Workshops by Surender Gnanaolivu & Anurag Sehgal deliver business enabling insights

The first edition of Retail Yatra held on September 15 at the Taj Vivanta in Vijayawada, had two workshops conducted by retail industry experts Surender Gnanaolivu and Anurag Sehgal respectively, which unpacked practical insights for the benefit of retailers and brands looking to elevate their in-store experience with the right VM and customer experience strategies.

The first one conducted by Surendar, who comes with many years of experience in retail experience design, curation and strategy, was centered on the theme, ‘Visual Merchandising that Sells: Engaging the New-Age Shopper’. Surender broke down the theme into key sub-themes such as:

1. Drivers of retail transformation - understanding the customer

2. Customer centric VM strategies that help increase sales

3. Role of modern VM

4. Measuring VM to optimise conversions.

Reiterating his points with real examples, Surender built a strong case for VM strategies that help sell better based on customer understanding. He set the context by defining Visual Merchandising as ‘the art and science of presenting a retailer’s proposition and offering with the objective of influencing the customer to ultimately buy”.

Cutting across categories and formats - from a fruit vendor selling from his cart; to premium lifestyle and niche brands selling from aesthetic stores – the examples he shared pointed to the need for an approach that is rooted in common sense, is empathetic, scores high on aesthetics, engagement and cultural resonance, while ultimately helping the brand sell more. While this might sound like a tall order, it really boils down to something simple - a clear understanding of customer behaviour and expectations, as Surender pointed out. For brands and retailers, these insights really go a long way, faced as they are with the challenge of catering to a diverse range of shoppers, while meeting their business objectives and continuing to stay relevant at a time of fast shifting dynamics. The crux of his presentation was clearly encapsulated in these words: ”You cannot do today’s job with yesterday’s methods and be in business tomorrow.”

The second workshop by Anurag Sehgal, Managing Director, Digital Tranzform Pvt. Ltd., titled, ‘Investing in Purposeful Tech for Seamless Retail - A Checklist for Regional Retailers’ , was all about helping retail stake holders drive footfall with effective Pre-Retail, Retail (in-store) and Post-Retail strategies while leveraging purposeful technology solutions.

With cases studies of established brands such as Asian Paints, Pidilite, Van Heusen and more Anurag highlighted the need of the hour – “digital solutions to solve human problems” as he put it. This in essence means a solution and an approach that is: “people centered, solves the right problem and ensures that everything is part of a system”.

Taking the audience through the journeys of the different retail stakeholders which he referred to as ‘RISE’ (Retailers, Influencers, Shoppers and Employees), Anurag demonstrated the efficacy of a three-pronged retail transformation strategy comprising Pre-Retail, Retail and Post-Retail. He explained how it was important to engage the shoppers through their whole journey encompassing the above three stages.

Anurag also highlighted the key challenges in retail when it comes to adopting the right tech solutions for business-enabling transformation. The primary challenge he pointed out was the absence of a key mandate that bridges the gap between technology and marketing, while meeting the brand and consumer purpose. This results in purchase of technology solutions and drawing up campaign plans with no long-term strategy, leading to the other key challenge - lack of clarity on ROI. Addressing these challenges would require a leadership vision that can seamlessly combine the brand’s marketing needs with the right tech support. Anurag wrapped up his workshop with a hands-on exercise for the participants nudging them to list down their challenges and then list down suggestions to address those challenges with a fresh perspective, to arrive at the right tech-driven solution.