Tech and business leaders discussed the future of Metaverse and cutting-edge technologies that will shape the retail of tomorrow at ICS 2022
Bengaluru: Business and tech leaders participating in a panel discussion at the Internet Commerce Summit 2022 in Bengaluru identified Metavarse, Video Commerce and Blockchain as the trends that are changing retail and consumer experiences.
Moderated by Anirban Chakraborti, Vice President & Chief Architect, Digital Business & Technology, Sangeetha Mobiles Pvt. Ltd., the leaders were speaking on the topic ‘The New World Order: Web3, Metaverse & Business Opportunities’.
Speakers in the panel included, Ashish Sinha, Associate Director – Blockchain, S&P Global; Raveesh Bhatnagar, Industry Head – FinServ, Meta; Vivek Sandhwar, COO, Being Human Clothing; Aparna Krishna , Program Manager, Biboxlabs; and Neha Suyal, Co- founder & COO, Woovly.
Here are the key trends that emerged from the discussion:
Metaverse
“Metaverse is going to be an interoperable play connected with all kinds of digital wallets and blockchains,” said Raveesh Bhatnagar, Industry Head- FinServ, Meta. According to him, the four building blocks of metaverse are: Augmented Reality(AR), Virtual Reality (VR), Digital Avatar, and Commerce.
Video commerce
“We are a video commerce platform or a social commerce platform, where users are coming, discovering content and they are able to learn about brands and products through video, unlike a very conventional e-commerce platform where they have to read and understand’” said Neha Suyal, Co- founder & COO, Woovly.
Social commerce, which includes video commerce, “is a way of selling by building trust. Trust can be built by an influencer or a housewife living in a community or an offline retailer, who is selling in a shop. The modes of communication could be different. It can be a video comment, live comment, social media post, or WhatsApp sharing,” she added.
Aparna Krishna, Program Manager, Biboxlabs differentiated the before and after pandemic situations in the industry of e-commerce and education. “The main thing companies need to keep in mind when they are doing something online is to create a trust and then they need to offer something different and the third one is that the effort should be competitive with a lot of options,” said Aparna.
Blockchain
Explaining the concept of Blockchain, Ashish Sinha, Associate Director- Blockchain, S&P Global said, “Blockchain is a way to decentralize the software applications which you are using for businesses. When you decentralize, you are actually removing the intermediaries,” said Ashish.
Other trends
A change in the consumption pattern and buying behaviour were other trends the panel discussed.
Sharing insights on the changing behaviour of Gen Z and millennial consumers, Vivek Sandhwar, COO, Being Human Clothing said that these generations don’t necessarily like to go to a store all the time. “65% of fashion products sold in India are researched online first and sold offline,” Sandhwar said.
“The consumer is keen to know more about how conscious you are. The best way to build the trust on the brand’s consciousness is through transparency,” he added.
The panel was one of many insightful discussions over 13-14 December at the sixth edition of the ICS in Bengaluru. The only event of its kind for the country’s e-commerce and m-commerce industry ICS is a convergence of new-age retailers from online retail, brick-and-mortar stores, product, and services commerce and omnichannel.
ICS 2022 saw the participation of over 100 business and thought leaders over two days. Leaders and experts from the emerging industry of internet commerce convened at ICS 2022 to share their valuable thoughts about the massive cross-channel transformation and what challenges and opportunities are available to woo the connected customer.
