Mobile wallets work on the basis of transferring money from an existing bank or credit card into the online wallet – and using that to pay online at the merchant site.  The consumer creates an account with a m-wallet app or website, adds money to the wallet by debiting his bank account through Net banking or through a credit card, and then to make payments or transfers money. It uses the mobile phone as the go-in-between.  The m-wallet uses Bluetooth, QR codes, NFC (Near Field Communication), WiFi, 2G or 3G to communicate with the merchant’s billing POS machine.

This brings me to consumer experience.  I was at a suburban restaurant in Mumbai – Smoke-house deli, where I saw an interesting promotion. It promised me Rs 200 off, if I used my mobile phone to pay.  I looked at it and thoughts of high tech-queue busting solutions ran through my mind.

The promotion card said that I needed to give my cell number to the billing counter and pay using the link that would be sent to my phone. So far so good. The SMS duly appeared and I was directed to a Qwik Wallet site, where I signed up and was sent a second code for authentication. Smooth sailing. The next screen asked me for my credit card details. I hesitated a bit, but reasoned that this was no different from shopping online, so entered the same.

The screen went into its ‘processing … please wait’ mode for about 5 minutes.  Noticing the confused look on my face, Anup, the restaurant manager told me that it would be faster if I download the app and made the payment.

A bit frustrated by now, but still driven by the thought of the 200 Rs off, I complied. The app duly downloaded (thank you 3G) I registered yet again, and was sent another validation code.  The app then asked for my credit card details to store the same. I baulked. Visions of the Uber-app floating in my mind, I decided to forego the Rs 200 of the promotion and paid. Using cash.

As a consumer my comfort zone stretches to giving credit card details online or typing them into my mobile phone for a transaction, but not where the card details will be stored.

When I dissect my reaction, I realize my fear is rooted by not knowing what happens to my profile details when I delete the app off the phone.  I have heard stories of apps being able to ‘snoop’ data and send back details including contact lists, photos and SMS’s to the server. Uber-scary that.

My experience was one-off of course.  I am of the Gen-Y segment; perhaps a Millennial would blithely provide credit card details.

To me, mobile wallets aren’t yet driven by User Experience (Ux) considerations – too much ‘technicalese’ in their design and not enough ‘consumerese’.  And retailers don’t seem to realize that wifi is not a precious commodity – it should be provided freely if they want adoption of m-wallets.

These are things that market share projections for mobile wallets probably haven’t considered.

There are several critical elements in packaging that attract consumers like shape, size and graphics of the packaging. Shape and size address the utility, handling comfort and storage requirements of a consumer. Graphics define consistency of brand colours, brand element detailing, brand message and clarity of information on the pack.

Since all these elements directly speak to the consumer, a lot of focus is now on pre-media. The primary goal of pre-media is to bring consistency in branding across different pack formats, multiple retail and packing locations. The red colour of Coca-Cola, the purple of Cadbury, the Gold of Five-Star chocolates, Blue of Pepsi, the Yellow and Red of Maggi are what reach consumers first. Consumers find comfort in associating with reliable brand colours. For brands, it becomes the starting point of engaging consumers with their products.

While brand owners today understand this concept, India throws up a lot of unique challenges at them. With a large geography to cover, logistics is a critical challenge. Brand owners address these through multiple packing locations – which create a tremendous challenge in brand image consistency.

The solution for this is to create a right pre-media strategy that organizes communication. Pre-media, through merging production challenges, legal limitation and brand identity elements, helps brand to achieve consistency on the retail shelf. By working as partners to consumer brands, pre-media players also help brand owners to manage critical production networks. A proper pre-media strategy helps brand owners to control cost of production and pass over the value saved to the consumer.

For global majors, India is a land of unique opportunity and challenge. Efforts to bring global brand standards has already picked up in the last few years. This is also pushing home-grown players to better their standards. Today, winning depends to a large extent on communicating with the consumers in a consistent manner. Brands are realizing this, and pre-media is playing a critical role in helping brands achieve their goal.

