Representatives of leading brands deliberated on the formula for success in a panel discussion at the Internet Commerce Summit 2022
Bengaluru: Given the changing customer journeys and buying behaviour, brands need to focus on speed, their story, consistency to succeed, said speakers participating in a panel discussion at the 6th edition of the Internet Commerce Summit (ICS 2022) in Bengaluru. Offering and / or creating value is another aspect businesses should focus on, the panelists said.
They were part of a panel discussion on ‘Driving the agenda for E-commerce business- Now and in the Future’ on the first day of ICS 2022.
Chaired by Manish Tiwary, Vice President of Amazon India, and powered by Green Honchos, the ICS 2022 is set to host 1000 attendees, 300 companies, and 100+ speakers.
The way consumers shop for products has transformed over the last 10 years, thanks to the ever-expanding reach of the internet. This is true not just for shoppers from metros but also non-metros.
“Now we have a fairly large internet population that spans across tier 2 and tier 3 cities and the online shopper base has significantly increased. Out of 47 million shoppers most of them come from tier 2 and tier 3 cities,” said Divyashree Bhat, Head of Industry, Platforms, Google.
“Now we have a user base that is growing beyond what are used to. The bridge that traditionally existed between online businesses and offline businesses has narrowed. Now, the consumers seek value and as a business, we must pay attention to how we run our business,” she added.
Bhat also spoke about the importance of the story and value, a brand should have. The story of a business has to be consistent across multiple touchpoints.
“One main thing we must emphasize is not the separation between online and offline. It’s not a choice but both are mandatory channels. The approach towards any brand is making customer first online as well as offline,” said Ashwanth S, Co-Founder & CEO, A Toddler Thing. He also emphasized that utility and story of a product should come to mind first when think about a product.
“Everything is driven towards online. 85% of the sales happen through our website or app and we probably get 3,000 to 3,500 orders per day,” said Siddharth Dungarwal, Founder, Snitch. Snitch is a fast-fashion brand for men that started online. He separated online business and offline business which are about speed and stability respectively.
Alamjit Sekhon, Commercial Director, Bel have talked about the importance in the way businesses present their products even if it is online or offline. Other key speakers included Manohar D Chatlani, CEO & MD, Soch (MD Retail India Private Limited) and Raghunandan Sarraf, Founder & CEO of Insaraf (Saraf Furniture). The session was moderated by Anurag Mathur, Partner, Consumer goods & Retail, Bain & Company raised questions as a moderator.
ICS 2022 is the only event of its-kind for the country’s e-commerce and m-commerce industry and is a convergence of new-age retailers from online retail, brick-and-mortar stores, product and services commerce and omnichannel.
Leaders and experts from this emerging industry convened at ICS 2022 to share their valuable thoughts about the massive cross-channel transformation and what challenges and opportunities are available to woo the connected customer.
