Retailer by Profession and Choice. Since 1997.
Shriram began his career in Retail in 1997 scooping ice-cream part time at Chennai’s first and India’s second outlet of global ice-cream brand Baskin Robbins. This is where he found his calling in Consumer Retail.
After completing his B.com., Shriram pursued his MBA in Marketing from ITM Chennai, followed by a PG in International Business from Pondicherry University, followed by an Executive Education Program at IIM Bangalore.
A Retailer by Profession & Choice; Since 1997, Shriram is an author of over 1,000 articles on Consumer Behaviour in leading magazines and newspapers, has addressed over 100 conferences across the world and has been a Visiting Faculty on Retail across Top B-Schools since 2005.
Early Career
Shriram’s first formal brush with India’s Organised Retail was in 2001 with RPG Retail, where he picked up the basics of retailing at Musicworld, followed by Foodworld, India’s first organised Grocery Retail Chain.
The shop floor laid the seeds for a career that would be built not just within the confines of Corporate Board rooms, rather amidst the hustle and bustle of shoppers and consumers at the aisles of Retail Stores & Malls.
Key Highlights
In 2004, Shriram was part of the start-up team of “CENTRAL” Malls by India’s once eponymous Future Group, followed by a brief stint with global fashion brand United Colors of Benetton, where he expanded the southern markets through Franchising.
Shriram is the first Indian to set-up the country’s first ever organised Airport Retail business spread over 45,000 sq ft., a first of its kind in India, at Bangalore International Airport, when it became operational in 2008.
Adding 300 Retail Stores pan-India
The Expansion Expert of India
Shriram joined Cafe Coffee Day in 2009 and forged exciting tie-ups with Key Account Partners such as Airports Authority of India, Shoppers Stop, Central Malls, Wal-Mart India, Phoenix Malls, Travel Food Services, IITs and IIMs, Shell Fuel Stations among others.
During his tenure, he set-up 140 cafes across Malls, Department Stores, Hypermarkets, Book Stores, Educational Institutions and at IPL stadia as official partner with CSK & KKR.
And by 2014, Shriram had doubled the dealer network for Royal Enfield across India.
Scaling Businesses during Covid-19 slowdown
Doubling Revenues
Doubling Revenues
Doubling Revenues
When Shriram boarded Levista Coffee, a packaged Instant Coffee brand, in Jan. 2020, the goal was straightforward - to turn around the fortunes of the brand. To his bad or good luck, Covid-19 stuck since Mar. ‘20.
His 140-member team doubled the brand’s revenues during FY 20-21, while also trebling the PoS distribution from 27,000 to 77,000+ outlets across general trade and modern trade, as well as growing 10x on E-comm.
Shriram built massive brand visibility by forging alliances with Chennai Super Kings IPL Team as Beverage Partner and with Bigg Boss Season in Tamil and Kannada languages in 2020 as a Tier 2 Sponsor. He also handled a media budget of over INR 10 Cr for the brand.
Clarity of Vision
Doubling Revenues
Doubling Revenues
After the second Covid-19 lockdown in the Summer of 2021, Shriram was entrusted with a mighty task - to drive more footfalls and build higher bill conversions at India’s third largest optical retail chain, Specsmakers.
By streamlining store operations, training front end staff to upsell higher, driving consumer loyalty with repeat purchases, and focussing on Net Promoter Scores, Shriram worked closely with the Founders & the Leadership Team to move the annualised ARR by 45% within a span of just nine months.
Several interesting Marketing campaigns were also executed during this time to build brand awareness.
An accidental Entrepreneur
Consulting
Offline Retail
Offline Retail
With a keen desire to help business scale as well as address critical challenges - whether they were strategic or operations-related, Shriram founded Miles2Go Consulting Services on 01 Aug. 2014.
He has served several marquee clients over the last decade, showcasing his skills and expertise, that has immensely benefitted them.
Offline Retail
Offline Retail
Offline Retail
Back in the day when there was a vaccum in organised retail to shop high quality baby-care products, Shriram launched his own offline retail start-up “Smiling Baby” in September 2014.
By 2019, the 5 franchised stores across Tamil Nadu offered 1,800 SKUs, catering to Maternity Moms, new born babies & kids upto 4 years.
Online Retail
Offline Retail
Online Retail
In 2015, Shriram launched a hyperlocal e-commerce delivery platform “OyeThere” with the promise of ‘Delivery in a Jiffy’ to cater to the needs of “Time poor, Cash rich” Consumers.
The start-up was delivering household and grocery products, especially Patanjali branded products, within 30-300 mins of ordering across parts of Chennai city.
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