According to a recent survey from SAP (done in conjunction with British Retail Consortium), more than 51% retailers are looking at different channels to increase revenue and are moving online in a big way. Another big outcome was the fact that 54% of respondents to the survey believe that focusing on improving the customer experience will be the key driver to surviving the downturn.

Read More: Improving the customer experience is key to surviving the downturn

SAP has been making giant leaps in India with increased adoption of its software in retail industry. I had blogged about the same few months back and that time SAP had over 60 Retailers to talk about, the list now has gone upto 72.

Over 72 leading retailers, including DLF Retail, Khadim Jewellers, Fresh & Honest Cafe, Super Religare Laboratories and Religare Wellness Limited, Dimexon Diamonds and C Mahendra, have simplified business processes, reduced cost and adapted to the changing industry landscape with the adoption of SAP for retail solutions.

Retailers are using SAP for building end to end solutions and not just as ERP.

In the retail sector, technology is deployed not only in accounting and human resource management, but also in core functions like buying, merchandising and store management.
"IT applications are witnessing adoption from the very beginning till the 'last mile' of the business operation for most retail functions and the key solutions being looked upon by retailers in India today are ERP/ERM solutions, supply chain management (SCM), inventory management and security solutions," said Arpan Gupta, manager-services, BPO & Industry Verticals Research, IDC India.

Retailers across the board are using SAP technology for greater visibility into consumer spending trends. Among the latest implementation of SAP in India is DLF's foray into retail - adopting SAP for retail solutions including SAP POS.

Reality Check. SAP is currently doing business with 60 growing Indian retail companies. It has all top retailers as its customers, names include Future group, Reliance Retail, Tata Trent, ITC Retail, Great Wholesale Retail Club, Vishal MegaMart, Welspun, Nilgiris Dairy Farm, Videocon, Spencers etc.

Retailing continues to gain momentum in India with the main focus being on growing customer experience and increasing retails footprints. A Springboard Research study on IT in India's retail sector confirms SAP's strong position in the Indian market, with 27% of study respondents identifying SAP as the leading primary influencer in terms of solutions investments.

"Technology is a high-priority investment area for most large and medium-sized Indian retailers, as they look to scale up their business operations in a competitive market," said Nilotpal Chakravarti, Senior Analyst - Vertical Markets at Springboard Research. "We have seen a strong momentum for investments in ERP and other back-office solutions and SAP has emerged as a leading player in this space," he concluded.