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NOVEMBER 2015 VOL.14 NO.11 `100

RESTORE THE STORE! HARDWARE TECHNOLOGY KEEPS RETAILERS AHEAD OF THE GAME DECEMBER 10, 2015

ITC GARDENIA, BANGALORE

A Case for Less Cash

Know Your Digital Customer

Revolutionary Technology Trends in Retail

The Growth of M-Commerce & What it Means for India

Cover_IR_Nov_15_1.indd 1 11/10/2015 12:49:42 PM

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In the last decade, the retail landscape has undergone a seachange.The retail industry in India is witnessing an increased focus on leveraging technology across functions of merchandising, supply chain, store operations, omni-channel operations, customer - engagement and even corporate functions (fi nance, HR, etc.). The global retail economy is growing at an exponential pace and technology continues to act as an enabler for most enterprises.

Retail is poised to never be the same again. Innovatively thinking, new age retailer has really started recognising the potential of technology for marketing, engaging and nurturing the customers.

In this issue of IMAGES Retail, we will take a look at how technology is raising the stakes for retailers in India and helping them to stay relevent in the age of hyper personalisation and how it has become retailers lifeline to stay relevant in the fi ckle marketplace.

This time we have focused on the hardware technology in retail. The journey covered by the retailers in India has come a long way – be it in terms of product offering, shopping ambiance or billing solutions being offered. Hardware technology has had an immense role to play in all of this. Imagine making a customer wait in a queue with her shopping basket fi lled to the brim and the cashier at the checkout counter using a calculator to add the amount and computer to check on discounts applicable for the products shopped! With the advent of POS innovations, the scanning and billing today is done in a jiffy! In the cover story of November issue, we have tried to collate the thoughts of many industry experts that despite of working backstage, hardware technology providers are the ones who make things look cool when you walk into a store or for that matter for retailers who can concentrate on business expansion while they take care of everything – from offering billing solutions to display innovations to even security.

NOVEMBER 2015 • PAGES 112 • VOL. 14 NO. 11

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8 . IMAGES RETAIL . NOVEMBER 2015

NOVEMBER 2015 CONTENTS

14 INTERNATIONAL ROUNDUPGlobal retailers are treading a cautious yet focused approach on deriving more value for consumers to protect market share in an uncertain economy.

18 NATIONAL ROUNDUPApparel retailers in India seem to be on an expansion mode. While Easybuy, the new apparel retail format from Landmark group, has plans to set up 50 outlets in the next three years, US apparel brand Gap Inc is set to double its store strength in India. H&M, the Swedish retail giant has recently launched its second store in Delhi, the new store is even more bigger than the maiden store.

26 EVENT-IRF While the broad mission of the India Retail Forum (IRF) is to be the catalyst of retail development in India by connecting businesses, people, knowledge and ideas for the profi table growth of modern retail, this year the theme of IRF 2015 was ‘CAPTURING THE NEW PHYGITAL SCENARIO’ by harnessing the future of retail in the omnichannel era.

56 EVENT-MRF ‘Connect, Share, Evolve’. That was the theme of the fourth edition of the annual Middle East Retail Forum (MRF) this year, which took place on October 27-28 at the Conrad Hotel in Dubai. The reigning idea being to foster collaboration between retail businesses to connect, share knowledge and evolve.

74 RETAIL EXCELLENCE Liberty shoes is an iconic name in Indian retail industry. Anupam Bansal, Executive Director, Liberty Group provides insights on the overall operations of the company in an exclusive conversation.

80 INTERFACE While many e-commerce fi rms talk about the seemingly impossible task of achieving 100,000 premium sellers in fi ve years’ time, IndiaMART has already achieved that milestone. Dinesh Gulati, Director, IndiaMart explains how information technology is opening new vistas for SMEs across India.

82 IN CONVERSATION Saurabh Gadgil CMD of P N Gadgil Jewellers, talks about the ever growing jewellery market of India and how branded jewellers have upped the ante of this segment.

We are living in the world of Apps. From WhatsApp to mobile apps by brands and retailers, there is no boundary to one’s imagination on the number of apps available. In wake of such a software IT explosion, one may wonder to role and reach or hardware technology in retail. Often working backstage, hardware technology providers are the ones who make things look cool when you walk into a store or for that matter for retailers who can concentrate on business expansion while they take care of everything - from offering billing solutions to display innovations to even security.

