Devangshu Dutta

Poetry

Poetry

Poetry

As Consumer businesses take a hard hit due to the COVID-2019 pandemic, it's time for retailers to reflect and reinvent.

Devangshu Dutta's retrospective on India's retail sector in 2019 and how 2020 could see retailers get inventive to drive footfall and sales.

There is no doubt that there has been an explosion of investment in retail chains in the last 2 decades, but we need to acknowledge the foundation on which this development is built. The current titans of the sector are standing on the shoulders of previous giants who have created successes and failures from which we are still learning. This piece presents a broad sweep of the growth of modern retail in India, not just across decades, but across the centuries.

Retailers and brands that are solely focussing on price or price and feature comparisons are turning their business into a commodity. They are missing the long game.

To many, retail seems to be having an identity crisis. Closed storefronts and dead malls are blamed on the growth of online retail, while Amazon is opening physical stores and buying offline retail operations and Walmart is buying ecommerce businesses. What in the world is going on? Devangshu Dutta presents his perspective on these shifts in the retail business worldwide.

After food, wellness has turned into possibly one of the largest consumer industries on the planet. As wellness demonstrated an increasingly profitable vector in the West, Indian entrepreneurs, too, have taken note of this opportunity.

This is a recording of a short, candid talk by Devangshu Dutta (chief executive, Third Eyesight) at the ASSOCHAM’s 8th Global Food Processing Summit in New Delhi, India. Touched upon the inherent conflicts in the food supply chain we need to be aware of before formulating policies and practices, and management from the point of view of sustainability and risk-management.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping many aspects of the retail business and the consumer’s experience. To be able to see the scope of its potential all-pervasive impact we need to go beyond images of humanoid robots.

McDonald’s and later Domino’s Pizza can be credited with not just growing the consumer appetite for fast food but also for fostering an entire food service ecosystem.
But as much as international brands look to changing India, India also changes them.

In about 20 years, Café Coffee Day (CCD) has grown from one ‘cyber café’ in Bengaluru to the leading chain of cafés in the country by far. But what's in store for its future?

For all the attention paid to the entry and expansion of multinational retailers and nationwide ecommerce growth, retail remains predominantly a local activity. Aggregator models and hyperlocal delivery, in theory, have some significant advantages. But there are downside risks as well. A perspective on the developing ecosystem in India.

Forward-thinking retailers are reimagining trial rooms, stores, business processes and entire business models. It’s not a physical versus virtual approach but an approach that integrates both sides. The idea is to create a more immersive experience than pure digital retail can be, using some of the same tools as ecommerce.

The Patanjali Group has created an Indian FMCG giant in a very short span of time on the back of a three-pronged strategy.

Retailers need to and will see themselves logically serving customers across multiple channels that are appropriate for their product mix. They need to mould their business models until they achieve balance, proficiency and excellence across channels, and eventually become truly omnichannel businesses. It doesn’t matter from which side of the digital divide they began.

The Hindu Businessline - cat.a.lyst got marketing experts from diverse industries to analyse consumer behaviour during the last one month and pick out valuable nuggets on how this could impact marketing and brands in the years to come. This piece was a contribution to this Deepavali special supplement.

There is no reason to think that India’s food industry should follow exactly the same development curve as the west. The population is much larger, with significantly lower income, and needs that greatly diverse and changing far more rapidly than in most other economies.

India’s citizens are creative and entrepreneurial. They are hungry for growth. What they need is the government to shoulder its responsibilities. A check-list of the big issues the new government should focus on.

B2B event companies don’t often think about consumer spending as something directly relevant to their business. However, consumer trends can allow industry event and exhibition organizers to get an advance view of where the opportunities can lie in the future. In this Keynote address at UFI’s Asia Open Seminar in Bangalore, Devangshu Dutta shares his views about the key consumer trends in India, and the implications for the events and exhibitions industry.

India’s Tata Group and British retailer Tesco announced that they would be creating a formal joint venture in India, with Tesco investing US$ 110 million. A perspective.

Franchising isn’t rocket science, but advanced space programmes offer at least one parallel which we can learn from – the staging of objectives and planning accordingly.

Many of the reasons for breaking up of joint-ventures and partnerships between international brands and Indian retailers can be found in the reasons for which they were set up the first place.

An analysis of the break-up of the joint venture between Wal-Mart and Bharti Group in India.

