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Most of the retailing in our country is still in the unorganized sector. The spread out of the retails in US and India shows a wide gap between the two countries. Though retailing in India is undergoing an exponential growth, the road ahead is full of challenges.
What is retailing? The word "Retail" originates from a French-Italian word. Retailer-someone who cuts off or sheds a small piece from something. Retailing is the set of activities that markets products or services to final consumers for their own personal or household use. It does this by organizing their availability on a relatively large scale and supplying them to customers on a relatively small scale. Retailer is a Person or Agent or Agency or Company or Organization who is instrumental in reaching the Goods or Merchandise or Services to the End User or Ultimate Consumer. SCENARIO OF RETAILING IN INDIA Retailing is the most active and attractive sector of last decade. While the retailing industry itself has been present since ages in our country, it is only the recent past that it has witnessed so much dynamism. The emergence of retailing in India has more to do with the increased purchasing power of buyers, especially post-liberalization, increase in product variety, and increase in economies of scale, with the aid of modern supply and distributions solution. Indian retailing today is at an interesting crossroads. The retail sales are at the highest point in history and new technologies are improving retail productivity. though there are many opportunities to start a new retail business, retailers are facing numerous challenges.
"Right Place, Right choice" Location is the most important ingredient for any business that relies on customers, and is typically the prime consideration in a customers store choice. Locations decisions are harder to change because retailers have to either make sustainable investments to buy and develop real estate or commit to long term lease with developers. When formulating decision about where to locate, the retailer must refer to the strategic plan: * Investigate alternative trading areas. * Determine the type of desirable store location * Evaluate alternative specific store sites 2) MERCHANDISE: The primary goal of the most retailers is to sell the right kind of merchandise and nothing is more central to the strategic thrust of the retailing firm. Merchandising consists of activities involved in acquiring particular goods and services and making them available at a place, time and quantity that enable the retailer to reach its goals. Merchandising is perhaps, the most important function for any retail organization, as it decides what finally goes on shelf of the store. 3) PRICING: Pricing is a crucial strategic variable due to its direct relationship with a firm's goal and its interaction with other retailing elements. The importance of pricing decisions is growing because today's customers are looking for good value when they buy merchandise and services. Price is the easiest and quickest variable to change. 4) TARGET AUDIENCE: "Consumer the prime mover" "Consumer Pull", however, seems to be the most important driving factor behind the sustenance of the industry. The purchasing power of the customers has increased to a
great extent, with the influencing the retail industry to a great extent, a variety of other factors also seem to fuel the retailing boom. 5) SCALE OF OPERATIONS: Scale of operations includes all the supply chain activities, which are carried out in the business. It is one of the challenges that the Indian retailers are facing. The cost of business operations is very high in India.
PRESENT INDIAN SCENARIO
* Unorganized market: Rs. 583,000 crores * Organized market: Rs.5, 000 crores * 5X growth in organized retailing between 2000-2005 * Over 4,000 new modern Outlets in the last 3 years * Over 5,000,000 sq. ft. of mall space under development * The top 3 modern retailers control over 750,000 sq. ft. of retail space * Over 400,000 shoppers walk through their doors every week * Growth in organized retailing on par with expectations and projections of the last 5 Years: on course to touch Rs. 35,000 crores (US$ 7 Billion) or more by 2005-06 * Major players - Food and grocery - Fashion - Others - Food world - Shoppers' Stop - Vivek's - Subhiksha - Westside - Planet M - Nilgris
- Lifestyle - Music World - Adani- Rajiv's - Pyramid - Crossword - Nirma-Radhey - Globus - Life spring
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TRADITIONAL RETAIL SCENE IN INDIA India is the country having the most unorganized retail market. Traditionally the retail business is run by Mom & Pop having Shop in the front & house at the back. More than 99% retailers function in less than 500Sq.Ft of area. All the merchandise was purchased as per the test & vim and fancies of the proprietor also the pricing was done on ad hock basis or by seeing at the face of customer. Generally the accounts of trading & home are not maintained separately. Profits were accumulated in slow moving & nonmoving stocks which were to become redundant or consumed in-house. Thus profits were vanished without their knowledge. The Manufactures were to distribute goods through C & F agents to Distributors & Wholesalers. Retailers happen to source the merchandise from Wholesalers & reach to end-users. The merchandise price used to get inflated to a great extent till it reaches from Manufacturer to End-user. Selling prices were largely not controlled by Manufacturers. Branding was not an issue for majority of customers. More than 99% customers are price sensitive & not quality or Brand Sensitive at the same time they are Brand conscious also. Weekly Bazaar in many small tows was held & almost all the commodities were on the scene including livestock. Bargaining was the unwritten law of market. Educational qualification level of these retailers was always low. Hence market was controlled by handful of distributors &/or Wholesalers. Virtually there was only one format of retailing & that was mass retail.
