Anisha Singh, CEO of Mydala Shares Her Views on the Rise of Social Media in Retail Industry

Retailers Association of India is organizing its annual flagship event, Retail Leadership Summit (RLS 2013) on 7th & 8th Feb 2013 at Grand Hyatt, Mumbai.

India is a nation of shopkeepers with innovative competencies to delight customers. India's huge consumption capability is a big opportunity for retail.

RLS 2013 is a platform that promises the audience an unparalleled retail learning experience. Indian Retail's largest congregation of business leaders invites you to SHARE thoughts, CONNECT and IDEATE with the best minds in retail from across the world.

Theme of the event: “An invitation to innovation!!"

Expected to be attended by the Who’s Who of the Indian Retail Industry i.e. about 500+ Delegates, 60+ Speakers and 50+ partners in India.

Anisha Singh, Founder and CEO, mydala.com is one of the Keynote Speakers at the Retail Leadership Summit, supported by several featured speakers.

Anisha shares her views on the rise of Social Media in the retail Industry.

 1. What role does social networking play in driving consumers to seek out discounts and special offers?

In our first couple of years, our growth was purely viral. Subscribers inviting friends, it was totally WOM advertising. A lot of this happened on Facebook and twitter majorly.

In fact when we started spending, our major ad spend was on Facebook ads. Since we understood the power of social media we wanted to leverage it further, mydala has a separate social media team that focuses on building relationships with users, getting their thoughts on what they would like to see as well as the user experience.

I think it is safe to say after all that we are big believers of social networking and media when leveraged right plays a very important role in brand awareness.

2. Mobile and social commerce is where the rubber meets the road. How do you look forward to be accessible to the smart phone traffic?

We bet heavily on mobile about a year and a half ago so you are talking to someone who was a believer long ago. For us it was obvious that the next logical step for a user would be to seek out deals/ shopping at their convenience and the most convenient accessory to shop is usually the mobile.

We built out our apps, our WAP site but most of all I think the strategic decision we took was making an aggressive play with TelCos. We currently run deals and offers for many of the top TelCos reaching out to over 100 million users every month.

3. What would online retail companies offer to socially engaged customers that they are not giving them now?

The list is limitless as the consumer keeps getting more sophisticated by the day. I think the basics though should be loyalty programs for sharing, tweeting, and posting reviews.

As we keep getting more 'mobilized' online companies need to start giving sophisticated apps that let consumers see something offline, get price comparison for it online and find the best places to have it shipped from along with delivery times.

Sites like ours- mydala need to offer a more social experience letting friends plan together seamlessly with almost like virtual assistant.

I'm an aggressive online shopper and one thing that the online companies outside are doing phenomenally well is walkthroughs and reviews to things that work as a great tipping point when making a decision while shopping online.

4. How do you integrate your customer service strategy with your social media strategy?

For us because we grew on social media, we used it to connect with our customers right from the start. Users/ Consumers have been giving us feedback on via our social media right from the start.

We have actually taken it a step further and with the launch of any new feature, we solicit user feedback via our social media.

Similarly, because we work with so many businesses we ask feedback from our users using social media all the time.

5. How do you capture business intelligence from social media to manage and capitalize on prevailing consumer expectations and motivations?

As I already mentioned we take feedback from our customers via social media whenever we launch something new on our website.

Social media helps a lot in driving our business strategy today. We always strive to serve our customers in a way they expect.

Thus, tracking and leveraging social media in the best possible manner to meet customer expectations.

6. How do you perceive leadership in an era of Innovation and Change?

Leaders have to be more agile and flexible and also open to trying new things that may or may not work for their businesses. Great leaders recognize the value of innovation and strive to create a culture of innovation that unleashes the potential of their team.