1. TEAM: DAILY MAAR-CUTTING IIM KOZHIKODE
RETAIL – E-COMMERCE STRATEGY
CAMPUS FINALIST
MAHESH KOPPAD ARNAB GUHA MALLIK ABHISEK PAUL MADANISH KANNA
maheshk15@iimk.ac.in arnabgm15@iimk.ac.in abhisekp15@iimk.ac.in madanishkns15@iimk.ac.in
Ph:8943455233 Ph:8943994677 Ph:8943707444 Ph:8943053300
2nd Year 2nd Year 2nd Year 2nd Year
15/24 15/74 15/197 15/23

2. INTRODUCTION
Indian consumers are increasingly looking at shopping as an experience, not just a process of
acquiring necessary items. With our Mahindra’s into retail, they seek to provide our customers with
a holistic experience that satisfies their desire for an enriching and pleasant experience as well as
for excellent products
Mom and Me Beanstalk
 Mahindra Retail's first venture, Mom &  This is the company's second venture in the
Me, brings Indian mothers a specialty store retail sector
where they can meet all their product and  The store is designed to exude excitement
service needs and the element of fun, innate in children. In
 From pregnancy fashion to children’s keeping with the Mahindra philosophy of quality
apparel, from toys to baby and mothers’ products, customer focus and superior
wellness products, from strollers and car service, Beanstalk offers an overall experience
seats to children’s furniture of entertainment, enjoyment and learning
 Guidance and support one needs to  Ensures that product range is assorted to
navigate pregnancy, infancy, and childhood include an entire range of toys to develop
confidently various skills from a very early age
Competitors

3. E-commerce industry in India
 Indian E-commerce industry has come a long way since Steep growth over last few years
the tumultuous days of dotcom bubble
 Floodgates were opened by online travel sites like
IRCTC and makemytrip.com which changed the way
Indians book travel tickets
 Rapidly increasing Internet user base and rising middle
class with disposable income has contributed to the
flourishing of industry
 Secure online transaction environment, measures like
Cash-on-delivery, focus on customer service has
motivated Indian customers to place their trust in online
shopping
Online Shopping behaviour among Indians Market share of various categories

4. Online stores of physical retailers
• Website acts as the sole front end of the respective player where customers
can choose from online catalogue and place order.
Overview
• Telephonic sales channels are also established to augment sales
• Revenue through online (sometimes inbound telephonic also) product sales
Business Model &
Target Segment • Internet savvy customers mostly in Tier I and Tier II cities
• Scalability depends upon internet traffic growth rate and a change in
consumer buying behavior
Scalability • Existing set of low prices are helping to attract throng of customers and
enabling E-tailers to scale up
• Low investment needed in front end and hence able to offer lower prices and
wider product variety
Strengths
• Provides ease and convenience of shopping from any location or at any time
• Needs to have a robust backend to ensure timely delivery and service level
Challenges • Managing return supply chain is a complex challenge for existing players
• Online stores have to ensure safety and security of payments to abridge trust
deficit existing in the mind of consumers

5. Leveraging online-offline model
Mahindra Retail
customers
Customers visiting Customers visiting
physical store virtual store
• Look for complete shopping experience • Look for convenience, avoid crowds
• Believe in feel and buy • Reduce purchasing time
• Prefer face-to-face interaction with • Look for the best price and discounts
sales personnel among competitors

6. Customers visiting physical stores
Showrooming
 Mom & Me and Beanstalk stores should act as experience centers
to let customers enjoy the buying experience
 To overcome the space constraints, Mahindra Retail can use the
physical stores as showrooms for the e-commerce division
 The physical stores will have limited variants (colours, quantity) of
a product to help retailer save the occupancy costs. The fast
moving variants will have more stocks whereas the others will
have very few stock
 Customers feel the product in the store and go online to purchase
them. The online store will have an “endless aisle” i.e. greater
product ranges and even the out-of stock material
Rationale
 Mahindra retail stores will not need to stock large quantity of slow moving products, hence
overcoming the space constraints in the shop and enjoy lower inventory cost.
 If an order comes, the order can be routed through the e-commerce channel from within the store.
 Customers like to touch and feel and try on the merchandise, but they also want that information
that they get online. So the concept of showrooming caters to both the corporate and customer
needs

