Latest news with #AnkurRander
Time of India
21-07-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Your Brand Lives Online Now. Why Indian Retail Needs a Digital Wake-Up Call
For years, retail success meant having great stores, stylish interiors, and busy footfalls. But in 2025, the real shopping doesn't start on the street, it's online. Still, most digital stores today feel basic, outdated, or like Rander, Founder and CEO of BOMBAYDC, tells ETRetail why this mindset needs to change and how retailers can build powerful, experience-first digital stores that actually grow the brand. Edited excerpts: Q: As a digital products company that builds digital experiences, you work with many retailers. We see that the physical retail stores are often well-designed and thoughtful. But why do the digital stores for many of these same brands look basic as if treating the online store as a side channel? Ankur Rander: Today, in the era of connected world commerce, people discover, research, and compare products online. That's what drives both online and offline sales. So, investing significantly in offline stores while using generic e-commerce templates for digital stores is a missed chance by brands to stand out. If an online store doesn't make the brand felt, it is losing an opportunity to be considered. Q: So, in your opinion, what makes a good digital store today? Ankur Rander: Right now, many digital stores are treated like brochures. But they need to be living systems that respond and adapt. A digital store is also not just a website anymore. It's an ongoing experience that happens across mobile, desktop, voice, chat and even in local languages. It should feel alive, not static. A great store today: Offers convenience of all kinds. Convenience trumps most easy to scroll and scan through with various options to find a product brand - in a top-to-bottom scroll, it should convey why your brand almost like an offline conversation with an expert and helps people feel the product even when they can't touch it. Gives consumers an elevated yet simple product understanding and thus enables them to make informed decisions and not just list real time AI-driven recommendations that are based on users browsing and purchase content. using visuals and videos to explain the product and its usage, detailed imagery Social proof backed by influencer content and more. Connects seamlessly with your offline store in meaningful ways such as real-time inventory view, live video calls with store staff to see the material closely, etc. Find at the store and pick up at the store. Should have a super streamlined and trackable returns and delivery process with a fast and stable checkout. Interestingly, size mismatch is one of the biggest reasons to return an online purchased perhaps, a better UX for customers to experience the size and make an informed purchase would help reduce returns. Q: In India, internet adoption is seeing massive growth, especially in tier 2 and beyond markets. It is plausible that the next 500 million shoppers won't all speak English or type fast. What role do you see vernacular languages playing in the growth of retail and digital commerce? Ankur Rander: It's not just helpful, it's the biggest unlock. Traditionally, navigating a website meant clicking through menus: Men → Sports Shoes → Styles → Scroll through 100 products. It's tedious. It's not how real people shop. Now imagine this: A user simply says, 'Mujhe black shoes chahiye' and sees exactly that, they glance through the results and add, 'Shinny material nahi chahiye, office wear chahiye' and instantly, the list updates again. That's the future, not dropdowns and filters, but conversation-led commerce. Thanks to large language models that support over 12 Indian languages, the entire country can now shop in their own language. Designing for voice and vernacular is no longer optional. It's the gateway to India's next 500 million digital customers. Because when someone can speak in Kannada, Bhojpuri, or Marathi and find exactly what they want, that's not just better UX. That's real inclusion and progress. Q: For this new age of consumers, how do you envision AI and other advanced technologies will change the online shopping experience? Ankur Rander: We're already testing prototypes that lets users talk to a website or app. You say what you want. The system uses AI, we are currently using the Open AI models along with our own architecture and understands your request, and shows results directly. It tries to understand intent and helps people shortlist.. It works in many Indian languages. So suddenly, your store becomes accessible to 50 per cent more people. That's a huge opportunity. Q: Going back to your work with retailers, what happens when a brand works with BOMBAYDC? How does their journey of building a digital store of 2025 look like and how would you define the ROI? Ankur Rander: The first step is plotting. BOMBAYDC's team shops the brand's products just like customers do. That gives insight into the gaps and opportunities. The team studies the product, the brand, and what the customer is really looking for when they want to buy. Then, they map the user