INTERNATIONAL ROUNDUP, NATIONAL ROUNDUP, RETAIL EXCELLENCE, BRAND EXCELLENCE, GUEST COLUMN, Pankaj Saxena, Business Head, Raymond Home shares how Raymond Home is looking for robust growth in the category, LOGISTICS EXCELLENCE, FORMAT.....

Dear Reader,
You are holding a much improved, much thicker and a better edition of the first amalgamated version of our three magazines – IMAGES Retail, Shopping Centre News and Phygital. Starting this month, we have decided to bring a single magazine – instead of three -to give you an in-depth and extensive coverage of all three magazines rolled into one.

Through this convergence, we are making an effort to take all the best elements from all three magazines and offer a bigger value proposition to our esteemed readers.

In this first combined magazine, we bring to you a cover story on Shoppers Stop’s quest to reinvent itself again. We analyze the pros and cons of how managing director Venu Nair will be able to chart this new course of the Mumbai company by focusing on its clutch of private brands and on the hot-selling beauty products. The issue also has interviews of industry leaders including Pushpa Bector, Senior Executive Director, DLF Retail and Naresh Ahuja, Founder and CEO, ETP Group where they share insights on changing trends in their respective domains. Another must read is the article on Tata CLiQ, in which the newly appointed CEO Gopal Asthana speaks about the three verticals of the platform and about how Tata CLiQ is using technology to stay relevant by offering a seamless and personalized omnichannel experience.

Retail in the New Phygital Era

Arguably the Indian consumers have come of age - giving an unprecedented acceleration to the transformation process of the retail sector. This further creates new business opportunities in tune with consumer needs and expectations in this era of phygital retail. The change has been visible all through and so was witnessed at the recently concluded Phygital Retail Convention (PRC 2023) at the Jio Convention Center in Mumbai on May 12-13. PRC 2023.

The PRC theme - India: The Retail Megaverse, reflected well in the mood of this historic assemblage that talked of the immense promise of the world’s fifth largest economy and its most exciting retail marketplace.

Both in terms of numbers and reach, it was indeed a remarkable record of 300+ speakers, 1500 + attendees, 1000+ brands and companies and 100+ shopping centres participating and exhibiting - offering unmatched industry stories, insights and innovations in areas including e-commerce, marketing, merchandising, physical shops, supply chain, payments, and more.

PRC 2023: The Retail Megavese is Here …
The ship has arrived, and the time has come. Phygital Retail Convention (PRC 2023) is finally here. We are ready and never been so excited before to host India’s largest retail intelligence event with a new energy and enthusiasm. PRC 2023, returns for its fourth edition on May 11-12, 2023, at the Jio Convention Centre, Mumbai and we can’t wait to welcome the entire retail fraternity at the Jio Convention Centre, Mumbai.

Themed on, ACCELERATING RETAIL @ SCALE for INDIA: THE RETAIL

MEGAVERSE, PRC this year has gone bigger, both in numbers and the reach. With an impressive floor plate of 100,000 sq.ft, PRC 2023 is set to host 300+ speakers, 1000+ brands and companies, 100+ shopping centres participating and exhibiting , 1500 + attendees, offering unmatched industry stories and insights to help you future-proof your company in areas including e-commerce, marketing, merchandising, physical shops, supply chain, payments, and more.

PRC 2023, the Countdown Begins…
April has a buzz of its own. The kick off for a new fiscal cycle is always exciting and target-heavy. And FY 2024 promises to be an especially powerful year — taking off with the largest retail business event India has ever seen. That’s right, Phygital Retail Convention (PRC) returns for its 2023 edition on a massive one lakh sq. ft. floor plate at the magnificent Jio World Convention Centre on May 11th and 12th! Themed on ‘India: The Retail Megaverse’, the mega event will be hosting 300+ speakers, panellists and presenters across five conference tracks, 2000+ attendees and over 1000 brands and companies.

Business Development Heads: Market Expansion Drivers in the Realm of Retail
In the world of retail, it’s said that the three most important decisions are location, location and location. So imagine the responsibility of the person who takes this most critical decision for a retail organisation. The person is mostly designated as Head – Business Development and or Retail Expansion and in some organisations as Retail Real Estate or Property Head.