Retailer to consumer ratio was very low, for all the categories without exception. Varity in terms of quality, Styles were on regional basis, community based & truly very low range was available at any given single place. Almost all the purchases / (buying) by mass population was need oriented & next turn may be on festivals, Marriages, Birthdays & some specific occasions. Impulsive buying or consumption is restricted to food or vegetables etc. Having extra pair of trousers or Shirts or Casuals & Formals & leisure wear & sports wear & different pair of shoes for occasions is till date is a luxury for majority population except for those living in Metros. Purchasing power of Indian urban consumer is very low and that of Branded merchandise in categories like Apparels, Cosmetics, Shoes, Watches, Beverages, Food, Jewellery, are slowly seeping into the lifeline of Indian City folks. However electronic & electrical home appliances do hold appropriate image into the minds of consumers. Brand name does matter in these white goods categories. In the coming times also majority of organized retailers will find it difficult to keep balance with rest of the unbranded retail market which is very huge.
INDIAN RETAIL IS MOVING INTO SECOND GEAR
1) FIRST GEAR: (Create awareness) * New retailers driving awareness * High degree of fragmentation * Real estate groups starting retail chains * Consumer expecting 'value for money' as core value 2) SECOND GEAR: (Meet customer expectations) * Consumer-driven * Emergence of pure retailers * Retailers getting multi-locational and multi-format * Global retailers evincing interest in India
3) THIRD GEAR: (Back end management) * Category management * Vendor partnership * Stock turns * Channel synchronization * Consumer acquisition * Customer relation's management 4) FOURTH GEAR: (Consolidation) * Aggressive rollout * Organized retail acquitting significant share * Beginning of cross-border movement * Mergers and acquisitions
CONCLUSION
For a start, these retailers need to invest much more in capturing more specific market. Intelligence as well as almost real-time customer purchase behavior information. The retailers also need to make substantial investment in understanding/acquiring some advanced expertise in developing more accurate and scientific demand forecasting models. Re-engineering of product sourcing philosophies-aligned more towards collaborative planning and replenishment should then be next on their agenda. The message, therefore for the existing small and medium independent retailers is to closely examine what changes are taking place in their immediate vicinity, and analyze Whether their current market offers a potential redevelopment of the area into a more modern multi-option destination. If it does, and most commercial areas in India do have this potential, it would be very useful to form a consortium of other such small retailers in that vicinity and take a pro-active approach to pool in resources and improve the overall infrastructure. The next effort should be to encourage retailers to make some
investments in improving the interiors of their respective establishments to make shopping an enjoyable experience for the customer. As the retail marketplace changes shape and competition increases, the potential for improving retail productivity and cutting costs is likely to decrease. Therefore, it will become important for retailers to secure a distinctive position in the marketplace based on value, relationships or experience. Finally, it is important to note that these strategies are not strictly independent of each other; value is function of not just price, quality and service but can also be enhanced by Personalization and offering a memorable experience. In fact, building relationships with customers can by itself increase the quality of overall customer experience and thus the perceived value. But most importantly for winning in this intensely competitive marketplace, it is critical to understand the target customer's definition of value and make an offer, which not only delights the customers but also is also difficult for competitors to replicate.
