"There's a Japanese belief that business is temporal,

whereas relationships are eternal."

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- Marc Benioff

OUR BELIEF

  • Product and Service innovation are a reality as new age Entrepreneurs find ongoing solutions to the way the world consumes. Thanks to the internet, there is no difference between buying behaviours across evolved and emerging economies

  • Millennials would drive the sustainability value

  • Retailers, to some degree, has had a sense of what the future of retail could look like: consumers shopping  from anywhere at any time on their computers or mobile devices, stores morphing into showrooms or fulfilment centres, products being shipped out for home delivery at ever-increasing speeds, digitization everywhere

  • Online / Digital space driven by new age influencers would drive consumption in smaller cities

  • Omni channel progressing towards the metaverse would be the touch points to experience & buy products

Bombay Times Article_edited.jpg

BombayTimes

QUOTES FROM THE ARTICLE

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THE PERKS OF LOCAL RETAIL STORES  

Besides that, Shashi Kapur, the founder of a retail consultancy firm, feels that there are three reasons behind this preference. The first is: "The right product assortment for the area or community." Local stores always manage to anticipate the needs of an area and deliver on them. "Instant home delivery during a pandemic," is the second reason.

The final reason is, "credit facilities and digital payment options."

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CUSTOMER CONNECTIONS AT A HYPERLOCAL LEVEL

Kapur notes that hyperlocal stores trump e-commerce stores by providing personalized service. He points to the human interface as the stand-out factor.

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In addition to that, Kapur credits the changing sentiment of the millennial shopper. He asserts, "Younger buyers are tuned towards sustainability and cost consciousness." He declares, "The biggest advantages local stores have over others are the travel cost and time. When I gauge my costs versus savings at local stores. I always prefer it."

 

 WILL THIS PREFERENCE FOR LOCAL STORES LAST?

According to Kapur, it will. He explains, "Buying local and supporting small enterprises is the mood of the government and consumers." In addition to that, he feels that smaller stores are becoming category agnostic, as he states, "Pharmacies are now all-product stores. There is one store for all complementary needs." Finally, he believes that local stores are also integral to the big picture of e-commerce giants. He expounds, "Bigger supermarket chains would rely on local stores for last minute deliveries."

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SETTING UP LOCAL RETAIL 2.0

To make the most of the existing customer sentiment, Kapur recommends incorporating innovative marketing strategies. He suggests keeping a comprehensive profile of all loyal customers and anticipating their needs. He also advises offering a bundle of products at a discounted price. 

Secondly, he proposes ensuring that the customers spend sufficient time at the store. He says, "The longer they are in

the store, the more they will buy." He feels that store owners must utilize ways to engage the consumer. Lastly, Kapur

feels that local stores must embrace technology to benefit from the customer sentiment using loyalty programmes and the likes.

​THOUGHTS ON TALENT ACQUISITION

  • Shorter tenures and multiple job opportunities at mid and senior-level have led to an increase in job creation and demand for recruiters

  • Increase in demand for niche skills and the shortage of talent with skills has given a rise to a need of a specialist’s recruiter. Niche recruiters constantly reach out to candidates who are not on a job board or actively looking for a job – in our terms a “Passive Candidate”

  • With the war-for-talent continuing to be severe for niche skills, HR Managers would sharpen on talent engagement and retention and depend upon a specialized resource for talent acquisition as positions are open longer and the entire hiring process becomes highly time consuming, expensive and frustrating for hiring managers

  • Work-from-home, hiring diversity, longer maternity/paternity leaves, part-time jobs/contract jobs and other employee engagement processes have become the norm. Although our world is becoming increasingly automated, some things still require a personal touch. That’s where recruiters come into the picture. The premium on qualified and skilled talent is set to increase and organizations are competing for acquiring the best Indian talent for their global needs

  • Traditional Applicant Tracking Systems have evolved into intelligent software providing real-time predictive analytics with the ability to weight data points and shortlist the best-fit candidates for a position, thus eliminating the element of bias and intuition