Real Estate being the most expensive head on Retailers P&L (Profit and Loss), it is imperative that leaders driving the market development strategy are extremely cost conscious.

With retailers wanting fast growth and deeper market penetration on one hand and the pressures of increasing rentals and costs of new store opening on the other; the role of business development heads becomes extremely challenging. Tracking return on investment (ROI) and per sq. ft. return across existing markets and shopping centres, these professionals also always need to be ahead of their competition in identifying opportunities to open stores in emerging locations. And it’s not just stores. These professionals are also responsible for finding locations and properties for offices, warehouses, delivery locations and more. IMAGES Group recognizes the contribution made by these professionals towards building a profitable retail network for their respective organisations and working with shopping centres across India to create memorable shopping destinations for customers.

New Year, New Hopes
There is a lot happening in the retail industry in terms of retail experience, technology and expansions. The industry seems to have overcome the bump in its growth trajectory caused by the pandemic and is back on track to achieve its expected growth of USD 1.5 trillion by 2030. The Indian e-commerce industry, on the other hand, is expected to surpass USD 350 billion by 2030, growing at a Compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 23 per cent.
The threat of the pandemic, and global inflationary pressures notwithstanding, the environment appears conducive to the growth of retail.
A pro-consumption budget and more business-friendly policies will give the desired push to help the retail and allied industries in unlocking their latent potential.
In that sense, 2023 will be a crucial year for retail.
We got talking to some of the leading founders and CEOs from retail brands across India to know their vision for growth in 2023 and the strategies and plans they are putting to work. It was heartening to learn about the kind of work that is being put in various areas of retail.

Celebrating the change agents
A 2020 study by CIO.com has uncovered that over 89% of the tech leaders surveyed spend their time as change agents.As many as 67% regularly make business strategy decisions. Since the past few years, there has been a noticeable shift in the roles and responsibilities of a CIO. Increasingly, CIOs are required to move away from day-to-day technology management and become strategic business leaders with a seat and a say in the boardroom.
The shift in the balance of power became more distinct during the pandemic when not only business continuity but, in many cases, also the survival of a business depended on the CIO and his team.

The CIO continues to be in the driver’s seat in the new normal as retail enterprises scramble to crisis proof their business and experiment with newer business models and channels.

From helping reach customers to ensuring an agile tech-enabled supply chain, helping take informed decisions about the right locations for the next launch, to making hybrid working style work, the CIO’s hands are in every piece of the pie.

Powering Retail for the Times Ahead
Speed, convenience, seamless transactions, and above all, enhanced user experience are the primary pillars of customer service. As we step into the future of retail,t he phygital world promises unimaginable experiences for the customers and consumers alike. Celebrating the power and the depth of phygital retail in this issue of Images Retail, we spoke to CEO’s and different leaders all across retail and its diverse segments to understand how the concept is spanning out for each different companies/brands/retailers.

While we are set to talk in-depth and discuss the pivots of phygital revolution across retail in India and ‘Bharat’ at PRC 2022, we wanted to give our readers a sneak peek into our esteemed spaaker lin-ups and other glimpses of the event in this specially curated PRC Special issue. When uncovering the phygital story in retail we try to capture the growth story of ‘Bharat’ or the other side of India which is actually pushing the consumer story forward, under the spotlight. This is the India that is rising to shine brighter & brighter to create newer business opportunities. And this is the time to study, analyse and closely look for ways to serve the country to stand strong with the times ahead.

All Set to Embrace the Big Change

With festivals knocking at our door, it’s time now to brighten up our businesses. The dull days have cleared out and ow is the time to find ways to make god for all that’s lost during the last two and half years. Festivities always mark the onset of a positive market in India. This year it is even more special, as we keep covid behind us and switch to sixth gear, accelerating on the growth way. Reports of mega spending and consumption in Tier II & III cities is yet another and consumer pockets and all eyes are on the growth story in the making.

Thus, keeping these thoughts and growth process in mind, we have planned this issue of the magazine around the ‘festive growth story’. we have spoken to brands and retailers to understand their expectations from the market when it comes to festive sales. More than excitedly getting ready to serve the new customer, the retailers are happy to report many new trends that they are observing now and how they are incorporating new plans and strategies to grow this festive season.

