Marketing Orion- Group B7- Source -Retail Biz

Marks & Spencer to focus on sustainable products

With doors opening for the international retailers in the Indian market, Marks & Spencer (M&S), a leading UK based food and clothing retailer, has marked India as its single most important market. M&S has integrated a strategy named Plan A, and it plans to implement it in India to combat green challenges.

M&S Plan A is about making the brand carbon neutral by recycling clothing and packaging waste, getting raw material from sustainable sources and improving the lives of thousands of workers in their supply chain. Mr. Mike Barry, Head of Sustainable Business, Marks & Spencer said that the company sees scope for exciting new products that are sustainable and produced ethically.

At Present, M&S is working with 9,000 farmers in Warangal in Andhra Pradesh, where trainers are providing inputs to help farmers produce good quality crops with reduced usage of water and pesticides.

International Supermarket Chains Barred from e-commerce in India

The Government of India is firm on its decision to disallow e-commerce to the foreign supermarket chains that are setting up retail outlets in the country under the FDI in multi brand retail.

Large retailers like Walmart and Tesco will not be allowed to set up non-store formats such as teleshopping and mail order for business-to-consumer activity (B2C).
However, the DIPP has reportedly said that e-commerce will be permitted for business-to-business (B2B) activity.    

As per reports in the media, the terms and conditions are not yet very clear. The experts are of the opinion that these clauses could easily be circumvented by the retailers. The finer details in the freshly approved FDI policy are likely to fall in place over a few months.

EBay testing same – day Delivery Via ‘eBay Now’ Mobile App

EBay Inc is testing the latest mobile application eBay now for a same-day delivery service. EBay Inc is the US-based multinational Internet Corporation which manages the popular online auction and shopping website, ebay.com.

EBay has launched the same-day delivery service to some of its member retailers including Target, Best buy and toys us.

This unique application offers to deliver in merely an hour at the minimum. Several leading global retailers like Macys, Nordstrom, Walgreen, Crate & Barrel and Frye’s Electronics are actively taking part in the eBay now test, and have uploaded their stores inventory onto eBay’s online marketplace.

The mobile application can be downloaded on mobile devices such as Apple’s iPhone and iPad. The app can also be used to search for products to buy from local stores in and around the San Francisco area. Through this app, shoppers can locate their product in any of the stores, press on the Bring it button, and the order will be directed to the closest courier. The customers can pay via PayPal here, a new and innovative service developed by eBay’s PayPal unit. This feature accepts credit and debit card payments through a small swipe device attached to iPhones. Sellers will get user pages with the same view of their products.

Social Media holds the Future of Retail

With ever growing competition along with the emergence of new brands and product launches, consumers are now looking for new options every day. This means that today, retailers, brands and companies face some of the most arduous hindrances ever experienced in the industry. From an elementary change in the way consumers shop, to the critically increased expectations of quality service and price, it has became increasingly important for brands and marketers to create an experience for consumers rather than just fostering the aspect of one time purchases. Yashraj Vakil, CEO, Red Digital, explains the change in the retail industry with the increasing usage of social media tool.

Innovation is the key to such a phenomenon. Social media has created ample opportunities for brands via Face book, Twitter, Foursquare, Blogs and various other platforms. However even these spaces cannot escape the wrath of advertising.

“Retailers do not only have to think about expanding consumer touch-points to achieve revolutionary excellence in marketing, but also need to transform operations by creatively deploying today’s technologies to increase sales, improve customer retention and reduce costs in order to rise above competition”.