Iuiga’s challenge: Is omni-channel worth it?

• Main Authors: CHANDUKALA, Sandeep R., OSINGA, Ernst C., MITTAL, Sheetal
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2020
• Subjects: Retail; Analytics; E-commerce; Retail store; Customer acquisition; Sales analysis; Asian Studies; E-Commerce; Marketing
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/cases_coll_all/319; https://smu.sharepoint.com/sites/admin/CMP/cases/SMU-20-BATCH%20%5BPDF-Pic%5D/SMU-20-0029%20%5BIuiga's%20Challenge%5D/SMU-20-0029%20%5BIuiga%E2%80%99s%20Challenge%5D.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

Set in January 2020, the case describes Singapore-based retailer Iuiga’s omni-channel journey. Launched in May 2017 as an e-commerce only venture, Iuiga offers a curated range of high- quality products in the ‘home and living’ category at affordable prices. It sources these products from China-based original design manufacturers (ODMs), which produce for large global brands (known for their superior design, quality and hence high prices), and retails them under its own brand name at much lower and transparent prices. In May 2018, Iuiga launched a pop-up store to drive greater brand presence and customer engagement. Buoyed by the store’s runaway sales, the firm decided to adopt a longer-term brick-and-mortar retail strategy, and by December 2019, it had established nine retail stores that contributed 80% of its total sales and employed more than 40 sales people (full time and part time). It had been almost 20 months since Iuiga adopted omni-channel retailing. Looking at the latest sales and customer data, Jaslyn Chan - Head of marketing at Iuiga, wondered if going physical had been worth it, or whether the sales in the offline channel had grown at the cost of sales in the online channel. Moreover, what types of customers did the different channels attract? Should the company increase the physical footprint further? Would opening additional pop-up or brick-and-mortar stores enable more customer acquisitions and tapping of new market segments? Students will learn to appreciate the significance of data-based decision making and strategy implementation. They will be able to: 1) understand how online retailers can grow into omni-channel retailers, 2) get hands-on experience in analysing customer transaction data, 3) get hands-on experience in visualization and reporting, 4) test for cross-channel cannibalisation effects, 5) sharpen their understanding of causality, 5) learn to make managerial recommendations based on data.