High buzz on E-retail

The Congress brought together key policy makers, retail professionals, corporates, vendors and suppliers – both of national and international levels – for deliberations and interactions that led to the sharing of learning and knowledge, drawing attention to the best practices and promoting innovation to capture consumer interest in the e-retail segment.

The Congress presented itself as an opportunity for bringing together ministers from the telecom and IT industry, senior representatives of the central government, trade bodies, retailers, suppliers, vendors, policy makers, investment groups and stakeholders of the retail sector. It also emerged as the ideal platform for showcasing products and services to cater to the e-retail sector.

DAY ONE

Ritu Marya, Editor-in-Chief, Franchise India, presented the introductory note as she announced the two-day conference open for discussion between panelists and attendees alike. She asserted that the conference be referred to as an e-retail forum, given the fact that it was more from a consumer perspective and that it implied the science of retail. The highlight of the day was the unveiling of the ''Indian e-Retail Report 2012'', which encapsulates a comprehensive aggregation of useful research, facts and figures that address a diverse audience, helping them grasp a better understanding of a nation going digital. The report pointed out that the same is driven by the need to save time by urban India. It further pointed out that about 50-53 per cent of the demand comes from tier II and III towns.

The inaugural session was on the 360-degree overview to e-Retailing. The chief guest for this session was Dr Ajay Kumar, IAS Joint Secretary, Government of India, Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, Department of Information Technology. His areas of discussion mainly revolved around the points – the government's initiatives in this regard, which will have a significant impact on e-retail; his understanding as an outsider and factors that would impact the growth of this market. Dr Kumar discussed the advantages of GST, which will greatly address the issues of logistics and infrastructure in a country with different units of governance. He also shared that e-governance has a huge role to play in the behaviour of people in choosing buying options.

The second session focused on an outlook on the consumption trends online and the speakers for the session were Ishita Swarup, Founder and CEO, 99labels Private Limited; Peyush Bansal, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Valyoo Technologies; and Ambreesh Murthy, Founder, Pepperfry, who was also the session lead. While Swarup said they experienced 60 per cent repeat consumerism in a month, Bansal added that repeated buying is better in lifestyle categories unlike book, etc.

The third session revolved around "Optimising Your eRetail Business Venture", which had Umang Bedi, MD, Adobe Systems, as the esteemed speaker. He discussed the challenges in building eRetail – eRetail key business objectives (KBOs) disconnect to offline KBOs; failure to focus on the greatest of opportunities; dysfunctional processes and governance; and the traditional and digital divide. Bedi also briefly touched upon the areas of clarity through customer focus and understanding customer behaviour.

The fourth session was on reaching out to your market, investing in racketing and customer acquisition or maximum operational profitability. The speakers for the session were Ajay Kelkar, Chief Operating Officer, Hansa Cequity; K Vaitheeswaran, Founder and CEO, Indiaplaza.com; and Pawan Gadia, CEO, Ferns n Petals. Kelkar said data equity will rival brand equity and how companies store, transform and use their data which will become as potent a marketing tool as brand equity itself.

Answering the question of 'how do you see the space evolving', Vaitheeswaran admitted that e-retail is a high risk business. He referred to Amazon, which was the first to set up an online store (selling books) and it took three years for it to become known. It had the benefit of capital and time.

The fifth session was on "Customer Acquisition of eCommerce", on which Manish Vij, Founder, VUN Network, shared his expertise with the delegates. Vij shared '10 commandments' while referring to Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) and Lifetime Value (LTV).

The sixth session was on "How Deals and Discounts Sites Are Leading eRetail". There were four speakers for the session – Gaurav Kachru, CEO, dealsandyou; Ankur Warikoo, CEO, Groupon India; Salil Kumar, CEO, Baggittoday; and Girish Khare, CMO, rewardsport.in. Warikoo opined that in India, the biggest/best player survives and the question to be addressed is if this space is for everyone or if it is a fight between the biggest/best? Kachru said, "While deals are here to stay, I define them as value commerce." He further added that E-retail is all about creating demand, convergence of models, which is making loyalty even more difficult.

The seventh session was on the "Rules of eRetail Start-up" and the speakers for the session were Ruchir Punjabi, MD, Langoor (Australia); Nitin Padmawar, Director, Martjack ; and Anisha Singh, Founder, mydala.com. Padmawar emphasised on three points – scale the supply chain, scale the merchandise and scale the customer experience. Singh commented that the problem that merchants face today is of relevant traffic and not just window shoppers.

The last session for the day was on the topic of "Connecting the Dots", on which Neeru Sharma, Co-founder, Infibeam.com;

Anisha Singh, Founder, mydala.com; Deepak Tulsian, Vice President – Retail Gitanjali Group; and Amanpreet Singh Sohal, Vice President, Merchandising, Yebhi.com shared their exclusive viewpoints.

