Retail Dude

The “I” is now synonymous with the retailers, having accepted the change needed in the hour to “Integrate” processes of the business with “Information” technology.  With the increase in the scale of operations of retailers and the globalization of the whole business, Indian retail could only bank upon Information technology to come to its rescue. From the point of sale to the point of supply, the seamless working can only take place with the IT bone in place. However it’s the, retailers who must make sound decisions supported by a rigorous business case that delivers quantitative benefits far greater than the costs with the multiple technologies in place right from RFID’s, touch screens, smart shopping carts to interactive consumer consoles.

Most of the retail operations in functionality are complex and highly customized to the format or the chain itself. The high degree of product complexity, supply chain dilemmas all along with the multiple touch points that retail face (manufacturing, C&F, distributors, retail outlets and the customer himself) calls for an integration which can only be process driven through systems. But in reality retailers who do not manage the IT systems effectively will find that this becomes the pain point more than the alleviation of it. IT networks effectively impacts the cost of goods sold, through better management of critical processes like inventory management, supply chain management and to an extent merchandising activity. We all agree that retail scope varies across geographies even within the same borders. The only way to address this variability will be to track, measure and implement the optimum products at the right places. We cannot imagine doing that effectively today without information systems in place.

There will also remain a need to maintain a proper data architecture since many a decisions are accumulated from past records ie the measure of a given sales scheme or a particular seasonal discount in the past years that was successful. Some of the most critical decisions based on data warehousing will be forecasting of trends. Our new mantra of customer centric retail is unfinished without a CRM database for that matter. A strong base of customers is what all retailers look for; and in fact the Govt felt the need of a “Do Not Disturb” policy for the telecom products. Effective use of such databases for service retail is essential, although having such a huge database of customers is nothing short of a goliath act.

Retail analytics is one of the emerging fields to conceptualization of the business from scratch to its improvements, mainly a field based on numbers and its dynamics. Most large chains of the world like Wal-Mart, Tesco, Sears and likes had set up back offices way back into early 2000’s just to support their sourcing activities in India and now slowly foraying into their front ends once when their system architecture is now robust enough to compete. ERP’s have now become a necessity to most retailers than just a showcase for better and effective management, since the prominent retailers now have a vertical integration of their products. Life is surely made easier even when your products are outsourced. Optimization can only be achieved when you can track real time. RFID’s the next gen technology can only lead to smarter supply chain and inventory management. Touted as the revolution, we have previously seen what a smart store connected to your kitchen can do. The only dampener which is the cost will surely see a reduction in future.

The cost of implementation of IT structure as said earlier has to prove its mettle and managed properly. The initial set up cost is certainly high, which reduces over time as we head towards a more profitable business reaping its benefits. Other challenges in the IT landscape would be to manage the lack of standards to move to a universal platform or towards highly customized solutions which escalates cost. This is a double edged sword to walk for the sector. However to talk of its intangible benefits, the knowhow of an advanced retail solution can be relevant to the retailer’s long-term strategy and competitive positioning. Some of the mentionable aspects would be the brand perception (by using cutting edge technology to stay up beat), to a more brand evangelist and heightened brand or store experience for its customers.

So to say, that IT can support the strategic decisions, the operational moves and the customer interfaces is only a pool to be dived into. Certainly the way ahead will be to re integrate the IT structure itself from the customer POS to the back end supports. We could productively see spends on the store itself being the hallmark of a customer experience and also the point of customer delight. We could see more value added services like Mobile POS and intelligent systems which identify the store loyalists in an informed world.

To keep up to the shifting consumer spending patterns and trends, IT is definitely IN.

 Cheers!

Sudip

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Carrying forward the Customer  Centricity and collating it with the technology, what we came up with will be a 360 degree experience for the customer while he shops and for deploying it Infosys launched a retail offering known as ST360 i.e. Shopping Trip 360. It focuses on a wireless infrastructure of sensors and mobile data links that give retailers and packaged goods suppliers highly detailed information about customer behaviours. Moreover it doesn’t uses the expensive RFID technology inspite it uses slab sensors that can give real-time data on, among other things, how many units of a particular product are on the shelves, how many products are facing the customer on the shelves and how many customers passed by the product.

Infosys CEO Kris Gopalakrishnan said: “Shopping Trip 360 is really a consolidation of some of the research we have been doing in the retail industry. It takes all the point solutions which we have deployed and combines that to create what we believe to be the next wave of innovation. This then brings that online experience back into the store, into the physical world and creates an environment which is as rich in terms of applications, in the information it can provide.”

By using this technology retailers can dig deep into customers behaviour and their shopping pattern which inturn help them to improve their operations and modify their business strategy so as to provide enhanced experience to the customers.

ST360 is a information service for the retailers, the solution is based on the network of tiny wireless sensors in the store, enabling an active and aware environment to support a number of applications. For the brick and mortar model or even for the online model the visibility as well as the awareness of the customer is very vital for prediction and forecasting. So this solution provide a real time shoppers and shelf activities.

The three major components of ST360 are

• Instore Heat map
• Smart Shelf Pad
• Shopper Concierge service.

To know more about the solution and about its services, Click here

- Prateek Katiyar

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“A man is a social animal” so is a woman so as per the saying man always wanted to be connected and wants comments from his circle on anything he/she do. And if we talk about shopping, everybody demands some comments on their newly bought item, ladies adjust their jewellery again and again intentionally to get appreciation and gentlemen check time again and again in their imported watch to get something  out of the mouth of a friend. Ooh man this seems too awkward to do this, and apart from this we get some unwanted responses like dekho toh apni nayi watch kaise baar baar dekha raha hai. So why don’ttake a help of technology, it always come to save the day . Use “interactive mirror” outside fitting rooms that will stream high-definition video of shoppers modeling clothes to their friends’ computers or mobile devices. It also allows the friends to comment on the outfits and to select other designs in the collection for the shopper to try. See how simple it is, but now if we put our feet in retailers shoes we found it to be quite difficult, but but ” customer is a king” and retailers have to take this pain to make their customer satisfied. With the help of lots of technology inventions like RFID, GPRS, WIFI, Plasma TV, Touch Screen interaction, Motion Sensor, Face recognition, Smart Card, HD data etc. retailers are all set to provide a “Social Retailing” experience to the customers.

- Prateek Katiyar

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