7. Implementation
Wi-Fi stores
 Mahindra Retail can provide Wi-Fi in their stores and
make iPads available to customers to freely browse to
comparison shop and order products online which are
not available in store.
 The Ipads will consist of a Mahindra Retail App through
which customers can visit the online store
 The app will be available for android, iOS and Windows.
 Such a move will make customer experience the online
store as well as the app. A seamless integration will
result in customers using the same in future
In-store kiosks
In-store kiosks in malls allowing customers to search for out of stock products in Mom&Me and
Beanstalk website
 Sometimes even the fast moving item runs out an the customer is asked to visit sometimes later
which invariably results in a drop.
 Making the customer apply online then and there will create a good image in terms of service
provided & the customer will be retained.
Showrooming customer retention + better service+ more customer engagement  loyal
customer base

8. Customers visiting virtual store
• In order to retain a better brand recall and ensure one-to one interaction with the
company staff, it is important that customers also engage in the physical store
• The social aspects of shopping also serve as natural governors on e-commerce
Site to Store strategies
Avail In-Store Pickup
 We can give an option for customers to place order online and pick up the order from
the store
 The in-store pickup option can be put in the Mom&Me and Beanstalk ecommerce sites
itself
 The customer needs to be notified as soon as the order is ready for pickup
 Since the store presumably does not have unlimited space to keep all the orders ready
forever; customers are given a 3-to-5 day window to pick up
 The reduced transportation cost for Mahindra Retail can be passed on to the customer
in the form of discounts for in-store pickup

9. Add the in-store pickup option in the ecommerce site along with COD and free shopping option
Advantages for Customers: Advantages for Mahindra Retail:
• Special discounts not available on home • Savings on transportation cost to
delivery customer doorstep
• Ease of pick up if the store is on the way • 3rd party logistic providers may not
of workplace provide the same level of service and
• Avoid dropped orders or missing out on commitment as Mahindra wants to offer.
product delivery if customer is not at So in store pick ensures better customer
home service is maintained

10. Increase store footfalls through Snapdeal coupons
 Mahindra Retail can have tie up with Snapdeal.com and give exclusive discounts to
customers on slow moving products
 These discounts will be available only through Snapdeal.com
 Customer pays service charge to snapdeal.com and gets e-coupon with discount on
Mom&Me and Beanstalk products. The customer walks in to the nearest Mahindra retail
store and avails the discount
Rationale
 Snapdeal.com has better reach than the existing Mom&Me and Beanstalk online sites.
 Snapdeal ranks No.35 in terms of website traffic in India according to alexa traffic rankings
 Once the deal with Snapdeal goes live, Mom&Me and Beanstalk products will be flashed in
their home page during the period of offer resulting in free marketing of Mahindra’s
products
 Snapdeal.com will promote this deal by email blasting, sms, social media campaigning.
 The no of days the deal remains on the main landing page depends on the popularity of the
deal; otherwise it shifts to the next page.
 Snapdeal.com can be used as a marketing channel for the launch of new products, year-end
sales etc.

11. An example: Suppose a toy is of Increasing physical stores footfall through Snapdeal tie-up
Rs.250/-. The discount is 20%. The
customer pays Rs.20/- to snapdeal to
get a voucher. He walks in with the
MOM and Me and
voucher , pays 200/- to the dealer
benastalk can
and buys the toy Returns if
display as many
any, due
to faulty products as it
quality wants
Customer Step 1:
walks in, pays Products It is a flash sale and
the money Listings hence we choose
along with with detailed which products to
vouchers descriptions put on sale
Flash sale
Address of
resulting in
select Rank in India (Website traffic) : 35 Selection free
Mom&Me & with marketing in
Beanstalk retail Inventory their website
outlets given to commitment
customers
They will lets us know
about the vouchers
being bought. Snapdeal Taking
monitors the Products
Customers pay snapdeal
sale Live
and get the voucher

