More Cloud adoption by retail staff in pandemic

More that one in two retail executives in India feel their company is accelerating Cloud adoption in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, a Google Cloud report has revealed.

The pandemic fast-tracked digital trends that the industry had been pondering over the previous decade, separating retail leaders and laggards, and there was a 45% increase in “order online to pick-up-in-store” on average compared to last year in India. “Retail executives in India say their business has taken steps to prepare for any unexpected changes this holiday season and 73% of those surveyed increased the use of technology for logistics planning,” said the report. Google commissioned The Harris Poll to survey retail executives and better understand the challenges and opportunities retailers face. While 61% retail executives in India expanded supplier partnerships, 72% 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%), same day delivery (64%) and gig economy couriers/ third party delivery (70%). 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%) 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% 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%) that in this day and age, online retailers need an efficient supply chain to provide products to customers in a timely manner.