62RESTORE THE STORE! HARDWARE TECHNOLOGY KEEPS RETAILERS AHEAD OF THE GAME

COVER STORY

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10 . IMAGES RETAIL . NOVEMBER 2015

NOVEMBER 2015 CONTENTS

84 EXPERT SPEAK The vision of a $10 trillion economy cannot be achieved without going cashless.Even emerging economies like Brazil and Indonesia have lower cash transaction rates than us.

86 INNOVATION Apps have become an important aspect of the digital retail ecosystem. Start up apps like Adsolv offer an platform for consumers to socialise and discuss various product categories.

88 LEGAL TALKS A sample study done by Patanjali Associates, Law Firm & Corporate

Advisors ascertained that a retail outlet employing more than 25 workmen and engaged in selling food products and operating only in the state of Maharashtra.

90 TRENDS Today’s dynamic and volatile arena of retail is characterised by e-commerce, social media, mobile technology and a multitude of players trying to maximise razor-thin margins.

90 VIEWS The future of retail isn’t what you think! Consumers today are more ‘SoLoMo’ - Social, Local and Mobile- - Social, Local and Mobile. Globally, there is a shift of multichannel retailing to ‘Omnichannel Retailing’, which describes a channel-agnostic view of how consumers-experience impacts the retail brand.

100 PERSPECTIVE The smartphone is changing the way we shop and has led to an expansion in mobile commerce (m-commerce) around the world, with particularly high growth in Asia. At this point, India is particularly ripe for an m-commerce revolution. Tech analyst Mary Meeker’s 2015 report on internet trends shows that India already accounts for the highest online traffi c via smartphones and that more smartphone users are shopping in India than even in China.

104 RETAIL SUPPORT LED lighting is the next big thing in lighting across the board and specially in the retail segment. Retail segment per se, is highly focused on “appearances” and needless to say, lighting plays possibly the most important role here. LEDs have a plethora of exciting options available for retailers to choose from. And each day brings in newer products that are more technologically superior than the earlier ones.

108 INDEX

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26 . IMAGES RETAIL . OCTOBER 2015

EVENT COVERAGE IRF

IRF 2015CAPTURING THE NEW ‘PHYGITAL’ SCENARIO While the broad mission of the India Retail Forum (IRF) is to be the catalyst of retail development in India by connecting businesses, people, knowledge and ideas for the profi table growth of modern retail, this year the theme of IRF 2015 was ‘CAPTURING THE NEW PHYGITAL SCENARIO’ by harnessing the future of retail in the omnichannel era and building the roadmap for customer centric retail organizations through technological advances, new and innovative concepts, digital and social media. All by delving deeper into the consumer minds and building a hassle free shopping environment and “wowing” the shopper with a grand experience through their purchase journey and thereafter.

Continuing from where we ended last time in this the November issue of Images Retail we present the key remaining sessions.

Report prepared by Aakil Kutty, Avik Mitra, Fazil Faruqui,

Firoza Jimmy Ranikhetwala, Nakul Singh, Rajat Chowdhary, Vivek Singh, Zeeshan Ali—Students of Institute of Technology & Management- Khargarh, under guidance of Rohita Dwivedi, Assistant Professor-Retail Marketing, Institute of Technology & Management- Khargarh; with Zainab S Kazi and Shubhra Saini from Images Retail.

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OCTOBER 2015 . IMAGES RETAIL . 27

EXPERIENTIAL RETAIL REDEFINED

Are Shopping Centres getting the retailers’ thinking right when they planning their shopping centres? When the retailers’ are planning their future channels with a growing component of omnichannel, what are the changed expectations that retailers have from the new age shopping centres? In this interesting and intriguing session, the future of retail spaces was discussed by a panel comprising leading retailers, shopping centre developers, retail real estate consultants and online retailers, as experiential retail is becoming the heart of a shopping experience.

The moderator of the discussing panel was Rohit George (MD, Xander Advisors); and the panel members included Anupam Tripasuri (Head Retail, Lodha Group), Avneet Soni (President OMAXE), David Ellis (Director, London Studio

head, BENOY), Munish Baldev (Head Retail, Unitech Ltd.), Pushpa Bector (Senior VP, DLF Mall of India), Sanjay Dutt (MD, Cushman & Wakefi ld) and Rafi que Malik (Chairman & MD Metro shoes).

The discussion was started by Rafi que Malik as he said, “The customer today is changing and we need to change according to his need to evolve with speed.”

