The paradigm shift in India's e-tail industry

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Between early 90s department stores and the market entry of Amazon and Flipkart, the Indian retail landscape has seen a dramatic evolution. Traditional retailers outgrew their capability to offer personalised experiences to each shopper as e-commerce brought in efficiency and individual engagement, something that customers have always yearned for.

Increased connectivity, improved capacity and reduced latency are some of the key catalysts for this transformation. Advancements in connectivity networks have enabled e-tailers to leverage leading-edge technologies such as sensor devices, edge analytics and AI to analyse consumer data and identify their exact needs to elevate their shopping experience.

With access to an increasingly diverse consumer base (both digital and physical), understanding of their preferences, and strengthening distribution frameworks, e-tailers in India today have the exponential opportunity to transform the nation’s economy.

The added convenience in usage of internet, ease of access to connectivity and availability of modern computers is empowering people to obtain information from across the globe. This has far-reaching benefits for small traders, vendors and business owners as it helps them gain knowledge and upskill themselves to tap into original business ideas.

Imagine the life-changing experiences that women artisans from the rural regions of Madhubani, Bihar, have to share when they are able to showcase their paintings, handicrafts or other art work, not just to a handful visitors to their physical workshops, but to the whole world with a simple PC and an internet connection. Selling their products through online platforms has not only brought these women much needed income and recognition but has also kept this cultural legacy from fading away.

The Indian e-tail movement, aided with a wider penetration of PCs and connectivity is inspiring a whole new cohort of cooperative trades, SMBs and startups across the metros and remote areas, ramping up the overall productivity of the country.

Upgrading their interaction systems with AI and machine learning (ML), many e-tailing platforms are aiming to offer unique product/service recommendations to their consumers based on their past purchase data. For example, Flipkart has partnered with Microsoft to design leading-edge solutions based on cloud platform and AI capabilities for its future sales.

The integration of AI/ML and natural language processing (NLP) has also accelerated the mapping of the country, helping e-tailers cultivate a precision in delivery services that wouldn’t have been possible without the technology advances of the past decade.

E-tailers are increasingly leveraging the power of IoT to track management of inventory, deploy efficient warehousing of products and ensure quality maintenance and timely delivery of shipments. Through advanced, real-time connectivity among their smart storage equipment and intelligent stock keeping systems, more and more e-tailers are streamlining their supply chain ecosystem, hence, achieving goals of doing business in a more efficient and cost-effective manner.

By virtue of augmented and virtual reality technologies, the concept of experience-based e-tailing services are being dramatically reformed. As a case in point, Myntra has a virtual trial room—Style Studio—that integrates this technology with their web and mobile apps to provide a unique experience to their users. This tool provides customers a real-time experience of trying on the products they wish to buy through their ‘online body doubles. Similarly, Lenskart enables customers to virtually try on eyewear to aid their online purchase decisions.

This is a hopeful time for businesses in India. Where larger brands are targeting effective marketing strategies, data-powered decisions, operational efficiencies to boost growth, small businesses based in smaller markets and remote locations are riding the digital revolution to explore new avenues. Looking at the broader picture, rise in demand-and-supply of intelligent edge devices, increased connectivity, well-knit distribution networks, next-generation technologies and the subsequent e-tail revolution, have the potential to exponentially impact the productivity of the nation.