Exclusive Interview with Rohit Khetan, Head of Marketing and Strategy at Ginesys

In addition to selling products in brick-and-mortar stores, many storefronts are now offering buy online pick up in-store (BOPIS) services, same-day delivery, and online shipping. Ginesys is a fast-growing complete retail tech company working with around 1200+ customers and 30,000+ users with a wide reach across India. Analytics Insight has engaged in an exclusive interview with Rohit Khetan, Head of Marketing and Strategy at Ginesys.

Kindly brief us about the company, its specialization, and the services that your company offers.

Ginesys is a fast-growing complete retail tech company working with around 1200+ customers and 30,000+ users with a wide reach across India. We are a technology solutions provider for retail businesses and have been powering retail businesses from startup to IPO for more than a decade now.  We have made our mark as a premier, 'Made in India' solution for ERP and POS, serving the needs of small and medium businesses, with a focus on the fashion industry. Now, we have a complete suite for omni retail from marketing to retention and from supply chain to POS and Ecommerce integrations including GST compliance.

What is your biggest USP that differentiates the company from competitors?

Our USP is we are India's only complete and well-integrated suite for omni (i.e. offline and online) retail. Our core is a cloud-based ERP that is retail-specific so it does not need to be customized heavily. We have integrated desktop POS, cloud POS, mobile POS software, Ecommerce Order management system, GST apps, BI, customer loyalty and lifecycle marketing to work together to cater to the new age retailer's omnichannel demands. Additionally the solution enables you to manage your business anywhere as it is completely cloud based. Ginesys One goes beyond normal integrations to provide omni workflows like buy online and dispatch from any store or buy offline and get rewards for shopping online. The biggest pain point we found that retailers and brands have is having disparate systems means wasted time and effort in integrating and chasing down bugs and support tickets.

What are your growth plans for the next 12 months?

We aim for 100% growth through new customer acquisition and incremental revenues from the existing base.

What are the sources and uses of customer data in retail?

The value of data in generating sales insights and consumer intelligence has long been acknowledged by retailers. However, there is still a long way to go because most retailers just stop at post-purchase analysis and retargeting.

Data has become a competitive advantage in retail with firms that can meet user expectations getting a high customer lifetime value from each customer. During the last decade, the number of sources from which retailers may acquire customers, sales, and operational data has increased. From traditional to more online sources like social media, review sites, affilates, publishers and more- they're all important towards ensuring that we are gathering the data we need to develop accurate and complete insights. There is data coming from point of sale, from eCommerce transactions, Supply Chain Management, Social Media to list a few. Exploring and utilizing user data to improve retail intelligence provides one with considerable benefits. First and foremost, it provides the company with a significant competitive edge, allowing it to develop more efficient tactics. As a result, the company can be expanded by boosting revenues while cutting costs. Also, Cross-selling and client retention can be optimized using deep insights at the right time. This can lead to better product portfolio management demand anticipation. Ginesys One has a unique customer data platform, journey builder and offers engine to achieve these goals.

How do you plan to revolutionize the Indian Retail market?

A retailer in today's marketplace comes across many challenges, with competition being one of the biggest one. To get ahead in a competitive environment, integrations in the retail technology ecosystem are a requirement. The speed with which consumer behaviour is changing has made it more crucial than ever to ensure omnichannel experiences. Single-channel and multi-channel retail are slowly fading away.

Moreover, many retailers stated they planned to boost their investment in omnichannel commerce in the future. Ginesys retail POS and OMS software aid to get the processes in place promptly and helps brands focus on one's own business. Ginesys simplifies aspects by curtailing the ambit of customizations with standard APIs for POS and OMS. Our new end-to-end omni retailing suite -Ginesys One suite aims to future proof a retailer's business and helps them navigate the ever-changing world of retail. Right from the get-go, Ginesys One is expected to save integration time, effort, and cost while achieving various omni use cases in a seamless manner. This covers inventory management, billing software, b2b order to cash, customer loyalty, BI, omnichannel, and GST.

How is AI evolving today in the retail industry as a whole?

AI in retail has entrusted businesses with high-level data and information that is leveraged into preferable retail operations and new business opportunities. Customers are attuned to innovations and their expectations are evolving swiftly, prompting retailers and technology providers to remain on their toes at all times. Currently, the major demand trends include cloud, AI, machine learning, improved speed and efficiency, and data/analytics. Artificial intelligence has become one of the biggest technological developments in business in recent years, with its ability to help turn large volumes of data sets into enriched information centers to help improve speed, cost, and flexibility across the value chain. We at Ginesys have recently invested in Casa CRM and marketing platform, to strengthen customer data management and rewards capability based on AI. We believe we have just started as an industry to look at this and there is tremendous scope for more development on this topic.

How is your company helping customers deliver relevant business outcomes through the adoption of the company's technology innovations?

Technology is changing the nature of sales and shopping throughout the market. At a time when consumers are empowered with choice, and market conditions are increasingly volatile, new technologies like cloud retail software and POS software for retail, AI-based marketing automation and ecommerce and GST integrations, can help brands and retailers drive valuable business efficiencies and customer experience.

Retailers can go live on the system 50% faster than other custom integrated products as the system is retail-ready. The commercials for the suite are on an affordable subscription basis and thus the entire suite has a 70% faster time to return on investment compared to global peers.

How have you been powering the retail business from a tech standpoint? What do you mean by retail management software?

At Ginesys, we optimize retail business with in-depth know-how of how retail works. Our software empowers brands to achieve growth and profitability with ease.

Retail management software usually comprises POS, inventory management, and user, and customer management. We are now offering all our solutions on the latest cloud and mobile technology so that it is future-ready and can be scaled easily so that retailers do not need to invest heavily in infrastructure.

Can you elaborate on the Modern tech capabilities in apparel retail software that can boost a brand's competitive edge?

Contactless shopping with smart mobile POS software, self-checkout, endless aisle, hyperlocal and Omni retail integrations are game-changing innovations that retailers can bring in. We are also seeing immense potential in shaping and running the marketing to sales funnel as that is an area that has been ignored before the arrival of D2C brands. With this new set of innovations, retailers can challenge the global marketplaces with ease.