Apple’s two India-based company-owned outlets each reported revenue of approximately INR 200 Cr in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2024, emerging as the top-performing retail outlets of the iPhone maker globally. This translates to approximately usd 50 million of retail sales for the year through just these 2 stores, or roughly usd 2 million per outlet per month. That’s a fantastic start. iPhones pushed over 35% surge in India’s mobile phone exports to a record $15 Bn in FY24. As per the government data, Apple accounted for 65% or about...

Let us start by looking at the world of beauty. While there exist many benchmarks, I genuinely believe that true beauty is intrinsic and begins with the comfort one has with one’s existence and appearance. Therefore, in essence, beauty is a very subjective word, which is unnecessarily complicated by beauty product and fairness product companies. I guess the same holds true for the world of business these days. Many of us have come to realize that the value of a business is becoming extremely subjective, like beauty. In reality, three...

By NIRANJAN GIDWANI I continue to be an extremely avid student of life, for life. I make it a point to keep my personal learning curve sharp and steep. Hence, from January this year, I decided to start this series where I try to touch upon two or three random topics of my own interest and share snippets of information along with my own views. In this article, I will focus upon and share some thoughts on two topics which are always in focus these days. Smartphones and EVs. Let’s...

By NIRANJAN GIDWANI The future is digital. This will create the single biggest impact in terms of defining how we all will live, work, and interact with each other. It will also define both directions - how we sustain ourselves and how we will destroy ourselves through wars. Technology will be an empowering force for good. It will also create more division and exclusion. This will depend on the ethically conscious choices we make today and in the future. In order to leverage the massive potential of digital for development purposes,...

By NIRANJAN GIDWANI This topic deals with how crucial it is to have the “loyalty factor” in mind while setting up a strategic plan for success of an online business model, particularly for small, medium and large size organisations and groups whose traditional business models are traditional. In today’s world, there is no business or service  on just one or two channels, even if they believe they are. What’s more likely is companies and organisations  do not fully realize just how many channels their business requires to function. The customer journey can...

By NIRANJAN GIDWANI Digital Public Infrastructure is the modern world’s equivalent of roads, bridges and railways. For a common person, Digital Public Infrastructure, or DPI, can be understood as an intermediate, or an in-between layer in the digital ecosystem. This in-between layer sits on top of a physical layer. The physical layer can mean connectivity, devices, servers, data centers, routers etc. The in-between layer is used to support an apps layer which sits on the top of the in-between layer. The apps layer is something that provides varied solutions to different...

According to Statista, In 2021, e-commerce accounted for nearly 19 percent of retail sales worldwide. Forecasts indicate that by 2026, the online segment will make up close to 25 percent of total global retail sales. An equally relevant 2022 study by Statista also showed that cross-border ecommerce is projected to account for 22 percent of all global ecommerce shipments. And this figure is also expected to rise. Therefore, if nothing else, any country state or online player could keep the same target as their wish list for cross border ecommerce originating...

In recent years, the traditional boundaries between business-to-business (B2B) and direct-to-consumer (D2C) models have become increasingly blurred. With the rise of eCommerce and the changing expectations of consumers, many B2B companies, distributors & manufacturers are now embracing D2C strategies to reach customers more effectively. This is likely to happen even in the B2B online marketplace. Over time, they too would need to look at ways to operate their own versions of blended B2B-D2C models. In order to offset the pressures of keeping up sales targets, many D2C companies are expanding...