Organised Retail in India

The Indian organized retail industry is valued at about $300 billion and is expected to grow to $427 billion in 2010 and $637 billion in 2015.

Retail Market
India today is the second fastest growing economy of the world after China. Indian economy will grow larger than Britain’s by 2022, Japan by 2032 and by 2050 will become the second largest economy of the world after China. Indian market has become the most lucrative market for retail investment in the world.

Some of the factors which have contributed to the growth of organized retail in India are: increase in the purchasing power of Indians, rapid urbanization, increase in the number of working women, large number of working young population.

Today people look for better quality product at cheap rate, better service, better ambience for shopping and better shopping experience. Organized retail promises to provide all these.


The Industry
The various formats of organized retail are:

Hypermarkets: They store products of multiple brands comprising food items and non-food items.

Supermarkets: These are self service stores selling food and personal care products. E.g.: Subhiksha.

Departmental stores: Retails branded goods in non-food categories. E.g.: Shoppers Stop.

Specialty Chains : These stores focuses on a branded product or a product category. E.g.: Bata

Convenience stores: These are small self service outlet located in crowded urban area.

Malls: A huge enclosures which has different retail formats. e.g.: Nucleus

Key players in organised retail are:

Pantaloon Retail: It was started by Kishore Biyani- India’s largest retailer. The various formats of pantaloon retail are: Pantaloons, Big Bazaar, Food Bazaar, Central etc.

RPG Retail: Its various formats are: Food World, Music World, Health & Glow, Spencer’s

Tata Retail (known as TRENT): Its various formats are: CromaWestsideStar India Bazaar

K Raheja Corp. Group: Shoppers’ Stop, Hypercity, Crossword, InOrbit Mall

Reliance Retail

Job Opportunities:
Retail accounts for 8% employment in the country. In the next 2 years the sector is set to provide 2.5 lakh job opportunities. The types of jobs available in retail are: Retail sales, Store management, Stock management, Supply chain management, warehousing and operations. In organised retail the frontliners like shop floor executives, sales executives etc are in great demand.

The frontliners have to directly communicate with the customers. The other jobs are for store managers, store planners, cashiers, stockists, logistics, operations, distribution, marketing, finance, HR, IT etc. Good communication skill, high interpersonal skills, convincing power, positive attitude and ability to handle stress is a prerequisite for these jobs.

Fresh graduates who want to make career in retail can easily fill these jobs. Stock planners, Operations, logistics, cashiers have to deal with the numbers daily. Besides having good communication skills they also require numerical and analytical ability.

Bharati retail is planning to invest $2.5bn by 2015 which will create employment opportunity for 60,000 people. Bharti Resources, a learning and development solutions subsidiary of Bharti Group, has tied-up with Global Retail School (GRS) to groom graduates and undergraduates in retail management and other sectors.

They will provide 3-month and 6-month certificate courses for Rs 30,000 and Rs 15,000 respectively in Retail Sales and Marketing, Retail Visual Merchandising and Space Planning, Retail Supply Chain Management, for creating frontend manpower professionals.

Indeed it is a fact that organised retail in India is all set to grow at an stupendous pace.