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Digital Transformation Ecommerce Technology

CEO of Indian retailer Raymond predicts a time when clothing will become “irrelevant” due to technology

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By Charlotte McEleny, Asia Editor

May 4, 2017 | 5 min read

Sanjay Behl, chief executive officer of Indian menswear giant Raymond, said that when he looks into the “third horizon” of the future for his business, he can see a time when it creates software instead of physical clothing.

Raymond

Clothing retailer Raymond outlines its plans to transform digitally

Speaking at Adobe’s Symposium in Mumbai today, Behl was discussing the ways in which the company was transforming digitally, along three horizons in the future.

At the third horizon, most distantly in the future, he prophesied a point at which clothing would be designed digitally and may even be downloaded by a person, making clothing “irrelevant”.

“We could imagine dresses and clothing, which could become digitally designed. Is see us going from a product company to a software company,” he said. “My sense is that clothing will become irrelevant for part of the population, whether you want it on cloth or skin will depend on customer. Instead of selling plain racks of shirts, we could sell consoles and have a business in software; these are the things that could happen.”

Nearer to home, at the first horizon, Raymond has already made significant changes to its business, fueled by technology. The first stage, which the company has already done, is around using digital to enable change for the value change.

“The first horizon is about digital enablement for entire value chain; creating micro segments, profiling, communicating in a more focused way, campaign management. It is a digital enablement strategy,” he explained.

The second horizon, a part that is well under way for Raymond, is about consolidating brands, most specifically from a data point of view, so that it’s able to be more consistent with its experiences across online and offline.

“We have a CRM database of 4.5m customers and we are adding about half a million a quarter, so we should be at 10m in two years from now. The aim is that customers can walk in any store physically or virtually and get a better experience,” he said.

While Raymond may not be at the point of allowing people to download t-shirts yet, the company is making early steps towards the third horizon, according to Behl.

The starting point to this is working with companies such as Adobe and IBM, to eventually create a single ‘window’ for the customer, whether that is online or offline. Behl wants to balance the disadvantage that physical stores have in terms of stock, versus what’s carried around in people’s homes. The company is exploring technology such as virtual changing rooms and re-imagining what the in-store experience needs to be.

“One service we are trialing uses allows your to get items delivered via concierge in Bombay. You use your mobile to book an appointment and on your terms, at your hours, you get measured,” he explained, and joked that the garments would of course be tracked by GPS.

Another technology the company is looking at is a 3D scanner that can take 86 accurate measurements from a person in less than 2 minutes, creating the opportunity for smaller spaces with scanners and ecommerce options, rather than physical products in-store.

A stumbling block for Raymond currently is that these moves require intense changes to its processes. He cited the fast fashion trend, and how the likes of Zara, Primark and Uniqlo are able to turn around new collections across the year, whereas firms like his own struggle to move beyond the traditional four seasons. The company is already looking at processes, such as crowdsourcing design talent remotely from across the world, rather than hiring them all into HQ.

Being nimble is key and he said the future would be automating some of the process to robots. “Robots don’t have trade unions, have meals, or problems working three shifts a day. We are looking at companies in China and France and the payback is looking at being around three years, so it’s very attractive.”

High tech gadgets aside, the fundamental objective for Behl is to create a company that is no longer product-centric but is a solution for its customer’s wardrobes, which means “stop marketing around knowing how to produce the best products and instead engage with what the customer wants.” For Raymond, the fundamental point of change is creating experiences that the customers can use on their own terms.

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