The total retail market in India is estimated to be around $780 billion, which accounts for 10% of the country’s GDP.

However, this is only getting better every single day and in February 2022, the North region of India showed the highest sales growth of 17 percent in the retail industry. In comparison, the South region of India witnessed sales growth of four percent in that year. This is a promising figure and shows a lot of growth all across India and it does present a very positive environment too. What is humbling is that this growth comes after almost 2 years given the pandemic and all the lockdowns.

Retail was significantly not in its best phase during the pandemic, but the push it received post lockdown, turned out to be a big marker to the changes that we were expecting within the retail domain in the time to come. Our recently concluded on-ground events and the full house audience that we got to welcome at Renaissance during the 6th and 7th of April made us hopeful too. After a long hiatus of only working with online events, we finally broke free and got on the ground once again.

The retail market in Andhra and Telangana is very promising and retail contributes to 15.3 % to the state’s GSDP in 2020-21 in Telangana. Today alongside the popular cities Hyderabad, Vishakapatnam, Vijaywada, Nellore, Guntur, Tirupathi, Warangal, Chittoor, the Tier II and III cities are also showing a lot of promise and is fast becoming positive hubs for business. As the consumer is evolving and demanding better brands and products in keeping with his progressing lifestyle, this once untapped region has become a veritable diamond mine for retailers. With so many upcoming malls in the region, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana is getting ready to display the new retail culture which will attract more tourists and consumers globally.

These two regions have been on the radar of international retail giants and Indian retail industry, given their exceptional potential to offer a strong business ground. That is why, Walmart India opened a ‘major chunk’ of its 50 stores in AP and Telangana. It was an obvious choice back in 2014, even today the retailers  find these states promising and the popularity is only increasing every passing day. Keeping in mind the powerful retail business scenario of these two states, we have dedicated this issue to ‘Rising Andhra Pradesh & Telangana: The New Retail Destination in South India’.

Before the Union Budget 2022 was presented, there were umpteen rounds of discussion and expectations regarding how it will be helpful for the retail industry, what are SOPs being brought in for the industry and how they can benefit from the same. India’s retail market is expected to become a $1.5 trillion market by 2030, from $0.793 trillion in 2020. So, the industry looking up to the Budget announcements was an obvious. Major players were keen on getting some favourable announcements that look at the whole industry as a whole. They were very keen on getting some roll outs that consider the online-offline retail with similar weightage and the categories of retail with equal weight.

This issue we bring to you varied budget analysis in order to present the reality for the retail industry, straight from the thought leader’s perspective. We have weighed in the pointers put in by leading analysts alongside the retail industry to understand what the 2022 Union Budget has in store for you for each one of us, across sectors and categories. Apart from the budget thoughts we have also exclusively covered some technology-led reports and analysis, which helps us see how the industry can use varied platforms and simple tools to bring in a big difference in retail and the way of doing business.

Ushering in the New Year with lots of positivity, hopes, renewed energy and prospects, we are eyeing retail in a new way. The retail sector in the country is among the largest contributors to India’s GDP, 8-10 percent on average, and the second-largest employer in the country, so this year with the growing buzz across the market facing recovery, expectations are high from this sector. E-commerce channels are also growing at a tremendous rate with more than 19,000 e-commerce businesses in India and more than 800 D2C brands roughly worth $44.6 billion in 2021 projected to reach $100 billion by 2025.

All this is presenting a very promising podium for retail and the D2C ecosystem specially is presenting a very hopeful scenario in front of India, currently. The D2C startups space has raised a whopping $2.04 billion in funds since 2014 with categories like fashion, home decor and consumer electronics leading the charge. More progress is definitely on the cards, so are the expectations from the government to help retail with the National Retail Policy. With the Union Budget knocking at the door, all across sectors in retail the retailers and brands alike are hopeful that this unified policy will bring about a big change, once put to action.