12. Also tie up with other deals websites like Mydala.com, Crazeal, DealsandYou.com, 99labels.com
Our marketing strategy for you
etc. All these websites provide extensive marketing which will be beneficial for mahindra retail.
More traffic will be generated to their website as well as create awareness

13. Reinforcing model for leveraging physical stores + e-commerce
Customer Visiting Virtual Store
Customers visit Customers get Customers visit Mom&Me
snapdeal.com to avail vouchers/coupons and Beanstalk outlets to
special discounts from snapdeal and avail offer
other deal sites
In-shop experience may
compel customers to buy
additional products
If the product is out of
Customer collects the
stock, customer uses
Customer goes to the products either at home
iPad/Smartphone in the
physical stores or in-store depending on
store to place the order
the option preferred
online
Customer Visiting Physical Store

14. Evaluation of product categories
 Motherhood Matrenity
Kriti Ethernic Matrenity
Kriti Ethernic fashion
Nursing essentials
Moms  Bath, Hygiene & skin care
 Clothing  Nutrition
 Footwear  Books & CDs
 Carseats
 Safety essentials Boys  Clothing
 Furniture Babies 
 Baby food, feeding & Girls 
Footwear
Toys
 Skin, oral care
 Stationery
 Pillows
 Books

15. New Categories to be added Increased Pester power of kids due to:
1. Working parents & increasing gap between
growing children
2. The hurried-child syndrome and hyper parenting
3. Delayed or single parenthood; More pampering
4. Busy life-style
5. The “Ask able” parent; Friendly and complying
6. The “Alpha-pup” competition among parents
PESTER POWER means keep products to lure
kids
Consumer insights
•India being a cricket frenzy nation, kids right from their childhood are influenced by sports
personalities, consider them as idols and want to become like them
•Parents urge children to join coaching classes on sports
•Continuous use of sports products by boys & girls under age 9.
•Display of sports equipment among peer group urges the kids to possess sports equipments
Products to be added
Cricket bat, ball, Acquatic sports, Badminton, Football, Frisbie, Skipping rope, Table Tennis goods etc can be
added to both Mom&Me and Beanstalk stores. Sports jerseys can be added in Mom&me stores
Mom& Me store already sells boys and girls
footwear and stationeries. The portfolio can be
extended to offer all school related items as new
category including school bags and water bottles
which are not offered currently

16. Super hero combo
 Kids love to associate themselves with a super hero and when the things they use in daily life are
associated to their super hero, there is higher chance of purchase
 A separate category called ‘Superhero’ can be added which will contain all products such as
pillows, geometry box, mugs, Tshirts etc sorted by the names of superhero
 The most commonly recognized Indian superheros such as Chota Bheem, Hanuman, Bal Ganesh should
be included along with spiderman, batman etc to better connect with the kids
Health and Safety Equipments
 Digital thermometer: Best to get one that works both under the arm and rectally. A rectal temperature is
best when checking temperature in a newborn, for which even a mild fever can be dangerous, or any time
you need a more accurate reading
Nasal aspirator:T o keep that little nose from getting plugged. New babies can't easily breathe through
their mouths, and it'll be a while before you can say "blow!"
 Baby monitor: Crucial for letting you get things done around the house and yard without worries during
naptime.
 Night light: Having a low light near where the baby sleeps helps you check on the baby during the night,
and having one in the changing area allows for un-stimulating night-time changes.

17. Where should the Focus Lie
Easy to use website, hassle Focused on user
Great customer service
free payment system experience
• Great customer service has • The user interface should • Focus on having relevant
been its hallmark. be sleek and easy to use. information on the
• All focus on better • It should not be confusing website.
service leads to greater • Change the existing • It should not be cluttered
customer retention problems in the website
INSIGHTS
 People are comfortable Emotional benefits
spending upto 6k to 7k in • Saves time and • Selling products and
online shopping Money
• Sense of
convenience
 Extra discounts in high • One stop shop satisfaction
involvement products • Sense of being tech
savvy
are looked down upon as
• Sense of being
lesser quality Rational Benefits aware Actual Selling
 People feel online portal
provides more product
choices to choose from
PRICING STRATEGY SHOULD
BE UNIFORM ACROSS ALL
CHANNELS Why buy online from Beanstalk and Mom and Me??

