April 18 2016, 18.09 PM IST || Pocket News Alert
Digitalization is quite different from digitization because through the former a company’s digitized resources -- online channels, machines equipped with digital sensors, cloud-based software -- are literally transformed into new sources of revenue and operational gains.
A recent survey conducted by the leading IT company Accenture of 100 large companies, targeted at understanding the intent, interest and intensity within corporations to embrace digitalization, revealed a heightened interest within businesses about digital technologies and digitalization. On an average, about three out of every four C-suite respondents were already aware and checking out on next-generation digital technologies such as the Internet of Things, mobile robots and 3D printing.
It’s quite apparent from this that the domestic market (India as in this case) will unfold substantive opportunities to experiment and succeed. Government initiatives such as ”Make in India” (in the area of manufacturing), ”Jan Dhan Yojana” (aimed at financial inclusion), Smart Cities (in the infrastructure space) will be opening large markets for companies to launch new-to-the market scalable digital offerings in partnerships with governments, start-ups and other key players in the digital ecosystem.
Moreover, rapidly expanding pool of a digitally-engageable consumers and talent will help companies firmly anchor their digitalization efforts in the Indian marketplace, says the report. .
So it’s important to transform digitalization into a driver of profitable growth in the short term. The CEO and the top team therefore focus on creating awareness and ownership about digitalization across the company. As a part of the second step, a comprehensive digitalization roadmap and a strategy is inked and shared with relevant stakeholders. Lastly, the company gradually digitalize its business model and simultaneously build relevant capabilities and culture to transform itself into a digital market leader.
FirstHandle as a market leader in O2O space
Having said this, it is now clear that FirstHandle, an innovative mobileapp company , has the first mover advantage in digitalisation in the O2O space that is now become the new buzzword in cyberspace promising much revenues in E-Commerce.
What FirstHandle, a start-up from Gaurav Sinha with rich corporate experience and deep knowledge of economics, commerce and management practices, seeks to achieve is simply link two different types of categories of people in the B2B and B2C spheres. In the B2B sphere it seeks to be a bridge between the retailers, be it a neighbourhood storekeeper or a kiosk run dealer in a hypermarket or a super mall, or the brand , be it in the garment, food, or telephony business, through digital technologies in a way never before experimented. At another level , its seeks to link the retailer or the brand owner with the potential customer in the neighbourhood residence by enabling the former to use a digital platform to announce the brands he stores, discounts on sales or offers in eateries as the case maybe.
In effect, FirstHandle has entered a sphere in cyberspace linking categories of people in the offline to offline space through the online space offered by digitalisation through its platforms.
It’s worth mentioning that the O2O space in E Commerce has a tremendous potential to grow. India’s cyberspace has been dominated by mostly online to online transactions so far with players such as Flipkart and Snapdeal, Myntra, Jabong.com, and the like accounting for bulk of the revenues generated through E commerce. As the Indian government lays greater emphasis on paperless world on environmental considerations and promotes internet transactions make life simple and easy for a vast majority of the population, E Commerce becomes an integral part of government’s financial inclusion plan for a vast majority of the population.
So O2O space is targeted by a number of players as an offshoot of the widely prevalent online to online transactions. And yet this is an unexplored field and the number of players limited. But it offers tremendous advantages over Online to Online transactions. Sample this. When a person goes on the online to online space to do a transaction , say , shopping he or she is greatly handicapped by an actual touch or feel of a product but has to make the choice or selection based on a photo or screenshot of a product. When it comes to garments or electronic goods it can be an major inhibiting factor for purchase.
Getting over this handicap now are a limited number of players in the markets such as FirstHanndle who have come up with smart mobile applications to help people make a better choice before buying a product. One of the things to do is to connect the local shop keeper or a shop located in a hyper market with the neighbourhood residents. Mobile alerts help the store keeper to help create awareness for a product to draw a customer to his space either for a new launch or a discounted sale. For the neighbourhood resident it tells him of a new product or a discounted product that can be bought by him or her from the store after an actual touch and feel of the same.
“Online definitely gives the comfort and discount deals for consumers to shop but features like hyper local deal platforms and O2O channels have revived the old traditional marketing ways and have made things easier for people to touch and feel the product before making the transaction”, says Gaurav Sinha, CEO of Firsthandle , a mobile app company where work force of IIT and MIT graduates join forces to consolidate their position.
Hyper local discovery still happens to be one of the major pain points in Indian market and we address this, says Sinha pointing out that this space is still at a nascent stage and early movers will certainly secure a big advantage for themselves for this space in the cyber world of internet transactions through intelligent devices such as the mobile phone or the tablet. In a B2B sphere it certainly helps to connect the brand owners with the stockists to generate awareness and promote enhanced awareness and therefore sales for the same. In a B2C sphere it helps to draw customers from their homes to traditional modes of shopping by visiting stores to get an actual feel of the products before purchase.
There is a huge addressable market segment striving for concept like this. This happens to be a niche market with limited players operating in this space at the moment and the concept is already validated. Online to Offline is the new buzz word and many of the players are eyeing on this concept to move, which itself proves that there is much ice to break. O2O space allows consumers to explore offline word on real time platforms and empowers them with intelligence which helps them make the right purchase decisions.
This space also has capability to send personalized notifications, geo-fencing and features like Beacon. This space alone has seen funding of more than US $ 100 million in the last one year, industry experts claim.
Gaurav’s company alone has managed to enrol 15,000 retailers and 110,000 consumers in just four months since launch across Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. There is space for more players who can come up with ingenious mobile apps to connect the hypermarket with the local residents. With the increase in smart phone penetration, technology adoption has been at rapid pace. Retailers such as the smaller ones are the real beneficiaries of digitalisation.
It’s is not clear what is the exact volume of business that can be generated in the O2O space but industry experts claim it could run into billions. Indian e-tailing industry was estimated at Rs 3,600 crore (US$800 mn) in 2011, but today it has grown to a whopping to Rs 53,000 Crore ($11.8 billion) in 2015. Overall e-commerce market is expected to reach Rs 1,07,800 crores (US$24 billion) by the year 2016 with both online travel and e-tailing contributing equally.
About FirstHandle:
FirstHandle is a hyperlocal mobile app that allows consumers to discover offers around them from local retailers eventually benefitting both the consumers and merchants. To merchants, the platform empowers them to target the consumers physically around them basis pre-defined radius and provides them with rich consumer analytics. It is designed to enrich real life experiences of people including eating out, shopping, and entertainment by making them more interactive and fun.
FirstHandle is backed by a highly qualified dynamic team with talent drawn from IIT, Stanford, Harvard, and Columbia University. The team has rich experience in various sectors including e-commerce, digital media, online classifieds, and finance.
It is meant to help find treats and treasures at a discount!
About Gaurav Sinha:
Gaurav Sinha is the cofounder and CEO of FirstHandle.
He has held leadership roles across product, business development, marketing, and general management functions throughout his career so far. Prior to FirstHandle, Gaurav has held National Sales Head/Business development head level positions with Times Group and Info Edge. In his last avatar, he kick-started the entire digital and e-commerce platform driving the entire marketplace business in India Today Group.