Luxury brands should be among the most influential in the market for retail management practices, customer service standards, quality and product design. But is it so in India?

2013 is an important budget year politically due to impending elections but also economically due to the dismal GDP growth. Some simple but bold steps are needed to unleash the potential of the retail and consumer sector.

A number of international brands are restructuring their Indian presence with greater ownership stakes. Third Eyesight evaluates the impact of recent relaxation of the FDI rules.

Most of us are inclined to view the growth of modern retail as a precursor to the growth of the SME sector. Actually the reverse is equally true, perhaps more so.

There needs to be some drastic rethinking about the role of retail in society if we want India’s urban centres to be healthier, dynamic and sustainable in every possible way.

It is likely that people involved in the architecture and design are either addicted to noise or, at the very least, completely immune to it. Why else would locations such as retail stores, malls, restaurants, large office receptions, and other public spaces be designed and built so badly from the point of view of handling sound?

There is no doubt that e-tailing will grow in India. The confluence of increasing incomes, a growing online population, improving connectivity, and more businesses starting up on the net will lead to what would be “stupendous” year-on-year growth figures.

There is an opportunity to capture economic value that branding offers, which is very often greater than any other process in the food supply chain. Remember two phrases made famous by Hollywood: “show me the money” and “show me some love”. In the business of brands, these are one and the same.

The old saying goes: where there are issues, there are opportunities. By that standard, the perishable commodities supply chain offers plenty of issues and, hence, opportunities. Part of the problem, or opportunity, is that there are so many steps between the farmer and the consumer, so many hands through which the produce passes, especially in the case of India. With every step in this supply chain, there is the potential of waste and deterioration with time, and on the flip side, there is… Mehr zeigen

The old saying goes: where there are issues, there are opportunities. By that standard, the perishable commodities supply chain offers plenty of issues and, hence, opportunities. Part of the problem, or opportunity, is that there are so many steps between the farmer and the consumer, so many hands through which the produce passes, especially in the case of India. With every step in this supply chain, there is the potential of waste and deterioration with time, and on the flip side, there is also an opportunity to add value and improve. Weniger anzeigen

We have evolved a Private Label Maturity Model that can help retailers think through their approach to private label, whether their product offering is dominated by private label, or whether they have only just begun considering the possibility of including private label in their product range. The model sketches out a maturity path on five parameters that are affected by or influence the strength of a retailer’s private label offering.

In recent years brands have tended to make much of their organic certification. Marketers are known for overstatement anyway, and the promotional language used by some implies (or even explicitly states) that these products are superior to other alternatives. Surely, then, the consumer should be willing to pay higher prices for these “better” products? If only, if only, facts were that straightforward.

Whether you have sourced from India previously or not, do not limit yourself to your past perceptions of what the Indian supply base can produce.

Businesses are like living beings. They are born, they grow, and most die in a few years or decades. Some businesses get married (merged or acquired), and sometimes they give birth to other businesses. Managers need to critically question: does a specific change meet a current need or provide an ongoing advantage, and can it apply to the rest of the business?

International brands are in India not only to stay, but also to expand. There is yet a lot of potential untapped in the market, and as the integration of the Indian consumer with global trends continues, international brands can expect to find India an increasingly fertile ground for growth

The organic trade (all products) is currently estimated at over US$ 40 billion globally, with an annual growth of approximately US$ 5 billion. Organic production is driven today more by demand than by supply – in many cases supply constraints of certified organic produce is more of a concern than the market demand. However, as the interest in organic products has grown, so have the noise levels in the market. With that the potential for confusion in customers’ minds has also grown. In… Mehr zeigen

The organic trade (all products) is currently estimated at over US$ 40 billion globally, with an annual growth of approximately US$ 5 billion. Organic production is driven today more by demand than by supply – in many cases supply constraints of certified organic produce is more of a concern than the market demand. However, as the interest in organic products has grown, so have the noise levels in the market. With that the potential for confusion in customers’ minds has also grown. In day-to-day conversations, we tend to treat organic as superior to inorganic. But the reality is a little bit more complex. Weniger anzeigen

Should international brands be sold intermingled with local brands, or be segregated and bunched together in one location in the store? Would this help in creating and maintaining a premium image, or be counter-productive and create a dead zone?

