We are new India’s leading tech-native retail company
ace turtle, new India’s leading tech-native retail company is spearheading the industry’s next phase of evolution. The company is vertically integrated with robust in-house capabilities across the supply chain – from design and local manufacturing all the way to marketing. With an in-depth understanding of the Indian market, through its proprietary technology the company uses data science to meet ever-evolving consumer expectations. Based in Bengaluru and Singapore, it is the exclusive licensee of iconic global brands Lee, Wrangler, Toys"R"Us and Babies"R"Us for India and other South Asian markets. Speaking to Fibre2Fashion, ace turtle’s Chief Operating Officer Berry Singh discusses omnichannel business in India and transforming retail through technology.
How has the e-commerce industry evolved in recent years, and what trends do you see shaping its future?
In recent years, the e-commerce industry has experienced remarkable growth, with the global market projected to grow by 56 per cent over the next five years, reaching about $8.1 trillion by 2026. This transformation is being driven by advancements in technology and shifts in consumer behaviour. Retailers have recognised the importance of seamlessly integrating their online and physical stores to enhance the shopping journey across various channels. Simultaneously, personalisation has emerged as a central focus, leveraging AI and machine learning to provide individualised recommendations and tailored shopping experiences. Voice commerce, social commerce, and augmented reality have also gained traction, further enhancing the e-commerce landscape. The future of e-commerce will be shaped by ongoing technological advancements, growing sustainability concerns, and an unwavering commitment to delivering seamless customer experiences across multiple channels.
How does the rise of mobile technology and the increasing use of smartphones impact the e-commerce industry, and how are businesses adapting to this shift in consumer behaviour?
The emergence of mobile technology has had a profound effect on the e-commerce sector. Businesses are adjusting to this change in consumer behaviour by creating mobile apps and optimising their operations and internet presence for mobile devices. As more people use their phones to compare pricing, locate stores, read reviews, and complete transactions, mobile commerce has increased the options for online purchases. According to PwC, nearly 34 per cent of retail consumers, the world over, prefer shopping on their mobile phones. Due to their accessibility, smartphones have taken over as the primary device for e-commerce transactions globally. In response to these shifts, retailers have also embraced mobile retail technology. A prime example of such technology is our Connect app, which facilitates seamless connectivity between retail business/operations teams and retail stores. By digitising conventional manual activities, the app empowers store teams to increase efficiency and engagement through streamlined communications and workflows.
The Connect app also enables store teams to perform key store activities, such as omnichannel order fulfilment and visual merchandising, directly from their smartphones. With these capabilities, retail businesses can drive higher productivity and sales by leveraging the power of mobile technology in managing their operations effectively. We currently get 40 per cent of our sales for Lee and Wrangler via online channels with Bengaluru, Delhi and Hyderabad contributing highest sales.
What are the major challenges and opportunities that omnichannel businesses face in today’s competitive landscape?
One of the significant challenges for omnichannel businesses is achieving seamless integration across multiple channels. Ensuring a consistent experience for customers as they transition between online and offline touchpoints can be complex and requires robust technology infrastructure and data synchronisation. Our proprietary technology platform Rubicon connects all online and offline sales channels, delivery to customers, inventory, and discovery, presenting them as a single unified view.
Furthermore, handling operational complexity, such as inventory management and order fulfilment across channels poses additional challenges. Maintaining a consistent brand experience throughout various touchpoints is also a key hurdle. Overcoming these challenges is crucial for omnichannel businesses.
On the other hand, omnichannel businesses have the opportunity to greatly enhance the customer experience. By integrating data and leveraging technology, they can deliver personalised recommendations and garner deeper customer insights.
What strategies do successful omnichannel companies employ to effectively engage and retain customers in a crowded marketplace?
To effectively engage and retain customers, many companies employ a combination of strategies. Seamless cross-channel integration is prioritised, enabling customers to transition effortlessly between online and offline channels. This ensures a cohesive and convenient experience. Personalisation plays a crucial role, as companies leverage data analytics to gain insights into customer behaviour, preferences, and trends. By analysing this data, they can identify patterns, optimise marketing campaigns, and make informed decisions. Consistent brand experience is another key aspect, where companies maintain a unified and recognisable brand identity across all touchpoints. By employing these strategies, companies refine their omnichannel approach, providing tailored experiences and enhancing customer satisfaction. At ace turtle, we have taken a customer-centric approach to ensure customer satisfaction. Our various tech interventions like electronic shelf labels, smart mirrors in our Lee flagship store and even our proprietary technology have all been developed keeping in mind the customer experience.
