Posted on : 2022-11-04 02:54:36
Article : Good evening, Friday- Management TASK 215- Growing awareness, easier access and changing lifestyles have been the key growth drivers for the retail sector. This was in a sense, the beginning of a new era for retail.
India has always been a country with a big chunk of world population be it the 1950's or the twenty first century. In that sense, the FMCG market potential has always been very big. However, from the 1950's to the 80's investments in the FMCG industry were very limited due to low purchasing power and the government's favoring of the small-scale sector. Post liberalisation rising standards of living in urban areas coupled with the purchasing power of rural India saw companies introduce everything from a low-end detergent to a high-end sanitary napkin. Their strategy has become two-pronged in the last decade. One, invest in expanding the distribution reach far and wide across India to enable market expansion of FMCG products. Secondly, upgrade existing consumers to value added premium products and increase usage of existing product ranges. To meet the consumer demand in various markets, retail formats and numbers of outlets increased selling multiple companies’ products. Retail outlets evolution is organic and growing as per the trends and needs.
Retail evolution is the reflection of fast-moving consumer goods expanding at a healthy rate over the years as a result of rising disposable income, rising youth population, and rising brand awareness among consumers. The fact that post liberalization, the economy had opened up and a new large middle class with spending power had emerged, helped shape this sector. The emergence of the modern Indian housewife, who managed her home and work led to a demand more for value for money products, added by a better shopping ambience, more convenience and one stop shopping. This has fuelled the growth of departmental stores, supermarkets and other specialty stores. The concept of retail as entertainment came to India with the advent of malls. The development of malls is now visible not only in the major metros but also in other parts of the country. If we recall the early 60’s, retail outlets selling products based were known as groceries/Kirana store for all home needs and fancy stores for personal care products, these apart in certain urban areas few Emporiums were available selling cosmetics and fancy items for personal care as well as home care.
From late ‘80s, growth in retail evolution has been visibly conspicuous with the arrival of super markets, hypermarkets, retail chain stores and the markets are largely classified as metros, tier1, tier 2,3 cities, urban and rural markets thus indicating the market’s large population, improved netizens facilities like education, healthcare, entertainment etc. In metros and major cities mall culture has strongly established from early 2000. The retail outlet is defined or called by its size, like super markets having 2000 to 3000 sft area accommodating majority product ranges (branded and private labels) required for the customers while hypermarkets, malls, have larger space of 10k sft plus with outlets in different levels of the multi storied stores. Store in stores concept is seen in many malls as many brands marketers prefer to have small outlet or counter space in the customer lounge areas. This is for cost control as well as brand visibility and to have their brand presence in many locations. These apart major brands have their standalone exclusive brand stores.
The evolution is fueled by opened up economy, migration of people from rural to urban for education, health care, job opportunities and better infrastructure for a better living style. In spite of it, the retail formats in rural, semi urban and parts of urban areas are unchanged. The technology development has brought major changes in the living styles of people that made the businesses more competitive. With the deep penetration of internet and development of software technology, the consumer behaviour of shopping as such has changed and to understand the customer, brand marketers are enhancing their technology capabilities and developments to lure the customer either for physical shopping or online shopping.
The retail industry and its buzzwords are ever-changing. Two terms retailers may have heard in the last few years are "showrooming" and "webrooming." Showrooming is a trend in shopping behaviour where consumers visit stores to touch and feel the products but opt to purchase them online. Webrooming is the opposite. These concepts are the result of shifting consumer shopping habits. Now that many of us shop with smartphone in hand, more customers are price-checking products on the spot and using online reviews to inform their opinions. Moreover, they have specific preferences for what kind of products they purchase online and which in-store. While larger retailers may have a larger budget to help them play catch-up with customer demands, small business owners are usually under tighter financial constraints.
Post your comments with relative examples on retail evolution in India to facilitate as a guide path to the present and future retail segment marketers. In our solution part of this TASK we will discuss few examples on the advanced utility of technology in brands promotion for instore shopping experience. Our efforts are to create awareness of the advancement in global technology-based retailing which can be helpful for every brand marketer. Look for our management solution for TASK 215 that will be posted on Monday 7th Nov 2022.
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