Reimagining distribution & retail business using new age technology

Abstract

In the 21st century, globalization is the fundamental on which the world economy is dependent. A small impact in one of the economies create ripple effects in other economies as well. The pandemic of COVID19 has been one of the eye openers for the entire world where dependence on one single economy for certain products has left the world helpless. The biggest example has been the shortage of semi-conductors post pandemic that has plagued industries like automobiles, appliances etc. Learning from this experience, most of the businesses are now focusing on lowering their dependence on China as a manufacturing hub and market. At this time, India stands out as the most lucrative market for the big businesses to set up their manufacturing hub. But companies are not stopping at setting up manufacturing hubs. India, with its large consumerbased economy, also provide a large market for these companies to exploit. India has currently surpassed China in population and the growing living of standard of Indians will prove to be a huge factor for companies trying to invest in the retail sector in India. In this study our focus is to understand the role that new-age technologies will play in the growth of retail and distribution sector in India. As new companies start investing in the retail sector in India it will be imperative for all the companies to make their operations as efficient as possible and also provide customers with different and innovative experiences so that he or she prefers their retail stores for shopping compared to other competitors. These efficiency and customer experience enhancement will be brought forward by investments in new-age technologies. The sections in this study explores the current status retail sector in India followed by different trending technologies being used in this sector across the globe. We then look at case studies of Lenskart, Amazon and Phillips Healthcare to learn about their point of view of usage of technology in the retail sector. The final sections deal with the current challenges in adopting such technologies and what kind of strategies can be used to tackle these challenges during implementation.