Hail Retail!

ith millions of neighborhood grocery stores dotting each and

every town and city in the country, retail is said to be the largest business in

India, obviously in terms of numbers. What Reliance and Bharti are now trying to

do is to try and snatch some of this business away. This they will do not just

by building strong brands for consumer pull, but more so by using state-of-art

technology for bringing higher operational efficiencies, leveraging economies of

scale, and ultimately enhancing customer's shopping experience.

Just imagine walking into a large departmental store, fully

air-conditioned. You just have to grab a trolley fitted with a barcode reader,

and any item that you put into the trolley is automatically registered for

billing. Or, if you change your mind and take it out of the trolley to put it

back on the shelf, is also removed from your bill. You shop as much as you can,

and a small display on the trolley keeps telling you how much have you spent so

far. Any item you are not able to find on the racks, just walk up to the small

touch-screen menu driven kiosk and you can easily be guided to the exact rack

where the soap or the biscuit of your choice is available. Finally, you just

have to walk up to the billing counter, and your bill is ready. You may want to

pay cash, but you will see most customers using various forms of e-payment

options.

At a time when many people have started avoiding going to

crowded marketplaces due to fear of bomb blasts and terrorist attacks, this

store will have very advanced security and surveillance systems to check such

unwanted customers. This store will also have a visual bank and database of that

town's pick-pockets and shoplifters sitting on its server, so that such people

are immediately identified and moved out of the premises. Plus surveillance

cameras to monitor if anybody is quietly put a pack of cigarettes in his pocket.

We have been hearing of only the big names such as Reliance,

Bharti (alongwith WalMart), Tatas, Pantaloons, Shoppers Stop, McDonalds, and so

on. They are planning to spend millions. But so will be the hundreds and

thousands of other small retail outlets, which will have to get some amount of

computerization to offer similar facilities to its customers. Clearly, retail is

going to be very big. IT spending in retail could be one of the biggest, on the

lines of banking and finance, telecom, and Government, believe some industry

experts.

The big impact of growth of IT in retail will be that it will

significantly open the markets in smaller cities and towns. The overall size of

the domestic IT market in India would be considerably changed. Local and

regional language applications, which have hardly seen any movement, would be

dramatically energized.

Retailers will not limit IT to their stores. They will take IT

to your homes, with such solutions that will tempt and encourage housewives,

children, and even older people to shop. Suddenly, millions of people who have

no opportunity to use information technology-maids, drivers, delivery boys,

small time vendors, and anybody who buys from retails stores-will be exposed

to IT. This is likely to have a dramatic impact on the level of IT awareness in

India. And, in turn, the amount of IT aware talent pool available in the country

will go up. Many of them would be able to move up the ladder, and find it easier

to take up IT-related careers.

So next time you get an order to computerize a retail store, do not think of

the money you are going to make in the short run. Think of the money you will

make in the long run.