Monthly Archives: January 2016

Throwback 2015 – Embitel’s Ecommerce Wins

When the last year ended, our ecommerce team did a quick appraisal and found they covered a lot of ground in 2015.

From making structural changes within the team and projects going live, to new partnerships, Embitel’s ecommerce team was always on their toes! Looking at the projects pipeline, the team is anticipating an even brisker pace in twenty 16.

Amidst all the team meetings, client calls, ecommerce workshops, fun at work activities and birthday celebrations, we managed to catch up with Arun Kumar, Head of Ecommerce (hybris and Magento) at Embitel, to share with us some of the highlights from the year past.

• Launch of hybris-based RDS for Online Grocery business: Technology enables ecommerce implementation but when the project overruns estimated costs, it severely impacts not only the bottomline but also time-to-market.

To safe-guard businesses from such repercussions, our team of Ecommerce Business and Technology Consultants has designed a hybris-based Rapid Deployment Solution (RDS) tailored for the unique needs of the online grocery business.

This RDS facilitates the incremental technology development approach to ensure time and cost savings. It also leverages the omnichannel capabilities of the hybris platform and out-of-box features designed by Embitel to deliver a unified shopping experience for your customers across channels

• Partnership with Dimension Data for Managed Cloud Services for hybris platfrom: Our collaboration with global IT services provider Dimension Data facilitates the aforementioned RDS.

• Becoming a Magento 2 Trained Solution Partner: Having successfully implemented several ecommerce projects for global brands across India, the Middle-east, UK and the US, Embitel Technologies has been a preferred solution partner for Magento Ecommerce Implementation and Cloud & Mobility Solutions.

And now with Magento 2 certification and hands-on training, my team is all geared-up to deliver the Magento 2 advantage for your business.

I extend my congratulations with great pride to the entire Magento Ecommerce team!

• Going live on multiple projects: The team saw their hard work come to fruition when several sites and apps they had spent months developing unique features for (Jarir bookstore, eZone app, Sayfix app, among others) went live successfully.

I loved the zeal with which they overcame all the challenges and worked as a winning unit!

• Creation of a dedicated Strategy & Consulting team: In several ecommerce engagements, we provide in-depth Technology as well as Business Consulting to our customers, as part of our requirement gathering workshops. This has served as a great value-add for our customers over years.

In order to streamline this service, we now have a dedicated team of Ecommerce Business consultants who focus on helping customers with business strategy and improving operational efficiency.

I’m pleased to say that this move has been well received and even led to better outcomes for our clients.

• “Clearly, it was a busy year. But we’re excited about 2016 – we look forward to providing end-to-end execution and support for more customers in the Indian subcontinent, extending our scope of implementation to more business sectors like telecom and automobiles, and even developing Magento-based RDS.

Cheers to 2016!”

If you have any query/feedback, connect with us at sales@embitel.com to set-up a conversation

For more such interesting updates, join us on LinkedIn:

• Embitel Linkedin Page

Embitel’s 2015 – QA Initiatives that Made a Difference

For Nancy Nithya, Embitel’s Quality Assurance manager, 2015 was a year of continuous progress and learnings. As she looks back, she shares her accomplishments during the year and her plans to intensify Embitel’s quality assurance efforts in 2016.

Retail Technology in 2015: A Look Back at the Trends in Omnichannel Commerce

With customers interacting with brands across online (app, social media and web-storefront) and offline (stores, kiosks) channels, businesses realized the need to deliver a seamless experience to the customer across touch points – a customer can ‘add-to-cart’ through app, complete payments on website and pick-up product from store.

2015 marked this realization and witnessed new developments that aided the rise of omnichannel retail. Here’s a brief round-up.

Order fulfillment: Being Customer Convenience Centric

In 2015, e-tailers stretched their imagination beyond ‘Free Delivery’. Armed with state-of-the art ecommerce technologies, they got down to the nitty-gritties to give the consumer the convenience of choice.

It’s an urgent order? Opt for same-day delivery.

Nobody will be home to accept the delivery? Choose a suitable time slot.

Want to shop without the hassle of crowded stores, but don’t want to wait for your order to be delivered? Order online, pick up from the store.

There is still more scope for the imaginative and those determined to spoil their customers. American retailer Nordstrom offers curbside (footpath) pickup at several stores. Place your order online, reach a designated parking spot on receipt of an ‘order ready’ notification, accept delivery of your package and you can zip right out!

Revolutionizing payment

Payment across multiple channels has been a bugbear for retailers, but in 2015 some players found ways to overcome this problem and pave the way for the future.

Omnichannel legend Macy’s made it possible for customers to pay via Paypal, not just online but in stores too, also giving them the benefits of “One Touch” payment.

This allows customers to make a quick purchase through the Paypal app on their phone without having to enter their personal and payment details each time.

In India, Visa launched the “mVisa on Pockets” app, facilitating payment through smartphones at stores.

In a spin off, cosmetics giant Sephora witnessed a growth rate of 8 times in gift card sale revenue after they introduced digital gift cards with omnichannel prepaid capability.

Online AND offline

When Spencer’s Retail, a renowned Indian grocery outlet brand, acquired MeraGrocer, an ecommerce grocery startup, it was to get a foot in the door to the online grocery retail space. The move was just an example of the direction most large, and even some small, retailers are heading in.

But in the recent past, pure online players have understood the importance of brick-and-mortar outlets too.In recognition of the need to build more brand awareness as well as give people an opportunity to touch and feel their products before purchase, some the ecommerce retailers have opened their own physical outlets. Among the Indian players going down this route are Pepperfry, Lenskart, Makemytrip, and Babyoye.

2016 will be interesting as omnichannel players continue to innovate and egg each other on making modern retail the exciting space it has become today.

If you have any query/feedback, connect with us at sales@embitel.com to set-up a conversation!

For more such interesting updates, join us on LinkedIn:

• Embitel Linkedin Page
• hybris showcase page