by Capillary Marcom | May 18, 2017 | Digital Transformation
This article was originally published on the Seamless Asia blog by Capillary.
With over 2 billion internet users, Asia is on the cusp of an omnichannel revolution. At the other end, artificial intelligence is getting consumerized. The convergence of omnichannel + intelligence will significantly impact retailers and brands. Artificial Intelligence is being touted as the next biggest innovation since the advent of the internet and mobile technology. AI promises to enrich various aspects of our lives through self-driving cars, smart homes, and even medical diagnosis. Countries such as India, China, South Korea, Japan, and Singapore are leading the way in AI research. China now boasts of having more cited publications on Artificial Intelligence than the United States.
Though some of these technologies are still a few years away, a few applications of Artificial Intelligence are already automating and enhancing the way businesses operate. Since big-data has been in focus for quite a while, most businesses have made it a point to collect a large amount of data on every aspect of their operations. The challenge now is in making sense of all this information.
AI comes to aide in the analysis of this data and makes predictions on the outcomes of different actions. This will not only help retailers engage with their customer in new ways but also allow them to take important decisions quickly. Retail is one sector where Artificial Intelligence has immediately found acceptance. According to a study, 77% of UK retail directors think that AI, deep learning, and machine learning implementations will have a tremendous impact on their businesses with 23% claiming they’re already seeing results.
Let’s look at 5 game changers at the convergence of {Intelligence + Omni-channel}:-
Intelligent Recommendations
These days, consumers are overwhelmed by all the different communication they receive from various brands, through multiple channels. If the message delivered isn’t relevant to them, they usually ignore it. Since most brands already possess extensive demographic data, behavioral and historical aspects of their customers, AI can be used to predict their needs and wants. Through Artificial Intelligence, brands can provide accurate, relevant product recommendations to customers which are guaranteed to spark interest and bring about conversion. AI will even take into consideration factors such as the weather conditions, time of day and day of the week to deliver the right recommendations, something a human being could never do.
Social ChatBots
Artificial Intelligence is also being used to assist a customer through their shopping journey which often comprises of various channels, be it social, mobile, web, and in-store. The store assistant can only help the customer in a physical store, but through ChatBots, brands could intelligently interact with their customers no matter where they were. Brands can send product recommendations, solve delivery issues, help locate unavailable products, and guide their customer through the various channels they operate inefficiently through AI. In the near future, brands should start moving segments of customer experience over the ChatBot.
Personalised Commerce
The concept of individualism is becoming increasingly popular in Asian cultures. Brands are starting to realize the need to build individualized experiences around each customer in order to drive engagement. Artificial Intelligence helps brands analyze available customer data in order to segment customers into various behavioral groups. Through this, they can determine the right factors to deliver a positive purchase experience. For example, an eCommerce website could display personalized landing pages with the colors and fonts that a particular customer would prefer, and so on.
In-store Vision
Most retail stores already use CCTV cameras as a theft deterrent. AI can help stores analyze this camera footage to improve their customer journey. Through the analysis of visual data, retailers could determine the path a customer takes within their store. With this information, retailers can design their spaces in such a way as to maximize time spent in the store. Retailers will know which section sees the most and the least visitors, what products a particular customer puts in their cart and what they usually place back on the shelves. The technology could even be used to notify store assistants to help any customer who is stuck in a particular place within the store. This application of AI enables offline retailers to track a customer through their journey just like how eCommerce retailers would track clicks a customer has made.
Informed Business Decisions
Business leaders have often used a combination of available information and their own gut feeling to make decisions. Today, there is a plethora of information at the hands of any decision maker which has made businesses grow increasingly complex. Often due to delayed reporting and analysis, important insights are missed and the right decisions may not be made on time. Through AI such as Capillary Artificial Intelligence Retail Assistant (AiRA), business leaders could receive real-time insights on the business performance, market performance, and market opportunities. They could also receive strategic suggestions that would resolve the director from just following their gut.
Through Artificial Intelligence, retailers and brands are taking their advertising and marketing efforts to unprecedented heights. Acting as the last piece of the big data puzzle, according to CBinsights, in 2016, AI saw investments of more than $5 billion worldwide. Today, the brands who aren’t already researching or employing AI would be operating at a disadvantage
by Capillary Marcom | Mar 23, 2017 | Marketing and Engagement
“The next phase of the technological revolution in the customer experience front will be that of chatbots. Chatbots are intelligent chat agents coupled with AI to engage the consumer in a meaningful and engaging way, mapping exact customer needs.”
