Retail Leadership Summit 2017 sets the tone for the next in Retail: Collaborating to Win The Connected Consumer



February 15, 2017, Mumbai: The Retailers Association of India (RAI), a unified voice of retailers in India, today commenced its annual flagship knowledge-sharing platform ‘Retail Leadership Summit (RLS)’ at The Renaissance Mumbai hotel. The Summit was revolved around the theme ‘COLLABORATING TO WIN THE CONNECTED CONSUMER’.

Retail Leadership Summit 2017 sets the tone for the next in Retail: Collaborating to Win The Connected Consumer

Retail Leadership Summit 2017 sets the tone for the next in Retail: Collaborating to Win The Connected Consumer


Winning over the tech-savvy, 24/7 connected consumer requires the retailer to have a transparent agile supply chain, omni-channel capabilities, a digital-ready workforce and mobile-first strategy, in addition to other new-age wherewithal. Every retail organisation seeking to satisfy today’s customers, innovate and stay profitable, will need to work with a wide range of external partners, including competitors. Research establishes an 81% co-relation between collaboration in business and innovation.Collaboration is the need of the hour, the way ahead for all.

The Summit was opened by B.S. Nagesh, Chairman – RAI; Founder - TRRAIN (Trust for Retailers and Retail Associates) where he underscored the need for collaboration.

Speaking about the Summit, Kumar Rajagopalan, CEO, Retailers Association of India, said,“Today, retailing is about delighting customers. This cannot be done without taking huge steps to ensure that their needs are being fulfilled. However, need fulfilment is not the capacity of just one retailer. It can only be done by collaborating across various kinds of entities, including other retailers, to ensure that customers get solutions they need, when they need them. Retail Leadership Summit (RLS) provided a platform to retailers and service providers to retail in one place to forge new relationships and deliberate upon methods to delight these connected consumers.​“

RLS 2017 had some of the biggest stalwarts from India Inc,addressing the gathering. Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Founder & CEO, PAYTM, Kishore Biyani, Group CEO, Future Group and Hari Menon, Co - Founder & CEO, BigBasket.com addressed the gathering with their inspiring insights.

The Summit covered various topics relevant to retail including: Value and Valuation in Retail, Turning Customers into Brand Evangelists, The Secret to Delivering a Seamless experience, Trends Impacting Sustainable Retailing Practices, and Going Glocal to Woo the Local Consumer among others.

The Summit provided the perfect platform for releasing reports created by the country’s leading consultancies in collaboration with RAI. These include:
•RAI - Deloitte: Making Retail a preferred employment choice in the digital world
•RAI - KPMG: Capitalising on green governance in retail supply chain
•RAI - A.T. Kearney: Agile and collaborative retail value chain to win over the connected consumer
•RAI - Knight Frank: Think India Think retail –Omni channel retailing
•RAI - BCG: Decoding the digital consumer

With an aim to increasing the quality of modern retail in India through infusion of fresh ideas and new players, RAI added a new dimension the Summit – Retail Startup Awards. Presented by at RLS was Retail Startup Awardssought to recognise new entrants in the retail and consumption space. Out of the scores of entries received, 10shortlisted start-up companies presented 10-minute elevated pitches to a Grand Jury. The top 3 winning start-ups were then felicitated at a gala ceremony the same evening.

RLS 2017 also served as the backdrop for the launch of RAI – GlobalLinker, a powerful, feature-packed business networking platform for small and medium retailers. To develop the platform, RAI has collaborated with DigiVation Digital Solutions, a digital solutions enterprise based in Mumbai and makers of the GlobalLinker platform.“RAI’s endeavor is to help modernize retail in India. In order to stay relevant, retailers have to collaborate with each other and also use various service providers to be continuously relevant.  The RAI-GlobalLinker platform is a digital enabler for retailers and service providers to retail, to connect, converse and collaborate,” Kumar Rajagopalan, CEO, RAI.

“With all these elements together, RAI-GlobalLinker promises to be a game-changer for retailing in India. It empowers RAI take its work to many, many more people. Five or six years down the line, with all the programmes on RAI-GlolalLinker such as the e-commerce, certification, Shop with Confidence and staffing service running, the quality of retailing in India and customer experience would have gone up significantly,” said Sameer Vakil, Cofounder - DigiVation Digital Solutions Pvt Ltd & GlobalLinker.

RLS 2017 had grand announcements, workshops and interesting panel discussions with regards to the ground reality in the retail space with a futuristic vision, making it the preferred networking hotspot for who’s who in retail to forge new partnerships, exchange ideas and collaborate to take the industry to the next level.

About Retail Leadership Summit:

Instituted by Retailers Association of India, Retail Leadership Summit (better known as RLS) is India’s largest gathering of retail leaders, service providers and other stakeholders from the industry. Every year, RLS attracts more than 1,000 retail heads and professionals, not just from India but also from other countries. The aim of RLS is to bring the best brains of the industry together for deliberating and discussing on the ways to take modern retail in India to the next level. Every year, the Summit revolves around a theme based on the most relevant issues facing the industry at the point. A hallmark of RLS is the release of reports by globally-known consultancies. Due to its focus on insights and ideas, over the years, RLS has earned the reputation of being the ultimate knowledge-sharing platform, where those in attendance learn about the best practices and trends that they can apply for improving business efficiency. RLS is the only official Summit of its kind, an initiative by the industry, for the industry.

About Retailers Association of India:

Retailers Association of India (RAI) is the unified voice of Indian retailers. RAI works with all the stakeholders for creating the right environment for the growth of the modern retail industry in India. It is a strong advocate for retailing in India and works with all levels of government and stakeholders with the aim to support employment growth and career opportunities in retail, to promote and sustain retail investments in communities from coast-to-coast, and to enhance consumer choice and industry competitiveness.