Retail Industry: Technology in retail

Technology powers retail boom in India

The Indian retail companies are not only matching, but also even excelling in the game of IT

Friday, June 08, 2007

Local flavour

Yet, IT is not the panacea for all ills. “Using technology for the sake of technology is not the best of the idea, one needs to evaluate the business case,” says Unni Krishnan TM, CTO, Shoppers’ Stop.

Also, one cannot fully depend on the off-the-shelf-solutions available in the marketplace, as Indian consumers offer unique challenges. One needs a system that lends itself to customization and localization. Agrees Seshasai and cites an instance. “Take the case of MRP. India is one of the very few countries that have such a concept and not many systems are tuned to it. Fortunately, we had a system in place that made all these customization issues pretty easy,” he clarifies.

In the world of billions and million sq. feet, the small kirana (grocery) storekeeper seems to be out of place. While everyone is harping on how IT can and has helped big players, what about the small ones? Where do they go? What should they do?

Rakhee Nagpal, managing director, DVS, seems to have an answer. “I strongly believe that 12 million or so small retailers can also benefit from the boom. After all even in the West, the Mom and Pop stores have held their ground in front of large retailers. They can also use IT to their advantage in their own small ways. There is huge opportunities and it is open to everyone, big or small,” she says.

In the days to come

Finally, what are the emerging trends in the vertical? Currently, there is a lot of talk about BI and data warehousing. RFID is another technology that has been talked a lot about. But most of the CIOs contend that there needs to be an ecosystem before the technology is fully adopted and currently, the ecosystem is not ubiquitous.

Summing up, the Indian retailers do not seem to be in any ways lacking in terms of technology adoption vis-à-vis their foreign counterparts. Maybe, it is the foreign players that need to get wary and not the other way round.

©CyberMedia News

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