Abhijeet Vijayvergiya, VP APAC, has built Capillary’s growth engine from the grounds up and has been driving the growth momentum across markets. Abhijeet has directly contributed to significant customer wins while building and mentoring a high performance team which has steered the company to become a leader in the engagement and commerce space in Asia. He offers consultation to leading brands across Asia in building their Customer Engagement and Digital transformation journey and also leads some of the large global relationships for Capillary
Are there reasons to believe that omnichannel retailing is here to stay?
Absolutely! Omnichannel retailing in India is no more a hypothesis but a reality. With time, more and more retailers are realizing the importance of being omnipresent to serve an omnipresent consumer. With customers getting hooked to hyperlocal deliveries, every physical store is being turned into a distribution center. As of today, 2% of all retail is powered by omnichannel. This number is expected to reach 8-10% by 2020.
How has the retail ecosystem changed in the last one year when a lot of consolidation happened in the online/offline space?
It has come out quite strong. The retail market has never been as volatile as it is right now, and retailers are slowly realizing that to be connected with the consumer requires an omnichannel strategy.
Now we see more and more tech investments happening to keep up with consumer needs and to be able to serve them better- whenever they want and whatever they want. And it seems to be working because there is a decreasing trend of discounts, which signifies increased customer loyalty.
India is still far from using AI in retail. Do you think that will create significant limitations for brands and retailers?
I don’t think that’s true. The Indian retail scenario is very open to the idea of AI & AI-based systems. AI is next-gen technology. You’ll soon be seeing it get integrated with everything; from a fan in your room to the way analytical reports and dashboards are done today.
At Capillary, we work on the belief that retail will be transformed with the advent of AI. So much so that we are currently working on AI-based systems for intelligent insight reporting.
The next phase of the technological revolution in the customer experience front will be that of chatbots. Chatbots are intelligent chat agents coupled with AI to engage the consumer in a much meaningful and engaging way mapping the exact customer needs.
When would India see technology- enabled shopping minus any handsets or physical presence around the stores?
Any adoption of a new idea has never been so quick in India. For example, India is now the largest Facebook user base. It is the number 1 country in terms of play store downloads.
Newer touch points for consumers other than a laptop/ tablet/smartphone are Smartwatch, Xbox, TV, Google Home, Amazon Echo, Amazon Dash.
You can book a cab even today with Google Assist. For the non-smartphone interface to work, there are a couple of things needed. Availability of device, for instance, is primary. According to International Data Corporation (IDC), though the wearables market in India is still at a nascent stage, over 5.67 lakh units were shipped in the second quarter of 2016, which is up by 42% in the first quarter. During the same period, India also accounted for about 1% of the global share of the smartwatch market as reported by IDC.
Even supply-side growth comprising sellers and marketplaces building an interface on top of infrastructure is picking up very well with the likes of HDFC ergo building an iWatch app for purchasing insurance, leading cab company enabling booking of cabs through iWatch. In the next 18 months, a chunk of early adopters will embrace non-smartphone based shopping in India.
by Capillary Marcom | Mar 22, 2017 | Capillary
Author: Varun Jain
In a turn to acknowledge the true makers of the retail industry, omnichannel and commerce-platform solution provider Capillary Technologies recently tied up with retail industry bodies Retailers Association of India (RAI) and Trust for Retailers and Retail Associates of India (TRRAIN) to launch Capillary Scholar: a program aimed at providing a springboard for the retail store staff to graduate and climb the ladder in their career, empowering them to realize their true potential.
The scholarship program aims to fund bachelor programs in business administration (BBA) for 50 retail associates.
“The program aims to support retail associates so that their lives change for the better. Education is synonymous with empowerment and this is a small step towards the betterment of retail associates,” said Aneesh Reddy, co-founder and CEO at Capillary Technologies.
“We are proud to launch the initiative on Retail Employees Day (RED), a day dedicated for all the ever smiling store associates who make every shopping experience, a happy one”
According to BS Nagesh, founder of TRRAIN, the retail industry employs over 43 million people making it the second largest employer in India.
“Capillary Scholar program is in line with TRRAIN’s vision of empowering people in retail and working to achieve immediate and lasting change in the lives of retail associates in India. I wish Capillary Scholar Program grows leaps and bounds and touches thousands of retail associates,” Nagesh said.
