Off the Shelf: The Retail & CPG Blog

 

Online retail portals like Storenvy are creating niche place for themselves in Social Selling. Storenvy is a large Online Mall - with over 35000+ stores offering products across several categories and each week over 15,000 items are added to Storenvy.

 

It is not humanly possible for anyone to identify the best item in this Online mall suiting your taste and that's where the social angle comes in. I.e. each time a product is bought @ Storenvy it gets promoted and is visible to the rest of the shoppers. Anytime a shopper is browsing an item it gets listed in the order of real time popularity. Also the shopper can view the reviews from the previous shoppers of that item. The portal also generates a personalized shopping list on a daily basis based on current trends. Shoppers are not just influenced by other shopper's reviews but also by their shopping list!

Another example is of a Sandwich shop in New York , which allows its online users to build custom sandwiches , once an order is placed the custom sandwich is also included in the Restaurant's Regular Menu. If any of the online customer were to order this custom sandwich then a portion of the sales is also credited to the original customer (who built the custom sandwich) for future purchases. In this model , the retailer is actually co-creating value for both themselves as well as the customer (let us not forget the loyalty angle)

 

Can this trend be extended to a brick and a mortar store?

 

How will we do this?

 

We need to capture the shopper behavior at a store (via cameras) - which items were 'browsed' (viewed) , which items were evaluated ( labels or tags were read), lost sales (empty aisles) and finally the items which were bought (sales at POS)). This is just a snapshot of data which can essentially give the retailer greater insights into consumer shopping behavior. Plus sharing this real time with other shoppers through - Mobile apps, Store Displays (for each aisle) can influence the shopping decisions especially for new products launches.

 

With advances in Mobility, ubiquity of Social Apps, consumers will be more and more influenced by the social media for their purchases. Social selling is the future of Retail.

Posted on behalf of Thomas Mathen, Associate Manager, Client Services, RCL

Posted by Prasanna Ramaswamy at 7:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

 

A popular music platform on the cloud allows me to access my favorite tunes no matter where I am : home, office, in transit. It does not matter if I am on a laptop, a mobile phone, television, desktop - experience remains the same.

 

Extending this to an enterprise, by virtualizing apps and moving from a thick to a thin client we can drastically reduce dependency on a device for the end user. Virtualization means moving local apps to a central server.

 

Many of the vendors are now providing cloud equivalent of their software including cloud storage which compliments this vision. Several of the ERP shops are already making their core modules available on the cloud. There are several workplace productivity tools which are mobile ready like timesheet modules, absence management.

 

A User hence does not require high end configuration device or be limited by the office network to be functional. This translates to lower hardware cost (replace devices with cheaper tablets), reduce disruption incase of hardware failure (as the end user can switch to an alternate hardware incase there is an issue with the primary device), remove device support service from the critical path.

The first step will be to review the enterprise application stack and come up with a virtualization roadmap - hosted, citrix, VDI, client server. Applications which are required in the offline mode should be able to sync up with the server seamlessly when the connection is restored. Virtualization roadmap should be followed by an enterprise device strategy by roles.

 

This also builds foundation for BYOD strategy, which essentially puts the onus of device on the end user. Enterprise can move away completely from Asset procurement and lifecycle management. End Users have the flexibility of choosing their own device and network provider and the enterprise has to focus on ensuring the availability of applications.

 

Overall this is a win-win for both end users and enterprise.

Posted on behalf of Thomas Mathen, Associate Manager, Client Services, RCL

Posted by Prasanna Ramaswamy at 7:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Managed Services by definition is managing the IT Services (aka Commodity Services) via outcomes and SLAs . The basic mantra is for the client to become more strategic and a metrics driven organization( its own IT arm now focusing on new Cutting edge technologies, Enterprise architecture , Thought leadership and supporting new business enablement ideas) and leaving the daily IT operations to their IT Services Partner.

 

One may argue that by letting go of the operational arm, due to the inherent nature of Managed Services, client IT team is actually distancing themselves from the day- to- day IT operations. Client IT Managers often grapple to get status on support issues as now they have to go through various IT Support layers. In the Pre- Managed Services days, the Client IT team would have been engrained into IT operations , by virtue of one team doing support and development and hence would have had real time information on support tickets. So, how can IT become useful to the Business in the Managed Services world?

