Indian firms open up to capture global retail share leveraging domestic scale

 

~ MAPIC India deliberates India’s consumption journey turning non-linear disrupted by tech ~

 

Mumbai, September 14: Indian traders and manufacturers are opening up to capture a larger market share in the global market leveraging upon domestic retail opportunity and scaling it up, according to experts deliberating at an industry conclave, MAPIC India 2022.

 

“Indian exporters using the Amazon marketplace have exported USD 3 billion worth of goods in 200 countries,” said Manish Tiwary, Country Manager, India Consumer Business, Amazon India, which has 123 unique products from 1.1 million sellers on-board.

 

The global online marketplace expects to achieve USD 5 billion worth of exports from Indian firms in the current year.

 

He was speaking at the inaugural session of the two-day MAPIC India convention, formerly IRF (India Retail Forum), held after a two-year gap after the pandemic.

 

Pandemic has accelerated the online biz by a decade and it continues to accelerate as consumers in smaller towns of India also have similar aspirations to buy products as a metro city, Tiwary said.

 

Some of the smaller towns also have the same needs as metro cities, particularly with 85 percent of new customers at online marketplaces coming from tier II and III cities.

 

“India’s consumption journey has become non-linear after being disrupted due to technology using artificial intelligence, machine learning, data analytics and other cognitive technologies to provide engagements,” said Rajat Wahi Partner, Deloitte India at the inaugural session of the two-day MAPIC India convention.

 

Driven by COVID-19 lockdowns, retailers are increasingly adopting tech-based strategy including vernacular commerce, social commerce coupled with omnichannel payment system to reach out to customers, as also improve in-store and online customer experience, Wahi said.

 

55 percent Indian consumers were visiting physical stores before buying online while 37 percent increase was seen in web traffic on the presence of physical store, said Devashish Fuloria, CEO, Geo IQ – a location intelligence platform.

 

Moreover, the changing paradigm in the Indian retail space could be seen from the fact that malls and large format stores are seen shifting focus to smaller cities.

“Earlier, our presence was 65 percent large cities and the balance in smaller cities. However, 12 out of the 15 new outlets coming up shortly are in smaller cities as customer behavior in these cities is almost similar with large cities,” said Venu Nair, Managing Director & CEO, Shoppers Stop.

 

The first day of the two-day event was attended by the captains of the retail industry across the spectrum with vibrant deliberations on the outlook ahead in the post pandemic era. The conclave was also supplemented with an exhibition of prominent retail, food and fashion brands that are on the verge of expanding their foot print in Asia’s third largest economy.