SHOPPERS STOP ( HAD TO) START SOMETHING NEW !

Media is abuzz with the rebranding exercise by Shoppers ,v are not surprised with this , Shoppers has fast lost its sheen and direction , in an era that has seen a multitude of retailers enter the market ,Shoppers was neither able to position itself as a premium retailer or mass ,caught in between it was about to be crushed .The results of the last qtr that is q3( 07-08 ) was nothing short of a disaster , the writing was on the wall .

Know it all !
Shoppers stop system had an element and continues to have an aura built around it , stemming from the fact that they were the pioneers in some way of the organised retail !

MARKETING & OPERATIONS VACUUM !
This Retailer had some of the best Marketing and Operations brains working for them , people with excellent credentials , till say 2005 ,all have left for sure the vacuum is showing , haven't seen anything great on the marketing front , the loyalty program which was the strength , is another run of the mill program replicated by others too ! The operations across all stores has deteriorated ,people who have seen the operation rigour in the late 90's or early 2000 ,would notice the distinct dip in the rigour ,along with scale of operations ,control of operation has gone out of the window ( this looks like a problem with all retailers though !)

RISK AVERSE !
Shoppers other problem is not thinking BIG , see their roll out of the Home Stop , no distinct USP , nothing unique ,Shoppers can't and have the BIG thinking of say a Pantaloon group ! God , knows why didn't they get into e commerce business in a big way , although they had tested this a good 6 years back !

All that they are good at is looking at data , do all sort of analysis , so as they say paralysis wouldn't be far away , and it came with the q3 results !

not sure whether a re branding exercise would alone help , there would have to be complete overhaul and execution of the strategy at all levels