Nitin Chhabra on how Ace Turtle is transcending boundaries & reshaping retail narrative

Considered a pioneering tech-native retail company, Ace Turtle has been redefining the retail landscape, orchestrating a symphony of innovation and consumer-centricity. Based in the bustling hubs of Bengaluru and Singapore, the organisation orchestrates a seamless fusion of design, local manufacturing, and marketing, converging to directly engage with consumers. Ace Turtle holds the exclusive licenses for globally revered brands such as Lee, Wrangler, Toys”R”Us, Babies”R”Us, and Dockers, illuminating the retail horizon of India and South Asian markets.

In this exclusive AG Talk dialogue, Nitin Chhabra, CEO, Ace Turtle, reveals the blueprint of the company’s, charting the course of retail marketing’s evolution. With a keen eye on expansion, Chhabra unveils the brand’s omnichannel aspirations, illuminating how Ace Turtle is poised to transcend boundaries and reshape the retail narrative. Join us as we embark on a journey into the future of retail…

As the CEO of Ace Turtle, how do you envision the future of retail marketing evolving, and what innovative approaches is your team exploring to stay ahead of the curve?

I think the future of retail marketing is evolving in several ways:

• The retail landscape in India is rapidly digitizing, with an increasing number of consumers shopping online. To stay relevant, we must embrace digital transformation fully. This includes investing in robust e-commerce platforms, mobile apps, and omnichannel strategies that seamlessly integrate online and offline shopping experiences.
• With the abundance of data available today, personalized marketing is becoming essential. By leveraging customer data, AI, and machine learning algorithms, we can tailor marketing messages and offers to individual preferences and behaviors, enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty.
• AR and VR technologies offer exciting opportunities to revolutionize the retail experience. By allowing customers to visualize products in their own environment (AR) or experience virtual stores (VR), we can enhance our engagement and drive sales.
• Social media platforms are increasingly becoming shopping destinations. By leveraging social commerce features such as shoppable posts, live shopping, and influencer partnerships, we can tap into the immense potential of social media to reach and convert customers.
• Messaging apps and chatbots are transforming how customers interact with brands. By offering customer support, product recommendations, and even completing purchases through messaging platforms, we can provide a more convenient and personalized shopping experience.
• To stay ahead of the curve, we are exploring several innovative approaches:
• We are a technology-native retail company. We write our own code to solve legacy problems in retail. We don’t have a sales team in the organization as we don’t sell to anyone.
• We are investing in advanced analytics, AI, and machine learning to gain deeper insights into customer behavior and preferences, enabling us to deliver more personalized experiences.
• We believe in targeted marketing activities. Our focus is more on digital and performance marketing where we can get the data on impact. The marketing efforts are ROI-oriented and meant to build awareness and enhance consideration for our brands among Indian consumers.
• We encourage creativity and experimentation within our organization, empowering employees to propose and implement innovative ideas that drive business growth and customer satisfaction. We try out 6-7 things every quarter. If 3-4 things work well for us, we think we had a good quarter.This is critical for our company as we are building cutting-edge technology platforms and applications to solve problems in Indian retail industry that are unprecedented.

Recently, in an interview you revealed that the brand has plans of opening 100 outlets by 2025. Could you share the details about this?

We currently have over 110 mono brand retail stores across our portfolio. In FY2025, we are going to expand further. We are targeting 100 additional stores in the current fiscal. We are looking to add 50 stores for Lee and 50 for Wrangler. For Toys“R"Us, we will have 12 stores by December 2024. We launched Dockers in February this year. In 2024, we are looking at opening five stores of Dockers and in about two odd years, the target is to reach 20 stores.

Ace Turtle is known for its innovative approach to omni-channel retail. What are some recent advancements or marketing strategies the company has implemented to enhance the seamless integration of online and offline retail experiences?

As India’s leading technology-native retail company, our goal is to spearhead the Indian retail industry’s next phase of transformation. Rubicon, our proprietary tech platform, has played a crucial role in bridging the gap between online and offline retail channels. Rubicon enables us to have a single view of the distributed inventory for our brands. This means that even if the consumer does not find the product of one’s choice at the brick-and-mortar store, h/she can either order it from another outlet or from the webshop. The consumer also has the option of having the order delivered to the doorstep, or of picking it up at the store.

Availability has emerged as one of the key differentiators in the retail world, and it is imperative that we take steps to ensure that all products listed in our portfolio are adequately stocked. Rubicon has enabled us to automate tasks such as stock replenishment, which has helped us to reduce instances of non-availability of products. The store inventory is not captive to the walk-in customer and is catalogued and made available across all channels (web shop, stores and online marketplaces) to our customers.

With the rise of digital-first consumers, how does Ace Turtle leverage data analytics and technology to better understand customer behaviour and preferences, ultimately improving personalized shopping experiences?