“I believe Capillary Scholar program is a small step in creating knowledge-led manpower in the retail world,” feels Kumar Rajagopalan, CEO at RAI.
by Capillary Marcom | Mar 22, 2017 | Analytics and Insights
Curious about our customers, we recently conducted a study that revealed what online shoppers buy after 9pm in the evening.The study had taken into consideration top ten cities based on visitor count, including New Delhi, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, Lucknow, Noida and Ahmedabad.
In the process, we realised that contrary to popular beliefs, the night shopper actually preferred desktops over mobile phones while shopping online. Even though 50% of total online shopping happens over mobile phones, desktops still rule with users spending 10% more time on it than the time spent on mobile phones. Buyers would also visit around 17% more pages on their desktops during the night.
Apparels
In terms of apparel shopping, women were found to be far more active than men during the night, accounting for 63% with conversion time peaking between 10pm – 11pm. Moreover, while 18 – 34 year olds comprise the major chunk of online shoppers (more than 50%) at the same duration, a sizeable 35% of the shoppers are in the age group of 35 years and above.
CDIT (Consumer Durables and Information Technologies)
Here, we found men to be far more active shoppers than women at 72%, with visitors peaking at 9 pm. 50% of the shoppers are between the age group 18 – 34 years, while 22% are of the age group 35 and above.
Cosmetics
Interestingly, the average purchase value of cosmetics is 1% higher during the 9pm – 9am slot when compared to 9am – 9pm one, with 76% women and 34% men active, peaking between 9pm – 11pm. The survey revealed a surprising insight: people above the 65 year age bracket actively shopped for cosmetics, while 18 – 34 year olds formed the major portion of online shopper. About 15% of shoppers were over the age of 35 years.
Groceries
We saw that the bulk of grocery shopping happens in the morning between 9am – 9pm, after which, the purchase value drops by 8% with women and men being equally active, thereby accounting for a 50 – 50% ratio. In terms of a demographic split, 18 – 34 year olds constituted more than half of the total shoppers while 34% of the shoppers were seen to be between the age group of 35 – 65 years.
Sports
Given the sheer number of visitors that sports goods entail, they see their maximum conversions between 11pm – 2am with 73% men and 27% women active during the night. Fitness has become a rising concern and is one testified by the 65 year olds who are also active buyers of sports and fitness goods. Of course, 18 – 34 year olds still form the majority proportion of nocturnal shoppers.
Speaking on the survey findings, Abhijeet Vijayvergiya, VP and Business Head, India and South-East Asia, Capillary technologies, commented “While several studies have been conducted in the eCommerce domain, most of these looked at consumer buying behavior during the day and many have derived the conclusion that the mobile phone rules over the desktop as shoppers are increasingly switching over to the former. Brands then adopt a mobile first strategy to retail their products over the internet. Our survey revealed a different reality altogether, with good old desktops toppling mobile commerce during the night and, contrary to the general assumption, both men and women are more or less equally active at the same time, across all age groups.”
Additionally, both the genders are completely category agnostic, shopping for everything ranging from apparels and groceries to sports goods during the night. We hope to bring out more such interesting studies in the coming times.
by Capillary Marcom | Mar 1, 2017 | Marketing and Engagement
With both online and offline businesses scaling to new heights, there is no denying the supremacy of technology in retail sale. While appreciating the exciting opportunities ensued by major market changes and shifting landscapes is difficult, retailers today are absorbed in harnessing the power of technology to further scale their businesses. A lot of retailers are feeling the heat and getting bogged down by the pressure of keeping up with the constant evolution of the digital space and elusive customer preferences. Though there are some retailers yearning for the good old days with the simplicity of traditional print promotions, digital promotions are are indispensable to personalized marketing mix and are here to stay – especially in the omnichannel retail environment.
But despite their yearning for the minimalism of the olden days, industry players do understand that digital promotions have the potential to provide far more opportunities in return for the effort than any other medium.
Driving In-store Sales Through Omnichannel Promotions
Omnichannel promotions were initially used only by online retailers to drive sales, while offline retailers slowly caught with the trend to drive and track in-store sales. The latter’s considerations lacked complete and resourceful exploitation of omnichannel, as there are very few retailers actually using these promotions to drive in-store sales as well.