Life has been too unpredictable since the last two years, it still is to a greater extent. But still we are hopeful, doing business and carrying on with our positive spirit. But, I feel happy to say that we are finally closing 2021 with a lot of good things and that overrides the sad, tough days we all lived all this while. 2022 presents a very interesting landscape for retail and makes us hopeful of the good times ahead. Consumer behaviour shift is one of the key noticeable change that we all have witnessed and it’s a work in progress. However, the more consumer demands authenticity, convenience, value, the more we will see retail functions getting agile and very responsive. One thing is very promising to see that and we understood it through the umpteen discussions at PRC that retail is no more about demarcations and divided approaches across online, offline, and Omnichannel. It is all about connected approaches!

PRC 2021 was one of the very first mega offline events in retail for 2021, which saw grand presence of brands, retailers, key e-commerce and D2C players, real estate marquee names, technology solution providers, and everybody connected to the retail ecosystem all across 2 days. We captured the essence of Day 1 of the event in our last issue and as a continuation, in this issue we bring to you more power packed insights and a lot of engaging sessions from Day 2. The cover story talks about how phygital retail is no more a term of the future, it is now and constant.

The year is nearing towards its end, I wonder if it is time to say ‘what a year we all had’! Maybe I will for a few more days, but there is no harm in looking back to the highs and lows a little ahead of time. From shifting ahead of a pandemic year to seeing retail make its way back to business to living in a constant scare of the next wave of the pandemic, we have come a long way. But the biggest achievement personally for us have been hosting a successful on-ground event in 2021. It feels like decades that we have met the industry in-person, courtesy the pandemic.

Phygital Retail Convention (PRC), Powered by Shiprocket, India’s go-to retail intelligence event of 2021 brought together multiple stakeholders in global retail businesses to hack the most critical disruption-ready strategies around consumer behaviours, technology and innovation. A powerful blend of panel discussions, talks and masterclasses, zoned exhibitions to showcase tech solutions, innovations in products, services, retail spaces, ideas and concepts welcomed delegates and the industry to engage over two days in meaningful conversation on the 10th and 11th of November 2021. We were able to discover and experience advanced solutions from technology solution providers and innovators presenting success stories of trailblazing retail business transformations from across the world. We got a chance to hear the best of best in person and see them exchanging ideas, plans, strategies, and visions on our podium. What an enthralling experience to see retail getting a revival with the phygital touch.

The size of the Indian logistics industry is estimated at $215 billion during FY20. It is expected to grow at a rate of 10-12 per cent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over the next five years. The pandemic has actually tightened the loose ends and have made the industry ‘smart & agile’. Supply chain is no more a backend conversation, but a regular point of discussion for the top management of any retail company.

Third party logistics (3PL), express logistics, warehousing and cold chain are the chief segments within the supply chain and logistics domain, which are expected to stay under the spotlight for some time now. The main focus now for any company within this segment is to shorten the supply chains and ensure that the goods are delivered in a very cost effective time-bound manner. In the September issue, we exclusively bring to the front supply chain trends and highlights from the experts of the domain. Along with this, we also bring some expert columns to highlight certain sectors and how the companies within this segment are registering success with impressive growth journeys. With enriching conversations, we also try to unfold the new innovation and business plans of some reputed startups and try to decode their growth story in the Indian market.

In this issue we also unearth the trend of FMCG companies that are working towards achieving household penetration by experimenting while lowering costs, effective advertising and understanding evolving consumer needs. We also trace the prompt adaptation of digital technology for business operations by the sector and study the nodes of changes. With focus on the wheels of change for retail, this issue is also about celebration and we raise a toast to the winners of IMAGES Shopping Centres Awards!

New trends and technology-led innovation has now become a well-versed conversation in retail and shopping malls are not far away from these insightful adaptations. However, with malls being closed for the better part of the year given the adversities of the second wave, now these spaces have majorly turned into a social arena. From vaccine drives to exclusive ‘coming back’ discounts and other campaigns for social causes, shopping malls are now voicing for the bigger cause and giving customers a safe space beyond their homes to mingle. Keeping this trend and transformation in mind, we have centered our cover story for this issue on ‘malls turning into social spaces’.

