Festive shopping on reverse ROPO?
As Indian consumers got more comfortable with online shopping, one of the expected phenomena was what digital folks call ROPO. Research online, purchase offline, was a trend in buying behaviour where customers researched relevant product information to qualify their buying decision, before they actually decide to buy their favourite product in the local store. Common for categories where the 'consideration' phase is an elaborate one and the frequency of purchase is low. You needed to make that one purchase for say a consumer durable, so you wanted to be sure you have done adequate research. Online made that simple and organised with opportunities for product comparison and availability of customer reviews. For the final purchase however, we often sought the comfort of physically examining the product before we decided to buy.
Now, that was then.
The now-more-confident e-shopper has learnt to lap up the best of both worlds. She is well aware of the avalanche of discounts available online and is also conscious of the fact that physical trial of products at store continue to be important. So she has found a smart method to flip ROPO on it's head and is now shopping on reverse ROPO. i.e Research offline, purchase online (also called showrooming). The value maximising Indian shopper has been experimenting with this mechanism across categories, but it seems to be quite rampant for fashion (apparels and footwear). You walk in to a store and try a pair of trousers or shoes. You keep trying till you know you have the right colour, style, fit. Then you make copious notes of the details of the brand, the line, the size and simply smile and walk away. That done, you search for the exact same product online and buy it at a discount. To be sure that they are cracking a deal, astute shoppers could even do their online search in the trial rooms.
This phenomena gives shoppers an amazing sense of confidence which makes festive shopping (read Durga Pujo shopping for a Bengali like me) a cake walk. You know the father-in-law wears size 42 and approves of Brand X, Y and Z. The sister is a Brand V fan and has been eyeing the styles in ruffles. Brands A and B fit your child the best and you can let them choose on your phone once you've dragged them to the trial rooms that one time. And that wonderful pair of heels of your favourite brand that you have fancied for a while... now maybe you could have two pairs using a lucky online deal!
It is said that we easily welcome the changes that don't upset the outcomes we are used to. This is one such example. The lovingly handed out gifts during this festive season might barely see any change, however the urgent knocks of the app feeds on our smartphones are also unlikely to go unheard.
CEO | Executive Coach | Business Advisor | India Entry | Speaking
7 年Hi Sreyoshi Maitra. Another brilliant piece by you. ROPO helps brands to expand the footprint though means gain for one channel with effort/cost of another channel. Caratlane has facilitated this by having trial offfline stores and so does Lenskart for spectacle frames. Look forward to reading your gems. Keep it up.
Product Marketing at Palo Alto Networks
7 年Hey, Sreyoshi ! Interesting article. Does the data significantly point to reverse ROPO as a growing trend ? The interesting thing is that there is a still a significant portion of the market that tends to buy apparel offline primarily because of the lack of accuracy on sizes available online. Reverse ROPO is interesting cause it offers a solution but I am but skeptical about reverse ROPO on new collections cause prices tend to be more or less the same in the initial 2-3 week window. Reverse ROPO would be an critical way to measure online marketing spends on retail. Would like to hear your thoughts on this ! :)