Retail boom fuelled by IT in India and China - Free Retail Industry Articles

A key finding from this study is that in China, local vendors have a significant presence in the market for retail IT solutions. Only two multinational vendors - Microsoft (26%) and IBM (19%) have a presence bigger than those of the leading local players. Another significant difference in China is that strength in the retail industry is cited as the primary selection factor with a 37% share of respondents in comparison with only 12% in India.

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In both countries we found that retailers are aggressively adopting ERP to help tie together their operations and to help them expand geographically more efficiently. In India, Springboard Research data shows that the majority of retail companies have invested significantly in enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions. Of the 149 retail companies that Springboard Research interviewed for this report, 35% said they have deployed ERP as the largest component of their IT solution. This underscores the industrys need for streamlining back-end operations affected by the fast-growth of retailers. ERP is also projected to be the application of the future with 38% of the retailers stating that they will be investing in ERP solutions during the next 12 months.

While online retail, or e-tailing, is at a nascent stage of deployment in India, it is on the agenda of a significant number of retailers, especially the big ones. These retailers see digital storefronts as a complement to their offline business. Investment in e-commerce during the next 12 months is planned by 16% of the respondents. China has similar dynamics as our research shows that the majority of retail companies have invested significantly in E-commerce and ERP solutions. Of the 140 retail companies that Springboard Research interviewed for this report, 20% said they have deployed e-commerce and ERP respectively as the largest component of their IT solutions. This underlines the expectation of Chinese retailers that E-commerce will experience exponential growth in the days to come. They also realise that there is a need for streamlining back-end operations in order to sustain fast growth.

After E-commerce and ERP solutions, Chinese retailers appear focused on managing customer relationships and supply chain management. While many of them have already made significant investments in CRM solutions, a good number of them have also prioritised it for future investments. An interesting observation in China was that the majority of the retailers claimed that managing or upgrading their IT infrastructure and lack of technical manpower were the two largest IT pain points affecting them.

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