In the August issue we exclusively bring to you some startup growth stories in India along with the success stories of big retailers. With heart-to-heart conversations, we also try to unfold the new ideas and business plans that can help retail brands plan their foray into online & ofline space. A recent report has also revealed that the e-retail market is expected to grow to $120–140 billion by FY26. This certainly indicates a boom and retailers are fast surfing on this online wave to catch up some sales and make up for the losses owing to the ‘nobusiness’ days during the early days of the pandemic.

Description

Much has been told, a lot of lessons learnt, now we have already absorbed the nuances of the new normal and are all set to embark the changes. Moving forward, omnichannel retail seems to be the most obvious way of staying relevant and on-track within the retail sphere. Technology adaptation is the most obvious way forward and brands and retailers are adapting to the change faster than before. More than technology, the plan or strategy to adapt to the omnichannel ways of doing business is important and it starts from identifying the right touch points to plugging in the perfect 􀁫 t technology in order to make the brand easily accessible for the customers. Signi􀁫 cantly, omnichannel has a varied meaning for each brand/retailer and the approach to omnichannel also alters across domains. What makes omnichannel a homogenous concept is the end result, which everyone wants to achieve via their omnichannel journey.

Easy discovery of products at multiple touchpoints, doorstep deliveries via a seamless last-mile ful􀁫 lment, a uniform connectivity between varied touchpoints, and smooth inventory management are some of the primary asks that brands/retailers wishes to achieve with their omnichannel transformation.

With the second wave of the pandemic, India’s retail sector has had to face a double whammy, even as businesses and consumers were beginning to hope for some light at the end of the tunnel. On a happier note, the nationwide vaccination drive is helping one stay hopeful and look at the times ahead with optimism. Lockdowns all across the nation are slowly getting eased. While retailers are preparing to get started with ofine business, they are more than confident about retailing within the digital domain. Shopper-centric approach, assortment & space planning have emerged as the keypillars for retailers to improve retail experience, sales and loyalty.

The June edition of IMAGES Retail highlights these shifting paradigms exclusively. However, there is no denying the future of retail is digital. Why future, retail at present is steering towards digitalisation and we have had prominent retailers all across industry tell us that.

After nine long months, India’s retail sector is back to square
one. Lockdowns are back and business and consumer
sentiments are at record lows. People are once again being
advised to ‘stay home’; only shoppers focussed on essentials
are venturing out. Indians are back to the work-from-home
model and e-commerce is once again the favoured shopping
channel.
On the other side, the bar on retail supply chain excellence
is at an all-time high as companies race to service customers
and keep cash registers ringing. In our cover story, a white
paper from leading global professional services 􀁫 rm, Alvarez
& Marsal (A&M) India and CII Institute of Logistics called
‘Enabling the Next Wave of E-commerce in India Through
Supply Chain Innovation’ offers some ideas on what to
expect. The paper notes how different e-commerce categories
are expected to witness differential growth in the next 􀁫 ve
years with evolving operating models and the implications
for logistics service providers.

From a retailer’s point of view, in the last five years or so, there has been a huge inclination towards technology and digitisation.

However, social media is another category which is gaining popularity as more retail brands are associating with it and are spending a large amount of money to adopt it in their business plan. Retail today is largely about experience; even e-commerce giants are working on a shift in proposition from convenience to experience.

No matter how big or small a brand is, it must have now a robust social media strategy for growth and survival. Be it a strategy or just a rat race to keep yourself updated, a large section of the industry is backing this trend. A look around and we notice innumerable brands online that are working towards building themselves using social media and after having tested the waters, taking an of ine plunge. Having a strong social media strategy in place, these brands are creating a ripple in retail, the effect of which has forced many big brands to pay more attention to their social media presence.

The path to the top of the retail chain isn’t easy. It doesn’t just include running a business and generating revenues, but requires a working knowledge of technology, being updated in everything that’s trending in the industry and while the big picture doesn’t often change, the details of the story must adapt to constantly changing business conditions. In today’s pandemic-led accelerated digitalisation, brands and retailers are racing against time to provide the best in Omnichannelisation, Phygital retail, m-commerce, e-commerce and social commerce. Therefore, along with leadership qualities and technical know-how, the duty of the leader is to keep fine-tuning and updating the vision of the company. And when that leader is a woman, the situation is even better handled.