The adoption of technologies that interact with the physical world and proliferation of wearables is slowly exposing industry players to a whole new world of technology, changing any existing perceptions. Technology has managed to counter discernments that relegate digital promotions to online sales only. These technologies allow retailers to dole out targeted promotions and offers to their shoppers based on their in-store location and proximity of certain products. Likewise, wearables allow consumers access to highly relevant content pertaining to their shopping needs while carrying a basket or pushing a trolley.
Actionable Insights: Impacting the ROI
If we have to conduct technology innovation analysis in the past few years, data and analytics is by far the best that has happened to digital promotion and sales. They aren’t prolonged or outdated spreadsheets that bog marketers down, but rather actionable insights that help keep a tab on sales, realigning or re-adjusting campaigns before they incur losses. Just a few years ago, consumers used to be swarmed with the same offer at least three to four times a week. However, now with the advancement of technology, the number of such messages has lessened, as retailers integrate CRM data into their promotions campaigns and move toward real-time offer testing. Although not present in India yet, many countries have adapted to data and analytics, improving their customers’ in-store experience as well. Heat mapping and technology that analyzes a customer’s shopping history, allows retailers to map out individual customers’ paths through their store. Such features have not only optimized shopper flows but have also helped in cutting down long queues at checkouts and have aided in improving in-aisle promotions.
Mobile and Connected Cars Transforming Retail
Approximately, people spend almost 15 hours a day on their mobile phones, which is responsible for driving nearly half of retail offer traffic. The year on year growth combined with the infusion of smartphones in the market, indicate that smartphones will continue in their relevence, if not flourish as well. While retailers are still struggling to invest in the operational technologies to support this trend, many have found respite in their store apps as an immediate solution. Mobile apps that allow customers to redeem offers and check-out on their mobile device, while being in their physical store may become increasingly popular.
Likewise, yet another mobile wonder that has future implications for retailers’ digital promotions is automobiles. As the newer generation of vehicles incorporates more technologies such as bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS and voice recognition, there are a number of opportunities to use machine to machine technologies to proactively push promotions and sales to customers based on their vehicle location. To simplify this process, technology will soon allow stores to communicate with the in-car computers to welcome customers and offer perks based on their shopping history.
With such constant advancements in technology, we are reminded that the only thing constant in this world is change, and the introduction of new retail or consumer technology is slowly changing the retail landscape. Having said that, there is no need for marketers to feel the pressure of keeping up with every trend they hear or read about. What matters more is their outlook on technology and how they can use one techware to its full potential.
Welcome to the future of {Intelligence + Omnichannel}!
by Capillary Marcom | Jan 10, 2017 | Analytics and Insights
Capillary Technologies recently conducted a study of approximately 100+ brands, and found that the overall sales in 2016 increased by 12% as compared to 2015, despite the fact that the overall discount promotions had decreased by 20% during their End of Season Sales (EOSS).
This meant that despite higher prices, the male demographic had increased in its spending per customer by 7%.
However, for men, the average bill value dropped by 21% , for women, it was a much lower drop percentage at 8%.
As per the study, the EOSS in 2016 was largely driven by repeat customers where 48% of repeat customers shopped in 2015 and 2016. Also, an increase in 7% of repeat businesses has been observed between 2015 and 2016.
For brands aimed at men, the level of discounting was reduced from 2015 to 2016 while for brands aimed at women, it was increased. However, the growth seen among men shoppers was still higher than women shoppers, as the study concluded.
by Capillary Marcom | Dec 19, 2016 | Omnichannel Commerce
Author: Abhijeet Vijayvergia, VP-India and South-East Asia, Capillary Technologies.
My previous post addressed the present landscape, target markets point of view, webrooming, showrooming, marketplace and single brand eCommerce related omnichannel retail trend in 2016.
In this post, I would be mainly addressing the major missing piece of the puzzle – the technology challenges and digital trends that have affected the omnichannel retail trends in India in 2016.
Technology challenges continue to derail the omnichannel retail adoption rates
Providing omnichannel customer experience has become a critical factor to differentiate brands. Effective omnichannel strategies are those that can accurately and effectively integrate in-store, online and mobile sales channels to deliver a hassle-free buying experience. Apart from revenue growth and ROI, factors such as increased customer satisfaction, net promoter scores, customer loyalty, and brand perception are also regarded as key factors to attract new prospects and maintain a large customer base. Technology investment and setting right processes are critical to enable the complete omnichannel customer experience.
