Can design deliver ROI?

The first day of the much awaited In Store Asia 2019 that kicked off today at the Bombay Exhibition Centre, Mumbai, had an interesting line up of speakers and topics as part of the Convention.

The thought provoking panel discussion on “The Rise, Growth & Plateau of India’s Retail Design Industry” moderated by Aanchal Jain, COO, Entrepreneurial Practice, Futurebrands Consulting, had brands and retailers debating and discussing the way forward in order to make retail design deliver both experiential and business benefits.

The panelists included top names from retail as well as retail design industry. The brands’/retailers’ side was represented by Mridumesh Kumar Rai, Group President, Sara Futura Group; MC Cariappa, President – Sales & Marketing, Jockey India and Ramesh Kaushik, VP-Brand Experience, Blackberrys. The design side included Sanjay Agarwal, MD, Future Research Design Company (FRDC), Shyam Sunder K, Founder & MD, Four Dimensions Retail Design (4D) and Shravan Suthar, Director, SDC.

While the retailers urged the designers to come forward and offer long term design solutions that deliver ROI, the design community voiced the need for greater inputs and insights to be shared by the retailers, besides better budgets. But there was collective consensus on the need for both to come together as partners to make design work in the context of millennial consumer experience and deliver ROI.