Indian retail metamorphosing to a smarter, greener avatar

Indian retail industry has been projected to grow at 10% to reach approximately $2 trillion by 2032. And with the customer at its focal point, today’s modern consumer products and retail (CPR) ecosystem is maneuvering various value additions; these are being leveraged for retailers and consumers to facilitate a seamless customer experience across channels.

Today’s customers use multiple channels to browse products, find best discounts, and compare products across brands and channels etc. Gen Zs and millennials are looking for alternative sales channels for engagement and are increasingly demanding personalization at every touch point. With the Covid 19 transformations, most customers prefer ‘scan and pay’ checkouts to avoid the hassle of long queues and contact.

Emerging trends in CPR in India

Online to experiential

Pepperfry, an online furniture brand, has ventured into physical experiential stores leading to 33% of its business today being generated from experiential stores.

Express delivery

With customers keenly looking for express delivery, BigBasket‘s instant delivery service brand – BBNow – is now growing at the rate of 30-35% every month.

Focus on Sustainability

52% of customers in urban India expect to increase their spending on sustainable brands over the next few years. This is also evident from the fact that Lea clothing, an Indian brand, makes 70% of its collection from export surplus fabric and is thus transforming the Indian fashion arena.

Customers now demand a more individualized touch in all communications. Retailers and consumer products brands are sharpening their focus on brand differentiation through last mile delivery, seamless checkouts, sustainable practices, phygital experiences, and alternative channels. This is also being enabled by emerging technologies such as, quantum computing, affective artificial intelligence (AI), metaverse, blockchain, internet of things (IoT), green technologies, digital twins, super apps, drone technologies, robotic process automation, and so on.

These technologies are revolutionizing and steering brand-to-consumer relationships towards unprecedented possibilities by optimizing the retail value chain, understanding customer sentiments and emotions via AI, and creating immersive experiences like never before.

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