In case of omnichannel solutions, technology investments are majorly needed to provide product and inventory visibility, personalize customer experience, and to enable retail stores and local fulfillment centers with pick & carry or pack & ship capabilities. But in order to realize the complete benefits from omnichannel initiatives, retailers must consider their capabilities and the challenges to seamlessly integrate systems such as CRM, POS, order management (OMS) and eCommerce platforms into all of their channels.
The below framework can act as a starting point to assess and establish a robust technology assessment and implementation process:-
Capture
To comprehensively enable and enhance omnichannel retail solution, retailers would first need to capture the complete product information. The products that are listed should relate to the information that customers are searching for. Omnichannel success requires an underlying platform to manage or facilitate such systems and changes that relate to customers preferences and purchase patterns. This is where the selecting the right real-time CRM platform comes in to picture.
Unifying disparate online and offline/store systems and applications is also a continuous challenge. Organizations with multiple databases will need to implement a data governance strategy such as Master Data Management (MDM) and integrate CRM with ERP to support inquiries such as inventory availability, goods in transit and customer transaction history. Data governance measures can also help in streamlining views of the customer by consolidating and standardizing customer data, eliminating duplicate data and by preventing invalid data from being captured at the data entry sources.
Analyze:
The omnichannel strategy also incorporates how retail performance metrics are calculated. Top retail metrics that typically need to be measured include bill/transaction value, total number of transactions, average basket size, customer share, RFM (recency, frequency, and monetary value) and CLV (customer lifetime value).
Ideally, analytics can help retailers deliver consistent customer experiences by gauging consumers’ desire to engage with their favorite brands or products over the channel that is most convenient to them at any given point in time. Analytics and loyalty solutions can offer numerous insights including
- Who are the most loyal customers and how frequently do they buy?
- Which products have the customers viewed online before they walked into a specific store location?
The appropriate use of analytics can also keep customers engaged at individual touch points and maintain customer conversations across different channels. This includes gathering data and insights to identify
- How can retailers encourage their high-value customers to purchase more often?
- What products should retailers personalize and offer to a specific customer to increase his/her basket size?
Retailers who best acquire and analyze Omnichannel data, use analytics to interpret customer preferences and act upon this data by personalizing campaigns will have a distinct advantage.
Assess
Once we have gathered the relevant customer data it’s important to convert this data into actionable insights to identify buyer purchase patterns, loyalty program behaviors, social media preferences, buyer persona details and more – in order to deliver relevant and personalized offers. This data-rich customer profiling results in enhancing customer engagement initiatives that facilitate revenue goals such as higher campaign conversions and increased customer lifetime value (CLV). This is where gaining a single view of the customer can help marketers design relevant campaigns, analyze customer journeys and enhance the overall consumer experience.
Training store associates have also become a major concern for retailers since store associates are expected to become product owners and personalize the customer experience.
In-store Clienteling – a customer-centric single view screen available on a tablet or smartphone can empower the sales associate gain complete visibility across the customer data to provide a personalized shopping experience that can drive repeat visits.
Deliver and Promote
Consumers now expect offers and promotions not just based on who they are but also on how they communicate. It’s important to deliver branding and messaging with personalized offers or promotions across the most relevant channels that is optimized towards a customer’s communication preferences.
For this reason, retailers would need certain marketing platforms integrated to the CRM or analytics software that can help convert online research to in-store purchases, permit consumers to manage their loyalty program from any device (mobile or online or in-store) and that can facilitate simultaneous promotions across multiple channels— ie on the eCommerce site, the mobile app or through SMS or across the physical stores.
How Omnichannel Technology has to be Driven by Assessing the Mindset of Indian Consumers
To enable technology advancements, retailers would need to shift their focus to meet the needs of consumers anywhere, anytime, and however, they want. Over time with smart omnichannel retailing strategy, one channel can drive another and retailers can set channel-agnostic revenue goals.
Another potential benefit of a well-defined omnichannel strategy is to drive customers to shop in physical stores. Despite the predictions of the demise of brick-and-mortar stores, many research studies continue to show that consumers still prefer the experience of purchasing merchandise within the store. Many consumers also prefer in-store pickup to avoid online shipping costs; while some customers suggest that they find it convenient to pick items from a store rather than having them shipped to their homes. This trend clearly indicates that online channels can be designed to get consumers into the stores. This is the reason why some of the online-only stores are planning to set up their physical stores across India.