journey, which varies for different products like shoes, refrigerators, or clothing. Some products need more explanation than others. Some need more education than others. The job is to understand what questions a customer asks before they even enter the category, and then build helpful interventions along that journey. Next, the right design and content are applied - videos, images, UX flows, all aligned to the brand's tone and the consumer's mindset. The third, and often most broken piece, is design-tech synergy. At most companies, design and development teams are disconnected. This leads to common breakdowns, like a design that can't be built properly. At BOMBAYDC , this doesn't happen. Strategy, design, content, and tech are all built under one roof to ensure delivery and alignment. And yes, the ROI is real and here is why and how it matters. Every product discovery starts online. Before a customer walks into a store, they've already searched for the product, compared it with alternatives, and perhaps read up on features, reviews, or watched videos. This really means that 70–80% of the decision about making the purchase is already made online. Thus, if your brand doesn't show up with the right information, experience, and storytelling during discovery, it's already lost the game. Q: Any recent work? Ankur Rander: A great example is Lotto India . Their newly launched digital store in India was designed by us for 'everyday athletes' and delivers a style-first, mobile-native experience. These are brands now meeting users where they are - online, with clarity and conviction. We used video to let users experience the product's fit and function. Q: One final question Ankur, what do you think CMOs and CXOs should be asking their digital and marketing teams? Ankur Rander: Sure. It's important to ask: Does our digital store give customers the whiff of our brand? For eg: Is it as premium as our product? Are we designing an experience that will help users shortlist the products?Is our design, content and assets enough to interest people and give the right and targeted information to take the next steps?Are we delivering what today's customers expect as default: fast shipping, easy returns, the right kind of offers, and frictionless checkout? Are we taking advantage of the possibilities of a digital store today?
Campaign ME
29-04-2025
- Business
- Campaign ME
Jordan's mezete reveals global rebrand by BRANDED
Jordanian F&B brand mezete, which is a part of Kasih Foods and has a presence in more than 40 countries, has unveiled a complete rebrand crafted by BRANDED – previously known as Bombay Design Centre – in a move aimed to redefine how brands present in the Middle East present themselves on global shelves. The rebrand is rolling out across social media, packaging, website, merchandise, exhibitions and beyond, showcasing the new logo and updated brand visuals. Founder of mezete Khaled Kasih spent 20 years perfecting the flavour until he had the taste just right and cracked the code on transporting authentic Middle Eastern food globally – with no refrigeration needed. However, the original packaging didn't tell the same story. BRANDED stepped in and went straight to the source – immersing the design agency in the heart of downtown Amman in Jordan. The agency's strategy was to find a way to make people 'taste the Middle East' simply by looking at the packaging. Its idea was to transfer the energy, business, vibrancy and chaos of the souks of the Middle East – communicating the look and feel of local communities– onto the packaging, instead of stereotypical Middle Eastern patterns. The resulting typography designed for the packaging was expressive, drawing inspiration from the way poems are written in Arabic. The system was applied to 40 stock keeping units (SKUs), with multilingual versions for Canada and other global nations. The product is now sold in 40 countries. 'I don't think I've received as many 'wows' in my professional career,' said Khaled Kasih, Founder, mezete. 'From Australia to Europe, the GCC to America and Latin America—the reaction is the same. People instantly feel something unexpected. Something refreshingly different.' This new branding has had a sparkled reaction worldwide, the most recent one being spotlighted by Forbes at Expo West 2025 in the Food & Beverage category. BRANDED Founder, Ankur Rander, concluded, 'We knew the rebranding had to do more than stand out—it had to claim space for Middle Eastern food in the global imagination. So we brought in a brand idea that feels both proudly regional and undeniably modern. This re-branding is a statement.' CREDITS: Client – Kasih Foods Brand – Mezete CEO – Khaled Kasih Marketing Director – Manukrishna Nair Brand Manager – Nadine Halaseh Agency – BRANDED (Formerly known as Bombay Design Centre) Founder & CEO- Ankur Rander Head of Business & Ops – Siddhesh Pednekar Design Director – Sebastian Sattler Creative Director – Eugenio Sarrias Creative Director – Vinay Venkatesh Creative Director – Rucha Rao Designer – Namrata Lalwani Associate Creative Director – Yorham D'Souza AVP, Account Management – Sheekha Khan Account Manager – Amatullah Batterywala
