The COVID19 pandemic had led to a sudden shift in the business model of organisations. The pandemic has also led to the acceleration of the digital transformation journeys of organisations. They had to adapt to the latest technological advances much earlier than planned.
In order to understand this better. W.Media spoke to Abhinav Agarwal, Co-Founder, Crossbeats to understand the company’s digital transformation journey and the challenges that it faced.
Crossbeats is a consumer technology company that was founded in the year 2015. They were looking forward to launching an audio consumer brand precisely because if you look at the space mainly India has always been thought of as a place where any technological advancements come second and they wanted to shift the paradigm and bring new technology and innovation which would be exclusive to the Indian market.
“We mainly focused on the mobile accessories category because that was one of the biggest booms that were happening in the country with an increase in the usage and easy access of mobile phones. The audio industry was also picking up at that time so we took the decision of launching the brand in the audio category in 2015. Since then we are more of a holistic consumer technology company with products ranging from audio to smartwatches, fitness wearables, and other mobile accessories,” said Agarwal.
He further added that the company could have gone through the traditional way of launching the company but realising where the digital industry was going or where the millennials and the Gen Zs are shopping from was mostly online.
It was more of a direct to consumer, e-commerce approach that we took to gather scale in terms of distribution and that has been the prime force of crossbeats predominantly in e-commerce, D2C online brands.
“We are digitally savvy in terms of the offerings in terms of promotion and reaching the consumer. In general how as a company we work irrespective of pre-COVID or post COVID. COVID has accelerated the digital transformation journey but we have always been a digital-first company,” Agarwal added.
Beginning of Digital Transformation Journey
Crossbeats had taken its first step in the year 2015 and it is an e-commerce company so the digital mindset was there since the very beginning, maybe not 100 per cent but the company was close to a 75:25 model at that time.
Agarwal further explained that Crossbeats was early enough to begin its digital transformation journey. When you look at digital transformation in general there are multiple things to look at. Firstly it is about how a company reaches its consumer. This could be one area of the business where there is a lot of adoption and acceleration that we have witnessed in the last few years, especially post-pandemic. People who were not inclined to shop online have accelerated and we were always at the forefront of the consumer be it in our advertising mechanism, website, or in our outreach to our consumers.
The company accelerated a work environment where it was not necessary to be physically present to get the work done. Even in terms of coordinating with the suppliers who are present worldwide it is not always needed to be physically present to get the work and coordination done.
Challenges faced
“I think the rate of adoption, as a company we were trying to do whatever we could to make sure that we are at the forefront of the technology but making the end consumer realise the ease of shopping online could have been one of the challenges. For Crossbeats as a brand, how do we reach our consumers, how do we coordinate with our Ad partners and coordinating with different vendors a lot of it used to happen in person but adopting and making sure that the customer-facing elements are not affected by the digital transformation was one of the main challenges. Make sure that the customer gets the same experience that they would have gotten offline. That education and that realisation of the customer was a learning curve,” said Agarwal.
He further pointed out how the customer is so imbibed in the way the business is functioning that they don’t even blink an eye to buy an online product. The D2C brands are technologically advanced because there is always a first-mover advantage. As a first-mover advantage one reaches the consumer first and has set up systems in place which has allowed the company to capture the audience faster.
Giving an example he explained that there is an in-house team that understands the digital landscape much better than some of the old brands in the market. “Maybe they (the older brands) are still building a team. It is not that these capabilities can be built but by the time they build these capabilities and catch up their company must have moved 10 steps forward,” stated Agarwal.
As a small brand, the route to market is much faster and there is more space for trial and error to see that if one thing doesn’t work we can work on the other a perfect example of this would be how the company has adopted remote working and collaborating with its employees much before the pandemic even started. There were employees who were working on payroll from other countries and they provided expertise in certain areas which were relevant for the consumer or the environment the company was going after. That was one of the main driving factors in meeting the customer’s needs and expectations and having the speed to do that.
Getting the right talent
Crossbeats has a global team and some people who are based in other countries. “Our 90 per cent team is in India and the remaining 10 per cent is spread across the world even though our suppliers are from different parts of the world and this is where the right set of tools plays an important role. For example, we had been using Zoom and Slack even before it gained popularity amongst people as a tool for communication in terms of collaborating with the suppliers and the rest of the team,” said Agarwal.
He further pointed out that having a grasp on where technology is heading and also understanding what the big D2C brands are doing and what the future looks like are important. A lot of the skill sets that we choose for our company depend on the factors which include working independently and what skills can the person bring to the table. These factors have further helped us in amplifying its journey faster in reaching the consumer and helped Crossbeats grow and become what we are today.
Technological changes expected
The biggest change that everyone is already experiencing right now is using technology in terms of not physically being present to do your meetings or do your workings or evening having to be physically present in the office.
“As long as we can adapt to that kind of an environment I don’t think there would be any inhibitions as to how an organisation can grow. For example, let’s say you need a role for which a person who is suitable lives in Thailand and that is the best candidate that you can find and with the right technology and the systems that you have in place in terms of how the company functions you would not need to be physically dependent on the person to fulfill the role. I think this is something which will be accelerated further,” Agarwal explained.
Meeting the expectations of the customers is mostly around whatever is the newest technology that is being used by the customer. Corssbeats has tried to be at the forefront of that be it any marketing automation, supply chain automation, or last-mile delivery. These are some things that the company has already built into its supply chain in order to enable a seamless buying experience for our customers.
Cost-benefit
The biggest cost saving that one has is by giving up the physical space of being in the office. If there are a large number of people working in the team then one requires a larger space but now with the latest technological advances, the requirement of a bigger space is no longer there in order to function. You don’t need a physical warehouse or a shipping site to fulfill the orders. It comes in and it ships out automatically. This is one of the major savings which we have realised.
The company did not follow any fixed guidelines while embarking on the journey of digital transformation. “We have kept things flexible and working according to whatever works in the best interest of the company and if there is something that we experiment with even if it fails we learn from it and move on,” Agarwal concluded.
