Retail Dude

Whole world is eying at $350 billion Retail Market of India which is expected to double its size by 2015. Wal-Mart & Tesco have planned to open its first Cash & Carry store by 2009 end. Carrefour has also decided to enter Indian market in same format. Seeing the plans of its rivals, Metro AG who is already established in Indian Cash & Carry business has planned to double it’s presence in India. They plan to invest $120 million to open at least four new centers in Bengal. They are waiting for the license from Bengal Government to deal in agricultural produce and source directly from farmers. They will wait for a decision till 29^th September by which the government will decide on course of action. I hope that Metro AG will have a good time with Forward Bloc who is opposing organized retail in the state.

- Rajeev Damani

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You guys must be thinking that I am crazy about Wal-Mart. But actually I can’t help it; there is always so much to post about this retail giant. According to analysts, Wal-Mart is currently reaping benefits of the strategies it took almost a year back. Almost more than a year ago, Wal-Mart decided to slow the pace of new store growth. Recently they have also decided of remodeling the existing stores.

H. Lee Scott, president and chief executive officer, re-emphasized the company’s plans to invest more in remodeling as it continues efforts to improve the shopping experience when he addressed retail analysts Thursday at a conference in New York.

As I have discussed earlier that Wal-Mart reported 3% growth in August sales which was almost double of Analysts anticipation, it was more because of its ability to foresee the future and take decisions.

Indian Retailers need to learn from Wal-Mart that it’s not important to open a store in a day or week rather it’s important to invest in improving customer experience in existing stores.

-          Rajeev Damani

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As we all are aware that Retail Sales for same store in US is continuously diminishing, but the it’s not so in case of Discounters. Wal-Mart has showed growth in same store sales by 3% beating the expectations of analysts which was only 1.6%. This is not a surprise as US consumers are now very focused on value, stretching their dollars, and anything deemed not absolutely of need, they are forgoing those purchases. Other low-price chains like Family Dollar Store, BJ’s Wholesale Club have also shown increase in same store sales more than expected. Retailers in Luxury sector like Saks & Nordstrom posted worse-than-expected sales.

Department Stores and Luxury Stores had good expectation this month from back to school deals. But their expectations were shattered.

- Rajeev Damani

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Just few days back I posted that Walmart is entering SFR (Small Format Retailing) with Marketside chain of stores ( http://bimtech-retail.com/blog/2008/wal-mart%e2%80%99s-marketside-small-format-retailing/ ), and now its turn of India. Vishal Retail, one of the biggest retailers in India has ventured in SFR with first store opened in Indore last week. They are planning to open 250 such stores by the end of this fiscal and 2000 by end of 2009-10. The company already has around 140 hypermarket in 80 cities.

These stores will be of smaller size (1000sqft – 1300sqft) and will be under franchise model, and will be located in metros, tier II and tier III cities. The store will be of three types:

·         FMCG Stores: Vishal Dailymart

·         Apparel Stores : Vishal Fashion Mart

·         Durables & IT Stores: Vishal Technomart

SFR has been majorly part of unorganized sector, but this initiative by Vishal Retail will fuel the growth of SFR in organized retail sector too.

-          Rajeev Damani

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