The first session of Day III at Pure and Play saw Lakshmi Menon Bhatia, director, global partnerships, social responsibility, Gap Inc., and Tarun Puri, MD, Nike India, speak about the ‘challenge of quality’ in the business of retail.
Defining quality, Bhatia said, “Creating a right product at a right time with right pricing speaks about the quality of the brand.” Puri insisted, “Quality is in getting the consumer back, and not the product. A brand should focus on judging its quality through its consumers and not make its own assumptions.”
Highlighting their CSR activities, Bhatia said that Gap has been fighting against human trafficking worldwide. For Delhi, the brand has introduced a new technique of manufacturing denims wherein less quantity of water is required.
The next session saw Saloni Nangia, VP, Technopak, discussing the scope and opportunities of brand extension in women’s categories. According to her, this segment of retail in India has a long way to go and is still untapped in many parts of the country.
Addressing the topic ‘Scope in new emerging formats’, experts including Arvind Nair, MD, DLF Retail; V Ramnath, director retail, Nokia; Andreas Gellner, MD, Adidas India; and Pranay Sinha, retail real estate consultant, discussed new possibilities of boosting the business of retailing women’s and kids’ wear in the country. The session was anchored by Anchal Jain, founder, Nun, who said that speciality stores for women in India are not growing, and that developers and retailers should work in sync to bring in innovations in the sector.
Speaking on the same issue, Nair said, “The evolution of mall space and mall development in India has just begun, and it will soon see new innovations being introduced to it.” According to Sinha, shopping centres should focus on providing convenient shopping environment to women and children consumers.
