2. Panelists (from Left to Right)
Vikas Choudhary, COO & CFO, AIMIA
Duncan Grant, Multichannel Director, The Entertainer
Latif Nathani, MD, eBay
Manish Tiwary, Executive Director, HUL
Sundeep Malhotra, CEO, HomeShop 18
Moderated by Ajit Joshi, MD Croma (on the Far Right)
3. Opening Remarks by the Moderator
Some of the questions to explore today
Moderator: Ajit Joshi, MD, Infiniti
Retail Ltd (CROMA)
• Temples and mosques in India don’t run
a loyalty program, but millions believe.
How many retailers are able to make
loyalty a religion?
• Is having cutting edge technology
enough?
• How can channels create innovative
ways to showcase the experience?
• How do retailers decide which channels
to use. Or is it the customer deciding?
• What can we learn from other markets?
4. How do you use multiple channels to reach out to customers?
Moderator: Ajit Joshi,
MD, Infiniti Retail Ltd
Sundeep Malhotra,
CEO, HomeShop 18
• We started our flagship 24-hour retail
channel about 7.5 years ago and our
Internet business about 2.5 years ago.
• Our mobile business started only six
months ago – but, it already contributes
12% to sales.
• We noticed that people’s lives are spent
between three screens - Televisions,
Laptop and Mobile screens.
• So we decided to build a business that
converges these three screens to
provide a singular transaction point.
Convenience, quality and value drive our multi-channel approach to retail.
5. How do you use multiple channels to reach out to customers?
Moderator: Ajit Joshi,
MD, Infiniti Retail Ltd
Sundeep Malhotra,
CEO, HomeShop 18
• We have to be careful in the channels
we select – because TV shopping has to
contend with the legacy of “sauna belts”
and “Rudraksh” – so called, “magic” as
sold on TV.
• Our innovation has been to focus on
using technology within the basic TV
shopping process – example – customers
use the ‘red’ button to shop seamlessly
including payment.
• Another example would be the Virtual
T3 wall at Delhi Airport.
Innovative experiments don’t always have to create sales. They deliver value
in terms of brand impact as well.
6. What is the role of an online platform in boosting retail?
Moderator: Ajit Joshi,
MD, Infiniti Retail Ltd
• We have been present in India since 9
years. We have 5 million registered users
- 2 million active ones. Have been a
market place for 19 years.
• We reach out to 4306 towns in India.
• At any given time, we have 2 million live
listings.
• The reason our customers deal with us:
We don’t compete with our sellers
• We provide a level playing field for large
and small retailers.
Lathif Nathani, MD, eBay
Whether its a CROMA or its the leather merchant in Dharavi – our proposition
does not change.
7. Are retailers in UK scared that the market places will take over?
Moderator: Ajit Joshi,
MD, Infiniti Retail Ltd
Duncan Grant,
Multichannel Director,
The Entertainer
• The entertainer does about USD 3 mio
(Rs 19 cr) of business with Amazon.
We’ve launched in France and Germany
without physical stores, through the
marketplace tie up with Amazon.
• If you look back – traditional brick and
mortar retailers initially saw Amazon as a
price predator.
• Several of those who took the view, that
“there is no money to be made online”
have since gone bankrupt.
8. Are retailers in UK scared that the market places will take over?
Moderator: Ajit Joshi,
MD, Infiniti Retail Ltd
• We don’t consider online players to be a
threat but a opportunity for us to
reinforce our strengths.
• 18% sales have been generated from our
online presence.
• Although we have competition from
online retailers, we are growing at 10%.
(Which by UK standards is FAST)
Duncan Grant,
Multichannel Director,
The Entertainer
9. Are retailers in UK scared that the market places will take over?
Moderator: Ajit Joshi,
MD, Infiniti Retail Ltd
• Most retailers in the UK (with the
exception of very sharply focused value
retailers like Primark) have adopted
online.
• For the “mass market retailers “who sell
branded products - like us – we all accept
that we will compete with; but cannot be
the cheapest, the way Amazon can.
Duncan Grant,
Multichannel Director,
The Entertainer
We need to ask “What can I do that others can’t?”