Can you provide an overview of ace turtle’s vision and how it aims to transform retail through technology?
Our mission is to lead the retail industry’s next phase of transformation through tech-driven interventions. At ace turtle we believe technology is the at the core of progress. A crucial aspect for us was the willingness to adopt technology. We looked for partners who demonstrated flexibility in trying out new technologies and quickly scaling up upon achieving positive results. Our practice of introducing new initiatives every quarter required store operators to be aligned with our business model. What sets us apart from others in the industry is our vertical commerce model, which gives us complete control over the entire value chain, from manufacturing to design, and allows brands to access real-time consumer data. Moreover, we have embraced live commerce to enhance customer engagement and improve the shopping experience. Additionally, we have also integrated a range of features, for instance, we recently opened our Lee flagship store which offers features such as smart mirrors in fitting rooms that identify the items brought in by customers and display additional options in various sizes and colours. Electronic shelf labels provide an overall view of inventory and pricing and offer real-time updates on discounts and promotions. Through these tech interventions, we are transforming the shopping experience for our customers.
How does your proprietary platform, Rubicon, integrate online and offline retail channels to enhance efficiency and scalability?
Being a technology-native company, our operating model stands out from legacy retail companies with its strong emphasis on technology. At the core of our operations is Rubicon, our proprietary omnichannel technology platform. Powered by machine learning, our latest version, Rubicon 3.0, empowers us to cater to diverse omnichannel use cases. This includes the ability to sell inventory from any location across multiple channels and fulfil orders from various stock points. It also serves as a powerful tool that enables us to achieve high levels of consumer satisfaction. Whether it is in the assignment of last-mile delivery partners, or in informing the customer about the availability of a particular product at nearby stores, Rubicon has ensured that flexibility is built into our operational framework. Since ace turtle’s association with Lee and Wrangler, there has been a significant turnaround in business with a 5x increase in online revenue share in just 12 months, which is a testament to our sound business model.
Could you explain how your SaaS business vertical works and how it benefits the brands and retailers that utilise it?
In 2014, our journey commenced as a pureplay SaaS-based technology solutions provider to global brands and retailers. Clients such as Fossil, Puma, Reebok and Ray-Ban were using our SaaS offering via Technology and Technology + Managed Integrated fulfilment model. In 2021, during the pandemic, we launched the Licensed Brands vertical with long-term licenses of Lee and Wrangler. Now, we are focusing only on very large and strategic clients like Lifestyle, Max, Apparel Group etc for our SaaS business.
Our SaaS clients benefited immensely by using our proprietary technology platform Rubicon which provided them with a single view of inventory, orders and sales. They were able to bring down their cost of operations and provide customers with consistent and seamless experience across channels.
What are the key advantages of ace turtle’s omnichannel transformation approach and how does it leverage intelligent data usage?
Our specialisation lies in vertical commerce, encompassing the entire process from design and manufacturing to direct product delivery to consumers. Through our platform Rubicon, we have seamlessly connected online and offline sales channels, transactions, customer delivery, inventory management, and product discovery. This unified approach has transformed retail operations, providing customers with a seamless shopping experience and granting them access to our full product range across all channels.
In addition to our online channel, we also have department stores and retail stores that operate offline. The assortment and pricing of products in these stores are controlled through our Rubicon platform. This allows us to closely monitor performance and gather valuable data on what works and what does not. This data loop enables us to continuously refine our design and manufacturing processes. By linking the front end of our supply chain with consumer behaviour, we have surpassed expectations, as evidenced by the tremendous success of these brands under our management, even surpassing their previous peak performance.
Can you elaborate on your licensed brands portfolio, including the long-term licenses for brands like Lee, Wrangler, Toys"R"Us, and Babies"R"Us?
We first acquired the long-term licenses for the iconic denim brands Lee and Wrangler in 2021. Our vision for Lee and Wrangler is to grow these brands to be industry leaders in the denim segment in India. Before associating with us, Lee and Wrangler followed a conventional retail model that involved separate retail channels that worked independently, such as e-commerce platforms, distributors, retail stores, and department stores. However, we have transformed their operations by moving them from multiple siloed channels to omnichannel operations through our proprietary tech platform, Rubicon.
Our offline retail store network comprises 74 stores currently, of which 30 are Lee stores and 44 are Wrangler stores. Recently, we opened India’s largest flagship store for Lee in Bengaluru, which has been a significant milestone for us. Going forward, we have ambitious plans to open more than 50 stores for Lee and 40 more stores for Wrangler in FY24. This will enable us to strengthen our presence across India and offer a superior and omnichannel-enabled shopping experience to our consumers.
