Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Organised retailing in India: trend of 21st century

by Jo Black

From mandis to malls, Indian retailing has come a long way.

The transformation of Indian retailing is to be noticed, especially with the Indian economy playing a crucial role globally.

With food and oil prices rising internationally, the retail sector worldwide has been impacted.

To develop a better understanding of the key challenges in the retailing sector and to discuss and debate on the strategies for combating challenges faced by the Indian retail sector, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) with Deloitte as the Knowledge Partner organized a retail conference “Transforming Retailing in India” in Mumbai.

Speaking on global trends, strategies and outlook in the retail segment in the 21st century was Dr Ira Kalish, Director, Deloitte Research.

Differentiation, branding, compelling customer experience, exploring commoditization, share of purchasing power, and continuous innovation would be the key retail strategies to be focused on in the 21st century, highlighted Dr Kalish.

He further spoke on the growing impact of the internet on global retailing, including the gradual decline in store visits, slower growth of same store sales, increase in internet shopping from 0% - 5% in the last 10 years in the US and bigger increase in internet research.

Incremental spending on innovative products, focus on health, wellness and focus on social responsibility are the main challenges in global retail, stressed the Speaker.

Present at the CII Conference was Mr Shyamak Tata, Partner, Deloitte Haskins & Sells who in his address dealt with the challenges and opportunities faced by the Indian retail industry.

Mr Tata said that out of the Indian GDP of about $1036 bn in 2007, retail was about $295 bn.

Organized retail penetration has increased from 3% in 2004 to 8% in 2007, Mr Tata said.

He further elaborated on some key trends in the Indian retail industry as real estate, innovation, retail formats and consolidation and collaboration.

Mr Tata spoke on the major challenges faced by the Indian retail sector as decisions on diversification, environment, location, operations, innovations, talent, technology and competition from new entrants.

Whether organized retail penetration in 2011 would be 25% was the key question raised by Mr Tata.

 

 

 

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