10. Are retailers in UK scared that the market places will take over?
Moderator: Ajit Joshi,
MD, Infiniti Retail Ltd
• That means innovating on our core value
proposition – the in-store experience.
• “Click and Collect” – Launched this
service 2 years ago - allows customers to
order online and collect in-store.
• Last year, introduced a 30 mt delivery
service – using live inventory feeds.
• These services account for 40% of total
online sales; but they are growing 100%
on a Y-O-Y basis – this is very significant.
Duncan Grant,
Multichannel Director,
The Entertainer
11. How do you cope with Show-rooming?
Moderator: Ajit Joshi,
MD, Infiniti Retail Ltd
Duncan Grant,
Multichannel Director,
The Entertainer
• By accepting it as a fact of life.
• We do see instances where customers
come in for product knowledge and then
buy online.
• But this is the case with all retailers.
• There will be customers of the market
places who come to us for the service
experience.
• We cannot afford to be distracted by the
phenomenon – and must continue to
differentiate.
12. Practices around Big Data and analytics which are unique?
Moderator: Ajit Joshi,
MD, Infiniti Retail Ltd
• We have 2.3 million FB users and we use
these numbers to understand customer
preferences.
• All senior people in HUL have to spend
time online and in the call centre. We call
it a “People Licence”.
• This is not a substitute for real-time
interaction with our consumers.
• We are the largest digital advertisers in
India. YouTube is an important channel
to get our message across.
• We also have a “digital licence” from
Google – making sure that senior people
are trained to understand what makes
online “tick”
Manish Tiwary,
Executive Director, HUL
13. Channels of choice?
Moderator: Ajit Joshi,
MD, Infiniti Retail Ltd
• Work towards ring-fencing our investment
in digital
• Use digital as a “Advance Release
Medium”
• For example – we launched Tresemme
online, exclusively, in advance of the store
launch.
• Objective was to get customer feedback.
Manish Tiwary,
Executive Director, HUL
Will continue to invest in digital. Also purely social channels such as YouTube.
14. How can customer footprint be effectively harnessed?
Moderator: Ajit Joshi,
MD, Infiniti Retail Ltd
• It’s how we create trust among customers
and reciprocate that trust that results in
loyalty.
• We have to create inspired shoppers.
• The ROI from using technology is far
greater when customers feel cared for.
Vikas Choudhary,
COO & CFO, AIMIA
15. What’s big about big data?
Moderator: Ajit Joshi,
MD, Infiniti Retail Ltd
Vikas Choudhary,
COO & CFO, AIMIA
• Allows personalization of the shopping
experience as never before.
• Sainsbury’s Nectar program introduced –
Real Time Coupons. They spend USD 300
mio on a year – creating personalized
offers for each visit of each shopper.
• For one of the segments of buyers –
called “confident cooks” – the retailer
analyzed their online search behavior on
Yahoo.co.uk, extrapolated the same to
SKU’s of Sainsbury's’ and then created
visit specific discounts.
16. How can technology be used to protect consumer data?
“Trust and confidence plays a major
role in the online retail space.”
Latif Nathani, MD, eBay
“Better data collection and warehousing in the
need of the hour.”
Vikas Choudhary,
COO & CFO, AIMIA
17. Future channels of choice
Moderator: Ajit Joshi,
MD, Infiniti Retail Ltd
Kiosk and
mobile
shopping.
Red button
shopping on
the TV Remote
Sundeep Malhotra,
CEO, HomeShop 18
Retailer loyalty
cards.
Kiosks for
repeat orders /
monthly
replenishment
Manish Tiwary,
Executive Director, HUL
18. Final worlds
Moderator: Ajit Joshi,
MD, Infiniti Retail Ltd
Data is no
substitute for
customer
connect.
Online and
Offline are
complementary.
Sundeep Malhotra,
CEO, HomeShop 18
Manish Tiwary,
Executive Director, HUL
Fight against
data leakages
on a “war”
footing
Coupon /
discounting
strategies can
backfire online.
Vikas Choudhary,
COO & CFO, AIMIA
Lathif Nathani, MD, eBay
