In the burgeoning India Retail Organized sector, IT is being taken seriously with retailers starting to leverage IT for setting up basic infrastructure for doing business. A report in Express Computer discusses how Indian Retailers although being late are adopting IT for innovations at back end as well as consumer facing end.

“It is estimated that over $2.5 billion will be spent on IT in the Indian retail sector by 2010. This will include the cost of acquiring new assets as well as looking after existing infrastructure. Over 40% of this will be spent on software and services,” said Ajay Aggarwal, Founder, Seacom.

According to Patrick Mathias, Regional Manager-Enterprise, Cisco India, “Of the total investment, approximately 4-10% is invested in IT. And within this approximately 30-40% is meant for networking infrastructure.”

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The IT innovation revolution in retail is steadily taking shape in India. The process is such that it has the potential to change the way in which we purchase even the basic necessities such as groceries and vegetables. Innovation is happening not just at the backend, but also at the customer facing end. It’s taking place all over, right from where the customer enters a store to the point where he leaves. This essentially covers the whole process of buying of products, right from selecting to decision making and paying at the checkout counter.

“Innovations in the retail industry are multi pronged and are aimed at enhancing the end user experience, optimizing resources and logistics, creating a technology platform to keep pace with the dynamics of the industry and manage the unprecedented growth given the geographic spread and diversity,” said Dr. Anurag Srivastava, Vice President, Consulting Division, Wipro.