Tuesday, 6 January 2015
ANANT DAGA
Member:Privilege Clubs(India Retail Forum) (India Fashion Forum)
“Being in retail is like repairing a wheel while driving the car at a speed of 100 miles an hour,” says Anant Daga, referring to the ‘high’ of being in this complex and challenging industry. As head of one of India’s most innovative and pioneering fashion brands, Daga has overseen TCNS Clothing’s remarkable growth trajectory in the past few years. “I think my key professional accomplishment has been creating a winning team at TCNS Clothing, which has resulted in our business growing over seven times in just five years,” he says.
The company’s flagship brand W has redefined a traditional Indian outfit – salwar kameez -- to something that a woman can wear and look simple yet stylish in. With an aim to provide fashion in a modern retail environment to the Indian woman, W set up its first Brand Store in Delhi in 2002-03 in Lajpat Nagar, New Delhi. The W stores are designed in line with the brand identity -- spirited, contemporary and innovative to lend a pleasant shopping experience. Today W has about 160-plus EBOs and over 1,000 retail touch points across India.
True to its promise of being fashionable, the brand unveils five fresh collections in a year, providing an array of exciting fusion wear. W offers fashion leadership in the segment through a signature 'Fusion' design language, which reflects an Indian essence imbued with modernity.
“We believe W has the potential to be the largest and most preferred womenswear brand in India,” Daga asserts. “We continue to be on a high growth trajectory and are targeting doubling of business in next two years. We plan to open 150 new stores in the period and add exciting new product categories,” he adds.
Prior to his appointment at TCNS Clothing, Daga spent seven years at Reebok India, where he was Director-Sales at the time of his departure from the sportswear major.
“I enjoy being in retail because it gives me an opportunity to understand the impact of each and every decision I take in real time. At the end of the day, the cash till in the stores say it all,” he says.
But the job is replete with hindrances and dilemmas, he admits. “The biggest professional challenge I face is effecting continuous process improvements against a high-growth environment.”
His mantras for business success including sustaining a strong, intuitive connect with consumers, investing in supply chain efficiencies and leveraging technology at every stage to stay ahead of curve.
Saturday, 3 January 2015
E-tail reaching beyond Indians with PCs and smartphones
India, which currently has 35 million online shoppers, is likely to
have around 100 million by 2016, according to recent research by
Forrester Consulting and Google. In the last of a three-part series,
Business Standard looks at the little publicised encounters of
low-income shoppers with the world of e-commerce
A space smaller than a garage, sparsely furnished with a counter, a laptop, a few Hindi posters and a chair, is easily overlooked in Delhi's gritty, lower middle-class Tughlakabad Extension.
But the area's first ever assisted e-commerce outlet should be judged not by appearance but its ambitions.
These immediately become apparent when Prithi Pal, a migrant from Etawah in Uttar Pradesh who works for Rs 15,000 a month as a tailor at a nearby garment export unit, enters the outlet.
Sales officer Ravi Prakash Pandey, opening the laptop, launches a pitch in which the words "cheap" and "branded" occur at least once in every sentence.
Prithi Pal is here to remit money through Fino Paytech, a payments technology company that has recently started 110 such "money marts" across the country to cater to migrants, daily wage earners and other low-income people.
These customers, on the wrong side of the digital divide, are also being introduced, via laptops, to a range of modestly priced "utility-cum-aspirational" products offered by e-retailer Snapdeal, including mobile phones, speakers, solar lanterns and dinner sets. The outlets handhold customers by ordering and receiving for them.
According to Fino, while its 30 money marts in the Delhi-NCR region have seen an average of 600 customers daily, a minuscule number of these have e-shopped. Delhi sales manager Vishal Gandotra puts the number at about 60 or 70 so far. Yet Fino, which earns a commission on what it sells for Snapdeal, is committed enough to plan for 500 such outlets by March 2015, each with a modest capital outlay of Rs 1 lakh.
So, too, is Snapdeal. Its chief executive officer Kunal Bahl says it is imperative to access a world beyond 200 million PC- and smartphone-enabled Indians in order to "get the next 50-100 million buyers into the fold". The company wants to be in 5,000 e-commerce kiosks by the end of next year because low-income shoppers need a "trusted intermediary layer". Bahl clarifies the company will not invest in physical infrastructure but use that of others.