18. Website – Competitive Scenario
Characteristic Mom and Me Beanstalk Mothercare Lilliput
URL ×
Look and Feel ×
Homepage on one screen × × ×
Ease of use ×
Return to homepage
Broken links ×
Useful external links ×
Testimonials × ×
Up-to-date × × ×
FAQs × × ×
Special offers and freebies ×
Competitions and blogs × × ×
Online advertising
Recommend a friend online × × × ×
Intuitive URL × ×
Contact detail
Response time to enquiries × ×
Browser compatibility
Offers based on past buying history × × × ×
Order tracking × ×
Feedback possible? ×
 We find that beanstalk website does not have many features and a lot of attention needs to be given to
improve the customer experience for the e-commerce platform
 Mom and ME can provide FAQs and Blog writing forum for mothers to share their thoughts. All this
increases the customer engagement of the site - more loyalty

19. Website - Observations
2 different websites for Mom and Me, leading to unnecessary confusion as to which of them is the
authentic one resulting in less order placement

20. Website - Observations
 Difficult for the customers to connect with the offerings of Mom and Me as well as Beanstalk Toy
Shop
 they position themselves as products for pregnant mothers and newborn babies and kids, but they
don’t portray any image of the actual users of their products (pregnant mothers or newborn
babies, etc.) as compared to their competitors like Lilliput, Mothercare, etc.
 The photo of the babies and the children on the landing appeals to the affective component of
attitude of the users, in this case the parents, as a result the connect is more

21. Website - Observations
Website design is inappropriate -
The basic homepage of Beanstalk
should have contained tabs
depicting the broad categories of
products.
Instead they have arranged the
products on the basis of age-
groups e.g. 0-1 yr, 1-2 yrs, 2-3 yrs,
etc. which has led to too many
narrow categories resulting in
confusion.
They could have mentioned the product categories here
Broken links - Another
shortcoming of Beanstalk e-
commerce website is that there
are broken links (the image file
seems to be broken). This also
portrays a negative image of
the website.

22. Website - Observations
Although there is provision for online help during ordering of products, however most of the times, its
in the offline mode and customers are asked to leave offline queries. This is not only the case with Mom
and Me, but also with Beanstalk website as well.
An ideal strategy would be an online chat feature where customers can talk to a representative in case
of any problems. Such a feature would increase customer engagement
This feature should be integrated with the social media channels as well in form of an app on Facebook

23. Social Media - Observations
Beanstalk’s official FB page has only 79 likes and is not displayed in the top 20 results when searched
for Beanstalk in FB. The last post on Beanstalk’s FB page was more than a month back and not
updated as compared to Mom and Me’s official FB page which has >58000 likes and is also quite
regularly updated.

24. Website - Observations
There has been no information provided about Beanstalk on Mahindra Retail’s official website;
only Mom and Me has been mentioned as Mahindra’s venture into the retail space

25. Marketing Strategy
 Inorganic marketing can be kicked in
once the brand identity increases
Personal Selling  Competitive advantage can be based on
Search Engine Optimization
•Periodic newsletters  Google Ad-words should also be used as
a marketing tool to have a far reach in the
Sales Promotion online world
 Focus on Social media and its reach to
•Discounts at intervals create awareness engagement
•No loyalty Schemes loyalty.
 Can use Facebook as a marketing
Public Relations tool and take the help of Facebook
ads
•Focus on the welfare of the mother  Online Advertising presence in various
and the child sites where our target segment visit
 M-Advertisement along with Mobile Apps
Advertising
to provide location based marketing as
•TV well search based marketing
•Newspaper  Google Analytics + tying up with a social
media Analytics partner
•Social Media and Mobile
 Tying up with deal aggregators sites will
create a lot of visibility and inexpensive
marketing

