India’s Retail sector on cusp of ‘golden era’, says Future Retail CEO Sadashiv Nayak @ BIMTECH’s Retail Summit
New Delhi, 19th December: India is a young country, it is going to spend a lot and consume a lot, so retail is a land of opportunity for us, whoever is in retail at this point of time is at a beautiful cusp of ‘golden era’, said Future Retail CEO Sadashiv Nayak.
Nayak was speaking to Ten News at the Retail Summit organized by BIMTECH, Greater Noida on Saturday on the theme – Retail 4.0.
When asked about the key skills youth needs to thrive in the retail sector, Nayak advised to observe and avoid judging. He also advised to avoid segmentation between physical and retail, “Sevabhaav is everywhere, find common threads in everything,” he said. Lastly he advised the youth to be compassionate towards the customers.
Earlier in his keynote address at the Retail Summit, he emphasised the need for the retailers to build relationships with every age group because of the evolution of retailing, be it online or offline. Moreover, he talked about few of his personal observations in the retail sector and their implications.
At first, he talked about miniaturization of experience with the presence of digitisation & personalisation and how it creates immense value. “It’s time for us to be mentally prepared to tackle miniaturisation,” he said.
Further, he shared his experiences of converting big bazaar into an online e-commerce company. He talked about how things are changing & what new implications he is witnessing in comparison to the first decade of his retailing career.
He quoted, “Earlier we used to use the word ‘loyalty’ for our customers, stating our regular customers as our ‘loyal customers’, but now everything is reversed & as now we are being loyal to our customers rather than the customers being loyal to us.”
The summit, which was organized in Delhi, highlighted how the retail industry is adapting to the challenges posed by the new age advancements & new customer choices.
The summit begun with Dr. Harivansh Chaturvedi, Director, BIMTECH welcoming the guests and talking about the present scenario of retail sector. He said, “Retail sector is yet to recover completely after the pandemic & is still looking for ways & means to drive sales.”
“Customers today are much more knowledgeable and expect personalised services to be delivered at their door steps; having experienced convenience of online shopping, customers want the same experiences across offline channels as well.’’ said Dr. Chaturvedi.
“Industry is witnessing the fourth transformation and is particularly focused on utilizing technology & the big data generated at every node of the value chain for crafting more effective marketing strategy and moreover it’s to enhance the customers experiences in this omnichannel world,” he added.
The summit hosted two Panel Discussions. Panelists for discussion 1 gathered under the theme of aligning retail with new age connected consumers which was moderated by Abhishek Raj, COO, Lacoste India. They talked about how the retail industry has been disrupted by new consumer choices. Preeti chopra, National Head BD Retail – Raymond Ltd; Akash Sehgal, Senior Vice President, Landmark group, Lifestyle; C K Kumararavel, CEO & Co-founder, Naturals Salon & Spa; Dharmender Khanna, Head-Digital Transformation Leader, SSIPL were part of this panel.
The discussion concluded with a realization that the pandemic was a blessing and disguise, and the physical is not going anywhere as people in India are habitual of touch and feel experience, therefore, digital and physical are going to co-exist.
The second Panel Discussion elevated the idea of evolution of retail mode by merging online and offline – how to do it right for survival, revival, and success. This discussion included Suresh Nambiar, CEO, Pepe Jeans Inner fashion as the moderator; and Manoj Taneja, Head of Digital, CROCS, Ashvinder Singh, MD, Uni Style Images; Rajeev Bhatia – AVP, Relaxo Footwear; and Dharmender Matai, Sr. Vice President, Devyani International Limited (RJ Corp) as the panelists.
During the summit, BIMTECH also felicitated its successful alumni to acknowledge their achievements.
BIMTECH was the first institute to establish a full-time retail management program offering 2 years of MBA course in 2002 with the aim to provide education and knowledge effectively in retailing.
During the past 18 years, it has produced many retail managers, who are now working in leading retail companies across India & abroad.
