Ginesys is a Gurgaon-based software technology provider whose ERP solution covers the entire retail value chain from manufacturing to distribution to retail. Team StitchWorld, in an exclusive conversation with Prashant Lohia, CEO, Ginesys, has explored how a retail ERP system fulfils the complete needs of the fashion retailers.
Apparel retailing has become a complex sector owing to rapidly changing consumer demands. This is leading retailers to find it difficult to manage the balance between supply and demand of the products. Moreover, there are many fragmented modules involved in the process such as omnichannel, online and offline which have to be taken care of in order to have a seamless running retail operation.
There are companies which provide different solutions for different operations and they believe in making the processes easier by providing just one kind of technology for various business modules. Ginesys is a Gurgaon-based software technology provider whose ERP solution covers the entire retail value chain from manufacturing to distribution to retail. Team StitchWorld, in an exclusive conversation with Prashant Lohia, CEO, Ginesys, has explored how a retail ERP system fulfils the complete needs of the fashion retailers.
With family background in apparel manufacturing, Prashant had an in-depth view of how the industry works, what are the processes involved and what are the important parameters that can eliminate bottlenecks from the processes.
Curated with experience and technical know-how, Ginesys, led by Prashant, entered the market with an ERP solution for the manufacturers and gradually expanded its capabilities in the retail segment too back in 2006. “We are a specialised ERP company. Having a consulting background gave me the opportunity for consulting many apparel companies, which helped me better understand the important areas of the fashion industry,” commented Prashant.
The single ERP solution of the company is designed as a complete solution that works for the entire retail value chain. The retailers can either opt for the complete solution or take the necessary modules that they want according to their requisites. For the solution under different modules, Ginesys has links and collaborations with many different companies. “We have complete solution for every need of the retailers. The core modules like inventory management, accounting, supply chain and POS are our own. We also have linked up with different companies for e-commerce and omnichannel retailing,” averred Prashant explaining that Ginesys has integration with Vinculum and Unicommerce for omnichannel solutions, and with Capillary for loyalty solution.
Over a period of time, the retailers have understood that, in order to sustain for a longer period of time and be profitable, they need to evolve and throw away unorganised business models and organise as well as streamline the entire retail process. Retailing, especially e-commerce, depends on strong warehouse inventory management which most of the business owners find to be an arduous task.
The warehouse management can be simplified if the inventory is further integrated into the POS system. This will allow the retailers to maintain minimum inventory in their warehouse fulfilling the orders through the inventory of the store using the feature geo tagging. “This feature is designed to eliminate the pain areas of the retailers,” added Prashant.
With customers like Manyavar, Mufti, Being Human and Ritu Kumar, the solution has helped the industry to slowly evolve from their traditional working format to a more organised form. The best example is the brand MUFTI which, through the implementation of the technology offered by Ginesys, has slowly evolved from 10 stores to almost about 250 stores spread across different locations of India. The best part of the solution is that it is quite scalable making it fit for organisations of different sizes. “Retailers with our solutions are assured of the scalability, no matter how many stores are there. Even if 10 or 500 stores are there, we can integrate with them as we are quite agile and flexible,” explained Prashant.
One of the company’s core strengths lies in the fact that it does not customise the solution. The beauty is that it covers up all the modules and processes that are needed for running the business smoothly. “Our solution is industry-specific that has all the necessary modules covered. Any change or upgradation done to the system is done for all the customers. Anything beyond that is upgraded for all, not just for one company. We are the only company having a single version of software running to all our customers,” asserted Prashant.
Moreover, the company has a strong research and development team with two offices – one each in Kolkata and Gurgaon. The team continuously works on to bring new product innovations and developments for their customers. Any new need that is created in the market, is always taken care of by the company with minimum response time. Adding to this, Prashant further informed that the company was the first to integrate GST solutions to its system when the taxation regime was introduced in the country. The company conducted seminars to educate the customers about GST. “We invest a lot of time in making sure that our software is up-to-date with the need of the industry, and customers have got that confidence that Ginesys is there and they will take care of any requirement,” said Prashant.
Retail analytics is another important concern area for the retailers nowadays. Data collection and reading for better forecasting and informed decisions is what every retailer is looking at. Therefore, Ginesys is effectively using Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) which help the retailers to forecast the inventory level they need to stock in a season and replenish with an accuracy of about 90 per cent.
It’s important for the retailers to have a solution with such accuracy numbers as fashion industry, unlike any other industry, is not constant due to its diverse nature. “Around 80 per cent of the items are not going to sell in future seasons and they keep changing frequently which makes it challenging for the retailers to cope with the balance of supply and demand,” explained Prashant.
The above fact stays true to a country like India where there is so much variety within the country and it’s important for the apparel retailers to study market in order to have the right working strategies. As every part of the country is different and each part has its own fashion trend, this makes it mandatory to invest in a technology that can ease out the process for them. Commenting on technology adoption in India, Prashant said, “Today people understand the need to adopt technology. The newer generation is tech-savvy. Not just the retailers in big cities but also the customers in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities have realised the need for technology adoption.”
In another breakthrough development, Ginesys has also launched Mobile POS ZWING recently, a device which allows payments through anywhere in the store. The solution can replace the traditional checkout counters in the stores. The mobile POS is a small handy device just like the debit card machine which allows the shopkeeper to complete the customer shopping purchase through that. “We are sure to have it installed in the stores of our existing clients as well as we are in touch with some new potential clients,” informed Prashant.
