Get to know ‘Retail in 2020’ at Retail Leadership Summit 2015

The Retailers Association of India (RAI), a unified voice for small, independent and large retail businesses commenced its annual flagship two day event–Retail Leadership Summit (RLS) in Mumbai on the theme "Retail 2020: Retrospect, Reinvent, Rewrite.”

Industry visionaries and thought leaders convened to retrospect on the past, reinvent current business dynamics and rewrite the path to Retail 2020. The Retail Leadership Summit is India's largest gathering of retailers and retail service providers. The summit provides opportunity to learn on latest trends in retail today, powerful presentations by thought leaders in retail industry, panel discussions, showcase of products & services to improve business productivity and an opportunity to network with retailers, suppliers and franchisors.

The summit was opened by BS Nagesh, founder, TRRAIN (Trust for Retailers and Retail Associates) and Chairman, RAI. Shri Surendrakumar Bagde, Ph.D., I. A. S. Secretary (Small and Medium Industries) Development Commissioner (Industries) Government of Maharashtra delivered the Chief Guest Address.

The event got to a great start with a stimulating panel discussion on ‘Retail 2020: Retrospect. Reinvent. Rewrite’, with Kishore Biyani, founder and Group CEO, Future Group; Krish Iyer, President & CEO, Walmart India; Mr. Ramanathan Hariharan, CEO, Landmark Group and Mr. Gaurav Kapur, head of Industry for Retail and Automotive Industry, Google. The panel discussed how the last decade has been about transition and experimentation, successes and failures, and has yielded lessons for retailers to help them in their journey ahead.

Shri Rajiv Pratap Rudy, minister of State Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (Independent Charge) and Parliamentary Affairs, Government of India and National General Secretary, BJP, who has spoken about India aiming to create a resource pool of 500 million skilled workers by 2022, will be also present for the keynote address on day 2 of the event.

Speaking about the summit, Kumar Rajagopalan, CEO, RAI, said, “Retailers are using various channels to delight consumers on an anytime, anywhere basis. The various channels have their own advantages. For example, while the consumers want the touch-and-feel, personal service, immediacy of purchase and trust that they get from brick and mortar retailers, they also want discounts and individual offers and free home delivery offered by various online retailers and channels like TV shopping. The event deliberated upon the various methodologies for creating customer delight and also looked at collaboration and cooperation at an industry level as well as support and policy directions from the government.”

As retail continues to diversify through newer channels, the summit also discussed various unique challenges of retailers in India on topics such as: ‘Disrupting Retail 2020’; ‘Creating a Strong Retail Franchise in 2020,’ ‘Make in India’; ‘Omni-Channel: Omnipresent. Omnipotent. Omniscient.’; ‘Reinventing Retail Real Estate’; ‘Retail Value and Valuation 2020’ and ‘Breaking the Glass Ceiling: Women in Retail’