Zakya, the new Zoho brand behind a retail vertical industry solution that includes POS, Inventory and supplier management, has revealed findings about technology adoption within retail. The findings were based on a survey conducted using Zoho Survey of 1,040 small and medium Indian businesses, mainly from the retail, wholesale, restaurant, and services industries.
The survey found that only 39% of respondents are currently using POS software for sales billing. Some 13% are using technology such as Excel to help them; however, 48% are still conducting operations manually.
Of those not using POS software, 95% say they want to adopt a POS solution by 2029. What is good news for Zakya is that 56% want to adopt a solution within the next six months.
Bigger businesses use POS software
The key message from the findings is that larger businesses are more likely to be using POS software. Organisations making less than INR 5 cr are still using manual methods (76%) rather than POS software (24%).
Business with an annual revenue of INR 5-10 cr, 55% are using manual or spreadsheets to track billing and inventory, and 45% use POS software. In larger organisations, those with revenues of INR 11-20 cr and 21-50 cr use POS software 48% and 74% respectively.
The question is whether these are successful organisations that now require POS software or does the implementation of such software enables growth. To an extent, it has similarities to the chicken and egg dilemma, which came first.
Implementing a POS solution will help organisations automate their processes and improve the throughput of sales, enabling them to service more customers in a shorter period. In a competitive situation, this may mean more sales, more profits and faster growth. Similarly, a firm that has found itself growing quickly using people rather than technology will find that implementing a solution can provide consistency and prevent revenue leakage.
The survey results show that once businesses have adopted a POS solution, revenue grows. 98% of respondents who have implemented a solution saw a revenue increase. Those increases were significant, with 37% saying it increased between 20% and 40%, and a further 27% saw increases of 40%-60%.
Another benefit is the time-saving that a POS solution delivers. 67% of businesses already using a POS solution believe that it has saved them up to 2 hours a day after adoption. What the survey did not show is how those time savings were achieved. It could easily have been inventory management or the billing itself.
What do retailers look for in a new POS solution?
Zakya also identified what retailers look for in a solution. The top three responses were :
- Ease of use for users and administrators (75%)
- Cost-effectiveness
- Mobile billing option
The Zakya solution was created with these three desirables in mind. The challenge Zakya and others face is that expectations are high. Zakya is a new solution. Does it have the features that customers want? After all, 70% of businesses that use POS stated that their current system lacks the advanced features they want. Worse, investment has often been halted with no further updates.
This is where Zakya should prove different. Part of Zoho and part of the Zoho platform, it is already integrated into Zoho Commerce and Zoho Books. No doubt other integrations will follow, with retailers able to extend their solution in many ways. For example, Zoho Backstage would enable retailers to create, manage and assess an event.
Enterprise Times: What does this mean?
Indian business is transforming. The country has an increasing penetration of mobile phones, and it is estimated that the popularity of cash and cashless payments could be reversed by 2025. Retail in India is transforming at all levels. There may be a long tail of cash-based retail, but even the smaller retailers will look to adopt technology as the country becomes more digital.
The digital transformation of retail in India is also predicted by Dr. Subodh Saluja, Associate Professor and Program Head at Chitkara University. He concluded in a LinkedIn post, “The future of the retail industry in India is exciting and dynamic, driven by technological innovations, changing consumer preferences, and the pursuit of sustainability. As retailers continue to adapt to these emerging trends, the focus will be on creating seamless omnichannel experiences, leveraging data analytics for personalization, embracing digital payments, and championing sustainable practices.”
India’s retail is transforming, perhaps slowly at the moment, but as cashless payments start to dominate, it is likely that retailers will want to access secure cashless payments themselves more frequently, as has been seen in the UK.