26. Search Engine Optimization
Beanstalk’s official E-commerce website doesn’t appear in the top 20 Google search results. The
first related link is a news article “Mahindra & Mahindra unveils toy store 'Beanstalk' in Bangalore“.
It is only after repeated searches and different keywords that one can get to the website
Some other site
that occupies
the first
position

27. Search Engine Optimization
High Impact Search Queries for momandmeshop.in
With the help of SEO technique,
momandmeshop.com can be ranked
in top search results of appropriate
keywords.
SEO operation can help locate the
best search terms which will not only
attract more visitors to our web site,
but ensure that those visitors are
Mom and Me loyalists.
Some of the benefits of Search
Engine Optimization are:
 Saves time and Money
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Opportunities for momandmeshop.in  Improve your Competitive Edge
 Expand Customer Base and
target Audience
 Increases return on investment
 High Impact search queries have
been
 Opportunities; queries that are
relevant but have low
competition in Search Engine
Marketing

28. Search Engine Optimization
High Impact Search Queries for beanstalkshop.in Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Opportunities for beanstalkshop.in
GOOGLE ANALYTICS SOCIAL MEDIA ANALYTICS
Google Analytics results into actionable intelligence. Tie up with a company that provides
 Lets you know where your audience is located social media analytics
• Analyze Twitter and Facebook at one
 Provides a metric called Bounce Rates which help
place
you determine the percentage of people who come
to your site but never click through to the next step- • Engagement & Influence Score
Can help you improve the quality and user ease of the • Major trends in account activities
site • Detailed audience demographics into
age, gender, geographical location
 Provides a metric called Referring Sites - If people are
reaching your site from Facebook, Twitter, or Helps in finding sentiment towards the
somewhere else, this metric will provide you with brand and more focused marketing and
those details, and you can provide better content on engagement strategies
these websites.

29. Use Social media as a marketing tool
Promotional
/engagement activities
on facebook
Increased awareness,
brand loyalty
Increased sales in Increased sales in
Physical Stores Online Stores

30. The present facebook page of Mom&Me is
running the Motherhood-A song for life
contest. We propose to launch many such
contests to keep customers engaged
Launch ‘My Baby Moments’ Contest
Moms will have to post the most memorable
moments of their child in the Mom&Me and
Beanstalk facebook page. The post which
gets the most number of likes each week will
win gift vouchers.

31. Mom&Me Blog!!

32. M-Commerce is the next level of e-commerce. So Mahindra Retail should lock in customers through
apps
 The newly launched mother’s world mobile app should be leveraged to increase customer
engagement
 The existing offerings in the app include information on Baby’s Growth, Nutrition, Emotional
Issues, Health Notes, Fitness, FAQs, online store etc
 We propose to provide similar information in the form of games to better connect with the
customer and increase awareness in an engaging way.
Interesting and informative apps  Better customer engagement  Higher chance of buying
products online through the app
Proposed Simulation game: Mom & Me bonding
This game would place players in the role of a "Mom", where they can explore, play games
and solve challenges while raising a healthy and happy baby!

33. Mom & Me Bonding Game concept Source: Baby&me fb app
The player (mom) would be asked questions about As the points increase based on right answers, the
child care, pregnancy etc and based on the right player can do shopping for both mom and the child
answers points will be credited for mom & child
Based on how well the player has taken care of the kid, a kid happiness % will be displayed as final score. Players can invite
other players to play the game or share their score on facebook. The apparels/toys displayed in the game can be replica of
actual models available in online store inducing purchase intention

