THE ‘In & Out’ CONCEPT

The Indian Petroleum retailing industry is today poised to make giant strides both in terms of new forecourt retailing opportunities and superior customer offerings at the retail outlet. With the onset of the post APM deregulated scenario, the spirit of competitiveness amongst the petroleum companies augurs well for the consumer with each of the companies adopting innovative ways to capture a larger part of the consumers mind share.

With the emergence of organised retailing in the country and a growing demand from consumers for a superior shopping experience, Convenience Retailing has emerged as a key business area for petroleum companies given their wide retail presence, existing customer base and strategically located sites. Convenience need gaps have been felt in various fields and research has shown that the urban consumer today seeks convenience in shopping for their basic requirements so that their precious time is reserved for more fruitful pursuits. Petrol retail outlets provide the right framework for setting up convenience retail chains where the consumer has the opportunity of combining shopping with the fuelling occasion.

Petrol stations are widely recognised to be one of the highest traffic aggregators and retail majors like hypermarkets such as Sainsbury, Tesco and Carrefour have added motor fuels in their basket of services for the convenience of their customers. Hence alongwith strategic locations, the availability of footfall in the petrol retail outlets gives petroleum retail companies the competitive advantage. Worldwide, petrol station convenience stores have developed into a serious business in itself with companies like Shell, Caltex, BP running their convenience store chains very profitably. All of them have deployed best retail practices in their stores and offer a wide range of services including laundry, postal services, courier services, fast food etc.

Realising the importance of a greater understanding of consumers’ needs and consistent with its core objective of continuously adding value to it’s customers through innovative means, Bharat Petroleum has launched its convenience retailing initiative under the “In&Out” brand. Bharat Petroleum is the 2nd largest oil marketing company in the country with over 6000 retail outlets spread across the length and breadth of the country. The In&Out chain of convenience stores is being set up in the urban markets at strategically located retail outlet sites with high customer footfalls.

THE In&Out network

The “In & Out” store at Bharat Petroleum petrol pumps, which was launched in 2001, offers a convenience proposition where a number of typical household errands are aggregated under one roof for the benefit of the customers. Today there are more than 240 In&Out stores across India, which bring in unmatched convenience at the petrol station. Strategic alliances have been formed with major brand owners and retailers in the country to further strengthen the convenience proposition.

Did you know?

• In&Out stores have a wide range of services viz., ATMs of leading Banks, Music stores from Planet M and Music World, Beverages from Pepsi, Coffee and snacks from Cafe Coffee Day and Coffee Day Xpress and a variety of impulse buys including confectionery, snacks, convenience foods, toiletries and select range of branded groceries and other FMCG products through exclusive tie-ups with such FMCG majors like ITC, Cadbury and Frito-Lay.
• In&Out stores are the first to open and last to shut in the neighbourhood
• Customers can use their PetroCard for In&Out shopping and earn valuable “Petromiles”.
• In & Out stores are the largest organized convenience store retailing chain in the country with a standardised layout across the country, with a high level of aesthetics and an ambience aimed at deriving maximum value for our alliance partners and offering consumers a revolutionary solution for attending to their daily chores.
• The In&Out stores offer Western Union Money Transfer facilities in Mumbai – Money available all the time from your near and dear ones abroad at our store
• In&Out stores offer all cellphone – recharge cards, and today with the launch of e-charge we are the first in the country to offer electronic charging of e-cards – now you can never lose your prepaid card re-charge voucher
• Have Pepsi at In&Out – anytime; if you want something more indulge in Coffee & Snacks from CAFE COFFEE DAY at select In & Out stores.
• If you want the latest music – come to the “Satellites” from Planet M and to “Unplugged” from Music World, next to your home and get top quality music cassettes and CDs.
• Pick the latest issue of India Today, Outlook and any other magazine at the store today

GENERATING EXCITEMENT
If you have come to our store in the last few weeks, you would have noticed some pioneering initiatives to attract fuel customers and non fuel customers at our store.

• BPCL is the first to pioneer the concept of “Hood talkers” in India in a few select stores in Hyderabad, Mumbai, Delhi, Jaipur, Kolkata, Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Bangalore, Coimbatore, Ernakulam and Baroda – a concept widely implemented by global oil majors.
• For the convenience of our fueling customers who have very little time, we have mobile trolleys at the fuel outlet which will bring convenience to your car
• We have implemented In-store branding across large part of our network to help you locate what you want easily
• All purchases are through computerized billing through India’s largest retail information network to help us get the products you want
• Watch out for regular promotions that are going to be run across your city network in the next two weeks! The offers are always a steal and our alliance partners too regularly chip in with exclusive promotions to make the shopping experience truly convenient and exciting!

OUR NEW ALLIANCES :

E-CHARGE
Over the past two years, one of the key learnings has been the high level of customer acceptance of the cellphone offering in our In & Out stores. Consistent customer feedback has indicated the high level of convenience perception in having made cellphone recharge cards available at the In & Out stores. With the cellular market showing manifold growth, cellphones have become a way of life and our endeavour has been to make recharge cards easily available for our customers. With our stores operating 7 days a week through extended working hours, we believe that we would be in a position to maximize convenience in this category.

E-Charge is a complete system and service provider offering “electronic delivery system” for the prepaid product industry through electronic terminals. This innovative system vertically integrates the distribution value chain by linking mobile operators with the retail channel. This service is synergistic with BPCL’s overall strategic objective of leveraging technology for optimizing customer offerings and by introducing the E-Charge service through the In & Out stores, the customer would have the convenience of purchasing recharge cards of the cellular company and denomination of his choice at any point of time. The service optimizes customer convenience, ensures complete security of the prepaid PINs and is highly scalable. The technology can also be leveraged to introduce other products like movie tickets, sporting tickets etc and services like Bill Payments etc.

We would also be working closely with E-Charge and with the mobile operators to come out with innovative consumer offers and marketing activities to create maximum value for our customers. We are happy to launch this service through our stores in Mumbai, Delhi and Hyderabad.