Shoppers Stop to sell food and books online, gains 4% on buzz

Shoppers Stop, an Indian retail company promoted by the K Raheja Corp Group, is planning to go online with its wholly owned subsidiary products—HyperCity and Crossword. The company is going to sell food and book via omni-channels by the next financial year.

As per the report published in ET, the company share jumps 4%, soon after the announcement of this future project.

Currently, Shoppers Stop operates with 19 HyperCity stores in 10 cities, and 50 Crossword outlets in 15 cities in the retail format.

According to company’s statement, Hyper-City online will be available in markets where it has stores that will fulfill the orders. Trials began in Mumbai and will be extended to Bengaluru this year. On the other hand, Crossword will go online on pan India basis.

“Since we have already invested Rs 60 crore on the technology backbone for Shoppers Stop e-commerce venture, the incremental investment for taking HyperCity and Crossword online will be not much,” said MD Govind Shrikhande.

In the coming two months, Shoppers Stop’s e-commerce venture will fully link the 80 offline departmental stores with the online platform, integrating specialised formats such as MAC, Estee Lauder, Clinique and Bobbi Brown.

The company expects 8-9% of like-to-like store growth for the full year, with 12% revenue growth and 25% growth in profitability.

The group is also targeting break-even and profitability of HyperCity from the next fiscal and is driving this by rationalising store sizes, reducing total retail space from 15 lakh square feet to 13 lakh square feet.

Also read: Paytm Mall to infuse Rs 225 crore to boost tech and logistic network

The rapid penetration of the internet, growing trust building by the e-retailers with the introduction of COD (Cash on Delivery) along with the improvement of net banking facilities, can be big opportunities for the Indian e-commerce sector.

According to ASSOCHAM-Resurgent India study, the number of consumers who purchase online is expected to cross 100 million by 2017 end with e-retail market likely jumping 65% on year in 2018.

Shoppers Stop: Website