Title Retail Marketing & its Emerging Trends in Perspective of India

The retail stores are not a new entity, they have been in this world from the early 50's and in India they have been showing their presence in various forms like departmental stores, super markets, Discount Stores, Hyper- mart, Shopping Malls etc.

Indian retailing

is undergoing a process of evolution and is poised to undergo dramatic transformation. The traditional formats like hawkers, grocers and paan shops co-exit with modern formats like Super- markets and Non-store retailing channels such as multi level marketing and teleshopping. Modern stores trend to be large, carry more stock keeping units, have a self-service format and an experiential ambience. The modernization in retail formats is likely to happen quicker in categories like dry groceries, electronics, mens' apparel a-nd books. Some reshaping and adaptation may also happen in fresh groceries, fast food and personal care products. In recent years there has been a slow spread of retail chains in some formats like super markets, malls and discount stores. Factors facilitating the spread of chains are the availability of quality products at lower prices, improved shopping standards, convenient shopping and display and blending of shopping with entertainment and the entry of Tatas into retailing. Foreign direct investment in the retail sector in India, although not yet permitted by the Government is desirable, as it would improve productivity and increase competitiveness. New stores will introduce efficiency. The customers would also gain as prices in the new stores tend to be lover. The consequences of recent modernization in India may be some what different due to lower purchasing power and the new stores may cater to only branded products aimed at upper income

• Segments : The Indian retail environment has been witnessing several changes on the demand side due to increased per capital income, changing lifestyle and increased product availability. In developed markets, there has been a power shift with power moving from manufactures towards the retailers. The strategies used by retailers to wrest power include the development of retailers own brands and the introduction of slotting allowances which necessitate payments by manufactures to retailers for providing shelf space for new products. The recent increased power of retailers has led to the introduction of new tactics by manufactures such as every day low pricing, partnership with retailers and increased use of direct marketing methods.

• Rural bias: Nearly two thirds of the stores are located in rural areas. Rural retail industry has typically two forms: "Haats" and “Melas". Haats are the weekly markets : serve groups of 10-50 villages and sell day-to-day necessities. Melas are larger in size and more sophisticated in terms of the goods sold (like TVs)

Ø The Growth Drivers

The Indian Retail growth can be attributed to the several factors including

• Demography Dynamics: Approximately 60 per cent of Indian population below 30 years of age.

• Double Incomes: Increasing instances of Double Incomes in most families coupled with the rise in spending power.

Plastic Revolution: Increasing use of credit cards for categories relating to Apparel, Consumer Durable Goods, Food and Grocery etc.

• Urbanisation: increased urbanisation has led to higher customer density areas thus enabling retailers to use lesser number of stores to target the same number of customers. Aggregation of demand that occurs due to urbanization helps a retailer in reaping the economies of scale.

Covering distances has become easier: with increased automobile penetration and an overall improvement in the transportation infrastructure, covering distances has become easier than before. Now a customer can travel miles to reach a particular shop, if he or she sees value in shopping from a particular location.

• Technology in Retail : Over the years as the consumer demand increased and the retailers geared up to meet this increase, technology evolved rapidly to support this growth. The hardware and software tools that have now become almost essential for retailing can be into 3 broad categories.

Ø Customer Interfacing Systems :

• Bar Coding and Scanners : Point of sale systems use scanners and bar coding to identify an item, use pre-stored data to calculate the cost and generate the total bill for a client. Tunnel Scanning is a new concept where the consumer pushes the full shopping cart through an electronic gate to the point of sale. In a matter of seconds, the items in the cart are hit with laser beams and scanned. All that the consumer has to do is to pay for the goods.

• Payment : Payment through credit cards has become quite widespread and this enables a fast and easy payment process. Electronic cheque conversion, a recent development in this area, processes a cheque electronically by transmitting transaction information to the retailer and consumer's bank. Rather than manually process a cheque, the retailer voids it and hands it back to the consumer along with a receipt, having digitally captured and stored the image of the cheque, which makes the process very fast.

• Internet : Internet is also rapidly evolving as a customer interface, removing the need of a consumer physically visiting the store.

Operation Support Systems

• ERP System : Various ERP vendors have developed retail-specific systems which help in integrating all the functions from warehousing to distribution, front and back office store systems and merchandising. An integrated supply chain helps the retailer in maintaining his stocks, getting his supplies on time, preventing stock-outs and thus reducing his costs, while servicing the customer better.

