Solutions for the Indian Retailers

Retailing is a highly localised activity especially for the tier II and III sectors. In the absence of big players and hypermarkets and huge advertising and promo activities, these players can position themselves on the range of products they sell and pricing. By understanding their target customers, such a positioning can be achieved. But this needs to be backed by a distinct brand personality and consistent communication.

When all these days consumers in Tier II and Tier III cities have been satisfying their needs with minimum budget, you cant have a retail chain aka Wallmart come in suddenly and hope that the same consumer spends 40% on his monthly budget.

Lets take examples of basic needs like say a toothpaste which in a tier II and III city is bought even from a roadside pan bidi shop by paying for a 1 or 2 rupee sachet. You cant overnight expect the same consumer to walk into a swanky hyper market and pick up a 250 gm tube of the same toothpaste for 150% of the cost he is used to paying.

The real transition will happen once the educational and social behaviour changes to a great extent in these cities. Till then one has to be conscious of the price factor.

A retailer can give good customer service and experience in those cities.. as in India, after sales service of any company is very poor. Manufacturers often forget the customers once goods sold ..the retailer should ensure this strongly with the manufaturers.

Especially the II Tier and III Tier stores are samall. The personal rapport with customer will help in bringing back the customer to the stores repeatedly.

"Today, retailers are faced with an uncertain economic environment and by customers who are smarter and more demanding than ever before. The need of the hour is to sustain business growth through innovation and differentiation"

"Technology has provided a new dimension to the India retail sector. As Indian and international retail chains continue to plan for growth, they face a pressing challenge for a single, enterprise-wide IT platform to manage increasingly operations. In the organised retail business technology is needed not only in accounting and human resource management, but also in core functions like buying, merchandising and store management. Thus IT applications are witnessing adoption from the very beginning till the 'last mile' of the business operation for most retail functions. The key solutions being looked upon by retailers in India today are ERP/ERM solutions, supply chain management (SCM), inventory management and security solutions"

Maintaining customer loyalty, a priority for Indian retailers in ordinary circumstances, is now of prime importance in the current market situation. As a result, retailers across the board are using Oracle/SAP technology for greater visibility into consumer spending trends, enabling them to create shopping experiences that motivate their customers to return again and again. Alongside the phenomenal growth of the franchise business, domains such as food, pharmacy and jewellery continue to flourish.