ABSTRACT The revolution in retailing industry has brought many changes and also opened door for many Indian as well as foreign players. In a market like India there is a constant clash between challenges and opportunities but chances favour those companies that are trying to establish themselves. So to sustain in a market like India companies have to bring innovative solutions. Indian market has potential to accommodate many retail players, because still a small proportion of the pie is organized. This paper discusses the challenges like merchandising mix, retail differentiation, supply chain management and also competition from supplier's brand in the Indian perspective. Key words- Retail differentiation, Supply chain, Merchandising Mix, Private level brand. 1.0 Introduction Retailing is still in its infancy in India. In the name of retailing, the unorganised retailing has dominated the Indian landscape so far. According to an estimate the unorganized retail sector has 97% presence whereas the organized accounts for merely 3% . Industry has already predicted a trillion dollar market in retail sector in India by 2010. However, the retail industry in India is undergoing a major shake-up as the country is witnessing a retail revolution. The old traditional formats are slowly changing into more
complex and bigger formats. Malls and mega malls are coming up in almost all the places be it metros or the smaller cities, across the length and breadth of the country. A McKinsey report on India (2004) says organized retailing would increase the efficiency and productivity of entire gamut of economic activities, and would help in achieving higher GDP growth. At 6%, the share of employment of retail in India is low, even when compared to Brazil (14%), and Poland (12%).Govt of India's plan of changing the FDI guidelines in this sector speaks of the importance attached to retailing. Recently moves by big corporate houses like Reliance Industries has further fuelled the major investments in retail sector. A strategic alliance, land acquisitions in prime areas give the essence of the mood in this sector. Both MNCs and Indian firms want to get their share of this burgeoning pie. Notable in Indian firms are Pantaloons Retail & Big Bazaar, Trent's Westside, Shopper's stop, Reliance and Subhiskha, Wills Lifestyle stores, Caf Coffee Day, which are present in India in different retail formats. Wal-Mart stores have just started operations in India. Some leading retail coffee chains of the world like Starbucks, Barnies are planning to expand in a major way in India. 2.0 THE INDIAN RETAIL SECTOR India is the country having the most unorganized retail market. Traditionally it was a family's livelihood, with their shop in the front and house at the back, while they run the retail business.More than 99% retailer's function in less than 500 square feet of shopping space. Global retail consultants KSA Technopak have estimated that organized retailing in India is expected to touch Rs 35,000 crore in the year 2005-06. The Indian retail sector is estimated at around Rs 900,000 crore, of which the organized sector accounts for a mere 2 per cent indicating a huge potential market opportunity that is lying in the waiting for the consumer-savvy organized retailer. Purchasing power of Indian urban consumer is growing and branded merchandise in categories like Apparels, Cosmetics, Shoes, Watches, Beverages, Food and even Jewellery, are slowly becoming lifestyle products that are widely accepted by the urban Indian consumer. Indian retailers need to advantage of this growth and aiming to grow, diversify and introduce new formats have to pay more attention to the brand building process. The emphasis here is on retail as a brand rather than retailers selling brands. The focus should be on branding the retail business itself.There is no doubt that the Indian retail scene is booming. A number of large corporate houses Tata's, Raheja's, Piramals's, Goenka's have already made their foray into this arena, with beauty and health stores, supermarkets, self-service music stores, new age book stores, every-day-lowprice stores, computers and peripherals stores, office equipment stores and home/building construction stores. Today the organized players have attacked every retail category. The Indian retail scene has witnessed too many players in too short a time, crowding several categories without looking at their core competencies or having a well thought out branding strategy. The growth rate of super market sales has been significant in recent years because greater numbers of higher income Indians prefer to shop at super markets due to higher standards of hygiene and attractive ambience. With growth in income levels, Indians have started spending more on health and beauty products. Here also small, single-outlet retailers dominate the market. In recent years, a few retail chains specialised products have come into the market. Although these retail chains account for only a small share of the total market, their business is expected to grow significantly in the future due to the growing quality consciousness of buyers for these products .Numerous clothing and footwear shops in shopping centres and markets operate all over India. Traditional outlets stock a limited range of cheap and popular items; in contrast, modern clothing and footwear stores have modern products and
