Leading retailers focus on Omni-channel strategies to accelerate growth in the East

The day-long event featured a wide-ranging conference addressed by retail leaders and analysts, and an exhibition of retail innovation and retail real estate.

The inaugural session of the summit saw the industry stalwarts, including Mohit Kampani, Managing Director, Spencer’s Retail, Sushil Mohta, Managing Director Merlin Group, Sanjeev Rao, Director Business Development, Raymond Limited and Pankaj Renjhen, Managing Director, Retail of JLL India, outlining the strategies to boost modern retail penetration in east India

The second session on ‘Not Bricks Vs. Clicks: A Healthy Omni channel Relationship’ highlighted the learnings about the cost of “winging” omni-channel fulfilment and having the right processes and systems in place can positively impact your profitability and ability to compete in the industry.

Rameswar Mishra, Head of Marketplace, Voonik.com, Shiv Daswani, Director of The Little Shop, Ajeet Sethia, CEO of Jewelsforum.com, Nikhil Jain, Director of Rangoli, Kavita Samsukha, proprietor of The Indian Silk House and Ashish Tibrewal, Director of Big Basket were the main speakers.

Sunando Banerjee Channel Business Manager, APAC & MeE, Open Bravo was the coordinator for the session.

Talking about omnichannnel retail, the session concluded that retail organizations cannot afford not to be online. Elaborating on the point, Shiv Daswani, the Director of The Little Shop pointed out that the chain had started their online venture to reach out to tier II cities where consumers have no access to Little Shop products.

“We are yet to capitalize from the ecommerce venture but we hope this is just a matter of time, and we believe this is achievable,” he said.

Indian Silk House Exclusives propreitor Kavita Samsukha, shared her thoughts and said, “Today people see our products online and send their family in Kolkata to pick up products from our store. That way online is surely driving offline sales. We believed in traditional business but in online, unless you are a brand a consumer is not sure about the quality and service. Going online has been a herculean task for me but I firmly believe a balance in online and offline shopping has to be there as a person might select a sari online and tell her parents to go to the store to buy, where a person can touch and feel the product.”