Top trends in technology

The Indian retail sector is at the upward inflection point and is playing a significant role in contributing to the growth of Indian economy.  The dramatic increase in the shopping malls, retail outlets, increased preference by consumers to do online shopping and the proliferation of smart phones have significantly contributed in evolving the retail sector in India.

The Indian retail sector faces several challenges. Unreliable and inefficient supply chain with significant shrinkage causes losses to the Indian retailers.  The SCM solutions which can improve forecasting as well as sense demand in near real time and advanced solutions that help in supply chain execution for collaboration, replenishment, inventory management and transportation management actually improve supply chain efficiencies. IT solution providers are coming up with such solutions.

Another challenge is human resource management. IT has solutions for that too. Mohan Joshi, Senior Director, Applications, Oracle India informs that Oracle has Human Capital solutions that allow retailers to effectively manage, train and retain their employees. Oracle has retailers like HyperCITY, Arvind Limited, Aditya Birla’s More and Disney Store as its clients.

The emerging technologies

With the proliferation of retail sectors and emergence and rising popularity of e-retail, there is a need for integrating a huge amount of data. To address that demand Oracle has provided retailers with Master Data Management solutions along with Business Intelligence which allows them to enhance customer service and monitor business performance, both at the store and corporate level.

There is also need for insight driven merchandising which can really help Indian retailers to improve their product margins. Such merchandising operations management and merchandising analytics improve product pricing and store performance.

Offering in-store technology to allow consumers interact with products and brands is a vital part in enhancing the retail experience. In-store technologies like mobile applications, Quick Response (QR) codes, etc are playing an important role in providing detailed information, offers and customised promotions to individual customers. Retailers can strategically provide access to product and store information for a “seamless customer experience” to boost consumers’ loyalty and subsequent increase in sales. Finally, in-store applications create unique shopping experiences that encourage customers to know more about the product browse and influence their final purchasing decision.

Furthermore, a consumer’s experience in the physical store plays an important role in final purchasing decision and retailers must combine the best in-store, online and mobile services offerings to provide seamless cross-channel experiences.

Today’s consumers are smarter. They are highly empowered with information and consequently have very high expectations with respect to the price, quality and service and the overall shopping experience. 

Retailers need to take cognizance of these expectations and look at their entire business model holistically, but from a consumer’s point of view. Top retailers have already adopted a leading-practice model that includes data-driven personalised marketing, meaningful customer interactions, communicating a single consistent brand message and also investing heavily in cross channel commerce solutions.

“IBM Smarter Commerce solutions have the ability to impact every aspect of the consumer’s shopping process right from awareness to after-sales service,” informs Sridhar Hari, Smarter Commerce Leader, SWG, IBM India/SA. IBM’s Smarter Commerce solutions help addresses a retailer’s requirements to meet the demands of the consumer during the entire shopping cycle that spans multiple channels and touchpoints. While describing its features, Sridhar further adds, “Our solutions provide cross-channel commerce, digital marketing, social and web analytics, order management and fulfillment as well as sourcing and supply chain optimisation capabilities. In other words, the entire gamut of solutions required to provide a seamless shopping experience to consumers is what Smarter Commerce delivers.” More than 2000 leading brands, many of them retailers, around the world have adopted Smarter Commerce solutions. Crocs, a leading manufacturer and retailer, famous for their extremely comfortable casual footwear is using Smarter Commerce to transform their fulfillment and supply chain operations so that their internet customer orders are filled with nearly 100% accuracy through their network of suppliers at the lowest cost. Another great example is Boots, a leading UK based pharmacy retailer, is using Smarter Commerce to send out highly optimised offers to their loyalty programme members that have led to increased conversion rates and profitability. These retailers are seeing immense value from these solutions in various areas such as digital marketing, customer analytics, cross channel commerce, vendor collaboration, sourcing & procurement and supply chain.

Innovation in the internet and mobile devices has revolutionised the way businesses are conducted today. Oracle has developed advanced software components for seamless cross-channel customer interaction which includes e-commerce, personalised search and navigation, live help and optimised merchandising, which brings world class processes to Indian retailers.

Scalability of applications

“The applications built on open industry and technology are ideal for heterogeneous computing environments. This gives customers the freedom to easily extend products or integrate them with any third-party applications.  This kind of approach also allows the IT department to align their systems with changing operational needs quickly and enable business with a quick turnaround time,” opines Joshi.

Marketing as a Service

Good marketing is service and good service is marketing. The next generation of marketing’s responsibilities should include building awareness, generating demand, providing superior customer experience and also energising customers. Sridhar reflects, “Marketers must ensure that their brands have a continuous and engaging dialogue with their customers at all stages of the marketing lifecycle. Ultimately a marketer will be measured on how effectively they leverage customer insight to deliver immersive and engaging brand experiences, and at the same time how it is done in a consistent and efficient manner across channels and touchpoints.”

The future trend

Now, consumers have the ability to share information with anyone in the world, on a real-time basis through social networking tools. Today, the dynamics between the buyer or consumer and the seller or retailer have dramatically changed in the last few years, resulting in a very challenging operating environment for brands and retailers.