attractive displays to lure customers. With rapid urbanization, and changing patterns of consumer tastes and preferences, it is unlikely that the traditional outlets will survive the test of time. Despite the large size of this market, very few large and modern retailers have established specialized stores for products. There seems to be a considerable potential for the entry or expansion of specialized retail chains in the country. The Indian durable goods sector has seen the entry of a large number of foreign companies during the post liberalization period. A greater variety of consumer electronic items and household appliances became available to the Indian customer. Intense competition among companies to sell their brands provided a strong impetus to the growth for retailers doing business in this sector. Increasing household incomes due to better economic opportunities have encouraged consumer expenditure on leisure and personal goods in the country. There are specialized retailers for each category of products (books, music products, etc.) in this sector. Another prominent feature of this sector is popularity of franchising agreements between established manufacturers and retailers. A strong impetus to the growth of retail industry is witnessed by economic boom and driver of key trends in urban as well as rural India. 2.1 Key Trends in Urban India: * Retailing in India is witnessing a huge revamping exercise. * Estimated to be US$ 200 billion, of which organized retailing (i.e. modern trade) makes up 3 percent or US$ 6.4 billion. * India is rated the fifth most attractive emerging retail market: a potential goldmine * Ranked second in a Global Retail Development Index of 30 developing countries drawn up by AT Kearney. * India is rated the fifth most attractive emerging retail market: a potential goldmine * Food and apparel retailing key drivers of growth. * Organized retailing in India has been largely an urban phenomenon with affluent classes and growing number of double-income households. 2.2 Key Trends in Rural India: * Rural markets emerging as a huge opportunity for retailers reflected in the share of the rural market across most categories of consumption * ITC is experimenting with retailing through its e-Choupal and Choupal Sagar rural hypermarkets. 3.0 The Hidden Challenges Modern retailing is all about directly having "first hand experience" with customers, giving them such a satiable experience that they would like to enjoy again and again. Providing great experience to customers can easily be said than done. Thus challenges like retail differentiation, merchandising mix, supply chain management and competition from supplier's brands are the talk of the day. In India, as we
are moving to the next phase of retail development, each endeavor to offer experiential shopping. One of the key observations by customers is that it is very difficult to find the uniqueness of retail stores. The problem: retail differentiation. The next problem in setting up organized retail operations is that of supply chain logistics. India lacks a strong supply chain when compared to Europe or the USA. The existing supply chain has too many intermediaries: Typical supply chain looks like:- Manufacturer - National distributor - Regional distributor - Local wholesaler - Retailer - Consumer. This implies that global retail chains will have to build a supply chain network from scratch. This might run foul with the existing supply chain operators. In addition to fragmented supply chain, the trucking and transportation system is antiquated. The concept of container trucks, automated warehousing is yet to take root in India. The result: significant losses/damages during shipping. Merchandising planning is one of the biggest challenges that any multi store retailer faces. Getting the right mix of product, which is store specific across organization, is a combination of customer insight, allocation and assortment techniques. The private label will continue to compete with brand leaders. So supplier's brand wiil take their own way because they have a established brand image from last decades and the reasons can be attributed to better customer experience, value vs. price, aspiration, innovation, accessibility of supplier's brand. 4.0 STRATEGIES 4.1: Right Positioning The effectiveness of the mall developer's communication of the offering to the target customers determines how well the mall gets positioned in their minds. At this stage, the communication has to be more of relative nature. This implies that the message conveyed to the target customers must be effective enough in differentiating the mall's offering from that of its competitors without even naming them. The message should also clearly convey to the target audience that the mall offers them exactly what they call the complete shopping-cum-entertainment point that meets all their expectations. The core purpose is to inform the target customers about the offering of the mall, persuade them to visit the mall and remind them about the mall. The mall developer can create awareness about the offering among the target customers in a number of ways. Various communication tools available to the mall developer for this purpose may include advertising, buzz marketing (WoM), celebrity endorsement, use of print media, press releases and viral marketing .Once the message is being conveyed through these channels, the mall developer must add a personal touch to his message by carrying out a door-to-door campaign in order to reinforce the message. 4.2: Effective Visual Communication Retailer has to give more emphasis on display visual merchandising, lighting, signages and specialized props. The visual communication strategy might be planned and also be brand positioned. Theme or lifestyle displays using stylized mannequins and props, which are based on a season or an event, are used to promote collections and have to change to keep touch with the trend. The merchandise presentation ought to be very creative and displays are often on non-standard fixtures and forms to generate interest and add on attitude to the merchandise.
