The Synergics founder talked of a tech-supported assessment of customer journey and a smooth ledger for any partner which optimize operational cost and manpower use altogether
Mumbai: Armed with the right information, a retailer can win half the battle for business expansion. Vivek Das, founder of Synergics Solutions stressed on that in his session titled ‘Technology Transformation: Integrating technology deployment with change management for holistic tech adoption within the organization’
Mumbai: In 18 years, Synergics has spread across 7 countries and has close to 20,000 users. “Starting from our omnichannel and e-tail partners, Caratlane had 4 stores when they adopted Synergics solutions. They have 250+ stores now. Candere started online, went to omnichannel, and have a franchise now. Angara ecommerce runs a supply chain wherein they create mounds in 1 country, set diamonds in another country, and sell the finished piece in LA. Browns has also grown from 6 stores to 52 stores in South Africa and 10 in UK,” said Das, as he shared names of many retail partners in jewellery such as The Diamond Factory, Ratnalaya Jewellers, Lagu Bandhu, Hazoorilal by Sandeep Narang, Hazoorilal Legacy, PMJ Jewels, Kalamandir, Talla Jewellers and more.
Claiming to be the only direct principle in the jewellery domain, Das stated that Synergics’ top-of-the-line tech stack enables brands to grow with the technology that they adopt and not stay dated with the same process forever. He talked about how generic ERP has finance as its core and builds its periphery on retail, jewellery and other segments, as compared to Synergics’ emphasis on jewellery as core and measurement of man hours behind the same.
Transformation, expansion, operational efficiency, and customer focus are the current challenges in jewellery business, and Das urged the audience to start assessing several key parameters such as SKU-level bill of material-wise cost and profitability, vendor-wise contribution to profit, SKU-level cost comparison of the same designs from different vendors, last selected item by a customer but not bought, and decision to procure jewellery. He advised jewellers to have a smooth ledger in order to facilitate multiple touchpoints for consumers as per their choices.
Sales and profit, according to Das, are lag indicators, because their constant assessment won’t reveal the room for improvements in a company. Instead, one must focus on lead indicators such as design details, pricing, procurement, outsourcing, and customer experience. One must integrate people, processes, products, and technology in several such steps.
“When you define every bill of material correctly, you can reduce stock levels by 5-10%. You’ll get the right designs from the right vendors. You’ll have specific sales analytics of designs and their components, improve stock turnaround time by a minimum of one chum and enable retailers to have their best-selling designs always available on the counters. With such information, the vendor showing any design will be attended by the category manager who will assess the feasibility of the design in relation to existing consumer behaviour,” Das explained.
Showcasing a consumer dashboard of Synergics, Das highlighted the many criteria one must assess before, during, and after a transaction is done. “As per Forbes, 86% of customers would pay more for a better experience. This increases wallet share by 10-15%. The impact of all these lead indicators are 5-10% less inventory to achieve the same sales, Rs 1-10 cr savings in manpower, 20% more conversions, and no fraud. Analysing these lead indicators, a brand can also experience sales increase by 29% through CRM, aid expansion, have 34% increase in sales productivity, and 42% sales forecast accuracy,” Das added.
Kiran Shinde, CFO of PMJ Jewels, and Gaurav Anand, MD of Anand Jewels took over from Das to discuss their journeys of technology adoption. Shinde adopted Synergics solutions eight years before for PMJ Jewels, which had 8 offices back then and 32 now, across South India. “The first concern back then was to get the right ERP and integrate it with the rest of ecosystem, if one wants to go omnichannel. The kind of data generated from ERP became important,” Shinde said.
Gaurav Anand of Anand Jewels talked about overhauling their back end at a crucial point when the company was planning to launch another brand while on its retail expansion spree. “The jewellery industry software that we have been using is completely designed for business houses, and not for the customers. Synergics’ solutions allow me to position my brand for customers, as jewellery is one of my multiple businesses,” he maintained.