Sanjay Dutt, said, “Developers fall short on investment, they recognize the need of the buyers but cannot respond adequately due to lack of capital.”

Pushpa Bector, felt that “Retailers are demanding and are evolved in their thought process. She also added that it is all about sales, if retailers create the revenue in-fl ows we developers will also create the infrastructure. But then despite the constraints, one should change and respect the consumer’s point of view, so we are trying to make it more consumer centric.”

David Ellis opined, “Retail is an emotional transaction, and we should build infrastructure that supports innovation.When we talk about retail we indirectly talk about the customer journey. We should invest in design as the environment is dynamic and it is worth investing.”

Munish Baldev, said,“Developers are indeed coming up with new strategies and they should always work on their strengths.” He anticipated an increase in demand for space following opening up of FDI further in retail sector. He also disclosed that realty major, “Unitech will invest up to `4,000 crore to develop 13 shopping malls over the next four years.”

L-R-Rafique Malik, Sanjay Dutt, Pushpa Bector, David Ellis, Munish Baldev, Avneet Soni, Anupam Tripasuri, Ankit Samdriya

David Ellis

Pushpa Bector

Session Partner

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62 . IMAGES RETAIL . NOVEMBER 2015

COVER STORY

By Zainab S Kazi

Aptly setting the context for the story, Nirmal Acharya, founder and chief executive offi cer – CtrlPOS Technologies Pvt. Ltd. shares, “Form

a simple traditional Cash register to a full fl ashed POS organized retail have seen and witness dramatic change in the retail Industry . Indian retailers have matured over the years and have now realized that technology plays an important and prominent roll which would help in building and providing important MIS information which would help in understanding and retaining customer by providing better informative service.” Indeed. The journey covered by the retailers in India has come a long way – be it

HARDWARE TECHNOLOGY THE UNSUNG HEROWe are living in the world of Apps. From WhatsApp to mobile apps by brands and retailers, there is no boundary to one’s imagination on the number of apps available. In wake of such a software IT explosion, one may wonder to role and reach or hardware technology in retail. Often working backstage, hardware technology providers are the ones who make things look cool when you walk into a store or for that matter for retailers who can concentrate on business expansion while they take care of everything - from offering billing solutions to display innovations to even security.

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NOVEMBER 2015 . IMAGES RETAIL . 63

retailers do have a fair understanding of technology requirements, and do seek assistance in choosing right one for their business.” Adding further on the current trends as observed in India, Lovelish Arora, International Sales Manager - Star Micronics EMEA highlights, “The current dynamics of the hardware technology in India for retail is moving towards a lot of mobile deployment and also into varied operating systems. There has been a lot of talk on Android operating system due to various factors.”

Security and RetailA leading security solution provider, Zicom has been serving Indian retailers with solutions as per their need. Be it for large format stores or single store brands. Rao encapsulates his journey and experience drawing an analysis form the trend observed internationally, “My experience is that internationally no retailer ever opens a store without a proper security system. This applies to all the retailers across Europe and the US. If any brand is opening a store, if it is chain, they have their security manuals and if it is not a large change, they shall have security that is well thought of. Security and

safety is in their DNA. One more thing is that they use technology to ensure that the loss prevention is a area where they ensure they do not lose money and loss prevention is a mission critical activity for that retailer. It is a huge area of concern and is taken seriously and this makes them go for proper security standards and manuals.” In contrast, in India, according to Rao, any form of security is installed to create fear. He adds, “The fi rst purpose is to create a fear. Loss prevention is secondary. The whole approach is that. Number two is that retailers feel that security is not an investment but an expense and that leads them to bargaining for price and deliverable. There is no standardization. If a shopkeeper wants to put a camera he gives the job to their architect and interior designers and they have their fi xes in the market. They have no knowledge. The retailer gives the architect a budget and would ask him to work in the same. It is budget driven rather than being loss driven. The concept in India is different from what we see internationally.”

nternationally no retailer ever opens a store without a proper security system. This applies to all the retailers across Europe and the US.

in terms of product offering, shopping ambiance or billing solutions being offered. Hardware technology has had an immense role to play in all of this. Imagine making a customer wait in a queue with her shopping basket fi lled to the brim and the cashier at the till using a calculator to add the amount and computer to check on discounts applicable for the products shopped! Diffi cult to even imagine ad more so face the irritation on her face, right? With the advent of POS innovations, the scanning and billing today is done in a jiffy! Shares Pramod Rao from Zicom, “At the professional level, earlier we (hardware technology providers) used to create demand and need, now retailers are quite aware. Awareness problem is over.”

