619 Stakeholder Interviews, 50+ Competitor Brands, and 8 Insights for Polycab's Web Experience

Polycab needed to identify the drivers behind building a world-class web experience for every stakeholder in its ecosystem, not just end customers. The brief was to identify the greater brand purpose behind the redesign, and to deliver best-in-class design, experience, and solutions built on real stakeholder input rather than internal assumption.

ibs Fulcro ran a structured four-phase process: identify every stakeholder group across internal leadership and external business partners and consumers, gather in-person and phone interviews to capture vision and expectations, identify a prioritized wishlist of features from those insights, and map every feature against the collected vision.

Product categorization was built directly from the interview findings, structured around how products would actually need to be presented to different end users on the site: Cables, Telecom, International, Dowell's, Wires, Switches, Switchgears, Conduits, HOHM (Home Automation and Smart Homes), FMEG, Lighting and Luminaires, Fans, Appliances, Pumps, and Solar. This categorization was also used to structure how insights and features were subsequently captured across the audit.

Rather than paraphrase internal ambition into generic strategy language, the research captured direct stakeholder statements. A recurring theme was category leadership: "For me success is, if anybody in India or Globally, when they think about anything to do with electricals, they should think Polycab." Another was radical personalization: "[Every] individual user should feel that this website is made for him."

Transparency with trade partners came up repeatedly: "We should be transparent with our partners, show them their earning potential." And product depth was a clear expectation: "Our website should have so much detail, that before you purchase a good, you should understand everything about everything you should consider when you purchase an electrical good, and end it with, why Polycab?"

Safety and trust were framed in specific, human terms: "Safety is paramount. An electrician goes to work when a lady is alone in the house. She should be able to trust confidently." And sustainability came with real category nuance: "India is a net importer of copper, and yet our standards make us put more copper than necessary for some uses."

External interviews revealed practical, often blunt feedback that internal stakeholders couldn't have generated on their own. Several requests were explicit and specific: "I want to be able to have someone manage my whole house wiring as a project, like Asian Paints." Others pushed back on assumptions about content format: "Teach us to repair products, that's what customers prefer, rather than a new fan," and "Hamme video deejiye, videos easy hai to understand" (give us videos, they're easier to understand).

One electrician's comment captured a genuine trust gap in the category: "How to verify what my electrician told me? Is this the correct price?" And one retailer's comment reframed the entire commercial ask: "Schemes and pricing are fine, but help me increase my sales, bulk orders, online shopping." Consumers were direct about visual expectations: "Customers want to see what a product looks like in their room. Visuals are key," and about the stakes of the category itself: "Wires, switchgears, is not one and done. It has to keep my family safe."

The stakeholder interviews generated over 200 individually requested features. These were deduplicated and prioritized down to 93 candidate features, then distilled into 8 core insights that together define the vision for the new website.

The 8 insights were translated into specific features mapped across all five stages of the consumer journey: Awareness (help consumers experience the offering through tools and interaction, not just messaging), Consideration (provide the means to critically evaluate products and services favorably), Purchase (simple, direct purchase paths for both B2B and B2C), Post-Purchase (outstanding support and relationship management), and Advocacy (create delight that drives repeat purchase, word of mouth, and referrals).