February 23, 2016 
The 4th edition of the eTailing India expo held in Mumbai from 17th to 19th Feb provided the opportunity to the ecosystem of online retail industry in India to engage in lively discourse & share best practices.
The annual event was a three-day conference that was attended by delegates comprising eTailers, retailers, wholesalers, entrepreneurs and manufacturers looking to optimize their operations, multi-channel sales and share insights about their businesses.
Vinculum CEO, Mr. Venkat Nott presented in the exciting panel discussion on ‘Identifying channels of Sales: Omni-channel? What should I do? Online, Offline, both?’
Sharing the stage with him were panelists from Metro Shoes, Mahindra & Mahindra, Go Fish Retail Consulting, NextIn Advisors, Hasbro Clothing.
Mr. Nott deliberated on what Omnichannel really means and how customer experience is integral to it.
“Today selling online is a must for every retailer across categories. And herein their journey –from Offline to Online Transformation begins with closing the loop of customer experience and creating an open loop of new revenues.
There are many opportunities to create new revenue streams. How do you give the customer a great experience? An offline retailer, for example, has to look at ensuring a real-time view of inventory, training sales associates to use technology to say, guide the customer and reserve stock in different stores etc. and importantly, collaborating.”
Elaborating on the opportunities for collaboration, Mr. Nott talked of how retailers can partner with marketplaces to sell cross-border, the next big space poised for growth. Additionally, he spoke of how retailers can use Omnichannel to leverage new avenues for revenues. “Omnichannel brings with it great revenue opportunity. The revenue streams which are possible for retailers to take up, to be able to reduce the risk and the investment that you need to make to improve the customer experience are numerous if they collaborate with the eCommerce ecosystem” he said
He also advised a word of caution, “Many retailers are employing strategies for Omnichannel – Macy’s is one such example. However, the word is not out as to whether Omnichannel in terms of giving the experience to customers is really profitable yet. You’ve got to find ways to fund the Omnichannel journey and make it both sustainable as well as profitable.”
The conference saw major players in the retail industry such as Holisol, Shopify, ShopClues, eBay, Adidas, Titan attend, among others. The event brought all members of the eCommerce ecosystem together to discuss and identify new revenue streams via multiple sales channels.
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