As the country?s modern retail sector is currently in its fledgling stage, retail technology firms, meanwhile, are trying to develop technology with the aim to target rural India and the country?s mom-and-pop stores that account for about 94% of the country?s $470 billion annual retailing business.
Since large refrigerated trucks cannot pass through the country?s famed narrow alleys to the farms in rural parts, Ireland-based cold chain solution giant Ingersoll Rand has introduced mini refrigeration that is mounted on a Tata Motor Ace mini-truck. Ingersoll Rand says the first-of-its-kind refrigerated mini-truck that they have developed is India-specific.
Similarly, US-based security system companies such as Checkpoint and Tyco International have come up with India-specific anti-theft tagging systems.
The anti-theft system, that customers pass through two parallel panels on the entry and exit gates of many modern retail chains, are not only used for alerting shoplifting cases globally, but are also networked with data centres to generate the number of footfalls, purchasing patterns among others.
The stripped-down Indian version?s function is limited only to beeping when an unpaid product passes through the gates. Tyco says its R&D team has developed the product and it comes at one-third of the price of the standard anti-theft systems. The systems is not only adjustable to India?s erratic power supply, but would also run on battery back-up whenever electricity goes out.
Tyco says its low-frill product is growing at an annual rate of 40% while Checkpoint?s market for the same product is swelling at 35% year-on-year. Both Checkpoint and Tyco say their tagging products are aimed at the country?s mom-and-pop stores.
Mumbai-based Godrej Locks is relying on mobile phones as a low-frill inventory management method. Godrej Locks is handing out camera-enabled mobile phones to its 500 vendors in different cities that comes with a preloaded software. The vendor has to click a photograph of the barcodes of products they sell and then send it through a text message to the company?s central server so that the company knows what to ship when.
?Every transaction is scanned that way and we can track the actual movement of the product,? said Shyam Motwani, business head of locks division at Godrej & Boyce Manufacturing, the parent firm of Godrej Locks. Motwani said Godrej Locks is currently undertaking a pilot programme in 12 cities.
?It is to improve the efficiency and the effectiveness of our supply chain,? Motwani said. ?That way we do not create unnecessary inventory build-up.?
Ingersoll Rand mini-refrigerated trucks is designed for rural India. ?Villages and interiors in India lack basic infrastructure such as pucca roads and are unfit for larger refrigerated trucks to navigate. Many times these villages are away from the main distribution point and the farmer is unable to make food available at proper time and this leads to spoilage,? said Atanu Maity, business head for transport and retail solutions at Ingersoll Rand.
?Thermo King I 100 truck refrigeration units can be fitted in a container which can be modelled on a small reefer truck, to negotiate narrow lanes for last mile delivery of temperature controlled and refrigerated products,? he added.
The refrigerator mounted on Tata Ace runs on a battery that is powered by the vehicle?s engine.
