Retail Leadership Summit 2015 By RAI

Retail Leadership Summit 2015 By RAI

Uber ContentUpdated: Saturday, June 01, 2019, 04:06 AM IST
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“We are in the realm of possibilities,” said Mr Kishore Biyani, Founder and Group CEO, Future Group, in the inaugural panel discussion of the Retail Leadership Summit (RLS) 2015, organized by the Retail Association of India (RAI); and the thought was echoed throughout the two-day event held at the Renaissance Convention Centre in Powai, Mumbai. The enclave saw industry leaders and think-tanks take part in interactive presentations and discussions. The theme of the summit was, ‘Retail 2020: Retrospect. Reinvent. Rewrite.’ RLS 2015 was opened by Mr B.S. Nagesh, Founder, TRRAIN and Chiarman RAI. Speaking about the summit, Kumar Rajagoplan, CEO, RAI, said, “Retailers are using various channels to delight customers. The event deliberated upon the various methodologies for creating customer delight and also looked at collaboration and cooperation at an industry level as well as support and policy directions from the government.”

Shri Surendrakumar Bagde, Ph.D, I. A. S., Secretary (Small and Medium Industries),Development Commissioner (Industries), Government of Maharashtra delivered the Chief Guest Address. In his address, the commissioner emphasized the partnership between RAI and the Government. To fully realize the potential of this sector he urged the industry to place due importance on skilling and training graduates and new hires to make them industry ready and customer ready. He assured the gathering of government support in this endeavour.

The Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Shri Rajiv Rudy Pratap stated that at this time only 2% of India is skilled; though globally, the percentage is much higher. However, without skills, no government policy can work. Therefore, the biggest skilling endeavour in the world is now required for India, along with exposure to grooming, English language skills and soft skills. He also said that the retail sector will meet the aspirations of Indian youth and briefly touched upon the 6 qualification packs that have been shortlisted for the retail industry.

The opening presentation of RLS 2015 was upon the theme of the event by Abheek Singhi, Senior Partner & Director, The Boston Consulting Group, India. He stressed the certainty of growth and the myriad opportunities available as India is among the top 5 markets in the world and emphasized that modern retail, characterized by: a) Computerized operations, b) Air-conditioning c) English speaking staff, is what will enable the maximum growth. ‘Overall Indian retail is projected to double to $1 trillion by 2020’ estimates the RAI-BCG report. Digital being the new frontier, omni-channel retail and its importance was also touched upon. The conclusion was that the retail industry is in a very exciting space with a need to transform by retrospection, reinvention and rewriting along with planning for the short as well as long term.

Presented by Dr Samantak Das, Chief Economist & Director – Research, Knight Frank, the talk was accompanied by the release of a 350 page report. The Night Frank team undertook a survey of modern retail in the 7 biggest cities of India: NCR, Kolkata, Mumbai (MMR), Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai and Bangalore. The team spent 3-4 months on the road in one on one interactions and spent another 3 odd months finalizing the report. The highlights of their findings were quite optimistic. They found that in these cities, the penetration of modern retail in 2014 was 19% overall, with 2% for e-tail and 17% for brick and mortar. 22% of all retail space was occupied by the apparel category. Bangalore had the highest per capita availability of modern retail at 1323 square feet per 1000 customers. The report was also bullish for the industry, saying that in the next 5 years growth in retail will double and by 2019, the share of modern retail will increase to 24%.

Rachna Nath, Partner, Leader Retail and Consumer, India, PwC led the first presentation of Day 2 of RLS 2015. She stated that e-commerce has become a disruptor in the retail realm with its discounts and sales and added flexibility to the customer. An internal survey within PwC revealed that to millennials it is very important that the store comes to them and that they transact exactly when they want to and how they want to. Mobile is also another disrupting factor with a huge preference being seen in India for transactions over mobile. To manage such disruptions, technology and its use to engage the customer emerged as a key solution. Added to that are factors like:

Dr Karsten Ottenberg, CEO, BSH Bosch and Siemens Home Appliances Group, presented a startling statistic: 40% of European retailers have gone out of business. He stated that traditional offline retail is reaching the end of its life cycle and there is a need to transform. With digital disruption, the consumer is in power and needs to be served in a multi-channel manner. He stressed upon the following success factors for the future:

‘Omni-channel’ emerged as the buzzword in this discussion moderated by B.S. Nagesh, which drew participants such as Mr Biyani, Krish Iyer, President and CEO, Walmart India, Ramanathan Hariharan, CEO, Landmark group, and Gaurav Kapur, Head of Industry for Retail and Automotive Industry, Google. In the engaging and energetic debate, the certainty of change, digital disruption and adaptive strategies were touched upon. What emerged was a picture of online and brick and mortar retail growing, evolving and in some places converging.