4.3: Strong Supply Chain Critical components of supply chain planning applications can help manufacturers meet retailers' service levels and maintain profit margins. Retailer has to develop innovative solution for managing the supply chain problems. Innovative solutions like performance management, frequent sales operation management, demand planning, inventory planning, production planning, lean systems and staff should help retailers to get advantage over competitors. 4.4: Changing the Perception Retailers benefit only if consumers perceive their store brands to have consistent and comparable quality and availability in relation to branded products. Retailer has to provide more assortments for private level brands to compete with supplier's brand. New product development, aggressive retail mix as well as everyday low pricing strategy can be the strategy to get edge over supplier's brand. 5.0 Conclusion: In their preparation to face fierce competitive pressure, Indian retailers must come to recognize the value of building their own stores as brands to reinforce their marketing Positioning, to communicate quality as well as value for money. Sustainable competitive advantage will be dependent on translating core values combining products, image and reputation into a coherent retail brand strategy.
Footwear is a necessity to every person and at the same time is now a lifestyle as also a performance enhancement product; and is thus a segment with vast potential. The Indian footwear market is estimated to be worth Rs.13,750 Crore and constitutes just about one percent of Indian retail. About 37.8 percent of Footwear retail is in the organized segment, which qualifies it as the second most organized retail category in India, next only to Watches. Men's footwear comprises the largest share of the organized market accounting for about 52 percent in value terms. As footwear retailing in India has remained focused on mens shoes, there exists a whale of opportunity in the exclusive ladies and kids footwear segment. This is especially surprising as women globally in line with global trends are the key decision makers for buying footwear. The ladies footwear segment still remains the most untapped as nearly 80-90 percent purchases happen in the unorganized market largely due to the dressing habits of women for whom consideration of durability or comfort are less important than colours and designs that go with dress. With the Indian woman becoming more brand-conscious as opposed to the past state of being product-conscious, more and more internationally renowned players are expected to enter the Indian market to fill this need-gap. Volume Share of Products Segments in Footwear
The children's and kids' segment also accounts for a significant share due to the increased emphasis on sporty looks. Given Indias very young population, the market for childrens footwear is also attractive for new organized players to enter and earn supernormal profits. Volume Share in Footwear
The footwear market today is showing a trend where more and more competitors within the segment are coming together and forming alliances through cross-promotions and tie-ups benefits for enhanced reach and offering the consumer access to a wider range of products and brands. The London-based Carlton group became the first overseas player to enter the Indian womens footwear market when it set up its first store at the MGF Metropolitan Mall in Gurgaon recently. Growth of Indian Footwear Retail ( Value Rs. Crore at 2003-04 Prices )
The entry of specialty sportswear retailers such as Royal Sporting House, Sports Station and Planet Sports providing the best shopping experience for customers and a platform to showcase the worlds top sports and active lifestyle brands has transformed the organized retailing scenario in the country. Royal Sporting House has over 40 stores in India, many of which are placed in prime locations within shopping malls. It is the exclusive distributor of brands such as Mizuno, Caterpillar, TYR, Dunlop Sports and non-exclusive ones such as Reebok, Adidas, Nike and Skechers. Planet Sports, with 20 outlets in the country, is the licensee in India for leading sports brands such as Puma, Speedo, Converse and Wilson, among others. The sportswear market is the only sector in India that has the presence of all three top international brands. The year 1996 witnessed the entry of Nike, Reebok and Adidas that gave a new dimension to footwear and fashion retailing in the country. Playful promotion campaigns, world class merchandising and the internationally styled stores enthused consumers to go for an extra pair of shoes and a couple of extra Tee Shirts and add a little bit of sporty images to their lifestyle. In the face of increasing competition from leading multinational players, domestic footwear retailers have also woken up to the opportunity that the segment beckons and are realizing that exposure to shopping standards abroad have made Indian consumers demand the same formats and experience here. Responding to this challenge, major domestic players like Bata and Liberty have significantly transformed their retail formats to become more lifestyle- oriented and are positioning themselves as vibrant and contemporary Indian brands. In recent years the market has seen entry of a host of new domestic and foreign brands like Drish, Lotto, Lotus Bawa, Now, Oakridge, Royal Elastic, Sketchers, Teenage, Teva, Timberland and Vans. Fashionable brands like Stryde and Red Tape and MNC brands like Allen Cooper, Franco Leone, Gaitonde, Gucci, Guess, Lee Cooper, are further developing the market by creating new segments.