Other e-retailers are also trying to reach out in their own way to the less affluent. Fashion e-label Yepme.com's chief executive officer Sandeep Sharma boils down his company's strategy to four points.
One, the average price of a sharply designed fashion item is below Rs 500. Two, an unfashionable delivery option, India Post's VPP, reaches every pin code in the country. Three, Yepme has a mobile app that works on a cheap, low-tech second generation feature phone. Point number four is, in two words, Shahrukh Khan, the company's current TV face. Even though Yepme is still in the red, Sharma argues for splashing out on TV to reach a wider audience. Yet, despite the floating of such strategies, the "low-income" e-shopper is fuzzily identified, because both digital access and aspirations seem hard to gauge.
Sharma of Yepme says he is targeting someone with a family income of at least Rs 20,000 a month. However, analyst Arvind Singhal of Technopac estimates 150 million households with incomes of Rs 25,000 or less, cannot be considered candidates for e-commerce. Another analyst, Mohit Bahl of KPMG, excludes "anyone eligible for a government flat in the economically weaker category". Snapdeal's Bahl merely says he needs to reach out to families which do not own vehicles, so far only 30 per cent of his buyers.
A discussion last week with students at Sakha, a skills training centre in Kalyanpuri in East Delhi, underscored that while awareness has trickled down, especially to the young, the picture was complex.
Many of the 40-odd students, drawn from slums and resettlement colonies, knew the names of big e-retailers, and yes, knew Yepme too, but few had shopped online. Yet, a youth from a poor family that epitomised digital exclusion had a brother who worked at a call centre and had ordered shoes online. Some others had used second-hand smartphones. But one youth, whose father was a laundry worker, had spent his entire earning from a summer job, Rs 7,500, on a new Micromax Canvas Doodle 3 phone.
Yet gadgets are a mistrusted category. "I would rather buy fashion items," said 18-year-old Vikas Chauhan. "You get proper brands online, not fake logos." A defective DVD player bought online for Rs 1,700 had left a bitter taste. It seemed the problems that all customers sometimes face with e-retail are magnified for those who don't have the skills to get these dealt with.
In his pitch to Prithi Pal at Fino money mart, Pandey tries to nail these very issues. "No computer needed, no address. I will order the goods, you will collect them right here. You can open the packet and check, you can return goods in seven days."
The tailor listens, but his eyes linger on a poster offering a dual sim phone for Rs 990. Pulling out his own, not dissimilar, phone, he wonders why he paid nearly twice as much last year in a local shop.
Clearly, Pandey has half-succeeded. Prithi Pal leaves, not with a purchase, but at least with a message: that the digitally excluded end up paying more than people who might be better off than them.
A space smaller than a garage, sparsely furnished with a counter, a laptop, a few Hindi posters and a chair, is easily overlooked in Delhi's gritty, lower middle-class Tughlakabad Extension.
But the area's first ever assisted e-commerce outlet should be judged not by appearance but its ambitions.
These immediately become apparent when Prithi Pal, a migrant from Etawah in Uttar Pradesh who works for Rs 15,000 a month as a tailor at a nearby garment export unit, enters the outlet.
Sales officer Ravi Prakash Pandey, opening the laptop, launches a pitch in which the words "cheap" and "branded" occur at least once in every sentence.
Prithi Pal is here to remit money through Fino Paytech, a payments technology company that has recently started 110 such "money marts" across the country to cater to migrants, daily wage earners and other low-income people.
These customers, on the wrong side of the digital divide, are also being introduced, via laptops, to a range of modestly priced "utility-cum-aspirational" products offered by e-retailer Snapdeal, including mobile phones, speakers, solar lanterns and dinner sets. The outlets handhold customers by ordering and receiving for them.
According to Fino, while its 30 money marts in the Delhi-NCR region have seen an average of 600 customers daily, a minuscule number of these have e-shopped. Delhi sales manager Vishal Gandotra puts the number at about 60 or 70 so far. Yet Fino, which earns a commission on what it sells for Snapdeal, is committed enough to plan for 500 such outlets by March 2015, each with a modest capital outlay of Rs 1 lakh.
