‘Single regulator for e-commerce will cut multiplicity of authorities and curb monopolistic tendencies. It will also bring uniformity and cohesiveness among various players.’
Dunnhumby is the world’s first customer data science platform which analyses data and applies insights from over 800 million shoppers across the globe. It is a UK-based customer science company, fully owned by Tesco, a leading brand in the UK retail market. So far, Dunnhumby had so far had its focus on UK, US and Europe, but now it’s turned its spotlight to India as it considers the country to be an important and leading market. The company’s India operations started in June 2007 in Gurugram, earlier known as Gurgaon. The creation of this hub was deemed critical to Dunnhumby’s ambitions to expand globally. The first phase involved getting the right people on board as the foundation for future growth. At present, there are more than 400 employees in India. The company’s global CEO Guillaume Bacuvier spoke to The Sunday Guardian during his India visit. Excerpts:
Q: What are your immediate plans in India? How are you mapping the Indian market with your analytics practice and proficiency?
A: India is a bright spot on the world map and offers enticing opportunities for doing business. We are ready to offer customer data-driven services to Indian retail companies. India has reached the required maturity and it’s the right time to harness the upcoming opportunities and partner with potential clients. India is already among the top 10 big data analytics markets in the world. We are investing in our India centre, with sustained hiring and commitment. The country is growing and we will be adding 10% more workforce by end of this financial year, to our current talent pool, to meet expectations of growing business demands and cater to new partnerships emerging from our India office.
With years of experience in processing customer data, we have seen evolving consumer behaviours such as higher expectations regarding convenience and great shopping experiences. This means that businesses need to use sophisticated algorithms and methods to accurately determine and predict customer needs. We use artificial intelligence methods to drive these solutions. Through machine learning techniques, our algorithms can automatically and rapidly adapt to changes in behaviour and data.
Q: How do you expect Indian retail industry to grow in next five years?
A: India sits at the heart and is a key enabler for a global Dunnhumby. The team is at the forefront of developing best of science, innovation, and setting up standard practices. It is the only Dunnhumby office that serves our entire retail partner. As I have said, India is a bright spot and a fast emerging market for retail business, definitely it offers a promising and huge opportunity.
We as a company strive to ‘democratise customer data science’, making it accessible to companies of all sizes, from many different industries. This is our recipe for growth. Additionally, by opening up our platform to a multitude of other parties, we have an opportunity to grow the addressable market like India, for customer data science at an exponential scale.
Q: What are the primary drivers to buy increased propensity to buy online?
A: The primary drivers are how fast and simple the platform works. A growth in high-speed internet availability, high smartphone penetration, acceptance to e-commerce, a greater usage of social media and a good local talent pool have led to an increase in the data being generated which is critical for organisations, leading to greater predictability and convenience. Data-driven decisions are now finding use-cases within different business functions, therefore, the right use of data and analytical tools can be the key drivers to increase propensity to buy online.
Q: Do you think single regulator for e-commerce, as proposed by the Indian government, will help retail businesses in the country?
A: It’s a good move that the single regulator for e-commerce in India will be an umbrella policy, which will strike uniformity and cohesiveness among various players operating in the country. It will not only cut the multiplicity of authorities to deal with, but also curb the monopolistic tendencies to usurp the market. The final policy is yet to come; however, we welcome the move.
Q: How is the retail scene in other emerging nations like China?
A: Data-driven decisions are now finding use-cases within different business functions in emerging nations like China.
They span from business planning to optimisation; workforce management to recruiting; CRM solutions to acquiring customers; managing supply-chains efficiently to forecasting inventory and retrospection of previous year’s business drivers to forecasting revenues for the next few years. With the Indian economy moving towards increased globalisation, the next few years will witness analytics being an essential part of the majority of dominant industries.
Q: What are the key innovations that Dunnhumby’s Gurugram-based Centre of Excellence (CoE) currently working on to solve through analytics?
A: Our Gurugram CoE is the only Dunnhumby office that serves all our clients around the world. It is at the forefront of developing best of science innovation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to predict which customers will buy what and when, through which channel and at what price-point.
Through an understanding of deeper customer behaviour and use of advanced analytical techniques, the data scientists help retailers from across the world take data-driven decisions and use their marketing budgets efficiently across multiple marketing levers. The Gurugram CoE has been the leader in leveraging new technologies to support Dunnhumby’s strategy of Cloud and Open Source first environment.