Smaller cities under scanner

Retailer: What are the new offerings HP has in its basket exclusively for the retailers?

Rajat Mehta (RM): HP provides solutions for the point of information, point of interaction and point of sales. These are the pilot launches, we never made hue and cry in the market that we have arrived with the POS system or display system. Our idea was to test the waters and see if there is a market that exists where customers can pay a premium to HP with respect to the value we were offering to the table. And in six months we have signed 14 customers. Levi’s is our client; Reliance has invested in our systems; some of them are at a pilot stage so we cannot quote them obviously, but they have invested in our products and are liking the machine. So, the different strategy that we adopted was that instead of going just for the retail point of sale, we say we go for all the three pieces. So, we have been there always as a back-end infrastructure company, now we want to be at front end. Prior to this we carried out a year-long market study.

 

Retailer: What’s so special about your offerings?

RM: Point of information includes 42 inch and 47 inch panels seen primarily in the airport, meant for 24X7 operations.  We can create a wall that is seamless with as many panels you want; so one can have a whole room of wall using multiple screens. Since one month it has been launched and we are testing it. We have intelligent solutions, such as one for apparel retailers that replace the need for going to a changing room to try different dresses. It will take the photograph of the customer and show them right there that which dress will look what on him/her. Through our solutions a retailer can do spot promotions. So sitting in Delhi, we can control the promotions in Bangalore. That capability we have now within our system. We are working with the ISP partner across the country.

 

For point of sales we’re working on cloud strategy. The idea here is instead of asking SMR (Small and Medium Retailer) to invest in the software and the hardware, we are trying to work on the cloud strategy, where he does not have to buy too much of a infrastructure. We are planning to tie up with the micro finance companies to help these retailers. Everything here, including an accessory, has a 3 year warranty and you can have call-to-repair, whereas for a big retailer like Big Bazaar, which doesn’t have downtime, we give 24X7 assistance.

 

Retailer: For this new venture of HP who are the target group?

RM: We are not just looking at the top of the league retailers. We are trying with partners to cater to every segment of the retail chain. We are targeting B and C segment cities primarily. I was amazed to see in Ahmedabad that there the adaptation of technology is much faster compared to a metro like Delhi or Bangalore. Most of our business is coming from these cities and this is a very healthy sign that the retail and innovation is penetrating into the B and C segment cities of the country.

 

Retailer: Tell us something about the implementation cost.

RM: The range starts at Rs 50,000 and goes up to Rs 1.5 lakh for the POS system. The digital signage display ranges from Rs 3-3.5 lakh. We will offer the options of monthly, quarterly and a half yearly mode of payment. The service will be an experience to my customer. So whether it’s a POS or a digital signage, we are trying to give them a complete solution which integrates the supply chain and the CRM along with the machine.

 

Retailer: What sort of market research HP conducted prior to this launch?

RM: We have visited lots of retailers and have spoken to them informally, about what kind of systems they would like, what will make them shift from their existing whitebox and so all. By this exercise we ultimately formed a strategy, which is an ecosystem strategy rather than a box strategy.

 

Retailer: How will you go about the expansion?

RM: Basically if you try to do it alone nothing happens. We are tying up with consortiums, such as the software vendors and some magazines. Magazines are the first lead in our case. Our company has been tying up with media companies for advertisements. We are co-partnering with them. So the launch function that we are planning to do in September, we want to do it with a retail magazine.

 

Retailer:  How do you foresee the growth of these offerings?

RM: We are in a disruptive technology, we have launched thin computing in India, we have done education, we have seen year on year growth of over 100 per cent. And I don’t see a reason why we cannot replicate the success again.  On a quarter on quarter basis, we are looking for a 100 per cent growth. And it’s a good piece of information that 99 per cent of market is still needed to be tapped.

Stay on top – Get the daily news from Indian Retailer in your inbox