RAI and Octane.in Announce the launch of Their India Retail e-Marketing Study 2013 at ReTechCon 2013

MUMBAI, June 6, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

Study is the Latest Report to Cover the Online and Offline Retail Sectors in India

Octane.in, India's leading email marketing company, in collaboration with the Retailers Association of India (RAI), has announced the release of the "India Retail e-Marketing Study 2013" today at RAI's ReTechCon 2013 event in Mumbai.

The India Retail e-Marketing Study 2013 is a collaborative research project by The Retailers Association of India (RAI) and Octane Marketing (Octane.in). It is a one-of-a-kind retail e-marketing study which investigates, understands and covers the impact of technology on the Indian retail marketing initiatives.

Latest data, knowledge and statistics about the state of technology in retail marketing have been gathered from 110 retailers in India and packaged into one insightful report. It includes opinions and insights that showcase how offline (brick & mortar stores) and online (e-Commerce) retailers are doing marketing for their products and services and it also includes plans for personnel, resources, budgets and strategic directions.

"The result of our collaboration with Octane is this insightful report that has much to offer to Indian retailers and marketers alike. The report compares the digital behaviour of online and brick and mortar retailers, from budget allocation, to the pace of technology adoption to differing levels of focus on customer retention and adoption of mobile solutions. We believe the report will give retail marketers much food for thought and a number of action items," said Mr. Kumar Rajagopalan, CEO of RAI.

At the same time, Mr. Digvijay Bhandari, CEO & Co-Founder of Octane.in added, "In this report, you will find a carefully crafted selection of questions that shed light on current trends in retail and how technology is being leveraged to maximize marketing endeavours. While offline marketing continues to eat up a bulk of the marketing budget, it is steadily ceding ground to digital marketing initiatives like social media and email marketing."

Some of the key findings from the report are:

1. Almost half of retailers surveyed (at 47%) are looking to expand their online presence. 27% of the retailers surveyed are thinking beyond the confines of offline operations and have already started to dabble in e-Commerce. About 16% of e-Commerce retailers said that they are also experimenting with physical store to further their reach.

2. Customer Acquisition came out to be the primary marketing goal for retailers with 54% of them choosing this option. Customer retention and brand awareness have fallen behind at 22% and 19% respectively according to the inputs of both online (e-Commerce) and offline retailers (brick & mortar stores).

3. 27% of the retail companies surveyed heavily use technology for marketing efforts while 44% use it to some extent. On the flipside, 26% of respondents say they use minimal technology while 4% don't use any technology in their marketing efforts. This shows that there's a lot that can be done to improve their awareness of marketing technology and its benefits.

4. When it comes to customer engagement, offline retailers and online retailers think differently. While 58% of offline retailers feel sales and special offers get them maximum engagement only 20% of online retailers feel the same way. For 60% of the online retailers surveyed, email marketing is the more preferred platform for customer engagement.

5. About 55% of offline retailers are using mobile as a marketing channel while only 10% of the online retailers are doing the same. At the same time, less than half (at 43%) of offline retailers are using email marketing while a massive 80% of online retailers are doing the same.

6. Demographics (age, gender, location etc.) and average basket value came out as the top two metrics (at 64% and 49% respectively) used by Indian retailers to understand their customer base. When it comes to using the number of transactions per customer as a metric, 60% of online retailers and 44% of offline retailers employ it. Income by segmentation was the least favoured metric by all retailers (at 34% total).

The report is also available for free download on the research section of Octane's website (www.octane.in/research).

About Retailers Association of India (RAI):

Retailers Association of India (RAI) is the unified voice of Indian retailers. RAI is a not-for-profit organization (registered under section 25 of Companies Act, 1956), works with all the stakeholders for creating the right environment for the growth of the modern retail industry in India. RAI is the body that encourages, develops, facilitates and supports retailers to become modern and adopt best practices that will delight customers. RAI has a three charter aim of Retail Development, Facilitation and Propagation.

About Octane Marketing (Octane.in):

Octane.in is India's first multi-channel platform for integrated marketing campaigns. Marketers can send integrated multi-channel (Email, SMS, Social and Web) campaigns on a clean, spam-free marketing platform, built on intelligent software which is available on demand (pay as you go, zero upfront cost, zero lead time to start) or onsite (deployed at location). It is a powerful, up-to-date campaign software backed by a 24x7 IP reputation management service, on a highly scalable & secure platform for even the most demanding customer campaigns. In 2012, Octane was voted as one of the Top 20 Tech start-ups in India by Tech Circle. www.octane.in

Primary Media Contact: Ahmer Hasan, [email protected], 91-9871718555