Leading retailers focus on Omni-channel strategies to accelerate growth in the East: East India Retail Summit 2016

2026-08-17 09:35:42 Business

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18th March 2016, Kolkata: IMAGES Group organized the 4th edition of the East India Retail Summit (EIRS) at ITC Sonar, Kolkata on the 18th March, 2016. The day-long event featured a wide-ranging conference addressed by powerful retail leaders and analysts, and an exhibition of retail innovation and retail real estate.

The inaugural session of the summit saw the industry stalwarts, including Mohit Kampani, Managing Director, Spencers Retail, Sushil Mohta, Managing Director Merlin Group, Sanjeev Rao, Director Business Development, Raymond Limited and Pankaj Renjhen, Managing Director, Retail of JLL India, outlining the strategies to boost modern retail penetration in east India.

The second session on Not Bricks Vs. Clicks: A Healthy Omni channel Relationship highlighted the learnings about the cost of winging omni-channel fulfilment and having the right processes and systems in place can positively impact your profitability and ability to compete in the industry. Mr. Rameswar Mishra, Head of Marketplace, Voonik.com, Shiv Daswani, Director of The Little Shop, Ajeet Sethia, CEO of Jewelsforum.com, Nikhil Jain, Director of Rangoli, Mrs. Kavita Samsukha, proprietor of The Indian Silk House and Ashish Tibrewal, Director of Big Basket were the main speakers. Mr.Sunando Banerjee Channel Business Manager, APAC & MeE, Open Bravo was the coordinator for the session.

Talking about omnichannnel retail, the session concluded that retail organizations cannot afford not to be online. Elaborating on the point, Shiv Daswani, the Director of The Little Shop pointed out that the chain had started their online venture to reach out to tier II cities where consumers have no access to Little Shop products. We are yet to capitalize from the ecommerce venture but we hope this is just a matter of time, and we believe this is achievable, he said.

Indian Silk House Exclusives propreitor Mrs. Kavita Samsukha, shared her thoughts and said, Today people see our products online and send their family in Kolkata to pick up products from our store. That way online is surely driving offline sales. We believed in traditional business but in online, unless you are a brand a consumer is not sure about the quality and service. Going online has been a herculean task for me but I firmly believe a balance in online and offline shopping has to be there as a person might select a sari online and tell her parents to go to the store to buy, where a person can touch and feel the product.
Mr. Ajeet Sethia, CEO, Jewel Forum, added that in even in the jewellery category, online was becoming an avenue to reach the masses. Sethia noted, Online and offline consumer behaviour for jewellery are different. Online customers look for affordability while offline consumers look at styles too.

Mr. Ashish Tibrewal, Director of Big Basket, emphasized the criticality of Omni-channel transitions. Omni channel is required because of the convenience, he said. A consumer goes to a store, tries out a branded shoe, for example, and gets to know the right size and then goes back to the online store to get the best deals. Offline and Online shopping have to merge somewhere or the other, and this is the only way that retail industry will get a boom and number of happy customers will also increase, he added. Mr. Nikhil Jain, Director, Rangoli remarked, Both online and offline are catalysts to each other and this is the importance of Omni channel.

New technologies are coming up where digital catalogues can be prepared simply from the print catalogues. Rameswar Mishra, Head of Marketplace, Voonik.com pointed out that it is only via online retail that one can reach to 30,000 pin codes that are there in India.
Food Innovation Masters Serving the Modern Day Consumers was the title of the third session of the East India Retail Summit. It featured prominent speakers from the foodservice industry who shared their experiences and opinions about food innovation. Moderated by Mr. Sagar Daryani, CEO and Co-founder of Wow! Momo, the session deliberated on innovation in food and dining experiences. Mr. Arnab Basu, Director of Mio Amore (previously Monginis), listed how he had incorporated innovation in his brand. He said, We have GPS in all our vans and that gives a lot of customer satisfaction. We are also experimenting with frozen pastries and giving our consumers as products as fresh as possible.

