Insights from Ginesys CEO, Prashant Lohia, on the Future of Retail Software Solutions

📝Interviews

Shubham Kumar

Mar 23, 2023 — 5 min read

From an ambitious dream to a thriving reality - Prashant Lohia's journey as the CEO of Ginesys

Recently, we had the opportunity to sit down with Prashant Lohia, the founder and CEO of Ginesys, to discuss his innovative approach to retail software solutions. As an experienced leader in the industry, Mr. Lohia has a wealth of knowledge and insights to share about the current state and future direction of the retail sector.

In our conversation, he provided valuable insights into his company's goals, vision, and strategies, which are transforming the way businesses operate in the retail space.

StartupTalky: Kindly give us an overview of the company and its specialization.

Prashant: Ginesys is a rapidly expanding retail technology company that serves over 1200 customers and has a broad reach across India, with over 50,000 users. Our focus is on providing technological solutions for retail businesses, having successfully supported retail businesses from start-up to IPO over the past decade.

We have established ourselves as a premier, "Made in India" solution for ERP and POS, catering to the needs of small and medium-sized enterprises. Currently, we offer a complete retail tech suite for omni retail - Ginesys One, which includes everything from ecommerce order management to ERP to POS including GST compliance.

StartupTalky: Industry, target market size, market share?

Prashant: We are working for the Indian retail industry. The Indian retail industry has become one of the most dynamic and fast-paced sectors, contributing over 10% of the country's GDP and 8% of employment. India is the world's fifth-largest retail destination, and by 2030, the retail sector is expected to reach a market size of US$1.8 trillion. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about changes in consumer preferences, habits, and attitudes, leading to a significant impact on the way people purchase and consume goods and services.

Global retailers are adopting innovative business strategies to take advantage of new retail opportunities, and consumers no longer differentiate between offline and online channels. Major companies are experimenting with different approaches to design seamless retail experiences integrated across all channels and revenue models that enhance their customer value proposition.

In light of all this we expect Indian retail tech to be a massive industry (billion dollars plus) with many players in it. Currently we are the largest player in the sector dealing with Indian customers.

StartupTalky: What is the Ginesys solution for retail tech in 2023?

Prashant: The retail landscape is running through an enormous evolution. Research has found that 95% of all purchases are predicted to take place through eCommerce by 2040. The conventional model of having just an unmarried physical store is gradually fading away with increasing customer expectations.

This transforming trend is having a primary impact on the retail business value chain. The rise of omnichannel retailing has altered the way customers shop. Customers wish for a seamless experience across all channels. This sets the spotlight on retailers to deliver an integrated user background and win customer loyalty.

Ginesys One was born from a simple belief: retail is complex and changing fast, growing companies need simplified integrated products that help them move faster. From modern cloud-based POS to an integrated omnichannel platform, from ERP to GST compliance, the Ginesys One solution promises to increase sales while optimizing retail operations.

Backed by a unified support team and built on modern technology, the Ginesys One suite aims to future-proof a retailer’s business and helps them navigate the ever-changing world of retail. Right from the get-go, Ginesys One is expected to save integration time, effort and cost while achieving various omni use cases in a seamless manner.

StartupTalky: What is the product you provide? How does the product work? What problems does it solve?

Prashant: Our latest solution, the Ginesys One suite, provides retailers with a range of omnichannel applications including:

Ginesys ERP: A comprehensive retail ERP system that serves as the core of Ginesys One, enabling dynamic decision-making, merchandising, procurement, warehousing, accounts, and distribution.

Ginesys Desktop POS: A desktop-based application for in-store billing and inventory management.

Zwing Cloud POS: A web-based POS application that also works on Android mobile POS.

Browntape OMS: An eCommerce order and inventory management system that integrates with all marketplaces and webstore platforms. We also provide webstore development and marketing services under this division.

EaseMyGST: A GST app for creating e-invoices, e-way bills, and filing GST returns in an automated manner.

Ginesys BI: Complete BI tool and mobile dashboard for analyzing trends in data and discovery of data insights.

Support for 3rd party integrations: The suite comes pre-integrated with various popular retail tech apps, marketplaces, and eCommerce suites.

StartupTalky: What are the key strategies/hacks that you have been following since the beginning? You can also include any tie-up/partnership

Prashant: We started with a simple hack of developing the products for the marquee customers, taking their live and continuous feedback. This ensured perfect product market fit in no time. Our passion lies in providing user-friendly solutions that are tailored to fit the needs and mindset of the Indian market.

Combined with exceptional customer support, this approach helps to retain and delight our customers. Our business model is centered around customer retention, which is why we have always placed a higher priority on retaining existing customers rather than acquiring new ones.

StartupTalky: How is Ginesys bridging the gap between retail and technology and what do you understand about retail management software?

Prashant: The term "Retail Management Software" is broad and frequently used in the industry to encompass a range of products, from basic point-of-sale (POS) billing to accounting software like Tally to dedicated retail-specific solutions. Ginesys addresses the challenges faced by retailers in finding the right technology to meet their needs by providing a comprehensive solution for both online and offline retail.

Moreover, we offer the entire suite of products as ready to use and as cloud SaaS subscriptions, which is a unique approach as most competing solutions require several months to implement. This allows retailers to go live quickly and efficiently within their tight timelines. This is especially true of ERP and BI where we are miles ahead of competition from the global ERP majors.

StartupTalky: Where do you see your company 5/10 years down the road?

Prashant: We are already the number 1 retail tech company in India and we hope that in 5-10 we shall be able to replicate the success of some of the other tech startups and go global. We have more products and deeper integrations planned for the retail industry. Overall we feel that retail is the most dynamic industry right now across the world so there will be a good demand for our products.