So, too, is Snapdeal. Its chief executive officer Kunal Bahl says it is imperative to access a world beyond 200 million PC- and smartphone-enabled Indians in order to "get the next 50-100 million buyers into the fold". The company wants to be in 5,000 e-commerce kiosks by the end of next year because low-income shoppers need a "trusted intermediary layer". Bahl clarifies the company will not invest in physical infrastructure but use that of others.
Other e-retailers are also trying to reach out in their own way to the less affluent. Fashion e-label Yepme.com's chief executive officer Sandeep Sharma boils down his company's strategy to four points.
One, the average price of a sharply designed fashion item is below Rs 500. Two, an unfashionable delivery option, India Post's VPP, reaches every pin code in the country. Three, Yepme has a mobile app that works on a cheap, low-tech second generation feature phone. Point number four is, in two words, Shahrukh Khan, the company's current TV face. Even though Yepme is still in the red, Sharma argues for splashing out on TV to reach a wider audience. Yet, despite the floating of such strategies, the "low-income" e-shopper is fuzzily identified, because both digital access and aspirations seem hard to gauge.
Sharma of Yepme says he is targeting someone with a family income of at least Rs 20,000 a month. However, analyst Arvind Singhal of Technopac estimates 150 million households with incomes of Rs 25,000 or less, cannot be considered candidates for e-commerce. Another analyst, Mohit Bahl of KPMG, excludes "anyone eligible for a government flat in the economically weaker category". Snapdeal's Bahl merely says he needs to reach out to families which do not own vehicles, so far only 30 per cent of his buyers.
A discussion last week with students at Sakha, a skills training centre in Kalyanpuri in East Delhi, underscored that while awareness has trickled down, especially to the young, the picture was complex.
Many of the 40-odd students, drawn from slums and resettlement colonies, knew the names of big e-retailers, and yes, knew Yepme too, but few had shopped online. Yet, a youth from a poor family that epitomised digital exclusion had a brother who worked at a call centre and had ordered shoes online. Some others had used second-hand smartphones. But one youth, whose father was a laundry worker, had spent his entire earning from a summer job, Rs 7,500, on a new Micromax Canvas Doodle 3 phone.
Yet gadgets are a mistrusted category. "I would rather buy fashion items," said 18-year-old Vikas Chauhan. "You get proper brands online, not fake logos." A defective DVD player bought online for Rs 1,700 had left a bitter taste. It seemed the problems that all customers sometimes face with e-retail are magnified for those who don't have the skills to get these dealt with.
In his pitch to Prithi Pal at Fino money mart, Pandey tries to nail these very issues. "No computer needed, no address. I will order the goods, you will collect them right here. You can open the packet and check, you can return goods in seven days."
The tailor listens, but his eyes linger on a poster offering a dual sim phone for Rs 990. Pulling out his own, not dissimilar, phone, he wonders why he paid nearly twice as much last year in a local shop.
Clearly, Pandey has half-succeeded. Prithi Pal leaves, not with a purchase, but at least with a message: that the digitally excluded end up paying more than people who might be better off than them.
Andhra Circle to Enter e-Commerce Sector
The Andhra Pradesh circle of the postal department is planning to
foray into e-commerce sector shortly. Taking advantage of its vast
delivery network, the department is contemplating entering into an
agreement with e-sellers to deliver goods and also provide a platform
for craftsmen and cottage industries in marketing their products for
online customers.
Chief postmaster general-AP Circle BV Sudhakar told newsmen here Tuesday that the postal department would soon ink pact with e-commerce companies to deliver the goods ordered by online customers. The department would also take up the e-commerce system at the doorstep of tribals and small organisations so they can promote their products/arts online.
Brushing off the remark that the postal department was less demanded nowadays, Sudhakar pointed out that around 19 lakh letters were dispatched during 2013-14 and 22 lakh letters during 2014-15 in the erstwhile state of Andhra Pradesh.
Chief postmaster general-AP Circle BV Sudhakar told newsmen here Tuesday that the postal department would soon ink pact with e-commerce companies to deliver the goods ordered by online customers. The department would also take up the e-commerce system at the doorstep of tribals and small organisations so they can promote their products/arts online.
Brushing off the remark that the postal department was less demanded nowadays, Sudhakar pointed out that around 19 lakh letters were dispatched during 2013-14 and 22 lakh letters during 2014-15 in the erstwhile state of Andhra Pradesh.
