Indian retail executives intensify use of the cloud in the event of a pandemic

More than one in two retail executives in India feels that their business is accelerating the adoption of Cloud in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Google Cloud study has reported.

The pandemic fast-tracked digital trends that the market has been reflecting over the last decade, dividing retail leaders and laggards, and there has been a 45 per cent spike in “order online to pick-up-in-store” on average compared to last year’s in India.

“Retail executives in India say their business has taken steps to prepare for any unexpected changes this holiday season and 73 per cent of those surveyed increased the use of technology for logistics planning,” said the report on Thursday.

Google commissioned The Harris Poll to survey retail executives and better understand the challenges and opportunities retailers face.

While 61 per cent retail executives in India expanded supplier partnerships, 72 per cent added technology to improve planning, forecasting or visibility.

The majority of executives in India said consumers most commonly use pre order/pickup in store (65 per cent), same day delivery (64 per cent) and gig economy couriers/third party delivery (70 per cent).

As with most industries, the sudden sweep of Covid-19 took most retailers by surprise, exposing massive weaknesses in their infrastructure.

Less than half of retail executives globally (43 per cent) felt that their companies were properly equipped with the right technological tools to maintain business continuity in the early stages of the pandemic.

And those concerns have not disappeared.

“Looking ahead, only about half of retail executives (51 per cent globally) say their company overall is very prepared to deal with the shifting retail landscape that has taken place due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Carrie Tharp, VP of Retail and Consumer Solutions, Google Cloud.

Retail executives universally agree (95 per cent) that in this day and age, online retailers need an efficient supply chain to provide products to customers in a timely manner.