MAM
How virtual sales across categories improved during Covid-2019
NEW DELHI: The online sales of jewellery, used cars, and furniture segment witnessed a huge spike in terms of traffic and sales during the lockdown period, representatives from some of the most popular brands claimed in a recent panel discussion on enhancing the virtual shopping experience in the new normal, organised by AnimationXpress.com. They are also hyped about the festive season improving their sales further.
Godrej Interio SVP (B2C) Subodh Mehta said that after a slow first quarter, the brand observed an unexpected surge in virtual footfall. “In earlier days, we saw five times the demand for work-from-home furniture. People have started visiting the online stores much more and I am expecting it will only grow in the festive season. There already has been a 20 per cent uptick in sales and I am hoping November will be even better.”
He added that all retailers are now trying to improve the experience on their online platforms and promotions for Godrej Interio have mostly moved to digital. “We relied on a lot of local-digital content. We have generated a tremendous amount of leads from local geo-targeting.”
Hometown CMO Medha Tawde also agreed with Mehta and claimed that integrating their shopping channels has helped the company improve its sales. “Categories like work-from-home and storage did pretty well during the lockdown period. We grew 2-3 times in the former category. Additionally, our online ticket size has increased, clocking a 5x increase in online sales.”
De Beers India MD Sachin Jain, however, noted while there was a “dramatic dip” in diamond sales in the tier-1 markets, they saw a jump in the tier-2 and tier-3 sectors.
The speakers attributed this growth to the merging of their virtual and physical shopping experiences. Tools like video calling, virtual store walk-ins, etc have made customer conversions easier.
Carwale SVP (used cars) Abhishek Patodia highlighted that most consumers today do their research online, and when they walk into the store, they know exactly what they want.
He said, “People want to know everything about a car before they buy it and therefore the video option on our platforms is a big hit. We have witnessed a 50-70 per cent growth in our traffic in the past three months, as compared to the same period last year. Also, as the category requires a lot of involved purchases with several people having a say in the decision, the digital presence augments the shopping experience.”
Caratlane co-founder and online head Avnish Anand shared a similar view, noting that 90 per cent of the purchases in the jewellery segment still remain assisted and that’s why providing experience through technology helps the sector grow.
AD Agencies
Abhay Duggal joins JioStar as director of Hindi GEC ad sales
The streaming giant brings in a seasoned revenue hand as the battle for Hindi television advertising heats up
MUMBAI: Abhay Duggal has a new desk, and JioStar has a new weapon. The media and entertainment veteran has joined JioStar as director of entertainment ad sales for Hindi general entertainment channels, adding 17 years of hard-won revenue experience to one of India’s most powerful broadcasting operations.
Duggal is no stranger to big portfolios or bruising markets. Before joining JioStar, he spent a brief stint at Republic World as deputy general manager and north regional head for ad sales. Before that, he put in three years at Enterr10 Television, where he ran the north region for Dangal TV and Dangal 2, two of India’s leading free-to-air Hindi channels. The north alone accounted for more than 50 per cent of total channel revenue on his watch, a number that tends to get attention in any sales meeting.
His longest stint was at Zee Entertainment Enterprises, where he spent over six years rising to associate director of sales. There he commanded the Hindi movies cluster across seven channels, owned more than half of north India’s revenue across flagship properties including Zee TV and &TV, and closed marquee sponsorships across the Indian Premier League, Zee Rishtey Awards and Dance India Dance. He also handled monetisation for the English movies and entertainment cluster and the global news channel WION, a portfolio that would stretch most sales teams twice his size.
Earlier in his career Duggal closed what was then a Rs 3 crore single deal at Reliance Broadcast Network, one of the largest in Indian radio at the time, before that he helped launch and monetise JAINHITS, India’s first HITS-based cable and satellite platform.
His edge, by his own account, lies in marrying data and instinct: translating audience trends, inventory signals and client demands into long-term partnerships built on cost-per-rating-point discipline rather than short-term deal chasing. In a media landscape being reshaped by streaming, fragmented attention and AI-driven advertising, that kind of rigour is increasingly rare and increasingly valuable.
JioStar, which blends the scale of Reliance’s Jio platform with the content firepower of Star, is doubling down on its advertising business at precisely the moment the Hindi GEC market is getting more competitive. Bringing in someone who has spent nearly two decades doing exactly this, across some of India’s most watched channels, is a pointed statement of intent. Duggal has spent his career turning audiences into revenue. JioStar is clearly betting he can do it again, and bigger.
