Sofa Shopping
Retail shopping can be open ended and never ending. Especially, if the product is high involvement, customized for space and has a long gratification cycle. I visited two stores in Jaipur - Wooden Street and Godrej Interio for sofa at home.
Setting aside the specifics of design, value proposition of the two brands, I had two interesting observations.
Wooden Street - New vs Repeat Purchase
The sales representative at Wooden Street, C Scheme, Jaipur asked me for my mobile number and pulled up the previous purchases, queries for my account. He then customized his pitch depending on my previous purchases. Like a new business would, he customized the sales process for me.
Godrej Interio - Old Guard
Also visited the Godrej Interio store in Jaipur. This Godrej store is a company owned store and others in Jaipur might be franchise stores. Since the old & outgoing sofa is also Godrej, I asked the sales representative to help me find a buyer for it. In fairness, he told me that he can try but cannot promise.
Both the stores bring a unique value proposition for the customers but operate so differently. The newness of Wooden Street in product, pitch, sales, customer satisfaction stacks up quite well against the trust and brand of Godrej.