Keeping to the keyword of the day, an arresting panel discussion took place on Omni-channel strategies. The moderator was Jamshed Daboo, CEO Trent Hypermarket Ltd (Star Bazaar), with participants such as Kenny Shin, CEO, Star CJ, Craig Wimsatt, CEO, Bharti Retail, Christian Verschueren, Director General of EuroCommerce, Govind Shrikhande, MD, Shoppers Stop Ltd, Chris Briggs, Partner and MD, The Boston Consulting Group London and Neeraj Jain, CEO, Zopper. The consensus reached was that Omni-channel is a great means to reach customers wherever they are, giving them the ability to shop anywhere, anyhow, anytime. It is a means to give a seamless, connected experience to the shopper. As retail is in evolution, omni-channel retail can be an enabler for growth and profit. To quote an example, it was asserted that the best omni-channel players worldwide like Tesco and John Lewis are showing profits.

Moderated by Rachit Mathur, Principal, the Boston Consulting Group, India, the panel comprised Rahul Chadha, CEO, Reliage Wellness, Subhash Chandra, CEO, Sangeeta Mobiles, Falguni Nayar, CEO Nykaa.com, Nitin Sanghavi, Director – Centre for Excellence in Retail Management, Sagar Daryani, Founder WOW Momo, Ashish Jhalani, Founder and CEO, eTailing India, Rafique Mallik, MD Metro Shoes and Sudipta Ghosh, Executive Director, PwC. Omni-channel again emerged as an area of importance. India, it was felt, functions as many countries in one, with diverse local cultures and different laws in different states. For the Indian customer it was felt that pricing would be a relevant factor, along with overall innovation in serving the customer. In short, a transformatory effort would be required to be well prepared for 2020. The factors which would need the most attention are:

Building upon panellist Dr Ottenberg’s presentation, the panel, moderated by Raman Mangalorkar, CEO, Jubilant Retail, comprised subject matter experts such as Anisha Singh, Founder & CEO, Mydala, Ken Chew Tan, Director, Dassault Systemes, Rajat Shikhar, Practice Leader, E-Commerce, Thoughtworks  Technologies, Rajan Zachariah, Country Head, Smollan India, Regional CFO, Smollan NAMESA Region, and Rachna Nath. The panellists perceived the disruptions as mainly being technology driven, people driven and policy driven, added to that were infrastructure and logistics issues. To meet these challenges, a few ideas that emerged were:

A laughter-filled energetic discussion ensued in Ballroom 1 of the Retail Leadership Summit 2015 with Ivana Perovic, CEO, AP Group, Ishween Anand, Founder & CEO, Nyassa Body and Bath, Natasha Tuli, Founder, SoulFlower and Priti Mehta, Founder Omved, speaking about how best to include more women in the retail workforce. The action points which emerged for retail leaders were:

There was a proposal to create a group within RAI for women in retail and a Twitter hashtag ‘#womeninretail’ was set-up to continue the discussion.

A highlight of the event was Game Changers, where disruptors talked about their game-changing strategies.

Presented by Vineet Gautam, CEO & Country Head, Bestseller India, this Game Changer session focussed on the Super Saturday 60% sales instituted by Bestseller India across their brands Vero Moda, JACK & JONES and ONLY.  These sales, which take place only once a year in a particular city, boasted India’s first 24 hour sale in 2014, and have become immensely popular; with people waiting for hours in long queues outside the stores on sale day and footfalls of over a lakh shoppers recorded. According to Mr Gautam, this kind of response was not a simple reaction to a sale declaration but a phenomenon which rests squarely on the aspirational value of their brand and the connect they have managed to establish with their customers through event sponsorships and over social media. In fact, Super Saturday is promoted mainly through social media.

The story of the social retail brand ‘Being Human’ was presented by Manish Mandhana, MD, Mandhana Industries Ltd. He shared that the actor Salman Khan used to spend

lakhs of rupees a day of his personal funds for the foundation but for long-term sustainability they hit upon launching a social retail enterprise based on apparel. A percentage of the proceeds from each sale go to support the Being Human foundation’s work in education, healthcare and the environment. The brand was launched in Europe, spread to the Middle East and then launched in India. It’s been one of the fastest growing apparel brands in India. Manish credits the success of the brand to the emphasis on design, quality, above par brand experience as well as the fact that customers needed something beyond consumerism to connect to: celebrity and charity.

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