BANGALORE, INDIA: Highlighting its continued commitment to deliver innovative solutions to retailers in India, SAP has announced sustained adoption of its SAP for Retail solutions with significant customer endorsements.

Over 72 leading retailers, such as DLF Retail, Khadim Jewellers, Fresh and Honest Cafe, Super Religare Laboratories and Religare Wellness Limited, Dimexon Diamonds and C Mahendra have adopted and expanded their SAP footprint to simplify business processes, reduce cost and adapt to the changing industry landscape.

“Today, retailers are faced with an uncertain economic environment and by customers who are smarter and more demanding than ever before. The need of the hour is to sustain business growth through innovation and differentiation,” said Ranjan Das, Managing Director, SAP Indian Subcontinent.

"Technology has provided a new dimension to the India retail sector. As Indian and international retail chains continue to plan for growth, they face a pressing challenge for a single, enterprise-wide IT platform to manage increasingly operations. In the organised retail business technology is needed not only in accounting and human resource management, but also in core functions like buying, merchandising and store management. Thus IT applications are witnessing adoption from the very beginning till the ‘last mile’ of the business operation for most retail functions. The key solutions being looked upon by retailers in India today are ERP/ERM solutions, supply chain management (SCM), inventory management and security solutions", said Arpan Gupta, Manager, Services, BPO & Industry Verticals Research, IDC India.

"With government policies becoming favourable and emerging technologies facilitating business operations, India has emerged as an attractive organised retail destination. Till a few years back, custom applications were more common among organised retail businesses. This has changed in recent times with vendors offering packaged applications for the retail segment. As per IDC estimates the spending on enterprise-wide applications (SCM, ERM/ERP and CRM) by the India retail segment was estimated to be around US$ 48 M in 2008. This is expected to increase at 17 percent year-on-year (2009 over 2008). SAP led the India enterprise-wide retail applications (SCM, ERM/ERP and CRM) market with more than 50 percent share in revenue terms in 2008 ", added Nandavarapu Kiran, Asst. Manager, Software and Services Research, IDC India.

Indian Retailers

Maintaining customer loyalty, a priority for Indian retailers in ordinary circumstances, is now of prime importance in the current market situation. As a result, retailers across the board are using SAP technology for greater visibility into consumer spending trends, enabling them to create shopping experiences that motivate their customers to return again and again. Alongside the phenomenal growth of the franchise business, domains such as food, pharmacy and jewellery continue to flourish. SAP’s comprehensive retail suite, designed with flexible deployment blocks, provides customers agility to adapt the changing market conditions and leverage newer opportunities.