Mr. Siddhartha Chatterjee, Director of Bhojohori Manna, however, felt that innovation does not really work when it comes to food. He said, Food habits are such that consumers are keen to follow the pattern of food they are accustomed to. Chai Break co-founder Mr. Aditya Ladsaria opined that the prices of real estate are so high that it becomes necessary to run a caf? all day. Fullest utilization of the space is necessary. You have to give something different for breakfast, something different for lunch and something different for the evening and late nights. Our menu has been designed to target people who want different food at different times, he said.
Speaking for the supermarket business, Ms. Biyas Roy, Director of Arambaghs Foodmart opined that recent trends indicate that consumers are becoming more health conscious. Consumers do not compromise when it comes to quality of food. Value for money is important but there is no compromise in quality.
Chef Shaun Kenworthy said that India is still stuck with Indian flavours, but now also playing with oriental and Asian flavours and a bit of western flavors as well. It isnt really a grotesque use of the word fusion; its just natural progression of a country.

Mr. Kunal Pabrai of Pabrais Fresh n Naturelle, changed track and re-in vented his brand Tulika by choosing to focus exclusively on natural flavor ice-cream and not artificial flavor.
The next session on The Franchising Power saw panelists such as Mr. Debjit Chakroborty, Technical Director of KMPG India, Mr. Vijay Dugar, Director of C S Trade Link, Mr. Suvankar Sen, Executive Director of Senco Gold, Mr. Tanay Agarwal, MD of Skipper Furnishings, Mr. Shitanshu Jhunjhunwala, Director of Turtle, Mr. Kohinoor Mondal, Master franchisee (West Bengal), Jawed Habibs Hair & Beauty Salon, Mr. Arun Biyani, Director of Mobel and Mr. Chinnikrishnan Kumarvel, co-founder and CEO of Naturals Salon & Spa. These successful franchisors and franchisees shared their experiences and their reasons of why they have taken this route and the way ahead in the industry.

The summit also created a platform for an all women panelists to discuss and boost the Make In India initiative in the Eastern India by getting the brands, retailers and renowned designers in such a forum. Prominent personalities present for the discussion were Ms. Binwant Kaur, Director of NIFT, well renowned designer Sharbari Dutta, Ms. Vineeta G Gupta, Designer & Owner of Earthwear and Yovanna Torres, the Creative Director of Torero Corporation. Moderated by Ms. Pallabi Basu, Retail Training & Consultant, discussed about the inspiration for the Make In India initiative even before it was formerly launched in the country and also their way forward plans to reach globally. The session concluded on the note that to basically make this Make In India a success we do need extremely skillful and knowledgeable workforce. Furthermore, the Indian government needs to give some sort of benefits to the women entrepreneur and also create a lucrative environment for smaller brands to exist.

In an interesting discussion, mall owners, operators and retail tenants discuss the way ahead on flourishing in the highly competitive online and e-commerce era with innovative ideas. The speakers present on the panel were Mr. Arijit Dutta, Director, Priya Entertainment, Ms. Barnali Sengupta, Vice President Retail, Jones Lang Le Salle, Mr. Lalit Jain, Property Head, Spencers Retail, Mr. Nitin Raj Behl, General Manager Business Development, Cinepolis, Mr. P.S. Rawat, VP Acropolis, Mr. Rajib Mukherjee, General Manager Operations & Business Development (East & MPCG), Lifestyle International, Mr. Sarat Binani, Director Himalaya Opticals, Mr. Sidarth Pansari, Managing Director Primarc Group, Ms. Khushboo Saraf, Forum Projects and Mr. Yashovardhan Gupta, Director, Torero Corporation.

Moderated by Mr. Sanjeev Mehra, Vice President, Quest Mall (CESC Properties), the session reflected on how mall owners are now embracing more experiential and customer engaging strategies which is creating unique measures to exceed the expectations of the internet savvy consumers. According to him, the mall is a livespace, every day the person who comes in to spend his money has a very difficult job. The cinema business is a very tough business and to elucidate Mr. Nitin Raj Behl, General Manager Business Development of Cinepolis talked about his experience as a multi operator in India, the evolving customer demands and the changing aspirations. Mr. Arijit Dutta, Director of Priya Entertainment explained about the strategies that worked for the brand in these years. He stated that, Marketing and Positioning are two most important things. The upgrading of Priya Hall had positioned the brand in a different league altogether at a time when no multiplexes were there in the country.

