Digital has reshaped the retail landscape and changed the economics of retail radically. It has also made ‘convenience’ a key factor influencing consumers’ purchase decisions. A lot of the technology innovation so far, has largely been aimed at achieving that ‘convenience’,leaving a key part of retail value chain unattended – the supplier-retailer relationship.Innovation in this space has been rather low key.
While most retailers have digitised their supplier-retailer value chain, it has been largely limited to onboarding them on to a digital supplier portal. Venu Bhavanam, a product manager who works with the Engineering and Research Services at HCL Technologies, is part of a team that creates supplier portals, mostly for retailers in Europe and America.“The portals work as a negotiation hub between retailers and suppliers. The portals help the suppliers negotiate trade funds, new item introduction, and cost change, among others,” says Venu.
There are two key gaps that need to be addressed. First, the supplier portals often don’t cover all use cases pertaining to supplier-retailer negotiation. Second, there’s a need to improve trust between the two stakeholders. “And, it is the second gap that is of greater significance and value. Today, while there is a physical contract system in place, it’s just not enough. We need to automate key tasks to reduce instances of avoidable friction and differences.”
Venu believes the solution lies in integrating IBM Blockchain in the supplier portal to make the solution more robust, while also building trust in the retailer-supplier network as well assembling seamless conciliation of deals.
Venu is among millions of problem solvers, faceless innovators who use technology to solve complex problems to make an impact. Hear from Venu why he believes IBM Blockchain will be key to further drill down digital transformation in retail.