Most corporate responsibility / sustainability initatives end up addressing only one of the dimensions to focus and simplify the action-points. However, the reality is that there are many areas where the Environment, the Community and the Organisation overlap with each other – many a time, when you ignore the interaction between these dimensions, you get totally divergent opinions. And the point of view related to your own history, geography and experiences, further colour the opinion.

There is no doubt that brands love the scale that large retailers provide them, with the quick access to a large footprint in the market, and the high visibility. On the other hand, as a vendor, they hate the negotiating edge that this scale gives the large retailer.
On the other side, retailers love brands for the footfall they bring, for creating a “need to buy” on the consumer’s part, but hate the premium charged by the brand.

The article raises the question whether we are clear about what is the true cost of blindly pushing for scale in the food chain.

8 issues came to my mind as key themes for the global textile and apparel industry, that may shape the business in the short and medium term.

During India's misplaced years post-Independence, business and commercial activity was treated as a "necessary evil". In the last 20 or so years, fortunately, that tide has turned significantly - the role of business in economic and social growth is publicly acknowledged. It is time now for retail developments to be seen as part of urban infrastructure and also, more importantly, as part of the social fabric of a town or city. Government at all levels, especially state, district and municipal… Mehr zeigen

During India's misplaced years post-Independence, business and commercial activity was treated as a "necessary evil". In the last 20 or so years, fortunately, that tide has turned significantly - the role of business in economic and social growth is publicly acknowledged. It is time now for retail developments to be seen as part of urban infrastructure and also, more importantly, as part of the social fabric of a town or city. Government at all levels, especially state, district and municipal level, need to understand that the presence of successful retail developments in their population centres are an indication of the social and economic health of their localities. Weniger anzeigen

About 450 million individuals in India are estimated to be below 20 years of age. 105 million individuals are in the age group of 15-19 years, already in their early years of discretionary consumption. About 112 million individuals are in the 10-14 years segment – within 5 years many of these will be making career choices, and in another 5 years most would have already begun earning and spending. Imagine the power of the tweens and the teens.

Many business plans for the Indian market mention the "200-300 million middle class". However, most brands end up being targeted only at 15-20 million individuals. A deeper dive from the previous article.

Foreign companies' first attraction to India is the billion-plus population. Brands from countries which have domestic populations of 50-300 million salivate at the prospect of 1.2 billion Indians starving for their particular make of biscuit or coffee or the latest backless cropped blouse. The thinking goes, "If we can capture even 2% of the market to start with…" So what is the real story?

The psychology behind the discount sale is that we think we've got a great deal, having paid less than what the product is worth. There is a hint of the illicit, a feeling of having "got away" with something faintly irregular.

A study of Zara, the flagship brand of the Inditex Group.

There is a sense of ‘supply dependence’ associated with supply consolidation, in comparison to the sense of ‘interdependence’ that comes from a flexible (even though not fully open) network of buyer and supplier relationships. A cosy ‘strategic’ relationship that assumes a two-way exclusivity also creates a relatively narrow channel of ideas and developments, and becomes largely process-driven at the cost of creativity. This is fine if you are selling the same product year-in, year-out; but… Mehr zeigen

There is a sense of ‘supply dependence’ associated with supply consolidation, in comparison to the sense of ‘interdependence’ that comes from a flexible (even though not fully open) network of buyer and supplier relationships. A cosy ‘strategic’ relationship that assumes a two-way exclusivity also creates a relatively narrow channel of ideas and developments, and becomes largely process-driven at the cost of creativity. This is fine if you are selling the same product year-in, year-out; but certain suicide (or slow poison, at best) if you are in any part of the fashion market. Weniger anzeigen

The impact of the web on the textile and apparel industry is not going to be immediate – it will take a while to permeate the hundreds of thousands of companies that make up the supply chain – so there is some breathing space. But surely, in the next five years, the textile and apparel supply chain that we shall be seeing, will be structured quite differently from the existing supply chain.

The following steps need to be taken to reducing the uncertainty and risk in sourcing approaches and strategy: understanding global trends; defining business strategy and selecting a clear “position”, and using the business strategy and positioning to define the sourcing strategy and processes.

Certainly, sourcing is a lot about getting your predictions right – the right product, the right quantities and the right timing, the right supply base for future growth. But it helps to make sure that sourcing activity is led as much as possible by targets and business objectives, rather than only by short-term reactions to changes in the environment.