Role of Store in Influencing a Brand
I see this as the time when the role of physical stores has the best opportunity to evolve in different ways. Brand and retailers can start re-imagining the role of their stores in many ways and, in doing so, they will rebuild value make their stores more relevant to their consumers.
Retail Technology Conclave -ReTechCon 2016 – my annual pilgrimage
I not only came back with some new interesting ideas and knowledge share but many new friends in the industry. It is these friendships which go a long way in achieving your own personal and professional goals.
Foundations of e-commerce retail in India!
The key challenge will be to build purchase efficiencies and use these to offer the discounts. The cost of logistics can also be lowered by using the existing infrastructure for scaled up business
Olympics eye-opener for retail practices
About a year ago, I had made up my mind to attend the Olympics in London, knowing fully well that I was going to witness a great sporting spectacle. But I had little idea then what an amazing retail experience it would turn out to be as well!
Add a dash of tech to retail loyalty
One of the better known hypermarkets is aggressively advertising its new partnership with a loyalty programme. It’s also offering bonus rewards. It seems a very attractive scheme and I wanted to know what sort of impact this had made on customers. So, last Friday I decided to visit one of these stores in Pune. There […]
A personal touch to retail can work wonders for sales
Replicating similar experiences to shoppers over the Internet, however, remains a tough challenge for players Last weekend, I was in Mahabaleshwar, and on the way back, my wife realised that the trip would be incomplete without any Strawberry Cream. We had just had breakfast and were quite full, but knew we couldn’t leave without having […]
Mastering new channels for enhanced shopping experiences
Shopping has never been more exciting than it is now for the modern Indian consumer. There is a lot more to shop for, a larger choice of products and services, as well as different ways in which we can shop. We are moving away from the traditional and are looking forward to new shopping experiences. […]
‘Value-for-money’ is acquiring a new meaning
I learned the most valuable lessons in retail by spending time in stores. A great way to enhance that learning is by attending conferences. I try to attend as many as I can afford (since I never seem to get any free invites!) and my most favourite events are the NRF Annual Convention and the […]
Customer joy, not sales is the key to retail success
Most modern retailers rely on simple logic to measure their success: if sales are up, business must be doing well. What they don’t consider is, you don’t have to do much to grow in India today. Modern retail accounts for 4-5% of overall trade while the number of consumers who want to shop in this […]
Rising online shopping, and not FDI, is the real threat to traditional retail
I am a big advocate of FDI and feel that the impact of FDI in India will be much larger than just benefiting farmers or adversely affecting small traders. So, when I was told that in my last piece my views on the subject seemed ambiguous, I thought I should make them more clear. Two […]