Good things come in small packages

Walking into a store that looks like a mystery shop out of a Harry Potter episode always nudges our curiosity.

The fact that one store can have so many elements that the work put into it is hard to miss. Having to constantly stay abreast of competition and keep a finger on shoppers’ pulses at all times is no easy task!

Gunjan Agarwal, one of the partners of The Orange Bicycle, an avant garde store that’s just made its entry into Bangalore’s retail sector, says, “Working with 70 vendors who come in from different parts of the country is tough — we have to coordinate with the designers regularly, ensuring that they understand what we’re looking for and making sure the merchandise come on time. Even our interiors are such that it will make you fall in love instantly!”

The Orange Bicycle is ready to take on the challenge. From exotic art, accessories, home décor, furnishing, jewellery and even children’s products, the partners ensure that every product follows a particular theme — fun and unique — engaging in strict quality control to keep out mindless clutter.

A few blocks down the road is yet another interesting store, Chilli Billi. Owned by Ankita Sarangi, the store houses everything — from clothes, jewellery, shoes, and accessories to interesting home décor products. “Running a store like ours is like a 24-hour job. You have to continuously restructure the way you think as far as merchandise is concerned. You have to think of the price points, supply chain, changing trends, customer demands — it’s difficult,” she says.

Veena Nandi, co-owner, Keya Lifestyle Boutique, says that going by their target audience, which is the fashionable and well-travelled woman, the store has to regularly upgrade its range of apparel, accessories and collectibles.

“Those who come to our store are looking for high quality and exclusivity; we work very hard to stay in the spotlight when it comes to our shoppers,” she states. Veena agrees, as a store, they have to re-invent themselves always.

“When there is a new collection, we try to feature the designer as well — that’s helped us have an edge over competitors,” she says.
For Arati Monappa of Serenity Boutique, her audience is as niché as her concept! “We target customers who care for the environment. We are an eco-friendly store and only stock natural products, which is well-designed and fairly priced,” she says.

Incidentally, it requires Arati to relentlessly work towards garnering the right supplier. “We don’t enjoy economies of scale, so we have to source new products all the time. Anything we add has to be design effective, user-friendly and price sensitive,” adds Arati.

In the case of fashion designer Neetu Gupta, who started her own store, The Verandah, it is one simple mission. One has to be unique, she believes. During the process of stocking up, Neetu says, “I make sure that I can help my customers evolve along with my store. Pricing also plays an important role. As for merchandise, I choose the designer depending on whether he or she fits into the profile of the store. It’s a lot of hard work — one can’t ever be on auto-mode.”