1. Overview

The Indian retail market is valued at around $400 billion and is growing at a rate of 30% per annum. From 10% of the Indian GDP in 2007, it became 12% of GDP in 2009. The organized retail sector is around 5% of the total retail market.

The share of organized retail also varies from product to product to a great extent. On one side in footwear, it is around 32%, on the other side in food and beverage it is less than 1%. Organized retail has good share (17% to 18%) in apparel and consumer durables sectors. Home decor and furnishing have 9% share, Jewellery has 7% and Books, music, gifts command 13% share of organized retail. Also the growth rate varies across different sectors. Sectors like beauty care service (65%), mobile handset, accessories (55%) have witnessed very high growth rates whereas sectors like watch (19%), books (30%) have lower growth rate

2. Types of Retailing Formats

2.1           Malls

Malls are the most commo retail format having a variety of players under one roof. Malls vary widely in size from 60,000 sq ft to 7, 00, 000 sq ft. Besides shopping activities, the malls provide a platform for eating out, entertainment etc. Self service restaurants, cinema halls are very common in Indian malls particularly in the tier I cities. Also besides regular shops, small kiosks (both permanent and for short duration) are available in a good number of malls.

2.2           Speciality Stores

Speciality stores are the retail outlets of the companies focusing on specific market segments. Examples of speciality stores are

i) Pharmacy: Apollo Pharmacy, MedPlus, Trust etc.

ii) Music: PlanetM, Music World etc.

iii) Books: Crossword etc.

2.3           Discount Stores

These are the stores which offer heavy discount on products and depend on bulk business (i.e. economies of scale) to achieve profitability. The product categories can include both perishable and non-perishable items. A good part of the revenue (sometimes as much as 30%) of these stores comes from food and grocery items. Big Bazaar is an example of a discount store.

2.4           Department Stores

These are the large stores (20,000 sqft to 50,000 sqft) serving a variety of consumer needs. These stores have designated sub-areas for different items like cloth, home furnishing, toys etc. Shopper’s Stop, Westside are examples of departmental stores.

2.5           Convenience Stores

These are relatively small (400 – 2000 sq ft) stores located near residential areas. They store limited number of high turnover convenience products (like food, grocery, personal care items) and charge a little convenience premium. Spencer, Reliance Fresh are prominent examples of convenience stores.

3. SWOT Analysis

3.1           Strengths

Higher disposable incomes along with an  increase in the number of earning population is the primary reason for high growth rate of the Indian retail sector. Also, the exposure to global environment has made a lot of Indians aware of organized retail and. Consequently  they are adopting the retail habits very quickly. Also the availability of low-cost skilled manpower, particularly for shop floor operations, is another key factor which helps the Indian retail companies to expand their operations very fast. The real estate developers are also developing quality retail spaces and are coming out with different revenue options suited to retailers. The increasing use of plastic money (credit card, debit card etc) also has contributed to the easy adoption of organized retail.

3.2           Weaknesses

Though Indians are very much aware of retail formats, the conversion ratio (ratio of people actually buying to the people visiting the store) is still quite low, particularly for malls. In malls, typical conversion ratios of 20% to 30% have been noticed. Besides, some old policies are obstacles in the path of fast growth of Indian retail.

Till now, a good number of permits, licences and registration are required for setting up retail stores. A few states have still not amended the APMC Act which prevents big retailer or food processing industries from purchasing agricultural items directly from the farmers. The infrastructure of modern retail is not still mature in India. Supply chains, particularly for perishable items, are still in a nascent stage in India. The rentals for retail space are very high compared to global standards and also some other infrastructure like power, transport etc is in short supply.

3.3           Opportunities

Organized retail is still around 5% of the total Indian retail business and it itself indicates the big opportunity Indian retail industry has to capitalize on. Also more than 60% of organized retail is concentrated in Tier-I cities. Tier-II, tier-III cities and rural India are still waiting to witness the retail boom.

3.4           Threats

The political and social blockade against organized retail is still present in India. Also a good percentage of people are not still comfortable with the organized retail structure. Unorganized retailers are coming up with new business initiatives like offering  credit, home delivery to fight against organized retailers. 

4. Regulation

Currently India allows 51% FDI (through approval route) in single brand retailing, but does not allow FDI in multi-brand retailing directly (even if the multiple brands are from same manufacturer). The foreign company needs to take government approval before starting business in India by specifying the product and product categories they want to sell under the brand. Also any further addition of product / product categories under the brand for selling in India needs government approval. The product also needs to be branded during manufacturing itself.

But in multi-brand wholesale retailing, 100% FDI (through automatic route) is allowed in cash-and-carry format.  In cash and carry model, goods (imported or procured in India) are allowed to be sold to distributors/ institutional customers / retailers for further selling, but the selling of good to retail customers is not permitted. Also the goods need to be maintained in private un-bonded warehouse of an Indian company. Discussions are underway to allow 26% or 49% FDI in multi-brand retailing.

Also FDI can come through franchisee and license routes for the retail industry. In this case, franchise operations for foreign companies are allowed provided the royalty for brand name/ trademark and technology does not exceed 5% of the domestic sales or 8% of the exports. Also the lump sum payment should not exceed USD 2 million per technology. Further, the payment for technology transfer is possible only for manufacturing operations.

5. Retail Management Courses

A retail-management-colleges retail management course, is specifically geared toward providing knowledge pertaining only to retail management. These courses come in the form of diplomas. Armed with such a diploma in retail management, one can apply for various positions in the retail sector. Many of these retail management institutes provide placement assistance too. These are less expensive and much more focused in terms of course content.