Rajeepan Raguneethan’s (Director- Asia Region, Microsoft Corporation India Pvt. Ltd.) keynote presentation at ReTechCon 2013 on “Driving the Pace of Change in Retail” was focused and bristled with facts. Sample this:
- 56% of consumers research a brand on FB before purchase
- Retailers estimate that 40%+ of brick ‘n’ mortar sales are influenced by their website
- 75% of consumers still prefer to buy products at brick-and-mortar stores
While these statistics are from the overseas markets, since India tends to “leap generations” – there is little doubt that this is the shape of things to come in this market as well.
For the CIO in a retail company – the fundamental, raison d’être has changed. In 2002 it was “How will technology help control costs?”. Ten years later it has changed to “How will technology support growth?”.
This shift forces CIO’s to be more strategic in their thinking and has also meant that questions of business strategy and organization structure now need technology input.
A multi-channel strategy also increases the complexity of what the CIO deals with – giving rise to the need to integrate technology across Mobility, Social & Online e-commerce platforms.
