What kind of approach will it entail to build global brands in India?
India’s time has come. We are truly ready to build global brands by leveraging our competence in building the same. We have our specialty and brewing brand Brew & Bliss which we are launching in 21 countries. There was a time when Indian brands were considered inferior but today the landscape has changed drastically, as we are building truly world-class brands for the world.
How has technology transformed the retail sector in the country?
Today, the expectations of the consumers have skyrocketed. So, technology is playing catch up with the expectations. Looking at predictive analytics, people are predicting the usage of products and with the help of technology can track the delivery of products. So, yes technology has certainly played an important role in transforming the way the retail sector operates and functions in the country.
What are the key challenges for the sector?
One of the challenges is we are omnichannel and retail channel, so we lack the last-mile connectivity aspect and are dependent on platforms to deliver. So, providing a unified experience including the online and offline channels is certainly a challenge for us and we are working towards addressing it
Your views on technology enabling the new-age business models
The key challenge is how technology catches up with consumer expectations. Today, consumers are spoilt for choice. We are going through the stage where predictive analytics is going to be the next key driver for the business technology-wise. Looking at the way ChatGPT or Artificial Intelligence (AI) is taking center stage, I do not think we are far away from the day when this predictive analysis will be giving recommendations. It is intrusive or evading privacy is a different ballgame altogether. I think we are seeing early signs of it and only time will tell whether it is intrusive or convenient.
When we talk about omnichannel, during the pandemic most of the shopping shifted to online platforms. So, we started to consider physical stores as the stories of the past. But we were proved wrong as people did come out to shop from the physical shops post the pandemic. For consumers, going shopping is a matter of experience, so both online and offline shopping co-exist today.
Edited by Celecia Johnson