Although the retail landscape in India is presently at the crossroads of a digital transformation and the future seems optimistic, many retailers lack clear KPIs to track their omnichannel initiatives. Not all initiatives can be measured using the revenue and operating margins metrics. Retailers must consider dividing their KPIs into separate categories revolving not just around gross margins but also around their marketing goals, customer engagement, and experience strategies, operational efficiency initiatives and around supply chain/fulfillment capabilities.
Conclusion
Overall, in order to successfully implement the omnichannel retail strategy, retailers would need to analyze the insights from good quality customer data, assess the technological and business impact of their strategies and allocate the right mix of roles and responsibilities to their internal and external resources.
But, presently driving an omnichannel technology enablement initiative still remains a huge challenge for Indian retailers.
I have deliberately not addressed the demonetization issue in this post as we still do not have adequate data to assess the demonetization impact on organized retail. But I promise I would soon address the payment related issues that have taken the entire country by storm in my upcoming blogs.
Do share your thoughts, opinions, and ideas on the technology capabilities and challenges that were discussed in this article.
by Capillary Marcom | Dec 15, 2016 | Digital Transformation, Marketing and Engagement
The global SaaS market has never been this exciting! A recent report by Google-Accel on the SaaS industry pegs the global opportunity to be at $132 Billion by 2020! The primary driving factors are SMB driven demand, vertical-led solutions leading to more adoption, faster time to market in an agile world and a shift of IT spend from Capex to Opex models. Here is the primary split of Enterprise v/s SMB Segment split of the global opportunity. The current opportunity split is tilted towards enterprise segment (65%) and the same will contribute to 44% of the opportunity by 2020. The key driver is SMBs are adopting SaaS products in a massive way!
While US looks to be an obvious first choice for any SaaS product, emerging markets (Asia, Middle East, Latin America) seem to offer far more lucrative options for the following reasons:-
- Companies (including enterprises) haven’t adopted legacy softwares (compared to other markets), SaaS’s effective models can easily find patrons in a less competitive environment.
- The SaaS pricing models are a perfect fit for upcoming markets.
- Costs of sale (even if it is high touch) are economical
According to the iSpirit Survey (the Indian Software Product Industry Round table), About 84% of the Indian SaaS companies look at global expansion as a key business focus. Whereas 13% said they might look at it in the near future. However, only 3% said global expansion is not all a priority.
Here are 5 things SaaS companies should look at before going global. I will touch open 5 different key aspects going global – having a right product, a scalable lead generation engine, right team, focused sales strategy and execution plan and the last one about a simple game plan to get started:-
- Have multiple, scalable lead sources
Before you go after the global market, it is important to set up a lead generation engine, which can be scaled globally based on ambitions. There are some key things you can do
- Setting up inside sales/sales dev. teams: Set up an inside sales/sales development team who nurture and develop accounts with targeted, personalized emails. They can help set up meetings for the sales team. A lead nurture engine with a inside sales team in sync with each other can work absolute magic!
- Blow your horn in the right places: Apply for awards in your target markets and take them seriously – Enterprise sales is about trust building and these awards can help you get meetings with prospects in the region.
- Physical events still works!: When you have a few referenceable logos, organize breakfast events with prospectives to accelerate your pipeline. These meet and greets can break the ice and help you get an ally inside the target organization.
- Focused sales strategy: Relentless sales operations.True potential is unleashed when a great sales strategy meets relentless execution.
- Focus and quality trump quantity: It is important to focus sales reps on balancing new meetings/pipeline building with continued follow-ups on existing prospects. Limiting the number of new meetings per week/month helps drive focus on follow-up meetings so that no deal slips through the cracks.
- A repeatable, inherently scalable pricing model: A broad understanding of pricing should be established across the sales team to create a repeatable process. This ensures that customers pay for the value they derive. Deal-by-deal pricing is not a feasible path to scale.
- Qualify, qualify and… qualify: Deal qualification using the proven lead qualification models – this can help qualify which deals are on the path to closure vs. which deals will not close and should be abandoned. It helps focus sales rep energy on the right accounts.
- Have an A-team for Launch: Building a fine mix of local talent and home grown talent is a great combo for the an A-team who can do the launch. Right from day 1, it’s essential to have sales champions in the launch team.
- Globally scalable, locally relevant product: The best way to get use cases for your new region is to work closely with selected, prospects to co-innovate and build specific use cases for the region. However, if you have to customize your product extensively for each customer, this is going to be a scalability killer. Each customer should have similar use case and similar implementation for true product-market fit.
