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Print customised greeting cards, sip your favourite brew, browse books and music, courier that parcel pronto, pay your mobile bill, check out the latest laptop or pick up your stationery needs. All under one roof…
Office Linc, a 4,000-sq-ft “revolutionary hybrid retail” format from the house of Linc, launched in Millennium City, Sector V, is a multi-brand stationery superstore offering a wide range of office products and services — from pins to laptops, cellular connection to financial advice — incorporating specialised channel partners.
“This is the first time in India that channel partners like Airtel, DHL & Blue Dart, Microsoft, MusicWorld and Book Cellar are housed under one roof, offering a shopping experience that combines superstore selection and pricing with pro-shop service in an interactive environment,” explains Amit Mohta, general manager, Linc Retail Ltd.
The experimental retail enterprise in the IT hub is designed on the lines of US giant chains like Staples, Office Max or Office Depot, stocking office supplies and stationery across 26 product categories, aiming to tap the Rs 600-crore organised office retail market with a one-stop destination.
“It’s really the first family business centre in the country, where every member of the family could satisfy his/her needs — from photocopying to picking up personalised souvenirs for gifts, recharging mobile phones to checking out chartbusters. The channel partners, with their support, make the business model more robust,” says Mohta.
The partners reciprocate this buoyancy. “We are delighted to align with Office Linc and consider this an extension of our retail strategy, to go all the way to meet customer expectations,” says Chandrashekhar Pitre, head of marketing, DHL Express.
Linc Retail, which feels the different categories of in-store products and services — “from coffee to Xbox” — will give the customer more reasons to come back, is planning four to five such anchor outlets in town, each designed to become a chill-out destination.
Office Linc will also offer a call-centre facility for corporate houses with a special catalogue to place orders and the closest store will deliver the supplies. “It’s like a fancy warehouse format,” says Mohta.
“Linc Retail Ltd has been formed with the notion that retailing of stationery is altogether a different business than manufacturing and marketing of writing instruments,” says Deepak Jalan, managing director, Linc Pen & Plastics Ltd.