• CRM Systems : The rise of loyalty programs, mail order and the Internet has provided retailers with real access to consumer data. Data warehousing & mining technologies offers retailers the tools they need to make sense of their consumer data and apply it to business. This, along with the various available CRM (Customer Relationship Management) Systems, allows the retailers to study the purchase behavior of consumers in detail and grow the value of individual consumers to their businesses.

Ø Advanced Planning and Scheduling Systems :

APS systems can provide improved control across the supply chain, all the way from raw material suppliers right through to the retail shelf. These APS packages complement existing (but often limited) ERP packages. They enable consolidation of activities such as long term budgeting, monthly forecasting, weekly factory scheduling and daily distribution scheduling into one overall planning process using a single set of data.

Leading manufactures, distributors and retailers and considering APS packages such as those from i2, Manugistics, Bann, MerciaLincs and Stirling-Douglas.

Ø Strategic Decision Support Systems :

• Store Site Location : Demographics and buying patterns of residents of an area can be used to compare various possible sites for opening new stores. Today, software packages are helping retailers not only in their locational decisions but in decisions regarding store sizing and floor-spaces as well.

• Visual Merchandising : The decision on how to place & stack items in a store is no more taken on the gut feel of the store manager. A larger number of visual merchandising tools are available to him to evaluate the impact of his stacking options. The SPACEMAN Store Suit from AC Neilsen and ModaCAD are example of products helping in modeling a retail store design.

Ø Major Formats of In-Store Retailing :

• Indian Retail- expanding the number of formats :

In modern retailing, a key strategic choice is the format. Innovation in formats can provide an edge to retailers. Organized retailers in India are trying a variety of formats, ranging from discount stores to supermarkets to hypermarkets to specialty chains.

Ø Formats Adopted by Key Players in India :

Ø Recent changes:

• Experimentation with formats: Retailing in India is still evolving and the sector is witnessing a series of experiments across the country with new formats being tested out. Ex. Quasi-mall, sub-urban discount stores, Cash and carry etc.

• Store design : Biggest challenge for organised retailing to create a “customer-pull” environment that increases the amount of impulse shopping. Research shows that the chances of senses dictating sales are upto 10-15%. Retail chains like MusicWorld, Baristas, Piramyd and Globus are laying major emphasis & investing heavily in store design.

• Emergence of discount stores: They are expected to spearhead the organised retailing revolution. Stores trying to emulate the model of Wal-Mart. Ex. Big Bazaar, Bombay Bazaar, RPGs.

• Unorganized retailing is getting organized: To meet the challenges of organized retailing such as large cineplexes, and malls, which are backed by the corporate house such as 'Ansals' and 'PVR‘ the unorganized sector is getting organized. 25 stores in Delhi under the banner of Provision mart are joining hands to combine monthly buying. Bombay Bazaar and Efoodmart formed which are aggregations of Kiranas.

• Multiple drivers leading to a consumption boom:

Favorable demographics

Growth in income

Increasing population of women

• Raising aspirations : Value added goods sales, 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.

More successful in cities in the south and west of India. Reasons range from differences in consumer buying behavior to cost of real estate and taxation laws.

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.

HLL is using its Project Shakti initiative – leveraging women self-help groups – to explore the rural market.

Mahamaza is leveraging technology and network marketing concepts to act as an aggregator and serve the rural markets.

IT is a tool that has been used by retailers ranging from Amazon.com to eBay to radically change buying behavior across the globe.

‘e-tailing’ slowly making its presence felt.

Companies using their own web portal or tie-sups with horizontal players like Rediff.com and Indiatimes.com to offer products on the web.

Ø Opportunities in Retail Sector:

• Investment Opportunities

Potential For Investment: The total estimated Investment Opportunity in the retail sector is around US$ 5-6 Billion in the Next five years.

• Location: with modern retail formats having made their foray into the top cities namely Hyderabad, Coimbatore, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Bangalore, Delhi, Nagpur there exists tremendous potential in two tier towns over the next 5 years.

Ø Sectors with High Growth Potential:

Certain segments that promise a high growth are

· Food and Grocery

· Clothing

· Furniture and Fixtures

· Pharmacy

· Durables, Footwear & Leather, Watch & Jewellery

Ø Fastest Growing Formats:

Some of the formats that offer good growth potential are:

· Speciality and Super Market

· Hyper Market