At the India Omnichannel Forum 2017 – held on September 19th and 20th in Mumbai, concurrently with the India Retail Forum – retail leaders met to debate ‘The Business View: Unlocking the Elusive Return-On-Investment in Omnichannel Transformations’. The roundtable, powered by Arvind Internet, debated how in this always-on Omnichannel digital age, retailers must create the best experience to meet consumers’ needs and capture their hearts, minds and wallets.
The esteemed panel included Moderator: Mukul Bafana, Co-founder and CEO, Arvind Internet Co-Moderator: Bijou Kurien, Board Member, L Catterton Asia; Ajay Kapoor, President – Retail, Fabindia; Mohit Kampani, CEO, Aditya Birla Retail; Sanjay Vakharia, CEO, Spykar; Vasanth Kumar, Executive Director, Max; Rajesh Jain, Managing Director & CEO, Lacoste; Sunil Nayak, CEO, Reliance Jewels; Vikram Upadhyaya, Chief Mentor, GHV Accelerator / Greenhouse Ventures; and Dhiraj Mehta, GM Brands, Numero Uno Clothing & Coco Business.
Arvind Internet, an e-commerce division of textiles major Arvind, is restructuring its business operations to become an Omnichannel enabler for large brands and retailers, providing technological and back-end support to them.
The firm has already bagged contracts to create brand e-commerce sites and omnichannel capabilities for brands such as GAP, Tommy Hilfiger, CK, Puma, Levi’s, Reliance Brands, Converse, Being Human, Forever New, Numero Uno and BlackBerry in the Indian market and aims to have 30 more brands in its kitty by the end of this fiscal.
Mukul Bafana, Co-founder and CEO, Arvind Internet said that his company was India’s Omnichannel enablement company. “We work with brands and retailers to enable there online and offline journey and drive value in creating value for the customers also. We work with brands like GAP, Tommy Hilfiger, CK, Levi’s, Converse to name a few. We have built an entire technology stack and supporting services to drive Omnichannel. We focus on providing end-to-end Omnichannel solutions. Beyond our technology stack we have services like call centers, logistics provider, retail operations support, and content management as well.”
Bijou Kurien, Board Member, L Catterton Asia structured the session into four broad points:
– When retailers think Omnichannel, what does it mean for them?
– What is the frame-work they have in mind to define the return on Omnichannel investment?
– In which part of the business would they like to make Omnichannel investments?
– What are the challenges and obstacles in their Omnichannel journey?
Mohit Kampani, CEO, Aditya Birla Retail shares his vision as he says, “For a physical retailer, specially one in grocery retail, the choice is pretty clear. For us Omnichannel clearly means providing seamless transactions to customers between channels and the same service when they visit stores.”
According to Sunil Nayak, CEO, Reliance Jewels, “For us e-commerce is not top priority, but we are looking at options in augmented reality to help reduce investment in inventory. This is our Omnichannel vision.”
Rajesh Jain, Managing Director & CEO, Lacoste said he looked at Omnichannel only from the financial perspective – in terms of return on investments. As a brand Omnichannel can help me expose my entire inventory (in all outlets) to discerning customers. We can then serve consumers at a place and time of their convenience.”
