By Vasudeva Rao Munnaluri
Increased smartphone penetration, 5G internet and a vast number of options online have resulted in approximately 354 million consumers in India embracing online shopping, according to Statista. A significant portion of the digital shoppers come from emerging cities like Amritsar, Visakhapatnam, Jaipur, Mysuru, Bhopal and more. Consumers from emerging cities contributed to more than 80% of sales for Meesho and Amazon, according to PwC. These customers are the drivers of a retail revolution in the country.
Online shopping has emerged not only as a convenience but as a lifeline, especially for customers in emerging cities, where access to many of their favourite products isn’t available in physical stores. According to Redseer, e-commerce businesses recorded sales worth Rs 76,000 crore during the 2023 festive season sale event, almost double the pre-COVID sale of Rs 40,000 crore in 2019. However, entering emerging markets is a challenging proposition for many businesses.
Barriers for entry into India’s emerging cities
Customers in emerging markets are aspirational. They want the same kind of experiences as their counterparts in metros, putting the pressure on retail businesses to deliver quality CX. However, the fundamental stumbling blocks for retail and e-commerce companies eyeing expansion into emerging cities have been the scarcity of critical information regarding market dynamics, customer preferences, and competitor performance. The absence of data on footfall, market trends, user mobility, and historical sales data, makes it more challenging to identify customer pain points, and solve them.
Logistics is another major problem that these businesses face in emerging markets, making it difficult for them to offer the same level of CX they offer to customers in tier-1 cities. Quick deliveries are an important factor for customers to do business with a brand. In fact, according to PwC, one in two customers in emerging cities say quick deliveries are an important aspect of their overall customer experience. In addition, the lack of adequate geolocation data in India’s hinterland makes it difficult to offer a seamless customer experience.
The good news is that increasing mobile and internet penetration, the proliferation of newer logistics companies, and emerging technologies like AI are knocking down these barriers.
Bringing the omnichannel experience to India’s hinterland
When e-commerce and retail businesses adopt an omnichannel strategy, they can set themselves up for success in emerging markets, as it offers a competitive advantage. Having an omnichannel strategy consolidates all channels into one platform to eliminate siloed conversations, ensuring that valuable customer data coming from those channels are integrated under a single source of truth. It solves one of the biggest barriers in emerging markets, offering businesses the ability to analyse customer information for a holistic view—regardless of the channel customers prefer using. Coupled with AI–especially those built on CX-specific data sets–businesses can take their omnichannel CX to the next level. Here’s how.
Know customers better, resolve issues faster: When companies use AI-powered CX solutions, they have a better understanding of who they’re talking to and what information customers have already seen. Issues get resolved faster, more personalised experiences can be delivered at scale, and opportunities to reduce cart abandonment can be identified. Tools like intelligent triage can analyse incoming queries and route them to the right agents according to the customer’s intent and sentiment, ensuring quicker resolution. By analysing vast amounts of data in real time, agents are armed with valuable customer context to deliver personalised, effortless support at scale, without customers having to repeat themselves. Well-trained AI never forgets a customer, ensuring human and AI agents can provide always-on support that is reliable and accurate no matter which channel the customer uses.
Generative AI for better omnichannel success: Combining generative AI with an omnichannel CX strategy, businesses can shift towards more enriched, immersive CX. Generative AI acts as an assistant to human agents, helping them draft replies to customer queries, take notes of customer calls and even propose help centre articles to address the most common issues. Businesses can enable generative replies by leveraging existing knowledge from the customer help centre for accurate, conversational responses. In addition to its conversational capabilities, generative AI can also adjust chatbot personas to match the brand’s personality, tone, and voice. Such ease of communication makes customers feel understood and valued.
Personalisation at scale: Another powerful use of AI for omnichannel CX is its ability to help businesses scale their personalisation efforts. While an omnichannel approach unifies the customer’s history, empowering businesses with a single source of truth, generative AI helps businesses use that data to supercharge their personalisation efforts across multiple communication channels. According to Deloitte, 67% of customers spend more money when personalization reflects an understanding of them and anticipates their needs. Capable of understanding customer sentiment and intent, generative AI makes it easier to identify at-risk customers and redirect them to more experienced support agents. With the power of generative AI embedded in CX solutions, retailers can share feature promotions in the moment to create personalised experiences. This comes with the added ability of actioning abandoned carts, supporting active carts, and also informing customers of nearby stock to complete purchases.
Businesses that took an omnichannel approach have reaped the rewards by becoming high performers. According to the Zendesk Customer Experience Trends Report, companies that provided omnichannel support performed better across key CX metrics, such as faster response times and higher customer satisfaction scores. And those who have invested in AI-driven CX tools are already seeing results—89% of Indian CX leaders leveraging AI and automation for CX report positive ROI. This goes up to 91% for those using generative AI.
Emerging cities in India may be challenging markets to succeed in. With the latest AI-powered CX technologies, retailers and e-commerce businesses can achieve success in new markets and grow their bottom line exponentially.
(The author is Vasudeva Rao Munnaluri, RVP India & SAARC, Zendesk, and the views expressed in this article are his own)