Coming back to retailing, Mr. Lalit Jain, Property Head of Spencers Retail talks about the success story of the brand. According to him, I dont know what the customer wants. To stay relevant in the business, the brand has to evolve with the times. He also adds, Since I believe that Retail is a very local business so every store that we open in various locations is very different in size and concept. The next speaker, Mr. Rajib Mukherjee, General Manager Operations & Business Development (East & MPCG) of Lifestyle International talks about how he is keeping his products and the brand relevant to his customers. Mr. Mukherjee believes that to make yourself relevant you need to know what your customer wants. He highlights the new and emerging customer trend and behavior which is known as Millennial Customer. By millennial customer means, somebody who is born after the 90s, so first we need to get an understanding of these millennial customers, their needs and requirements.

With the next speaker Mr. Yashovardhan Gupta, Director, Torero Corporation which is an exclusive global licensee of various luxury brands such as Cross, Police, Cosmopolitan. According to Mr. Gupta, Police is an urban street brand. The brand wants to focus their Avant garde collections on the millennials. Ms. Khushboo Saraf from Forum Projects talked about the transformation of the brand. Forum Mall is in its 14th year and was the first mall that integrated cinemas and shopping together in east India. She reiterated, Customers have changed overnight and the experience that they want now is evolving. Hence, even we as mall operators need to evolve with the changing times. We are trying to ensure that every little element is taken care of. We not only focus on the requirements of the millennial but also target the older generations as the mall is for everyone.

Mr. Siddharth Pansari from Primarc Group highlights the strategy that worked for him in Durgapur. According to him, Firstly, local entrepreneurs are better in marketing the mall in smaller cities like Durgapur. Secondly, not keeping any space vacant in the malls and opening a service centre garners a lot of footfalls in the mall. Lastly, Mr. P. S. Rawat, Vice President, Acropolis majorly talked about the way forward plans for the newly opened mall in the city. The session concluded on a note that malls should reinvent themselves and think out of the box to drive footfalls as well as mall heads and retail tenants should partner and brainstorm for innovative ideas to keep their customers/vistiors hooked.
The Summit culminated with an evening ceremony to celebrate the achievements and contributions of retail brands and organizations thatre impacting consumer lifestyles and shopping experiences in the most profound ways in east India. The honorees were:

IMAGES group awarded retailer of the year Mens wear to Turtle and for Indian Mens wear to Manyavar. For Denimwear, Hoffmen took away the prize and Indian Womens wear was won by Prapti. Mobel Furniture and Skipper Furnishings won the award for Home and Office Improvement and Home Fashion respectively.
Wow Momo received Quick Service Restaurant award and Mio Amore received award for its Food Service. GKB Opticals won the award for Eyewear and Little Shop was awarded for Kids wear. Retailers awarded regionally were Sohum Shoppe for North East, Kashmir Vastralay for Jharkhand and Amber for Odisha.

Last but not the least, Apple Eye got for Shop-In-Shop category, Arambaghs Foodmart for the admired Convenience Store of East India and Spencers Retail for Hypermart of East India.

ABOUT IMAGES GROUP

Recognized by the international retail community through its B2B Magazines, Conferences, Exhibitions, Research Reports, and Online Media, IMAGES Group is India's largest retail intelligence organisation and is trusted as a catalyst for profitable growth of modern retail through knowledge platform leadership.
The knowledge platforms include print & online content, research, and the annual congregations with Conference, Master-Classes and Workshops at India Retail Forum, India Fashion Forum, India Shopping Centre Forum, India Food Forum, South India Retail Summit and East India Retail Summit as well as the Middle East Retail Forum in Dubai, UAE. IMAGES Awards are respected for the accurate, unbiased and transparent evaluation and recognition of retail performance, and loved for the style with which these successes are celebrated.
IMAGES Group is headquartered in New Delhi, with offices across Indian metros and the Middle East.