- The global sojourn starts from your customer list: A critical beginning for the global sojourn is tapping on global customers whom you have acquired locally. The land-and-expand approach works well for SaaS and successful companies gain up to 40-50% of revenue addition from existing customers. This critical piece is often missed. It is critical to have a dedicated account management team which is focused on customer onboarding, go-live and customer wins. They should also be incentivized to drive account renewals, upsells and cross-sells through a formal program with targets.
by Capillary Marcom | Nov 21, 2016 | Omnichannel Commerce
“I want us to stop talking about digital and physical retail as if they’re two separate things. The customer doesn’t think of it that way, and we can’t either,”– Doug McMillon, CEO Walmart. This quote clearly sums up the way ahead for omnichannel retail in India. Omnichannel has been the buzzword in the Indian retail world for quite some time now but omnichannel remains largely uncomprehended or misunderstood by the retail industry in India.
The bigger question remains if it’s the right time for the Indian retailers and consumer goods companies to adopt omnichannel strategies and implement them on a large scale to see their ROI results unfold?
Let us explore some facets about omnichannel retailing and the factors that can majorly impact the omnichannel retail trends in India.
Omnichannel Retail can mean many of the following things:-
Retailers would first need to first prioritize and address the categories that majorly affect their ROI, volume of transactions and the repeat purchase potential before implementing specific omnichannel retail strategies. For example, brands such as Big Bazaar and Landmark group that have major in-store presence compared to an online presence can prioritize their marketing and merchandising needs over their customer service needs in their overall omnichannel retail strategy road-map. Contrarily, major marketplace brands would need to first focus on their fulfillment, customer service and marketing needs before diverging into other areas in their omnichannel strategy road map.
The present retail landscape in India
It is a well-known fact that India is the world’s second largest consumer market and Indian retail industry is rapidly modernizing. According to multiple sources, India’s retail industry is expected to grow from $600 billion in 2015 to $1 trillion by 2020.
The digital channels are growing its roots in India at an unprecedented pace. India is the fastest growing e-commerce market in Asia with a CAGR of 44% compared to the overall average CAGR of 28%.
As far as online and smartphone adoption is concerned according to Forrester’s Asia Pacific Online Retail Forecast, 2014 to 2019, India will have 125 million online buyers by the end of 2019. Forrester expects mobile to overtake PCs in 2016 in terms of sales and reach $19 billion by 2019. Furthermore, in India we can expect the web to influence $70Bn of retail sales in 2019 which accounts for 30% of the overall organized retail market in India.
Some of the key factors driving the retail growth in India include the impact on the overall ROI and operating margins for the retailers, the need to drive the number of transactions/customer, the need to provide superior customer engagement, superior customer experience and the need to drive an integrated view of the customer data across both online and offline channels.
With over 50 million online shoppers in 2015 and with an above average mobile intensity score of 32(on a scale of 100), Indian consumers are definitely redefining what it means to shop in today’s information-driven environment.
Who are the Drivers of Omnichannel Retail in India?
Target Market Point of View
According to various sources, the online sales in India is expected to reach $70Bn by 2019 which would account for nearly 30% of the organized retail sales in India. Majority of these online buyers (nearly 39%) belong to the 25-34 age group as stated by a Forrester report on the composition of the online audience across Asia Pacific. The report also revealed that 37% of the online audience across Asia Pacific were in the age group between 15-24. This data clearly indicates the need for Indian retailers to target the Gen Y and the millennials to drive their online store sales.
The Indian Consumer Behavior is digitally evolving
The consumer behavior landscape in India is also changing dramatically. According to Forrester Research’s Indian Co
nsumer Techno graphics Survey 2016, nearly 29% of the surveyed retail consumers stated that they buy or order product/services online at least once a month and nearly 22% of the surveyed consumers buy products on a weekly basis. Implementing an omnichannel retail strategy seems like the step in the right direction for Indian retailers to leverage this major psychological shift in mindset of an Indian consumer.
Source: Forrester Research Consumer Techno graphics Survey 2016
Are we addressing webrooming, showrooming and the Marketplace v/s single brand eCommerce concerns?
Retailers have started to track popular marketplace vs single brand retailing trends to make critical decisions about adopting the right mix omnichannel retail strategies for their brands.
They are also aware of the impact of prevailing showrooming and web rooming trends in order to not lose out on their in-store or online sales due to pricing or customer experiences issues.
