How to survive the retail onslaught?

The face of retailing in India is changing very fast.

Traditionally, the retail market in India has been controlled by the small businesses - shops – that are dotted throughout the country. Every city, town and village of India has family run shops that cater to the requirements of the retail clientele. For ages, these shops have been handed down from father to son, sometimes multiplying into more units, sometimes diversifying into other trades, to accommodate all the sons of the family. They have been the last point of the supply chain.

Now, big corporate houses entering into the retail foray. Suddenly the retail sector has become multi-billion in size and almost every big corporate house of the country wants his share of the retail pie. Everyone is showing serious interest in the huge Indian retail market.

They are in various stages of implementation.

Some have just announced their plans. Some are in the test phase – they are testing their retail business model before spreading throughout the country – whereas some have already setup their retail outlets. Some have tied up with international biggies whereas others are walking alone on this trail. Some will be single commodity units whereas other will deal in multiple commodities. Some plan to produce the goods that they will distribute and sell themselves whereas some will procure directly from the manufacturer or producer and sell to the retail customers throughout the country.

The common thing that each of these new retail ventures is promising is professionally management. Besides brand name some of the other highlights of these ventures will be fine-tuned supply chains, bulk deals and attractive value-for-money offers to the end customer. All this will, certainly, attract the retail customers to their doorsteps.

So, who is affected by all this? The traditional retailer, of course!

Already facing competition from the fellow retailers in the neighborhood, the traditional shopkeeper will really have to get his act together. He will have to change is way of working to survive the competition promised by the big corporate houses.