 

IT Services Partner should build a Business Liaison Layer in its organization thereby removing dependency on Client IT Layer for day to day Business Liaising on Support issues. Well, let us be practical, without major rebadging upfront, the very foundation of Managed Services will not support this on Day 1.Typically clients would not like to rebadge their key IT Managers as this is a huge risk to their business. Also it could take months for the IT Services Partner to build this capability internally across all areas. So this option will fall into continuous improvement bucket and is not an immediate solution.

 

Another option which we can consider is what I would like to call "Control Rods in a Nuclear Reactor" scenario - here the Nuclear Reactor is "Managed Services Operations" and the Control Rods are the "Client IT - interventions". Per this option, the Client IT team focuses on its core functions but makes interventions into the Managed Services operations only when required. The Managed Services Team continuously broadcasts the current status of the support ticket, tagging it by the relevant Business area so that its operations are transparent and "Business Visible". The Broadcast module should be a bolt on to the ITSM framework resulting in minimum impact to Support productivity, personnel diversion. The module seamlessly translates the status of the tickets to the Client. e.g. If the Order Management System is down , the System automatically sends update on who is working on it, time spent, ETA, Escalation status , contact numbers. During critical tickets, the client IT team, based on some exception criteria, can make interventions when thresholds are about to be breached.

 

Managed Services structure cannot be "one size fit all". It has to be customized based on individual client landscape and business needs and has to continuously evolve to be relevant.

 

Posted on behalf of Thomas Mathen, Associate Manager, Client Services, RCL

Posted by Prasanna Ramaswamy at 7:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It has been often said concepts and ideas that are successful in US do not always work in Asian markets. While there is a good logic and reasoning behind this idea due to differences in demographics, culture, life style and infrastructure, there are emerging concepts in the US markets that can be applied with great success in the Asian markets as well. I will illustrate this with examples of how smart supply chain and logistics strategies used recently in the US can be leveraged with success in HongKong.

Continue reading "E-Commerce in HongKong - How retailers can use concepts used in US to expand their online presence" »

Posted by Harshavardan Balachandran at 7:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Guest Post by Nakul Srinivas, Marketing, Retail, CPG and Logistics

 

How can you create more 'perfect stores' with the same sales force? Which store should the sales representative (SR) visit? When should the SR visit that store? At what frequency? How much time should the SR spend in the store? What should the SR do in a specific store on a specific day?

Continue reading "Retail Activity Optimization to enable the perfect store" »

Posted by Guest Blogger at 6:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Guest Post by Keats Sukumar, Marketing, Retail, CPG and Logistics

 

Every brand holds a promise, every brand has a message. Each of these brands, several of them are trying to reach out to you, to get your attention, to know - you! They're trying everything from banners, danglers, Facebook pages and mobile apps to know you better, build a relation with you and hopefully, to earn your loyalty. But the consumer can be elusive. The consumer only wants choose the brand that appeals the most, from all of the brand messages available.

Continue reading "A deep dive into personalized marketing" »

Posted by Guest Blogger at 10:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Rolling out any patch or software update to a chain of stores is always a challenge.  The complexity lies predominantly on the number of instances where the same software package is running.  While there are standard set of challenges for any software update to a stand-alone system, it has the potential to become catastrophic if they were not done with enough attention to details. This is especially applicable for roll outs involving large number of stores.  Many retailers face this problem regularly.  A package that is approved for release and performs as expected in pilot, simply causes unbelievable trouble when it is rolled out to the entire chain. Operations team is bombarded with a sudden spike in ticket volume. What went wrong?  A thorough testing was done before the release, pilot was carefully monitored - so what was missed?

Continue reading "Soak Period for Store rollout - A process that needs to be standardized" »

Posted by Harshavardan Balachandran at 7:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September' 2012 marked the opening of Indian retail sector to foreign players with government of India announcing upto 51% foreign stake in local ventures. The approval provided by government is however, guarded by stiff investment restrictions and mandatory local sourcing guidelines. Even post the passing by of more than four months since, the Government is yet to receive a proposal from any of the global majors to mark their entry in Indian arena.

 

But are the government laid guidelines the only roadblocks hindering free flow of foreign players? A deeper analysis into Indian customer's mindset brings out interesting consumer behavior patterns.

 

A typical Indian customer is heavily dependent on "Convenient" local mom and pop stores (Kirana) on account of the

• Personalization of services - the familiar Kirana owner would be aware of consumer's preferences, requirements in terms of brand & ordering frequency.
• Local credit facility offered by the stores
• Flexibility in terms of conditions for product exchanges & returns is immense and can't be matched by organized sector.

