‘Technology is like clay, mould it according to the need’

Day 1 of DDX Asia Business Conference 2025 took off on an insightful note with Anurag Sehgal, MD of Digital Tranzform, addressing the audience on the theme ‘Retail Tech Blueprint: Digital Transformation for the front-end consumer retail experience’.

Anurag essentially threw light on the importance of leveraging technology to address specific consumer needs across touchpoints. In the process, he drove home the importance of integrating meaningful technology as against fanciful technology. He also highlighted some common misconceptions in the context of tech-led consumer experience design. He got to the crux of it by talking about what he called ‘Digital Solutions for human problems’ and with that, he took a deep dive into mapping the consumer experience funnel.

‘Digital Solutions for human problem’ essentially means throwing the spotlight on having a symbiotic strategy - every decision by the brand to engage the customer is driven by specific customer requirement. This is where the role of technology comes into play. As Anurag pointed out, “Technology is like clay, mould it according to the need.”

He then proceeded to reiterate the points through two case studies - Asian Paints and One Pidlite Experience Centre. He also drew attention to the need to strategically engage many and often diverse stakeholders, particularly relevant for categories such as paints, where the retail stakeholder mix includes influencers, consumers and content creators.

With these examples, Anurag aptly summed up the consumer journey into distinct stages: ‘Pre -Retail, Retail and Post Retail. The Retail stage itself is divided into in-store and online, as Anurag pointed out. He also brought into focus what has been a talking point for a long time now - Omnichannel. But what was particularly interesting and informative for the audience was the way he broke down the concept into what he called ‘Omnichannel and Multichannel’, highlighting the need to address consumers across multiple channels- in-store, online and at home. The core of Anurag’s presentation was about identifying the real purpose of integrating technology in consumer experience, one that goes beyond transaction, and instead focuses on meaningful engagement through inspiration, information and retention, among other things.