Citing the dynamics seen, Nilesh Shah from Ranclab adds, “Over the years, we have observed a curve from zero budget for technology to a planned annual budget for technology. Over the time, we have seen technology adoption changing. In one of customer’s words, some 5 years back, “Let me open the store fi rst, I can buy technology at any later date”. Today, the same customer, “Let’s put the system fi rst, without it I can’t run the store anymore”. Today,

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84 . IMAGES RETAIL . NOVEMBER 2015

EXPERT SPEAK

The vision of a $10 trillion economy cannot be achieved without going cashless.Even emerging economies like Brazil and Indonesia have lower cash transaction rates than us. By Anand Ramachandran

AFOR

CASH

CASELESS

After entering the Guinness Book with International Yoga Day, the Modi Government delivered another encore. This time, it was

a seemingly more humdrum matter of digital payments. Unbelievable as it may sound, India with the largest number of software engineers in the world still relies on good old paper currency to pay for more than 90 per cent of transactions. I am reminded of the hilarious scene from the movie ‘PK’ where Aamir Khan’s character (an extraterrestrial), thinks that any paper with Mahatma Gandhi’s picture can be given as cash. Any tourist will be amazed that unlike in other developing nations, in India ‘cash is king’. Even emerging economies like Brazil and Indonesia have lower cash transaction rates than us.

extra if you pay by card’. No wonder, no Indian shopper steps out of home without a few thousand rupees in his pocket. The problem is more acute in the non-metro areas, where many of them aren’t even aware that that you can pay through cards.

So what are the downsides of cash? From the consumer perspective, the most immediate is the risk of theft. From the businessman’s perspective, the most immediate risk is counterfeit notes. There are other downsides too, like weak proof of payment, inconvenience, cash handling overheads, accounting costs etc. From a macroeconomic perspective,

The reasons for our obsession with paper cash are too numerous to dwell upon. Partly cultural (remember our garlands of cash in weddings?), partly religious (see ‘PK’ again!) and partly a problem with infrastructure. The last problem is what the government is trying to tackle. In a country of more than 50 million small businesses, less than half a million have installed card acceptance machines. And even if they have, in all probability they still encourage you to pay cash with excuses like ‘line is not working’ or ‘machine out of order’. Some high-value merchants like jewellers go a step further and charge ‘2 per cent

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INNOVATION

86 . IMAGES RETAIL . NOVEMBER 2015

The IdeaHaving worked in the software and retail industry for several years, Santosh Sagar Reddy, Co- Founder at Adsolv, had realised the various disadvantages that consumers encountered while shopping on a digital as a well as physical retail space. Broken experiences have always been overlooked by retailers as they do not interact nor do they know their frequent buyers shopping aspirations on a personal level.

Explained Reddy, “What I realised is that some companies did well on the e-commerce side and others did excellent in offl ine medium. Now a person sitting in a village can access the latest products that ShoppersStop has to offer online, but there are multiple channels that take me a long time to search for the product that I want. By the end of the day, the one device that all people congregate on is the mobile phone. This is the gateway

Apps have become an important aspect of the digital retail ecosystem. Start up apps like Adsolv offer an platform for consumers to socialise and discuss various product categories. A person who believes that shopping is infl uenced tremendously through ones own social circle, Santosh Sagar Reddy, Co-Founder at Adsolv, talks to Roshna Chandran about the new Adsolv App.

NOW APP YOUR SHOPPING QUERIES

to every single person. People are used to dealing with each other on a digital format.”

Reddy teamed up with his Co - Founders, Keerthan Reddy, Venkatesh CM and Madhu Lakshmanan to start Adsolv a social commerce application that prioritises on the social discovery side of a consumer’s shopping experience. Keeping in mind that today’s shoppers are tremendously infl uenced by their friends and social circle, there is always a need to exchange information on purchases. Providing a platform that also interacts with the brand, Adsolv functions as a multiple information exchange of products and services through retailers, consumers and their friends. The app also provides a free fl owing connection between a social network and e-commerce platform. Reddy is confi dent that a platform like Adsolv will encourage consumers to exchange information, thus aiming at providing social discovery in the hands of the consumer, where the consumers are the ones who are creating content on the platform.

INNOVATION

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