Retail reality
I. Introduction:
The most promising and booming industry of future is retailing. AT Kearney, a well-known international management consultancy, recently identified India as the ‘the most attractive retail destination’ globally from among thirty emergent markets (2007). According to a Knight Frank survey, India ranks fifth amongst the 30 emerging retail markets in the developing countries.
Industry evolution
• Traditionally, retailing in India can be traced to the emergence of the Corner stores (Kirana) catering to the convenience of the consumers
• Era of government support for rural retail: Indigenous franchise model of store chains run by Khadi & Village Industries Commission
• 1980s experienced slow change as India began to open up economy.
• Textile sector with companies like Bombay Dyeing, Raymond's, S Kumar's and Grasim, saw the emergence of retail chains
• Later, Titan successfully created an organized retailing concept and established a series of showrooms for its premium watches
• The latter half of the 1990s saw a fresh wave of entrants with a shift from Manufactures to Pure Retailers. For e.g. Food World, Subhiksha and Nilgiris in food and FMCG; Planet M and Music World in music; Crossword and Fountainhead in books.
• 1995 onwards saw an emergence of shopping centers, mainly in urban areas, with facilities like car parking targeted to provide a complete destination experience for all segments of society
• Emergence of hyper and super markets trying to provide customer with 3 V’s - Value, Variety and Volume
• Expanding target consumer segm ...