We are working on emerging technologies such as AI and Data Analytics to drive business growth. For example, we are working on video analytics using machine learning (ML). This can help us to capture footfalls and unique visitors to our offline stores accurately for actionable insights.It also has multiple applications in terms of real-time data processing, gender analysis, anomaly detection, etc. We are also using Data Analytics, AI and ML to build an offline funnel, demand forecasting, chatbot for Toys”R”Us webshop and Automatic catalog descriptions. All these initiatives have helped us to understand customer behaviour and preferences and provide personalized shopping experiences to them.

How does Ace Turtle with its wide portfolio of Wrangler, Lee, Dockers etc differentiate its brands, and what unique value proposition does it offer to consumers?

We are vertically integrated from design, local manufacturing and marketing to reach consumers directly. Ace Turtle is powered by its proprietary technology which uses data science from design to fulfilment to meet ever-evolving consumer expectations. Our brands are distinct from each other with their unique value propositions. We have dedicated teams managing these brands in India. You can think of Ace Turtle as the umbrella brand under which all the licensed global brands operate in India.

We leverage our global access to lines and trends, empowering our in-house design team in India to craft collections tailored specifically for the Indian audience. Drawing inspiration from global trends, we utilize algorithms to analyze local purchase patterns, enabling us to replicate and offer products that resonate with consumers in real-time.

What sets our brands Lee and Wrangler apart in the market are several distinctive factors. We provide a seamless shopping experience by making all Lee and Wrangler products accessible across online marketplaces, brand webshops, and retail stores, ensuring consistent pricing and a unified customer experience. This omnichannel approach allows consumers to order from our webshops and conveniently receive deliveries from nearby retail outlets, fostering synergy between these channels. Moreover, we uphold stringent quality and design standards, adhering to global benchmarks to deliver products of exceptional quality and appeal.

In a landscape where customer experience is paramount, how does Ace Turtle prioritize creating memorable interactions at every touchpoint along the customer journey?

We have deployed several in-store technologies, reshaping the traditional shopping experience across our retail spaces. Smart mirrors at our Lee and Wrangler flagship stores dynamically identify items brought in by customers, offering real-time suggestions for an enriched fitting room encounter. Electronic Shelf Labels (ESL) at all our stores (Lee, Wrangler, Toys”R”Us and Dockers) ensure a cohesive view of inventory and pricing, providing customers with instant updates on discounts and promotions. The Endless Aisles seamlessly bridge online and offline channels, enabling flexible ordering and pickup options.

Meanwhile, the Wrangler flagship store in Indiranagar, Bengaluru showcases an augmented reality (AR) mural, captivating customers with an interactive visual experience. Complementing this, Wrangler’s AR-enabled smart mirrors transcend traditional fittings, offering personalised recommendations. We have also integrated QR codes into the store’s sale windows, which is a simplified way of integrating technology. This comprehensive integration of smart mirrors, ESL, Endless Aisle, and AR technologies is one of the steps taken by ace turtle to blend innovation seamlessly with consumer engagement.

Could you share a recent successful marketing campaign or initiative by Ace Turtle that effectively captured consumer attention and drove tangible business results? What were the key factors that contributed to its success?

For us, it is vital that our marketing and advertising campaigns for Wrangler reflect our core beliefs. Wrangler is an American icon that celebrates the spirit of people who work hard, have fun and recognise courageous individuality. Wrangler has represented genuine style and comfort since it first started making jeans in 1947. Rooted in the American West, the brand blends a rich legacy with a commitment to unmatched quality and timeless design. Wrangler’s innovative collections look and feel great – making consumers ready for life, every day.

Our target consumers are primarily in the 18-35 age group. In India, Smriti Mandhana is the brand ambassador of Wrangler. Given that Wrangler has for a long time been associated with adventure, and sport, we feel that having someone like Smriti Mandhana as the face of thebrand enhances the effectiveness of the marketing strategy.

During the Cricket World Cup 2023, we ran the “What Shapes You, Makes You” campaign for Wrangler. Our objective was to bring out the association between Wrangler and Smriti Mandhana with an integrated communication approach, driving greater consideration for the brand. The campaign became our means to show this resilience through a pair of denim that have endured with Smriti Mandhana – being a constant and shaping her to what she is today. We highlighted how investing in a Wrangler is investing in a relationship that becomes an integral part of our consumers, and ultimately defines them. The campaign delved into a rich backstory of innovation and consumer engagement.

As an organization, we at ace turtle believe in targeted marketing activities. Our focus is more on digital and performance marketing. The marketing efforts are ROI-oriented and meant to build awareness and enhance consideration for the brands among Indian consumers. True to its adventure spirits, we organize engagement activities with our core consumer groups across cities for Wrangler. For example, specially curated events at our stores for biking groups.