Technology reforming India’s retail business

Technology is additionally altering the way shops do business, as they use technological know-how to optimize income and remain relevant amid severe competition.
“Retail used to be about vicinity for long, but these days retail is about technology.” — Atul Jalan, chief government officer, Manthan Systems.
Technology is growing a higher user trip and helping enhance sales at outlets — from carmakers to departmental stores.
For instance, an Indian automaker is constructing an augmented reality-based recreation for youngsters who come to their vehicle showroom. These youngsters get to collect quite a number components of the automobile and collect a mannequin of their choice. The game, developed by way of consulting and audit company Deloitte’s digital science team, makes use of excessive decision visuals and data and presents 3-dimensional views.
The concept is to nudge kids to in the end affect the family’s purchase decision, stated Ajit Kumar, Country Leader, Deloitte Digital.
Use of augmented truth and digital reality, though, is only a small example of how technological know-how is being used.
It is also altering the way outlets do business, as they use technological know-how to optimize income and stay relevant amid intense competition.
Apart from the front-desk or actual shop experience, manufacturers are improving purchaser journey post-purchase and for the duration of after-sales service, regularly developing a patron profile the use of historic records and enabling faster checkouts all through their subsequent keep visit.
In short, shops are searching to create experiences that will ultimately lead to impulse buys.
“Consumerization of technology has empowered clients to be 10-headed Ravanas (Ravana is the primary antagonist in the Hindu epic Ramayana), not a uni-dimensional entity anymore,” factors out Jalan of Manthan Systems, a Bengaluru-based information analytics organisation that has global retail customers.
The shift to digital is supporting outlets accumulate new customers, engage higher with current ones, limit costs, and enhance employee morale, according to a joint document by Deloitte and Retailers Association of India published in February.
India’s retail market is predicted to grow to $1.2 trillion by means of 2021 from $795 billion in 2017, the report points out.
As net get entry to improves and international shops set up shop, the share of equipped retail is predicted to increase to 22-25% through 2021 from 12% in 2017, it said. This will additionally be pushed via e-commerce market increase to $84 billion in 2021 from $24 billion in 2017.
India’s large retail probability may have made the united states of america a battleground for the world’s largest retailers, such as Amazon and Walmart, but mom-and-pop shops are unaware of the social shift beneath way and are struggling to stabilise businesses using time-honed instincts.
“Consumer behaviour has changed due to get admission to to smartphones, and use of apps such as WhatsApp and TikTok. The retailer is no longer in contact with this trend,” says Sridhar Gundaiah, founder and CEO of StoreKing, a corporation that helps kirana stores in villages undertake digital-led retail initiatives.
Technology helps them to check the proper inventory, manipulate the provide chain and apprehend the customer better, he says.
Around 40,000 kirana retail outlets throughout nine states, which includes Karnataka, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, have considered sales improve by means of 15% and working capital minimize by using 50% after adopting technological know-how to manipulate inventory and verify sales, according to StoreKing.
“We don’t furnish kirana retail outlets grocery or staples. That is a massive part of their business. Our wallet share is nonetheless low, but we have seen impact,” Gundaiah says.
Data is at the heart of innovation in retail, and this innovation can take location in two ways — front desk and backend support.
“All these physical shops have some type of on line presence today…At the same time, in the back workplace it is about effectivity in operation, and automating things,” said Sanchit Vir Gogia, chief executive, Greyhound Research.
For example, fashion outlets are growing on line aisles or kiosks to assist clients discover a missing measurement or colour, while additionally marrying offline and on line facts to propose a specific pattern or style to buyers.
Lifestyle Stores, owned through Lifestyle International, has put in area an “in-store endless-aisle initiative” to assist customers discover their lacking measurement on the online store.
“Technology permits manufacturers to ensure a frictionless experience from discovery to buy for the customer…,” stated Vasanth Kumar, managing director, Lifestyle International Pvt Ltd. “We have introduced ‘Click & Collect’ – an omnichannel initiative that allows customers to order online and accumulate merchandise from a save of their choice.”
The innovation, for Lifestyle, takes place across offline and online via efforts such as infinite aisles for offline to voice search online. These are primarily aimed at providing customers higher access to products.
In the backend, it solves a perennial trouble for shops — inventory management. Perpule is doing just that.
The retail technological know-how startup is making checkouts faster for buyers at some outstanding branch shops such as Big Bazaar thru an app.
Perpule has moved all the retailer’s statistics to the cloud (internet-based server), making sure real-time access. Moving the person data helps a couple of shops manipulate inventory in actual time in contrast to legacy on-premise systems, said Abhinav Pathak, co-founder, Perpule.
For retail brands, this brings down technological know-how charges and ensures payments are processed efficiently.
“The machine covers each exercise at a retail shop at cellular PoS (point of sale) and reduces the price of hardware-related capital expenditure for companies,” said Pathak, adding forty popular manufacturers have already shifted to cell PoS-based systems.
Buyers can additionally use the Perpule app to scan barcodes and make payments without waiting in line throughout predominant branch stores.
IKEA, the international DIY (do-it-yourself) fixtures brand, formerly this week opened an on line shop for Mumbai. This is their first such save model globally and aims to tap small-ticket furniture buyers who do now not have get entry to to the large retail keep yet.
It already has a big offline presence in Hyderabad and will open its 2nd save in Navi Mumbai soon.
Metro Cash and Carry, the go-to-retailer for small traders, has developed an app to carry kirana shops beneath a digital platform and streamline their transactions. It offers price selections besides a transaction fee. The app will assist small merchants track their daily and month-to-month income digitally, manipulate inventory and place orders.
Ultimately, shops are making an attempt to map a customer’s journey from offline to on line and on line to offline, in order to in the end create a robust consumer profile, Gogia of Greyhound Research said.