IT and SCM of Croma
IT and SCM of Croma
Automation and IT are a fundamental pillar in the operations of Croma as a consumer electronics
retailer, functioning at an omni-channel level. When Croma talks about leveraging technologies to
build up their customer base, to make their processes efficient, to manage orders & inventories and to
create a competitive advantage, it focusses on developing an ideal retail environment where
technology walks hand-in-hand with all the retail concepts like Supply Chain Management, retail
channel, price, promotion and customer relationships. They want to achieve the tag of ‘PHYGITAL’
– presence in both online and offline, and using IT, they are keen to make it a reality.
Some of the latest technologies and software used by the employees at Croma (Infiniti Retail) include
SAP IS Retail, Oracle, E-biz, SAP Hybris 6.7, Sterling Order Management System, and RPA.
We look at the impact that it has created from the viewpoint of:
Customer Engagement & service
To understand the customer analytics and trends, they use the capabilities provided by Tata
IQ services, one of the companies of the TATA group. This keeps the load off from the
Infiniti Retail team on keeping tracks and light on technology.
They also MIS, Data visualization and data mining to study customer behaviour and
preferences.
E-tailing and omni-channel
They use an Enterprise-grade Order Management System that will maintain and keep track of
a single inventory for all the channels – online, stores, marketplace and mobile.
This would help in reducing any channel conflict over order fulfilment and multiple inventory
management.
It also helps in customer order fulfilment of any online/offline order from any store at any
place.
Offline Sales
They have implemented a mechanism called “Endless Aisle Mechanism” where if the
customer is looking to purchase a product and that is not in there in the store that she has
visited, the sales associates can lookup inventory of nearby stores and based on availability
through promise delivery.
This prevents any lost sales at the offline stores and in fact it utilizes the online mechanism to
place the order for the customer similar to the concept of showrooming.
Strengths
1. They have already prepared themselves for the growing customer base by having a
Centralized Order Management System.
2. They have improved the technologies at the offline stores in order to make it attractive and
effective at the same time to prevent any lost sales or customer dissatisfaction.
3. They have IT backing up the customer related information and insights that is very useful for
consumer retailing to predict demand and trends. They have good idea on the range of
assortments that would be required by the customers.
4. Afore-mentioned applications of technology and IT.
Weaknesses
1. They have failed to replicate the improvements made at the offline stores, on the online front
especially the checkout mechanism at the website, which does not seem to enforce the
concepts of e-SERVQUAL and e-recovery SERVQUAL models (Model 1). In terms of the
attributes,
Efficiency (E) – Poor
Their site is very difficult to navigate, products are not easily found and overall is not well
organized. Their website has been created using ready-made website templates leading to
poor performance and vertical alignment of contents.
Availability (A) – Poor
Most of the popular products are in stock but fast-moving electronics like trimmers which are
in demand these days are not in stock sometimes. Other products are also not in stock and the
inventories are not updated frequently. Also, the site often changes the preferred store
location showing ambiguous results.
Fulfilment (F) – Medium
Orders are delivered to your doorstep or at the nearest Croma store to pick-up, but their
delivery times are more than other e-tailers like Amazon and Flipkart who are their
competitors. They do have a 3-hr delivery but is applicable on certain products and locations.
Security/Privacy (S) – High
Although there is option of cash on delivery, online payments are secure on the website and
the payment gateway is pretty straight-forward. No personal details are asked apart from the
name, DOB, gender, mobile and address during the profile creation. They ask for strong
passwords to prevent any data leak. Also, the privacy policy is stated clearly.
Responsiveness (R) – Poor
The website is very slow and not responsive when dealing with keyword searches. Their
search bar is very faulty.
Compensation (C) – Medium
The reviews online mention that complaints and defective products were provided with late
but apt compensation.
Contact (C) – Poor
The main problem with their online customer service is the contact mechanism as their main
medium of contact is through complaint mails. They do have a chat messenger but the
response time is usually 24 hrs which is not fast as per new standards. On call service also
seem slow and request to clarify the queries in 1-2 working days.
2. In times of the COVID crisis and growing trend of online retailing, the investments made at
the offline stores have gone to waste temporarily and Croma has failed to implement AI based
systems and interactive content online that could have drawn a larger crowd. They have failed
to copy what their competitors have been doing to capture the market.
Suggestions
1. A huge investment needs to be made on the online front to improvise the online shopping
experience for the customers. Better pricing and promotion need to be followed up using
technologies like price comparison applications, attractive offers being sent to customers
through CRM and omni-channel fulfilment strategies.
2. There is a need for Infiniti retail to move to cover all the quadrants of the Information and
Fulfilment matrix – Online, Webrooming, Showrooming and offline. This requires high end
technologies in synchronization with the Centralized OMS that they have currently
implemented. (more explanation required, Deepanshu dekh lio kuch add krdio isme)
Strengths
1. Application of TOC concepts have made their forecasting and inventory management
efficient. Only few firms have used TOC to optimize their supply chain.
2. Enterprise-grade OMS helps in optimum order quantities being ordered from the consumer
electronics manufacturers.
3. Other TATA group companies support Infiniti retail in their operations and supply chain.
Weaknesses
1. There is lack of coordination in the offline and online order fulfilments despite the
Centralized Order Management System keeping track of the online and offline inventories
and demand.
2. The data necessary for the forecasting and inventory planning is not updated regularly thereby
some of the products happen to be in stock at offline stores but not in stock for online orders.