He said that the challenges faced by local
retailers is largely related to the
infrastructure in terms of both digital
infrastructure and physical infrastructure due
to the number of islands in the country, and
the need to reach their products in good
shape across all these islands and on time.
"I believe these challenges also will be
overcome over a period of time as we can see
from the growth in the e-commerce industry
in the Philippines."
"Marketplaces bring value to customers in
terms of the variety and comparison, however
if you look at the UK which has led the
omni-channel charge, there is a trend of
customers moving back to mono brand sites
because of the comfort they have with the
quality of product that is being provided, the
service around the product as well as the
ability to trust returns, exchanges, refunds
etc."
Going Beyond Technology
These he learned based from experience in
working with some of the biggest retailers in
the country including Wilcon and Stores
Specialists Inc (SSI), among others. When asked about, what companies should
consider in going digital, Mr. Ahuja replied
that digital transformation is a very big word
and it covers many areas of business.
"Our clients typically work with us on the
demand side, which means all the way from
the point of sale, Customer relationship
management, Omni-channel Promotion
Planning, campaign management, inventory
management and customer experience. This
is very important today because we believe
that while the retail industry is scaling the
ladder of omni-channel and unified customer
experience, the customers already there, and
has already become an omni-channel
customer." "So I think, the first thing that we would like
customers to consider is the level of
commitment that they have in their
management team to take on this challenge.
Digital transformation should start from the
focus on the customer inwards towards the
processes that serve the customer," he
continued.
What's in store for 2020 and Beyond?
"The percentage of online retail will increase
over a period, like in the US, which already
crossed 10% and in China, it's almost 30%."
He said that this indicates that there is room
to grow and it may finally stabilize the next
10 years at 25 to 30% globally but most of
the demand for products will still be offline.
According to him, retailers need to have a
view that they need to provide transparency
to customers by having a unified pricing
policy both offline and online on their own
sites as well as marketplaces, as well as
unified promotions and loyalty program to
leverage the huge opportunities for both
offline and online.
"So basically, it's the fact that the service
levels created by online retail will now need to
also be adopted by offline retailers if they
would like to grow and serve the same
customers, who are used to online service
levels," he shared.
In 2020, we will see more and more retailers
enter the e-commerce domain and challenge
the dominance of marketplaces, according to
Mr. Ahuja.
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omni-channel solutions to its customers and
build long term strategic partnerships
spanning decades.
"In the Philippines, our clients typically work
with us on the demand side, which means all
the way from the Point of Sale, Customer
Relationship Management, Omni-channel
Promotion Planning, campaign management,
Inventory Management and customer
experience."
According to Mr. Ahuja, there are over
100,000 retail associates who use ETP
Systems to serve 200,000,000 consumers,
selling USD 18,000,000,000 of merchandise
in the current year.
"Our primary value has been to deliver what
we commit and focus our research &
development and delivery of innovative
solutions that bring real business benefits to
our customers in these times of digitization
and great change," he added.
"At the end of the day, retail is a part of the
consumer industry. Brick and mortar retail
and e-commerce are basically just sales
processes, we also need to provide service to
customers both during the sales process and
after sales. So, all of these business models
need to be challenged along with the
technology to support them and this can only
be done through mindset change or change
management right from the top."
In offering an amazing customer experience,
retailers need to remember that both
experiences need to be similar in online and
offline settings, except that in the case of
offline shopping a consumer has more
sensory rewards like, a human being to talk to
and help you, the smell, like in a bakery or
perfume store, the ability to touch a fabric,
the 3-dimensional experience of seeing a
shoe from different angles or light, the ability
to try a dress or suit etc. He added that most
customers are willing to take a bit more
trouble to go to the store for their
experiences, however they would also like to
see they get the same price and promotions
as the online store.
Three Decades of Innovation
and Commitment
As an Omni-channel Retail Software company
serving market leaders in 24 countries across
the Asia Paciļ¬c, ETP is committed to
consistently deliver enterprise grade
Our primary value has
been to deliver what we
commit and focus our
research & development
and delivery of innovative
solutions that bring real
business benefits to our
customers in these times of
digitization and great
change.
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