• It’s now or never. The young Indian consumer (‘millennial’ henceforth) is smart, aspirational and impatient. Unlike their parents, they are not prepared to wait indefinitely for material satisfaction. As the economy continues to open up, the millennials are embracing the change whole-heartedly, getting brand-aware at a younger age than ever (Economist 2011). It is forecast that by 2020 this group will account for nearly 75 percent of the total spend.
• Tech’s fun, but won’t throw caution to the winds. The last few years have witnessed a surge in mobile and Internet adoption in India. Most millennials were born digital natives — 60 percent of them own a smartphone. And more millennials — 22 percent — had their first experience of the Web via their mobile or tablet in the last year than via a desktop — 18 percent. At the same time, they care a lot about data securit y, clearly indicating they will share personal information only if its privacy is promised. Eighteen percent of millennials and 20 percent of non-millennials called reassurance on security their primary need. However, 24 percent of millennials indicated they would not share personal information under any condition.
• There are holes to plug. There is a huge gap between awareness of and participation in loyalty programmes. Seventy percent of millennials and 74 percent of non-millennials have heard about loyalty programmes, but only 54 percent and 56 percent, respectively, are actually members of any programme. While some of this gap can be attributed to the socio-economic context, there remains a more fundamental issue. Young Indians are not dancing to the loyalty beat because it simply doesn’t excite them at the moment.
• We identified four core reasons for this discrepancy: (a) Propensity for a quick buck. Seventy-two percent of ‘in a hurry’ millennials believe they should be able to earn rewards in under three months, which is distant from reality; (b) Infra woes. The weak Internet infrastructure makes it challenging to access loyalty programmes enough to see adequate value from them;
• Lack of meaningful rewards. Loyalty programmes need to better answer the ‘What’s in it for me?’ question. Thirty-five percent of millennials and 40 percent of non-millennials reported that relevant rewards would encourage them to join a loyalty programme; and (d) Insufficient point-earning opportunities. We feel a robust loyalty programme proposition for India would include the ability to earn across multiple purchase points. Many programmes in India are currently restrictive in these areas. Not everyone can, or wants to, have a credit card.

COMING UP TRUMPS

• Keep it simple. Complexity is a turn-off, especially for the time-poor and information-inundated consumer.
• Facilitate early redemption. Waiting for months, let alone years, for rewards is not going to work.
• Mobile-optimise. Manage customer relationships through smartphones. It’s not the future – it’s the present.
• Promise privacy, keep word. The Indian consumer typically starts from a position of active mistrust. One slip-up, and they are gone.
• Forge alliances. Joining forces with non-competing organisations can help overcome the barriers to participation. One plus one is bigger, better and more noticeable than one on its own.

By Akash Sahai, Managing Director, Aimia India

The Panel Discussion on The Art and Science of Retailing Occasion Wear in South India had industry experts discussing on how they blend science & art of retailing occasion wear.

Panelists of this discussion were:

K.R. Nagarajan, Founder & MD, Ramraj Cotton

Jagdish Sarda, Founder & MD, VENFIELD

Somesh Warakandan, Director, VKR Silks

S.Franklin John, Principal, Nehru College of Management

Moderator: Bijou Kurien

Opening comments by Bijou Kurein (Moderator)

“Occasion wear is emotive and high value. It needs a blend of both the art and the science of retailing.”

• The art of retailing is intrinsic; the science, that which is structured and learned
• Owner retailer driven companies have retailing down to an art. Being an owner and feeling a ‘sense of ownership’ are two different things.
• Owner retailers – feel the pain of profit and loss.  The promoters owns money – the professional, a sense of ownership,  The owner knows how money works – in terms of stock, customer service, employee satisfaction.
• When you build a business in a smaller city, where your family has deep generational roots, you know the customer better and can ‘localize’ communication and marketing, without thinking about it as being  marketing.
• The art of retailing is often transitioned over “dining table” conversations – it’s a DNA level infusion.

Question: How does your business integrate the art and science of retailing?