No wonder then that women are breaking the glass ceiling in every field and retail – which was an area predominantly occupied by men – is no different today, experiencing change as women take to the helm, posing stiff competition to their male counterparts. In a country riddled with gender stereotypes, here is a look at some women retail leaders who are making a difference in the sector and are crucial in building successful businesses.

The March edition of IMAGES Retail brings you a feature on the inspiring women from the retail sector, with an authority to make decisions to take their brands away from the crisis and direct them on to a path to normalcy.

Going forward, despite COVID there is happy news for the industry as many retailers pan India are reporting recovery rates in high numbers. A survey conducted by RAI reported that February 2021 recorded sales at 93 percent of pre-COVID sales with East India leading from the front.

Since 2010, Indian retail has centred around shopping malls, inarguably the best format of organised retail in the country. The Indian retail landscape has seen a plethora of shopping malls being launched every year since then, we now have more than 600 mallspan India with designs and brands that can compete with most global malls. However, 2020 saw the Indian Shopping Centre hitting a massive roadblock. The pandemic has been a once-in-a-lifetime test of business continuity planning for retail businesses across the globe.

The subsequent global lockdown, shutdown of all economic activities threw the retail and shopping centre industries into chaos, with only 5 malls being launched – in Gurugram, Delhi, Lucknow and Bengaluru. The growth scale became imbalanced in a matter of weeks and all predictions were disproved. Many upcoming shopping mall projects had to be stopped midway while others were permanently shelved and suffered major financial losses.

It has been a tough one year for the Retail Sector. The onset of COVID-19 and the shutting down of stores and malls indefinitely was a challenge no one had predicted. The pandemic has been a oncein- a-lifetime test of business continuity planning for retail businesses across the globe. Even when things have stabilized to an extent and economies are gradually opening up, the industry is being confronted by a hard question – what’s next? With little to no revenue in sight for months, brands and retailers turned to those who they have always looked upon to lead them when the going gets tough – their CEOs/ MDs/ Business Heads.
The January 2021 edition of IMAGES Retail brings to its readers, a curated list of decision makers, their strategies in countering the pandemic on grounds of planning, decision making, investing in new areas, resuming business, implementing digitization, technology, innovations and also ensuring safety to the employees and consumers.
The CEO Special will walk readers through the steps taken by them to bring the brand firmly on the road to recovery, innovative consumer experience, new technologies introduced, future plans and also highlight their leadership skills during this adverse situation. A sound digital transformation strategy has become indispensable to retail today. While there have been numerous discussions and debates on the meaning and benefits of digital transformation, there are few real-life references of successful digital-led 360-degree retail evolution. The edition also features a session from ‘PHYGITS LIVE’ which was conducted on January 12, 2021. The session will walk our readers through a first-of-its-kind case study presentation showcasing retailers and technology partners jointly presenting a crisp PoC narration from challenges to solutions.

As we get set to welcome 2021, it is time to acknowledge 2020 for being a very revolutionary year in terms of retail globally. COVID-19 threw the Retail & Shopping Centre industries globally for a loop for almost the entire year. Lakhs of people lost their jobs around the world and a number of businesses remained shut for almost half the year, some even more than that. Such was the impact of the pandemic that many businesses shut down permanently. Lockdown, Unlocking, Social Distancing, Technology, Adaptation, E-Commerce, essential services were some of the keywords of 2020, the highlights of the year in retail in a manner of speaking.

As the decade comes to an end, 2020, with its unprecedented challenge, has unexpectedly contributed to the growth of retail. Despite the pandemic, the year turned out to be a big opportunity for retailers, forcing them to adopt technology and go Omnichannel, something which many players were still just thinking of.Even small retailers – whohad no choice but to look to innovation to help them navigate the crisis – adapted. New trends, experiential, innovation and multichannel retail continued to shine and change the rules of the game successfully.

The months of October and November have so far been very fruitful for the retail industry. As far as the pandemic is concerned, while there has been no reasonable decline in the number of new casesin the past few weeks, people have nonetheless come out to in large numbers to shop for the festival season, making it a happy month for the retail industry as well. Stores in both high streets and shopping malls reported decent footfalls and an increase business.