34. Logistics
Mom and Me have 100 stores in India and Plan to open up to 200 stores. Beanstalk also wants to
be present as 100 stores across India
For a thriving E-Commerce plus Physical Stores, the Supply chain and Logistics must be robust
 Presence of Ware-Houses in Multiple locations to serve the demand of the physical stores as
well as the demands from the E-Commerce Channel
 Presence of CFAs instead of Warehouses at other places can be used to deliver to the
numerous retail stores without sales tax
Logistics Warehouses
 Focus on third party logistics  Warehouses should be split into
 Make them a partner so that they multiple areas — inventory, packing,
understand the level of service shipping
required to be provided be on  Stock replenishment every 24-48 hours.
the same page  The order processing should be done
 The better the service lesser the every 12 hours and the stock should be
dropped orders updated for replenishment purposes
 Tie Up with Courier Companies  Associates for tracking systems,
such as Blue Dart, First reconciliation and MIS reports.
Flight, FedEx, Aramex and  Private courier companies carry
Professional Couriers shipment tracking ID or an airway bill
 Indian post number linked to every package.
 By air, train ,truck, two wheeler, on
foot.

35. Why Focus on 3rd Party LOGISTICS for E-Commerce
Third-party Managed
Parameters In-house Logistics
Logistics
In-house logistics require heavy
Capital Expenditure investment Very High Manageable upfront
Logistic networks of third-parties
reach the farthest corners of the
Last mile Access Poor Extensive and Good country
Experience and expertise of specialist
Expertise in Operations less or nil Very High third-parties is hard to copy
Easy to modify logistic strategy and
Agility to Respond to Dynamic switch partner with third-party
Market less in case of goof up high logistics
Financial & management resources
Operational Risk & needed to run in-house teams;
Requirement of Management High Less additional operational risk assumed
Managed services are generally
costlier; may change with industry
Delivery Cost Low High growth
In-house logistics teams can cater only to a few metros, tier-2 onwards cities accessible almost exclusively by
third parties
Existing logistic providers, such as DTDC, are creating separate arms for catering to ecommerce business
Specialist e-commerce logistic companies, such as Delhivery, Chhotu, and Holisol, emerging
Only when the logistics partner is on board sharing the same vision of providing good service to customers, will
the decline rates come down focus in the short run
The In house Logistics can be beefed up over a period of time in the long run

36. Integrating E-Commerce: CMS
 The retail partners are provided the lists in the form of a master excel sheet containing the
details.
 They choose the products they want and place an order with Mom & Me and Beanstalk for
the same.
We suggest 2 models
A national hotline number Creation of an online
where the retailers can call content management
and place an order. system
The centre will then forward the order to The system will contain the information of all the
the local CFA (carry and forward agency) products in a digital format where more than one
nearest to the warehouse of the 3d images would be provided. Pictures from
respective retail and send them the different angles and different colours (variants) of
order. the same models will be provided.
The entire idea of the CMS is to integrate purchasing and procurement, supplier management,
inventory management, channel management, sales activities, payment management, and service and
support

37. Content Management System
The retailer goes to the respective sites and logs in
He is shown the entire range of products on the landing page with 3
 An online content management
d images etc.
system which can be accessed He clicks on Place your order tab
by the retailers
He is redirected
 This CMS system will be to an API like
different from the ones this where he
generally used i.e. the excel file. writes the
product number
 It would be an application and quantity.
protocol interface where we
will provide the retailers a panel
where they can view all data. If he wants
They can view the information another product
he clicks on the
of the products which can be
plus button and
downloaded by them. repeats the
 The e-commerce portals can above step.
place orders as shown in the
picture
 There will also be inbuilt credit
Once he is
limit above which the retailers done, he
cannot order. It would help in presses SAVE
preventing of bulk orders

38. Content Management System
On clicking SAVE, he is directed to the Order Panel where the Product name, no, order, amount charged
for each item is shown.
He is asked to check. If the cart is wrong, he may click on change in order to rectify it, if not he confirms
and his order is placed
He may also go
back to the
landing page
after login and
search some
other item and
get all details
about it, view 3d
images
 The orders will be processed twice a day and on checking the inventory in the local CFA, an order will
be blocked.
 As soon as the orders are processed and the orders are released for delivery by the local RS, the
stock will be updated by the different CFAs.
 The CFAs can also send a requisition of the no and model they require to the warehouses through
this same CMS.
 The benefit of the above CMS system will be faster replenishment of orders and convenience
 The vendors can track their orders also (whether dispatched or processed)
 The same API can be extended for inventory management