K.R. Nagarajan, Founder & MD, Ramraj Cotton

“Our mission was to create a status symbol out of the veshti”

“Fashion is about mixing habit with comfort”

• Converting the ‘veshti’ into occasion wear has been our mission.
• When we started, in 1980’s – only the cooperative movement produced dhotis (called “Kadar” dhotis; Kadar means respect). However these were low quality.
• Dhoti’s were associated with the blue-collar, labourer class.
• In a bid to market the product, when I wore the product and went to a five star hotel, I was made to wait, while others (who were wearing formal trousers) were allowed to enter.
• I realized that there was a need to re-position the product.
• So, I made it a point to associate, tangible ‘signs of success’ with the ‘veshti’ – for example, I would make it a point to be seen driving in a Mercedes wearing the white veshti,  I got temple elephants to salute people wearing white veshtis and made sure that there were people passing them who wore that garment.
• We’ve also used the emotive appeal of actors – from the Tamil and Malayalam film industries to be our brand ambassadors.
• Focus: that’s been a critical component. We’ve stuck to the message of ‘pristine, pure white’.
• We believe that consumers who wear white for 21 days, will not want to revert to coloured clothes.
• While our range of merchandise spans mens wear, our entire branding,  positioning and marketing is about the “power of white”.
• Our positioning of the veshti as ‘occasion wear’ was also deliberate.  Festivals and occasions are instances where people seek the comfort of traditional and the familiar.
• We wanted the consumer to feel proud about wearing ethnic, traditional wear.
• Lastly, we’ve used product innovation to get people to adopt the category (example – veshtis with belts, pockets, and inner boxers / drawers) – all based on consumer feedback and aimed at making the consumer comfortable about wearing the dhoti.

Somesh Warakandan, Director, VKR Silks

“Looking at the silk saree category from the “outside in” is what helped us expand.”

• For us the art of retailing is the art of “retaining”.
• Most of our sales staff have been with us for more than 30 years. They are able to sell to three generations of women customers and are able to map merchandise to profile and taste.
• Customers no longer see us as “wedding saree” sellers – they look at us as a place to shop for festivals.
• That “outside in” differentiation is what helps us expand our business.

Jagdish Sarda, Founder & MD VENFIELD

“Garments and brands both become commoditized, but service endures. “

• Retail is not about opening a big store, dumping stock and pushing sales. Its about how you treat your customer.
• You need to be present where the customers habitually goes. In the past that was the temple – today it’s the mall, and tomorrow it will be online.
• As an entrepreneur I am in love with “action” but the business demands that – beyond a point – I have to be replaced by technology – otherwise it cannot grow.

Question: How can academia help retailers understand the art and science of retailing?

S.Franklin John, Principal, Nehru College of Management

When it comes to occasion wear, do not assume that price drives value. “

• Handling the customer is an art, understanding her is the science of it.
• Research tell us that we have two brains (right and left) and two levels of consciousness (cognitive and sub-conscious)
• Connecting with the consumer is a right-brain, emotive, and a sub-conscious phenomenon.
• Retailers who forget this get lost in feedback scores and their brands become ‘bland’.

Panelists – from Left to Right: 

Vasanth Kumar, ED, Max Retail; Rahul Mehta –  President, Clothing Manufacturers Association of India; Darpan Kapoor, Vice President, Kapsons Fashions; Vineet Gautam, Country Head, Bestseller India; Vinay Nadkarni, MD & CEO, Globus Stores Pvt Ltd
Moderated by Rahul Mehta, President CMAI

What is the one trend that has been driving Indian lifestyle retail in recent years?

• Having established 100 stores across 40 cities, the strategy that has worked is “Affordable Fresh Fashion”.

• Retailers have a choice – 75% margin, with 2 inventory turns a year or 35% margin on 8 turns

• We operate at a 40-42% margin and turnaround stock 6 times a year.

• Store profiling is the key to this business

• We price our products sharply to allow us to turnaround stock within 60 days.