Big Data soon to become Indian Retailers' Key business tool

With Big data analytics budding as a key tool to generate Business Intelligence, many retailers in India are adopting the technology, at a gradual yet steady pace, to serve their customers with a more advanced and personalized shopping experience.

Many eminent retailers, Shoppers Stop and the Tata Group’s Trent are among the leading adopters of the Big Data analytics for improving their digital presence.

 Shoppers Stop already announced its plans to venture into e-commerce, changing its strategy for the third time in five years. Headquartered in Mumbai, the renowned retail chain is targeting to net 15 percent revenue through digital touch-points and is also planning an investment of INR 60 crore over the next three years. Govind Shrikhande, Managing Director, Shoppers Stop said, "Next year, we plan to invest in warehouse management systems to strengthen our supply chain, and subsequently in master data management to strengthen our omni-channel operations.”

Trent, the Tata Group’s retail division, is also planning to tap the technology for better understanding of customers. They are also looking at in-house analytics to provide better service to their customers. "At present we outsource analytics, but the company is thinking of building an in-house analytics team," said Vikram Idnani, IT head at Trent. 

Consultancy firm PwC however, considers the adoption of Big Data Analytics in improving business standards though is on the go, yet the pace is considerably slow among the retailers as of now. Sandeep Ladda, PwC India partner and technology sector leader, said that more than decoding the analytics a bigger step for both online and offline retail would be when the data can be used real-time to target shoppers during their shopping experience.