For IMAGES Group too, October was a historic month as we conducted ‘Phygital Retail Convention (PRC)’ a 􀁫 rst of its kind ‘Live on Your Screen’ digital event. The event turned out to be 2020’s most powerful business event for retail and retail support industries.
Along with India’s top retail companies and international brands, key decision makers from retail design, technology, retail real estate, logistics & supply chain companies used the virtual platform to both deliver and gather insights, acquaint themselves with latest retail innovations and network for emerging business opportunities pan India. The 2-day event (October 14-15) received an overwhelming response from both the Retail & Shopping Centre Industries.

During COVID-19, every single day has been a new lesson for the retail industry. Despite a loss worth crores, the pandemic has taught so many things to the entire retail fraternity. It has made retailers believe that technology and digital transformation is the only way forward and as a result, retailers are transforming the entire shopping ecosystem into multi-channel 24×7 seamless shopper experiences.

Keeping this notion to the fore, IMAGES Group conducted a first of its kind Live on Your Screen digital event – ‘Phygital Retail Convention’ in October. The event was 2020’s most powerful business event for retail and retail support industries. Along with India’s top retail companies and international brands, key decision makers from retail design, technology, retail real estate, logistics & supply chain companies used the virtual medium platform to gather insights, view latest retail innovations and network for emerging business opportunities pan India. The 2-day event received an overwhelming response from both the Retail & Shopping Centre Industries. Readers can visit https://phygitalretailconvention.com/ and view sessions which will be live for one month.

The last five months have been very tough for the Indian Retail Industry both on the business and the manpower front, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While the organised sector can give a count of the number of employees who have lost their jobs or who have been furloughed, and the number of brands which have shut shop, there is no such census for the unorganised side of the sector on which the impact has been drastic, with lakhs of workers left without a job and an equal number of more small stores shutting down.
To counter the devastating impact of the pandemic, several brands in the organised sector are re-strategising their business plans. Whilelay-offs are inevitable and hiring has been frozen in the present crisis, many brands are trying to keep all staff on board with pay cuts, furloughs and leave without pay.
In these testing times, it has been a mammoth task for the HR departments of brands and retailers to keep their employees motivated so as to bring business back on track. Despite the dismal turn of events, HR departments of various brands are launching a slew ofinitiatives to engage their employees gainfully, while keeping their health and safety in mind.

Technology has been an integral part of retail since its inception. What started as a trend in the retail industry has suddenly been thrust into the limelight as an essential, accelerated by the pandemic. Retailers across the globe, who had thus far been using only basic technology to attract consumers have realised that they now need much more to convince the consumer to come to them.
COVID-19, apart from teaching retailers that a casual approach towards technology is no longer enough to ensure sales, has brought with it enormous business opportunities both on digital and technology front. It has literally drawn every brand out of the comfort zone and has forced them to adopt technology in their business structure, in each department.
The cover story of the August e-edition (IMAGES Retail) talks about this l ip side of the pandemic. In what can be seen as a change from surviving to thriving, a step towards how retail businesses will be conducted in the future as well, retailers across the spectrum are investing in technology to provide a safe shopping environment as well as to promote social distancing. The feature showcases technological changes made by Indian retailers to provide a safe and convenient shopping environment for consumers.

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Launched in 2003, IMAGES Retail magazine took on the task of analysing the emerging organised retail industry at a time when the industry itself had little data to work on. The magazine covers the gamut of Indian and International movements in retail technology, logistics and supply chain, store formats, store design, retail real estate, franchising and human resource, besides reporting on significant directions within India’s sunrise industry. 

The magazine is widely acknowledged India’s leading retail intelligence publication for decades now, providing news, insights, research & analysis, intelligence and data covering retail operations across all Indian markets.

The mission of the monthly B2B magazine – published exclusively for the retail industry – is to bring industry leaders and brand owners up to date with the latest in retail technology & innovations, provide them with in-depth research, studies and analytical, insightful features which help them grow their businesses in India. The magazine aims to spark ideas and shape agendas for decision makers in India’s competitive retail industry.

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Images Retail Magazine - October 2015

Images Retail Magazine - October 2015

In this issue

Being Omnipresent

Growth of Luxury Fashion Apparel In India

Images Retail Magazine Description: