“Data is oil, data is soil and data is oxygen for us. That is what we are breathing and seeing. And the more we care for it, the more value we can derive out of it,” said Satish Panchapakesan, Sr. Vice-President and Chief Information Officer, Arvind Fashions
Bengaluru: Top tech industry and retail leaders on Tuesday said the wealth of data at their disposal will help them determine and chart the trajectories for the next phase of growth for their brands.
For example, Arvind Fashions has access to invaluable data through the cameras installed at its stores that count footfalls and their conversion rates. “We have some idea of the customers’ dwell-time, whether people are coming as individuals or as families. These are customers’ breadcrumbs from data perspectives and each one is amortizable if I put the right type of things,” Satish Panchapakesan, Sr. Vice-President and Chief Information Officer, Arvind Fashions.
“Data is oil, data is soil and data is oxygen for us. That is what we are breathing and seeing. And the more we care for it, the more value we can derive out of it,” he added.
Ashmeer M Sayyed, Chief Retail Officer, DaMENSCH, said data collated by the D2C brand during the Covid-19 spike in sales helped DaMENSCH figure out the catchment where most of the orders were coming from. The information ultimately led the company to zero in on the location to open a physical outlet.
“D2C is all about numbers which helps in learning about customers,” Sayyed said. “It helped us to focus on a specific catchment to open a store. So, we opened our first store in Mantri Mall in Bengaluru.”
Through its purchase data, online mutton and fish seller FreshToHome (FTH) realized that customers with kids at home tend to buy more nutritious foods. “So, households with kids have more propensity to kids related stuff,” Santosh Kumar, chief business officer for FTH Daily at online mutton and fish seller FreshToHome.
The business leaders were speaking in a session at the IMAGES Group’s two-day ongoing Internet Commerce Summit (ICS) 2022 in Bengaluru. The sixth edition of the summit kicked off on Tuesday and more than 100 speakers are expected to keep the audience hooked on Tuesday and Wednesday.
While speaking about online commerce, the business leaders discussed how the pandemic opened the floodgates for millions of new customers to try online purchases, resulting in a widespread online adaptation that otherwise would have taken years to a decade.
Panchapakesan of Arvind Fashions cited the example of Arvind Fashion that clocked single digit sales from online, pre-pandemic. Today, its business from online channels has reached 26%.
“For global brands like Zara and Mango, they (witnessed) almost tripled – if not more – of their revenue footprint coming out of online channels – both B2B and B2C put together,” he said.
The session on ‘The Digital Experiences You Need Today To Guarantee Long Term Growth’ was moderated by Titus Thomas, AVP – Technology Partnerships, WebEngage. Other panelists included Satish Panchapakesan, Sr. Vice-President and Chief Information Officer, Arvind Fashions, Ashmeer M Sayyed, Chief Retail Officer, DaMENSCH, Santosh Kumar, Chief Business Officer – FTH Daily, FreshToHome Foods, Jatinder Paul Singh, Chief Operating Officer – Leisure Travel & Retail, Yatra.com and Praveen Soni, Head of Partnerships Business, Amazon Prime, India.
ICS is the only event of its-kind for the country’s e-commerce and m-commerce industry which is a convergence of new-age retailers from online retail, brick-and-mortar stores, product and services commerce and omnichannel.
Leaders and experts from the emerging industry of internet commerce convened to share their valuable thoughts about the massive cross-channel transformation and what challenges and opportunities are available to woo the connected customer.
