All of us agree the E-tailing revolution has arrived with a bang even in tier-II cities such as Belagavi. Definitely this will have an impact on traditional brick and mortar retailing. KLS – IMER, the B-School with a mission to connect to and bring together all stakeholders in retail sector, organized a Conclave on “Brick and Mortar Retailing in an era of E-tailing” on 24th February 2015, in association with TiE-Hubli, for retailers from various sectors where experts from retail sector deliberated on emerging trends in Indian retail followed by panel discussions and interactions. The programme began with an opening remarks from Shri Rajendra Belgaumkar, Chairman, Governing Council KLS-IMER, Belagavi. Mr Vinay Pawar, Executive Director, TiE Hubli assured all the support for meeting the objectives of the conclave.
The Key speakers for the programme were Mr. Venu G Somineni, Founder and CEO, MyDeals 247 (The world’s first personalized e-commerce platform) and Mr Chirant Patil, CEO, Gito.me. Mr Venu G Somineni is very famous for his international best-selling self-help, “One Book for Life Success” sold over 3 million copies worldwide- endorsed by Dr Abdul Kalam, Bill Gates Sr, Jack Canfield, Brian Tracy and many more. Venu is popularly known as “Inspirational Guru in the Modern Times”, the first Indian-American to sell over 3 million copies in the self-help arena. He is the leading expert in creating peak performance for entrepreneurs and corporate leaders. Mr Venu spoke on the portal, MyDeals 247, founded by him, which is a real time market place and can provide e-commerce platform, for retailers in Belagavi to be competitive in changing business environment at a minimum cost. He also spoke on three unique models existing at MyDeals247.com. They are: A real time market place (Buy/Sell model); Volume based Discounts; Personalized Ad display and “Pay per lead” model.
Mr Chiranth Patil, son of Belagavi has received his MBA from the University of Massachusetts at Boston with focus in Finance and Information Systems, and bachelor’s degree in Computer Science & Engineering from KLS’ Gogte Institute of Technology at Belgaum, Mr. Chiranth, CEO of Gito.me, an Omni-Channel Platform, spoke on multi-channel strategy for delivering growth to various physical businesses by providing end-to-end capability to navigate, sustain and thrive in the online world along with the offline world.
Mr Ashok R Tolanavar from Tolas electronics, Hubli spoke from retailer’s perspective addressing the challenges faced by Brick and Mortar retailer’s in an era of e-tailing. There was a Panel Discussion on Voice of Consumers, where in five panelists participated from different cross section of the society, spoke on their experience of online shopping and its advantages and its limitations. The panel discussion was moderated by Dr Poornima M Charantimath, Professor of the institute. There was one more panel discussion on sharing of Success stories from Brick and mortal retailers and IT service providers from Belagavi, who shared the innovative strategies adopted by them to sustain and thrive in the competitive environment. The panel discussion was moderated by Mr. Parag Saraiya, Director, Bella Vista, Belagavi.
The Research Centre of the institute conducted research study on “Impact of retailing on Brick and Mortar retailing in an era of e-tailing” on various retail sectors such as: Ready-made garments; Home appliances; Electronics; Book stores and buying behavior of women and the faculty members presented their research findings. The conclave was attended by around 100 retailers from in and around, Belagavi, Hubballi and Dharwad. Many retailers including Avishkar arranged their stalls on the campus of the Institute. The programme was co-ordinated by Dr Poornima Charantimath, Dr Arif Shaikh and Mr Srirang Deshpande, faculty members of the institute.