DAY TWO

The opening session on the second day of the conference was on "From Sourcing to Consumer Delivery – Creating a Seamless Distribution Network". The speakers of the session were Abhishek Chakraborty, Executive Director, DTDC, who was also the session lead; Pawan Gadia, CEO, Ferns n Petals; T A Krishnan, Vice President-North Region, Blue Dart; and Vivek Sharma, Sr Vice President, Rediff.com India Ltd.

Sharma commented and raised the big question if the 200 million households are actually ready for e-commerce? However, Gadia pointed out the problem of dealing with logistics related issues. He also said that documentation and road permits in tier II and tier III cities pose a challenge.

Addressing the question as to why traditional retail is growing at a fast pace as compared with e-commerce, Sharma shared his take and said brick and mortar stores service one set of consumers. An important and interesting dialogue of the session came out when the experts discussed setting up e-commerce companies setting up their own logistics network that should co-exist with the express companies.

The second session focussed on "eCommerce Opportunity for Brands". The speaker who took over the session was Muralikrishnan B, Country Manager, E-bay India Pvt Ltd.

Muralikrishnan discussed the idea as to how e-commerce websites provide a nationwide reach, implying the need of a partner who can guide you through. He took up a couple of questions, including supply credibility, digital products, handling bad reviews and payment gateways. With regards to handling bad reviews, Muralikrishnan said while one cannot really prevent bad reviews, one should make it easier for the consumer to communicate the problem by opening up multiple channels and being open.

The third session for the day was on "Scalability Economics of an eCcommerce Venture". Mahesh Murthy, Founder, Pinstorm took over the session while it turned out to be an enlightening session.

The fourth session was on "PE Funding Trends and Opportunities". The speakers for the session were Murthy, Mohanjit Jolly, MD, Draper Fisher Jurvetson India and Amit Rawal, Managing Director, Black Swan Ventures.

Jolly shared his take and mentioned the 3Ts and M – team, technology, traction and market – on the basis of which he works. Rawal shared his point of view and discussed 'KPC', wherein he explained the set of principles such as know why you're doing this; have a plan; and think about the capabilities. In a gist, Rawal referred to integrating online and offline channels, which he cited as the best option to bridge the gap, enhancing the customer experience.

The fifth session was a discussion on "Building Confidence in e-Transactions", which had the following speakers – Pranav Barthwal, Vice President, Global Merchant Services, and General Manager, American Express Banking (who was also the session lead); Prabhuram R, Co-Founder and Executive Director, EBS; Vivek Nayak, COO, Avenues India Pvt Ltd; and Sumit Chopra, Director-Operations, First Data.

Chopra described the growth of e-commerce and explained it to be informational, interactional and transactional. He also referred to the danger of 'charge-back' management and laid emphasis on partnering with the right payment processor.

The lead for the sixth session was Sanchit Gupta, Senior Analyst, Forrester Research India and the session focussed on "Connecting the Business Structure and Technical Solutions for 'Anytime, Anywhere Consumer'". The other speakers for the session were Puneet Kumar Bhatia, Director - Internet Business Solutions, CISCO; Cory York, Founder and CEO, Social Linked Digital Commerce; and Sanjiv Singh, Business Head, Invoicera. Some of the session highlights were ease of navigation and smart, clean content layout; CRM and data management; and developing onsite user generated content.

The seventh session was on "Maintaining the Cyber Laws" and was presided over by Pawan Duggal, Advocate, Supreme Court of India and Cyberlaw expert. He primarily discussed about e-retailers and their liability under the Indian Cyber Law. He discussed the Baazee case; Guruji.com case; Bank NSP case and the Umashankar case. He pointed out as to what e- retailers need/should do – due diligence under the IT Act 2000 and documentation of due diligence. If the same is not done, there could be a civil liability (up to Rs 5 crore per contravention) and criminal liability (cyber crimes made punishable from three years to life imprisonment plus a fine of up to Rs 1 lakh).

The concluding session of the conference was taken up by Dinesh Agarwal, Founder and CEO, Indiamart.com. The session focused on "Building a B2B eCommerce Business Model in India'. He drew a comparison and said when they started initially in 1996; they focused on creating a marketplace and laid emphasis on the importance of rationalising a product. However, during the next five years, they mainly focused on the realisation of client customisation requests, SEO and comprehensive product development.

The conference ended on the note that the online retail industry is evolving to create a bright commercial ecosystem. Experts believe India's e-commerce market is expected to grow from $10 billion in 2011 to $200 billion by 2020. Furthermore, nearly $350 million has been pumped into 40 e-commerce startups till the end of 2011 compared to $43 million in 11 companies in 2009.