It is for these advantages catered by mom- pop stores that the sole survivors in Organized retail are price- point players like Big Bazaar, Star Bazaar, etc. Other Players which are non-price-point players  have been faced with losses which is depicted by the fact that many of these chains have had to shut down their stores.

A little market research and insight into the positioning of the key retail players which can mark the true onset of FDI in India, the factor which stands out as the key deciding factor in MNC's India entry is:

Right Local partner:

• The local partner should be the one which has the correct understanding of the pulse of Indian consumer, their needs & purchase behavior.
• The local partner should be familiar with local market rules, regulations & should have expertise in warding off the key challenges Indian market offers (Red- tapeism & Supply chain weaknesses)

Its only after the finding of the Right local partner that the below mentioned factors would come into the picture. Of course the below mentioned areas would be efficiently handled in liaison with these partners.

G-Localization:

The much used internationalization concept can't be adapted in a better manner here than anywhere else. It is of prime importance that the global giants realize the difference in Indian consumer psyche whereby there are fundamental differences from the western strata. The concept of deep freezing, ready to eat meals, selling of fizzy drinks in crates are still limited in terms of adoption. It's thus, of prime importance that the product reinvention is done post a detailed market research.

Brand recall and Store placements:

While all the three biggies mentioned above are extremely popular with Indian educated elite class (thanks to their exposure to global markets), this might not be sufficient to entice the major business driving chunk. Further, stores such as Wal-Mart operate as destination stores. The physical distance of the stores from the buying population/ city hot-spots and brand familiarity has to be directly proportional. Without some unique positioning & attractive propositioning, destination store model wouldn't be a success in India.

Human resource retention:

Staff retention in Indian retail sector is another challenge global retailers would have to combat with to effectively penetrate India.

It is only after the foreign players have a well drafted plans addressing all these issues that We the common Indian consumer can finally see the opening of FDI in Indian retail in the truest sense.   

Posted by Nidhi Rewal at 10:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Guest Post by Ashish Jaiswal, Retail & Consumer Products, Infosys

A friend of mine has been a loyal customer of Nordstrom's for a number of years. She would make a trip down to the store in the mall every few weeks to look at the new arrivals and to checkout items she had seen her friends wear at the last party.  She enjoyed shopping Nordstrom's wide selection of designer apparel and shoe brands and their outstanding customer service (one particular associate in the store knew her by name and remembered many of her past purchases, and at times he provided good product recommendations)......

Continue reading "Universal Commerce" »

Posted by Guest Blogger at 8:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

 

If somebody follows the latest progress registered at the intersection of Master Data and Big Data will probably observe two major trends: Master Data as a catalyst for Big Data and Big Data as the technology of choice for Master Data repositories.

 

There is also a possible third trend that will allow Master Data to deliver value faster and at a lower cost: Big Data for Master Data change detection and enterprise synchronization.

 

Master Data as a catalyst for Big Data: A mature Master Data Management (MDM) strategy that supports a single, enriched and unified view of Master data by resolving semantic discrepancies and augmenting the explicit master data information from within the enterprise with implicit data from outside the enterprise will provide a clear advantage in embracing Big Data solutions.

 

Big Data as the technology of choice for Master Data repositories: Over the years various attempts to provide flexible Enterprise Master Data Catalogs failed to deliver the promised value. In some cases they managed to provide good support for one master data domain but failed when required to accommodate dynamic data structures with complex cross domain relationships and very large number of records.

 

Some of the most common examples include Master Data capturing items to supplier, customers or consumer relationships, management of Ship to/from, etc. In general MDM solutions are optimized for one data domain and for one technology strength: flexibility to support data model changes or high performance based on a fix data model. Big Data is the technology that can finally support multiple domains with conflicting performance and expendability requirements. Multiple companies realized the huge potential and are in the process of deploying Big Data as the underlying enabling repository of Master Data

 

Big Data as a mechanism for Master Data change detection and synchronization: For years one of the key objectives of Enterprise Master Data was to provide a mechanism ensuring data consistency across various internal and external repositories.

Due to technical and organizational challenges this proved to be an elusive target. Data discrepancies and inconsistencies continued to affect enterprise performance.

A Big Data based solution can address this limitation by refocusing the conversation from control and complete integration to the ongoing monitoring and analysis of master data across systems and applications. This mechanism can provide a nonintrusive way to assess data quality, data process performance and, completed with additional capabilities like automated workflows, notifications and social networks will result in a less restrictive, more adaptable data management environment.

 

Posted this article on behalf of Alex Farcasiu <Alex_Farcasiu@infosys.com>.

Posted by Harshavardan Balachandran at 7:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)