'Customers Do Not See Shoppers Stop.com as Just Another e-commerce Site'

Sreekanth Chetlur, Chief e-commerce Officer, Shoppers Stop speaks about the three-decadeold physical-first department store chain's e-commerce journey, goals and strategies

- Mannu Mathew

With over 15 years of experience in digital, e-commerce, and omnichannel operations across diverse industries including retail, logistics, real estate, and FMCG, Sreekanth Chetlur, Chief e-Commerce Officer, has held leadership positions in both start-ups and multi-billion-dollar enterprises in the Middle East and South-East Asia including India, where he has been instrumental in delivering exceptional customer experiences and innovative solutions to address real-world challenges.

His specialities encompass e-commerce, omnichannel, product strategy, product management, digital marketing, communication, content production, process improvement, problem-solving, design thinking, building agile teams, and entrepreneurship.

At Shoppers Stop he shoulders the challenging responsibility of helping the physical-first retailer navigate the digital realm and replicate its success. The 1991-established publicly listed Shoppers Stop Ltd. operates over 107 department stores in more than 56 cities, over 7 premium home concept stores, 88 speciality beauty stores of M.A.C, Estée Lauder, Bobbi Brown, Clinique, Jo Malone, Too Faced, SSBeauty, and 23 airport doors and 10 Intune stores occupying an area of 4.1 million sq. ft.

In an exclusive interaction with Phygital, Chetlur speaks about the three-decade-old physical-first department store chain's e-commerce journey, goals, and strategies. Edited excerpts...

Tell us about Shoppers Stop's e-commerce journey.

It has been a phenomenal run. I am about to complete three years at Shoppers Stop-I joined shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic began. Since then, we have seen remarkable digital adoption by our customers. Internally, we have experienced significant change management across functions in how we approach our digital channel, lead generation, demand, and sell-throughs of certain categories.