IRF 2016: Vinculum talks opportunities in Omnichannel Retailing
Vinculum Group, a leading cloud-based order management, and fulfillment solutions company participated at the India Retail Forum 2016 held on 21st and 22nd September at The Renaissance Convention Centre, Mumbai, India.
One of the foremost events in the country for the retail and eCommerce industry, IRF is a two-day conference held annually, that is aimed at bringing together all eCommerce entrepreneurs looking to optimize their operations and share insights about their businesses.
The rise of the online channel has pushed the entire retail industry to innovate and think of novel ways to attract and retain customers. From the customer’s point of view, the convenience of online retailing is attractive, but physical stores continue to have strong appeal. This poses a great challenge for retailers on how to provide an Omnichannel experience that is personalized but not intrusive.
Vinculum Founder, Mr. Piyush Madan held an exciting discussion on ‘O2O Continuum of Opportunities – the Bedrock of Omnichannel Retailing ’– which highlighted opportunities for the members of the eCommerce ecosystem. The panel members were Arun Naykaa of Fabindia, Mohit Dhanjal, Director Retail, Raymond, Vijay Jain, Founder Director & CEO, Retail & Digital, Orra, Kapil Hetamsaria, Founder and CEO, Velvetcase, Shashank Jani, Representative, Provoke cosmetics, Uzwal Kumar Chatterjee, VP and Head IT, ShopCJ, Ranjit Satyanath, Retail CIO, Croma, Rakesh Mishra, Head Marketing, Target, K Radhakrishnan, Cofounder, Grocermax and Kinjal Shah, CEO, Crossword.
Opening the session, Mr. Piyush Madan, Founder, Vinculum observed, “Today, there is no distinction between channels, it is increasingly integrated – giving rise to several opportunities in Omnichannel retailing.”
Elaborating on these opportunities, he said “One such area of growth is cross-border trading. If you have products/services that you feel are unique and can be offered across geographies, you can sell them on various platforms. We are strategic partners to Lazada and other international marketplaces, which makes it easier to sell globally. The marketplaces are happy to store inventory in their warehouses, which they can sell on behalf of the seller. Additionally, as for the residual inventory – that can be sold on flash sale sites. ”
He cited the example of Amazon UK when he said, “Amazon UK, for instance, is a leading online marketplace catering to the customers of UK – and has approximately 17,000 Indian sellers on-board. This number, based on recent information – is only going to grow.”
He spoke at length about the changing face of retail, when he explained, “Customers want to buy online and return in any store. In fact, they want to buy in any medium, and return to any medium. This shopping experience is really good because the customer is getting a better offer, and you are getting greater footfall. The basis of a good strategy is – understanding consumer behavior via analysis and setting up targeted campaigns around that. And that has to be supported by systems – otherwise, it just can’t be done.”
Mr. Kapil Hetamsaria of Velvetcase supported this point of view when he said, “We believe in starting from the customer – first analyzing what they want…Is it touch and feel? Do they want the confidence that the product they are delivered is on time, right quality, right value? The customer has possibly moved beyond this offline online continuum, they see your brand in a very homogenous way – they consume content offline and online, they make purchases offline and online. Start from the consumer –to be truly Omnichannel.”
Mr. Uzwal Chatterjee of ShopCJ added, “I would always speak of Omnichannel as bricks n mortar vs. online channel. One of the things that retailers today are trying to crack is increased consumer base, as well as satisfy customers in remote corners of the country and metro cities equally. Omnichannel is a way to reach out to these customers. Technology is a way to find solutions for the end customer. With partners like Vinculum, we can leverage the best of breed of both – offline and online worlds.”
Taking the discussion further, Mr. Arun Naykaa explained how Fabindia is leveraging Omnichannel strategies – “It is a classic case – very simple things to get ahead. First, we created a catalog. Immediately, the business profits grew 5X. Second, the customer didn’t have inventory to buy. So, we connected a few stores. Again, profits grew 10X. And now we address a customer when he walks into a store and doesn’t find what he wants – by placing the order for him using a tablet. The profits are going to increase another 5X. It is all about going where the customer is. Then, comes the fulfillment –you need to create a process to fulfill what the customer wants.”
Wrapping up the discussion, Mr. Madan mused, “Mobile phones are set to reach 85% penetration soon, and that is where you have to be if you have to grow your business. The difficult part is getting customers on your site and making them buy. The cost of acquisition of a customer is very high; which is why it is important that we don’t see marketplaces as threats but as partners. Today, it’s a combined world, and the customers don’t care about channels. For them, the entire catalog has to be seamless; the inventory has to be visible across platforms. Getting the correct systems in place can help us go that extra mile.”
Key Discussion Points:
- Offline to Online Strategy
- Online to Offline Strategy
- The O2O Transformation
- Current IT Landscape and its challenges
- Latest trends transforming the eCommerce ecosystem
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Bilt partners with Vinculum to accelerate growth
All about Bilt:
Bilt Paper B.V. is India’s and Malaysia’s largest manufacturer of Writing and Printing (W&P) paper.
BILT made its foray into the B2B space around five years ago through P3, which stands for Paper Print Pens. The company’s efforts in expanding its customer base and building an efficient supply chain have enabled it to stay on the growth trajectory. With its increasing customer base, growing understanding of consumer insights, a large but relevant portfolio, and a responsive supply chain, the business is well poised to expand its footprint in B2B space.
Key Challenges:
Bilt partnered with Vinculum Solutions when it ventured to its online marketplace to allow sellers to sell their products online and offer customers the convenience to order from a wide range of products.
Bilt required a solution that would –
- Manage its wide vendor base and optimize the cost, quality, and delivery schedules.
- Setup of warehouse systems to support the business.
- Manage complex business processes to handle internal operations and interface with vendor managed operations.
The Vinculum Solution:
Our end to end retail suite, Vin eRetail, enabled Bilt to streamline their business processes, order management, and scale up its operations. It delivered the following –
- Implementation of Vin eRetail to streamline business processes, order management, administration.
- Implementation of Vin Supplier Portal to manage vendors
- End-to-end real-time visibility and standardization of business processes
- Warehouse Management System to manage the warehouses of Bilt.
- Reduced delivery times from online vendors to customers
- Reduced inventory costs and improved order fulfillment times
- Extensive MIS reporting to keep sharp track of delivery KPIs
- Automated order processing
Additionally, Vin eRetail was integrated with 3rd party systems such as Oracle Financials, MartJack. Vinculum integrated with Delhivery systems to facilitate 3PL services for BILT marketplace, API integrations for orders, shipments Information, and returns.
Read the complete story of how we helped Bilt here.
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