IndiaRetailBiz

November, 2006, could easily go down in the history as momentous for the organised (modern) retail business in India. Although, six months is not a long time, the new wave of modern retail has brought about paradigm shift in the way people think about shopping in urban India.

It was 3rd November, 2006, when Mukesh Ambani owned Reliance rolled out its first ‘Fresh’ store in Hyderabad; it was 21st November, 2006, when Kumar Mangalam Birla owned Aditya Birla Group announced the intention of foraying into retail segment and it was 27th November, 2006, when Sunil Bharti Mittal owned Bharti Enterprises, after much media speculation, decided to tie-up with Wal-Mart, the world’s biggest retailer. And, it was again just after the end of November, 2006 (4th October, 2006), when Ratan Tata controlled Tata Sons, the holding company of all Tata Group companies, decided to launch a wholly owned subsisidiary for retail segment called Infiniti Retail.

While, organised retailing by this time, thanks to the pioneering efforts of early entrepreneurs like Kishore Biyani (Pantaloon, now Future Group), and K. Raheja (Shoppers’ Stop), had begun taking shape, particularly in metro cities of the country, real thrust to the sector came when these big business houses, each of whom today enjoys market capital, in excess of Rs. One lakh crore, decided to treat ‘pure’ retail as an independent verticle in their long term business plans. and committed invest billions of dollars in the sector.

For most of the major business houses, modern retail, barring a few notable exceptions like Goenka’s Spencers, Simon Tata’s Trent- Westside, Piramal’s Pyramid, was just a part of the integrated business activity. Bata, Titan, Apollo Parmacy, Grasim, Raymond, Van Heusen, Color Plus, Vimal, etc. are some of the prime example of this.

Of course, it is necessary here to also note the efforts of a few regional multibrand retailers like Subhiksha, Trinethra, Adani, etc., and specialised retailers like Barista, Crossword, Landmark, Vivek’s, Vijay Sales, etc., who also played an important role to introduce modern retail to consumers in different parts of the country. While, Trinethra, Adani, Barista, Crossword, Landmark have been sold out to bigger players, Subhiksha with 750 plus discount stores has become pan-Indian expanding its foot print across different state of the country.

Notwithstanding the confusion still prevailing among policy makers about Big vs. Small, Global vs. local, single vs. multibrand in the country, the organised retail in these six months has come a long way. It is now vibrant and buzzing with a lot of activity.

No wonder, retail has now occupied ‘top of the mind’ space of the entrepreneurs, professionals, trainers, educators and, of course, the ‘customers.’

Only a few months back, customers in big cities, and even in metros, were not only fearful of buying but also wary of entering the modern, swanky, and glitzy stores. However, they have now not only begun thronging and patronising them but have also begun asking fore more! To experience this, one has to only watch the crowds that wait and throng the likes of ‘Fresh’ or ‘Big Bazaar’ stores on their launching day. Every one, yes almost every one, has become addicted to the culture of ‘discounts’ brough about by the first wave of the retail chains in the urban India.

If just six months could bring about this change, when Biyanis and Ambanis, among big players, have rolled out a few hundred big stores across the country, watch out for what happens three years down the line, when they and their competitors are able to fully roll out their chains, at least, in the metro and big cities of the country.

And, we are not talking of the MNCs like Tesco, Carrefour, Targe and Home Depot, as yet!