Amazon to more than double delivery and logistics team; looking to hire 8,000 in next 7 months
Amazon India plans to more than double its headcount in logistics and delivery space in seven months as it pushes ahead with its offer of providing shipping services to sellers registered on the ecommerce portal.
"The delivery (and logistics team) will touch 14,000 by July," said a person directly familiar with Amazon India's plans. It currently has 6,000 people in this team. Another executive said the company will first increase its headcount to 9,000 by March.
After the hiring, Amazon will have the largest delivery and logistics team among e-commerce players in the country, beating Flipkart
that has a 12,000-strong team handling about 85% of goods sold on the
portal. A spokeswoman for Amazon India confirmed aggressive hiring
plans, but declined to share details. "Encouraged by our growth and
plans for the year ahead we have outlined an aggressive hiring plan
across all aspects of our business," she said.
This push underlines Amazon's broader strategy of strengthening its 'Easy Ship' service, whereby it undertakes delivery of goods stocked at sellers' warehouses to consumers when an order is placed.
Of the 16,000 registered sellers with Amazon India, 7,300 use this service to connect with consumers in 284 cities. Amazon India says Easy Ship service currently takes care of 15% of its total deliveries, with sellers on an average reporting 50% uptick in sales since it launched the service in April. "We believe it is owed to the profitable growth they see on our platform enabled by logistics services such as FBA (Fulfilled by Amazon India, under which it ships goods from its own warehouse) and Easy Ship," said the company spokeswoman.
Some experts believe this strategy helps in improving operational efficiencies at Amazon India as it does not have to stock all goods at its own warehouse.
"It will also provide significantly higher margin than its operating margin," said Raghunath Subramanyam, professor of corporate strategy and policy at Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore. "By connecting with the warehouse and distribution network of its suppliers, Amazon also reduces cost of storage and transportation, which allows it to become more competitive."
Seattle-based Amazon started its India operations in June 2013, six years after Flipkart, and many believe the India unit of the US global is "almost on par" with the home-grown e-commerce firm in building infrastructure. A Flipkart executive, speaking on condition of anonymity, said, "No doubt they (Amazon) are investing (in building infrastructure), but we still are the largest."
Amazon currently has eight warehouses across seven states in the country while Flipkart has 13. Top e-commerce players Amazon, Flipkart and Snapdeal are all strengthening their shipping services as it could prove to be the key differentiator in a highly competitive market. All the three offer sameday delivery in some cities, and this service could be expanded to more cities in the coming months, as more than half the people who shopped online in 2014 were from outside metros and large cities.
This push underlines Amazon's broader strategy of strengthening its 'Easy Ship' service, whereby it undertakes delivery of goods stocked at sellers' warehouses to consumers when an order is placed.
Of the 16,000 registered sellers with Amazon India, 7,300 use this service to connect with consumers in 284 cities. Amazon India says Easy Ship service currently takes care of 15% of its total deliveries, with sellers on an average reporting 50% uptick in sales since it launched the service in April. "We believe it is owed to the profitable growth they see on our platform enabled by logistics services such as FBA (Fulfilled by Amazon India, under which it ships goods from its own warehouse) and Easy Ship," said the company spokeswoman.
Some experts believe this strategy helps in improving operational efficiencies at Amazon India as it does not have to stock all goods at its own warehouse.
"It will also provide significantly higher margin than its operating margin," said Raghunath Subramanyam, professor of corporate strategy and policy at Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore. "By connecting with the warehouse and distribution network of its suppliers, Amazon also reduces cost of storage and transportation, which allows it to become more competitive."
Seattle-based Amazon started its India operations in June 2013, six years after Flipkart, and many believe the India unit of the US global is "almost on par" with the home-grown e-commerce firm in building infrastructure. A Flipkart executive, speaking on condition of anonymity, said, "No doubt they (Amazon) are investing (in building infrastructure), but we still are the largest."
Amazon currently has eight warehouses across seven states in the country while Flipkart has 13. Top e-commerce players Amazon, Flipkart and Snapdeal are all strengthening their shipping services as it could prove to be the key differentiator in a highly competitive market. All the three offer sameday delivery in some cities, and this service could be expanded to more cities in the coming months, as more than half the people who shopped online in 2014 were from outside metros and large cities.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)