Bata’s sales through digital channels reached 15% of overall sales in 2020: Anand Narang

The financial year 2020-21 has been one of the most challenging years for businesses across the country due to the global pandemic. While the pandemic followed by a country-wide lockdown dampened overall sentiments, Bata India kept the spirit of resilience and gumption alive and continued to serve the customers with the same passion.

The brand has undertaken several measures and key initiatives to weather the COVID-19 storm and ensure continued service to its customers. Some of these measures include:

• Launching hyperlocal channels Bata ChatShop and Bata Store on Wheels, which aided the brand in serving customers better and regain momentum after the lockdown ended
• Strengthening e-commerce facilities and introduced 5,000+ styles on bata.in, while also expanding presence on marketplaces like Amazon, Myntra and Flipkart
• Scaling up home delivery services to cover more than 19,000 pin codes across India
• Curating Work from Home, Easy Wash, Fitness and Home collections for catering to customers’ altered needs.
• Launching ‘Bata Shoe Size Finder’ service, which helped in further simplifying remote shopping for customers and identifying their correct foot-size
• A robust expansion strategy, spanning Bata’s distribution network and franchise stores across Tier 3-5 towns. The company opened a total of 64 new franchise stores, taking the total 220 franchise stores

In conversation with Adgully, Anand Narang, VP - Marketing and Consumer Experience, Bata India, speaks at length about the company’s strategy during the pandemic, how they quickly adapted to digital-first operations and took a number of new digital initiatives on the social media front.

The pandemic has made everyone rethink their business strategy. How has Bata navigated through these times? How much did the brand get impacted in the last 12 months?

During the pandemic and prolonged lockdown, our employees and store teams showcased resilience and determination, and continued to serve our customers with care and passion. We were quick to put together a robust plan to regain momentum. Keeping in mind the altered consumer behaviour, we rolled out a slew of measures and scaled up omni-channel initiatives, while also adopting a ‘Digital First’ approach. From launching new hyper-local channels in order to serve our customers right at their doorstep, to ensuring strict adherence of safety norms at our retail outlets, we ensured a safe and contactless shopping experience for our customers.

We segmented our consumers into three categories – Digital Natives, Digital Adopters and Digital Novices, and accordingly customised solutions for them. For Digital Natives, people who are comfortable with technology, we enhanced our website, www.bata.in, and added 5,000+ new styles. We also focused on strengthening our presence across online marketplaces like Amazon, Myntra and Flipkart, while also scaling-up our home delivery services. For Digital Adopters, people who are gradually adapting to technology, we launched Bata ChatShop. It enables the customers to locate three nearest stores, chat and video call with store managers through WhatsApp and get their favourite styles delivered at their doorstep.

For the Digital Novices like the elderly, homemakers and children, we set up mobile kiosks called Bata Store on Wheels, equipped with an array of different products, in residential localities across the country. All of these kiosks were equipped to process digital payments for the convenience of our customers.

We also leveraged technology to launch ‘Bata Shoe Size Finder’ service, which helped us in further simplifying remote shopping for customers and providing assistance in remotely identifying their correct foot-size.

These measures aided us in reviving our sales after the first lockdown ended and we were better equipped to deal with the second wave as we already had all the necessary systems in place. In fact, sales through digitally enabled channels have grown by three times in the last one year to reach 15% of overall sales.

In a category like yours, distribution and reach are very important. How are you managing your supply chain and how did you bring in e-commerce as an alternate channel to reach your end customers?

Owing to our four manufacturing units in the country, our supply network has always been strong. We focused on making Bata supply chain faster and more agile. Our concentrated efforts led to reduction of lead time to deliver products in our stores. With our enhanced focus on e-commerce and distribution channels, Bata products are now available in 800-1000 towns across 30,000 MBOs.

With COVID-19 cases surging in bigger metros and ensuing lockdowns, people living in smaller towns started looking for trusted brands in their own vicinity. Hence, we continued to expand our brick and mortar network through the franchise route and opened a total of 64 franchise stores across smaller towns and cities, taking the total to 220 franchise stores. We also added 18 new company-owned stores during the last one year. Our focussed approach has allowed us to serve our customers living in remote areas despite the challenging circumstances.

What kind of product innovations have you introduced during this period? Have you launched any new product offerings keeping in mind the pandemic situation?

With people staying homebound for the better part of the year and working from home, we were prompt in anticipating their inclination towards casual and active wear. This insight led us to curate collections like ‘Work from Home’, ‘Easy Wash’, ‘Fitness at Home’ and ‘Relaxed Workwear’ to cater to our customers’ altered needs. The collections were well received by our customers, and we have witnessed a consistent rise in demand for casual and active wear since the lockdown. Last year, we also forayed into the health and hygiene category for the first time with the launch of anti-viral face masks under our Power, Bubblegummers and North Star brands.

How did you engage with your customers to stay top of mind? Tell us more about the campaign ‘Kick Out 2020’ and ‘Relaxed Workwear’ and what kind of social media strategy have you adopted?

The current challenging times are a testimony to the fact that staying on top of mind largely impacts consumer purchase behaviour; more so now than ever as brands compete to establish consumer connect and offer practical solutions. As a customer-centric organisation, Bata has always kept pace with the changing customer preferences and catered to their evolving functional and emotional requirements. The two campaigns – ‘Kick Out 2020’ and ‘Relaxed Workwear’ – were developed keeping in mind how 2020 affected everyone and altered their shopping behaviour and product preferences. We addressed the negativity due to the pandemic by urging the consumers to #KickOut2020 and harness positivity and rejoice in their own ways.

The Relaxed Workwear campaign was all about realising the consumer apprehensions of finally adjusting to a work from home set-up and then being asked to step out again; we wanted to aid them as allies during this transition. We identified their need for a more comfortable workwear and offered the much-sought reassurance and inspiration with home-like comfort.

Our social media focuses on inspiring consumers with new trends, styles and occasions to make discovery easier and engaging about our footwear and accessories. We also listen to consumers actively and pick up early trends for product innovation and use it for online reputation management. We use moment marketing to engage with fans and be with them the moment just like friends.

How has the market responded to Bata’s antiviral and antibacterial masks?

Masks have become the most essential weapon in our armour to fight COVID-19. We decided to venture into the health and hygiene category to cater to the society’s current needs and requirements, aid everyone to be well-equipped in our on-going fight against the virus. The anti-viral face masks were received very well by our customers, and have now become an integral part of our portfolio.

You also undertook some CSR initiatives by distributing free meals and shoes to frontline workers. How was the response and will you be having sustained CSR activities on an ongoing basis?

As a responsible brand, we’ve always believed in the businesses’ ability to enact positive change. Being there for the community and helping out in whatever way we can has been a part of our very ethos since the beginning. This time, too, we wanted to do everything possible within our capacity to safeguard the health and safety of the frontline workers through meaningful actions. Our Batanagar employees distributed 110,000 meals to the under-served and as part of our one million global shoe donation drive, we donated 200,000 pairs along with COVID-19 relief support by providing hygiene kits, masks, face-shields. We continue to support local communities both on an active and emerging requirement basis.

(Edited and additional inputs by Shanta Saikia.)