Retail Dude

As Retail Industry in growing in India, retailers have started considering it more as a science and are making all efforts to increase sales and returns. In the race of opening larger number of stores and showcasing their presence throughout India, they are missing the essence of Retailing. I visited a nearby convenience store by one of the most famous retailer in India, and what I observed was dirty store, entrance blocked by cartons, empty shelves, sore staff dressed shabbily, stinking, they don’t know where a particular product is kept and there is lot more to say. I know this was not a unique experience, almost every one of us must have seen it in your neibhourhood organized convenience store by so called organized retailers. I was just amazed that why are they doing so, then only my friend pointed me out that this store has increased the number of store they have and have increased their market presence at least on papers. Now they can proudly say that we have ‘n+1’ stores .

So, coming back to my topic, what I mean to say  that as everyone is considering science aspect of retailing and they are interested in only increasing numbers be it sales, returns, number of stores etc. There is no differentiation whether we compare malls or departmental stores or a convenience stores or any other format for that matter. All Malls give same kind of experience and feel as there are limited retailers who can afford to buy space there with inflated real estate prices. Consequently Retail mix is same in every Mall. Same Adidas, Reebok, Levi’s, Mc Donald, Pizza Hut etc. etc. everywhere. Similarly in order to stretch margins, all departmental stores also work on similar cost cutting strategy and give same kind of experience to consumer. All of them have similar kind of promotions, look and feel and similar brands other than their private labels. And private labels are generally such that you won’t feel like buy anything of them (this is where they are lacking in art of retailing).

What they need is to look Retailing as an art and try and make them unique and different from others. Developers of Malls need to rethink their Retail Mix and see what their competitors have. They need to find out ways that how can they differentiate from other. For example, there are many Malls in East Delhi, but EDM has tried to differentiate it from others by opening a section where small and local retailers can come and setup their stores. It sold shops to them at comparatively cheaper price and had a unique Retail Mix having players from both organized as well as unorganized sectors.

Apart from differentiation, the ‘Art of Retailing’ focuses on improving customer experience. Rather than investing on new stores, retailers need to invest on improving customer experience in the existing stores. This means better atmosphere, circulation, disciplined executives, nicely stacked shelves etc. 

Indian Retailers should learn ‘Art of Retailing’ from Wal-Mart. Despite being one of the most dominant player in their space, they decided to slower the pace in which it was opening store and invest on improving customer experience in existing stores. Needless to say that Wal-Mart is already way ahead of all his competition in all these aspects. But still it took such strategy.

-       Rajeev Damani

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