As the exclusive licensee for brands Toys"R"Us and Babies"R"Us, we oversee all operations for the brands in India, which has resulted in significant corporate growth and achievement. The inauguration of the Hyderabad store played a crucial role in executing ace turtle’s comprehensive strategy to enhance the market footprint of Toys"R"Us in India.
How does your complete vertical offering, from design to local sourcing and D2C (Direct-to-Consumer), cater to Western brands in the Indian market?
We are new India’s leading tech-native retail company spearheading the retail industry’s next phase of transformation. We are vertically integrated from design, local manufacturing and marketing to reach consumers directly. We are powered by our proprietary technology which uses data science from design to fulfilment to meet ever-evolving consumer expectations. We are powering international fashion and lifestyle brands with agility, operational efficiencies, and a seamless customer experience. We manage the end-to-end business of our portfolio of international fashion and lifestyle brands which comprises Lee, Wrangler, Toys"R"Us and Babies"R"Us currently. We will soon add more brands to our portfolio.
Our business model is unique and highly tech-driven. We call it ‘Vertical Commerce’. We bring efficiencies through our network of factories, which create a closed-loop ecosystem whereby purchasing data is collected, analysed, and fed back to supply chain and design teams. It contributes to decisions on what products to manufacture and where to distribute them, where to locate offline stores – based largely on online consumption patterns – and how to market products. Some key aspects our business model are:
• Technology-enabled omnichannel operations
We bring all aspects of operations – discovery, online/offline sales, transaction, delivery and inventory management – under one roof to give a holistic view of the overall health of the business through our proprietary tech platforms Rubicon and Connect.
• Direct to Consumer and Retail
We sell directly to consumers without any middleman via dedicated webstores, online marketplaces, departmental stores and physical monobrand retail stores at high street areas and malls. We showcase the entire product range to the consumers, leverage real-time consumer data and enjoy a high net margin.
• Experience multi-channel demand
We reinforce traditional brick-and-mortar retail stores with Rubicon, our proprietary omnichannel technology platform that brings together the best of offline and online sales channels. We help our brands expand their reach across India through webstores, online marketplaces, conversational commerce, social commerce and endless aisles.
• Seamless store operations with Connect
With our proprietary application Connect, we help manage store operations across locations seamlessly. No more big teams and bigger operational problems. Our Connect application helps to digitise retail operations and reduce heavy and hierarchical retail teams.
What role do investors, such as Vertex Ventures and C31 Ventures, play in the company’s growth and development?
Vertex Southeast Asia and India has been one of our earliest investors. They have been true partners in every sense of the word and have stood by us during tough times. Their capital and guidance on strategic issues has really helped us navigate challenging times over the past decade and emerge stronger.
In what ways does your technology platform enable scalability for both large global brands and local retailers?
Our platform Rubicon allows you to order from anywhere. Customers can order across channels—brand’s webshops, marketplaces (Amazon.in, Flipkart, Ajio, TataCliq, Myntra), conversational commerce, social commerce, endless aisle and the retail stores. This helps to boost sales and improve customer experience significantly. Consumers benefit from having access to the entire product range across stores and online. Brands get access to end consumer data in real-time.
Our Connect app has minimised the need for heavy, hierarchical sales teams, allowing retailers to focus on creating a superior shopping experience for customers. With our Electronic Shelf Labels, consumers can take advantage of the latest offers and deals available on the online storefronts, with real-time updates on prices and discounts, providing a unified view of inventory and price parity.
We have also incorporated unique RFID tags that aid staff in inventory management and allow them to analyse in-store traffic patterns, resulting in enhanced store operations that better cater to customer needs. This ensures that the inventory is up-to-date with the evolving fashion preferences of young Indian consumers.
Can you discuss any notable success stories or case studies where ace turtle’s technology and services have made a significant impact on a brand’s or retailer’s business?
Several of our SaaS clients have seen significant growth in their business after using our services. For example, Pepe Jeans, a leading denim brand had seen 240 per cent growth in sales within 2 years of partnering with us. They also experienced 99.99 per cent order fulfilment rate after using our tech platform.
On the Licensed Brands side, within a remarkable span of just two years since we took over the business of Lee and Wrangler in India, we have successfully transformed their operations. The overall business for Lee and Wrangler has grown by 10 times in the last two years. We look forward to continuing growing both the brands in India in future.
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