Effective communication in retail is all about relevancy: Nitesh Thattasery

In retail industry, the world of medium of communications has been rapidly changing in the current age of interactive technologies. Evidently, in the market, the digital screens have been fast replacing the menu cards, signage, placards and billboards and other conventional modes of communication. Indian retailers are also on the cusp of deploying more such technologies to interact innovatively and smartly with customers, while devising sales strategies accordingly. Hence, talking about the benefits of interactive technology, its adoption by the retailers and the challenges, Nitesh Thattasery, CEO & Founder, Waulite Technologies spoke to Indianretailer.com.   

How does your interactive technology help retailers to have effective communication with customers?
We bring innovation to the way we interact with our customers. We are developing the most progressive interactive technologies in to the field of retail, outdoor, advertising and content. Retailers who use digital screens can now manage menus, social feeds, merchandise and even advertisings playing on one screen or multiple screens across the country from their computer.

At the core of all our products is a robust cloud based content management system, Wauly, which we indigenously developed. Wauly signage system allows all retail digital screen owners to manage their content across thousands of outlets from their laptop. It is the most secure and highly scalable system, which can be used to control one or thousands of screens simultaneously. Our solution has been deployed by Oil PSUs in their outlets, leading brands in fashion, banking and even boutique coffee shops.

How are retailers adaptive of such technology? What are the challenges?
The biggest challenge is that of poor knowledge with respect to quality and standards, especially in the areas of security and effectiveness. Open source digital signage solutions which are cheaper are also vulnerable to such external threats, hacks. It is not easy to differentiate quality through online research alone, unless you implement a solution or have spoken experts in the industry. Another challenge is the inertia of organizations to ditch their current investments in plastic, flex, vinyl-based display set-ups for digital screen based systems that provide better results in terms of profitability and environmental footprint.

Wauly is a subscription based digital signage solution. Our customers pay per screen they operate. We also provide an enterprise grade retail display solution, which includes the setting up of digital screens and integrated SAAS based solutions to give our retail customers a very comprehensive, efficient and integrated systems.

What are the innovative display products that you have introduced?
To give more scope to our content tech in retail, we have introduced 2 very innovative display products to India:  Waulite PlayMirror and Waulite PlayGlass. Waulite PlayMirror is a mirror TV that comes with and without a touch screen. Waulite’s PlayGlass Box is a Glass TV that lets you house your product or merchandise inside it whilst you play picture, video and touch based interactive content on the glass.  Our Waulite PlayGlass box is one of its kinds in India and we have filed for patents on it. Both these products come embedded with Wauly box, giving you the power to manage the contents in these screens as and when you wish.

Wauly will very soon bring in special analytics that will help the display asset owners achieve targeted content display solutions, giving them and their clients far better ROI and sharper media targeting. Banks and Retail continues to be our largest vertical in India and globally. Organisations who have presence in multiple retail outlets will find digital POSM system more affordable, responsive and effective compared to conventional paper and flex based POSM items.

What is your view on the current retail technology?
Effective communication and sale at retail is all about relevancy. The consumers world of communication is far more richer in content and hybrid in options. Retail and OOH communications must embrace these changes and continuously look at staying ahead. Technology is now the new leveler. Those who adopt it first are the ones who are more relevant. New age entrepreneurs are taking the initiative in choosing retail communication systems like Wauly, that allows them to stay better connected with their customers in online and offline spaces.

What are your future strategies with Wauly?
We are looking at far more connected and scalable ecosystems that will make the industry leaner in technology highly optimized in asset utilization. We see the digital signage solutions expanding its foot print from traditional retail industry to corporate, hospitality and even governments. We are looking at collaborating with digital display implementation companies to expand our reach and services in India and other markets. We are expanding our services to global markets. We have been responding to interests from Australia, SEA, US and Europe. We have set up a base in Australia and looking at servicing SEA and ANZ market from there.

What is your CAGR?
We are a 16-month old firm and have recorded more than 200 percent growth in revenue in the last fiscal. We have been growing rapidly and are looking at recording more than 300 percent growth in this fiscal. We are expecting to grow our business 5-7 times over in the next 3 years.