Source: Forrester Research Consumer Techno graphics Survey
Well, I know we have discussed about several aspects on the state of omnichannel retail in India. But I am not done yet. In the next set of sections, I would reflect upon the technology challenges and about the different payment trends in India.
Learn more interesting facts and insights on “The state of omnichannel retail in India in 2016” by downloading our info-graphic. Click on the link to access the info-graphic : http://bit.ly/2fjB4Qp
by Capillary Marcom | Oct 28, 2016 | Marketing and Engagement
With the onset of Diwali around the corner, as a retailer, we assume you might have prepared your best to make the most of the festival sale season.
Customers expect good variety and discounts, but what truly gets their attention is when retailers exceed their expectations through personalized orders and precise deliveries.
It’s worth an effort to review last year’s performance and identify new ways to get organized that can yield maximum revenues from one of the biggest Indian festivals of the year:
Diwali Omnichannel Promotions Pre-Planning
- Product Performance: Check on the product categories and promotional strategies that performed the best last year.
- Compile a list of marketing campaigns and creatives to help expedite the process of launching campaigns.
- System testing: it’s not too late to run load tests on your eCommerce websites to check if your systems have the capacity to handle heavy volumes of sales traffic.
- Optimize System Performance: based on the outcome of your load tests, you can add additional capacity and/or increase the speed of your website with the support of additional hardware vendors or through a scalable content delivery network (CDN).
Tip: Decreasing the size of the images of the products on your eCommerce site to improve its performance.
- Product recommendation strategy: Diwali is also one of the best times to promote personalized loyalty coupons. Check the customer’s preferences, buying behavior, color-design-brand preferences, to plan for daily/weekly recommendation updates.
- Inventory readiness: Double check your product inventory systems and the inventory availability against the sales forecast. If necessary, create a backup plan for items that are at the risk of being sold out.
- Skim Your Competitors Strategy: Although out-rightly aping your competitors’ campaigns and promotions may not yield the same results, being aware of the different types of promotional offers run by the competitors can help you implement few creative quick fix sales strategies.
- Digital asset readiness: Ensure to plan the design and content of your emails, landing pages, and online ads on a weekly or daily basis. Don’t forget to personalize the mailers based on the target segment to make it highly relevant for the visitors.
Collaborate and Deliver
- Meet up: Schedule daily cross-functional team meetings throughout the Diwali season.
- Adhere to shipping threshold times: Ensure to create a centralized calendar that includes shipping cutoff times and guaranteed delivery dates.
- Take note of the complaints received: with respect to shipping or delivery issues and record the resolutions or solutions in a centralized repository that needs to be shared with the customer support team.
- Monitor your inventory: in real time to ensure that you have enough time to match promotional and marketing campaign schedules.
- Measure and Improve: Monitor product placement, pricing, response to the marketing promotions on a daily basis and make adjustments to maximize revenues and profitability.
Apart from sales data, it helps to keep a daily tab of the following data:-
- The best-selling products in various product categories
- Stores Sales across different regions at store and regional levels
- The number of customers that frequently buy from your retail stores
- The number of customers that frequently buy from your e-shops
- The customer’s journey from online to in-store
- The daily/weekly ROI on Diwali marketing $$ spend for campaigns, promotions, merchandising etc.
Rush Hour Sales Quick Fixes
- Capitalize on Diwali sales to increase your fans/followers/re-tweet numbers by offering discounts/freebies by requesting visitors to encourage checking in to your retail stores and request them to review the store experience.
- Find queue busters. You can also put few kiosks and tablets across your high traffic stores to enable customers to purchase items without making them wait in line.
- Ensure to install boards and placards across the store where you can share information and direction on which aisle or on what shelves the respective products are located.
- Don’t forget to publicize or advertise the events and loyalty programs as part of your in-store promotions.
- Promote gift cards and declare in-store product bundling coupons to make great last-minute Diwali sales.
Don’t Lose Sight of the After Sale Issues and Queries
Expect to see a number of returns/issues/ queries either during or immediately after the Diwali dhamaka sale rush. Although many brands don’t offer an exchange or returns on sale item but depending on the size of your retail store, consider allocating a specific area to address the issues related to the Diwali sale items.
Once the Diwali rush is over you’ll have time to catch your breath but that feeling may just be momentary. Then, it is time to start preparing for the big Christmas and New Year holiday shopping season all over again!
