Organised retailing poised for quantum jump

Our Management Bureau in Mumbai

The total market of organised retailing in India is around Rs 20,000 crore and will grow eight-fold in the next decade. This was stated by Mr V Gibson, director, Reliance Webstore, who addressed a seminar titled “ Slowdown: An opportunity ‘n’ challenge”, hosted by Chetana’s R.K and Chetana’s Institute of Management and Research in Mumbai on Wednesday, with The Financial Expresss as the media sponsor.

“Instead of a retail evolution, there is a retail revolution in India,” says Mr Gibson. According to him, malls, specialty stores and hypermarkets will envelope the organised retail industry in India in the forthcoming years. “Hiranandani will soon be opening a speciality footwear store, shopping mall called ‘Suburbia’ in Bandra (a Mumbai suburb) in another three weeks from now,” he added.

The existing cluster of shopping malls, according to Mr Gibson, will migrate to the suburbs to encash a booming business opportunity.
Narrating on the strategies to combat unorganised players in India, Mr Gibson informs: “Organised retailing should focus their strategies towards acquiring heartshare instead of the usual mindshare. And one of the core direction in this regard would be innovative customer loyalty programmes.”

“In such customer loyalty programmes, the organised retail industry will have to enforce concepts where the merchandise demonstration is actualised in front of the customer even before launching the merchandise on the shelves and customised innovative programmes like invitation of the target audience to trips and entertainment shows etc., to create a sustainable long-term bonding,” explains Mr Gibson.

The categories where organised retail will witness a surge, according to Mr Gibson, are jewellery, music and computers. “And some of the corporates coming into retailing are Apeejay from Calcutta which will be getting into opening bookstores. The international players who are expected to establish their retailing base will include Marks & Spencer and Mango,” he adds.

According to Hindustan Lever Ltd (HLL) commercial manager (new ventures) Mr Bala Malladi, “Around Rs 8.5 crore of HLL’s turnover comes from retailing.” Mr Malladi elaborated on the supply chain initiatives of HLL as a part of the integrated retailing and distribution initiatives. “We create processes where satisfied suppliers are interlinked to the final vision of getting a delighted consumer,” says Mr Malladi.

This would incorporate integrating product awareness, availability and attributes to deliver the objective of a strong supply chain network leading to ready availability of quality brands and customer delight,” informs Mr Malladi.