Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA), Centre for Digital Transformation, has set up a Retail Tech Consortium and is to collaborate with several retail and technology organisations in India. Flipkart, India based e-commerce marketplace has joined as a principal partner for the inaugural year of the consortium. The consortium aims to work towards sharing deep knowledge, research, and setting up industry best practices for better collaboration amongst retail tech players in the country. 

The consortium will largely bring to the fore unbiased voices of customers on the digitization of retail in the country which will help retailers understand their consumers better. Some of the activities that the consortium will undertake include nationwide consumer surveys, development of case studies, the conduct of field experiments and research studies, retail tech webinars, conferences and more. 

“Through this collaboration, we aim to initiate cutting edge research on issues the retail sector is facing, gather insights and facilitate knowledge sharing to help retailers across the industry come up to speed with the current demands. We identify this as an urgent need as retailers need to quickly react to the constantly changing preferences of customers and the advent of new technological innovations. Managing inventory, labour shortages, supply chain logistics, and adhering to sustainable practices are a few other challenges that most online sellers are facing. The Centre for Digital Transformation will create and share insights gathered through research that can enable the development of solutions by partners across the board,” Pankaj Setia, professor, chairperson of the Centre for Digital Transformation, IIMA said.

Sharing his thoughts on how this collaboration stands to benefit the sector, Jeyandran Venugopal, Chief Product and Technology Officer, Flipkart, said, “The modern retail ecosystem in India has accelerated at an unprecedented speed over the past several years driven by rapid digital adoption. With fast-changing consumer preferences and needs, the only way for brands to thrive in this dynamic market is to capitalize on the power of technology,” said Jeyandran Venugopal, chief product and technology officer, Flipkart.

The Centre for Digital Transformation at IIMA was inaugurated in 2021 and focuses on activities that enhance an understanding of the digital ecosystem and catalyse leadership. 

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