According to the top executive, in the last decade e-commerce penetration has gone from zero percent to about 19% in the US. But in the last 10 weeks, ever since the Covid-19 crisis hit, that penetration has gone up from 19% to 28%.
New Delhi: Technology is playing an ever more critical role in retail, in the wake of the Covid-19 crisis, said Hari Vasudev, Country Head and Sr. Vice President-Technology at Walmart Labs India, during his keynote address at the RetailTech Virtual Summit, 2020, organised by ETRetail.com. Every retailer is using technology more and more across their businesses said Vasudev. We believe that technology is the linchpin to power the next retail disruption, he said.
"From using machine learning to artificial intelligence to create a more personalised experience for the customers, to demand forecasting at a store item level using data sciences; to track and trace the supply chain via IoT, to robots in distribution centres and stores, I can just go on and on about how technology is shaping the next generation of retail. The point is that technology is everywhere in the retail value chain today," said Vasudev during his address.
According to the top executive, in the last decade e-commerce penetration has gone from zero percent to about 19% in the US. But in the last 10 weeks, ever since the Covid-19 crisis hit, that penetration has gone up from 19% to 28%. "While that may come down a little bit as the lockdown situation eases and the customers are able to get out of their homes we do believe that customer behaviour has changed and many customers have experienced the ability to do omnichannel shopping in a very frictionless way."
Giving the example of Walmart's Best Price Store in India, Vasudev said, during this crisis we have seen a huge surge in demand in India just like elsewhere in the world. In fact, we have 7X more customers logging in online because of the lockdown and because of their inability to go down to the stores. And that has put huge stress on our systems, he said.
"Our teams have leaned in and very quickly scale up our systems by optimizing the infrastructure to ensure that the customers are able to continue to have their orders fulfilled. What we have also seen interestingly enough is the customers during these times have switched their behaviour. Not they only became more mobile by using online mobile applications but their behaviour as to how they use the systems have also changed."
During his keynote address, Vasudev also spoke about how Walmart Labs is helping its store across the globe through technology, to fight this crisis. The company has introduced Express Delivery, Curbside Pickup, Contactless Delivery, and Ship from Store facilities to serve its customers globally in a quicker and efficient manner.
"From using machine learning to artificial intelligence to create a more personalised experience for the customers, to demand forecasting at a store item level using data sciences; to track and trace the supply chain via IoT, to robots in distribution centres and stores, I can just go on and on about how technology is shaping the next generation of retail. The point is that technology is everywhere in the retail value chain today," said Vasudev during his address.
According to the top executive, in the last decade e-commerce penetration has gone from zero percent to about 19% in the US. But in the last 10 weeks, ever since the Covid-19 crisis hit, that penetration has gone up from 19% to 28%. "While that may come down a little bit as the lockdown situation eases and the customers are able to get out of their homes we do believe that customer behaviour has changed and many customers have experienced the ability to do omnichannel shopping in a very frictionless way."
Giving the example of Walmart's Best Price Store in India, Vasudev said, during this crisis we have seen a huge surge in demand in India just like elsewhere in the world. In fact, we have 7X more customers logging in online because of the lockdown and because of their inability to go down to the stores. And that has put huge stress on our systems, he said.
"Our teams have leaned in and very quickly scale up our systems by optimizing the infrastructure to ensure that the customers are able to continue to have their orders fulfilled. What we have also seen interestingly enough is the customers during these times have switched their behaviour. Not they only became more mobile by using online mobile applications but their behaviour as to how they use the systems have also changed."
During his keynote address, Vasudev also spoke about how Walmart Labs is helping its store across the globe through technology, to fight this crisis. The company has introduced Express Delivery, Curbside Pickup, Contactless Delivery, and Ship from Store facilities to serve its customers globally in a quicker and efficient manner.
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