By Harsh Vardhan

The pandemic, in ways more than one, changed the face of retail business overnight. Many brands adapted to the new normal well, some struggled to do so. There are important lessons on both sides. In an exclusive conversation with Brand Equity, Avijit Mitra, chief executive officer, Croma, shares his experiences in dealing with the evolving trends of consumer retail. Edited excerpts:

What pandemic-era trends do you think will outlast the season of restrictions?

Over the last couple of decades or so, our lives had revolved around our office. The pandemic has restored the importance of home and family as the centre of our life. I expect this will continue post pandemic and consumers will aspire for a better space to live in.

The second trend we see is the adoption of gadgets, technology, and digital solutions at home. We see a significant acceleration in this trend and potential for lot of innovation.

The third trend I expect is that gig or freelance working may accelerate. There will be a talent ‘cloud’ that will be available to tap the best brains across the world through innovative digital solutions.

Would you say the buying patterns validate the interest in staying home?

Yes, quite a bit. Laptops are growing very strongly after many years of tepid performance since it is now a necessity in urban homes considering learning, work, shopping etc are all happening remotely. Earlier, most people had access to a workstation at the office and many didn’t see the need for regular update of personal laptops. That has changed now. Learning, entertainment, hobbies, work are all happening from home and people are increasingly shifting to their hometowns or other remote locations according to their convenience. The necessity of a laptop will continue to be felt.

Even in the kitchen for instance, one barely realised the importance of appliances until one started personally using them daily. Sales of microwaves, mixer grinders, dishwashers etc hit the roof during the lockdown.

How did Croma fare last year?

2020 has been a transitional year. From adapting to the new normal amid the pandemic to aggressively tapping new market opportunities, the year has shown us a lot. Despite the challenges, we continued our strategic focus in expanding rapidly across India and stepped up our investments in digital solutions. We launched our store@home concept on croma.com that enables you to get a live video demo of a wide selection of popular gadgets by our store experts at a click of a button. Such investments are going to help us as the economy returns to normalcy. Our partners, too, have been supportive of our future plans, ensuring the cash flow remains strong and the expansion plans remain on track despite the challenges the pandemic threw at us.

What were the key areas of focus for Croma during the lockdown and the following period?On the first day itself, we knew it was going to be an uncertain period and one thing that the management agreed upon was that every single person’s monthly wages must be ensured without fail. There might be delays in variable payments, but the monthly pay, which is so important for the families that depend on us, must not go awry.

To ensure this, we made another important choice that we must focus on cash flow above all other financial metrics in this year. We managed to keep the cash flows positive till now. With the difficulties due to import restrictions and sudden demand, it was also difficult to ensure availability of products. During this period the support we had from our partners was amazing and we are truly grateful to them.

How important a role does marketing play in such crisis situations?

One of the most critical roles of marketing is to identify shifts in consumer behaviour ahead of the market. This role becomes amplified in a heterogenous country like India that comprises of consumers from so many different cultures and languages. The dynamics get heightened further in a once-in-a-century crisis such as the Covid-19 pandemic. Marketing, I believe, helps spot trends in such a situation which could result in a huge first-mover advantage.

The Times Power of Print competition calls for creatives to encourage mask use in an ad for Croma. Does it surprise you that people are still lax about safety measures? How have you addressed the issue in your stores?

In India, we have this fatalist view of life for some reason. It makes us take our own safety for granted. The somewhat casual use of masks is possibly an outcome of this approach, but it compromises other people’s safety. Our partnership with the Times Power of Print program tries to drive such agenda of nationwide importance and this year we would like to drive the critical thought that a mask is not about protecting oneself alone but, more critically, it is a responsibility that each of us owes to our fellow countrymen to protect them from us.

From our perspective, we decided that we must start with our own people’s safety, which would in turn be the best assurance of safety for our customers. We are proud to have served over two million customers post lockdown and there have hardly been any infections suffered by our team of over 8000 people. This is a very proud achievement by our frontline team.

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