Retail Industry in India:challenges Opportunties and Strategies

Introduction Retailing involves all activities incidental to selling to ultimate consumer for their personnel family and household use. It does this by organizing their availability on a relatively large scale and supplying them to a customers on arelatively smallscale. Retailer is any person/organization instrumental in reaching the goods or merchandise oer services to the end users.Retailer is a must and cannot be eliminated.The Indian retailing industry is becoming intensely competitive, as more and more payers are Vying for the same set of customers.

The major retail players are Pantaloon Retail, Shoppers Stop, Reliance,etc.., Retailing is one of the biggest sectors and it is witnessing revolution in India. The new entrant in retailing in India signifies the beginning of retail revolution. India's retail market is expected to grow tremendously in next few years. According to AT Kearney, The Windows of Opportunity shows that Retailing in India was at opening stage in 1995 and now it is in peaking stage in 2006. India's retail market is expected to grow tremendously in next few years. India shows US$330 billion retail market that is expected to grow 10% a year, with modern retailing just beginning. India ranks first in 2005.

In fact, in 2005 and 2006, India is the most compelling opportunity for retailers, because now India is in peaking stage. This window of opportunity is useful for executives who plan their market-specific strategies; the four stages or the lifecycle of this industry is as as follows: Introduction: An introduction is the opening phase of a market and is one that is just entering the GRDI, Global Retail Development Index This index is based on more than 25 macro-economic and retail –specific variables.for instance ,the country risk includes parameters like political risk,economic performance,debt indicators,credit ratings,access bank finance and business risk.The market attractiveness covers reail sales per capita ,urban population ,laws and regulations and business efficiency.Iin this stage all, which are outside the top 30 markets, falls in this stage.

At this stage, retailers should monitor and performing high-level assessments, they should plan for their entry strategies. India in the late 1990's is a good example in the opening stage, while in 2006, Kazakhstan is the country in introduction stage.