Next Gen of Indian Big Bazaars

Haven't you always associated hypermarket with ticking-out-your-grocery list, standing in a long queue to pay while running your eyes around and wondering what you must have missed because you don't want to land in this whole mundane experience any time soon? Think again because landing in Big Bazaar Gen Next definitely offers you a whole new experience of taking care of your list.

The second store after Mumbai's Infiniti Mall, has recently opened in Noida's most talked-about Mall of India. Being part of a folio of 350 brands in one mall, the 55,000 sq. ft. store is conveniently segmented into three sections: Fashion, Food and Home & Electronics. The brand new identity, through kept identifiable, has been updated with the infusing of colours rendered in changing light kinetics in the store front sign. The store entry hosts a prominent'Digital Hub' that features a large digital LED screen to display brand communication messages and imagery. This, soon to be interactive, screen introduces the new mission of the proud Indian brand through imagery and key copy that reads as'Making India Beautiful'.

The store design concept for the Fashion Zone has been updated to a much younger and global one to reflect a lifestyle positioning of its value fashion offerings through interior design and visual merchandising. "A seamless vertical space broken by storytelling planograms and dynamic digital walls complemented with warm lighting with each angle contextual to the merchandise or display, large cluster of mannequins grouped into stories create theatre, product clarity and authority. Floorings are also different for three different section,” Kapoor informed. The fashion zone also features a large beauty and health zone presented with a differentiated environment design and imagery.

The design concept for the Food Zone has been contemporised with inspirations from the new age culinary world. A dominant space is dedicated for this zone featuring a wider assortment of a variety of specialty food anchored by an open live kitchen. The pick-and-go food services offer the added convenience to the shopping experience. To facilitate a superior front-end food experience a very large area of 3000 sq. ft. of area has been carved out for the back-end kitchen. A large promotional area has been dedicated to the'theatre of food' where food displays add to the gourmet food market environment. The store design follows the latest trends of minimalistic highlight feature elements to differentiate the Food Zone, Kapoor explained, "The food has integrated in design aspects of creativity with of integration of materials that are modern yet warm. Set-ups like chillers, freezers, roti makers serviced by a conveyor belt etc present communication through infographics.”

The Home & Electronics Zone is laid out conveniently in a large space of 10000 sq. ft. area methodically demarcated for different categories it offers. Each of these spaces have clearly signed individual entries with fixtures design and layout for very convenient engagement with the products offered.

The services offered in the Service Zone at the store exit are innovative first-of-its-kind initiatives for the convenience of the new age shopper designed from extensive study of the new age consumer and their experience expectations across other service channels. Kapoor explains, "We have also introduced path-breaking concepts like sit-down billings that have yet not been explored anywhere in the world.'Wait-and-cash' is an issue throughout the world's departmental stores and hypermarkets. We have token-system like banks where customers can lounge around in the specially dedicated space. The idea is to increase the efficiency without reducing the number of checkouts. Checkouts are complimented with customer seva concierge with host of innovative services”.

This is just the first of three phases of the of the new Big Bazaar Gen Next store concept. The next phases are planned to progress with the introduction of interactivity in the Digital Hub screen with lot more innovations added in customer convenience and experience in-store. Vishal explains, "The technology integration is purely keeping in mind the focus on complimenting human experiences and not as a forced cold element. Right from "ping” bell which will alert the nearest sales staff to digital shelf-talkers, virtual trials rooms, brand's digital spaces are leading to integration of the concept of'endless aisles' and interaction screens. Not to forget that we are also experimenting with multi-sensory elements of smells and tastes. We hope to create a new benchmark of integrated shopping experience,” Kapoor informed.

Talking about the thought behind the futuristic hypermarket experience, Vishal Kapoor, Chief Design Officer, Future Group, explained, , "The store is a culmination of our past learnings with our vision of future. From a market cluttered with price-driven mundane models, we have moved towards an experience-driven model. The fast-evolving consumer behaviour, social and economic environment supplemented by technology have been key backgrounds of this next gen experience.”