sends a shop assistant to
get the mushrooms. It was a small
gesture but the customer appreciated

it, says Mr Daboo. His parting

words to me were, I come here
because its convenient, but now I
will also come for the service.
It is this kind of customer
experience that Mr Daboo is
looking to build into the brand
identity for Star Bazaar. Having
worked with Taj Hotels for almost
11 years, Mr Daboo understands
that customer service is a dominant
factor in realising success in the
retail industry. You may have the
right products and prices but its
the ambience and service that bring
people back, he says.
Being successful in retailing is
not easy in India, as many players
have discovered. Formats that may

In India the modern retail trade is

nascent and when you are a new player
in a nascent industry its best to learn,
recalibrate and then grow.
Jamshed Daboo, chief executive, Trent Hypermarket

56 Tata Review

April 2013

work in other parts of the world just

dont cut it here. The typical large
hypermarket format, usually located
away from the main areas of cities
and towns, does not work well in
India for several reasons.
Large urban commercial spaces
are expensive; people dont like
to travel distances for household
purchases; and the Indian consumer
prefers weekly purchases to bulk
buying. Its a tricky industry, as
Mr Daboo acknowledges, especially
considering the modern retailer
versus traditional kirana store
debate. The reality, he says, is that the
consumer will go to the nearest store
big or small which provides the
best service and relationship.
Ground realities
Realities such as these have been
absorbed through on-ground
experience. Since its inception
Star Bazaar has sensibly taken the
slow and steady route to growth
rather than rapid expansion. The
chain launched its first store in
Ahmedabad in 2004 a large
format model that did reasonably
well and then spent the next few
years observing trends, learning the
business and tweaking the model.
In India, the modern retail

business

Star Bazaar hypermarkets are shopping havens, offering convenience, ambience and service
trade is nascent and when you are
a new player in a nascent industry
its best to learn, recalibrate and
then grow, says Mr Daboo. Since
2008, Star Bazaar has launched 14
more stores in eight cities. Today the
organisation has arrived at a stage
where its turnover is growing at a
healthy 25 percent, a number that
Mr Daboo is reasonably happy with.
A great deal of learning and
retail science has gone into the
growth of the Star Bazaar operation.
Its flagship store in Mumbai, located
in Andheri West, an affluent suburb
of Mumbai, is a good example of its
success. Almost 50,000 square feet
of grocery heaven, the store offers
expansive spaces, shelves bursting
with every conceivable product
and brand, wide aisles that can
accommodate three trolleys without
causing a traffic jam, and tempting
fresh produce.
Yet this kind of store may not

be replicated in other locations.

One of Star Bazaars key learning
experiences has been that its stores
cannot follow a set template. In a
new store space may be tighter, and
the size of each store will not be
fixed but will vary, based on market
demand. Having an overabundance
of space and then filling it with lowmargin products is not conducive to
success; in retail, you can go horribly
wrong, says Mr Daboo.
beyond the usual
This is a hypermarket operation with
a difference, one that has invested
in delivering superior customer
experiences that go beyond offering
ease of parking for patrons and
low product prices. At Star Bazaar,
for instance, product placement
and product bundling is managed
differently in each store, and this is
based on local customer behaviour.
The stores are laid out keeping

buyer behaviour in mind. How

people view, browse through and
buy its products has led the chain
to processes that enhance product
display and placement.
A given in hypermarket
stores is the customer expectation
of variety and depth in product
offerings, but Star Bazaar has learned
that the Indian consumer buys in a
fairly narrow price range, and thats
because the market is still nascent.
To provide a differentiated buying
experience, Star Bazaar bundles
and combines products at attractive
prices. Consumers see a lot of value
in our combination offers. At times
the customer basket may cost just
60 percent of the maximum retail
price, explains Mr Daboo.
Another differentiation that
Star Bazaar is focusing on springs
from its expertise in fresh food,
which Mr Daboo identifies as the
critical gap between traditional and
April 2013

Tata Review

57

BUSINESS

An out-of-the-world experience
The Star Bazaar retail operation functions under Trent
Hypermarket, a subsidiary of Trent.
The chain has 15 stores in Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune,
Ahmedabad, Surat, Chennai, Kolhapur and Aurangabad.
Its stores offer a contemporary shopping experience and
covers more than 30,000 items, from fresh food, grocery
and apparel to general merchandise and durables.
The Star Bazaar chain offers a variety of customeroriented services, such as express counters, free wheat
grinding, live bakery, free home delivery (within a specified
distance), shopper-friendly return policies, trial rooms and
alteration facilities.

modern retail. We source almost 40

percent of our fresh food produce
directly from farms and are able to
bring products from farm to fork
quicker. Its a win-win situation as
the farmer gets a better deal and
the consumer gets higher-quality
food at a much lower price. Star
Bazaars prices are almost 25 percent
below that in traditional markets,
and this provides the consumer an
outstanding value proposition.
having its cake...
The focus on fresh food extends
beyond fruit, vegetables and staples.
At the Andheri West store, for
example, customers get the benefit
of a hygienic fish and meat section.
The icing on the cake, literally so, is a
deli and live bakery, where shoppers
can tuck into freshly prepared food.
There is a lot of buzz around the
food and live bakery section in our
stores, says Mr Daboo.
Another route to delivering
value to the customer is the Star
Bazaar house brand for popular
categories like staples and non-

58 Tata Review

April 2013

brand dominated categories such as

paper products (tissues). Our Star
brands are 15-20 percent cheaper
and are of the same quality as better
known brands. We have launched
new categories such as Star basmati,
Star ghee and these are showing a
positive impact, says Mr Daboo.
Star Bazaar has put effort
into ensuring that the happy store
experience continues all the way to
end, especially at what has always
been one of the worst customer
pain points, the checkout process.
The solutions here include a queue
management process that opens
the next checkout counter as soon
as there are more than three people
in a line; queue champions manage
the lines and reduce waiting times;
and a new checkout software saves
10 seconds in generating an invoicecum-credit card slip for every
transaction. All of this reduces the
time customers spend waiting in line,
and it has been much appreciated.
There are other innovations
happening at this young
organisation. A unique initiative

being planned is a Star Bazaar

recharge card that can be used by
anyone from a household, even
the help. The second is to have an
appropriate selection of regularly
needed items ranging from
kitchen and dining products to
stationery, toys, home appliances and
apparel that suit different needs.
meeting expectations
Its about meeting customer
expectations and functional needs,
says Mr Daboo. We are looking
at families who shop together
on weekends and offer them the
complete experience. The profile of
customers coming to Star Bazaar is
varied; I do my monthly shopping
there, and so does my driver Subash.
We try to match that. The company
has also introduced a special Tata
combination pack exclusively for
employees of Tata companies, and
this comprises essentials such as
rice, flour, pulses, cooking oil; it
is a mix of Star Bazaar and other
branded products.
Looking ahead Star Bazaar
plans to continue with its measured
expansion plan opening at least
three stores every year, but looking
at smaller spaces if necessary and
also stand-alone stores. Our need is
high-frequency footfalls and malls
are not conducive to that, explains
Mr Daboo. House brands will
occupy more space and apparel, the
core competency of sister company
Westside, will be given a greater
share of the spotlight.
Its clear that Star Bazaar follows
the maxim that the key to a happy
retail experience is keeping the
customer delighted. At Star Bazaar,
the customer is the star of the store.
Sujata Agrawal