Is Retail different?

So how is retail different from any other sector in India?

Are we really trying to find a consistent answer to this question? If we are, then we need to first ask ourselves why is it necessary for Retail to stand out from the rest of the service lines present in our country currently. While talking about Service, it is always important to understand the core concept, wherein we need to understand the thin line that determines a Pure Service from a Pure Product offering. Within the Tangibility spectrum, retailing comes at a place, where the service part of it today has become more important than the product part of it. The reason being multiple operators (read: retailers) are trying to cater to the same customer with the same products at the same places and at the same time, and of course, at nearly the same prices.

So it becomes necessary for us to focus on the service part of this retailing process, and this is what makes Retailing different from any other sector in the country. But why only India? Isn't 'retailing' the same worldwide? 'Providing the customer the right product at the right time at the right place.' Isn't this what Retailing is all about?

No. India, as a matter of fact is governed by a lot more factors that have been prevailing in our western counterparts. Retailing has been present in ages since ab-initio (only was it earlier known as Barter, then came coins, and then trade!). With Indian consumers being always exposed to the age old format of companies producing and customers consuming (as was the case pre-1990s), it was always a Product marketing approach. With the advent of Liberalization, and Globalization, newer players could enter the market, and with them entered players that didn't have a product of their own. Rather they focused on the cons of the supply chain, which pointed at Slower delivery times, conventional pricing methodologies, High Lead times, corrupt officials, which eventually led to higher costs and poorer delivered quality to the consumer.

Here came in the need for Modern Retailing format, that tried to remove most of the unnecessary hurdles that elongated the supply chain, and tried to minimize the costs related to inefficiencies in the system. People were now given a chance to see for themselves to try and compare products on their own. With FDI flowing in almost every possible route, education and knowledge standards of consumers started to increase. TV, Media helped in the process, and educated the consumers to go out and break the age-old chains of buying from the neighbourhood Kirana shop, and approach the new stylish and efficient departmental store that could provide better value to the consumers (with its direct tie ups with the companies, and focused Supply chain systems). IT helped in putting the hitherto unsolved pieces of the puzzle together, and formed a close network that could provide the customer with a Fast and Efficient service system. So now, an Indian consumer, who always had to buy from his neighbourhood kirana wala (as he had no other option earlier!), was suddenly given a chance to experiment, and see for himself what was best (in terms of availability of products in the market, as well as of the Service, that he did not know existed till date!)

So India, a country that had since been bonded by the Munimjis and Lalajis, was now getting an opportunity to look for his own choice of product, and followed by his own choice of service (from different retailers). Now sectors such as Manufacturing, etc that had been in the forefront of running the Indian story till date, started to feel pushed back, as this new sector 'Retail' presented the country with new opportunities in employment, and revenue. Earlier, when Retail was yet not considered a 'sector', it was clubbed with 'Textiles'. However, time and efforts of people like Rahejas and the Biyanis (only to name a few) gave retail a new deifinition, and helped it stand as a separate entity altogether. Today, retail is providing food to a million homes (literally as well as through new employment opportunites). Retail is one sector that has attracted the most from remotest places of Gujrat to Kerala to Bangalore to Delhi to Ludhiana, and even to the mountains of Shimla! India, a country of countries could now be bound with one common thread - Retail. Something that connects people by providing them what they need at the right place at the right time, and at the right price. Isn't that the same mantra of Retail with which we started this discussion?


To be contd.